HackMD vs Vela Docs vs HedgeDoc in 2026

Three browser-based collaborative Markdown editors. Same underlying CRDT idea. Different teams, different defaults, different reasons to pick each. This post is the version of the comparison we wish existed when we were building Vela Docs, clear about who each tool fits.

If you're skimming: HackMD for technical teams who want MathJax / Mermaid / slides in one place and don't mind the signup wall. HedgeDoc if you want to self-host the same workflow. Vela Docs when the file came from an AI assistant and you want to share it with a non-developer in one click.

The short story of how each got here

HackMD came out of Taiwan in 2015 as CodiMD. It was the first widely-used real-time collaborative Markdown editor in the browser. The team built it for engineers writing technical specs and meeting notes together. The commercial version, hosted by the HackMD team, has stayed loyal to that audience: powerful, technical, dual-pane source + preview, lots of integrations.

HedgeDoc is the open-source fork of CodiMD. In 2020, after a governance disagreement, the community forked the codebase and renamed it. HedgeDoc is free, self-hostable, and developed by an open-source community. The editing experience tracks HackMD closely because they share an ancestor.

Vela Docs is the newcomer. We started building it in early 2026 because we kept watching non-technical colleagues struggle to open the .md and .html files AI assistants were handing them. The wedge isn't "a better Markdown editor for developers", it's "the easiest way for non-developers to read or share an AI-generated file."

Feature parity (the boring middle)

All three handle the same core job. Real-time co-editing with cursors. Inline comments anchored to text ranges. Threading, reply, resolve. Share-by-link with role control. GitHub-flavored Markdown including tables, task lists, fenced code blocks. Export to clean .md. If your requirements stop here, all three work.

Where they differ

Signup friction

HackMD requires an account for both authoring and viewing. HedgeDoc's signup requirements depend on how the instance is configured (some allow guest-read, most require login). Vela Docs lets anyone-with-link view without an account; sign-in (one-click Google or magic-link email) is only needed to edit, comment, or share.

For technical teams this rarely matters. For non-technical collaborators, the marketer reviewing your one-pager, the founder you're asking for sign-off, it's the difference between getting feedback and not.

Drop-a-file flow

HackMD and HedgeDoc both support importing .md files via menu actions. Vela Docs starts from the file: drag the file onto the page and it renders immediately. The difference is small in clicks but large in mindset , HackMD is a tool you write in, Vela Docs is a tool you arrive at with a file already in hand.

Technical-document features

HackMD wins this row decisively today. MathJax for LaTeX math. Mermaid for inline diagrams. Reveal.js for slide-presentation mode inside Markdown. UML, sequence, and Graphviz integrations. If you're writing academic papers or technical RFCs, HackMD has the surface area you want.

Vela Docs doesn't have these. We focus on prose, review, and AI-output workflows. HTML decks get their own Present mode for slide-style files; math and Mermaid are not on the immediate roadmap.

Self-hosting

HedgeDoc is the obvious choice if your security or compliance posture requires the document data to stay on your infrastructure. The trade-off is operational time , you run the server. HackMD has a self-hosted enterprise tier. Vela Docs is managed SaaS only; self-hosting is not offered.

Local-first storage

Vela Docs's anonymous flow is local-first: your file lives in the browser's IndexedDB until you click Share. Nothing uploads automatically. HackMD and HedgeDoc upload from the first keystroke (HedgeDoc's "to your own server", HackMD's "to theirs"). For sensitive AI-generated drafts this matters.

Picking one

Pick HackMD if:

• Your team is engineers, scientists, or technical writers.
• You need MathJax, Mermaid, or first-class slide-presentation mode.
• You don't mind that every reader needs an account.
• You want a hosted service and don't want to run a server.

Pick HedgeDoc if:

• Self-hosting is a requirement.
• You want the HackMD-style workflow without the SaaS dependency.
• You have someone to maintain a small Node service.
• You want the option to fork or extend the editor itself.

Pick Vela Docs if:

• The file came from an AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Cursor) and you want to share it now.
• Your reviewers are non-developers who'd be slowed down by an account-creation step.
• You care about local-first storage for sensitive drafts.
• You also work with .html files, not just .md. Vela Docs handles both formats.

Using more than one

These tools aren't mutually exclusive. We've seen teams keep a HackMD instance for their internal engineering wiki and use Vela Docs for the customer-facing drafts that need non-technical review. Or run HedgeDoc for sensitive content and use Vela Docs for everything else. The .md format is portable; documents move between tools cleanly.

What's likely to change in 2026

All three are evolving fast. HackMD has been expanding AI-assistant integrations. HedgeDoc's roadmap targets performance and a modernized editor. Vela Docs is adding more comparison surface (we're shipping comments first, then suggest-mode review, then a programmatic API for embedding Vela Docs into other products). Re-read this comparison in six months and the rows that matter for your team may have moved.