Run results for: Markdown Performance Comparison 2026

Run details:

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:151.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/151.0

Browser: Firefox 151

Operating system: Linux

Device Platform: Desktop

Date tested: 4 days ago

Test name	Executions per second
Marked	5445.4 Ops/sec
Markdown-it	7674.9 Ops/sec

HTML Preparation code:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/marked@17.0.1/lib/marked.umd.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/markdown-it@14.1.0/dist/markdown-it.min.js"></script>

Script Preparation code:

var conv = {
  // Marked v17: use the documented API
  marked: function (src) { return marked.parse(src); },

  // markdown-it v14 (UMD: window.markdownit)
  mdit: window.markdownit({ html: true })
};


var md = `
# Benchmark Doc Title

## Overview

This benchmark includes **headings**, *emphasis*, lists, a table, and inline code like \`const x = 1\`.

> Blockquote: “Parsing performance varies with input size and extensions.”

---

## Lists

### Unordered + nested

- Item A
  - Subitem A1
  - Subitem A2 with **bold** and *italic*
- Item B
  - Subitem B1
    - Sub-subitem B1a
- Item C with a [link](https://example.com) and \`inline()\`

### Ordered + mixed

1. Step one
2. Step two
   1. Step two-a
   2. Step two-b
3. Step three

### Task list (GFM)

- [x] done
- [ ] todo
- [ ] another todo

---

## Table (GFM)

| Library       | Notes                         | Score |
|:-------------|:------------------------------|------:|
| marked       | fast, popular                 |   92  |
| markdown-it  | extensible, plugins           |   88  |
| commonmark   | spec reference implementation |   80  |

---

## Code blocks

\`\`\`js
function fib(n) {
  if (n <= 1) return n;
  return fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2);
}
\`\`\`

\`\`\`html
<div class="demo">
  <strong>Hello</strong> <em>world</em>
</div>
\`\`\`

---

## More text

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed non risus. Suspendisse lectus tortor,
dignissim sit amet, adipiscing nec, ultricies sed, dolor. Cras elementum ultrices diam.

### Subheading

- Repeated content can help stabilize results.
- Consider running multiple iterations.

End.
`.trim();

Tests:

Marked
conv.marked(md);
Markdown-it
conv.mdit.render(md);

Run results for: Markdown Performance Comparison 2026

A performance comparison of marked 17 vs markdown-it 14

Marked

Markdown-it