When comparing Gingko vs Textnut, the Slant community recommends Textnut for most people. In the question“What are the best Markdown editors for OS X?” Textnut is ranked 26th while Gingko is ranked 28th. The most important reason people chose Textnut is:
TextNut has two modes that it can switch between on-the-fly - Markdown and rich text editing mode. In rich text editing mode Markdown syntax is automatically converted to rich text. For example, typing ```***bold***``` will automatically convert it to **bold**. In Markdown mode syntax will be kept (with chosen styling applied).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro You can customize colors
Pro Allows focusing on one piece of information at a time
Since Gingko documents are "trees", they are always organized on the go. And since everything is written in cards, it is possible to focus on one chunk of content at a time.
Pro Easy to overview
Despite the complexity of the tree structure, it's always clear where you are, and how to quickly add your thoughts.

Pro Markdown support
All formatting is done via Markdown.
Pro Non-linear
Non-linear notetaking allows you more flexibility, freedom and creativity.
Pro Can automatically convert Markdown to rich text
TextNut has two modes that it can switch between on-the-fly - Markdown and rich text editing mode. In rich text editing mode Markdown syntax is automatically converted to rich text. For example, typing ***bold***
will automatically convert it to bold. In Markdown mode syntax will be kept (with chosen styling applied).
Pro Advanced yet easy way to add images
Images can be added by writing a curly brace ({
) anywhere in the text and a popup will appear that will allow dragging and dropping the image in as well as customize the parameters without having to remember the proper syntax.
Pro Effectively does WYSIWYG editing
Pro Easy document management
Drag and Drop tree structure document management, powerful and flexible.
Cons
Con Limited free version
The free version is limited to 100 cards and 10 documents. Depending on how you use it, this might not be enough.
Con Rich text editing mode has incomplete Markdown support
Some Markdown elements don't convert to rich text in rich text editing mode. For example, for emphasis only *
will convert, _
will be left as is.
