SHSelfHostIndex

Zettlr vs MarkText Workspace

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
ZE Zettlr Markdown editor for writers, researchers, and Zettelkasten users VS MA MarkText Workspace Self-hosted markdown document workspace
FeatureZettlrMarkText Workspace
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseOffice Suites
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, binarydocker, source
GitHub stars★ 13,354★ 12,572
First released20172022
ReplacesNotion, ObsidianDropbox Paper, Notion

Why pick each one

Choose Zettlr if…

  • Strong academic features
  • Plain Markdown files
Zettlr details

Choose MarkText Workspace if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 12.6k GitHub stars
MarkText Workspace details

Frequently asked questions

Is Zettlr or MarkText Workspace better?

Neither is universally better. Zettlr has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Zettlr and MarkText Workspace free and open-source?

Yes. Zettlr is licensed under GPL-3.0 and MarkText Workspace under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Zettlr and MarkText Workspace with Docker?

Zettlr: check the project docs for container support. MarkText Workspace: yes.

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