The Markdown to HTML Converter transforms Markdown text into clean, semantic HTML ready to publish. Supports GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) — the flavor used by GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and most modern platforms — including tables, task lists, strikethrough, autolinks, and fenced code blocks with syntax highlighting. Paste any Markdown (from a README, a blog post, documentation, notes, GitHub issue) and instantly see the rendered HTML with proper headings, paragraphs, lists, links, images, tables, blockquotes, and code. Copy the HTML directly into your CMS, email template, or static site.

Markdown has become the de-facto writing format for developers, technical writers, and content creators. It's the input format for Jekyll, Hugo, Gatsby, Astro, Docusaurus, VuePress, Notion, Obsidian, Discord, Reddit, Stack Overflow — basically every modern content platform. But sometimes you need the HTML output — for email newsletters, CMS entries that don't accept Markdown, static HTML pages, or embedding in existing websites. This tool gives you the HTML with zero configuration. All conversion happens in your browser, so your drafts stay private.

Markdown is a plain-text formatting syntax created by John Gruber in 2004. Multiple flavors exist:

- Original Markdown (2004) — basic syntax: headings, paragraphs, lists, links, emphasis, code.
- CommonMark (2014) — standardized specification, fixes ambiguities in original.
- GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) (2017) — CommonMark + tables, task lists, strikethrough, autolinks, emoji shortcodes.
- MultiMarkdown, Pandoc, MDX — extended variants with footnotes, citations, JSX embedding.

This tool uses GFM by default — the most widely-used flavor in 2026. It follows the GFM Spec.

Core syntax:

```
# Heading 1 → <h1>
## Heading 2 → <h2>
*italic* → <em>italic</em>
bold → <strong>bold</strong>
[link](url) → <a href="url">link</a>
 → <img src="image.png" alt="alt">

- bullet list
- item 2

1. numbered list
2. item 2

> blockquote

inline code
```

GFM extensions:

```
Tables:
| Col 1 | Col 2 |
|-------|-------|
| val | val |

Task lists:
- [x] Done
- [ ] Todo

Strikethrough:
~~deleted~~

Autolinks:
https://example.com (auto-linked)

Fenced code with language:
``js
console.log("hi");
`
``

Sanitization:

The converter uses DOMPurify to sanitize the output HTML, removing any <script> tags, on* event handlers, and other XSS vectors. Safe to render HTML from untrusted Markdown input (user comments, forum posts). No external resources are loaded during rendering.

Syntax highlighting:

Code blocks with a language tag ( `js ) are highlighted using highlight.js. Over 190 languages supported. The highlighted HTML includes CSS classes compatible with common themes (GitHub, Atom One, Dracula).

Markdown vs HTML: Markdown is for writing; HTML is for browsers. Markdown is faster to write, more readable in source form, and platform-portable. HTML is more expressive (can create any layout) but verbose and harder to write by hand.

CommonMark vs GFM: CommonMark is the standards-compliant spec. GFM adds GitHub's extensions (tables, task lists, strikethrough). For maximum portability, use CommonMark syntax. For rich formatting, use GFM — it's the de-facto standard.

Markdown vs AsciiDoc: AsciiDoc is more powerful — supports footnotes, cross-references, conditional content, complex tables. Used for technical books (O'Reilly) and complex documentation. Markdown is simpler and more ubiquitous. Most teams use Markdown unless they need AsciiDoc's extra features.

Markdown vs reStructuredText: reST is the Python community's choice (used for Sphinx docs). More powerful than Markdown, supports directives and roles. Learning curve is steeper; Markdown is easier. Pick reST if you're writing Python docs or long technical books.

Markdown vs MDX: MDX is Markdown + JSX. You can embed React components directly in Markdown. Used by Next.js sites, Docusaurus, and other JavaScript-first docs tools. Powerful but lock-in to the React ecosystem.

Markdown to HTML vs Markdown to PDF: For HTML output, use this tool. For PDF output, use Pandoc or a Markdown-to-PDF service. Some static site generators produce PDF directly from Markdown.