Dabble vs MarkText
Dabble
dabblewriter.comMarkText
marktext.meSide by side
| Figure | Dabble | MarkText |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $19/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 1 |
| Spec score · Text App | 9.0 (#2) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Spec score · Writing Apps | 8.6 (#29) | 7.9 (#80) |
| Audience | Dabble says it is designed for novel writers ranging from first-time hobbyists to professional authors. | The homepage describes MarkText as a desktop Markdown editor for writing with real-time rendering and minimal distractions. |
| Export formats | extensive | basic |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile apps | Yes | No |
| Product | Dabble is a writing tool designed for aspiring and seasoned fiction authors, especially novelists. | MarkText is a real-time Markdown editor that renders formatting as you type. |
| Publishing tools | Yes | Yes |
| Support | Support is available by email and live chat, with help documents and bug reporting also offered. | The homepage says the project is built by volunteers and invites users to sponsor development on GitHub. |
Plans
Dabble
- Writer$19 a month
- Author$29 a month
- Bestseller$49 a month
- Lifetime Author Access$699 a month
- Lifetime Author Access$699, paid once
In their own words
Dabble
Dabble is a fiction-writing tool aimed especially at novelists, from first-time hobbyists to professional authors. Its Plot Grid organizes plot lines, plot points, and labels, alongside character profiles and worldbuilding tools. The editor includes scene organization, focus mode, daily word-count goals, and auto-numbered chapters. For editing, it offers sticky notes, comments, highlights, and built-in grammar and style checks. Co-authors can work together on a manuscript in real time. Dabble says it provides automatic cloud backup and sync, along with regular online and offline backups. Projects can be exported to the web, Word, and Google Docs; a NaNoWriMo word tracker is included. It runs in a browser and has Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android availability. There is no free plan, though a 14-day trial is listed. Writer costs $19 a month, Author $29 a month, and Bestseller $49 a month. After a subscription ends, manuscripts and notes remain viewable and exportable but become read-only.
MarkText
MarkText is a free, open-source desktop Markdown editor that displays formatted text as you write. It offers WYSIWYG preview and source-code editing, plus focus and typewriter modes. Writing features include tables, KaTeX math, diagrams, footnotes, code highlighting, and YAML, TOML, and JSON front matter. Listed diagram tools include Mermaid, Vega, and Vega-Lite. The editor has 33 light and dark themes, with CSS customization available. Documents can be exported as PDF or self-contained HTML, and local files are supported. MarkText runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Installation notes require macOS 11 or later and Windows 10 or 11, and provide arm64 and x64 installers for those systems. Homebrew, Chocolatey, and Winget are also listed as installation options. The homepage says MarkText needs no account and has no tracking. It is released under the MIT License, has no subscription, and is described as a volunteer-built project.