sharemd.net vs HackMD vs Notion for sharing markdown
For sharing markdown, HackMD describes itself as a collaborative markdown workspace, with live editing and version history. Notion can publish pages to the web. sharemd.net is a no-account tool whose shared links expire after 15 days. The right choice depends on whether the document must last and be co-edited.
Statements about HackMD and Notion below come from their public pages, consulted on 2026-10-09, with the source linked next to each one. Plans and features change, so check those pages before deciding.
HackMD
HackMD describes itself as “Your Collaborative Markdown Workspace for Knowledge Sharing” and says “Every HackMD note is Markdown all the way down” (hackmd.io, as of 2026-10-09). Its home page lists live editing with multiple cursors, comments, version history and GitHub sync.
Sharing. Each note has separate read and write permissions. According to HackMD’s note permission documentation (as of 2026-10-09), when read access is set to signed-in users or everyone, anyone who knows the URL can view the note, and a note readable by everyone may be indexed by search engines. Specific people can be invited as admin, writable or readable collaborators, and an invitee needs an account with a verified email to accept.
Cost. HackMD’s pricing page (as of 2026-10-09) lists a free plan for up to 3 members that keeps the 10 most recent versions of a note, a Prime plan at $5 per seat per month with unlimited versions and PDF export, and an Enterprise plan priced on request.
Where HackMD does more. Co-editing a markdown document live, keeping its version history, syncing with GitHub. For a team that writes markdown together and keeps it, HackMD is built for that job, and sharemd.net is not.
Notion
Notion’s writing and editing basics article (as of 2026-10-09) says “Notion supports many Markdown shortcuts” while typing, and its export documentation (as of 2026-10-09) lists export of pages as Markdown, HTML and PDF.
Sharing. Notion’s web publishing documentation (as of 2026-10-09) describes publishing a page from Share, then Publish. Once published, “Anyone on the web can view it”. A “Discoverable on the web” toggle controls whether search engines can index it.
Cost. Notion’s pricing page (as of 2026-10-09) lists a free plan with 7 days of page history and up to 10 guests, a Plus plan at $10 per member per month, a Business plan at $20 per member per month and custom Enterprise pricing.
Where Notion does more. Guests, page history, export to Markdown, HTML and PDF, and published pages that can be made discoverable by search engines. If the shared document is part of a larger body of team knowledge, Notion keeps it in context.
sharemd.net
sharemd.net is narrower. You open the editor, paste markdown and select Share. There is no account and no signup, for the author or the reader, and it is free.
Sharing. Share produces a read-only link and a write link. Shared documents are not indexed by search engines and can be reached only by whoever has the link; anyone with the link can read. The read view renders tables, task lists, footnotes, code highlighting for 13 languages, Mermaid diagrams and KaTeX math. Raw HTML is not rendered. Besides the link, there is .md and .html export and Copy Formatted for pasting rich text elsewhere.
Lifespan. Documents expire 15 days after creation, and their content is deleted automatically. The reasoning is in why ephemeral documents.
Where it does less. No accounts, no comments, no version history, no real-time collaboration, no teams. Documents cannot be extended or deleted early, and a write link cannot be revoked today. Anything that needs to last has to move to another tool before it expires.
Side by side
| HackMD | Notion | sharemd.net | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account to read | Not needed for notes readable by everyone | Not needed for published pages | None |
| Version history | 10 versions free, unlimited on Prime | 7 days on the free plan | No |
| Search engine indexing | Possible for notes readable by everyone | Optional per published site | Never (noindex) |
| Price to start | Free plan | Free plan | Free |
Third-party columns are as of 2026-10-09, from the sources linked above.
Which one for which job
- Writing markdown with others, and keeping it: HackMD.
- A document that belongs in team knowledge, alongside other pages: Notion.
- Getting one rendered markdown document in front of someone today, without accounts, and not keeping it around: sharemd.net. This is the typical case for an AI answer, a draft, or notes for a meeting. The share markdown page has the editor ready.
The tools also combine. Share a draft on sharemd.net for a quick read, and once it is final, export the .md and move it into HackMD or Notion.