Byword 2 vs OmmWriter

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 get 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.

Byword is available on a Mac, an iPhone and iPad.

Byword is as simple as Markdown editors can get. Even though Markdown itself is not hard, Byword offers assistance to make it even easier with very little configuration required.

The UI is minimalistic and un-intrusive, the syntax auto-completion is excellent, and there are multiple small but helpful features that make writing Markdown with Byword a breeze.

Documents can be synced using iCloud or Dropbox from within the editor for use across all devices.

Byword allows users to publish their markdown files directly to web platforms such as Wordpress, Tumblr, Blogger and even Evernote.

Has a built-in word counter.

You can export to HTML, PDF, RTF.

For people who enjoy working during the night, there's a dark theme available that reduces strain on the eyes.

For example, while authoring a bulleted list hitting return automatically prepares a new bulleted line.

Byword has a "Preview Markdown" option where it does exactly what it promises. It immediately compiles and displays the rendered Markdown file, making it easy for the user to understand how they are actually formatting their document.

Byword supports all the table types in Multimarkdown including table captions. MathJax support is added via metadata at the beginning of file was well as support for various diagrams. Table of Contents is also supported.

One of the few (well, Ok, only for far) that has been updated for Yosemite features. Jan 2015.

Byword gets frequent updates which add new features or fix existing bugs.

OmmWriter's greatest strength lies in a great selection of pleasant visual designs (images, photographs and chromatherapy backgrounds) and immersive music that can change the look and feel of the writer allowing to create desired ambiance. The backgrounds choices are calm and unobtrusive and the ambient music options are enveloping. You can even choose to replace keyboard strokes with different kinds of sounds. These elements, together with a clean design, create a feeling of a space that's separate from all distractions found in world around you.

OmmWriter can save to plaintext files (.omm and .txt are both plaintext, only the extension is different) and PDF documents.

OmmWriter is available for OS X 10.5+, Windows XP - 7 and iPad iOS 3.2+.