The best free markdown notes app in 2026 (honestly)

We tested eight. Most are fine. Two are great. One is built for people who write more than they organise.

This is a working list. We use these apps. We've moved between them. We made one of them, so we'll declare the bias up front and try to be fair to the rest.

What we tested for

Five jobs a notes app should do without you thinking about it:

1. Open fast. Cold start to first keystroke under two seconds.
2. Write in markdown. Bold, italic, lists, headings, links, code. Without learning a custom flavour.
3. Find old notes. Search, tags, or both.
4. Move between devices. Phone, laptop, work computer.
5. Get out cleanly. Export to plain markdown. No vendor wall.

The eight we tested

• Obsidian. Local-first, plugin-rich, free for personal use.
• Notion. Freemium, workspace platform.
• Bear. Apple-only, free tier limited.
• Joplin. Open source, sync via Dropbox or its own server.
• Logseq. Outliner, local-first, free.
• StackEdit. Browser markdown editor, free.
• HackMD. Collaborative markdown, freemium.
• Notiero. Us. Browser-based, no signup, free.

Quick verdicts

Obsidian

Still the standard for serious personal wikis. Local files, every plugin you could want, beautiful graph view. Downside: a 200 MB install and a vault folder you have to think about. Sync costs money or means rigging up Syncthing. Worth it if you write thousands of atomic notes. Overkill if you write five a day.

Notion

Excellent for teams. The block editor is genuinely good. Databases are a real feature. Downside: not really a markdown app. It exports to markdown, but the editor isn't markdown-native. Also wants an account before you do anything. Pick Notion if you're building a team wiki.

Bear

The prettiest app on this list. Tagging is excellent. The free tier doesn't sync, which is the whole problem. And it's Apple-only. If you live on macOS and iOS and pay $30/year, Bear is lovely.

Joplin

Open source, fully free, syncs via your own cloud. Editor is functional. UI shows its age. Setup involves picking a sync target and wiring it. Great for the privacy-first crowd who don't mind some friction.

Logseq

Outliner-first. Every line is a bullet. If you think in bullets, this fits your brain. If you think in paragraphs, it'll feel constraining. Local-first, free, open source. Niche but loved.

StackEdit

Pure browser markdown editor. Real markdown, syncs to Google Drive or Dropbox. The UI hasn't moved much in years. Works. Looks like 2015. Fine for one-off documents, less good as a daily driver.

HackMD

Built for collaborative markdown docs. Real-time co-editing. Great for engineering teams writing RFCs together. Free tier is limited. Private notes cap fast. Not a personal-notes tool.

Notiero (us)

Browser-based. No install, no signup to start. Real markdown. Tags. Backlinks via [[. 24 themes plus custom background. Right click a note to turn it into flashcards or a quick quiz, built from that note only. Optional sign-in if you want sync to phone. Free. The catch: no plugins, no graph view, no team features. We made a quiet writing tool, not a workspace platform.

The summary table

Who should pick what

• Power user, will tinker: Obsidian.
• Team wiki: Notion.
• Lives on Apple, will pay: Bear.
• Privacy first, OK with setup: Joplin.
• Thinks in bullets: Logseq.
• Want a quick markdown editor in a browser tab: StackEdit or Notiero.
• Team writing docs together: HackMD.
• Want to write a note in the next ten seconds and not think about it: Notiero.

What changed our minds in 2026

Two things, looking at this list a year on:

First, the install cost matters more than the feature list. The note you don't write because you couldn't be bothered to open the app is the most expensive kind. Browser-based notes apps stopped being a compromise this year.

Second, signup walls are quietly out of fashion. People bounce. The apps growing fastest are the ones that let you do the thing first and ask for the account later.

Common questions

Is Notion a markdown app?

No, Notion uses a block-based editor, not a markdown editor. Notion can export to markdown and supports some markdown shortcuts during typing, but the underlying format isn't markdown. If you want a true markdown app, pick Obsidian, Notiero, HackMD, Joplin, Bear, or Logseq instead.

Which markdown notes app works in a browser without installing?

Three apps in our test work without install: Notiero, StackEdit, and HackMD. Notiero and StackEdit work without signup (visit the URL). HackMD requires an account. Of these, Notiero is the only one with tags and backlinks. StackEdit is purely a markdown editor for single documents.

Can I take notes offline with these apps?

Obsidian, Bear, Joplin, and Logseq are local-first desktop apps. They're offline by default. Notiero is a PWA that works offline after the first visit. StackEdit and HackMD require online access (with limited offline caching). Notion has patchy offline support.

Are these apps actually free?

Notiero, Obsidian (personal use), Joplin, Logseq, and StackEdit are fully free. Notion has a free tier but caps pages on team plans. Bear's free tier doesn't sync. Sync requires a $30/year subscription. HackMD's free tier caps private notes. Free sync is rare. Notiero and Joplin (with your own cloud) are the exceptions.