crimson090

Adds buttons to the Text (HTML) edit which generate Markdown syntax. These buttons serve as a great introduction to 
users who are new to Markdown, as well as shortcuts for more experienced users. The buttons include:
<ul>
<li>Bold</li>
<li>Italic</li>
<li>Blockquote</li>
<li>Link</li>
<li>Code</li>
<li>Table</li>
<li>Headers</li>
<li>Help (links to external Github Markdown guide)</li>
</ul>
This plugin does not modify the Visual editor, as that editor is not ideal for writing Markdown in. It’s recommended you disable 
the Visual editor entirely to enforce using Markdown.
Note that this plugin does not render Markdown. You should use a plugin (such as Jetpack Markdown) to render markdown in your theme.

MarkdownBar

Adds a toolbar of buttons to the Text (HTML) edit which generate Markdown syntax

rob1n

Got a bug report or want to contribute? Please do so on the <a href="https://github.com/robinadr/parsedown-wp/issues" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub issue tracker</a> or <a href="https://github.com/robinadr/parsedown-wp/pulls" rel="nofollow ugc">submit a pull request</a>.
<a href="http://parsedown.org" rel="nofollow ugc">Parsedown</a> is an efficient, modern PHP implementation of the <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/" rel="nofollow ugc">Markdown</a> syntax originally developed by John Gruber. This plugin runs your posts and comments through the <a href="https://github.com/erusev/parsedown-extra" rel="nofollow ugc">Parsedown Extra</a> version, which has additional features that are part of the <a href="https://michelf.ca/projects/php-markdown/extra/" rel="nofollow ugc">Markdown Extra</a> extension by Michel Fortin.
Michel wrote the <a href="https://michelf.ca/projects/php-markdown/classic/" rel="nofollow ugc">original Markdown plugin for WordPress</a>, and this aims to be a 100% compatible drop-in replacement for that. Michel’s original plugin is no longer supported as of February 1, 2014.
So why Parsedown? It’s <a href="http://parsedown.org/speed" rel="nofollow ugc">faster</a>, <a href="http://parsedown.org/consistency" rel="nofollow ugc">more consistent</a> and is being <a href="https://github.com/erusev/parsedown" rel="nofollow ugc">actively developed</a>.
Development of this WordPress plugin <a href="https://github.com/robinadr/parsedown-wp" rel="nofollow ugc">takes place over on GitHub</a>. If you have any support requests, I do monitor the support forums on here, or you can <a href="http://robinadr.com/contact" rel="nofollow ugc">contact me directly</a>.

Parsedown for WordPress

I really love Parsedown, I created a web app with it recently to host Markdown files on my server. I was really impressed with Parsedown's speed. This plugin is exactly what I was looking for, so I could store my posts as Markdown in WordPress yet display them as HTML on the front-end.

Love this plugin

This plugin processes your posts and comments using the Parsedown library. It is a direct replacement for PHP Markdown Extra by Michel Fortin.

MarkdownBar vs Parsedown for WordPress