Ferrite Markdown editor
Shares rank 5 of 13 markdown editors by recommenders
Fast, native, offline Markdown editor with instant startup and built-in Mermaid rendering. Main caveat: code is 100% AI-generated.
Fast, native, offline Markdown editor with instant startup and built-in Mermaid rendering. Main caveat: code is 100% AI-generated.
20 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast native performance and instant startup
“Ferrite offers instant startup, lower RAM, and native performance”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “The native performance angle is the differentiator”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “Native Rust/egui, instant startup, no Electron”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” - Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering”
- Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering”
Native Mermaid and structured data viewers
“Ferrite aims for similar polish but with native Mermaid, structured data support (JSON/YAML/TOML tree viewer), and the pipeline feature for shell integration.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “Ferrite's Mermaid rendering is 100% native Rust, no JavaScript, no external services, no network calls.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “We also support JSON, YAML, and TOML with native tree viewers.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” Works fully offline, no network calls
“Ferrite's Mermaid rendering is 100% native Rust, no JavaScript, no external services, no network calls.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “Ferrite is privacy-focused in that it's fully offline”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” Native Rust build, no Electron
“excited to see a potential player written in my tech stack”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “Native Rust/egui, instant startup, no Electron”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
AI-generated code, very few commits
“This project is 100% AI-generated code.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “I missed this disclaimer about it being 100% AI-generated.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “That deflates the last of any excitement I had about this.”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” - Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering”
Other markdown editors people recommend
The four most recommended other markdown editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SmallDocs | 21 | 3 | 88% | 6 | — | Approved |
| OpenKnowledge | 20 | 10 | 67% | 2 | — | — |
| Typora | 19 | 6 | 76% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Margin Markdown editor | 15 | 2 | 88% | 3 | — | — |
| Ferrite Markdown editorThis page | 14 | 6 | 70% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
26 of the 31 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I see you care about it and plan investing the effort into it”
“That's dope. Congratulations on the fast turnaround”
“That deflates the last of any excitement I had about this.”
“the main feature Ferrite is currently lacking to be used for most (all?) applications where I use Typora”
“Native Rust/egui, instant startup, no Electron”
“The native performance angle is the differentiator”
“This project is 100% AI-generated code.”
“I missed this disclaimer about it being 100% AI-generated.”
“there's a very long way to go before it becomes Obsidian-ish”
“The one thing that prevents me from trying this out as a potential note-taking daily driver is the lack of support for LaTeX.”
“Ferrite offers instant startup, lower RAM, and native performance”
“Ferrite is privacy-focused in that it's fully offline”
“We also support JSON, YAML, and TOML with native tree viewers.”
“Ferrite's Mermaid rendering is 100% native Rust, no JavaScript, no external services, no network calls.”
“That's great! I'm pretty interested in that.”
“Much faster than spawning headless Chrome!”
“excited to see a potential player written in my tech stack”
“Instant startup vs seconds”
“For documents staying in Ferrite, it's great.”
“Ferrite aims for similar polish but with native Mermaid, structured data support (JSON/YAML/TOML tree viewer), and the pipeline feature for shell integration.”
“Doesn't install on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS due to dependecy problems.”
“It's vibe coded. The entire project is only 10 commits”
“it spawns a terminal on startup on Mac and is not WYSIWYG”
“native markdown rendering rather than relying on spawning chromium and taking screenshots”
“missing [[wikilinks]] and back references”
“Nice to see an egui project that doesn't have super obvious egui aesthetics.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.