When comparing typora vs IntelliJ IDEA, the Slant community recommends typora for most people. In the question“What are the best Markdown editors for OS X?” typora is ranked 1st while IntelliJ IDEA is ranked 23rd. The most important reason people chose typora is:
Typora immediately renders what's typed on the screen in Markdown format. This helps users to have a better understanding of how their document is being formatted.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros

Pro Live preview
Typora immediately renders what's typed on the screen in Markdown format. This helps users to have a better understanding of how their document is being formatted.

Pro Hybrid interface
The editor and preview dual-pane setup typical of desktop Markdown editors are gone; instead, a singular interface makes for a WYSIWYG experience. This streamlines the workflow and encourages direct manipulation.

Pro Support for LaTeX expressions
It supports LaTeX expressions, with an easy-to-use MaxJax panel.

Pro Syntax highlight for fenced codes
It supports GFM's code fences, with syntax highlight support for C/C++, java, etc.

Pro Custom theme support
Typora has clean yet beautiful built-in themes and allows for users to create new themes using CSS.

Pro Support for tables
It supports tables for Markdown Extra. And also provides a GUI to make it easy to insert and edit them.

Pro Inline images
It won't display image like 
, But shows the image content inside the editor.
Pro Free during beta
Pro Shows table of contents for the document
It supports an outline for the document, by showing a table of contents on the left side of the screen.
Pro Cross-platform
Currently works on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Pro Natural typing experience
Editing in Markdown, either in WYSIWYG mode or in markdown code mode, feels natural. It never gets in the way.
Pro Make charts and diagrams with Mermaid, FlowChart and Sequence
Use fenced code-blocks to render diagrams using syntax from Mermaid and FlowChart.js.
Pro Sidebar with a list of files
You can open any folder in sidebar and see a list of other markdown files.
Pro Syncs with iCloud
Pro Great Java Support
Pro A good editor for test-driven development
IntelliJ IDEA is really easy to work with when it comes to test-driven development in Java and JavaScript/TypeScript.
Pro Great JavaScript support
Pro Markdown support with preview
Pro Supports PHP quite well
Pro Great TypeScript support
Really good support for importing classes, libraries, etc. into a typescript class. Making it easy to do TDD.
Pro Good BASH script support
Pro Angular CLI support
Pro Made by developers for developers
It can make one more efficient, but also can get one way too used to shortcuts, autocomplete, and easy debugging.
Cons
Con No mobile (Android/iOS) apps
Con In beta
Typora is still in beta and may be prone to changes or bugs.
Con Unusable image management
Con The immediate rendering of Markdown is hard on the eyes
Having Markdown immediately render causes text to jump into formatted text, which is distracting and hard on the eyes.
Con No portable version (Windows)
You need admin rights on a managed Windows computer to install it. There currently is no portable version available.
Con Is not free
But it does have a free version (Community Edition).
Con Heavy
Consumes more resources than VSCode etc. But depending on your use-case, it can still be worth it for the benefits you get with this editor.
Con Autocomplete does not work while IntelliJ is indexing
But this, in general, is not much of an issue. Usually after npm install, etc.
