What is Geany used for?

Geany is a lightweight, cross-platform programmer's text editor with built-in support for over 50 programming languages. It is a good fit for editing source code in multiple programming languages.

Is Geany open source?

Yes. Geany is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at geany/geany and is written mainly in C.

Yes. Geany is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Geany?

Yes. Geany can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Geany an alternative to?

Geany is an open-source alternative to Sublime Text, Visual Studio, IntelliJ IDEA and Nova. Other open-source alternatives to Sublime Text include Visual Studio Code, VSCodium and Neovim.

Is Geany actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Geany was on 11 October 2026, and the latest release is 2.1.0, published on 6 July 2025. The project has 3.7k stars on GitHub.

Geany: open-source alternative to Sublime Text

About Geany

Geany is a lightweight programmer's text editor that runs on Linux, Windows and macOS. It provides features for editing code without slowing down the user's workflow. The editor is translated into over 40 languages and supports more than 50 programming languages.

Key features

Runs on Linux, Windows and macOS
Translated into over 40 languages
Built-in support for more than 50 programming languages
Plugin system for adding features
Customizable color themes and filetypes
Supports filetypes including C, Java, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, Python, Perl, ini-style config files, Diff output, and SQL

Good fit for

Editing source code in multiple programming languages

Built with: C tools
Tags: ide; text editor; programming; cross-platform; lightweight; open source

Geany: questions and answers

What is Geany used for?: Geany is a lightweight, cross-platform programmer's text editor with built-in support for over 50 programming languages. It is a good fit for editing source code in multiple programming languages.
Is Geany open source?: Yes. Geany is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at geany/geany and is written mainly in C.
Is Geany free?: Yes. Geany is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Geany?: Yes. Geany can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Geany an alternative to?: Geany is an open-source alternative to Sublime Text, Visual Studio, IntelliJ IDEA and Nova. Other open-source alternatives to Sublime Text include Visual Studio Code, VSCodium and Neovim.
Is Geany actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Geany was on 11 October 2026, and the latest release is 2.1.0, published on 6 July 2025. The project has 3.7k stars on GitHub.