Inkiostro vs Foldleaf Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Inkiostro
A distraction-free Markdown editor for Apple devices. Organize files with color labels and tags, and write efficiently with a comprehensive toolbar and live preview. Syncs automatically via iCloud Drive.
- Color Labels for files and folders
- Custom tags for organization
- Complete Markdown toolbar
- Live preview with multiple themes
- Focus and Typewriter modes
- Native iCloud Drive sync
- External folder support
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Inkiostro is a Markdown editor for people who write — notes, documentation, theses, novels. Plain text files that stay yours, a preview that looks like a finished page, and exports ready to hand over. Write in Markdown, or in the visual editor and never see a symbol. Buy once, no subscription. No account, no tracking. WRITE, SEE, FINISH • Two ways to write: the Markdown editor shows the symbols, the visual editor formats as you type, like a word processor. Either way the file stays plain Markdown. (Visual editor: Pro, free for 7 days) • A complete Markdown toolbar: headings, lists, tables and code blocks, one tap away. • A side-by-side preview that comes back exactly where you left it. • LaTeX formulas typeset by KaTeX, and Mermaid diagrams drawn as you type. • 27 preview styles, 11 of them free: GitHub, Sepia, Nord, Solarized and more. With Pro, Manuscript, Book, Report, Academic and others set the page like print. • Focus and Typewriter modes, a live word count and a daily writing goal. FROM DRAFT TO BOOK • PDF with selectable text, formulas and diagrams included. Free, with a small credit line in the footer. • A professional ePub: real chapters, a cover, ISBN, series, footnotes that open over the page, and the accessibility declaration Europe requires. The export sheet tells you what a store would reject — before you send it. (Pro) • A book made of many files: one chapter per file, in a folder, in the order you choose. Arranging it is free; exporting it as a single ePub is Pro. • Self-contained HTML, and page setup for PDF: paper, margins, headers and page numbers. (Pro) NEVER LOSE A WORD • Version history: Inkiostro saves versions as you write. Search them, compare them line by line, and bring back a single word or a whole draft. (Pro) • Backups of your whole library: a dated zip archive with your version history inside, offered when one is due, while the app is open, in a folder you pick. Open it in the Files app and your Markdown files are right there. (Pro) YOUR FILES, YOUR RULES • Unlimited documents, as plain .md files you can open anywhere. • Folders, color labels and tags, with search that filters by tag. • iCloud Drive sync between iPhone, iPad and Mac, with no setup. • External folders: work directly inside any folder on your device or in iCloud Drive. (Pro) INKIOSTRO PRO — ONE PURCHASE, EVERY DEVICE One purchase unlocks Pro on iPhone, iPad and Mac, forever. Try it free for 7 days. • The visual editor • Version history with search, comparison and a year of versions • Backups of your library • Professional ePub, HTML, and books made of many files • PDF page setup • Focus and Typewriter modes • External folders • 24 app themes, the Pro preview styles and any font installed on your device MADE FOR • Writers: novels and essays in plain text, out as a real ebook • Students and researchers: notes and theses with proper formulas • Developers: READMEs, documentation and technical notes with diagrams • Anyone tired of paying every month for a text editor • Anyone new to Markdown: the visual editor works like a word processor PRIVACY Your documents stay in your iCloud Drive or on your device. No servers of ours, ever. Inkiostro collects only anonymous, aggregated usage statistics — never personal data, never the content of your documents — and you can turn them off in Settings.
Foldleaf Reader
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Foldleaf Reader is a reader and notetaker for PDFs and EPUBs that turns pages like paper, trims the margins off every page, and lets you write and highlight with the Apple Pencil — on iPad, iPhone and iPhone Duo. PAGES THAT TURN • Page Curl: drag a page from its edge and it follows your finger, the next one waiting underneath. • Vertical Page Curl: a page hinged along its top, turned upward like a wall calendar. • Or flick through pages, scroll down one long column, or scroll across the pages side by side. • One page or two side by side, chosen for you whenever the window is wide enough. MARGINS GONE • Crop View trims every page of a PDF once — drag a rectangle round what matters, and the whole document opens that way from then on. • Most papers waste a third of each page on white space. Crop it, and every page is bigger. • Zoom Lock holds your framing from page to page; Horizontal and Vertical Zoom Lock keep a zoomed-in column steady as you scroll. WRITE AND HIGHLIGHT • Four pens — Pen, Fountain Pen, Pencil and Marker — with six colours and six nib widths, each responding to the Pencil's pressure and tilt in its own way. • Hold the pen still at the end of a line and it snaps straight. • A highlighter in five colours: select text, or simply sweep across the lines, in PDFs and EPUBs alike. • Double-tap the Apple Pencil for the rubber. Pick up the pen or highlighter just by bringing the Pencil to the page. • Share a PDF with your ink and highlights written in as standard annotations, readable in Preview, Acrobat and other apps. PAPERS AND BOOKS, BUILT IN • Browse arXiv inside the app and save a paper in one tap — it arrives named for its number, authors and title. • Project Gutenberg's tens of thousands of free books, saved as EPUBs with their illustrations. • A web browser that keeps any PDF or EPUB you tap. • Or add files from Files and iCloud Drive. Edit a PDF in place, and your annotations are saved into the original wherever it lives. A LIBRARY THAT STAYS TIDY • Folders, favourites and recents, sorted and viewed the way each folder likes. • Search titles and authors, search inside a book, and name your bookmarks. • Deleted books wait in the Bin for a week, in case you change your mind. MADE FOR READING • Controls along the top, or in a column down the side so a tall page keeps its height. • Paper colours from white to beige to black, and an appearance that follows the system or doesn't. • Fullscreen with a small corner cluster, keyboard shortcuts, and trackpad and mouse support. • Left-handed layout, Keep Screen On, and support for VoiceOver. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-in, no tracking and no analytics. Your library stays on your device. TRY EVERYTHING FREE Every feature is free for 14 days. After that, reading, your library, paged view and the plain backgrounds stay free — and so does everything you have already marked or cropped. Page curl, scrolling, the zoom locks, paper colours, Crop View, the pen, the highlighter, side controls and Back and Forward unlock with a single purchase: once, not a subscription, and on your iPhone and iPad alike. Questions and suggestions: foldleafreader@gmail.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Inkiostro at every 6 days against Foldleaf Reader's fortnightly. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
Both are free to download. Inkiostro sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Foldleaf Reader sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Inkiostro ships an update every 6 days, Foldleaf Reader fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Inkiostro | Foldleaf Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.2 (5 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 22 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Carlo Di Giuseppe | Tiann-Tevong You |
In-app purchases
Inkiostro
- Inkiostro Pro$19.99
Foldleaf Reader
- 14-Day TrialFree
- Unlock Foldleaf Reader$9.99









