Markdown is a useful lightweight markup language and a lot of people prefer for writing documentation or web publishing. Many of us at It’s FOSS use markdown for writing our articles.
There are several Markdown editors available for Linux that you can install and use.
But, what if you don’t want to install another program on your system? Perhaps you are using a system temporarily and cannot install an application? Maybe you just want a markdown editor that lets you collaborate in real-time?
No matter what you require, online markdown editors makes a lot of things easy by providing collaboration features, publishing integration, notes synchronization, and some online-only features.
Hence, I’ve compiled a list of the best online markdown editors.
Free Online Markdown Editors
I have tried to keep the focus on online markdown editor with open source code. You may use the official website or deploy them on your server.
Note: The list is in no particular order of ranking.
1. StackEdit
StackEdit is one of the most popular open-source online Markdown editors available.
It provides a great user interface and offers a bunch of useful features. The ability to collaborate, synchronizing capability, and being able to publish/save your files to Blogger, WordPress, GitHub, and a couple other services are some key features that you get with StackEdit.
Not to forget, you also get an extended markdown support some extensions available to support LaTeX mathematical expressions, UML diagrams, and more. It presents a WYSIWYG editor that makes it easy for you to work with Markdown. It also works offline and offers a chrome app and extension — if that’s your requirement.
It’s easy to import/export files on StackEdit as well. You can take a look at its source code on GitHub for more details if you need to host it on your server.
2. Dillinger
Dillinger is yet another interesting open-source online Markdown editor. Similar to StackEdit, you also get the ability to link and save the documents with Dropbox, GitHub, Medium, Google Drive, Bitbucket, and OneDrive.
You can also choose to simply import/export files when needed. The user interface for Dillinger is simpler than what you get on StackEdit — but it gets the job intended. Unlike StackEdit, you may not get extended Markdown support with LaTeX expressions or diagrams but if you just need simple online Markdown editor, this is a good pick.
If you need, you can choose to deploy it in a Docker container on your server. For more technical details on it, you might want to check out its GitHub page.
3. Write.as
Write.as is based on the free and open source software WriteFreely, developed by the same team. So you can simply host it on your own server and start using it for free if you want.
You can also use Write.as service as a free online Markdown editor with basic features. To make the most out of it, you may want to choose a subscription. Some paid features include custom themes, newsletters, photo hosting, and multiple blogs.
It supports Markdown and also lets anyone on Mastodon, ActivityPub, and Pleroma to follow and share your blog posts easily.
You can explore more about WriteFreely on its GitHub page or get started using Write.as.
4. Editor.md
An interesting open-source Markdown editor that you can also embed on your own web pages if you require.
It supports real-time preview, GitHub flavored markdown, and also presents a WYSIWYG editor along with a bunch of useful features. In addition to the basic Markdown support, it also supports emojis, LaTeX expressions, Flowchart, and more.
You can choose to configure your own by hosting it yourself as well. Take a look at its GitHub page for more information.
5. CodiMD
CodiMD isn’t available as a full-fledged online service from the get-go. But, it is an open-source project that lets you collaborate on documentations or notes in real-time by giving you the ability to host it on your server.
It’s based on HackMD‘s source code and offers a demo instance to test it out. Personally, I like the fact that it also offers a dark mode and it’s easy to use.
For its future release (at the time of writing this), it will be renamed as “HedgeDoc“.
You can find all the relevant information on deploying it on your server through Docker/Kubernetes and other manual configuration options on its GitHub page.
6. Wri.pe
Wri.pe is a simple open-source online Markdown editor that’s no longer maintained but it is still active and usable.
It features real-time preview and the options to export or save your notes to Dropbox/Evernote. Considering that it’s not actively maintained — you may not rely on it but it works as expected when I tested it.
You can take a look at its GitHub page or the official site to learn more about it.
Honorable Mentions
Here are a few tools that provide markdown access.
Markdown Web Dingus
A simple and free online Markdown editor by the creator of Markdown language. It’s not a full-fledged online editor with integrations or that supports import/export.
But, if you just want an online editor to get a preview for your Markdown source, this could be a great option to use. Not just limited to the editor, but you also get a syntax cheatsheet in the sidebar of the website. So, you can try and learn here as well.
Markdown Journal
Markdown Journal was an interesting open-source project on GitHub which has been discontinued. It gave you the ability to use its online editor to create journals using Markdown language and save them directly on your Dropbox account. I noticed Internal Server error when I tried to create a journal — but you can take a look at it.
Etherpad
Etherpad is yet another impressive open-source online editor but it doesn’t come with Markdown support out of the box. You might notice some plugins available to enable Markdown editing on your server — but that’s not something that works flawlessly yet. So, you might want to keep an eye out for it. There’s a list of public instances to try it out as well.
Wrapping Up
Considering that a lot of online editors, CMSs, and note-taking services support Markdown, services/applications like WordPress can also be a good option if you want to publish it to the web.
Which one do you prefer to use as a Markdown editor? Did I miss any of your favorites? Let me know in the comments below!
