Zettlr
Shares rank 9 of 13 markdown editors by recommenders
Free Markdown editor people switch to from Obsidian and enjoy; the most common caveat is crashing when Markdown changes behind the scenes.
Free Markdown editor people switch to from Obsidian and enjoy; the most common caveat is crashing when Markdown changes behind the scenes.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not 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: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Preferred over previous editors
“I recently switched from Obsidian to Zettlr due to some rendering and performance issues on Linux, and it's been a great experience.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “I switched to Zettlr last year and I like it much better.”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline” Great overall experience
“I recently switched from Obsidian to Zettlr due to some rendering and performance issues on Linux, and it's been a great experience.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering” “it's been a great experience”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Ferrite – Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Crashes when Markdown changes behind the scenes
“I really like Zettlr, but I find it is always crashing when markdown changes behind the scenes”
Comment from 23 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Tolaria – open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases”
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 | — | — |
| ZettlrThis page | 8 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I really like Zettlr, but I find it is always crashing when markdown changes behind the scenes”
“If you want a good editor for that have a look at”
“I switched to Zettlr last year and I like it much better.”
“If you really want a good markdown editor better have a look at”
“it's been a great experience”
“I recently switched from Obsidian to Zettlr due to some rendering and performance issues on Linux, and it's been a great experience.”
“I do pay for others like zettlr”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.