Software Alternatives & Startups

GNU Emacs VS SmarTTY

Compare GNU Emacs VS SmarTTY and see what are their differences

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GNU Emacs logo GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more.

SmarTTY logo SmarTTY

SmarTTY is a neat multi-tabbed SSH client with built-in SSH support.
  • GNU Emacs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-19
  • SmarTTY Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-08

GNU Emacs features and specs

  • Highly Extensible
    GNU Emacs is highly customizable, allowing users to configure nearly every aspect using Emacs Lisp. This makes it remarkably adaptable for various workflows.
  • Rich Plugin Ecosystem
    There is a wide array of plugins available for Emacs, extending its functionality for programming, text editing, project management, and more.
  • Versatile
    Aside from text editing, Emacs can function as an email client, web browser, terminal emulator, and more, making it a powerful multi-purpose tool.
  • Free and Open Source
    GNU Emacs is free to use and modify, with source code available under the GNU General Public License, encouraging collaborative improvement and transparency.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Emacs runs on many different operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and various Unix-like systems, ensuring a wide reach and consistent experience across platforms.

Possible disadvantages of GNU Emacs

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its vast array of features and unique keybindings, new users often find Emacs difficult to learn initially.
  • Performance
    Emacs can be slower compared to more lightweight text editors, especially when heavily customized or handling large files.
  • Keyboard-Centric Interface
    Emacs relies heavily on keyboard shortcuts, which can be overwhelming and complex, leading to potential finger strain from extensive use.
  • Complex Configuration
    While its customizability is a strength, configuring Emacs to fit personal needs can be time-consuming and complex, requiring knowledge of Emacs Lisp.

SmarTTY features and specs

  • Multi-tab Interface
    SmarTTY offers a multi-tab interface allowing users to have multiple SSH sessions open within a single window, making it easier to manage several connections simultaneously.
  • Advanced SCP Client
    Includes a built-in SCP client that enables drag-and-drop file uploads and downloads, simplifying file management between local and remote systems.
  • Embedded X11 Server
    Features an integrated X11 server, which eliminates the need for additional configuration when running graphical applications on remote servers.
  • Automatic Highlighting
    Offers automatic syntax highlighting for various file types, improving readability and ease of use for coding tasks.
  • Remote File Editing
    Allows users to edit remote files directly within the SSH session without needing to download files locally, enhancing workflow efficiency.

Possible disadvantages of SmarTTY

  • Limited Platform Support
    SmarTTY is primarily designed for Windows, potentially leaving out users operating on macOS or Linux systems without additional software or configuration.
  • Resource Intensive
    Can be resource-intensive, particularly when managing multiple tabs and sessions, which may affect performance on lower-end systems.
  • Feature Set Overwhelming
    The wide array of features might be overwhelming for new users or those who prefer a simpler, more streamlined interface for SSH tasks.
  • Dependency on Additional Tools
    Despite having many built-in features, certain tasks may still require the use of additional third-party tools or plugins, reducing its all-in-one appeal.

Analysis of GNU Emacs

Overall verdict

  • GNU Emacs is widely considered to be a powerful and versatile text editor, especially among programmers and developers.

Why this product is good

  • Highly Customizable: Emacs can be extensively customized with Emacs Lisp, enabling users to tailor the editor to fit their specific workflow.
  • Rich Ecosystem: There is a large variety of plug-ins and extensions available, which can transform it into much more than just a text editor.
  • Built-in Tools: Emacs includes numerous built-in tools such as a debugger, calendar, email client, and file manager, making it a comprehensive development environment.
  • Cross-Platform: Emacs runs on multiple platforms, which makes it accessible to a broad audience.

Recommended for

  • Programmers and developers who appreciate a customizable and extensible tool.
  • Users who want to integrate various development tools into a single environment.
  • Individuals comfortable with learning Emacs Lisp to create and understand custom scripts and configurations.
  • People interested in a text editor that has a strong and supportive community.

GNU Emacs videos

Switching to GNU Emacs

SmarTTY videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GNU Emacs and SmarTTY)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
SSH
0 0%
100% 100
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Tool
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GNU Emacs and SmarTTY

GNU Emacs Reviews

14 BEST LaTeX Editor for Mac & Windows in 2022
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It is one of the best LaTeX editor for Mac that allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Source: www.guru99.com
The Top 7 Notepad++ Alternatives for You
Emacs has been around in its various forms since 1976 and is another very worthy Notepad++ alternative. When I first started using Emacs I have to admit that I didn’t find it the easiest to use. But once I got used to it I realized just how powerful Emacs is for the programming community.
10 Best Notepad++ Alternatives in 2020
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Source: www.guru99.com
7 open source alternatives to Dreamweaver
Vim or Emacs. Without participating in the holy war between these two traditional text editors, I can safely say that there are a number of enhancements for web editing available for both. So if you're already a terminal junkie, take your pick. Or, if those don't satisfy, try one of these Emacs/Vim alternatives.
Source: opensource.com
10 Best Sublime Text Alternatives in 2019
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Source: www.guru99.com

SmarTTY Reviews

10 Best PuTTY Alternatives To Try in 2024
SmarTTY is a free multi-tabbed SSH client that supports copying files and directories in Windows environments. Under the hood, it uses SCP to move content on the network.
10 Best PuTTY Alternatives for SSH Remote Connection
SmarTTY is also an open-sourced SSH-based terminal emulator running a secure SCP file transfer system. The Windows-based alternative also features a text editor, an embedded file editor, and a hexadecimal terminal for monitoring ports.
Source: www.tecmint.com
Top 12 BEST SSH Clients For Windows – Free PuTTY Alternatives
Verdict: SmarTTY is different in design when compared to the other PuTTY alternatives. It will allow you to download and upload a single file with SCP protocol. With recursive SCP, you can transfer the entire directories.
30 best PuTTY alternatives for SSH clients for 2020
SmarTTY v3.0 is free and runs on Windows. This SSH-based terminal emulator also includes the secure SCP file transfer system. A lot of PuTTY alternatives employ tabs to allow you to access several sessions in the same panel of the interface. However, SmarTTY has an unusual design. Rather than arraying the tabs along the top of the display panel, this tool’s designers placed...
10 best SSH Clients for Windows: free alternatives to PuTTY
SmarTTY is also one of the best SSH clients for Windows. It is my second favorite after MobaXterm and a solid PuTTY replacement. And best of all, it is free to use.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GNU Emacs seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 6 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GNU Emacs mentions (6)

  • Emacs daemon as sytemd service in debian 12 (gnome)
    Cat .config/systemd/user/default.target.wants/emacs.service [Unit] Description=Emacs text editor Documentation=info:emacs man:emacs(1) https://gnu.org/software/emacs/ [Service] Type=notify ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/emacs --fg-daemon # Emacs will exit with status 15 after having received SIGTERM, which # is the default "KillSignal" value systemd uses to stop services. SuccessExitStatus=15 # The location of the... Source: about 3 years ago
  • Why does emacs exec path variable not just copy the users path variable?
    ## If your Emacs is installed in a non-standard location, you may need ## to copy this file to a standard directory, eg ~/.config/systemd/user/ . ## If you install this file by hand, change the "Exec" lines below ## to use absolute file names for the executables. [Unit] Description=Emacs text editor Documentation=info:emacs man:emacs(1)... Source: over 3 years ago
  • Hi DM's, what medium do you use to organise your campaign?
    For gathering notes, writing and organizing, Org-Roam which implies Org and Emacs. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • This Guy is getting out of control at this point.
    I was heading to gnu.org/software/emacs to prove my point and it said:. Source: almost 5 years ago
  • opam doesn't see emacs?
    <><> Version-specific details <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 🐫 Version 1 Repository default Homepage: "http://gnu.org/software/emacs" Bug-reports: "https://github.com/ocaml/opam-repository/issues" Authors: "anil@recoil.org" Maintainer: "anil@recoil.org" License: "GPL-1.0-or-later" Flags: conf Synopsis Virtual package to install the Emacs editor Description This... Source: almost 5 years ago
View more

SmarTTY mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of SmarTTY yet. Tracking of SmarTTY recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GNU Emacs and SmarTTY, you can also consider the following products

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

KiTTY - KiTTY is a fork from version 0.70 of PuTTY. It adds extra features to PuTTY.

Sublime Text - Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose - any kind of text file. You'll love the slick user interface and extraordinary features. Fully customizable with macros, and syntax highlighting for most major languages.

MobaXterm - Enhanced terminal for Windows with X11 server, tabbed SSH client, network tools and much more

Vim - Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing

PuTTY - Popular free terminal application. Mostly used as an SSH client.