GNU Emacs vs. Spyder

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
GNU Emacs
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
GNU Emacs is described as a free extensible and customizable text editor for the Lisp programming language.N/A
Spyder
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Spyder is a free and open source scientific environment for Python. It combines advanced editing, analysis, debugging, and profiling, with data exploration, interactive execution, deep inspection, and visualization capabilities. Spyder is sponsored by open source supporters QuanSight, and NumFOCUS, as well as individual donors.N/A
Pricing
GNU EmacsSpyder
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GNU EmacsSpyder
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
GNU EmacsSpyder
Considered Both Products
GNU Emacs
Chose GNU Emacs
Emacs can be easier to use than Vim as it is more similar to modern text editors. Its graphical interface is also better than anything Vim has to offer. Emacs also has better syntax highlighting and recognition of coding languages. Interestingly, Emacs handles clipboard copy …
Chose GNU Emacs
While Notepad++ is a very capable editor, it is not nearly as customizable and extendable as GNU Emacs.
Microsoft Onenote is a nice, easy-to-use note-taking and organization tool. Its advantages are that it is GUI based, and it is easy to embed images, audio, and other media. …
Chose GNU Emacs
I have used several different IDEs and editors, but I keep coming back to Emacs. I guess my fingers are wired for Emacs and I find that I can do pretty much anything in the tool that I can with other tools. Some other tools are more polished, but are specific to certain …
Chose GNU Emacs
Of course, Vim is a good contender for comparison as well, so I'll include it. I find Emacs much easier to learn, which will help speed up productivity for newer users. It seems much faster than VIM and VSCode, especially under load. It's highly highly customizable, in ways …
Spyder
Chose Spyder
Everyone advised me at first to use Spyder because it is very easy to use and because it has a simple and easy user interface, and it is easy through it to learn the basics, also because it does not take up much space on the device, and the CPU remains in a normal state
Chose Spyder
Spyder is well suited where the user needs to understand how the code is progressing as it provides a robust debugging feature.
Chose Spyder
I have chosen Spyder because it's free and open-source that comes with properly documented comments in the code. I have been using Spyder for more than 2 years and it always feels good to work with Spyder every time start my work. In Spyder, we have three windows one for man …
Chose Spyder
I think Spyder doesn't stack up as well as other IDEs due to its many limitations. But it is available for free and that is one advantage it has over its competitors.
Chose Spyder
For PyCharm, if you choose the professional edition, you will have to pay an annual fee for it. Even your company is allowing those expenses. You might find it is still not worth it to pay for that since you can get a free community version for free or the Spyder for free.
Chose Spyder
First of all, for PyCharm, the layout is better than Spyder from my own experience and interaction. However, Spyder can allow you to arrange the layout by yourself but the layout for PyCharm is fixed. Second, if you choose PyCharm Professional, you need to pay an annual fee to …
Chose Spyder
There were generic code editors and I use to have coding error and sometimes it was difficult to manage interpreter with these IDEs. With Ms VS code, there were lot of plugins available that we need to configure before starting writing code. With Spyder no base is supposed to …
Best Alternatives
GNU EmacsSpyder
Small Businesses
BBEdit
BBEdit
Score 9.1 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Vim
Vim
Score 8.3 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Vim
Vim
Score 8.3 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
GNU EmacsSpyder
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
GNU EmacsSpyder
Likelihood to Recommend
If you are willing to put in a little time to learn how GNU Emacs works, it can be an extremely powerful and versatile editing tool, as well as being used for almost any kind of text searching, replacing, or processing. Using Org-mode alone is worth learning Emacs. Once you learn the basics, they can be applied and used in all areas that you would use Emacs for. If you want a text editor and information tool that you can use for almost everything, then the learning curve is worth it. If you want simple text editor for editing small files, then Emacs may be overkill.
Read full review
Spyder is well suited if you're limited on hardware. You have to work with single code file. You need to quickly write some code and test it. Apart from this if you want to have a look at your variables then you can make use of Spyder. If you're working with Anaconda navigator then this can be the best to start with as it can be installed with single click there.
Read full review
Pros
  • Readily available: Emacs is available on almost all operating systems. You can use it for free, and even use it for remote editing. It has a nice desktop application that anyone can use, even the ordinary user.
  • Lightweight application: Although it hasn't always been, Emacs is now a very lightweight, efficient editor that isn't going to demand much CPU power. This can be crucial for large-scale applications.
  • Easy learning curve: for complex editors, Emacs is one of the easier to get a handle on. There's good documentation, and an easy layout that makes figuring out how it works much easier than others.
Read full review
  • Debugging of your existing code
  • Generates figures very quickly as part of a figures tab which lets users understand results quickly
  • Different layouts are available for the software which will give the users freedom to decide what layout works best for them
Read full review
Cons
  • Shortcuts are not standard.
  • Sometimes certain key combinations puts it into an unfamiliar state.
Read full review
  • Colors in code format
  • Add a broadcast to share the project with friends
  • Contains more than one important language such as Python
Read full review
Usability
No answers on this topic
It is fairly straightforward to use. Pretty much good to go as soon as you install it. The IDE itself is very user friendly, and it is only limited by whatever limitations Python has as a language. Great for those who want to run their scripts quickly or do some Python programming without fussing.
Read full review
Support Rating
Since Emacs is free software, support comes from online forums, and online searches. I have always been able to find an answer to any question I've had, as well as "How do I do XXX in Emacs?". I've found Emacs users in general are very willing to help others who are learning Emacs and to share what they have already done with Emacs.
Read full review
Most of data scientists or data engineers are either using ec2 on the cloud or Atom or PyCharm locally. It is a bit hard to find people who are still using Spyder and have the sight of the IDE and can help you to answer your question.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Emacs can be easier to use than Vim as it is more similar to modern text editors. Its graphical interface is also better than anything Vim has to offer. Emacs also has better syntax highlighting and recognition of coding languages. Interestingly, Emacs handles clipboard copy and pasting into other programs a lot better than Vim does. Overall, if you know how to use Emacs, it is often preferred over Vim.
Read full review
I have chosen Spyder because it's free and open-source that comes with properly documented comments in the code. I have been using Spyder for more than 2 years and it always feels good to work with Spyder every time start my work. In Spyder, we have three windows one for man code window, idle window, and the other is for running your code and analyze. So to test a particular code I use the idle window to see what is going to be the result when I use this set of codes. That the main reason, I use Spyder.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Overall, the ROI of Emacs has stemmed around its nature as a free, open source product. Usability is high, so when you use it you are more productive, but if you are unfamiliar with it, you will be less productive to start.
  • Emacs is more than just an IDE. It includes IDE-like functionality, but it is really much more than an IDE.
  • Emacs makes it easy for me to work in my environment, in a fashion to which I have become accustomed over the last 30+ years. It is more suited to the professional who has used it before.
Read full review
  • Less time spent on employee training.
  • Limited integration with Git.
  • No tools for repository.
Read full review
ScreenShots