MD Preview vs Read.md
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MD Preview
This app provides a clean and elegant way to read markdown files from various cloud storage services. It offers beautiful formatting, syntax highlighting for numerous programming languages, and customizable themes. An optional one-time purchase unlocks additional features like PDF export and custom font sizes.
- Open .md files from cloud storage
- Beautifully formatted markdown rendering
- Syntax highlighting for 180+ languages
- Toggle between preview and raw markdown
- Collapsible table of contents
- 6 free reading themes
- Export to PDF (premium)
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MD Preview is a fast, elegant markdown reader. Open .md files from anywhere — Files, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox — and read them with beautiful formatting. Built for people who work with AI tools that generate markdown files. No more squinting at raw text or pasting into web tools. Just open the file and read. WHAT IT DOES - Opens .md files from any document provider on your device - Renders headings, tables, code blocks, task lists, images, and more - Syntax highlighting for 180+ programming languages - Toggle between rendered preview and raw markdown - Share files via the iOS share sheet - Collapsible table of contents with tap-to-jump navigation - Pin recent files so they stay at the top, forever 6 FREE READING THEMES - Paper — Warm cream tones with serif headings - Midnight — Dark mode, easy on the eyes - Forest — Deep greens, earthy, and calm - Rosé — Soft pinks, elegant typography - Ocean — Cool blues, modern and clean - Lavender — Purple hues, gentle and refined PREMIUM UNLOCK — $1.99 ONE-TIME Want more? Upgrade once and keep it forever: - Export to PDF — Save beautifully rendered documents as PDFs - Custom Font Size — Adjust text size to your preference - 4 Extra Themes — Solarized, Dracula, Nord, and Tokyo Night - No subscription. Just a single purchase. NO ACCOUNT. NO ADS. PRIVACY FIRST. Just open a file and read it. That's it. MD Preview doesn't store, upload, or copy your files. It reads them in place from wherever they live. Recent files are remembered by path for quick access — nothing else is saved. Supports GitHub Flavored Markdown, including tables, strikethrough, task lists, and fenced code blocks.
Read.md
This app allows you to beautifully view markdown files on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. It offers perfect rendering of complex elements like tables, code blocks, and diagrams, with offline support and privacy in mind.
- Perfect markdown rendering
- Syntax highlighting for 180+ languages
- Mermaid diagram rendering
- GitHub repository browsing
- Export to PDF & HTML (Pro)
- Smart diagram fixing
- Auto-generated table of contents
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Open any .md file and read it beautifully — on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Read.md is a markdown reader. Not an editor, not a note-taking app, not a vault system. A reader. Tap a .md file, it opens, it looks great, you read it. PERFECT RENDERING Tables, code blocks, nested lists, task lists, blockquotes, images, links — everything renders correctly. Syntax highlighting for 180+ programming languages. GitHub Flavored Markdown fully supported. MERMAID DIAGRAMS Flowcharts, sequence diagrams, Gantt charts, class diagrams, and more render natively. Tap to zoom into any diagram for a detailed view. EXPORT TO PDF & HTML Turn any document into a clean, paginated, print-quality PDF or a self-contained HTML file — diagrams and syntax highlighting intact. Share it, print it, archive it. Or export the original Markdown source. (PDF and HTML export are Read.md Pro; Markdown export is free.) OPEN FROM GITHUB Read documentation straight from the source. Browse any GitHub repository — public or private — navigate its file tree, and open any .md file with the same beautiful rendering. Sign in with a personal access token; your token stays on your device. (Read.md Pro) SMART DIAGRAM FIXER ASCII art and box-drawing diagrams that look broken in other apps? Read.md detects and corrects misaligned characters automatically so your diagrams look the way they were intended. NAVIGATE LONG DOCUMENTS Auto-generated table of contents from your headings. Search within any document with match highlighting and next/prev navigation. Your scroll position is remembered when you come back to a file. ZERO FRICTION No account needed to read. No workspace. No vault. No setup. Works as your default .md file handler — open markdown files from Files, Finder, email attachments, AirDrop, the share sheet, or drag and drop. ADAPTS TO YOUR DEVICE iPhone: stacked navigation with a frosted-glass nav bar and bottom sheets. iPad: landscape split-view, portrait slide-over panels, trackpad and keyboard support. Mac: split-view with sidebar, reader, and table-of-contents panel, keyboard shortcuts, and translucent panels. Everything adapts automatically when you resize windows or rotate your device. DARK AND LIGHT MODES Switch between dark and light themes, or follow your system setting. Adjust font size to your preference. Everything updates live. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Opens instantly, even large files. Your markdown is rendered entirely on your device — file contents are never uploaded, and reading works fully offline. No ads. No account required to read. The only feature that touches the network is GitHub browsing, and only when you choose to use it. We use anonymous, aggregate analytics to improve the app. READ.MD PRO A one-time purchase — or a yearly subscription with a free trial — unlocks PDF/HTML export and GitHub browsing. Everything else stays free, forever. WHAT PEOPLE USE IT FOR Reading AI-generated markdown exports. Reading GitHub README files on mobile. Viewing documentation and project specs on the go. Reviewing technical docs from colleagues. Browsing personal notes written in markdown. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: MD Preview at every 3 days against Read.md's every 2 weeks. MD Preview also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 90%). Read.md's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. MD Preview sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Read.md sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for MD Preview against 5.0 for Read.md. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 35 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of MD Preview's written reviews are positive against 90% of Read.md's.
MD Preview ships an update every 3 days, Read.md every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 11, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MD Preview | Read.md |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (20 ratings) | 5.0 (35 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 90.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 20 | 35 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gejun Zhu | Pavel Abin |
Customer experience
MD Preview
Read.md
In-app purchases
MD Preview
- MD Preview Premium$2.99
Read.md
- Read.md Pro Yearly3 Days trial$9.991 Year
- Read.md Pro (Lifetime)$24.99





