HackMD
HackMD is a real-time collaborative Markdown editing platform serving software teams, Web3 projects, and open-source communities. It offers a Markdown-native workspace with version control, GitHub sync, and AI-agent integration via REST API and MCP.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersDiego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What HackMD does
HackMD, Inc. is a Delaware-incorporated, venture-backed software company that operates a real-time collaborative Markdown editing platform used by over 1 million users across 170 countries. The platform is built on a Markdown-native architecture — content is authored, stored, versioned, and served in Markdown end to end — which the company positions as a shared context layer between human teams and AI agents. Core product features include multi-cursor real-time editing, full version history, comments and mentions, GitHub and GitLab bi-directional sync, Slide Mode (powered by reveal.js) for presentations, and Book Mode for compiling multi-note documentation sets. Developer-facing products include a REST API, a Python SDK, a command-line interface, a VSCode extension, and an MCP Server that allows AI agents (Claude, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible clients) to read, write, and manage notes programmatically.
The company generates revenue through a three-tier freemium subscription model: a Free tier (unlimited notes, up to 3 invitees, 400 API calls/month), a Prime tier at $5 per seat per month with annual billing and a 3-seat minimum (full-text search, unlimited invites, 20,000 API calls/month, PDF export), and an Enterprise tier with custom pricing that adds SSO (SAML/LDAP), role-based access control, custom domain, dedicated account manager, and priority support. Distribution is primarily product-led and self-serve through hackmd.io, with direct enterprise sales for larger deals, a non-profit sponsorship program, and developer-marketplace channels (npm, VSCode, MCP registry). Customer cohorts cluster in Web3/blockchain (Ethereum Foundation, Lido, Avalanche, Base), open-source foundations (OpenJS, Rust Foundation, SciPy, CD Foundation), developer communities and conferences (g0v, PyCon Taiwan, COSCUP, DevOpsDays), education (Brown University, Code Refinery), and AI/security startups (HashCloak/Stoffel Labs). Investors include Techstars, SevenX Ventures, Global Coin Research, AngelList, and Vitalik Buterin.
The company was founded in 2014 by Max Wu (CTO) and Jong-kai Yang (CEO), with additional co-founders Bo Hong Li (Architect) and Yukai Huang (Full-stack engineer), and originated from the Taiwan-based g0v civic-tech community. It operates with 11–50 employees and completed SOC 2 Type II certification in 2024, signaling a deliberate transition from community-led growth toward enterprise sales readiness.
HackMD firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- HackMD
- Legal name
- HackMD, Inc.
- Website
- https://hackmd.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- HackMD is a real-time collaborative Markdown editing platform serving software teams, Web3 projects, and open-source communities. It offers a Markdown-native workspace with version control, GitHub sync, and AI-agent integration via REST API and MCP.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
HackMD industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Collaborative Documentation Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital Experience Monitoring & Management (DEX/DEM, AIOps for EUC) (BPAEAIAF)
Keywords
Where HackMD is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Diego Garcia
- HQ country
- British Indian Ocean Territory
Markets served
HackMD business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription - Free Tier: Free plan providing unlimited notes, up to 3 invitees, 3 custom templates, GitHub integration (20 pushes/month), and basic features. Serves as the primary acquisition tier driving product-led growth and community adoption.
- Subscription - Prime Plan: Paid per-seat subscription at $5/seat/month (billed annually), providing full-text search, unlimited invites, unlimited versions, unlimited GitHub pushes, unlimited custom templates, 20K API calls/month, PDF export, and 20MB image upload support. Minimum 3 seats required.
- Subscription - Enterprise Plan: Custom-priced enterprise tier with role-based access control, SSO (SAML, LDAP, customized), custom domain, custom homepage, GitLab integration, custom payment methods, dedicated account manager, and priority support. Sold via direct sales with demo requests.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free plan for individuals and small teams |
| Subscription | Annual | Prime plan for growing teams |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Enterprise plan for organizations |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels10 records
HackMD product offering
Product offeringCore offering
HackMD is a real-time collaborative Markdown editor platform that lets teams, communities, and developers jointly author, version, and share documents. The product pairs live multi-cursor editing, comments, templates, version history, and presentation/book modes with deep GitHub/GitLab integration and an AI-agent interface exposed via REST API, CLI, and MCP server. It is delivered through a freemium SaaS model (Free, Prime per-seat, and Enterprise) sold via self-serve sign-up and direct enterprise sales.
Product overview
HackMD is a unified collaborative documentation platform centered on the HackMD core Markdown editor, which provides real-time collaborative editing with live preview. The platform offers multiple presentation modes including Slide Mode (powered by reveal.js for presentations) and Book Mode (for organizing multiple notes into comprehensive documentation). For developers, HackMD provides an API product with Swagger/Postman documentation, the hackmd-cli command-line tool, a VSCode extension for IDE integration, and an MCP Server enabling AI agents to generate and manage documentation. The platform integrates with GitHub and GitLab for version control, supports various OAuth providers for authentication, and enables embedding of external content like YouTube, Figma, and PDFs. Pricing tiers include Free, Prime ($5/seat/month), and Enterprise.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- HackMD Real-time collaborative Markdown editor platform for teams to write, document, and share knowledge. Supports live preview, multiple presentation modes (Slide Mode and Book Mode), GitHub/GitLab version control sync, comments and mentions, version history, AI agent integration via REST API/CLI/MCP server, and embeds for YouTube, Figma, and PDFs. Sold via three tiers: Free, Prime ($5/seat/month annually), and Enterprise (custom).
Quantifiable outcome
- Markdown content uses up to 80% fewer tokens than HTML for AI agent consumption, reducing compute costs
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use HackMD
Customer profileNamed customers19 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
HackMD technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration20 records
AI capability4 records
Feature8 records
HackMD partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
17 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- reveal.jscorereveal.js is integrated into HackMD's Slide Mode, enabling users to create presentation slides directly from Markdown notes. This integration allows seamless conversion of HackMD documents into browser-based presentations.
- GitHubcoreDeep bi-directional integration enabling note sync with GitHub repositories. Supports pushing notes to GitHub, pulling content, and GitHub Actions integration for automated documentation workflows.
- VSCodecoreOfficial HackMD extension for Visual Studio Code enables editing, syncing, and organizing HackMD notes directly within the VSCode IDE alongside code.
- Claude (Anthropic)coreHackMD is designed for seamless Claude integration, with content negotiation via HTTP Accept header allowing agents to request clean Markdown directly. Supports Claude Skills stored as Markdown in HackMD.
- CursorcoreHackMD integrates with Cursor AI coding tool, enabling agents to read and contribute Markdown content within the Cursor workflow.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)coreHackMD MCP Server enables AI agents to call tools, automatically generate and supplement content, and trigger workflows directly within HackMD's ecosystem.
- Ethereum (Sign-in with Ethereum)coreSign-in with Ethereum enables Web3 users to authenticate using Ethereum wallets, supporting the blockchain developer community and decentralized identity.
- PyCon TaiwancoreLong-standing partnership with PyCon Taiwan (2016-2025), where HackMD sponsors and hosts conference documentation. Featured as a major conference partner.
- COSCUP (Conference for Open Source Coders, Users & Promoters)coreMajor open-source conference partnership spanning 2017-2025, with HackMD hosting documentation and sponsoring the event.
- DevOpsDayscoreDevOpsDays Taipei partnership (2017-2025), with HackMD serving as documentation platform for the DevOps conference series.
- SITCON (Students' Information Technology Conference)coreStudent technology conference partnership spanning 2017-2025, supporting educational technology community with HackMD documentation tools.
- HITCONcoreMajor Taiwan cybersecurity conference partnership (2017-2025), with HackMD hosting event documentation.
- MOPCONcoreMobile Open Platform Conference partnership (2016-2024), supporting mobile developer community documentation needs.
- KubeSummitminorKubernetes conference partnership for 2025, supporting cloud-native developer community.
- Hello World Dev ConferenceminorDeveloper conference partnership for 2025.
- LaravelConf TaiwanminorPHP/Laravel conference partnership (2017-2021), supporting PHP developer community.
- Modern WebminorWeb development conference partnership (2017-2020), supporting frontend developer community.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
HackMD competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Confluence: Confluence is Atlassian's enterprise wiki and team documentation platform with massive enterprise install base. It competes with HackMD for technical team documentation, particularly in software organizations already standardized on Atlassian's ecosystem.
- Coda: Coda is a collaborative document platform combining docs, spreadsheets, and apps with strong automation features. It competes with HackMD for team documentation budgets, particularly among operations and product teams.
Direct peers
- Slab: Slab is a knowledge base for teams that combines a Markdown-style editor with rich search and verification workflows. It targets the same internal documentation use case as HackMD Enterprise, primarily within tech-forward mid-market companies.
- Outline: Outline is a team knowledge base built for speed and collaboration with Markdown editor. It targets similar SMB and team documentation use cases as HackMD's Prime tier with a self-host option and modern UX.
- Notion: Notion is the leading all-in-one collaborative workspace combining docs, wikis, and databases. It directly competes with HackMD for team documentation use cases but uses a block-based proprietary format rather than Markdown-native architecture.
- Logseq: Logseq is an open-source, local-first outliner and knowledge base built on Markdown and org-mode. It overlaps with HackMD for technical users and developers who prefer Markdown-native, privacy-respecting documentation tools.
- GitBook: GitBook is a documentation platform designed for technical teams with Git-based workflows and Markdown support. It competes with HackMD for API documentation and developer-focused team docs, with stronger product-led growth in SaaS companies.
- Obsidian: Obsidian is a Markdown-based knowledge management app popular with developers and researchers. It targets similar individual and small-team documentation use cases as HackMD but focuses on local-first, graph-based personal knowledge bases rather than real-time team collaboration.
- Slite: Slite is a collaborative knowledge base and team wiki focused on async-friendly documentation. It targets similar SMB documentation use cases as HackMD Prime with a streamlined editor experience and team-focused features.
Emerging players
- CodiMD: CodiMD is an open-source real-time collaborative Markdown editor forked from the original HackMD project. It is a free, self-hostable alternative that targets the same developer and community use cases as HackMD, with significant overlap in feature set.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
HackMD social profiles
Digital presenceHackMD compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
HackMD financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
HackMD leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
HackMD funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
HackMD M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about HackMD
What does HackMD do?
HackMD is a real-time collaborative Markdown editor platform that lets teams, communities, and developers jointly author, version, and share documents. The product pairs live multi-cursor editing, comments, templates, version history, and presentation/book modes with deep GitHub/GitLab integration and an AI-agent interface exposed via REST API, CLI, and MCP server. It is delivered through a freemium SaaS model (Free, Prime per-seat, and Enterprise) sold via self-serve sign-up and direct enterprise sales.
Is HackMD a public or private company?
HackMD is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was HackMD founded?
HackMD was founded in 2014. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is HackMD based?
HackMD is headquartered in Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory.
How does HackMD make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Subscription - Free Tier is the primary driver. The others are subscription - Prime Plan and subscription - Enterprise Plan.
Who are HackMD's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Confluence and Coda. Direct peers are Slab, Outline, Notion, Logseq, GitBook, Obsidian and Slite. CodiMD is listed as an emerging player.
Does HackMD have an API?
Yes. Public REST API for developers to build or automate using HackMD. Supports 1M+ API calls. Available via Swagger documentation and Postman. Developer documentation is at hackmd.io/@hackmd-api/home.
What industry is HackMD in?
HackMD's product category is Collaborative Documentation Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAEAIAF, Digital Experience Monitoring & Management (DEX/DEM, AIOps for EUC). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.