Snarkdown VS ShowdownJS

Snarkdown

The super fast, 1kb Markdown parser in JavaScript

ShowdownJS

A Markdown to HTML converter written in JavaScript

Landing page //
2022-11-02

Landing page //
2023-08-04

Snarkdown features and specs

Lightweight
Snarkdown is extremely lightweight compared to other Markdown parsers, with a size of around 1KB when minified. This makes it ideal for situations where minimal overhead is essential.
Simplicity
The library focuses on parsing only the basic Markdown syntax, making it straightforward and reducing complexity for developers who do not require advanced features.
Performance
Due to its small size and simplified functionality, Snarkdown offers high performance, processing Markdown to HTML quickly and efficiently.
Ease of Use
Snarkdown is simple to integrate into projects. With minimal setup required, it offers a quick way to add Markdown parsing capabilities.

Possible disadvantages of Snarkdown

Limited Features
Snarkdown supports a basic subset of Markdown features, which may not be sufficient for users needing more advanced Markdown syntax support like tables or custom attributes.
Lack of Extensibility
The parser is not designed to be extensible, limiting users' ability to add custom Markdown features or plugins.
Basic Security
Like many Markdown parsers, Snarkdown does not perform extensive sanitization, so users need to implement additional security measures to protect against XSS attacks.
No Update Frequency
With a minimalist design and focus, Snarkdown may not be as frequently updated or maintained as larger, more feature-rich projects, which can lead to potential stagnation in improvements or support.

ShowdownJS features and specs

Open Source
ShowdownJS is open source and freely available under the MIT license, allowing for modification and distribution.
Wide Compatibility
It can be used in both the browser and server-side environments, making it versatile for various projects.
Active Community
The project has an active community and regular updates, which contribute to stability and ongoing support.
Extensive Documentation
ShowdownJS provides comprehensive documentation, making it easier for developers to understand and implement.
Customizable
It offers a wide range of extensions and options, allowing users to customize the behavior to suit their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of ShowdownJS

Performance
For very large documents, performance may not be as high compared to some other specialized Markdown parsers.
Learning Curve
Although documentation is available, new users might need some time to fully understand how to leverage all features.
Dependency Management
In projects where minimizing dependencies is important, adding another library might be a concern.
Feature Parity
While ShowdownJS supports many Markdown features, some advanced or niche features might not be covered.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Snarkdown and ShowdownJS)

ShowdownJS

Competitive Intelligence

43 43%

Competitive Intelligence

57% 57

SEO

48 48%

SEO

52% 52

Data Profiling

44 44%

Data Profiling

56% 56

SEO Tools

100 100%

SEO Tools

0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Snarkdown and ShowdownJS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ShowdownJS should be more popular than Snarkdown. It has been mentiond 9 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.

Snarkdown mentions (1)

How I reduced Raveberry's transferred frontend code by 90%
Analyzing these dependencies, I found that some of them could be reduced or replaced. For example, jquery-ui is used for autocompletion and reordering. All additional widgets provided by jquery-ui (e.g. sliders, datepickers) are dead weight and can be excluded from the final bundle. Another example is marked, which was used to render the changelog. However, the changelog has a very simple structure and does not... Source: about 4 years ago

ShowdownJS mentions (9)

How do I display a markdown table on a website with go backend?
So you're going to need a Markdown parser that produces HTML. But there's a question of where is the data coming from and where you you want to process it? If it's going to be all on the frontend like a text editor, use a JS library for it (a quick google search produces ShowdownJS). Source: over 2 years ago
Docusaurus first impression and stealing like an open sourcer
Previously, I was required to implement the markdown support manually which meant that the use of public libraries was prohibited. My tool could only support limited styling elements such as header1, header2, links, bold and italics, but now I can finally let my tool have a full markdown support by using Showdown. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
I made a full-stack portfolio site using Next.js and Tailwind!
The first two ages are very heavy on content so I decided to use markdown and tailwind’s typography plugin for styling. I also used showdown to fetch the markdown and turn it into HTML. The code for the above can be found on the site’s GitHub repository. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
Working on a no-code data notebook. You can quickly pull data from platforms like Stripe and do complex analysis without writing SQL, all within a Notion-style interface. Thoughts?
I'm using https://github.com/showdownjs/showdown for the core rendering-markdown functionality, with a bunch of additional listeners etc on top of it to fit it into the notion-style UX! Hope that helps :). Source: over 2 years ago
Markdown-Tag: Add Markdown to any HTML using a <md> tag
It looks like it uses showdown as the engine. Source: almost 3 years ago