Opal Editor
Ranked 8 of 13 markdown editors by recommenders
Free, local-first markdown editor with Git version control and static site publishing, with no backend or sign-up required.
Free, local-first markdown editor with Git version control and static site publishing, with no backend or sign-up required.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 64%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 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
Local-first, no backend required
“feature rich, static publishing, version control, local first, no backend required, free, open and no sign ups”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Show HN: Files.md – open-source alternative to Obsidian” “offline-ready, Git-aware, with complete self-custody and zero backend dependencies”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (January 2026)” “a local first open source free markdown editor with these same principles”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Grid: Forever free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer” Free and open source
“feature rich, static publishing, version control, local first, no backend required, free, open and no sign ups”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Show HN: Files.md – open-source alternative to Obsidian” “a local first open source free markdown editor with these same principles”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Grid: Forever free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer” Git-aware version control
“feature rich, static publishing, version control, local first, no backend required, free, open and no sign ups”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Show HN: Files.md – open-source alternative to Obsidian” “offline-ready, Git-aware, with complete self-custody and zero backend dependencies”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (January 2026)”
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 | — | — |
| Opal EditorThis page | 9 | 5 | 64% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
24 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Some of us now have to deal with tools like Boomi, Workato, Opal, Sitecore AI, Power Platform”
“Look at rack, ruby-wasm, ruby-opal and many other projects.”
“they really helped limit my screen time and I've been able to transition away from having to use them”
“Which works great but frustratingly it blocks my legitimate needs very often too!”
“I rather use orchestration engines like Langflow, Opal, workato”
“Same with opal and ruby-wasm.”
“feature rich, static publishing, version control, local first, no backend required, free, open and no sign ups”
“it works really well on MacOS as an MCP using the Apple container cli”
“Something I did in my markdown editor project”
“It's very nice, but I see why TypeScript is a popular choice.”
“products like SharePoint, Sitecore, Optimizely, Dynamics 365, Four51”
“It works quite well. The only problem I've faced is getting it to break down tasks using the tool consistently.”
“even popular ones such as rack, ruby-wasm or ruby opal; horrible quality”
“a local first open source free markdown editor with these same principles”
“let us not be to limited by what it is today, and think of what it could be tomorrow”
“Some of the of ui/ux currently is very targeted towards desktop, for instance drag and drop.”
“unfortunately I can't open the document/I don't know how to create a new one.”
“offline-ready, Git-aware, with complete self-custody and zero backend dependencies”
“please look at opal, ruby-wasm or rack - the documentation there is virtually NOT EXISTING”
“Look at rack, opal, wasm for ruby”
“very high abstractions in CMS like Sitecore and Optimizely, where they come with their own approach”
“contending to be a free obsidian alternative”
“Some of those tools aren't yet fully there”
“Look at ruby webassembly/wasm or ruby opal. Their documentation is about 99% useless.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.