MarkText vs Zettlr
We give MarkText a 3.4 GPA and Zettlr a 3.6, out of 4.0. Zettlr grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
How we grade them
| 3.4GPAMarkTextVery good | 3.6GPAZettlrExcellent | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree and open source under the MIT License, with no subscription and nothing to buy. The project asks for optional sponsorship through GitHub Sponsors, and that's all. | AFree and open source, with no paid tier at all. Development runs on voluntary donations through Patreon, PayPal, GitHub Sponsors or Ko-fi. |
| Free plan and trial | AThe whole editor is free, with every feature and theme included and no account. There's no paid tier, so nothing is held back. | AThe whole app is free on Windows, macOS and Linux. There's no paid tier, so nothing is held back. |
| Features | BMarkdown renders in place as you type, with tables, footnotes, KaTeX math, highlighted code and Mermaid or Vega diagrams. There are 33 themes, plus focus and typewriter modes. But export covers PDF and HTML only. | ACitations from Zotero, JabRef or Juris-M in more than 9,000 styles, one-click export profiles for papers and slides, and Zettelkasten links with a graph view. LaTeX math and Mermaid charts render inline, and there are projects, snippets and writing statistics. |
| Ease of use | BThere's no App Store rating on record, so a B is as high as we go. It's a download with no account and a single pane to write in. On a Mac you do have to pick the Apple Silicon or Intel installer yourself. | BThere's no App Store rating on record, so a B is as high as we go. It's a desktop app you install, and the editor can look like anything from raw Markdown to rich text. The academic extras take some wiring: citations come from an outside reference manager, and grammar checks from LanguageTool. |
| Platforms and integrations | BMac, Windows and Linux, all from the same free app. No web, iPhone or Android version is offered, and what it connects to is the math and diagram tools built in, not other apps. | BWindows 10 or newer, macOS 12 or newer and Linux, hooked up to Zotero, JabRef, Juris-M, LanguageTool and Pandoc. It's desktop only, with no mobile or web app and no cloud sync of its own. |
| Best for | free Markdown editing with no split preview | free academic writing in Markdown |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: MarkText and Zettlr. How we grade
Where they differ
- MarkText is free. Zettlr is free.
- Zettlr also covers linked notes, citations and long-form writing.
In commonFree planmacOSWindowsLinuxOpen sourceMarkdown
At a glance
| MarkText | Zettlr | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | The whole application is free and open source under the MIT License, with no account and no subscription. The project asks for optional sponsorship through GitHub Sponsors. | The whole app is free and open source, with no paid tier. Development is funded by voluntary donations through Patreon, PayPal, GitHub Sponsors or Ko-fi. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | Jocs and contributors | Hendrik Erz |
| Price read from | marktext.me | zettlr.com |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
MarkText
- Writers who want Markdown rendered as they type, without a split preview
- People who want one free editor on macOS, Windows and Linux
- Technical notes with math, code blocks and diagrams
Zettlr
- Researchers and students writing papers or theses in Markdown
- Zotero users who want citations inside a plain-text editor
- People who keep a Zettelkasten of linked notes
- Writers who want their files kept on their own computer
Worth knowing
MarkText
- Desktop only: no web, iOS or Android version is offered.
- macOS builds need macOS 11 or later and come as separate Apple Silicon and Intel installers; no universal build is published.
- Windows builds require Windows 10 or 11.
- Export covers PDF and HTML files only.
Zettlr
- Desktop only: downloads are listed for macOS 12 or newer, Windows 10 or newer and Linux, with no mobile or web app.
- It has no cloud service of its own: files stay on the computer, with no built-in cloud synchronization.
- Citations draw on a library kept in an external reference manager such as Zotero, JabRef or Juris-M.
- Grammar and style checking beyond the spellchecker relies on connecting LanguageTool.
Key features
MarkText
- Real-time preview
- Markdown is rendered in place as it is typed, in a single pane with no split view. A source code mode shows the raw Markdown when full control is needed.
- Extended Markdown
- Supports the CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown specs, plus tables, footnotes, KaTeX math, syntax-highlighted code blocks and YAML, TOML or JSON front matter.
- Diagrams
- Flowcharts and charts written in Mermaid, Vega or Vega-Lite are drawn inside the document.
- Themes
- Ships with 33 built-in light and dark themes. Each theme is plain CSS, so one can be copied and adjusted or replaced with a custom stylesheet.
- Focus and typewriter modes
- Focus mode dims everything except the line being written, and typewriter mode keeps that line centered in the window.
- PDF and HTML export
- Exports a document to PDF or to a self-contained HTML file with the chosen theme applied.
Zettlr
- Citations from a reference manager
- Loads a library from Zotero, JabRef or Juris-M, previews citations in the text and formats them in any of more than 9,000 citation styles.
- Export profiles with Pandoc
- A profile pairs an export format with a template, so a paper can be exported for a journal or conference in one click. Beamer, reveal.js and PowerPoint slides are supported too.
- Zettelkasten tools
- Supports note IDs, wiki-style links between notes, related files and a graph view for building a personal knowledge base.
- Adjustable Markdown rendering
- The editor can show anything from raw Markdown to rich text. LaTeX math and Mermaid charts render inline, and the look can be changed with custom CSS.
- Spelling, grammar and style checks
- Includes a spellchecker and a Markdown linter, and can connect to LanguageTool for grammar and style checking.
- Projects, snippets and statistics
- Project support groups the files of a longer work, snippets insert reusable text with variables and tab stops, and writing statistics track progress.
Plans
MarkText
Free$0
The complete editor for macOS, Windows and Linux, with every feature and theme included and no account required.
Zettlr
Free$0
The full editor for Windows, macOS and Linux, free and open source, with optional donations to support development.
