I Built a Free Markdown-to-HTML Converter (Because Bear Costs $50/Year)

If you've ever needed to convert Markdown to HTML, you probably did one of three things:

1. Opened a terminal and ran pandoc input.md -o output.html
2. Pasted your Markdown into Notion and exported it
3. Paid $50/year for Bear and hoped the export feature would work

None of those are great. So I built something better.

Meet md-to-html

md-to-html is a browser-based Markdown to HTML converter that does one thing and does it well:

• Paste or type Markdown on the left
• See live HTML preview on the right (debounced at 150ms)
• Copy HTML to clipboard with one click
• Download as a standalone .html file with embedded CSS
• Drag & drop .md files directly into the editor
• Dark mode that respects your system preference

Everything runs client-side. Your content never touches a server.

Why This Exists

The incumbents in this space are expensive or bloated:

Tool	Price	Problem
Bear	$50/year	Overkill for conversion. macOS/iOS only. Apple ID required.
Notion	$8-10/month	You're paying for a wiki to paste Markdown. Telemetry-heavy.
Typora	$15 one-time	Desktop app. Good, but why install anything for a simple conversion?
Online converters	Free	Upload your content to someone else's server. Privacy nightmare.

md-to-html is free at its core. No signup. No install. No telemetry. If you want premium features (custom CSS themes, template save/load, batch convert), it's $9 one-time — not $50/year, not $10/month.

How It Works

Zero build step. Zero dependencies to install. The entire app is a single index.html file that loads marked from a CDN and goes.

The editor uses a textarea with monospace font. The preview renders GFM-flavored Markdown with sensible default styles. The download wraps your HTML in a complete document with embedded CSS.

That's it. The best code is the code never written — and the best converter is the one that runs in your browser.

Premium Features ($9 One-Time)

The core conversion is free forever. Premium unlocks:

• Custom CSS themes — swap the default stylesheet for something that matches your brand
• Template save/load — save your favorite configurations and come back to them
• Batch convert — drop a folder of .md files and get HTMLs for all of them
• No watermark — exported HTMLs won't have the "Made with md-to-html" footer

Compare that to Bear's $50/year for... tagging and a nice UI. Your call.

Try It

Head over to md.jackgreen.top and paste some Markdown. No account needed. Works on any device with a browser.

And if you like it and want the premium features, grab them for $9. One time. Not a subscription.

Built with love (and a healthy dose of frustration at $50/year markdown editors).