Best JSON Editors for Linux of 2025

VSCode: A revolutionary approach to code editing. It's completely free, open-source, and compatible with all platforms. Experience more than just basic syntax highlighting and autocomplete; with IntelliSense, you gain intelligent suggestions that are based on the types of variables, definitions of functions, and imported modules. You can also debug your code directly within the editor, allowing you to launch or connect to your active applications while utilizing breakpoints, call stacks, and an interactive console for deeper insights. Collaborating with Git and other source control management (SCM) systems is simpler than ever; you can review differences, stage files, and commit changes right from within the editor itself. Easily push and pull changes from any hosted SCM service without hassle. Looking for additional capabilities? You can enhance your experience by installing extensions that introduce new languages, themes, debuggers, and connections to various services. These extensions operate in their own processes, ensuring they won't hinder your editor's performance. Discover the endless possibilities with extensions. Furthermore, with Microsoft Azure, you can efficiently deploy and host a variety of sites built with React, Angular, Vue, Node, Python, and more, while also being able to store and query both relational and document-based data, and scale effortlessly using serverless computing solutions. This powerful integration streamlines your development workflow and enhances productivity.

IntelliJ IDEA is a powerful and versatile IDE tailored for professional Java and Kotlin developers who want to maximize their productivity and code quality. It provides comprehensive support across the entire development process, including design, coding, debugging, testing, and deployment. With smart code analysis, safe refactoring, and error detection, IntelliJ IDEA minimizes bugs and technical debt so developers can focus on innovation. The latest version adds full support for Java 24 features and enables Kotlin’s K2 mode by default, improving performance and memory efficiency. New interactive Kotlin notebooks allow real-time prototyping and data visualization within the IDE. IntelliJ IDEA also includes advanced debugging tools like the Spring Debugger for managing dynamic database connections. JetBrains prioritizes developer comfort with an intuitive interface and customizable settings. The IDE adheres to strict privacy and security standards, ensuring developers’ data remains protected.

Apache NetBeans is a dynamic, open-source Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that supports the development of applications in various programming languages, such as Java, JavaScript, PHP, HTML5, and C/C++. Renowned for its modular framework, NetBeans equips developers with a comprehensive suite of tools and features tailored for creating desktop, mobile, and web applications. It boasts advanced code editing, debugging, and profiling functionalities, as well as an integrated visual GUI builder for crafting user interfaces in Java. Additionally, NetBeans provides support for multiple version control systems like Git, SVN, and Mercurial, enhancing collaborative efforts among teams. As a project under the Apache Software Foundation, NetBeans is continually refined by a vibrant community dedicated to expanding its capabilities, ensuring it remains a dependable and adaptable option for developers in numerous fields. Furthermore, its extensive documentation and tutorials make it accessible for both novice and experienced programmers alike.

Atom is a modern text editor tailored for the 21st century, developed on the Electron framework, and inspired by the features that we cherish in our preferred editing tools. It has been crafted to offer extensive customization options while remaining user-friendly with its default settings. As a vital component of a developer's toolkit, a text editor often collaborates with other tools rather than functioning in isolation. With the integrated GitHub package, you can seamlessly manage your Git and GitHub workflows directly in Atom—creating branches, staging and committing changes, pushing and pulling updates, resolving merge conflicts, and reviewing pull requests, all from within the editor. This package comes pre-installed with Atom, meaning you can start right away! Atom is compatible with various operating systems, including OS X, Windows, and Linux, ensuring a wide accessibility. You can easily search for and install new packages or even develop your own straight from the editor. Additionally, Atom enhances your coding efficiency with its intelligent and adaptable autocomplete feature, and it allows you to conveniently browse and open individual files, entire projects, or multiple projects simultaneously within a single window, making it a versatile choice for developers. Overall, Atom is designed to make coding smoother and more efficient, catering to both novice and experienced developers alike.

Geany stands out as a robust, efficient, and lightweight text editor designed specifically for programmers, offering a wealth of features that enhance productivity without slowing down the user experience. It is compatible with Linux, Windows, and MacOS, supports over 40 languages, and accommodates more than 50 programming languages natively. One of the main motivations behind creating Geany was the demand for a versatile, user-friendly, and cross-platform IDE/editor that combines flexibility with power. While various editors fulfill some of these criteria, many fail to adequately address others. Geany is distributed under the GPL v2 license, ensuring that users have the freedom to modify and improve the software, while also allowing the entire community to benefit from those enhancements. Its highly customizable components, such as color themes (known as Geany Themes) and the ability to add new file types, cater to diverse user preferences. Additionally, Geany is equipped with numerous settings that allow for extensive personalization, ensuring it meets the unique needs of its users, including support for popular programming languages like C, Java, PHP, HTML, and JavaScript. Ultimately, Geany appeals to developers looking for a reliable tool that combines simplicity with comprehensive functionality.

Zed is an advanced code editor crafted for seamless collaboration between humans and AI, emphasizing high performance. Developed entirely in Rust to maximize the efficiency of multiple CPU cores and GPU resources, it allows for the integration of emerging LLMs into your coding workflow for tasks such as code generation, transformation, and analysis. The platform facilitates real-time communication with team members, enabling collaborative note-taking, screen sharing, and project management. With its multibuffer system, users can edit selected excerpts from the entire codebase on a single interface. It also supports inline code evaluation through Jupyter runtimes, allowing for joint notebook editing. Zed is compatible with numerous programming languages, thanks to Tree-sitter, WebAssembly, and the Language Server Protocol. Its quick native terminal is integrated with Zed's language-aware task runner and AI features, enhancing productivity. The editor offers first-class modal editing through Vim bindings, incorporating functionalities such as text objects and marks for efficient navigation. Built by a diverse global community of thousands of developers, Zed encourages users to enhance their experience with a wide array of extensions that expand language capabilities, provide various themes, and more. Furthermore, its user-friendly design aims to streamline development workflows, making it an ideal choice for programmers looking to elevate their coding efficiency.

JSONedit is a compact and portable JSON editor designed for Windows that provides various views, including text, tree, and list formats, to facilitate effective data visualization and editing. This standalone program is around 2 MB in size, does not require installation, and saves its configuration settings in a .ini file located in its own directory. Among its noteworthy features are syntax highlighting, the ability to maintain node expansion states across sessions through tree reuse, drag-and-drop support for moving nodes, and functionalities for manipulating arrays like cloning and CSV import. Additionally, users can easily switch between compact and indented JSON data formats, perform searches in both text and tree views, and check the validity of JSON syntax. Although JSONedit is mainly intended for Windows, it can be executed on Linux systems via WINE, with performance outcomes that might differ. As a freeware application, it not only supports free usage but also allows for unrestricted distribution, making it accessible to a wider audience. The simplicity and efficiency of JSONedit make it an appealing choice for users looking to work with JSON data effortlessly.

JSON Crack is a versatile open-source application that converts intricate data formats like JSON, YAML, CSV, XML, and TOML into engaging and easy-to-understand graphs, thereby facilitating better data analysis and understanding. Users have the flexibility to enter data directly, upload files, or provide links, with the platform seamlessly creating a visual tree graph based on the input. Additionally, it offers capabilities for transforming data between various formats, such as converting JSON to CSV or XML to JSON, while also incorporating functions for JSON formatting, validation, and automatic code generation for TypeScript interfaces, Golang structs, and JSON Schemas. Furthermore, it features sophisticated tools for decoding JWTs, executing JQ queries, and running JSON Path commands. Users can conveniently export their visualizations in formats like PNG, JPEG, or SVG, and importantly, all data processing takes place locally on the user's device to maintain privacy. This comprehensive tool not only enhances usability but also empowers users to handle their data in a secure and efficient manner, making it an invaluable resource for developers and data analysts alike.

Eclipse Theia allows you to create multi-language Cloud & Desktop IDEs using state-of-the art web technologies. Are you unsure whether you need a desktop or web version? Theia allows you to create one IDE and have it run in browsers or native desktop applications from a single source. The Eclipse Foundation hosts the Theia project. It is a non-profit corporation and is developed by a diverse group. Projects hosted at an Open-Source Foundation, unlike other open-source projects, are protected from single-vendor decisions that would be detrimental to the interests of the diverse community. Theia is modularly designed to allow users and extenders to customize and extend every aspect of the system. It is easy to create a custom IDE-like product by simply listing all required extensions in a package.json. It is simple to add new functionality by implementing your extensions. This gives you all the flexibility that you need.

Typora offers a fluid experience for users, serving effectively as both a writing and reading tool. It eliminates the need for a preview window, mode switcher, or any markdown syntax symbols, thereby cutting out unnecessary distractions. Instead, it features a live preview option that allows you to focus solely on your content. The software also facilitates file management with an easily accessible file tree panel and an article list panel, enabling you to organize your files according to your preferences, including integration with sync services such as Dropbox or iCloud. You can effortlessly view the outline structure of your documents in the outline panel, making navigation throughout the document quick and intuitive, as you can jump to any section with just one click. Additionally, Typora allows you to export your work to PDF complete with bookmarks. You can further enhance your productivity by importing and exporting various other formats, such as docx, OpenOffice, LaTeX, MediaWiki, and Epub. To top it off, you can track your document’s length in terms of words, characters, lines, or estimated reading time, providing you with valuable insights into your writing. This comprehensive functionality makes Typora a powerful tool for anyone involved in writing or content creation.

CKEditor 5 is a modern WYSIWYG rich text editor that can easily accommodate the requirements of businesses and users in the age of digital transformation. It allows software creators and developers to build powerful writing solutions for applications of all sorts, within hours. Thanks to a fully customizable framework, ready-to-use builds, native integrations, extensive documentation, and reliable customer support, the editor can be fully tailored to your needs.

Developed entirely from the ground up, JetBrains Fleet draws on two decades of experience in creating integrated development environments (IDEs). It utilizes the robust IntelliJ code-processing engine, featuring a distributed architecture and a fresh user interface designed for modern developers. Our aim with Fleet was to create a swift and efficient text editor that allows for quick code browsing and editing. It launches almost instantaneously, enabling you to start your work without delay, and has the capability to seamlessly evolve into a full-fledged IDE, with the IntelliJ engine operating independently from the editing interface. Fleet encompasses all the beloved features of IntelliJ-based IDEs, such as code completion tailored to your project context, easy navigation to definitions and usages, real-time code quality assessments, and convenient quick-fixes. The architecture of Fleet is thoughtfully designed to accommodate various configurations and workflows, allowing it to run locally on your machine or to offload some processes to the cloud, showcasing its versatility and adaptability for different development needs. This flexibility ensures that developers can choose the setup that best fits their workflow requirements.

At its foundation lies an interpreter dedicated to Emacs Lisp, a variant of the Lisp programming language enhanced for text editing tasks. It offers content-aware editing modes that feature syntax highlighting for a variety of file formats. The platform includes comprehensive built-in documentation, complete with a tutorial aimed at newcomers. Users benefit from extensive Unicode support accommodating nearly all human scripts. It is highly customizable, allowing modifications through Emacs Lisp code or via a graphical interface. Beyond mere text editing, it encompasses a diverse array of functionalities, such as a project planner, email and news reader, debugging interface, calendar, IRC client, and much more. The presence of a packaging system enables users to download and install various extensions seamlessly. Additionally, it provides built-in support for arbitrary-size integers and utilizes HarfBuzz for effective text shaping. There is also native functionality for JSON parsing, improved support for Cairo drawing, and the adoption of portable dumping in lieu of unexec. The system adheres to XDG conventions for initialization files and includes an additional early-init file for enhanced customization. Furthermore, it supports built-in tab bar and tab-line features, as well as the ability to resize and rotate images without relying on ImageMagick, making it a versatile tool for a wide range of tasks. Overall, it stands out as a powerful platform that caters to a multitude of user needs beyond simple text manipulation.

GNU nano was created as a free alternative to the Pico text editor, which is part of the Pine email suite developed by the University of Washington. Its goal was to closely mimic Pico while incorporating additional features. The Debian GNU/Linux distribution, recognized for its commitment to distributing genuinely "free" software (meaning software that has no limitations on redistribution), chose not to include binary packages for Pine or Pico. This decision left many users in a difficult position: while they appreciated these applications, the available versions did not align with the GNU definition of free software. GNU nano serves as a compact and user-friendly text editor. In addition to standard text editing capabilities, nano provides features such as undo/redo, syntax highlighting, interactive search-and-replace, automatic indentation, line numbering, word completion, file locking, backup files, and support for internationalization. Notably, with the release of version 4.0, nano ceased to automatically wrap overly long lines by default, enhancing user control over text formatting. This change reflects the continuous evolution of the software to better meet user needs.

jEdit stands out as a well-established text editor for programmers, boasting a development history that spans hundreds of person-years, especially when factoring in the creation of plugins. This robust editor surpasses many costly alternatives in terms of functionality and user-friendliness, all while being offered as free software with complete source code under the GPL 2.0 license. It includes a built-in macro language and an extensible architecture for plugins, with a vast selection of macros and plugins readily available. Users can easily download and install these plugins directly from jEdit through the convenient "plugin manager" feature. Additionally, jEdit supports a wide variety of character encodings, such as UTF-8 and Unicode, making it highly versatile. It is designed to be configurable and customizable, encompassing all the essential and advanced features one would anticipate in a modern text editor, ensuring it meets the diverse needs of its users. As a result, jEdit remains a compelling choice for developers seeking a powerful yet accessible tool for their coding tasks.

CudaText is a versatile text editor that operates across multiple platforms and is developed using Object Pascal. As an open-source initiative, it provides users the freedom to utilize its features at no cost, including for commercial purposes. On an Intel Core i3 3GHz processor running Linux, the application launches quickly and efficiently. Users can enhance its functionality through Python-based add-ons, plugins, linters, and external tools, making it highly adaptable. The syntax parser, powered by the EControl engine, is robust and supports over 270 languages with rich syntax highlighting. It also enables the visualization of code structures, such as functions and classes, contingent on the capabilities of the lexer. Additional features include code folding, the ability to use multiple carets and selections, as well as advanced find and replace options that utilize regular expressions. Configuration files are conveniently stored in JSON format, allowing for lexer-specific settings. The interface is tabbed and includes options for split views and windows, accommodating up to six groups of tabs. A command palette with fuzzy matching enhances navigation, while a minimap and micromap aid in text editing. CudaText also displays unprinted whitespace and supports a wide array of encodings, catering to diverse user needs. Furthermore, it allows for customizable hotkeys and includes a binary/hex viewer capable of handling files of virtually any size, which is particularly useful for analyzing large log files up to 10 GB. The combination of these features makes CudaText a powerful tool for programmers and writers alike.