Markdown to HTML

Markdown to HTML: See What Your Markdown Actually Renders

You write Markdown constantly — READMEs, docs, PR descriptions, blog posts. But every platform renders it slightly differently, and broken tables or malformed links are embarrassing in a public repo.

This Markdown to HTML converter shows you exactly what your Markdown produces. Paste it in, see the HTML, catch the issues before you push. No signup, no install — just paste and go.

What's actually happening

The tool takes your raw Markdown and runs it through a parser that converts the syntax into structured HTML. So this:

## Hello World
This is **bold** and this is *italic*.
- Item one
- Item two

Becomes this:

<h2>Hello World</h2>
<p>This is <strong>bold</strong> and this is <em>italic</em>.</p>
<ul>
<li>Item one</li>
<li>Item two</li>
</ul>

You can view the raw HTML or a rendered preview. Same data, two ways to look at it.

Using it

Type or paste Markdown on the left. The right panel updates in real time. Toggle between raw HTML and rendered preview. Hit Copy to grab the HTML output. Clear to reset.

When you'd actually reach for this

• You're previewing a README before pushing to GitHub and want to catch broken formatting
• You're writing docs for a static site (Astro, Hugo, Jekyll) and want to verify the HTML output
• You're drafting an HTML email from a Markdown template — write readable, convert, paste into your template
• You're testing how Markdown renders for a blog CMS, since different platforms parse things differently
• You've got a complex PR description with checklists, code blocks, and links, and want to make sure it looks right

Syntax you'll use 90% of the time

Code blocks use triple backticks with an optional language tag:

```javascript
const x = 42;
```

That produces <pre><code class="language-javascript"> — what syntax highlighters hook into.

CommonMark vs GFM — why flavor matters

CommonMark is the standardized spec. Gruber's original Markdown had ambiguities — different parsers handled edge cases differently. CommonMark, started in 2014, defines exact behavior for everything.

GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) extends CommonMark with tables (| col | col |), task lists (- [x] done), strikethrough (~~deleted~~), and autolinked URLs. If you're writing for GitHub, this is what you're using.

MDX lets you put React components inside Markdown — <Chart data={sales} /> inline. Popular with Next.js and Docusaurus.

Markdoc is Stripe's thing — tag-based extensions with built-in validation for large-scale docs.

Why does this matter? Because - [x] Task renders as a checkbox on GitHub but as literal text in a basic CommonMark parser. If your output looks wrong, check which flavor your target expects.

Troubleshooting

My line breaks aren't showing up — Markdown treats single newlines as spaces. You need either two trailing spaces at the end of a line (creates a <br>) or a blank line between paragraphs.

My list isn't rendering as a list — you need a blank line before the first list item. Also check indentation — nested lists need consistent spacing (2 or 4 spaces).

Inline code with backticks inside it — use double backticks: ``code with `backtick` inside``. The outer backticks delimit, the inner ones render literally.

My table looks broken — tables require a header separator row: | --- | --- |. Without it, most parsers won't recognize it as a table. Also, GFM tables don't work in basic CommonMark parsers.

Raw HTML isn't rendering — most Markdown parsers pass HTML through untouched, but some platforms sanitize it for security. GitHub strips <script>, <style>, and event handlers.

Special characters are being interpreted as formatting — escape them with backslash: \*, \#, \[. Works for all Markdown special characters.

What to do with the output

Copy the HTML into wherever you need it — email templates, static sites, CMS fields. If you're generating docs, pipe the HTML through your build tool's template system.

If you spotted rendering issues, fix the Markdown source. Most problems come from missing blank lines, inconsistent indentation, or wrong flavor assumptions.

For ongoing Markdown work, pair this with a linter like markdownlint in your editor. It catches structural issues (missing blank lines, inconsistent list markers) before they become rendering bugs. And if you're writing for GitHub specifically, their docs on GFM are the definitive reference for what's supported.