When comparing Manuskript vs hackmd.io, the Slant community recommends Manuskript for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform writing apps?” Manuskript is ranked 9th while hackmd.io is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Manuskript is:
Manuskript is totally free, and the software is accessible which means anybody can make changes to it if they wish . This means that there are likely plugins and/or add-ons to allow you to do whatever you want with the program.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free and open source
Manuskript is totally free, and the software is accessible which means anybody can make changes to it if they wish . This means that there are likely plugins and/or add-ons to allow you to do whatever you want with the program.
Pro Cross platform
Available on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Pro Many export formats
Using pandoc, one can export to: HTML, PDF, ePub, DocX, ODT, LaTeX, etc.
Pro Internal reference system to keep track of everything
Pro Collaborative
Allows multiple people to edit the same note in realtime.
Pro Automatic "table of content"
Automatically generates a "table of content" of your headlines.
Pro Supports revisions
Allows you to go back in time to a previous version of your document.
Pro Edit and view-only permission settings
Note: Enterprise Edition has even more refined permissions, but the permissions in the non-enterprise edition are pretty powerful.
Pro Shortcuts from Sublime Text, Emacs, and Vim
Pro Tag support
This is truly helpful for organizing your documents.
Pro Can create slide-shows
Supports creating slide-shows in markdown.
Pro Online
It's multi-platform (works well on smartphones) and there is no need to install anything.
Pro Math support
Use LaTeX seamlessly within the editor.
Pro Dark and white theme
Perfect for working at night.
Pro Lightweight
Pro Book mode view
This is really helpful for longer documents. Or even "books." This is also super helpful for journaling activities and the like.
Pro Available as a web service
HackMD service can be downloaded and installed in custom servers.
Pro Cross platform
Is available as desktop app.
Pro Dropbox import and export
Pro Extended markdown syntax
Adds supports for embeddings from Youtube, Vimeo, Speakerdeck, GitHub gist etc; and even creating UML diagrams, Graphviz graphs, Timing charts, and even Music notes! and alerts and comments boxes and emojis.
Pro Open source
HackMD Core's source is available on GitHub.
Pro Free
You can subscribe to it for more features.
Pro Github Gist import and export
People who subscribe can push and pull unlimited.
Pro Google Drive import and export
Cons
Con Not easy to get dictionaries
People not using English will struggle to find other dictionaries that work. There is not an easy download present.
Con Custom grammar and spell checker
It does not work well in French (and probably other languages).
Con Not as beautiful as StackEdit
Con Cannot organize notes
Doesn't have the ability to organize notes or create notebooks.
Con Slow servers / problem with online / offline switching
Servers can be slow / down for a few seconds preventing from working on the documents currently being edited.
Con No PDF export support
Con Tries to be smart
It guesses what you want to do and tries to help, often in a wrong and annoying way, for example it when working with list items. Ironically Markdown was built to solve those problems (you format yourself with simple codes and it just works).