Dillinger vs Muesli

Dillinger is a free web-based Markdown editor with live preview, cloud sync, and no signup requirement. Its Monaco editor includes syntax highlighting, multiple cursors, find and replace, and autocompletion. A side-by-side preview renders Markdown as you type and keeps scrolling aligned with the editor. Documents can be imported by drag and drop and exported as Markdown, styled HTML, or PDF. Dillinger also imports and saves files through GitHub, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Bitbucket; GitHub support covers public and private repositories and lets users save edits back. After the initial load, the editor works offline and keeps drafts in local storage, although cloud sync requires connectivity. Other options include dark mode, fullscreen Zen mode, and Vim and Emacs keybindings. The site describes use by developers, technical writers, and AI builders writing READMEs, documentation, blog posts, and LLM prompts. Documents save automatically in the browser, and the features page says data is not stored on Dillinger’s servers. The Free plan is free, with no signup, paywall, or usage limits.

Muesli is a free, real-time collaborative Markdown editor for teams and AI agents working in the same plain .md file. Collaborators can see live cursors and presence, discuss material in comment threads, submit tracked suggestions, and use append-only history with snapshots. Editing tools include inline preview, a source toggle, KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, editable tables and callouts, wikilinks, and backlinks. Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, and Gemini CLI can work through MCP or edit the file directly. When a human is present in a document, agent edits become suggestions for review. Guest links can grant viewer, commenter, or editor access without requiring accounts. Storage choices include local files, S3-compatible services, GitHub, Gitea, Forgejo, and Google Drive. Muesli is available on the web, Windows, macOS, Linux, and as a self-hosted service, and is open source under AGPL-3.0. Self-hosting uses one Docker image, but durable documents and history require Postgres and Redis. The hosted service says document contents remain in user-chosen storage and are not read, mined, or used for training.