Browser-based vs CLI — when each makes sense
The OSS gold standard for DOCX → Markdown is pandoc on the command line — free, MIT-licensed, runs locally, processes batches of files without limits. mdisbetter's online tool exists for the cases where pandoc isn't the right fit: you're on a tablet or Chromebook without dev tooling, you're a non-technical user who doesn't want to install command-line software, you need conversion done in seconds without a setup step, you want a polished UI and clean Markdown output without tweaking pandoc flags.
What "online" means here
A .docx is converted in your browser tab and no software lands on your machine: open the page, drop the file, download the result. Works on Mac, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, iOS, Android. Images inside the document are sent to our server to be described by an AI model, and older formats (.doc, .rtf, .odt) are uploaded to be converted first.
The full converter
Head to Word to Markdown for the actual upload UI. Free tier covers most personal use, and every plan, the free one included, converts several files at once.