When comparing nvALT vs Better Touch Tool, the Slant community recommends Better Touch Tool for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” Better Touch Tool is ranked 32nd while nvALT is ranked 34th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Powerful search syntax
nvALT has a simple text box at the top (similar to that of a web browser) and when you start typing inside it, nvALT immediately displays a drop-down box of all the notes that contain the text you are searching for. The more you type, the more the search is narrowed down.
Pro Lightweight
Pro Free
Pro MultiMarkdown 3 support
Has built-in support for MultiMarkdown 3.
Pro Powerful note-taking features
nvALT is not only used for simple text editing but also as a powerful tool for taking notes, TODOs, phone numbers and every other piece of information that can be stored in a plain-text file.
This is because nvALT is not designed only as a tool to write text, but also as a powerful search and organize tool for plain-text files.
Pro Right to Left support
Pro Endlessly customizable
Pro Extendability
Allows user to extend my MBP with touchbar by creating custom actions per app. Also supports system-wide integration (touchbar actions).
Pro BTT makes it simple to sync your hotkey, Touch Bar and gesture setup between several machines
Pro Sync settings in the cloud
Pro There's a free companion app for iOS that you can use to remote control your Mac
Pro Supports Apple script, bash, javascript
Pro Customize window button behaviour
Pro Make your own menu bar items
Pro Active community
Pro Built-in clipboard manager
Pro Highly configurable window moving / window snapping options
Pro Key sequences
Supports key sequences for things like text expansion.
Pro Supports MIDI devices (keyboards, DAW controllers, etc.)
Listen for MIDI events and have them control anything. For example you could use a DJ controller in your favorite video editor, etc.
Pro Lets you configure your external mouse's 4th and 5th button per app
Pro Record gestures / drawings and assign them to actions
Pro Developer is regularly adding features / improvements
Cons
Con Not very powerful as far as text editing goes
nvALT's strength is its search feature. It has some basic text-editing features such as cut, paste, find-and-replace and so on. But it doesn't have any advanced text manipulation features available in other editors.