Bare Bones Software has released a major update for BBEdit. Version 16 reinforces the trend of integrating AI functions into the editor – although still not overly annoying in a data protection-friendly manner. Many little things have also been revised and improved, from the HTML5 syntax checker to faster SFTP transfers to integrated Git support.
Read more after the ad
Shortcuts, image search with AI and more
BBEdit is one of the oldest regularly updated Mac tools ever. The first version appeared 34 years ago. Over the years, a “simple” editor has become a tool for web designers, planners and, increasingly, developers. It offers connections to the most important external platforms, and Bare Bones Software also regularly adds support for current Apple functions.
BBEdit 16 is the first to offer the ability to find text content in images directly from the editor. This also works across numerous files and supports all grep functions. There are new shortcuts for which BBEdit now uses Apple’s App Intents. This means that the familiar text transformations from BBEdit are available for your own shortcuts. With the so-called AI Chat Worksheet you can now have server results streamed directly. Projects and Notebooks offer new color settings.
vi keyboard shortcuts if you want
If you want, you can now also use vi keyboard shortcuts (via an emulator and for navigation and editing). Code improvements are intended to speed up BBEdit 16 overall. Web projects can be divided into production and test environments. An overview of all innovations has been placed in the, as usual, extensive release notes.
BBEdit costs $60 plus sales tax as a fresh license. Anyone who purchased previous version 15 from November 1, 2025 will receive the upgrade free of charge. Otherwise, BBEdit 15 customers pay $30 and those using BBEdit 14.6.9 or earlier pay $40 (also each plus sales tax). As usual, all BBEdit functions can be tested for 30 days. There is also a “Free” mode with limited functions, which always remains free and is well suited for basic work.
Read more after the ad
(bsc)
