What is the difference between WYSIWYG and WYSIWYM?

WYSIWYG means what you see is what you get: the screen matches the printed output. WYSIWYM means what you see is what you mean: you mark structure such as headings and emphasis, and a stylesheet decides the final look. Markdown editing is closer to WYSIWYM, since a heading is a heading regardless of the font the renderer applies.

Why do WYSIWYG Markdown editors show syntax when you click?

Because they are inline or hybrid editors, not true WYSIWYG. The Markdown text is the real document, and the editor only hides the markers visually. When your cursor enters a formatted span, the markers reappear so you can edit them. Obsidian Live Preview, MarkText, and the VS Code Markdown Editor extension all work this way.

Is a WYSIWYG editor better than Markdown?

It depends on who reads the file. If the Markdown lives in Git, a docs site, or a README, a split-pane or inline editor keeps the file exactly as typed and diffs cleanly. If nobody ever sees the source, a true WYSIWYG tool is faster for non-technical writers. Many teams use both: WYSIWYG to draft, Markdown to store.

Is there a free WYSIWYG Markdown editor online?

Yes. Our editor runs in the browser with a toolbar, a live preview pane, and export to HTML, PDF, and Word. For a single-pane inline experience you currently need a desktop app such as Obsidian or MarkText, or the Markdown Editor extension inside VS Code.

WYSIWYG Markdown Editor: What It Is and 6 Options (2026)

Q: Is there a true WYSIWYG Markdown editor?

Yes. Notion, Google Docs with Markdown enabled, and TOAST UI Editor in WYSIWYG mode all edit a rich-text model and export Markdown. The trade-off is that features with no Markdown equivalent, such as colours or callouts, are dropped or written as HTML on export. Inline editors like Obsidian avoid that by keeping the syntax as the source.

September 11, 2026 · 10 min read

WYSIWYG Markdown Editor: What It Is and 6 Options

A WYSIWYG Markdown editor lets you format text with a toolbar or shortcuts and see the result as you type, while saving a plain .md file underneath. The catch is that "WYSIWYG" covers three different designs, and only one of them hides the syntax completely. This post names the three modes and explains why no editor can offer all of them at once. It then compares six options by platform and by how cleanly they round-trip your Markdown.

The Three Editing Modes People Call WYSIWYG

Product pages use the word loosely, and the Markdown WYSIWYG label gets applied to all three. When you test the editors, they fall into three groups, and knowing which group you want saves a lot of downloading.

Split pane with toolbar. Raw Markdown on the left, a rendered preview on the right, and buttons that insert syntax for you. You always see the source. This is what most "online Markdown editor" tools are, and it's what our editor is. You get raw Markdown on the left and a live preview on the right that updates as you type.

Inline or hybrid rendering. One pane. Syntax is hidden and the text looks formatted until your cursor enters a line, at which point the ** and # markers reappear for editing. Obsidian calls this Live Preview. Its help page describes it as formatted text inline with most syntax hidden, where the underlying syntax becomes visible when the cursor enters formatted content. This is the mode long Reddit threads complain about, because the syntax keeps popping back up under the cursor.

True WYSIWYG. A rich-text document model, like a word processor, that serialises to Markdown on save or export. You never see syntax. Notion and Google Docs work this way, and so does TOAST UI Editor's WYSIWYG mode. A related term, WYSIWYM ("what you see is what you mean"), describes editors such as LyX where you mark structure and a stylesheet decides the look.

Markdown editors borrow that idea but rarely the name, so a search for a WYSIWYM Markdown editor usually lands on the inline mode above.

Is There a True WYSIWYG Markdown Editor?

Yes, but every one of them has to solve the round-trip problem, and that's why the inline-hybrid mode exists at all.

Markdown can express headings, emphasis, lists, links, images, code, tables, and (with extensions) footnotes, task lists, and math. It cannot express font size, text colour, a merged table cell, or a two-column layout. A true WYSIWYG editor that offers those features has two choices when it saves: drop them, or write raw HTML into the .md file. Notion's export docs state the case plainly: callout blocks are exported as HTML because there is no Markdown equivalent.

So a true WYSIWYG editor either restricts its toolbar to what Markdown can represent, or produces files that are no longer clean Markdown. Inline-hybrid editors dodge the problem by making the syntax the source of truth and only hiding it visually. That's a design trade-off, not a missing feature. The Markdown vs HTML comparison goes deeper on what each format can and can't carry.

We prefer split-pane or inline editors for any file that lives in Git, because the file is exactly what you typed. True WYSIWYG earns its place when the reader never sees the Markdown, such as a wiki or a CMS with a Markdown storage backend.

How Does Split-Pane Editing Compare to Inline Rendering?

The fastest way to feel the difference is to type the same document in both. The sample below is loaded into our split-pane editor. Bold, a heading, a list, and a table render on the right while the syntax stays visible on the left. In Obsidian's Live Preview, the same text shows formatted in one pane and reveals ** only on the line you're editing.

Split-pane test

In a split-pane editor you see this bold text with its asterisks on the left and rendered on the right.

What inline editors hide

Heading hashes like the one above
The star markers around italic text
Pipes in this table:

Mode	Syntax visible?
Split pane	Always
Inline hybrid	Only at the cursor
True WYSIWYG	Never

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Markdown

Both approaches keep the file clean. Where they differ is how much of the syntax you're asked to look at, and whether the toolbar is a convenience or the only way to format.

6 WYSIWYG Markdown Editor Options Compared

Each entry is grouped by platform, names its editing mode, and answers the round-trip question: does the saved .md stay clean? Facts come from each project's official page or release notes.

Editor	Platform	Mode	Round-trip to clean Markdown	Cost
Obsidian	Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android	Inline hybrid (Live Preview), plus Source and Reading views	Yes, the file is the source	Free for any use
MarkText	Windows, macOS, Linux	Inline "realtime preview"	Yes	Free, MIT
VS Code Markdown Editor extension	VS Code on any OS	Instant rendering, WYSIWYG, or split screen	Yes, edits the open file	Free
TOAST UI Editor	Embeddable web component (React, Vue wrappers)	Markdown mode and WYSIWYG mode, switchable	Yes, within its supported syntax	Free, MIT
Notion	Web, desktop, mobile	True WYSIWYG with Markdown-style shortcuts	Export only; callouts become HTML	Free tier, paid plans
Google Docs	Web	True WYSIWYG with Markdown import, export, and paste	Export only; limited to the features Docs maps	Free with a Google account

Obsidian is the reference inline editor. Live Preview hides syntax until the cursor lands on it, Source mode shows everything, and Reading view hides it all. Linux builds come as AppImage, Deb, Snap, and a community Flatpak, and the licence page states it's free for personal, commercial, and non-profit use. The app is not open source. The Obsidian Markdown cheat sheet covers its syntax extensions.

MarkText describes itself on Flathub as a realtime preview (WYSIWYG) editor supporting CommonMark and GFM. After a long gap, version 0.19.1 shipped in June 2026 with AppImage, deb, rpm, snap, dmg, and Windows installers, and 0.20.0 release candidates followed. It's the closest free, open-source match to the inline mode on all three desktops.

VS Code's Markdown Editor extension (by zaaack, built on Vditor) offers three modes in one panel: instant rendering (the inline hybrid, which the author recommends), the Markdown Editor WYSIWYG mode, and split screen. If you already write in VS Code, this is the cheapest way to try all three modes. The VS Code Markdown guide covers the built-in preview it replaces.

TOAST UI Editor is a Markdown WYSIWYG editor component for developers embedding an editor in their own app. It ships a Markdown mode and a WYSIWYG mode that users can switch between at any point, under the MIT licence, with @toast-ui/react-editor and @toast-ui/vue-editor wrappers. That's the answer to the "wysiwyg markdown editor react" search.

Notion is true WYSIWYG. Typing # and a space makes a heading and ** makes bold, but the document is a block model, not a file. Export to Markdown works for any non-database page; databases come out as CSV. Our Notion Markdown guide lists the shortcuts that work and the ones that don't.

Google Docs became a real option once Markdown support landed. Enable it under Tools, then Preferences, and Docs converts italics, bold, strikethrough, links, and headings as you type. Right-click gives you Paste from Markdown and Copy as Markdown, and File, then Download offers a .md file. It's a word processor first, so anything beyond that feature list doesn't survive the export.

Which WYSIWYG Markdown Editor Fits Your Platform?

The related searches for this topic are almost all platform-shaped, so here's the short routing.

Online, free, no install: a split-pane editor in the browser. Ours runs on any OS, and the best Markdown editors roundup compares other web options.
VS Code: the Markdown Editor extension above, or the built-in split preview if hiding syntax isn't the goal.
Windows and Mac: Obsidian for notes, MarkText for standalone files.
Linux: Obsidian and MarkText both ship AppImage and deb packages; the Linux Markdown editor comparison covers packaging and maintenance status in detail.
Mobile: Obsidian on iOS and Android, or Notion if the content lives there anyway.
Embedding in your app: TOAST UI Editor, a WYSIWYG editor Markdown apps can embed with a mode switch.

What to Check Before You Commit to One

Two criteria matter more than the feature list, and product pages rarely mention either.

Can you always reach the raw Markdown? An inline editor should have a source toggle (Obsidian's Source mode, the VS Code extension's split screen). A true WYSIWYG tool should show you the exported file before you trust it with a repository. If there's no way to see the source, the editor owns your formatting, not you.

Does it mangle the file on save? Open a Markdown file with reference-style links, a nested list, and an HTML <details> block, make one edit, and diff the result. Inline editors sometimes rewrite list markers or escape characters they don't understand. A clean diff that touches only the line you changed is the test that separates a good hybrid editor from a bad one.

Our acknowledged limitation is the mirror image: a split-pane editor never rewrites your file, but it also never hides the syntax, so long documents show every marker.

Accessibility is the third check. Screen readers handle a plain text pane well; a custom rich-text surface depends entirely on how carefully it was built.

WYSIWYG Markdown Editor FAQ

Decide on the mode first and the product second, whether you call it a WYSIWYG editor, Markdown flavoured, or a hybrid. Split-pane keeps the source honest, inline hides it until you need it, and true WYSIWYG hides it for good at the cost of a clean round-trip. Whichever WYSIWYG Markdown editor you pick, keep a way to see the raw file. You can test the split-pane approach right now in the editor without installing anything.