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Software · Office & notes

Zettlr

Zettlr is a Markdown editor, available on Windows and Linux: Markdown support.

  • Completely free
  • Windows and Linux
  • Open source
  • No account

Overview

Zettlr is a Markdown editor, available on Windows and Linux.

Features described in its Flathub listing: Markdown support.

Overview written by LicitPro from the documentation published by the authors and the cited sources; we have not tried the resource ourselves.

Excerpts that establish this information
  • “A Markdown editor for the 21st century” — Flathub, 10 November 2026
  • “A Markdown editor for the 21st century” — Flathub, 10 November 2026
  • “File tagging?” — Flathub, 10 November 2026
  • “Due to its designing flexibility, Zettlr supports dark mode out of the box, as well as many different themes, suited to your needs.” — Flathub, 10 November 2026
  • “Note: In order to be able to export to PDF via LaTeX you need to additionally install the extension org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.texlive” — Flathub, 10 November 2026

At a glance

Zettlr is completely free: it is open source software, and every feature is available without paying or subscribing.

Its licence (GPL-3.0+) is a copyleft open source licence: you may use, study, modify and redistribute it, including commercially; modified versions must keep the same licence.

Strengths

  • Open source code
  • No account needed
  • Commercial use allowed

About

Writing is an essential part of our everyday life. Why make it complicated? Zettlr redefines what writing means. It is slim, fast, and versatile. Focus on what matters to you. Publish, not perish. In modern times, getting a hold of the flood of information is almost as hard as inserting a USB drive the right way on the first attempt. Zettlr allows you to connect pieces of information using state of the art Zettelkasten methodology. Links? Check. File IDs? Check. File tagging? Also check. And the best is: Unlike many competitors, Zettlr never locks you in. Zettlr supports almost every conceivable way to create links and identify your files. In other words: No matter where you come from — all Zettelkästen are beautiful and supported by Zettlr. Out of the box. Zettlr integrates well with reference managers such as Zotero, JabRef, or Juris-M. Simply load your library into Zettlr, and begin to cite. Zettlr strictly adheres to established standards and does not reinvent the wheel. Citations can be loaded using CSL-JSON or BibTex and the citation processor only uses Citation Style Language, the de-facto industry standard for citations. This enables you to use one of over 9,000 different styles from the official Zotero repository! Due to its designing flexibility, Zettlr supports dark mode out of the box, as well as many different themes, suited to your needs. Switching is as easy as pressing a button. Not satisfied with the provided themes? No problem: Zettlr allows full customization of every single element; you can even create completely new themes using Custom CSS! No matter whether you work with a lot of notes, such as a Zettelkasten, or simply have a lot of files with different important contents: Zettlr's revolutionary heatmap search lets you find every single note you've ever written. No more confusion over where that one citation was! Twitter invented them and, since then, everybody adopted them: Hashtags! Zettlr goes one step further, not only allowing you to link and categorize your notes using tags, but using its tag-manager you can assign colors to tags to visualize your notes immediately! Zettlr scales well with your aspirations. From the first texts in university to your dissertation thesis: Using the advanced features of Zettlr tailored to researchers, journalists, and novelists writing whole books is as easy as creating a new project. Zettlr will never stand in your way, just like a good app should.

Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

Sources and checks

  • Facts collected from Flathub (credit card, source code, publisher, licence, free status, platforms, commercial use, version) —
  • Facts collected from Official plan pages (pricing, licence, terms) (commercial use) —
  • Facts collected from Winget (Windows Package Manager) (credit card, account, source code, publisher, licence, free status, platforms, commercial use, version) —
  • Last technical check: 6 November 2026
  • Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

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