HedgeDoc
FreeOpen-source collaborative markdown editor
About HedgeDoc
HedgeDoc is an open-source collaborative markdown editor forked from HackMD in 2020 when the HackMD team went commercial. Built on Node.js with PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite support, it lets teams write and edit markdown simultaneously with real-time sync. Each document is an isolated pad with a shareable URL — think Google Docs for markdown. Around 10K GitHub stars. You get syntax highlighting, math rendering via MathJax, diagram support with Mermaid, and presentation mode. The permission system is granular: freely writable, owner-only, or signed-in users only. Authentication covers LDAP, GitHub, GitLab, SAML, and local accounts, but OAuth config takes trial and error to get right. Reddit users frequently note it's great for meeting notes and technical drafts but the lack of structured navigation means you end up with orphaned pads and no way to find them later. There's no full-text search across all documents. It's not a wiki — it's a shared scratchpad, and that distinction matters when evaluating it.
Key Features
Pricing Plans
Self-Hosted
- Unlimited users
- Real-time collaboration
- All features included
- Full data ownership
Pros
- Fully free and open-source
- Real-time editing
- Simple setup
- Good markdown support
Cons
- Self-hosting only
- Limited integrations
- Smaller community than alternatives
Best For
- Team meeting notes and agendas
- Technical documentation drafts
- Collaborative real-time markdown editing
- Teams already living in markdown
Not Ideal For
- Structured wikis or knowledge bases
- Solo note-taking or personal journals
- Long-term searchable document archives
Potential Deal Breakers
- No cross-document full-text search
- No wiki-style navigation or page linking
- OAuth configuration can break on version updates
Data & Privacy
Open-source collaborative Markdown editor. Self-hosted keeps all documents on your server. No telemetry. No cloud dependency. All documents exportable as Markdown.
Who Is This For?
Hands-on tested 2026-05
Signup Experience
Self-hosted via Docker — no external account needed. Guest editing works without login making it easy to share with collaborators. Setup takes under ten minutes with compose.
For Home Users
Great for individuals wanting self-hosted collaborative markdown. Diagram and math support make it more powerful than basic shared editors. Real-time collaboration works reliably.
For Business Users
Good fit for dev teams wanting shared markdown docs on their own infrastructure. Diagram support covers technical documentation needs. Simpler than a full wiki with lower maintenance overhead.
Our Verdict
HedgeDoc is the right tool for collaborative markdown editing, not for building a knowledge base. It works well for what it is. OAuth setup is finicky and there's no escaping the orphaned-pads problem without external tooling.