The best Markdown editor: 10 options compared

Ten Markdown editors in one table

The field at a glance. Read the Stores plain .md column first: it splits the list in half faster than anything else. Prices move, so the last column names the model.

What the .md column is really telling you

A "no" there is not a mark against the tool. It tells you where the exit is. Plain files move with one drag of a folder. Blocks need an export, a cleanup and a check that nothing broke, as Markdown in Notion shows.

Live preview is three different features

One phrase, three quite different experiences:

• Split pane. Source one side, rendered page the other. The only style that shows raw text at all times.
• Inline rendering. Symbols melt away as you type and the text formats in place. Typora's reputation is built on it.
• A separate reading mode. You write in one view and flip to a clean one to check the result.

Neither is better. Split panes suit people who care about the source. Inline rendering suits people who want the file to look finished as they work.

Pick by what you are actually doing

Four situations cover most people searching for an editor. Find yours, skip the rest.

If you just need to format something once

Use a browser editor and skip the install. This site's editor, StackEdit and Dillinger open in a tab, take your text and show the rendered result. No account, no folder to choose.

None of it needs a vault or a sync service: a README, a comment, a check that a table lines up. If you only want to read a file someone sent you, the Markdown viewer is simpler still, and the other one-job tools sit on the free tools page.

If you are building a knowledge base

Choose an app that stores plain files in a folder, and treat that folder as the product. Obsidian is the usual pick, because it adds links between notes, backlinks and search on top of ordinary .md files. Your notes stay readable without it, and Markdown in Obsidian covers where its extra syntax stops being portable.

Notion is the reasonable alternative when the notes belong to a team. It handles sharing, permissions and databases far better. The trade is that you no longer hold files.

If you live in a code editor

Do not install a second app. VS Code opens a preview pane beside the source, and JetBrains IDEs ship one too. Both already handle what slows documentation down: Git history, search across a repo, several files open at once.

Docs also land in the same commit as the code they describe, so a README stays accurate longer.

If you write long-form prose

iA Writer and Typora are built for this, and they get there in opposite ways. iA Writer strips the screen back to text and adds focus tools. Typora renders formatting in place, so the draft looks close to finished as you write it.

Bear suits the same job on Apple devices. In all three the winning feature is identical: nothing on screen competes with the sentence you are writing.

Watch out: Do not pick a knowledge-base app for a job that is really one document. Vaults, tags and backlinks are pure overhead for a single file, and that overhead makes people quit in week two.

Obsidian vs Typora, and the rest of the desktop field

The head-to-head people search for most. Both store plain .md files on your disk, and that is where the overlap ends.

Obsidian is a library. Typora is a page.

Obsidian opens a whole folder and helps you move around inside it. Links, a graph of those links, tags, saved searches and plugins all serve one goal: finding what you wrote before. It shines with hundreds of notes.

Typora opens a document and gets out of the way. No vault, no backlinks, no plugin marketplace. It is built on one idea: the file should look like the finished page while you type.

How to choose between them

• Many small notes that reference each other? Obsidian. That is the exact problem it solves.
• One document at a time? Typora. Less to configure, less to ignore.
• Try before paying? Obsidian has a free tier for personal use; Typora is paid.
• Want to see the raw symbols? Obsidian shows them in source mode. Typora hides them by design.

Mac and Windows both have full choices

Platform is rarely the deciding factor now. Obsidian, Typora, VS Code and JetBrains IDEs run on Mac, Windows and Linux. iA Writer covers Mac and Windows plus mobile. Bear is the exception, staying inside Apple's ecosystem.

So "best Markdown editor for Mac" and "best Markdown editor for Windows" usually have the same answer. Match the tool to the job, then check the download page. The syntax reference gives you test cases worth pasting in first.

What actually matters when you choose

Feature lists are long and mostly irrelevant. Three questions predict whether you will still be happy in a year.

Does it save portable .md files?

A portable file is plain text on a disk you control, with the Markdown symbols still in it. It opens in every other editor here, converts to HTML or PDF, and outlives the app that made it.

Not every tool has to pass. You do need to know which of yours does, because that one holds your archive.

How hard is it to leave?

Ask the exit question while you are still choosing, not on the day you want out:

1. Find the export option before you commit. If you cannot find it in two minutes, that is your answer.
2. Export ten notes and open them in a plain text editor. Look for lost formatting, renamed files and broken links.
3. Check the images. They break first in an export, and nobody tests them.

Apps that keep plain files pass trivially. Apps that keep blocks vary a lot, which is the pattern the Markdown platforms comparison lays out app by app.

Does the preview match where you publish?

Your editor's preview is one reading of your text. The site you publish to is another. When they disagree the published version wins, and tables, footnotes and task lists are where they disagree most.

So preview accuracy only means something relative to a destination. Our answer on which Markdown flavor to write for shows how to tell which dialect yours speaks.

Tip: Trial an editor with one of your real documents, not a sample. Your own tables and links find the gaps in minutes.

Where this site's editor fits, honestly

We built the editor on this site, so read this as a disclosure, not a review. It sits in the first group here: a browser tool for quick work, not a home.

What it is good at

• Starting instantly. Open a tab and type. No install, no account, no setup screen.
• Seeing source and result together. The split pane makes syntax easy to learn: cause and effect sit side by side.
• Converting. Copy the HTML out, or export a .md or .html file.
• Checking someone else's file. Paste it in and see whether the tables and lists hold together.

What it is not good for

Being specific beats being flattering. It has no sync, so a draft started on a laptop is not waiting on your phone. It has no file management: no sidebar, no folder tree, no way to organise fifty documents. And no vault or links between notes, so it cannot be a knowledge base.

Your draft autosaves into your own browser and is never uploaded to us, which is what where your text is stored sets out. Good for privacy, bad for backup.

The sensible way to use it

Most people who write a lot end up with two tools. A desktop app owns the archive; a browser tab handles quick jobs, alongside the other single-purpose Markdown tools here.

Tip: Export a .md file before closing the tab on anything you would hate to lose. One click turns a browser draft into a real file you own.