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StackEdit Markdown Online Editor (& simple client-side wordprocessor)

Text Related

Free
No Download/Install required
No registration

StackEdit is a sophisticated, open-source Markdown editor designed to provide a professional-grade word processing experience entirely within a web browser. It features a robust toolkit that includes

a real-time side-by-side preview,
support for LaTeX mathematical expressions,
Mermaid diagrams,
syntax highlighting for code,

making it an ideal choice for both technical documentation and simple online creative writing.

The primary benefit of StackEdit is its “local-first” architecture; it performs all text rendering and processing client-side, ensuring that your data remains in the browser’s local storage and is never sent to a server without your explicit command. This combination of high-end typography tools, offline functionality, and a privacy-centric design allows users to create formatted documents without the overhead or data-tracking risks of traditional cloud-based office suites, and is as such an install-free and privacy-first simple word processor.

Note: if you do not use the pdf generation, all shall be done on your browser (ie no entered information is transmitted).

Technical Tip: to verify “No info to the server,” you can open your browser’s Developer Tools (F12), go to the Network tab, and watch for any “XHR” or “Fetch” requests. Do verify 0 activity once the page has finished loading.

Disciplines: Technical writing, Software engineering, Journalism, Education.

Free alternative to Typora, Notion, Obsidian, Microsoft Word.

StackEdit compared with Typora, Notion, Obsidian and Microsoft Word
StackEdit	Typora	Notion	Obsidian	Microsoft Word
Licence and cost: StackEdit is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence and free to use in the browser.	Licence and cost: Typora is paid software with a 15-day free trial and use on up to 3 devices.	Licence and cost: Notion has a free plan for individuals. Paid plans (Plus and Business) are per-seat subscriptions.	Licence and cost: The Obsidian core app is free, including personal use. A commercial per-seat licence is available, requested for organizations but not required.	Licence and cost: Word for the web is free. The Windows and Mac apps require a Microsoft 365 subscription, with a Personal plan available.
Platform and offline work: StackEdit runs in the browser and works offline. A Helm chart is provided for self-hosting on Kubernetes.	Platform and offline work: Typora runs on macOS, Windows 10 and 11, and Linux as a desktop application.			Platform and offline work: Word runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and the web.
Math and diagrams: StackEdit supports LaTeX math, UML sequence diagrams and flowcharts.	Math and diagrams: Typora renders math with MathJax including mhchem for chemical equations, plus flowchart.js, Mermaid and sequence diagrams.
Data location and sync: StackEdit syncs files with Google Drive, Dropbox and GitHub, and can publish to Blogger, WordPress and Zendesk.			Data location and sync: Obsidian keeps data on the device and its apps collect no telemetry. Sync is a paid per-seat add-on, billed annually.	Data location and sync: The free web plan includes 5 GB of cloud storage.

Topics covered: Markdown, open-source, client-side, word processing, real-time preview, LaTeX, Mermaid diagrams, syntax highlighting, technical documentation, local-first architecture, offline functionality, privacy-centric design, formatted documents, data-tracking, cloud-based, Developer Tools, XHR, Fetch ISO/IEC 30170, ISO/IEC 24752, ISO 8601, IEEE 80211, and W3C Recommendation..

Privacy: we have no feedback of potential problem with this tool and author. But like many online services, you are here providing them with your own data. Depending of the criticity of your data, this is your responsibility to assess author's reputation and potential misusage, and to check and accept their terms and conditions, or not.