When comparing MarkdownPad vs iA Writer, the Slant community recommends iA Writer for most people. In the question“What are the best open source Markdown editors for UNIX-like systems?” iA Writer is ranked 31st while MarkdownPad is ranked 36th. The most important reason people chose iA Writer is:
The Noise Free Writing Experience is one of the first approaches to create a first class distraction-free environment. The feature hides the Mac program bar when you start writing.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Allows customizing output
A custom CSS can be added to the rendered HTML to change the preview and output.
Pro Real-time HTML Preview
MarkdownPad is split in two panes. One pane is used for writing Markdown, the other shows the rendered HTML as it's written.
Pro Noise Free Writing Experience removes even the program bar
The Noise Free Writing Experience is one of the first approaches to create a first class distraction-free environment. The feature hides the Mac program bar when you start writing.
Pro A mode that brings focus to the sentence you're working on
Enabling Focus Mode will dim the whole text except the sentence you are currently writing on.
Pro Can tell how long it would take to read through what you've written
Pro Markdown support
Pro Syncs using iCloud and Dropbox
iA Writer can sync documents using iCloud or Dropbox from within the editor for use across multiple devices.
Pro Create whole document by including separate images/markdown docs
This is new and very awesome feature in iA Writer 4.0.
Pro Can export a Word document
Pro Available for all Apple devices
iA Writer is available for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Cons
Con Many features are disabled in the free version
Free version lacks features like auto-save, PDF export, Markdown tables among many others and can't be used commercially.
Con Abandoned project
Nothing from author since 03/15. Pro version preview pane crashes, no fix has been offered. See user forums.