A QLMarkdown alternative for macOS
QLMarkdown has been a free Markdown Quick Look extension since 2020, and it is still actively developed. Glance keeps the Finder convenience and changes what sits underneath: the page is drawn on your Mac without a web view, math and diagrams render offline from the first preview, and you can fix the line that's wrong.
Glance vs QLMarkdown
GlanceThe web view is the difference
QLMarkdown converts your document to HTML and hands it to Quick Look, which displays it in a web view. Everything else follows from that: the HTML has to be built, a web engine has to start, and the stylesheet decides what you see.
Glance parses the Markdown and draws it with Core Text and Core Graphics. Mermaid diagrams and LaTeX equations render to images before the first frame, so every block height is known up front and the document does not shift under you while it loads.
Offline from the first preview
Rendering math and diagrams in a web view means loading the JavaScript that does it. Since version 1.5.4, QLMarkdown bundles MathJax and Mermaid inside the app, which closed issue #158, but its default setting still links them from cdn.jsdelivr.net. Switch the setting to the embedded copies and it works offline too.
Glance has nothing to switch. Its renderers are part of the app, so a fresh install renders math and diagrams on a plane from the first preview. The only thing a preview ever fetches is an image the document links on the web.
Switch to native Markdown previews
Free to read, Pro to edit · v0.3.0 · 15.0 MB · macOS 14+
The part QLMarkdown will not do
QLMarkdown renders, and stops there. When the README is wrong you close the preview, find the file, open an editor, hunt for the line, change it, save, and go back.
Glance opens the same document in its own window and lets you click the sentence and type. Select text for a formatting toolbar, click a table cell and Tab through the row, or rewrite a Mermaid diagram on top of the diagram it draws. Glance saves plain Markdown, so your file stays a file that any other tool can read. The Quick Look preview itself stays read-only, which is how macOS intends it.
The rest of the window costs nothing: ⌘F searches with every match highlighted, ⌘P prints, ⇧⌘E exports a PDF that breaks between lines and table rows instead of through them, ⌘T opens another document in a tab, and pinching zooms around your pointer.
When you want the raw text, ⌘\ opens the Markdown in a pane beside the rendered page. The panes scroll together and both accept typing, so you can work in whichever one suits the change.
Where QLMarkdown is the better pick
It is GPL-3.0, so you can audit it, fork it, or fix it yourself, none of which Glance offers. It carries a deep settings panel for people who want to configure extensions, themes, and rendering behavior, where Glance ships one set of decisions and no options. Both are free to read with, and both are signed and notarized.
If you are switching
Install Glance and open it once, then switch the other Markdown Quick Look extension off in System Settings, under General, then Login Items & Extensions, then Quick Look. macOS answers with one renderer per file type, so leaving both on makes the result a coin toss. Full steps are on the preview Markdown in Finder guide.
For the wider picture, read the Markdown Quick Look for macOS overview, or compare against the paid preview app Marked. For editors rather than previewers, see Typora, MarkEdit, and the roundup of Mac Markdown apps.
FAQ
For the job you use it for, yes. Both add a Quick Look extension, so pressing Space on a .md file shows the rendered document. Glance draws the page with Core Text and Core Graphics rather than loading a web view, renders math and diagrams offline with no setting to change, and lets you edit the rendered page in its own window.
No. QLMarkdown is GPL-3.0 and you can read and fork every line of it. Glance is closed source, distributed as a Developer ID signed and notarized disk image. If auditable source is what you need, QLMarkdown is the better answer.
Yes, actively. QLMarkdown shipped five releases between September and October 2026, most recently version 1.5.7 on 2 October, and has thousands of users. Glance differs on how the rendering works and on what you can do once the document is open, not on whether the project is alive.
Keep one Markdown Quick Look extension enabled at a time. macOS picks a single renderer per file type, so with two installed you cannot predict which one answers. Switch the other off in System Settings, then General, then Login Items & Extensions, then Quick Look.
No. Install it, open it once, and previews work. QLMarkdown takes the opposite approach with a settings panel covering extensions, themes, and rendering options, which is a real advantage if you want that control.
Reading is free forever, the same as QLMarkdown. Editing the rendered page is Glance Pro, free for 14 days and then $9.99 once for up to three Macs.
Ready to glance?
Free to read, Pro to edit · v0.3.0 · 15.0 MB · macOS 14+
Notes
- Compared 13 October 2026 against QLMarkdown 1.5.7, released 2 October 2026. QLMarkdown is free and GPL-3.0 licensed. ↩
- Reading Glance is free with no account and no time limit. Editing is Glance Pro: free for 14 days, then a $9.99 one-time license covering up to three Macs. There is no subscription. ↩
- Since version 1.5.4, QLMarkdown ships MathJax and Mermaid inside the app, but its default setting still loads them from cdn.jsdelivr.net; a setting switches it to the embedded copies. Glance has no such setting: its renderers are part of the app and always used, so math and diagrams render without a connection from the first preview. ↩
- Download sizes measured 13 October 2026: Glance 15.0 MB, QLMarkdown 1.5.7 25.1 MB (QLMarkdown.zip). Both figures are the download, not the installed footprint, which varies by machine. ↩