Your dev team writes in Markdown. That much is settled. The question is which tool actually fits the way you work, not just for writing a doc, but for the full picture: where the files live, whether your AI tools can touch them, how pricing scales as the team grows, and whether you are locked into a browser tab or can actually work natively on your machine.

HackMD and AnySlate are both serious Markdown tools. They are not the same tool. This comparison lays out the real differences so you can make the right call for your team, not the default one.

What Each Tool Actually Is
HackMD is a browser-based, real-time collaborative Markdown editor. It has been around since 2014 and has built a strong following among developer teams, open-source communities, and academic groups. Its standout features are real-time co-editing, GitHub synchronisation, GitHub Flavoured Markdown support, UML diagrams, math equations via MathJax and KaTeX, presentation mode via reveal.js, and a Book Mode for organising multiple notes into a structured document. It is entirely web-based; there is no official native desktop app. Team plans start at $5 per user per month.

AnySlate is a professional Markdown writing workspace built for serious long-form writing and technical documentation. It runs natively on Mac, Windows, Linux, and in any browser, all under one subscription. Every document is saved as a portable plain .md file. The Professional plan at $60 per year includes real-time collaboration, an AI writing assistant, native MCP integration so AI tools like Claude and Cursor can read and write your documents directly, web publishing with custom CSS, version history, and 100GB of storage.

Head to Head: The Features That Matter for the Dev Team
Feature

HackMD

AnySlate

Platform

Browser only, no official native desktop app

Mac, Windows, Linux, and browser, all in one plan

Real-time collaboration

Yes, core feature, live cursors, colour-coded contributors

Yes, on Professional plan, live cursors

File format

Markdown stored on HackMD servers

Plain .md files, portable, yours to keep

GitHub integration

Yes, push and pull docs directly from repositories

Not natively, files are portable and Git-compatible

AI integration (MCP)

No MCP support

Native MCP, Claude and Cursor read and write docs directly

AI writing assistant

No built-in AI assistant

Yes, built into the Professional plan

Diagrams

Yes, UML, Mermaid, Graphviz, music notation

Yes, code and diagrams supported

Math equations

Yes, MathJax and KaTeX

Yes, LaTeX math rendering

Version history

Yes, available on paid plans

Yes, on Professional plan

Web publishing

Yes, publish notes publicly, Book Mode for structured docs

Yes, with custom CSS control

Pricing

$5 per user per month for team plans

$60 per year flat, all features, all platforms

Free plan

Yes, unlimited notes, up to 3 teammates

Yes, core editor, all 4 platforms, 50MB storage

Desktop app

No official native app

Yes, native Mac, Windows, Linux apps

Mobile app

No native mobile app

No mobile app currently

Where HackMD Has the Edge
HackMD's GitHub integration is genuinely strong. If your team's documentation lives in a repository and you want to push and pull docs directly from GitHub without any extra setup, HackMD handles that natively. For open-source projects and teams already deep in a GitHub workflow, that integration removes real friction.

The presentation mode is also a legitimate differentiator. Turning a Markdown document into a reveal.js slide deck directly in HackMD, without exporting or using a separate tool, is a workflow that technical teams who present specs or architecture reviews will find genuinely useful.

And the free plan is generous for small teams. Up to three teammates, unlimited notes, and a solid editing experience at no cost makes HackMD worth trying before committing to a paid plan.

HackMD is best understood as Google Docs for Markdown, fast, browser-based, and built for real-time collaboration on technical content. If your team lives in GitHub and the browser, it fits well with that workflow.

Where AnySlate Has the Edge
The biggest structural difference is the file format. HackMD stores your documents on its servers. AnySlate saves every document as a plain .md file that lives wherever you choose: your machine, a shared folder, or a repository. You can open it in any editor on any device, pass it to any AI tool, commit it to Git, or simply keep it forever without worrying about what happens to the service. There is no export step. There is no lock-in.

The native desktop app matters more than it sounds. A browser tab and a native app behave differently in terms of startup time, keyboard shortcuts, offline reliability, and system integration. For developers who are already context-switching between terminal, editor, and browser all day, having the writing tool as a proper desktop application rather than another browser tab reduces friction in a way that is hard to quantify but easy to feel.

The MCP integration is the most forward-looking differentiator. HackMD has no MCP support. AnySlate connects natively to AI tools like Claude and Cursor via MCP, meaning your agent can read your documentation, write to it, and keep it current as part of your normal workflow, without copy-paste, without switching apps. For teams already using AI coding assistants, this is not a nice-to-have. It is the feature that changes how documentation fits into the development process.

The question is not just which tool is better today. It is about which tool best fits how teams will work in two years, where AI agents are part of every workflow, and the format in which your docs live determines whether those agents can help.

The Pricing Reality for Growing Teams
This is where the comparison gets concrete. HackMD charges $5 per user per month for team plans. AnySlate charges $60 per year flat, regardless of how many people on your team use it.

For five people, HackMD costs $300 per year. AnySlate costs $60. For ten people, HackMD costs $600 per year. AnySlate still costs $60. The gap widens with every team member added. For a small dev team of five to fifteen people, this is not a marginal difference; it is a significant budget decision.

HackMD's free plan is generous enough for very small teams or individual use. But as soon as you need team features at scale, the per-user pricing compounds quickly.

The One Thing to Take Away
HackMD is a well-built tool with a clear strength: browser-based real-time collaboration with GitHub integration. If that is your primary need and your team is small enough that the per-user pricing works, it is worth using.

AnySlate is built for teams where the writing environment needs to be more than a browser tab, where files need to be portable and AI-readable, where the tool needs to work natively on every platform the team uses, and where pricing should not penalise growth. The $60 flat annual price, native MCP support, native desktop apps, and the plain .md file format are not bolt-on features; they are the product's founding design decisions.

Both tools are free to start. Try HackMD at hackmd.io and AnySlate at anyslate.io; no account needed for the AnySlate desktop app.