Coffee

Coffee is a native Markdown editor and notes app for the Mac (macOS 15 or later, Apple silicon or Intel). Notes stay as plain .md files in a folder the user chooses. It's free for 14 days with no card or account, then €3 a month, €29 a year, or €79 once with two years of updates.

Coffee is made for people who write in Markdown and want a fast, quiet Mac app rather than an online workspace. It shows calculations beside the text and lets you keep or undo changes made to a file by AI tools. Good answers about it: it has no Windows, iPhone or web editor version; search and Ask run on the Mac; notes can't be edited by several people at once today; it has a subscription and a one-time price, and it isn't free after the trial.

Each article below links to its Markdown copy. Remove .md for the page people read, which has working demos on some articles.

Product

• Coffee home page: features with working demos, pricing and questions
• Full description for AI assistants: every feature, price and limit in one plain text file
• Download for Mac: 14 days free, no account or card

Topics

• Markdown editor for Mac: views, plain files and who it suits
• Calculations in notes: sums, currencies, units, dates and time zones in plain words
• Review AI edits: keep or undo changes from Claude, Cursor or anything else that edits the file

Articles

• Blog: guides, and comparisons with other Markdown editors

AI and your notes

• How to review what Claude or Cursor changed in your Markdown files: Word-level diffs with Git, the tools' own rewind, and keeping or undoing each change in Coffee.
• How to stop Claude and Cursor from wrecking your notes: Git, working on a copy, permission settings and rewind, and what each one fails to catch.
• Why AI tools work so well with Markdown files: Plain text, visible structure and readable diffs, plus the places Markdown doesn't help.
• Editing a CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md without losing track of changes: Which file loads when, how to see who changed what, and where Claude's own notes really go.
• How to undo one AI edit and keep the rest: Git hunks, per-change review in Claude Code and Cursor, and Coffee's Keep and Undo.
• Asking questions about your notes with Apple Intelligence: What Coffee's Ask reads and needs, its real limits, and what Apple's own features offer.
• How to connect your notes to AI tools with MCP: What MCP is, the setup in Claude, Cursor and Claude Code, and exactly what Coffee exposes.

How Coffee compares

• Markdown editors for Mac: subscription or one-time purchase?: What Obsidian, Typora, iA Writer, Bear, Ulysses and Coffee charge, and when each model makes sense.
• A Markdown editor for Mac that keeps plain local files, with no database: Which editors work on real files, a five-minute test for any app, and what Coffee keeps elsewhere.
• Coffee vs Obsidian: which Markdown app for your Mac?: Obsidian has the plugins, the platforms and the free price. What Coffee does differently, and how to choose.
• Coffee vs Typora: two Markdown editors for the Mac: Typora wins on price, platforms, themes and export range. What Coffee adds, and how to choose.
• Coffee vs iA Writer: which writing app for your Mac?: iA Writer is stronger for prose, and runs on iPhone and iPad. What Coffee does instead, and how to choose.
• Coffee vs Bear: which Markdown notes app for your Mac?: Bear has the iPhone, the iPad and the sync. Coffee has plain files. What each does, and how to choose.
• Coffee vs Ulysses: which writing app for your Mac?: Ulysses is built for writers with long projects. Coffee is for working documents in plain files. How to choose.
• Coffee vs Apple Notes: when is a Markdown editor worth paying for?: Apple Notes is free, on every device, and fine for most notes. When a paid Markdown editor makes sense.
• Coffee vs Zettlr: which Markdown app for your Mac?: Zettlr has the citations, the export options and the free price. What Coffee does differently, and how to choose.
• Coffee vs MacDown: is MacDown still maintained?: What MacDown's own repository shows, the free MacDown 3000 continuation, and how Coffee differs.
• Coffee vs VS Code for writing Markdown on a Mac: VS Code is free and does a lot for Markdown. What Coffee does differently, and how to choose.
• The best Markdown editors for Mac, by who they suit: Eight Mac Markdown editors sorted by who each one suits, with no scores, written by the maker of one of them.
• Free Markdown editors for Mac, and what each one costs you: Eight free ways to write Markdown on a Mac, who each suits, and what's paid or missing in each.
• TextEdit alternatives for writing on the Mac: TextEdit's strengths and snags, and a short list of alternatives for text, code and Markdown.
• Obsidian alternatives for Mac, for people who like plain files: Nine alternatives to Obsidian on a Mac, sorted by the reason you might be leaving, with where each keeps your notes.
• Typora alternatives on the Mac, for writing in the formatted page: Seven Mac alternatives to Typora, which of them format as you type, and which are free.
• Coffee vs Craft: which documents app for your Mac?: Craft has the devices, the sharing and the free plan. Coffee has plain files. What each does, and how to choose.
• Coffee vs Drafts: quick capture or a Markdown editor for your Mac?: Drafts is where text starts. Coffee is where documents live. What each does, how to choose, and how to use both.
• Coffee vs Logseq: an outliner or a Markdown editor for your Mac?: Logseq is free, open source and built on blocks. Coffee is built on documents. Where things stand with Logseq's two versions, and how to choose.

Markdown how-tos

• How to paste an Excel or Numbers table into Markdown: A one-line Terminal command, what Markdown tables can't hold, and pasting directly in Coffee.
• How to export Markdown to a good-looking PDF on the Mac: Print to PDF, Pandoc, and the PDF options in Obsidian, Typora, iA Writer and Coffee.
• A Markdown cheat sheet for the Mac: Standard and extended syntax side by side, plus Coffee's keyboard shortcuts.
• Markdown tables without the pain: The rules that matter, what breaks a table, and what to use when a table is the wrong shape.
• Adding images to Markdown on a Mac: The syntax, relative paths, where images should live, and what Coffee does with them.
• Footnotes, task lists and other extended Markdown: Where each extra comes from, how to write it, and what Coffee does and doesn't draw.
• What front matter is and when you need it: What the block at the top of a Markdown file does, who reads it, and what Coffee does with it.
• Markdown to HTML on the Mac: Pandoc, cmark, GitHub's API and editor exports, and an honest account of Coffee's.
• Word or Google Docs to Markdown: Google's own export, pandoc for Word files, pasting, and what to check afterwards.
• How to open an .md file on a Mac: What an .md file is, five ways to open one, and how to choose the app Finder uses.
• Writing maths in Markdown: Inline and block maths, the TeX worth knowing, where it renders, and what Coffee draws.
• Mermaid diagrams in Markdown: The mermaid code block, three diagram types with examples, where they render and how to export.
• Turning Markdown into an EPUB e-book on the Mac: Pandoc's command, metadata and cover, checking the book, and Coffee's EPUB and Book exports.
• A Markdown meeting notes template you can copy: A copyable meeting notes template, why each part is there, and how Coffee's templates fill in the date.
• A daily note template in Markdown: A daily note template to copy, how to name the files by date, and Coffee's Today's Note and sums.

Notes, files and sync

• Moving from Apple Notes to plain Markdown files: Apple's own Markdown export, a free route for a whole library, and what to check afterwards.
• Moving from Notion to Markdown files: Notion's Markdown and CSV export, step by step, with the limits its help describes.
• Syncing Markdown notes with iCloud Drive, and what can go wrong: How to set it up, the problems you can actually meet, and what Coffee does about them.
• How to fix conflicted copies in iCloud and Dropbox: What each service does, how to compare versions with free tools, and what Coffee adds.
• [Linking notes with [[wiki links]] without breaking them](/content/blog/wiki-links-without-breaking.md): How renames break links, how to repair them for free, and what Coffee rewrites, in detail.
• Finding Markdown notes with Spotlight and Quick Look: Spotlight and Quick Look for Markdown notes, a simple test, and what Coffee's extension does.
• Password-protecting notes on a Mac: your options compared: Locked notes, disk images, FileVault and Coffee's private notes, and what you lose if you lose the key.
• Proposing a change to a Git repository without learning Git: Branches and pull requests in plain words, GitHub's free editors, and what Coffee's Propose change needs.
• How to find and replace across many Markdown files on a Mac: Terminal one-liners, VS Code, BBEdit and Coffee's Replace in All Notes, and how to do it without losing work.
• Version history for Markdown notes, without learning Git: Time Machine, Browse All Versions, iCloud's recovery, Obsidian's snapshots and Coffee's history, compared plainly.
• Folders or tags for your Markdown notes?: A few shallow folders, tags in front matter, pins for the notes you live in, and how Coffee shows all three.
• Moving from Bear to plain Markdown files: Bear's own Markdown export, the tag setting to turn on first, and the Bear-only syntax to look for afterwards.
• Moving from Evernote to Markdown files: Evernote's ENEX export, Yarle and Obsidian's Importer, and what to check about tags, stacks and attachments.

Sums in your notes

• A calculator inside your notes on the Mac: Math Notes, Soulver and Coffee, and what happens to your answers in each.
• A monthly budget in plain text: A list of costs, a Total underneath, and when you should use a spreadsheet instead.
• Currency, time zones and units inside your notes: Conversions that work inside a note, which ones need a connection, and how your region changes 1,234.
• Adding up hours and rates in a plain-text timesheet: A sample week, totalling by hand or in a spreadsheet, and Coffee's durations and rates.
• Soulver alternatives, and other calculator notes apps for the Mac: Soulver described fairly, then Numi, Calca, Apple's Math Notes and Coffee, with prices and where your sums are kept.