When comparing Focused 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 Focused is ranked 30th. 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 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 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 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 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.
