The best markup languages, according to hackers
9 markup languages were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 6 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended markup languages with the badge. Each figure is 10 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Readable as raw plain text
A lightweight markup that reads cleanly as plain text, is easy to write and is widely supported, though critics cite incompatible flavors and limits for complex documents.
Richer than Markdown for long documents
Standardized plain-text markup, richer than Markdown for long documents and books. Critics find its syntax complex, quirky and hard to control.
Stricter, saner take on Markdown
Recommended as a stricter, saner alternative to Markdown with a well-designed, extensible syntax. Common caveat: nested lists need blank lines, and critics note it lacks a formal specification.
All 9 markup languages, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Markdown | 155 | 73 | 68% | 12 | 10 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| 2 | AsciiDoc | 38 | 11 | 78% | 12 | — | Approved |
| 3 | Djot | 21 | 4 | 84% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tied 4 | reStructuredText | 19 | 9 | 68% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 4 | Quarkdown | 19 | 8 | 70% | 3 | — | — |
| 6 | Textile | 11 | 2 | 85% | 5 | — | Approved |
| 7 | MDV | 10 | 4 | 71% | 4 | — | Approved |
| 8 | AsciiMath | 9 | 5 | 64% | 2 | — | — |
| 9 | Papermill Press | 7 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same markup language in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to markup languages that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
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