Compare Byword vs. Mou vs. ghostwriter

Create your next blog post, narrative, or academic paper seamlessly from any location by utilizing Markdown for easy text formatting, keyboard shortcuts, and real-time word counting features. With the convenience of iCloud and Dropbox, you can effortlessly craft documents in Byword on your Mac, then access and edit them on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, and the reverse holds true as well. This flexibility allows for document editing on any device you choose, whether at home or on the go. Byword boasts comprehensive support for Markdown, enabling you to preview your work within the app and export it to various formats like HTML, PDF, and rich text. You can even publish directly to platforms such as Medium, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and Evernote with ease. While the current absence of rich text support is attributed to technical challenges and limited development capabilities, we are assessing the potential investment in rich text functionality for iOS. In the meantime, we highly advocate for using plain text and Markdown formats for your writing needs, as highlighted in a compelling article by Macworld that discusses the advantages of choosing plain text today. Embracing this approach not only enhances compatibility across devices but also simplifies the writing process.

Mou is a robust Markdown editor designed specifically for developers using Mac OS X. It offers a variety of features including live preview, synchronized scrolling, automatic saving, and powerful functionality, along with support for custom themes and CSS. Users can easily export their work to HTML and PDF formats while enjoying enhanced support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters. This tool is equipped with an array of handy actions that facilitate efficient Markdown writing, ensuring a fast and seamless experience. If you prefer writing in traditional Chinese, the vertical layout option is available, and you can choose from numerous built-in themes or design your own. Additionally, the editor supports incremental search with pattern matching and provides auto-completion for English, allowing users to press the `Esc` key to view potential word completions. Exporting to HTML is flexible, with options to include or exclude CSS, and the integrated word, character, and byte counter helps keep track of your text metrics. With Mou, all the necessary tools for effective Markdown writing are at your fingertips, making it an essential choice for developers.

Experience a seamless writing journey free from distractions, featuring a full-screen mode along with a minimalist interface. Utilizing Markdown allows you to focus on your writing first and refine formatting later. The built-in light and dark themes ensure an aesthetically pleasing writing environment right from the start, but you also have the option to design your own themes if desired. You can effortlessly preview your Markdown content in HTML format, with the added benefit of a live preview that allows for easy HTML copying for blog use or exporting to various formats. This live preview functionality is particularly efficient for larger documents, ensuring you can write without the concern of the application lagging. Ghostwriter not only provides a live word count displayed at the bottom of the window, but it also offers additional real-time statistics through its Document Statistics and Session Statistics sidebar tabs. Moreover, you can conveniently create image URLs in your Markdown document by simply dragging and dropping images directly from your file system into ghostwriter's editor, enhancing your workflow even further. With these features combined, ghostwriter makes the writing process both enjoyable and efficient.