What is MacDown?
MacDown is an open-source Markdown editor for macOS, written from scratch as a successor to Mou after Mou's author put it up for sale. It does the things that made Mou popular — a live preview beside the source, highly customisable Markdown rendering, syntax highlighting in fenced code blocks and sophisticated auto-completion — and it is MIT licensed and free. The problem is time: the last release is 0.7.3 from January 2020, the repository has had no pushes since July 2023, and it carries hundreds of open issues. It still runs, but it is a finished project rather than a maintained one.
Verified product facts
- Type
- Markdown editorEditorially reviewed
- Platform
- macOS
- Pricing
- Open sourceDeveloper-stated
- Open source
- Yes
- Developer
- uranusjrDeveloper-stated
- Relationship to Nuanyue
- Third-party product — not published by NuanyueEditorially reviewed
- Licence
- MIT
- Current version
- 0.7.3Developer-stated
- Official website
- macdown.uranusjr.com/
Last updated . Facts marked developer-stated come from the developer and are not independently confirmed; editorially reviewed marks a Nuanyue judgement.
Key features
What MacDown does at a glance.
Live preview of the rendered Markdown beside the source
Highly customisable Markdown rendering
Syntax highlighting
Inside fenced code blocks
Sophisticated auto-completion
Export to HTML and PDF
Alongside editing
MIT licensed
With the full text in the repository's LICENSE directory
Written in Objective-C as a native Mac application rather than an Electron shell
What you can use MacDown for
- Writing Markdown on a Mac with a live preview beside the text
- Producing an HTML or PDF file from a Markdown source without a build step
- Drafting documents with fenced code blocks that need syntax highlighting
Who is MacDown for?
- Anyone who wants a free, native Markdown editor with a live preview
- Users who remember Mou and want the editor written to replace it
- People comfortable running an application that will not be updated again
Who is MacDown not for?
- Anyone who needs a maintained editor — the last release was January 2020
- Users on Apple Silicon who need a confirmed native build; nothing states one
- People who need a published macOS requirement, since the site states none
Limitations
- The last release is 0.7.3, published 3 January 2020; the repository's most recent push was July 2023, and it carries several hundred open issues
- Neither the site nor the repository states a minimum macOS version
- Nothing states whether a native Apple Silicon build exists; 0.7.3 predates Apple Silicon entirely
- The repository's LICENSE path is a directory of per-component licence texts rather than a single file, which is why GitHub reports no licence for the repo
- Written in Objective-C with Xcode project files and CocoaPods dependencies, so building it from source now needs an old toolchain
Strengths and trade-offs
What MacDown does well, and what to weigh before choosing it. Points marked developer-stated come from the developer’s own material and have not been independently confirmed.
Strengths
- Free and open source under the MIT licence, with no paid tier or account.
- Live preview of the rendered Markdown beside the source, which is the feature people came to Mou for.
- Highly customisable Markdown rendering rather than a fixed pipeline.
- Syntax highlighting in fenced code blocks and sophisticated auto-completion.
Trade-offs
- No release since 0.7.3 in January 2020, and no repository activity since July 2023.
- Several hundred open issues with no maintainer activity to close them.
- No macOS requirement is published anywhere on the site or in the repository.
- 0.7.3 predates Apple Silicon by years, and nothing states a native build for it.Editorially reviewed
First-use experience
What the app asks of you when you set it up. Only established facts appear here; anything we could not confirm is left out rather than guessed at.
- Installation
- Download MacDown.app.zip from the GitHub releases page or the project site, unzip it and move MacDown into Applications. It is not notarised as a modern release would be, so Gatekeeper may object.
- First launch
- It opens with the source on one side and a live preview of the rendered Markdown on the other. Preferences control how the Markdown is rendered.
- System integration
- A self-contained native editor that works on files on disk; it does not need an account or a cloud service.
What it is
MacDown is an open-source Markdown editor for macOS, and it exists because of Mou. Its author liked Mou, used it daily, and when Mou’s developer announced he could not continue developing it and put the ownership up for sale, no suitable offer surfaced — so he started from scratch and spent some weekends building his own. That history is on the project’s own homepage, and it explains the design: MacDown deliberately mimics much of Mou’s behaviour, in interface and in logic, changing things only where he felt improvement was necessary.
What you get is a live preview of the rendered Markdown beside the source, highly customisable rendering, syntax highlighting in fenced code blocks, and sophisticated auto-completion. It is MIT licensed and free.
Why it is also a caution
The project has stopped. The last release is 0.7.3, published 3 January 2020. The repository received commits until July 2023 but has produced no release since, and it carries several hundred open issues. It is a finished piece of software rather than a maintained one.
Two consequences follow. Neither the site nor the repository states a minimum macOS version. And 0.7.3 predates Apple Silicon by years, so nothing in the project claims a native build for it — which is recorded here as unknown rather than assumed either way.
A small trap in the repository
GitHub reports no licence for MacDown. That is misleading. The repository’s
LICENSE path is a directory, not a file: it holds macdown.txt alongside
the licence texts of every bundled component (hoedown, libyaml, mermaid,
graphviz and the rest). GitHub’s detector only reads a LICENSE file, so it finds
nothing. The README is unambiguous that MacDown is released under the terms of
MIT License.
The same directory layout also means the project builds with an Xcode workspace and CocoaPods, so compiling it from source today needs a toolchain considerably older than the current one.
Release history
Dated releases recorded for MacDown, newest first, each with the source it was read from.
0.7.3
Last release published. The repository received commits until July 2023 but has had no release since.
Source: Source repository
Questions about MacDown
Is MacDown free?
Yes. It is open source under the MIT licence, with no paid tier, account or licence key.
Is MacDown still maintained?
No, not in any practical sense. The last release is 0.7.3 from 3 January 2020, the repository's most recent push was in July 2023, and it carries several hundred open issues.
Which macOS version does MacDown need?
Not stated. Neither the project site nor the repository publishes a minimum macOS version, so none is recorded here.
Does MacDown run on Apple Silicon?
Not stated, and 0.7.3 predates Apple Silicon by years. Nothing in the project says a native build exists, so Nuanyue records it as unknown — it would run under Rosetta 2, but that is not confirmed by the vendor.Editorially reviewed
Why does GitHub say MacDown has no licence?
Because the repository's LICENSE path is a directory, not a file — it holds the MIT text for MacDown alongside the licence texts of its bundled components. GitHub's detector only reads a LICENSE file, so it reports nothing. The README states plainly that MacDown is released under the MIT License.
What licence is MacDown under?
MIT. The README states 'MacDown is released under the terms of MIT License', with the full text inside the LICENSE directory of the repository.
Competitors
Direct competitors: overlapping features aimed at the same users.
Typora
Minimal Markdown editor with live in-place rendering.
Both are Markdown editors for macOS with live preview and export, but Typora is a maintained paid app while MacDown is free, open source and unmaintained since 2020.
Obsidian
Local-first Markdown notes, with optional paid sync.
Both edit Markdown on macOS, but Obsidian is an actively developed note system with plugins where MacDown is a single-purpose editor that stopped receiving releases in 2020.
Works well with
Not a replacement — apps commonly used alongside this one.
FSNotes
Open-source Markdown notes app for Mac and iPhone, files on disk.
MacDown edits one Markdown file with a live preview while FSNotes manages a folder of them; both work on plain files on disk rather than a database.
Links
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the sources below. Last updated .
- MacDown — official websiteGrade B
- uranusjr — developer websiteGrade B
- MacDown — documentationGrade C
- MacDown — source repositoryGrade D
