{"slug": "zettlr", "name": "Zettlr", "category": "notes", "category_name": "Notes and knowledge", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 6, "warners": 0, "score": 3.35, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2025-12-18", "latest": "2026-09-27", "why": "I recently switched from Obsidian to Zettlr due to some rendering and performance issues on Linux, and it's been a great experience.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I recently switched from Obsidian to Zettlr due to some rendering and performance issues on Linux, and it's been a great experience.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "zettlr.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.zettlr.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Zettlr"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 762203985, "item_id": 47637749, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47637749", "by": "amai", "date": "2026-04-04", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you want a good editor for that have a look at", "excerpt": "The Pandoc Markdown dialect solves many of the mentioned issues. If you want a good editor for that have a look at https://www.zettlr.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why the heck are we still using Markdown?"}, {"id": 759836896, "item_id": 47489806, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47489806", "by": "bovermyer", "date": "2026-03-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Zettlr last year and I like it much better.", "excerpt": "Obsidian is good, but I switched to Zettlr last year and I like it much better. https://www.zettlr.com", "context": "", "use_case": "note-taking", "switched_from": "Obsidian", "story": "Project Nomad \u2013 Knowledge That Never Goes Offline"}, {"id": 756913136, "item_id": 47307071, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47307071", "by": "amai", "date": "2026-03-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you really want a good markdown editor better have a look at https://www.zettlr.com/", "excerpt": "If you really want a good markdown editor better have a look at https://www.zettlr.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown"}, {"id": 745199584, "item_id": 46574974, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46574974", "by": "bovermyer", "date": "2026-01-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recently switched from Obsidian to Zettlr due to some rendering and performance issues on Linux, and it's been a great experience.", "excerpt": "Very cool. The one thing that prevents me from trying this out as a potential note-taking daily driver is the lack of support for LaTeX. I recently switched from Obsidian to Zettlr due to some rendering and performance issues on Linux, and it's been a great experience. However, I always like to see new entrants in the arena.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "note-taking", "switched_from": "Obsidian", "story": "Show HN: Ferrite \u2013 Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering"}, {"id": 741084385, "item_id": 46317774, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46317774", "by": "jonahbenton", "date": "2025-12-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I do pay for others like zettlr", "excerpt": "Uh, irrelevant to highlight sqlite and \"local first\" if it assumes talking to gemini. The data does not stay on the machine. Support llama.cpp, etc. I do like the idea of a home made book workflow but no one needs a new bookstore. There are plenty of these. I think a related area is incorporating tts for interviews esp of older family members. Support photos and audio and have some ai magic around those. Produce a fa", "context": "", "use_case": "authoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How would you monetize an AI book-writing app?"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "ifh-hn", "context": "student writing papers", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48336880", "date": "2026-05-30"}, {"by": "bovermyer", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46574974", "date": "2026-01-11"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["markdown editing", "note-taking", "markdown note editing", "writing notes", "academic writing", "authoring"], "compared": [{"slug": "obsidian", "name": "Obsidian", "co": 4, "switched_from": 3, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "pandoc", "name": "Pandoc", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "quarto", "name": "Quarto", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "typst", "name": "Typst", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49866597", "title": "Show HN: Building a Markdown editor for Mac, iOS and web", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46571980", "title": "Show HN: Ferrite \u2013 Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48334515", "title": "Pandoc Templates", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47919240", "title": "Quarkdown \u2013 Markdown with Superpowers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47629903", "title": "Why the heck are we still using Markdown?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47476821", "title": "Project Nomad \u2013 Knowledge That Never Goes Offline", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "quotes": [{"id": 797909696, "item_id": 49869356, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49869356", "by": "Jaxan", "date": "2026-09-27", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Can\u2019t you just open a folder inside your Dropbox folders? Then it should just sync, right? (That\u2019s how I use zettlr, but with nextcloud instead of Dropbox.)", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown note editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Building a Markdown editor for Mac, iOS and web"}, {"id": 797909457, "item_id": 49869341, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49869341", "by": "Jaxan", "date": "2026-09-27", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Most people i know that write more then just some notes use obsidian, zettlr", "excerpt": "Indeed, and also: > and like most I used Apple Notes. Most people i know that write more then just some notes use obsidian, zettlr, \u2026 or one of many other markdown editors. A comparison with existing apps would be nice.", "context": "", "use_case": "writing notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Building a Markdown editor for Mac, iOS and web"}, {"id": 773390081, "item_id": 48336880, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48336880", "by": "ifh-hn", "date": "2026-05-30", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I even user Zettlr for a while", "excerpt": "I used to use pandoc for my bachelors papers, which needed to be submitted as word documents. I never used templates but had a rather large \"one-liner\" pandoc command to convert my markdown files. At the time I'd not got round to understanding the yaml front matter etc. I even user Zettlr for a while [0]. I then discovered quarto [1] and this changed everything. Much nicer experience. I used this for my masters paper", "context": "student writing papers", "use_case": "academic writing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pandoc Templates"}, {"id": 766732404, "item_id": 47920775, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47920775", "by": "amai", "date": "2026-04-27", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "and so does https://www.zettlr.com/", "excerpt": "I would really like to see a comparison of all these tools/markup languages: - MyST - Pandoc - Quarkdown - Quarto - Typst Quarto and pandoc both use Pandoc Markdown (and so does https://www.zettlr.com/). But Quarkdown and Typst offer programmable markup languages like LaTeX (or HTML + Javascript). It seems the winner for the title official LaTeX successor is still not decided.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Quarkdown \u2013 Markdown with Superpowers"}, {"id": 762203985, "item_id": 47637749, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47637749", "by": "amai", "date": "2026-04-04", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you want a good editor for that have a look at", "excerpt": "The Pandoc Markdown dialect solves many of the mentioned issues. If you want a good editor for that have a look at https://www.zettlr.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why the heck are we still using Markdown?"}, {"id": 759836896, "item_id": 47489806, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47489806", "by": "bovermyer", "date": "2026-03-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Zettlr last year and I like it much better.", "excerpt": "Obsidian is good, but I switched to Zettlr last year and I like it much better. https://www.zettlr.com", "context": "", "use_case": "note-taking", "switched_from": "Obsidian", "story": "Project Nomad \u2013 Knowledge That Never Goes Offline"}, {"id": 756913136, "item_id": 47307071, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47307071", "by": "amai", "date": "2026-03-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you really want a good markdown editor better have a look at https://www.zettlr.com/", "excerpt": "If you really want a good markdown editor better have a look at https://www.zettlr.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown"}, {"id": 745204000, "item_id": 46575250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46575250", "by": "OlaProis", "date": "2026-01-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "LaTeX support is a reasonable request! It's not on the immediate roadmap, but here's my thinking: Options considered: - KaTeX/MathJax-style rendering (would need a Rust math renderer or JS bridge) - Typst integration (Rust-native, modern alternative to LaTeX) - External tool pipeline (render via pandoc/LaTeX CLI) Typst is interesting since it's also Rust-based and simpler than full LaTeX. Would inline math ($x^2$) an", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "Obsidian", "story": "Show HN: Ferrite \u2013 Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering"}, {"id": 745199584, "item_id": 46574974, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46574974", "by": "bovermyer", "date": "2026-01-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recently switched from Obsidian to Zettlr due to some rendering and performance issues on Linux, and it's been a great experience.", "excerpt": "Very cool. The one thing that prevents me from trying this out as a potential note-taking daily driver is the lack of support for LaTeX. I recently switched from Obsidian to Zettlr due to some rendering and performance issues on Linux, and it's been a great experience. However, I always like to see new entrants in the arena.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "note-taking", "switched_from": "Obsidian", "story": "Show HN: Ferrite \u2013 Markdown editor in Rust with native Mermaid diagram rendering"}, {"id": 741084385, "item_id": 46317774, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46317774", "by": "jonahbenton", "date": "2025-12-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I do pay for others like zettlr", "excerpt": "Uh, irrelevant to highlight sqlite and \"local first\" if it assumes talking to gemini. The data does not stay on the machine. Support llama.cpp, etc. I do like the idea of a home made book workflow but no one needs a new bookstore. There are plenty of these. I think a related area is incorporating tts for interviews esp of older family members. Support photos and audio and have some ai magic around those. Produce a fa", "context": "", "use_case": "authoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How would you monetize an AI book-writing app?"}]}