When comparing Divvy vs nvALT, the Slant community recommends Divvy for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” Divvy is ranked 17th while nvALT is ranked 34th. The most important reason people chose Divvy is:
Although it's not in the same level as something like bug.n, Divvy does support the use of keyboard shortcuts to move windows about. You can even create custom shortcuts.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Has keyboard shortcuts
Although it's not in the same level as something like bug.n, Divvy does support the use of keyboard shortcuts to move windows about. You can even create custom shortcuts.
Pro Requires virtually no configuration & is very easy to use
Divvy uses a drop and drag style UI that's simple to use and doesn't require any setup or configuration to get started.
Pro Reasonably configurable
You can change the grid dimensions and a very other visual settings to suit your needs.
Pro Super-fast access by defining your own hot key (mine Win+S)
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
Cons
Con Quite inconvenient to assign windows
You always have to use the mouse instead of having proper keyboard shortcuts.
Con No longer updated
While this may work for current machines, the last beta version (to be found on the site) is from January 2016.
Developer's twitter account has stopped being active as well, on November '16.
Con Windows 10 buggy
Not all keyboard shortcuts work. Support is non existent.
Con Installer requires admin rights, installs itself to AppData of the used account
Something to consider if would be used in a restricted environment.
Con Not free
Costs $14.
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.