Geany (Markdown plugin, IDE, Simple layout) checkout haroopad brilliant Markdown editor.
Not having python on the server could be seen as a bonus to security? I don't think it's much of an issue, but paranoid people would.
Building it locally is what I do for my pelican site. I use markdown and haroopad and that lets me test everything without having to upload things like pictures just to see if it does what I want. It also means I don't have test files I don't actually need to have on the server just sitting there taking up space.
Having it all on the server has the benefit of being able to make content from anywhere you can login from at the cost of needing ssh access and the ability to run python. No need to have it installed locally with a copy of your source files.
This article needs a lot of editing, but besides this, it doesn't mention:
That being said, MacDown looks pretty nice.
A bit late, but there are a few good text editors out there with Markdown folding.
Haroopad (Win/Mac/Linux)
There's also Smartdown for Windows and FoldingText for Mac.
Interesting option. I will look into it. Unfortunately couldn't find any GUI editor that not only supports the Table syntax but helps me with the table creating.
The most promising ones:
To expand on this, I'd suggest using Markdown with TeX math support. For editing, you can use something like Haroopad and then export to HTML or PDF. You can use something like Detexify^2 to easily identify symbols.