A Marked 2 alternative
that edits as well as previews
Is there a Marked 2 alternative that previews and edits?
Marked 2 previews markdown that you edit somewhere else. TypeFire renders as you type in one window, so there is no second app to keep in sync.
Any .md file also previews from Finder with the space bar through Quick Look, bundled and free, with no setup.
Why people move from Marked 2
The specific reasons people give for switching.
It previews but does not edit
Marked 2 is deliberately a previewer: you keep your own editor and Marked watches the file. That means two apps in every Markdown session. TypeFire renders and edits in the same window, formatting as you type.
No Quick Look in Finder
Marked 2 needs to be open and pointed at a file. TypeFire installs a Quick Look extension, so pressing space on any .md file in Finder renders it without opening anything.
You pay for previewing
Marked 2 is $13.99 on the App Store. TypeFire's Markdown editing, Quick Look preview and text expander are free.
No text expansion
The repetitive parts of writing Markdown, front matter, callouts, link formats and code fences, are what a text expander is for, and TypeFire has one built in.
No AI on your prose
Highlight a paragraph and rewrite, translate or shorten it in place, with Apple Intelligence or a local model.
TypeFire compared with Marked 2
Prices and capabilities as of August 2026.
| TypeFire | Marked 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free for editing and Quick Look | $13.99 |
| Markdown preview | Yes, in-app and Quick Look | Yes, and deeper |
| Markdown editing | Yes | No, previewer only |
| Quick Look preview in Finder | Yes | No |
| Watches a file edited elsewhere | Yes, picks up external edits | Yes |
| Writing analysis and statistics | Expansion stats only | Yes, extensive |
| MultiMarkdown and other markups | GitHub Flavored Markdown | Yes, many |
| Export to PDF, Word, HTML | HTML | Yes, extensive |
| Text expander | Yes, unlimited, free | No |
| Clipboard manager | Yes, free for 10 clips | No |
Marked 2 pricing from its Mac App Store listing, August 2026. Marked 2 is the long-standing version; check the developer’s site for the current successor.
Where Marked 2 is genuinely better
Three things Marked 2 does better. If any of them is your deciding factor, use Marked 2.
Preview depth and format support
Marked 2 handles MultiMarkdown, Textile, and several other markups, with custom CSS themes, extensive export and a lot of control over rendering. On previewing specifically it is far ahead of us.
Writing analysis
Readability scores, repeated phrase detection, word frequency and reading time. Genuinely useful for editing long prose, and nothing in TypeFire does it.
It pairs with any editor
The whole design is that you keep the editor you love and Marked watches the file. If you are attached to BBEdit, Vim or iA Writer, that is a real advantage over an app that wants to be your editor.
What TypeFire adds
Not available in Marked 2 at any price.
A notes vault, not just an editor
4.0 opens a whole folder of markdown, including an Obsidian vault, with wikilinks, backlinks, quick capture and a global hotkey that reaches any note from inside another app.
Live rendering that does not rewrite the file
Markdown renders as you type while the buffer stays raw, so callouts, embeds, footnotes and your own emphasis characters survive a save untouched.
Quick Look, so nothing needs to be open
Press space on any .md file in Finder and read it rendered with syntax-highlighted code blocks. No app to launch, no file to point at.
Editing in the same window
One window that formats as you type instead of two apps, with search that works across the rendered text rather than the raw source.
It can be your default .md app
Double-clicking a Markdown file opens it in TypeFire, which a previewer cannot offer.
A text expander, free
Abbreviations expanding into front matter, tables, callouts and code fences, in whichever editor you use.
AI on your selection
Rewrite, translate, shorten or explain highlighted text in place, on-device if you choose.
Turn anything you copy into something you type
Right-click a clip, choose Save as snippet, give it an abbreviation. The thing you copied once becomes something you type three characters to get, forever. The same conversions run across all three surfaces: a clip becomes a note, and a note you keep rewriting becomes a snippet. Snippets, clips and notes live in one app, which is what makes each of those a single click rather than an export and an import.
- 01
Copy something
It lands in Clips alongside everything else you copied today.
- 02
Save as snippet
It leaves your rolling history and enters your permanent library.
- 03
Give it a trigger
Type
invfrom then on and never look it up again.
A clipboard manager you can tell what to ignore
A clipboard manager sees everything you copy. Until 4.0 the only control over that was a password-manager exclusion you could not see. There are three now, none of them gated, and the limits of the strongest one are stated rather than buried.
Turn image capture off
One switch. Text keeps being captured and pictures stop. Images you have already saved are kept rather than deleted, which is not what most people expect a privacy toggle to do, so it is worth saying.
Name apps to skip
Add any application and TypeFire ignores what you copy in it. Choose from the apps it has already seen, with clip counts, or browse to any app on your Mac. Each app gets one of three settings: allow it, block images only, or block everything you copy there. The middle one is what most people want for a work tool, keeping the text and losing the screenshots.
The password managers, now visible
TypeFire has always ignored password managers. That list is in Settings now, twenty-three apps including 1Password, Bitwarden, KeePassXC, Dashlane and Apple Passwords, blocked by bundle ID in code rather than by a setting you have to find. It shows which of them you have installed, and any one can be overridden.
Encrypted on your Mac
Clips are stored in an encrypted database on your Mac. The key is generated on your machine and kept in the macOS Keychain. Images sit beside it, readable only by your own account.
Secrets expire in minutes
Card numbers and high-entropy strings are detected and deleted after five minutes by default, adjustable in Settings. Everything else follows the retention you choose.
An on-device AI option
Apple Intelligence and local models through Ollama or LM Studio run entirely on your machine. If you pick Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini instead, text goes to that provider directly; TypeFire operates no server in that path.
Where blocking by app stops being a guarantee
macOS does not tell an application which other application wrote to the clipboard. TypeFire matches on the app that was in front at the time, plus any app that identifies itself using the standard convention. That covers the overwhelming majority of real cases and it is not absolute. The protection that does not depend on a guess is the concealed-content marker: password managers mark what they copy, and TypeFire never stores it whatever else is set.
The app list also covers what you copy, not screenshots you save as a file. A PNG on your desktop records nothing about what was on screen, so TypeFire matches those to an app where it can and skips them when it does. It is right in the ordinary case and it is not a promise: to keep saved screenshots out entirely, turn off Save screenshots to Clips.
Eighteen dollars. Once.
TypeFire Pro is a single payment that unlocks unlimited clips, Selection Prompts, Prompt Chains, notes sync and note version history. There is no subscription and no per-seat pricing.
Free tier, then one payment
No free tier at all
One time
No free tier
One time
Lifetime, or $3.99/mo
Subscription, forever
Marked 2 is $13.99 to preview Markdown. TypeFire previews and edits it free, with Pro at $18 once for features unrelated to Markdown.
The graph is free, and it needs nothing
Press ` and TypeFire draws every note, snippet and clip on one canvas, using the links, tags and folders already in your files. Nothing to download and nothing to switch on. A connection you made is drawn solid, one TypeFire worked out is drawn dashed.
Turn on Weave and search starts matching what you meant rather than the exact words you typed. It runs on your Mac, with no account and nothing uploaded.
Moving from Marked 2
Still not answered?
For previewing and editing, largely yes, and free.
For writing analysis, MultiMarkdown support and rich export, no. Marked 2 has spent a decade on preview depth and it shows.
The honest framing is that TypeFire covers the common case, previewing and editing Markdown without paying, while Marked 2 remains the better tool for long-form prose analysis and publishing.
Yes. TypeFire watches the folder it has open and picks up changes made by another app, so you can keep Obsidian or your own editor working on the same file.
The difference is what happens next: Marked 2 re-renders a preview beside your editor, while TypeFire is the editor and renders as you type. It also gives you Quick Look in Finder for reading a file without opening anything.
For quick reading, yes: you select a file in Finder, press space, and read it, with nothing to launch or point at.
For a long editing session where you want the rendered view continuously beside your editor, a dedicated preview window like Marked 2's is better. They solve different moments.
Markdown editing, Quick Look preview and the text expander are all free with no cap and no trial.
Pro is $18 once and covers unlimited clipboard clips, Selection Prompts and Prompt Chains, none of which relate to Markdown.
Preview in Finder. Edit in place.
Markdown editing, Quick Look preview and an uncapped text expander, all free.
Free text expander, clipboard manager and markdown notes. $18 once for unlimited clips, notes sync and AI prompts.
⌘⌃2 your clips⌘⌃1 your snippets