Comparison

Indent vs PreviewMD

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

Head to head
About

Indent

Features
Read full description

Write Markdown on one side. See the page on the other. Indent is a Markdown editor. You write the way Markdown is written, a hash for a heading, stars for bold, a dash for a list, and the preview beside you turns those marks into the finished page: headings, tables, code, the checklist you will actually tick off. Indent does not format for you. It shows you what your Markdown means, as you type it. Your notes are ordinary Markdown files. Indent opens them where they already live: in Files, in iCloud Drive, in a folder on your Mac, or in the folder another notes app keeps them in, such as an Obsidian vault. It saves them back as the same text. Nothing is imported and nothing is locked in. If you stop using Indent tomorrow, every word is still yours, readable in any editor. It is the same app on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Write on the phone in the queue, open the split view on the iPad at the kitchen table, finish on the Mac with the outline open beside you. An Indent folder in iCloud Drive keeps the file in step. When the piece is done, share it as a PDF or HTML, or print it from the Mac, on A4 or Letter depending on where you are. Choose a look that suits the writing. Seven themes, each with a light and a dark face, from warm paper to plain black on white. There is no account to create and nothing to sign in to. No ads, no analytics, no tracking. A note never leaves your device unless you share it. Indent is free, and if it earns a place in your day there is a tip jar inside. What you get • Markdown highlighting as you type, a formatting bar above the keyboard, a Styles panel, keyboard shortcuts • A live preview with real tables, checklists, nested lists, quotes, images and coloured code in more than forty languages • Split view on iPad and Mac, with the preview following as you scroll • An outline of your headings, and Find in both the editor and the page • Files from Obsidian, Jekyll and Hugo open cleanly, front matter included • Saves as UTF-8, opens most older text encodings • Standard CommonMark with tables, strikethrough and task lists

About

PreviewMD

Features
Read full description

PreviewMD is a fast, native editor and viewer for Markdown on iPad and iPhone — the same rendering as the Mac app, free on both. Open any .md file from Files or iCloud Drive, or start a new document right in the built-in browser. FOUR WAYS TO WORK • Preview — a clean reading view • Split — live preview beside the Markdown source, side by side on iPad and stacked on iPhone • Source — the Markdown alone, full width • Diff — see exactly what you've changed since you opened the file, word by word BEAUTIFUL RENDERING • GitHub-flavored Markdown: tables, task lists, footnotes and strikethrough • Syntax highlighting for almost two hundred languages • Math typesetting with KaTeX — $inline$ and $$display$$ • Diagrams with Mermaid — flowcharts, sequence, class, state, pie and gantt • GitHub-style alert callouts (> [!NOTE], [!WARNING], …) and emoji • Automatic light and dark mode WRITING ON A TOUCHSCREEN A formatting bar sits above the keyboard for bold, italic, inline code, headings, quotes, lists and links. With a hardware keyboard the same actions have shortcuts. YOUR DOCUMENTS, YOUR IMAGES Works with the Files app and iCloud Drive — documents open in place and save as you type, with no Save button to remember. Local images referenced by your document display right in the preview. EXPORT, SHARE & PRINT Export self-contained HTML or clean light-mode PDF straight to the share sheet, or print with proper pagination. QUICK LOOK Markdown files preview with PreviewMD's renderer in the Files app too. ONE APP EVERYWHERE Free on Mac as well — including Quick Look previews and thumbnails in Finder. Requires iOS/iPadOS 17 or later.

Screenshots

Indent4 screens
PreviewMD4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PreviewMD at none against Indent's 3. On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

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

Both are free to download. Indent sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. PreviewMD asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard1 real difference Ā· 4 level
Indent versus PreviewMD: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterIndentPreviewMD
PriceFreeFree
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMerano Studio LimitedMichal Fanta

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Indent

One-time3
  • Espresso$0.99
  • Latte$2.99
  • Whole bag$4.99
None

PreviewMD

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Indent free?
Indent is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PreviewMD free?
PreviewMD is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Indent or PreviewMD have ads?
Neither Indent nor PreviewMD shows ads.

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