The best free Markdown editor for Mac (2026)
The best free Markdown editor for Mac depends on how you like to write. For a true render-as-you-type experience, Constly shows formatting in place and stays free forever. For a classic split-pane preview, MacDown. For a plain-text source editor, MarkEdit. For linked notes, Obsidian. Every pick below is genuinely free on macOS — no trial that expires, no watermark, no account.
Full disclosure up front: we make Constly. So take our #1 with the appropriate pinch of salt — but the list is honest, and the other four are genuinely good free tools we’d happily recommend.
What “free” should actually mean
“Free” gets stretched. A 15-day trial isn’t free; a free tier with watermarked exports isn’t really free either. For this list, free means: you can write, save, and export forever without paying, without a feature wall, and without your documents carrying a “made with…” stamp.
That’s why Typora isn’t on this list — it’s a fine editor, but after a 15-day trial it’s a one-time $14.99. If you specifically want a free stand-in for it, we wrote a whole post on free Typora alternatives for Mac.
The five best free Markdown editors for Mac
1. Constly — free WYSIWYG that renders as you type
Constly renders the Markdown away as you type — write **bold** and the asterisks melt the moment your cursor leaves, then return in place when you click back in. Tables become editable grids, math and Mermaid diagrams render inline, and it never rewrites a byte you didn’t touch, so git diff stays honest.
It’s free to use on macOS with no expiry and no watermark; a one-time $19.99 license is an optional, gentle nudge after two weeks. Native (Rust core), private by default, and it exports to PDF, Word, HTML, EPUB and more.
2. MacDown — the classic split-pane preview
MacDown is a free, open-source, Mac-only editor with the traditional layout: Markdown source on the left, rendered preview on the right. It’s lightweight and familiar. You’re always looking at raw Markdown rather than a formatted page, which some people prefer.
3. MarkEdit — a plain-text Markdown source editor
MarkEdit is free and open-source — think of it as TextEdit, but built for Markdown. It’s a clean source editor with syntax highlighting rather than a live-rendered view. Great if you want something minimal and native that stays out of the way.
4. Obsidian — free for linked notes
Obsidian is free for personal use and stores everything as local .md files. It’s less a single-document editor and more a knowledge base: [[wiki-links]], backlinks, and a graph view. If you’re building a connected vault of notes rather than editing one document at a time, it’s excellent — just a different tool for a different job.
5. VS Code — free, if you already live in an editor
If you’re a developer, VS Code is free and already open. With the built-in Markdown preview (and an extension or two) it’s a perfectly capable Markdown environment. It’s a code editor first, though — not a writing app.
Free Mac Markdown editors, compared
| Editor | Price | Experience | Export | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constly | Free ($19.99 optional) | Inline WYSIWYG | PDF, Word, HTML, EPUB… | Writers who want it to look done |
| MacDown | Free (open source) | Split-pane preview | HTML, PDF | Fans of raw + preview side by side |
| MarkEdit | Free (open source) | Source editor | — | Minimal, native plain-text editing |
| Obsidian | Free (personal) | Linked notes | PDF, more via plugins | Building a connected note vault |
| VS Code | Free | Source + preview pane | Via extensions | Developers already in the editor |
Which should you pick?
If you want writing to feel finished as you go — formatting rendered in place, tables you can click into, files that stay byte-for-byte yours — start with Constly. If you’d rather stare at raw Markdown next to a preview, MacDown. If you want the lightest possible native editor, MarkEdit. And if your notes are really a web of linked ideas, Obsidian.
Whichever you choose, the good news is you don’t have to pay to write Markdown well on a Mac. Next up: how to turn any of these into a PDF.