When comparing Focused vs Macchiato, the Slant community recommends Focused for most people. In the question“What are the best Markdown editors for OS X?” Focused is ranked 30th while Macchiato is ranked 31st. The most important reason people chose Focused is:
Focused's interface is quite minimalistic and allows you to focus on the writing and the writing only. There's nothing that may distract the user.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Distraction free writing experience
Focused's interface is quite minimalistic and allows you to focus on the writing and the writing only. There's nothing that may distract the user.
Pro Integrated Markdown viewer
You won't need an additional app to preview generated content.
Pro Stress-free writing
Very uncomplicated. Creates a stress free writing environment.
Pro Comes from a good stable
Developer has produced other well-designed and stable apps.
Pro Does not distract the user
Macchiato does not get in the way. It has a minimalist UI that highlights Markdown syntax.
Pro Support for latest Mac OSX features
Macchiato supports Mac OSX features like fullscreen mode, auto-save and version history.
Cons
Con Might be abandoned
There has not been any update for quite some time.
Con Clunky interface
The interface is somewhat clunky and using it just isn't all that enjoyable.
Con Cannot publish directly to wordpress or other blogging platforms
Con No footnotes support
Doesn't handle MultiMarkdown footnotes well - or at all.
Con The "music" won't be to everyone's tastes
Focused uses various soundtracks to keep the user focused on the writing. But these soundtracks are built-in and may not be liked by everyone.
Con Software is somewhat expensive and there's no trial version to test it out
Macchiato costs $19.99 and offers no way of testing the software before buying.