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Earthly vs HackMD

Professional comparison and analysis to help you choose the right software solution for your needs.

Earthly icon
Earthly
HackMD icon
HackMD

Earthly vs HackMD: The Verdict

Last updated: May 2026 · Comparison by Sugggest Editorial Team

Feature Earthly HackMD
Sugggest Score
Category Development Remote Work & Education
Pricing Open Source Open Source

Product Overview

Earthly
Earthly

Description: Earthly is an open-source build automation tool for monorepo-style codebases. It allows developers to define builds and dependencies in a declarative way, then automatically parallelizes and caches builds for fast, reproducible development.

Type: software

Pricing: Open Source

HackMD
HackMD

Description: HackMD is a real-time collaborative markdown editor and note-taking web application. It allows teams to write, edit, review and publish markdown documents together in real-time. Features include GitHub/GitLab integration, code blocks, task lists, and drawing.

Type: software

Pricing: Open Source

Key Features Comparison

Earthly
Earthly Features
  • Declarative build definitions
  • Automatic caching and parallelization
  • Built specifically for monorepos
  • Integration with Docker containers
  • Support for incremental builds
  • Cross-platform support
HackMD
HackMD Features
  • Real-time collaborative editing
  • Markdown support
  • Code block support
  • GitHub/GitLab integration
  • Task lists
  • Drawing support

Pros & Cons Analysis

Earthly
Earthly
Pros
  • Fast and reproducible builds
  • Simplifies build configuration
  • Improves developer productivity
  • Makes dependency management easier
  • Good for large, complex projects
Cons
  • Limited adoption so far
  • Steep learning curve
  • Less flexibility than general build tools
  • Only supports Docker containers
  • Mainly aimed at monorepos
HackMD
HackMD
Pros
  • Free for individuals
  • Great for collaboration
  • Integrates with GitHub/GitLab
  • Supports markdown formatting
  • Has useful features like code blocks and drawings
Cons
  • Formatting can get messed up with multiple simultaneous editors
  • No WYSIWYG editor
  • Limited free plan storage

Pricing Comparison

Earthly
Earthly
  • Open Source
HackMD
HackMD
  • Open Source

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