When comparing Smartdown vs GhostWriter, the Slant community recommends GhostWriter for most people. In the question“What are the best open source Markdown editors for UNIX-like systems?” GhostWriter is ranked 22nd while Smartdown is ranked 33rd. The most important reason people chose GhostWriter is:
Minimalist interface, full screen writing and "Hemingway Mode" (which disables backspace to enforce writing rather than editing).
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Pros
Pro Integrated file library
You can add directories to the sidebar. These directories can be from cloud services (like Dropbox for example).
Pro Advanced Markdown support
Smartdown supports Critic Markup and MultiMarkdown flavors of Markdown that add advanced functionality, like tables, footnotes, etc.
Pro Customizable
The app can be themed and the layout can be changed around.
Pro Distraction-free
Minimalist interface, full screen writing and "Hemingway Mode" (which disables backspace to enforce writing rather than editing).
Pro Hemingway Mode
Prevents the use of backspace key to encourage forward momentum.
Pro Suitable for writing
Fast startup, resource light and encourages you to only write by Hemingway mode.
Pro Integration with Pandoc
Pandoc integration enables it to output various different formats.
Pro HTML preview
Pop-up rendered HTML preview window.
Pro Very fast
Native application wit Qt interface, very snappy.
Pro Themeable
Has a theme editor which allows for the creation of custom themes.
Pro HUD
There are various HUD windows which can show things such as document statistics and a Markdown cheat sheet.
Cons
Con Not Free
Smartdown costs $19.99.