FocusWriter vs MarkText
FocusWriter
gottcode.orgMarkText
marktext.meSide by side
| Figure | FocusWriter | MarkText |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Text App | 8.7 (#3) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Spec score · Writing Apps | 8.0 (#71) | 7.9 (#80) |
| License | Version 1.9.1 was released July 23, 2026, under GPL version 3. | The homepage identifies MarkText as free and open source under the MIT License. |
| Privacy | Gott Code says it collects no personal data and does not share personal data. | The homepage says MarkText requires no account and has no tracking. |
| Support | The maker asks bug reporters to provide operating system details, reproduction steps, expected behavior, and what actually happened. | The homepage says the project is built by volunteers and invites users to sponsor development on GitHub. |
| Themes | Users can create themes controlling fonts, colors and background images. | MarkText includes 33 built-in light and dark themes, and themes can be customized with CSS. |
| Windows requirements | The current download is a Windows 10 x64 build of 55.2 MB and bundles Qt 6.11.1, Hunspell 1.7.3 and KDSingleApplication 1.2.1. | The repository installation notes require Windows 10 or 11 and provide x64 and arm64 installers. |
Plans
In their own words
FocusWriter
FocusWriter has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
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.