Moonlight vs Plain Markdown
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Moonlight
Streamline your research by integrating AI tools directly into your PDF documents. Get instant explanations, translations, and citation details without leaving your reading interface.
- AI-powered explanations
- Document translation
- Citation retrieval
- Integrated research tools
- Seamless PDF interaction
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Make room for your next idea. Moonlight brings paper reading and your research library together on iPhone and iPad. Open a PDF, explore a paper, and keep the details you want to return to. READ WITH FOCUS Open research PDFs in the Moonlight reader. Use AI assistance for summaries, questions, and translation as you work through a paper. BUILD YOUR LIBRARY Keep papers together and find them by title, author, or tag. Switch between compact lists, minimal lists, and visual cards to suit the way you browse. KEEP YOUR THINKING CLOSE Use tags, ratings, and notes to organize what matters. See paper details and your notes in one place. PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF Recent papers help you return to your reading. Sign in to access your Moonlight library across supported devices. Some features require an account, an internet connection, or an eligible subscription. AI-generated content may be inaccurate; check it against the original paper.
Plain Markdown
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Plain Markdown Read your .md files in place. Pick a folder on your iPhone or in iCloud Drive. The app lists every .md file inside — nothing more, nothing less. Tap a file to read it; the markdown is rendered with quiet, weight-driven typography that gets out of the way. The app uses Apple's standard folder picker, so it works with iCloud Drive, On My iPhone, and any third-party Files app provider (Dropbox, Google Drive, Working Copy, etc.). Pick once, and the app remembers — drill into subfolders, come back, switch folders. No accounts. No sync engine. No editor. Just a reader. · Folder picker with iCloud Drive and Files-app provider support · Drill into subfolders — back-button navigation · Inline images (jpg, png, gif, webp, svg, heic, heif, bmp, avif) · GitHub-flavored markdown: tables, blockquotes, code blocks, task lists, strikethrough · Adjustable text size (5 steps) · Light & dark mode · Mono body font option for code-style reading · Local only — your files never leave your device Privacy This app does not collect data, display ads, or communicate with any server. The folder picker is Apple's. Files are read on-device only. There are no analytics, no third-party SDKs, no telemetry. Less, but better.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Moonlight at Free against Plain Markdown's $2.99. On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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
Moonlight is free to download; Plain Markdown costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Moonlight | Plain Markdown |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $2.99 |
| Positive reviews | 64.3% of reviews | — |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 66 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Corca, Inc. | Yongmin Ji |
In-app purchases
Moonlight
No in-app purchases
Plain Markdown
No in-app purchases









