# markdown-mode for Emacs

5 Hacker News commenters recommended markdown-mode for Emacs and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free Emacs mode for editing Markdown, praised for highlighting, hiding markup, and folding sections. One critic finds its keybindings inconsistent and prefers typing the syntax.

## Why people recommend it

- Well regarded general Markdown editor (2 comments): "one of the best Markdown editors I've used" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46566597)) "Emacs’es markdown-mode is pretty good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48125925))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [SmallDocs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/smalldocs.md): 21 recommend
- [OpenKnowledge](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openknowledge.md): 20 recommend
- [Typora](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typora.md): 19 recommend
- [Margin Markdown editor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/markdown-editor-for-mac-ios-and-web.md): 15 recommend
- [iA Writer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ia-writer.md): 14 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "markdown-mode for Emacs", https://hackerapproved.com/p/markdown-mode/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).