Nova
Panic's native Mac editor, yours to keep if you stop paying
This version
The one-time price buys a year of updates, not updates forever. The $49 annual renewal is automatic, so you have to actively cancel it, and cancelling freezes you on the build you have — which for an editor tracking language servers and macOS changes costs more than it would for a simpler utility. macOS only. It is also not a full IDE: no heavyweight refactoring and no debugger comparable to Xcode or a JetBrains product, and the extension library is smaller than what the Electron editors have.
Cost over five years
$99 once = 5 months of Cursor Pro. Over five years that is $1,200 rented against $99 owned — $1,101 kept, and you still have the app.
Cursor Pro priced at $240 a year — Cursor's Individual plan at $20/month; the page shows no cheaper annual figure. Checked 2026-09-22.
Nova is Panic's Mac editor, and the thing it is really selling is Mac-ness: real native text rendering, window behaviour that matches the rest of the system, a sidebar that works like a Finder sidebar, an integrated terminal that is not a web view impersonating one. It carries the Coda lineage, so it is built around web and front-end work, with remote file sync and SFTP publishing treated as first-class rather than bolted on.
Git is built in with side-by-side diffs, and extensions cover languages, themes and linters — though the library is smaller than the Electron editors', and you will feel that on a less common stack. For large compiled projects, Xcode or a JetBrains IDE does more.
The licence needs reading slowly. $99 buys the app plus one year of updates, then Panic charges $49 a year to keep receiving new versions, and that renewal is automatic. Cancel it and you keep a fully working copy of whatever build you were on, permanently. That is what puts Nova on this site, but it is the least "lifetime" entry here, and standing still on an editor is more expensive than standing still on, say, a launcher.
Use the 30-day trial properly. If the native feel is not worth the money to you inside a month, no extension is going to close the gap later.
What it looks like
What it does
- Native Mac app with real text rendering and window behaviour
- Integrated terminal, remote file sync and SFTP publishing
- Built-in git with side-by-side diffs
- Extension library for languages, themes and tooling
- Cancelling the renewal leaves a fully working app
Cancel instead
Also bought outright in dev tools
The facts
- Price
- $99
- Licence
- Own this version forever
- What you get
- One payment buys this major version outright. The next major version is a separate purchase, if you want it.
- Details
- $99 + tax for a new licence, including one full year of updates and new features. After the first year it renews automatically at $49/year + tax for continued updates; cancel any time and keep the software forever. Upgrading from Coda 1 or 2 costs $79 + tax. 30-day free trial.
- Free trial
- Yes
- On Setapp
- No
- Minimum macOS
- not stated
- Developer
- Panic
- Price checked
- 2026-09-22
Check it yourself - Price band
- $60 to $120