Software Alternatives & Reviews

FocusWriter VS MacDown

Compare FocusWriter VS MacDown and see what are their differences

FocusWriter logo FocusWriter

FocusWriter is a fullscreen, distraction-free word processor designed to immerse you as much as...

MacDown logo MacDown

MacDown is an open source Markdown editor for OS X, released under the MIT License.
  • FocusWriter Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18
  • MacDown Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

FocusWriter videos

Focuswriter Review

More videos:

  • Review - FocusWriter - App Reviews
  • Review - Writing Software - FocusWriter

MacDown videos

BARRAS DE CORTE DA MACDOWN | APRESENTANDO MODs | FS19

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to FocusWriter and MacDown)
Markdown Editor
64 64%
36% 36
Text Editors
59 59%
41% 41
Writing Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Markdown Viewer
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare FocusWriter and MacDown

FocusWriter Reviews

11 Best Scrivener Alternatives
Scrivener may be more complicated than FocusWriter, but if you want simplicity or minimalism, FocusWriter is worth considering. There are no elaborate formatting options or research notes to tinker around with so all you do is write.

MacDown Reviews

We have no reviews of MacDown yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, FocusWriter should be more popular than MacDown. It has been mentiond 25 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

FocusWriter mentions (25)

  • Ensō: write now, edit later
    Reminds me of the (dead) RoughDraft mac app by 43 Folders(?). There is also FocusWriter - opensource and multi-platform. https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • A collection of useful Mac Apps
    FocusWriter - Price: Free Distraction-free writing app for Mac that allows you to focus on your writing. Source: 10 months ago
  • What do you people write on?
    You can get it here: https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/. Source: 10 months ago
  • Is there an app to keep track of all the details when writing a story?
    Also, if you're kinda of an indie author, try Bibisco or Focuswriter. Source: 11 months ago
  • is there a computer that can only run word a processor
    If you have a spare laptop, I recommend just disabling the Internet altogether. But before then, install a program called FocusWriter - it goes full screen. Or instead of the spare computer idea, maybe create a new user account on your computer maybe called Writing, install FocusWriter and have it launch on startup, and disable that account's Internet. Source: 12 months ago
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MacDown mentions (7)

  • Epub rendering with Pandoc
    I write a LOT of documentation in Markdown for $DAYJOB. I normally use Marked2 (not free, but I paid for my license 7-8 years ago) or MacDown (free) to preview them, and to export them to PDF. Both of these programs are specific to macOS, but a web search for "markdown editor" turns up a few dozen others, for other platforms. Most of these will have an "export to PDF" function built into them. Source: 5 months ago
  • Good Free Application For Reading `.md` Files On Mac Pro
    MacDown is free, open source and super simple. Has been my go-to Markdown editor for years. Highly recommend. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Is there any beautiful Markdown editor?
    Macdown: https://macdown.uranusjr.com/ And here's a huge list: https://github.com/mundimark/awesome-markdown-editors. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • High probability of conversion issues from PDF to Epub
    So I convert the PDF to Markdown format. Then I use my Markdown editor of choice, Macdown, to clean up the text and then convert the resulting document into the format that I want. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Markdown editor's with a toolbar?
    If you're talking about buttons to help you style your text so you don't have to remember the syntax, then MacDown will have you covered. Source: over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing FocusWriter and MacDown, you can also consider the following products

Scrivener - Scrivener is a content-generation tool for composing and structuring documents.

Typora - A minimal Markdown reading & writing app.

iA Writer - Minimal Design, Maximum Focus

Markdown by DaringFireball - Text-to-HTML conversion tool/syntax for web writers, by John Gruber

StackEdit - Full-featured, open-source Markdown editor based on PageDown, the Markdown library used by Stack Overflow and the other Stack Exchange sites.

WriteMonkey - Software for full screen distraction free creative writing. No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times.