Ghostwriter vs MarkText
Ghostwriter
ghostwriter.kde.orgMarkText
marktext.meSide by side
| Figure | Ghostwriter | MarkText |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Text App | 8.4 (#6) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Spec score · Markdown editors | 8.4 (#9) | 8.5 (#6) |
| Export | The project site lists Pandoc, MultiMarkdown, and commonmark for export to multiple formats. | The site says documents can be exported as PDF or self-contained HTML. |
| Export formats | HTML,Pandoc,MultiMarkdown,commonmark | basic |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| License | The project site says ghostwriter is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. | The homepage identifies MarkText as free and open source under the MIT License. |
| Local file support | Yes | Yes |
| Markdown flavor | github_flavored | custom |
| Supported platforms | Windows,Linux,macOS | Downloads are offered for macOS, Windows and Linux. |
| Themes | It includes light and dark themes and lets users create their own themes. | MarkText includes 33 built-in light and dark themes, and themes can be customized with CSS. |
Plans
In their own words
Ghostwriter
Ghostwriter is a free Markdown text editor for distraction-free writing, available on Linux and Windows, with unofficial community-provided macOS support. It stores documents as local files and previews Markdown as HTML, which can be copied or exported. GitHub-flavored Markdown is supported, and export options include HTML, Pandoc, MultiMarkdown, and commonmark. Focus Mode highlights a selected area around the cursor, such as a line, sentence, paragraph, or three lines. Full-screen mode and Hemingway Mode provide other writing setups; Hemingway Mode disables backspace and delete. The editor includes light and dark themes, with options to create custom themes. Writers also get live word counts, document and session statistics, a document outline, autosave, and file backups. Linux installation instructions cover Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch Linux. The Windows download page lists a portable 64-bit version for Windows 10. On macOS, users must compile the source because an installer is not available. Ghostwriter is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3.0.
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.