On this page
Rentry is a favourite for good reason: it's quick, clean and great at Markdown, it's been online since 2017, and it promises to stay free. Thpaste shares that love of good-looking documents — and adds a set of tools Rentry doesn't focus on: other ways to write, privacy controls, analytics and features for the people reading. Here's an honest side-by-side so you can pick the right one for each job.
How we compared
Rentry details come from its own pages — rentry.co/what, rentry.co/how and its 2026 changelog — checked on 14 October 2026. ✗ below means a feature isn't described in those pages.
Side by side
| Rentry | Thpaste | |
|---|---|---|
| Markdown with preview | ✓ | ✓ |
| Markdown toolbar (buttons write the symbols) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Rich text editor (fonts, colours, link buttons) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Code editor with line numbers and tab indenting | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom URLs | ✓ | ✓ |
| Edit after publishing | ✓ with an edit code | ✓ from your account |
| Password-protected pages | ✗ | ✓ |
| Burn after reading | ✗ | ✓ |
| Expiry (10 minutes to 1 month) | ✗ | ✓ |
| View counts | ✓ updated every 10 minutes | ✓ |
| Analytics: visitors, sources, countries, devices | ✗ | ✓ |
| Translation for readers (133 languages) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Link previews and dead-link checks | ✗ | ✓ |
| API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Export to PDF / image | ✓ | ✗ |
Where Thpaste pulls ahead
More than one way to write
Rentry is Markdown-first. Thpaste has Markdown too — with a toolbar that writes the symbols for you and a live preview — but also a rich text editor for people who'd rather click than type asterisks, a code editor with line numbers, and plain text for logs.
Privacy controls
Rentry entries are kept forever, and anyone with the URL can read them. On Thpaste you choose: unlisted by default, an optional password, burn after reading for one-time secrets, and expiry from 10 minutes to a month.
No edit codes to lose
On Rentry, editing an entry normally needs its edit code, and its help page warns that without the code you have no control over the entry — save it, or contact support to prove you own it. On Thpaste, pastes made while signed in are editable from your dashboard, protected by your password and, if you like, two-factor sign-in.
Data about your readers
Rentry shows a view count that updates every 10 minutes. Thpaste's free analytics show views and unique visitors over time, which sites sent them, their countries and devices — for every paste or all together.
Better for readers
- Translate any text or Markdown paste into 133 languages, in place.
- Link previews with a warning when a link looks dead — and file counts for popular storage hosts.
- A Formatted / Source switch on Markdown pastes.
A Markdown feature set that keeps up
Rentry's Markdown extras are excellent, and Thpaste supports the same kind of power-user syntax: highlights, spoilers, coloured text, centred lines, [TOC], !!! callout boxes, comments, and coloured ✓ / ✗ table cells. See them all in the Thpaste Markdown guide.
Where Rentry still wins
- Exports — Rentry can turn a page into a PDF or an image.
- Shared editing without accounts — hand someone the edit code and you can both edit the same page.
- Longevity — online since 2017, with a big community and a mirror domain.
- Permanence by default — if you want a page to live forever with no account, that's Rentry's default.
Which should you use?
| You want to… | Pick |
|---|---|
| Publish a long-lived public Markdown page and export it to PDF | Rentry |
| Share something private, or something that should disappear | Thpaste |
| Write without learning Markdown | Thpaste (rich text) |
| Share code with line numbers | Thpaste |
| Know how many people read it and where they came from | Thpaste |
| Reach readers in other languages | Thpaste |
Try Thpaste's Markdown
Toolbar, live preview, callouts and a table of contents — no account needed.
Write in Markdown
