React Markdown library comparisons
Each page compares React Markdown Kit with one library, section by section, and says
where the other library is the better pick. Sizes come from
scripts/compare-bundles.mjs, performance from benchmarks/run.mjs, and behaviour from
tests linked on each page.
Renderer
- react-markdown alternative: What matches, the three differences, the codemod, and when to stay on react-markdown.
- React Markdown Kit vs react-markdown: Install size, GFM, security defaults, streaming, server rendering, plugins and migration.
- React Markdown Kit vs markdown-to-jsx: The same rows against the smallest import in the table.
- React Markdown Kit vs Streamdown: The same rows for an AI chat UI that renders Markdown while it streams.
Editor
- React Markdown Kit Editor vs MDXEditor: Two Lexical editors: editing model, output format, round trip, bundle and migration.
- React Markdown Kit Editor vs Milkdown: Lexical against ProseMirror on the same rows.
Templates, diagrams and slides
- Markdown templating vs Handlebars: String interpolation before parsing, against placeholders resolved inside the parser.
- Mermaid Live Editor alternative: A visual canvas next to the text, compared with mermaid.live. Flowcharts only.
- Marp and Slidev alternative: Decks rendered inside a React app, against tools that export PDF and PPTX.
Install size, every import
One import of each package, bundled with esbuild 0.27.7 and measured on 2026-09-20. React and React DOM are external in every row, and 1 KB is 1024 bytes. The renderer is larger than react-markdown, and the editor is larger than Milkdown.
| Import | Version | Minified | Gzipped | License | Peer react |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| markdown-to-jsx | 9.10.3 | 76.8 KB | 27.8 KB | MIT | >= 16.0.0 |
| react-markdown, CommonMark | 10.1.0 | 115.0 KB | 35.5 KB | MIT | >=18 |
| @react-markdown-kit/renderer, CommonMark | 0.1.0 | 118.5 KB | 36.8 KB | MIT | >=18 |
| react-markdown + remark-gfm | 10.1.0 | 152.6 KB | 46.4 KB | MIT | >=18 |
| @react-markdown-kit/renderer + GFM preset | 0.1.0 | 158.1 KB | 48.5 KB | MIT | >=18 |
| @milkdown/react + @milkdown/preset-commonmark | 7.22.1 | 346.2 KB | 104.9 KB | MIT | * |
| @react-markdown-kit/editor | 0.1.0 | 349.7 KB | 110.3 KB | MIT | >=18 |
| streamdown | 2.6.0 | 506.0 KB | 152.2 KB | Apache-2.0 | ^18.0.0 || ^19.0.0 |
| @mdxeditor/editor | 4.2.5 | 511.3 KB | 163.1 KB | MIT | >= 18 || >= 19 |
Next
Renderer playground · Editor demo · Mermaid visual editor · Slides editor · Packages on npm · Source on GitHub