6 Best Markdown Notes Apps for Mac in 2026

The best Markdown notes app for Mac is the one that keeps your notes as plain files, works offline, and doesn’t charge you rent to read your own writing. Everything below does at least the first of those; they differ on the rest.

How we compared. Three axes that actually matter once the novelty wears off: does it work fully offline, are your notes plain Markdown files you own, and what does it cost to keep using it. Disclosure: we make Toxvas, the last app on this list. That is also why this list has no affiliate links.

The short version

App	Fully offline	Plain Markdown files	Price
Obsidian	Yes	Yes, one folder (a “vault”)	Free; Sync $4/mo billed yearly (optional)
Bear	Yes	Yes, export anytime	Free to start; Pro ~$29.99/yr for sync
Logseq	Yes	Yes, local files	Free; optional Sync ~$5/mo
Joplin	Yes	Yes, local files	Free; optional Joplin Cloud for sync
Apple Notes	Yes	No — proprietary format	Free with your Mac
Toxvas	Yes	Yes, one file per card	$9 once (early access); free 7-day trial

Obsidian

Obsidian is the reference point for local Markdown notes: a vault is just a folder of .md files, it needs no account, and it has been free for personal and commercial use since early 2025. The graph view and 1,000+ community plugins make it the deepest tool here.

Pick Obsidian if you want maximum extensibility and don’t mind maintaining it. The honest costs are sync and upkeep: official Sync is $4/month billed yearly ($5 monthly) for end-to-end encrypted sync, and many people instead drop the vault in iCloud or Git for free. If you never link notes and never install plugins, you’re paying (in complexity) for depth you don’t use — which is exactly the gap the next apps fill.

Bear

Bear is the best pure writing experience on this list: Apple-native, fast, beautiful Markdown editing. Notes live locally and sync over iCloud with a Pro subscription ($2.99/month or $29.99/year); the free tier doesn’t sync.

Pick Bear if writing prose is 90% of what you do. Skip it if you want your notes as files you can browse in Finder — Bear keeps them in its own library (with export), and organization is tags, not folders or links.

Logseq

Logseq is a free, open-source outliner that stores local files and thinks in blocks and backlinks rather than documents. It syncs on its own or through an optional paid Sync (~$5/month).

Pick Logseq if you think in outlines and journals. Skip it if a traditional document with headings is your unit of thought — the outliner model is opinionated, and fighting it is miserable.

Joplin

Joplin is the free, open-source workhorse: Markdown notes, notebooks, web clipper, and sync through anything (Dropbox, OneDrive, self-hosted) or Joplin Cloud. It runs everywhere, including platforms the others ignore.

Pick Joplin if cross-platform and free matter more than polish. Skip it if you care how the app looks and feels — it is capable rather than delightful, and Mac users can feel the Electron seams.

Apple Notes

Apple Notes is already on your Mac, free, fast, and genuinely good at capture: lock screen notes, collaboration, tags, and reliable iCloud sync. Its format is proprietary — there is no folder of Markdown files to take with you.

Pick Apple Notes if capture speed beats everything and you live inside Apple’s world. Skip it the moment “what if I leave?” matters to you, because leaving means exporting, not just walking away with a folder.

Toxvas (our take)

We built Toxvas for the gap above: people who want Obsidian’s file ownership without maintaining a plugin stack, and Bear’s calm without giving up their files. Every card is one Markdown file in a folder you choose, boards are JSON files beside them, and a spec file documents the format so any editor, script, or AI agent can read the workspace directly. It works with the network off, needs no account, and costs $9 once. The free trial is 7 days, no payment required.

Where Toxvas honestly loses: no plugin ecosystem, no graph view, Mac-only (Apple silicon, macOS 14+), and a small young team instead of a decade-old community. If you need Windows, Android, or 1,000 plugins, take Obsidian or Joplin above — we’d rather you pick the right tool than the wrong one that happens to be ours.

How to choose in sixty seconds

• Maximum depth, free: Obsidian.
• Best writing feel on Mac: Bear.
• Outlines and journals: Logseq.
• Free everywhere: Joplin.
• Zero setup, Apple-only: Apple Notes.
• A visual canvas over plain files: Toxvas.

If you compare on one axis only — can I open my notes in ten years with nothing but a text editor? — every app on this list except Apple Notes passes. That test eliminates more “notes apps” than any feature matrix. For the other direction of the same question, see why plain-text notes outlive every notes app.