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Comparison

react-markdown vs markdown-it

MarkdownPackage data 25 Sept 2026
react-markdownv10.1.0, 7 Mar 2025

React component to render markdown

$ npm install react-markdown
markdown-itv15.0.2, 11 Sept 2026

Markdown-it - modern pluggable markdown parser.

$ npm install markdown-it
Metricreact-markdownmarkdown-itDifference
Weekly downloads24,600,31320,702,593react-markdown +19%
12-month download growth+324%+143%react-markdown +181 pts
Gzip size---
Minified size---
Dependencies116react-markdown 5 more
Unpacked size51 kB1.9 MBreact-markdown 37.4x smaller
Latest release10.1.0, 7 Mar 202515.0.2, 11 Sept 2026markdown-it 18 months more recent
Releases, last 12 months08markdown-it 8 more
First published9 May 201519 Dec 2014markdown-it 5 months earlier
GitHub stars15,89021,940markdown-it +38%
Open issues18markdown-it 7 more
Open pull requests42react-markdown 2 more
Contributors---
Commits, last 52 weeks4123markdown-it 30.8x higher
TypeScript typesBundledBundledSame
Module formatESM onlyESM + CommonJSDiffers
Runtimes---
LicenseMITMITSame

Green marks the smaller size or the more recent release. Bold marks the higher count, with no judgement implied. Sizes are for the whole package per Bundlephobia. Growth compares the average of the last 4 weeks with the first 4 weeks of the 52-week series.

react-markdown24.6m latest weekmarkdown-it20.7m latest week
Week of 23 Sept 2025Week of 15 Sept 2026
Weekly npm downloads, 52 weeks. Y axis starts at zero. Values are not smoothed.

react-markdown

Major versions
  1. 1.0.019 May 2015
  2. 2.0.021 Feb 2016
  3. 3.0.020 Nov 2017
  4. 4.0.02 Oct 2018
  5. 5.0.019 Oct 2020
  6. 6.0.015 Apr 2021
  7. 7.0.013 Aug 2021
  8. 8.0.017 Jan 2022
  9. 9.0.027 Sept 2023
  10. 10.0.020 Feb 2025
Last 5 releases
  1. 10.1.07 Mar 2025
  2. 10.0.13 Mar 2025
  3. 10.0.020 Feb 2025
  4. 9.1.020 Feb 2025
  5. 9.0.36 Jan 2025
94 releases in total, 0 in the last 12 months

markdown-it

Major versions
  1. 2.0.019 Dec 2014
  2. 3.0.04 Jan 2015
  3. 4.0.012 Mar 2015
  4. 5.0.05 Oct 2015
  5. 6.0.010 Feb 2016
  6. 7.0.022 Jun 2016
  7. 8.0.016 Sept 2016
  8. 9.0.09 Jul 2019
  9. 10.0.010 Sept 2019
  10. 11.0.019 May 2020
  11. 12.0.014 Oct 2020
  12. 13.0.022 Apr 2022
  13. 14.0.08 Dec 2023
  14. 15.0.030 Jul 2026
Last 5 releases
  1. 14.3.212 Sept 2026
  2. 15.0.211 Sept 2026
  3. 15.0.127 Aug 2026
  4. 14.3.127 Aug 2026
  5. 15.0.030 Jul 2026
87 releases in total, 8 in the last 12 months
react-markdown

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markdown-it

-

react-markdown

-

markdown-it

-

  • Need both ESM and CommonJS entry pointsmarkdown-it (react-markdown: ESM only; markdown-it: ESM + CommonJS)
  • Need to load it with require()markdown-it
  • Need TypeScript types in the package itselfBoth
  • Need the more recent releasemarkdown-it (15.0.2 on 11 Sept 2026 vs 10.1.0 on 7 Mar 2025)
  • Higher weekly npm downloadsreact-markdown (24.6m vs 20.7m)

Each line is generated from the data above.