Comparison

Truly Simple Slide Deck vs mrkdwn

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

Head to head
About

Truly Simple Slide Deck

Effortlessly create beautiful presentations by writing in plain text. This app automatically styles your content into visually appealing slides, offering a streamlined experience without complex formatting. Present directly from your device or export your work in various formats.

Highlights
  • Write slides using plain Markdown
  • Automatic styling and design
  • Built-in presenter view
  • Export as PDF, HTML, or Markdown
  • iCloud sync across devices
  • WCAG-compliant accessibility features
Features
Read full description

Write what you want to say in plain text. Truly Simple Slide Deck automatically styles it into a beautiful presentation. No complex formatting ribbons, cluttered menus, or spinning loading wheels. Just type your thoughts, separate them into slides, and let the app handle the design and presentation. Present directly from your device using the built-in presenter view (complete with speaker notes and upcoming slide thumbnails), or export your finished deck as a PDF, webpage, or ultra-portable Markdown file. Sync your progress instantly across iPhone, iPad, and Mac via iCloud. Every core feature is completely free. A one-time, lifetime purchase unlocks custom themes, custom colors, and custom fontsβ€”with absolutely no subscriptions. Buy once, own forever. Features: β€’ Write and format beautiful slides using plain Markdown text. β€’ Present natively with a built-in presenter view featuring speaker notes, next-slide previews, and auto-advance controls. β€’ Export anywhere as highly portable PDFs, HTML webpages, or raw Markdown text. β€’ Transition seamlessly between System, Light, and Dark modes. β€’ Read comfortably with fully WCAG-compliant dynamic text scaling, high-contrast reading themes, and VoiceOver support. β€’ Sync across iOS 17+ and macOS 14+ devices using iCloud.

About

mrkdwn

Read full description

mrkdwn is more than a markdown editor. It is a private place to think, and it keeps every note as an ordinary .md file in a folder you choose. Other note apps ask you to trust a database. This one writes plain text to disk, where Finder, git, grep and any editor you ever switch to can already read it. No account. No subscription. No analytics β€” mrkdwn collects nothing and sends nothing. NOTES THAT STAY YOURS β€’ Every note is a plain .md file in a folder you picked, not a row in our database β€’ Edit one in another app and mrkdwn picks up the change β€’ The same files open in any other editor, today or in ten years β€’ Lock a note and it is encrypted on disk until you unlock it β€’ iCloud sync merges three ways and marks conflicts, instead of overwriting the older copy β€’ Version history keeps 30 days or 100 versions per note, with word-level diffs and a restore that leaves the current draft intact β€’ Deleted notes go to a trash you can recover from NOTES THAT FIND EACH OTHER β€’ Wiki-style [[links]] resolve as you type β€’ A backlinks panel shows every note pointing at this one β€’ The knowledge graph draws the whole library, filtered by tag or search β€’ Tag a note, then open the tag to read everything filed under it β€’ Quick Open fuzzy-finds any note in a keystroke β€’ Link autocomplete the moment you type [[ β€’ Daily notes arrive dated, every day you write MARKDOWN THAT RENDERS PROPERLY β€’ CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown, with footnotes and callouts β€’ LaTeX math, inline and block, rendered offline β€’ Syntax highlighting for more than 180 languages β€’ Six built-in themes, and you can make your own β€’ Mermaid, Graphviz and Markmap diagrams from ordinary code blocks A SURFACE BUILT FOR DRAFTING β€’ Focus mode fades every paragraph except the one you are writing β€’ Read as editor only, preview only, or both side by side β€’ Typewriter scrolling holds your line in the middle of the screen β€’ Live counts for words, characters, sentences and reading time β€’ Put the command bar in the order you actually work in β€’ Give a folder an icon, a color, and a place at the top of the list β€’ Writing goals track a daily word target and your streak β€’ Authorship marks which passages you typed and which you pasted β€’ Apple's Writing Tools work in the editor, where your device offers them NOTES THAT COME TO YOU β€’ Ask Siri for today's note; find, append and read notes from Shortcuts β€’ Paste a URL and the article comes back as markdown β€’ Clip a page straight from Safari (Mac) β€’ Import from 19 formats, including PDF, PowerPoint, Excel and text read out of images SEE THE SHAPE OF A SENTENCE β€’ Color nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions as you type β€’ Style checks flag filler, hedging, repetition and passive voice β€’ Nothing is corrected for you β€” a flag is information, not an instruction β€’ Every highlight stays off until you switch it on LEAVE WHENEVER YOU LIKE β€’ Export to PDF, EPUB, HTML, RTF, plain text and markdown β€’ Word and OpenDocument export, and Word import (Mac) β€’ Everything works offline, apart from fetching a web page you paste β€’ Or copy the folder and go β€” the notes were never ours Native on Mac, iPad and iPhone, from one Swift core rather than a web page in a window. A knowledge base you own, for students, teachers, authors, and anyone who would rather keep their thinking in plain files than rent a notes app. Questions? www.buenalabs.io/support

Screenshots

Truly Simple Slide Deck3 screens
mrkdwn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: mrkdwn at none against Truly Simple Slide Deck's 1. mrkdwn also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 5 months). Truly Simple Slide Deck's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Truly Simple Slide Deck sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. mrkdwn asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Truly Simple Slide Deck ships an update every 5 months, mrkdwn weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 5 level
Truly Simple Slide Deck versus mrkdwn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTruly Simple Slide Deckmrkdwn
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews0.0% of reviewsβ€”
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsWeekly β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo β€” better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesβ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS17.0 β€” better26.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size2 MB32 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperColin WrightBuenaGames LLC

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Truly Simple Slide Deck

One-time1
  • Unlock Pro$4.99
None

mrkdwn

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Truly Simple Slide Deck free?
Truly Simple Slide Deck is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is mrkdwn free?
mrkdwn is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Truly Simple Slide Deck or mrkdwn have ads?
Neither Truly Simple Slide Deck nor mrkdwn shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Truly Simple Slide Deck or mrkdwn?
Truly Simple Slide Deck ships an update every 5 months, and mrkdwn weekly. Most recently, Truly Simple Slide Deck was updated on October 30, 2026 and mrkdwn on October 24, 2026.

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