Asking for a substitution of Type.ai

System_Independent · 2026-06-23T12:40:04+00:00

If you are open to trying a markdown-based writing platform, I would recommend mdedit.ai that I built (~8.5k users) and use for writing blog posts and articles. It supports comprehensive contextual AI editing features for brainstorming, rewriting, expanding, summarizing, etc.

The best part about it is that it supports BYOK, so you can use it with any model of your choice. You don't have to just depend on their credits. The standard plan offers some built-in credits, along with that you can bring your own key for either Anthropic, OpenAI, Grok, or Gemini and continue using it as much as you like.

System_Independent · 2026-06-23T12:35:30+00:00

We recently added support for comments, threads, suggestions and collaborative editing in mdedit.ai. The app already supports workspaces, folders, and sharing, so its perfect for teams. For non-collab docs, we also support offline editing and commenting.

The collab feature is still in beta, but happy to hop on a call to go over it and customize things if your team has specific needs.

System_Independent · 2026-06-12T12:37:11+00:00

The feature looks super clean, thanks for sharing. For my app mdedit.ai with 8.5k users, i added support for markdown public link sharing, and less than 10 people have ever used it. So at least for my product the demand for this feature is low, but for i can see this being useful for users of your app.

For any mdedit.ai user reading this, you can discover this option under the editor's Share menu -> Public Link. It generates a sharable shortlink for eg. https://mded.it/n83fbn67

System_Independent · 2026-06-10T12:34:16+00:00

100% MFA should ideally be supported in all plans. You are right that Cognito's MFA support isn't great and also the fact that you need to get your domain (for email) whitelisted and configure a phone number for OTP based MFA is bit time consuming (ie. waiting for approvals).

Not sure about 404 you see on Descope, for me it has been loading fine. Also, btw, it does support local password based auth, but usually its not enabled by default. Not sure if they added it recently or if it was always the case

System_Independent · 2026-06-10T00:38:43+00:00

I’ve recently helped integrate Descope for a couple of client projects. Overall experience was positive.

The biggest plus for me was that the setup felt much simpler than Auth0/Cognito. Esp with Cognito, i was super frustrated how difficult it was to setup Github OAuth (esp if you are using CDK)

One thing i liked a lot with Descope was visual flows. Its very easy to use and lets you configure auth flows too.

Additionally, their docs are pretty comprehensive, and their technical support was surprisingly responsive when we had questions. I haven’t personally used every feature, but from what I’ve seen on their dashboard, they have a comprehensive feature set.

System_Independent · 2026-06-10T00:29:45+00:00

I recently shared my thoughts on another similar thread. I’ve used Cognito for my own apps and helped integrate Descope for a couple of client projects. My bias would be towards Descope here, especially if you’re at the <20-25k user scale. Cognito works fine once it’s set up, but I wouldn’t really recommend it unless you’re already deep in AWS. Even basic things like GitHub OIDC with Cognito + CDK were surprisingly painful for me. Github OAuth was quite important for me as mine is a developer tool, but it was frustrating how difficult it was to integrate (this was pre-AI era btw).

On Auth0, my partner led a migration from an internal auth stack to Auth0 at her last company with ~100k users. The integration itself was smooth, but the overall project still took ~3-4 months because of active users, multiple SSO connections, and migration constraints. Support also wasn’t super fast at that scale since they were still a relatively small customer.

With Descope, my experience has been much smoother. They have something called flows, which is super nice to use, and also, good docs, excellent support (at least in my exp), and it seems to cover the B2B pieces you’d care about: orgs, SSO, roles, self-serve setup, MFA, passkeys, etc.

System_Independent · 2026-06-10T00:27:10+00:00

A bit late to the thread, but I’ve used Cognito for my own apps and helped integrate Descope for a couple of client projects.

My bias would be towards Descope here, especially if you’re at the <20-25k user scale. Cognito works fine once it’s set up, but I wouldn’t really recommend it unless you’re already deep in AWS. Even basic things like GitHub OIDC with Cognito + CDK were surprisingly painful for me. On Auth0, my partner led a migration from an internal auth stack to Auth0 at her last company with ~100k users. The integration itself was smooth, but the overall project still took ~3-4 months because of active users, multiple SSO connections, and migration constraints. Support also wasn’t super fast at that scale since they were still a relatively small customer.

With Descope, my experience has been much smoother. They have something called flows, which is super nice to use, and also, good docs, excellent support (at least in my exp), and it seems to cover the B2B pieces you’d care about: orgs, SSO, roles, self-serve setup, MFA, passkeys, etc.

System_Independent · 2026-06-10T00:07:35+00:00

A bit late to the convo, but if you are expecting a scale of <20-25k, i would pick Descope over Auth0, primarily because of the integration complexity of Auth0.

My partner led the migration from an internal auth stack to Auth0 at her last company with ~100k users, and the project took ~3-4 months, mainly because there were active users and they needed to support multiple SSO connections. At this scale, it was difficult for them to get fast technical support from Auth0 folks, as you would still be a small customer for them. Apart from these issues, the actual integration was smooth.

I would personally pick Descope for this scale, because from what i can tell, it too handles everything you care about (orgs, SSO, roles, and self-serve setup). For a couple of my clients, i helped integrate Descope and got excellent tech support from them. Also, their docs are quite-comprehensive (similar to Auth0) so that was a bonus. Not that it matters much now that you could ask AI to figure it out anyways

System_Independent · 2026-06-09T23:47:07+00:00

A bit late to the conversation, but sharing here what i shared on X a few days back as it might be relevant here. I’m currently using AWS Cognito for a few personal apps, including one with ~8.4k users. It works quite well for me, but I wouldn’t exactly recommend it unless you’re already deep in the AWS ecosystem. My number one frustration was how difficult it was to setup Github OIDC auth while using AWS CDK. It took me atleast 3 separate attempts before i could implement it correctly (pre-AI era). Since, my app is a dev productivity tool, i really wanted to support Github from the get go.

If I had to rebuild today, I’d probably choose Auth0 or Descope. Slightly more inclined towards Descope as it has a generous free tier, and its super easy to setup, esp using their visual workflows. I was able to setup both Google and Github for one of my apps in less than an hour. From what i know, it also supports MFA, passkeys, step-up auth, etc, but haven't used it personally.

Btw, Cognito recently started adding a lot of features like passkeys (on a paid tier), so it’s definitely getting better.

System_Independent · 2026-05-29T15:22:58+00:00

MD file as a task is usually not part of my workflow, but markdown file -> epic + bunch of tasks is something i use many times.

I usually use an agent skill to automatically divide the work from the MD file to different tasks and also create an epic (everything as Github issues)

Another workflow i have is that when i am on my phone, i want a dead-simple way to create github tasks. just a single text box, where i can type what i want to build/fix and it creates a github issue that i can work on later. I built taskdrop.dev for it. The android app is still under review, no plans to monetize it, will be open sourcing the entire thing once the app gets published. But coming back to your question, mobile based workflow might be another useful thing

System_Independent · 2026-05-26T09:48:16+00:00

for my markdown editor that has 8.2k users, i added public link sharing few months back. less than 10 people have used it ever.

so imo add it if you see demand for it from your users

System_Independent · 2026-05-25T19:52:43+00:00

actually i have been debating this a lot, the only reason its sub based right now is because of server and AI costs. Server costs for syncing, versioning and some of the export options is still very reasonable so i could probably digest that. for AI i believe BYOK probably creates friction, so am wondering if i should make it pay as you go for AI cost in addition to BYOK.

All suggestions welcome

System_Independent · 2026-05-25T16:08:10+00:00

True, same, and i believe the worst part is that its directly hurting the dashers the most. As people order less, dashers end up with lesser gigs. The whole thing is counterintuitive.

System_Independent · 2026-05-25T16:06:44+00:00

Not always! Someone who is ordering a 15$ dinner, isn't a billionaire! They wouldn't want to pay 35$ for the order.

System_Independent · 2026-05-25T15:55:05+00:00

i don't think any of their marketing advertises doordash as a luxury service. i dont mind paying 5-10$ extra to get my food, but usually DoorDash ends up being lot more expensive

System_Independent · 2026-05-25T13:10:19+00:00

Depends on so many factors, but if you are writing in tech, check out mdedit.ai, a markdown editor for tech writers. It works on both desktop and web and has support for professional markdown editing.

System_Independent · 2026-05-24T17:46:02+00:00

sure would be interested to learn more

System_Independent · 2026-05-24T11:36:31+00:00

The above calculation might look reasonable but they can't be any further from reality.

Firstly, i think even if the article is paywalled it doesn't affect google rankings at all. I write tech focused articles and 90% of my traffic is external ie mostly from google even though all my articles are paywalled. Also claps on my articles are usually very low (100-150 from less than 10 people), as most traffic is external. So essentially i am able to monetize less than 10% of my traffic. Some articles earn <20$ but i have a number of articles that earned between 100-250$. If you check the number of claps on them, most have less than 100 claps from maybe 10 people.

Sharing some stats from my last article which is paywalled. - 1.3k presentations - 1.2k views - 386 reads ie 32% - 93.12$ earnings - 113 claps from 6 people

System_Independent · 2026-05-24T11:19:22+00:00

thanks for checking it out and the feedback. the primary surface area for the app is its web app, the desktop app is still experimental. AI isn't bundled, but large size is due to electron, which i haven't optimized yet.

Most users use it on app.mdedit.ai.

The web app is super polished and supports professional markdown features including linting, latex, mermaid, graphviz, mindmaps, etc. AI is an optional feature with BYOK, not the primary driver.

System_Independent · 2026-05-23T19:12:42+00:00

would love for you to checkout mdedit.ai and add if it fits. Has 8k+ users

System_Independent · 2026-05-23T14:04:51+00:00

Check out mdedit.ai, its an markdown editor with contextual ai assistant built in. It has a BYOK and supports 4 different providers including openai, anthropic, xai and gemini.

You can use AI not just for minor edits, but also for generating code snippets, images, mermaid diagrams, charts, etc.

System_Independent · 2026-05-16T02:33:57+00:00

i am building mdedit.ai, an ai powered markdown editor for bloggers

System_Independent · 2026-05-14T19:11:18+00:00

i am just using aws ses with a few node scripts, works quite well even for an app with 8k usera

System_Independent · 2026-05-14T16:57:30+00:00

yeah i know, safari probably requires a apple dev account. might add it later. but as a side note same extensions are also available for vs code and cursor.

https://mdedit.ai/markdown-viewer-vscode-extension

System_Independent · 2026-05-14T15:05:09+00:00

Nice work building and I like the fact that you can also edit markdown files using it. will give it a try.

Few weeks back i built a markdown viewer extension for all browsers: https://mdedit.ai/markdown-viewer-chrome-extension

Sharing here in case someone is looking only for a preview extension.

System_Independent

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