Comparison

Zavala vs iA Presenter

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Zavala

This app offers a modern approach to outlining, providing a full suite of features. It supports gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and multiple windows for efficient organization and content creation. Easily import and export in various formats, sync across devices, and customize your outlining experience.

Highlights
  • OPML Import & Export
  • Markdown Export
  • iCloud Syncing & Sharing
  • Nested Tags
  • Image Embedding
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Drag and Drop
Features
Read full description

Zavala is a modern take on a traditional outliner. It is a full featured app. It takes full advantage of your device by leveraging gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and multiple windows. Other features: * OPML import & export * Markdown import & export * HTML import & export * iCloud syncing * iCloud sharing with other iCloud users * Encrypted outlines and encrypted iCloud sync * Nested Tags for organizing Outlines * Support for embedding images * Print support * Drag and drop * Text formatting * Links * Completed items * Notes * Customizable fonts and sizes * Backlinks * Shortcuts support * Web clipper share extension * Typewriter scrolling * Automatic row numbering including Decimal and Legal numbering

About

iA Presenter

Create clean, scalable presentations quickly using Markdown. This app prioritizes content and structure, letting responsive templates handle design for fast, focused creation and rehearsal on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Highlights
  • Markdown-based content creation
  • Responsive typographic templates
  • Fast deck building and rehearsal
  • Cross-device compatibility (Mac, iPhone, iPad)
  • Scalable layouts for any screen
Read full description

Create presentations in minutes iA Presenter is a Markdown-based presentation app for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Start with text and build a deck that is clean, scalable, and ready to present, fast and focused. Traditional presentation tools slow you down. You drag boxes, pick fonts, adjust colors, and end up with cluttered slides. iA Presenter flips the workflow: start with your story, structure it in Markdown, and let our responsive, typographic templates handle the design. Perfect for pitches, meetings, workshops, and teaching. Build, rehearse, and present a polished deck in under 20 minutes on your Mac at the desk, iPad on the go, or iPhone in your hand. - Write first, design later: Start from text, not slides - Beautiful everywhere: Responsive layouts scale seamlessly from iPhone to iPad to Mac to projector - Fast and focused: Build, rehearse, and present a polished deck in under 20 minutes - Portable presentations: Create and present wherever you need to work, on desktop, tablet, or phone

Screenshots

Zavala2 screens
iA Presenter4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Zavala at Free against iA Presenter's $19.99. Zavala also leads on ratings volume (70 vs 11). iA Presenter's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On rating, review sentiment, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Zavala is free to download; iA Presenter costs $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Zavala against 4.9 for iA Presenter. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Zavala has 70 ratings behind it against 11, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 88% and 88% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Zavala versus iA Presenter: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterZavalaiA Presenter
PriceFree — better$19.99
Rating4.8 (70 ratings)4.9 (11 ratings) — better
Positive reviews87.7% of reviews — better87.5% of reviews
Number of ratings70 — better11
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB93 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVincode, IncInformation Architects AG

Customer experience

Zavala

All ratings69 ratings
Positive97.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews65 reviews
Positive87.7%
Neutral3.1%
Negative9.2%

iA Presenter

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive87.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative12.5%

In-app purchases

None

Zavala

No in-app purchases

None

iA Presenter

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Zavala free?
Zavala is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is iA Presenter free?
iA Presenter costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Zavala or iA Presenter?
iA Presenter is rated higher. Zavala averages 4.8 out of 5 from 70 ratings, while iA Presenter averages 4.9 from 11 ratings.
Do Zavala or iA Presenter have ads?
Neither Zavala nor iA Presenter shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Zavala or iA Presenter?
Zavala ships an update every 2 weeks, and iA Presenter every 2 weeks. Most recently, Zavala was updated on October 25, 2026 and iA Presenter on October 30, 2026.

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