A StackEdit alternative that never asks for your Drive
What's a good StackEdit alternative?
TypeFire’s free online Markdown editor opens a file in your browser with nothing to sign in to, formats it as you type, and saves it as Markdown, Word, a web page or a PDF.
If you write Markdown every day on a Mac, the same editor comes in the free TypeFire app, with Quick Look in Finder and a text expander.
Why people move from StackEdit
The specific reasons people give for switching.
Open a file, connect nothing
Drop a .md file on the free online editor and it opens formatted. There's no account and no storage to link, and the file never leaves your browser.
Formatting as you type, not a second pane
Headings, tables, task lists and callouts render in place while you write, so the document is one column you read and edit at once.
Tabs for every file
Open several documents at once and switch between them like browser tabs. They're kept in your browser between visits.
Tables you can drag
Move rows and columns by their handles, add one with a click, and type into the cells, instead of lining up pipes by hand.
The same editor on your Mac
TypeFire for Mac opens a folder of Markdown, an Obsidian vault included, previews any .md file in Finder with Quick Look, and expands snippets in every app.
TypeFire compared with StackEdit
Prices and capabilities as of October 2026.
| TypeFire | StackEdit | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free, open source |
| Runs in the browser | Yes, nothing to install | Yes |
| Account or storage to connect | None | Google Drive, Dropbox or GitHub to sync |
| Editing | Formats as you type | Source with a live preview |
| Tabs for several files | Yes | File explorer |
| Download as | Markdown, Word, web page, PDF | Markdown or HTML |
| Mac app with Quick Look | Yes, free | No |
| Text expander | Yes, free | No |
StackEdit details from stackedit.io, checked October 27, 2026.
What TypeFire adds
Not available in StackEdit at any price.
Nothing to link
Open, edit and download without connecting a single account.
Paste from anywhere
Paste from Google Docs, Word or a web page and it becomes clean Markdown as it lands.
Copy into Word or email
File > Copy > As rich text pastes the document formatted into Word, Google Docs or Mail.
Quick Look on a Mac
Press Space on any .md file in Finder and read it formatted.
A text expander, free
Type a short abbreviation and get the whole snippet, in every app on your Mac and every site in Chrome.
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, notes and clips 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, so TypeFire gives you the controls: switch image capture off, name apps to skip, and see the password managers it always ignores. None of them is behind Pro.
Turn image capture off
One switch. Text keeps being captured and pictures stop, and the images you already saved stay where they are.
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.
Eighteen dollars. Once.
TypeFire Pro is a single payment that unlocks unlimited clips, Selection Prompts, Prompt Chains, notes sync, note version history and saving from AI apps through MCP. 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
Or $29.99 a year, or $99.99 lifetime
Five snippets free, then a subscription
StackEdit is free and open source. TypeFire’s online editor is free, and so is the Mac app, with Pro at $18 once for features beyond editing.
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 StackEdit
Still not answered?
Yes. TypeFire's online Markdown editor opens any .md file in your browser without an account or a linked storage service, and nothing is uploaded.
Yes, with no sign-up and no limit. The Mac app is free too, with an optional $18 one-time Pro for things beyond editing.
The online editor keeps your documents in your browser and downloads them as files.
On a Mac, TypeFire works on a folder you choose, so you can keep that folder in iCloud Drive, Dropbox or Google Drive's desktop app.
Yes. Both read and write plain .md files, so a document from one opens in the other with nothing to convert.
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