Comparison

Elysium Productivity vs Marklens

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

Head to head
About

Elysium Productivity

Features
Read full description

Elysium is a local-first planner and calendar built for people who want control over their time — and their data. After trying countless planning apps, it became clear that most tools force you into rigid systems, lock your data away, or charge ongoing fees just to manage your own life. Elysium was built to be different. Your data lives locally, in human-readable files. Nothing is trapped behind a server or subscription. You can use Elysium completely offline, customize it deeply, and extend it over time — without being boxed into someone else’s workflow. Elysium brings together planning, scheduling, and habit-tracking in a way that adapts to you, not the other way around. Key principles • Local-first by design — your data stays on your device • User-owned files — portable, readable, and future-proof • Flexible scheduling — tasks, events, goals, habits, appointments, reminders and projects in one system • Customizable workflows — shape the app around how you think and style it to match your unique requirements • Extensible foundation — designed to grow with with you and extend beyond the core functionality • Calm, focused interface — by default the screens are simple, but you can make them as complicated and colorful as you like Whether you’re planning your day, managing long-term goals, or building your own productivity system, Elysium gives you the structure you need without taking control away from you. No ads. No surveillance. No forced subscriptions. We only charge for things that actually cost us money, like cloud syncing on the Basic plan and server resources for collaboration and team management on the Pro plan. Just a tool designed to respect you and your time. Terms of Use: https://elysium.is/terms

About

Marklens

This app is a fast, native Markdown viewer for macOS, iPadOS, and iPhone. It renders .md files instantly with beautiful typography, themes, syntax highlighting, and diagrams. Designed for reading, it offers a private and friction-free experience.

Highlights
  • Instant Markdown rendering
  • Syntax highlighting for 30+ languages
  • Mermaid diagram support
  • GitHub-Flavored Markdown
  • Light and dark themes
  • Export to PDF
  • Quick Look preview on macOS
Features
Read full description

Marklens is a fast, native Markdown viewer for macOS, iPadOS, and iPhone. Open any .md file with a click and see it rendered immediately — beautiful typography, light and dark themes, syntax-highlighted code, and Mermaid diagrams. No editor, no library, no friction. HIGHLIGHTS • Instant render — every .md opens in a clean, focused window • 30+ language syntax highlighting via highlight.js, bundled offline • Mermaid 11 diagrams — flowcharts, sequence, state, xy-charts and more • GitHub-Flavored Markdown — tables, task lists, footnotes, strikethrough • Light and dark theme matching the system appearance • Quick Look on macOS — press Space on any .md in Finder for a rendered preview • Export to PDF on every platform • Pinch-to-zoom on iPadOS and iPhone, ⌘+ / ⌘− / ⌘0 on macOS • Open files via drag-and-drop, the Share Sheet, or the Files app MADE FOR READING Marklens doesn't try to be a notes app or a knowledge base. It opens a file, renders it perfectly, and gets out of the way. If you write Markdown in another tool — VS Code, Obsidian, GitHub, your favorite text editor — Marklens is the viewer you reach for to look at the result. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Marklens collects nothing. No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reports, no network requests. Every rendering asset — Mermaid, highlight.js, fonts — ships inside the app. Read the full privacy policy at https://donald-jackson.github.io/marklens/privacy/ OPEN SOURCE Marklens is MIT-licensed and developed in the open. Source, issues, and contribution guide live at https://github.com/donald-jackson/marklens.

Screenshots

Elysium Productivity4 screens
Marklens3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Marklens at none against Elysium Productivity's 8. Elysium Productivity's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly). On price, ads, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Elysium Productivity sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $5.00 per month. Marklens asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Elysium Productivity ships an update every 2 weeks, Marklens monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Elysium Productivity versus Marklens: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterElysium ProductivityMarklens
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS18.518.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size50 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRyan RussellDonald Jackson

In-app purchases

8 purchases

Elysium Productivity

Subscriptions8
  • Basic (Monthly)$5.001 Month
  • AI (Monthly)$6.001 Month
  • Basic + AI (Monthly)$10.001 Month
Show 5 more
  • Pro (Monthly)$20.001 Month
  • Basic (Annual)$50.001 Year
  • AI (Annual)$60.001 Year
  • Basic + AI (Annual)$100.001 Year
  • Pro (Annual)$200.001 Year
None

Marklens

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Elysium Productivity free?
Elysium Productivity is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Marklens free?
Marklens is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Elysium Productivity or Marklens have ads?
Neither Elysium Productivity nor Marklens shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Elysium Productivity or Marklens?
Elysium Productivity ships an update every 2 weeks, and Marklens monthly. Most recently, Elysium Productivity was updated on October 15, 2026 and Marklens on October 7, 2026.

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