MarkText: Free Markdown Editor

Markdown is the most boring useful thing on a computer. It is plain text with a few punctuation marks that turn into headings, lists, and links. Every README, every Substack draft, every Claude Code session, every modern blog and documentation site runs on it under the hood. Once you write in markdown for a week, going back to a word processor feels heavy. MarkText is the free editor that lets you write in markdown while seeing the formatted result live, exactly like a word processor but without the bloat. This guide covers what it does, the surprising five-year story behind its development, which build to install in May 2026, and where it loses to the paid alternative Typora.

WYSIWYG: “What You See Is What You Get.” Formatting renders live as you type. The opposite is split-pane editors that show raw markdown syntax in one panel and a rendered preview in another (like classic VS Code or older Atom editors).

What is MarkText, in plain English?

MarkText is a free desktop app that opens markdown files (`.md`) and lets you edit them like a word processor. You type ## Heading and the line instantly becomes a big bold heading. You type **bold** and the asterisks vanish as the word becomes bold. You drag in an image and it appears inline. Tables are edited visually, not as pipe-separated text. Math equations render. Diagrams render. Everything happens inside one writing surface; there is no second preview pane.

Files stay as plain text on your disk. There is no proprietary database, no cloud account, no sync layer. You own a folder of .md files, and any other markdown tool (Obsidian, Typora, VS Code, future tools that do not exist yet) can read those same files. MarkText is the editor; your folder is the database. That makes it a local-first tool in the strictest sense.

What happened to MarkText, and is it safe to install today?

This is the question most current articles get wrong. MarkText was abandoned and then resurrected, and which side of that arc you read about determines whether you trust the project.

• March 2022: Original maintainer Jocs (Luo Ran) ships v0.17.1 stable. This is the last “official” release for almost four years.
• 2022-2024: The repo goes quiet. Open issues climb past one thousand. Multiple “is this abandoned?” threads on GitHub. Users start migrating to Typora or Obsidian.
• 2024-2025: Community member Jacob Whall maintains a fork that merges pending fixes. Then Tkaixiang takes the baton, rebuilds the project on modern Electron tooling, ships v0.18.5 through v0.18.8 between December 2025 and April 2026, adds 27 new color themes, 9 languages, and 40-millisecond-faster startup.
• December 2025: Issue #4098 (“Project Abandoned. But there is a fork!”) becomes the community’s stated PSA. Beginners are pointed at Tkaixiang.
• April 21, 2026: Tkaixiang merges his fork back into the official MarkText repo.
• May 13-23, 2026: Jocs publicly returns to the official repository. Dozens of commits ship in eleven days covering inter-process hardening, renderer fixes, UI polish, CI rework, and end-to-end regression tests. The project is being shepherded toward a new signed stable release.

The candid read in May 2026: MarkText is back from the dead, cautiously. The next 60 days will determine whether the revival is permanent. For a beginner installing today, use the Tkaixiang fork build (v0.18.8) until the revived official repo ships a notarized signed release. We will update this page when that happens.

How does WYSIWYG markdown editing actually work?

Most markdown editors use a split-pane model: you type raw markdown in one panel, the rendered preview shows in another, and you toggle between them. MarkText (and its only major competitor, the paid Typora) collapse those two panels into one. You type **bold** and the asterisks render as bold immediately. You type a backtick-quoted code block and it becomes a syntax-highlighted code panel. You never see the raw syntax unless you ask for it (the source-mode toggle is one keyboard shortcut away).

The mode toggles that matter for daily use:

• Focus mode dims everything except the paragraph you are editing. Helpful for long pieces.
• Typewriter mode keeps the current line vertically centered on the screen so your eyes stay still.
• Source code mode shows the raw markdown for the current file when you need to inspect or copy it.
• Reading mode renders the document with editor chrome stripped, like a preview.

The richer features that other markdown editors charge for are all built in: KaTeX math expressions (use $inline$ or $$block$$), Mermaid diagrams, visual table editing, footnotes, task lists, YAML frontmatter rendering, GitHub Flavored Markdown compliance, image paste-and-drag-drop, and 27 color themes including dynamic light/dark switching that follows your system preference (added in the December 2025 fork release).

What does MarkText cost?

Nothing. It is free, MIT-licensed, no paid tier, no “Pro” SKU, no in-app upsells. Anyone selling a paid MarkText product is misrepresenting the project. If you want to contribute back, the project accepts donations through Open Collective.

The only real cost is that you trade a fixed price (Typora is $14.99 for three devices, one-time) for the variable risk that an open-source project can stall, as MarkText itself just demonstrated. The upside of the open-source choice is that even when the project stalled, the community kept it going and the data format (plain markdown files) survived intact. Your writing was never trapped.

What works well, and what frustrates new users?

Praise that comes up repeatedly

• The WYSIWYG editing feels right. Typing ## Title and watching it become a heading is a small joy that other markdown tools do not match.
• The table editor is visual. No pipes, no manual alignment. Click to add columns and rows.
• Cross-platform feature parity. The Mac, Windows, and Linux builds are functionally identical.
• 27 themes after the December 2025 fork release, plus dynamic light/dark switching that follows your system.
• Distraction-free defaults. Toolbars hide by default. Focus and typewriter modes do real work.
• Files stay yours. Plain .md on disk, no lock-in. You can move to Typora or Obsidian tomorrow and nothing breaks.

Complaints that come up repeatedly

• Large files lag. Files past a few thousand lines or with many embedded images get sluggish. Cursor lag when typing in line one of a long document is a long-standing complaint.
• Memory does not always release. Closing a large file does not always free its memory. Restart the app after long writing sessions.
• No plugin ecosystem. Unlike Obsidian or VS Code, you cannot extend MarkText. The feature set is what ships.
• No mobile apps. Desktop only. No iOS, no Android, no iPad. None planned.
• No built-in sync. Use iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Syncthing, or git to sync your markdown folder yourself.
• The macOS install warning. Until the new notarized release ships, you will have to right-click the app the first time you open it (Gatekeeper blocks unsigned apps by default).
• PDF export is fine, not great. Functional but less template-customizable than Typora’s.

How do I install MarkText safely in May 2026?

1. Go to the Tkaixiang fork releases page (this is the current recommended build until the revived official repo ships a new stable). Pick the latest version (v0.18.8 as of writing).
2. Mac: Download the .dmg for your chip (Intel or Apple Silicon). Drag MarkText to Applications. The first time you launch, right-click the app and choose “Open” to bypass Gatekeeper. Or run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MarkText.app in Terminal once. For a notarized build, use Peter Thomson’s mac-focused fork.
3. Windows: Download marktext-setup-VERSION.exe. Windows Defender SmartScreen may say “unrecognized.” Click “More info” then “Run anyway.” Once installed, Defender stops complaining.
4. Linux: Download the AppImage. Run chmod +x MarkText.AppImage to make it executable, then run it. Arch users can install marktext-tkaixiang-bin from the AUR.
5. On first launch, MarkText opens with a sample document. Read it. The keyboard shortcuts list is the most useful page.
6. Open a folder of your existing markdown files (or create a new ~/Notes folder). MarkText shows the folder tree in the sidebar; click any file to open it.
7. Pick a theme from Preferences. The “Dark” theme works as a starting point; the dynamic theme switching (added Dec 2025) follows your system preference if you want.

How does MarkText compare to Typora, Obsidian, Bear, and iA Writer?

Editor	Cost	Strength	Weakness vs MarkText
Typora	$14.99 one-time (3 devices)	Polished, mature, best table editor in the category	Paid. Closed-source.
Obsidian	Free personal, Sync $4-10/mo	Bidirectional [[wiki-links]], 2,000+ plugins, mobile apps	Not true WYSIWYG; steeper learning curve
Bear	$2.99/mo or $29.99/yr	Beautiful UI, iCloud sync across Apple devices	Apple-only. Subscription.
iA Writer	$29.99 (Mac) / $49.99 (Win)	Best typography, focus syntax highlighting	Not WYSIWYG. No math or diagrams. Paid.
Joplin	Free + optional sync	E2E encrypted sync, Evernote-style notebooks	Split-pane, not WYSIWYG
VS Code + markdown	Free	Powerful for devs, git built in	No WYSIWYG without extensions. Cluttered for pure writing.

The simple decision tree:

• You want WYSIWYG markdown, on any OS, for free: MarkText.
• You want the polished paid option: Typora at $14.99.
• You want a full knowledge base, not just an editor: Obsidian.
• You want encrypted notes synced to your phone: Joplin.
• You live in the Apple ecosystem only: Bear or iA Writer.

Who should NOT use MarkText?

MarkText is the wrong pick if any of these apply:

• You need to write on your phone or tablet. MarkText is desktop-only.
• You want a connected knowledge base with backlinks and a graph view. Use Obsidian, Anytype, or Logseq instead.
• You collaborate with non-technical teammates who do not know what markdown is. Use Notion or Google Docs.
• You depend on a plugin ecosystem to extend your editor. Use Obsidian or VS Code.
• You write multi-thousand-line documents in a single file. MarkText slows down past a few thousand lines.
• You need real-time collaboration. MarkText is a single-user app; no multiplayer cursor.

Frequently asked questions about MarkText

Is MarkText really free?

Yes. MIT-licensed, open-source, no paid tier, no upsell. Donations via Open Collective are optional.

Can I use MarkText with Claude or AI assistants?

Indirectly. MarkText itself has no AI features. Because your files are plain markdown on disk, you can point Claude Code at your notes folder and have Claude read, summarize, or rewrite any file. The combination of “human-edit in MarkText, AI-edit via Claude” is one of the cleaner local-first workflows.

What if MarkText gets abandoned again?

Your data is fine because it never lived in MarkText. Your .md files are plain text on your disk. Any other markdown editor (Typora, Obsidian, VS Code, even Notepad) opens them without issue. That is the whole benefit of local-first plain-text tools.

Does MarkText sync between my devices?

Not on its own. Put your markdown folder inside iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, or a Syncthing share, and it syncs that way. Many users put their folder in a git repo and push to GitHub for version history. There is no first-party sync product.

Should I use MarkText or just stick with Typora?

If $14.99 once is a meaningful cost or you care about open-source on principle, MarkText. If you want zero hassle and immediate polish on day one, Typora. Both store data identically; switching later is free.

Sources and where to go deeper

• Official MarkText GitHub repository
• MarkText official site
• Tkaixiang fork (current recommended build)
• Tkaixiang fork releases page
• Peter Thomson’s notarized-for-Mac fork
• Community PSA: “Project Abandoned. But there is a fork!”
• Homebrew cask deprecation discussion
• MarkText Open Collective (donations)
• Typora, the paid alternative
• Markdown (the format, Grokipedia)

You may also like

• Software Tools Hub, the parent category
• Anytype: Private Second Brain, the second-brain sibling
• Obsidian as a Second Brain, the heavier markdown-first alternative
• Element: Encrypted Chat on Matrix, another open-source tool in the same cluster
• What Is Local-First Software?, the design philosophy MarkText embodies
• The FOSS Movement, why open-source markdown editors exist
• Notion + AI: Build a Second Brain, the cloud-first opposite