Better File Editor
Adds line numbers, syntax highlighting, code folding, and lots more to the theme and plugin editors in the admin panel.
Consider an alternative
Better File Editor shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 300+ sites, is rated 4.7/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 37/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (300+ active installs)
- No update in 10 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.3 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Better File Editor stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| code | >100 |
| editor | >100 |
| syntax | >100 |
| theme | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 from 17 reviews
About Better File Editor
From the official readme · v2.3.1Description
Adds line numbers, syntax highlighting, code folding, and lots more to the
theme and plugin editors in the admin panel.
This plugin replaces the boring, clunky, and difficult to use theme and plugin
editor with a full-featured code editor using the Ajax.org Cloud9 Editor.
Requirements:
- Javascript Enabled (will use default editor if disabled)
- Browsers: Internet Explorer 9+, Chrome 21+, Firefox 10+, Safari 6.0+
Included Themes:
- Ambiance
- Chaos
- Chrome
- Clouds
- Clouds Midnight
- Cobalt
- Crimson Editor
- Dawn
- Dreamweaver
- Eclipse
- GitHub
- idleFingers
- IPlastic
- KatzenMilch
- krTheme
- Kuroir
- Merbivore
- Merbivore Soft
- Mono Industrial
- Monokai
- Pastel on Dark
- Solarized Dark
- Solarized Light
- SQL Server
- Terminal
- TextMate
- Tomorrow
- Tomorrow Night
- Tomorrow Night Blue
- Tomorrow Night Bright
- Tomorrow Night 80s
- Twilight
- Vibrant Ink
- Xcode
Supported Languages:
- ABAP
- ABC Notation
- ADA
- ActionScript
- AppleScript
- AsciiDoc
- Assembly x86
- AutoHotKey
- BatchFile
- C9Search
- C/C++
- Clojure
- Cobol
- CoffeeScript
- ColdFusion
- C#
- CSS
- Curly
- D
- Dart
- Diff
- Dot
- Elixir
- Elm
- Erlang
- EJS
- Forth
- FreeMarker
- Gherkin
- gitignore
- Glsl
- Go
- Groovy
- HAML
- Handlebars
- Haskell
- haXe
- HTML
- HTML (Ruby)
- Ini
- Jade
- Java
- JavaScript
- JSON
- JSONiq
- JSP
- JSX
- Julia
- LaTeX
- Lean
- LESS
- Liquid
- Lisp
- LiveScript
- LogiQL
- LSL
- Lua
- LuaPage
- Lucene
- Makefile
- MATLAB
- Markdown
- MaskJS
- Maze
- MySQL
- MUSHCode
- Nix
- Objective-C
- OCaml
- Pascal
- Perl
- pgSQL
- PHP
- Powershell
- Prolog
- Properties
- Protobuf
- Python
- R
- RDoc
- RHTML
- Ruby
- Rust
- SASS
- SCAD
- Scala
- Scheme
- SCSS
- SH
- Smarty
- snippets
- Soy
- SQL
- SQLServer
- Stylus
- SVG
- Tcl
- Tex
- Text
- Textile
- Toml
- Twig
- Typescript
- Vala
- VBScript
- Velocity
- XML
- XQuery
- YAML
Installation
- Upload the entire
better-file-editorfolder to the/wp-content/plugins/
directory. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
Changelog
2.3.1 (2015-10-18)
- Use no-conflict builds of ACE editor.
- Remove extraneous RequireJS dependency.
- Add extra namespacing to registered scripts to avoid conflicts.
2.3.0 (2015-10-08)
- Updated ACE editor to 1.2.0 (2015-07-11).
- New plugin structure with asset build system.
- Added support for translations (none provided yet).
- Improved autoindent for HTML and PHP.
- New Themes: IPlastic, SQL Server
- New Modes: Elixir, Elm, LiveScript, SQLServer
2.2.0 (2014-10-01)
- Updated ACE editor to 1.1.7 (2014-09-20).
- New Themes: KatzenMilch, Kuroir
- New Notable Modes: Handlebars, Smarty
- New HTML syntax checker, and improved PHP syntax checker.
2.1.2 (2013-12-01)
- Editor enabled based on support for HTML5 Canvas API, which removed
dependency on jQuery migrate layer for browser sniffing.
2.1 (2013-06-08)
- Updated ACE editor with new themes and syntax modes.
- New Themes: Ambiance, Chaos, Terminal, Xcode
- New Notable Modes: INI, Dart, ActionScript, MySQL, SASS, and HAML.
- Saves cursor position in file.
2.0 (2012-07-22)
- Complete rewrite built on Ajax.org Cloud9 Editor, and replacing official
plugin and theme editors rather than adding extra stand-alone editor.
Screenshots
For developers
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Best Better File Editor alternatives
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FAQ
Better File Editor: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 11, 2026
Is Better File Editor free?
Yes. Better File Editor is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Better File Editor safe to use in 2026?
Better File Editor shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 300+ sites, is rated 4.7/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 37/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Better File Editor?
Better File Editor is active on 300+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 41,815 times since it launched in June 2009. It was downloaded 124 times in the last 30 days.
Does Better File Editor work with WordPress 7.1?
Better File Editor is officially tested up to WordPress 4.3.34, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Better File Editor last updated?
The latest version, 2.3.1, was released on October 18, 2015 (11 years ago).
Who makes Better File Editor?
Better File Editor is developed and maintained by Bryan Petty.
What are the best alternatives to Better File Editor?
The most popular alternatives to Better File Editor are WPCode (3M+ installs), Code Snippets (1M+ installs) and Head & Footer Code (100K+ installs).
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