markdown-mode for Emacs
Shares rank 11 of 13 markdown editors by recommenders
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.
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.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 3 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: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 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
Well regarded general Markdown editor
“one of the best Markdown editors I've used”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “How Markdown Took over the World” “Emacs’es markdown-mode is pretty good.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “The Emacsification of Software”
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 | — | — |
| markdown-mode for EmacsThis page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's easier to build structurally-aware features, and it automatically supports any minor mode that's enabled by treesitter”
“Regular markdown-mode also highlights everything, hides markup if you like, cycles section visibility if you like”
“Emacs’es markdown-mode is pretty good.”
“It doesn’t. And that disqualifies it from real world use to me, sadly.”
“I would have loved more consistency, and often end up typing the syntax instead of tripping up keybindings”
“the fact that both modes use the same easy-to-remember shortcut is a major win”
“one of the best Markdown editors I've used”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.