When comparing Hammerspoon vs Byword, the Slant community recommends Byword for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” Byword is ranked 33rd while Hammerspoon is ranked 38th.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro 1512 issues are closed in the download page in GitHub
https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/issues
They do fix issues that come from the community.
Pro Deeply customizable
Hammerspoon's Lua scripting and broad API allows you to perform any action you can imagine on your mac. It hooks into many OS APIs directly and has some high-level APIs to manipulate things like Spotify or iTunes. See the full list here.

Pro Automate actions based on the operating system
Hammerspoon lets you hook into OS level events and trigger any action you can imagine. From setting up a simple keyboard shortcut to launching a complex workflow using multiple apps and scripts.
Pro Word count support
Pro A dark theme is available
Pro Can publish directly to external services
Pro Can export to html, pdf, rtf
In addition to plaintext, Byword can export to HTML, PDF, RTF.
Pro Exemplary Markdown support
Byword de-emphasizes the syntax itself, while emphasizing its effects. It appropriately adds style, like italic and bold, to text that's designated by markdown and dims the syntax so it does not getting in the way of comprehension. Additionally, there are commonly used hotkeys (⌘b, ⌘i, etc) that can be used to apply style without having to know the syntax or having to type it out each time.
Pro Includes features that speed up writing
For example, while authoring a bulleted list hitting return automatically prepares a new bulleted line.
Pro Available for all Apple devices
Byword is available on a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad.
Pro Syncs using iCloud and Dropbox
Documents can be synced using iCloud or Dropbox from within the editor for use across all devices.
Pro Live update support
Cons
Con Has 324 issues on their download page in GitHub
https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/issues
I can not list all the issues.
Con Some knowledge of programming required
Hammerspoon is scripted in the Lua programming language, and some familiarity with programming in general will be needed to use it. Some plugins exist that can be used by adding some files to a specific folder, but this will not give the flexibility that is so key to Hammerspoon
Con No Windows or Linux versions
