Glow
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 5 markdown viewers
Recommended as a good terminal markdown viewer with customizable themes. Common caveat: it lacks search, a table of contents, and math equation support.
Recommended as a good terminal markdown viewer with customizable themes. Common caveat: it lacks search, a table of contents, and math equation support.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 78%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Good terminal markdown viewer
“If you're looking for a CLI markdown reader then I'd recommend glow.”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Plugins case study: mdBook preprocessors” “Glow is also an excellent markdown viewer for the terminal”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: leaf – a terminal Markdown previewer with a GUI-like experience” “I also thought Glow was really excellent, but that's me.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Netflix spent over $135B on film, TV over last decade” - Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Markdown CLI viewer with VI keybindings”
- Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “How Markdown Took over the World”
General-purpose markdown renderer option
“For anyone looking for a more general renderer”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Beautiful Markdown rendering in your terminal” “or just use glow which is golang.”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: leaf – a terminal Markdown previewer with a GUI-like experience” “and/or a renderer (like glow)”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “The terminal of the future”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Missing features like search and math
“the more I used it, the more I found myself wanting features like a persistent TOC, search, watch mode, and mouse support”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Leaf Makes Markdown Readable Inside the Terminal” “glow doesn't do math equations”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: leaf – a terminal Markdown previewer with a GUI-like experience” Outperformed by other viewers
“glow - the most popular cli renderer, was about 100x slower and used about 100x more RAM”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Tiny Markdown CLI renderer – Streaming, 10x faster, 2MB flat RAM” “I like the results better than glow, bat and a few other viewers.”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “How Markdown Took over the World”
Other markdown viewers people recommend
The four most recommended other markdown viewers, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GlowThis page | 18 | 5 | 78% | 9 | — | Approved |
| leaf Markdown viewer | 7 | 2 | 78% | 4 | — | — |
| Marky | 6 | 3 | 67% | 2 | — | — |
| Marked | 5 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Markdown Viewer and Editor | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
16 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's pretty nice, and you can customize the theme.”
“For anyone looking for a more general renderer”
“glow - the most popular cli renderer, was about 100x slower and used about 100x more RAM”
“the more I used it, the more I found myself wanting features like a persistent TOC, search, watch mode, and mouse support”
“I also thought Glow was really excellent, but that's me.”
“or just use glow which is golang.”
“glow doesn't do math equations”
“Glow is also an excellent markdown viewer for the terminal”
“glow isn't maintained and has bugs so I wouldn't hold it up as anything other than abandonware”
“Here's the one I use a lot”
“Glow is pretty great and has been around for a while”
“I like the results better than glow, bat and a few other viewers.”
“pretty handy terminal mardown viewer”
“looks like a nice UX improvement”
“If you're looking for a CLI markdown reader then I'd recommend glow.”
“and/or a renderer (like glow)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.