Home › Catalog › Markdown Tool › Why Forge Markdown

Markdown API vs Dillinger.io & StackEdit: API-First, Bidirectional

Dillinger.io and StackEdit are great editors — you open a tab, you write, you watch the preview update. The Forge Markdown API is something different: it is the conversion service you call from a CMS, a static-site build, a CI pipeline, or a script that needs to turn Markdown into HTML (or HTML back into Markdown) without a human in the loop.

Try the Markdown Tool →

The Quick Comparison

Feature	Forge Markdown	Dillinger.io / StackEdit
Live browser editor with preview	✓	✓
Free REST API for scripts & CI	✓ (`POST /markdown/to-html`)	×
HTML → Markdown reverse conversion	✓ (`POST /markdown/from-html`)	×
Word count + reading time as JSON	✓ (`POST /markdown/stats`)	× (UI counter only)
GFM extensions toggleable	✓ (fenced_code, tables, footnotes …)	partial / preset
Cloud-sync requirement (Google / Dropbox / OneDrive)	×	often prompted
Works without JavaScript	✓ (server renders)	× (client-side editor)
Cost	$0, no signup, no API key	$0 for the editor

Where Forge Markdown Wins

1. It is an API, not a single-tab editor

Dillinger and StackEdit are designed to be opened in a browser. There is no public REST endpoint you can call from a build script, a webhook, or a comment-rendering pipeline. Forge Markdown is the inverse: the editor at /tools/markdown is one client on top of an API anyone can call:

curl -X POST https://forge-node.tail2b516d.ts.net/markdown/to-html \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"markdown":"# Hello

World."}'

The response is a JSON object with the rendered HTML. Drop that into your CMS, your forum, your support tool, or your static-site build step.

2. HTML → Markdown is rare and useful

Most Markdown services are one-way: Markdown in, HTML out. Forge runs the reverse too:

curl -X POST https://forge-node.tail2b516d.ts.net/markdown/from-html \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"html":"<h1>Hello</h1><p>World.</p>"}'

That endpoint is what you reach for when a legacy CMS spits out HTML and you want to migrate the content into a Markdown-based store, or when an editor in your stack only exports HTML and you want a tidy diff in git instead of an exploded tag soup.

3. Word count and reading time as a service

Every editor shows a word count somewhere in the corner. Far fewer let you ask for one programmatically. POST /markdown/stats takes Markdown and returns a structured response with word count, character counts (with and without whitespace), heading counts, link counts, and an estimated reading time. Useful for content dashboards, editor plugins, and pre-publish gates ("is this post under 280 words?").

4. No cloud-sync gravity

StackEdit's onboarding nudges you toward Google Drive or Dropbox sync. Dillinger does similar with its own plugins. Forge Markdown does not store anything — you pass content in the body of a POST, you get the converted content back, and we keep nothing. For drafts that include unannounced product names or pre-publication content, that absence of cloud sync is the point.

When Dillinger or StackEdit Is Still Fine

You want a writing environment with cloud sync across devices and you are happy with the Google/Dropbox tie-in.
You want StackEdit's specific feature set (publication targets, document tree, Pandoc-style export from the UI).
You are looking for an editor experience, not a conversion endpoint.

Use Cases for Forge Markdown

Comment rendering. Send raw user-typed Markdown to /markdown/to-html, get sanitized HTML back, render it.
Content migration. Old CMS exports HTML; pipe each post through /markdown/from-html for a Markdown-first repo.
Pre-publish gates. Call /markdown/stats in CI; fail the build if a post is under 400 words or over 3000.
Newsletter pipelines. Write in Markdown; render to HTML at send time; keep the source in git.
Editor previews. Wire /markdown/preview into a textarea-based admin tool for an instant rendered preview without bundling a full Markdown library into the front-end.

FAQ

Is the Forge Markdown API really free?

Yes. No signup, no API key. We rate-limit per IP to keep abuse low; details in the Markdown API docs.

What Markdown flavor do you support?

CommonMark by default, with GitHub-Flavored Markdown extensions toggleable per request: fenced code blocks, tables, footnotes, task lists, and a few others. Pass an extensions array on the POST body to override defaults.

Do you store my Markdown?

No. Requests are processed in-memory and the response is returned synchronously. Standard nginx-style access logs (IP, path, status) capture the request shape but not the body content.

Where do I go next?

Try the Markdown tool, or browse the full free API catalog for 15 more developer APIs.