Comparison

MarkDeck vs Margina

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

Head to head
About

MarkDeck

Read full description

MarkDeck is a fast, beautiful reader and editor for Markdown, PDF, EPUB and Word documents on iPhone and iPad. Open any .md, .pdf, .epub or .docx file and read it your way — with your own themes, your own fonts and a clean, focused layout. Whether you're a developer viewing README files, a student with PDF handouts, a writer keeping Markdown notes or a book lover with an EPUB library, MarkDeck makes reading a delight. BEAUTIFUL RENDERING FOR EVERY FORMAT Markdown rendered with pixel-perfect precision: scrollable tables, syntax-highlighted code, clickable links and inline images. PDFs and EPUB books open in the same calm reader, one library for everything you read. VISUAL MARKDOWN EDITOR Write and edit like in a word processor: headings, lists, tasks, quotes, code, links, images and tables edited in place, with the Markdown view one tap away. Create new notes and save them straight into your library. READ AND EDIT WORD DOCUMENTS (.DOCX) Edit Word documents on iPhone and iPad, free: fix a typo, rewrite a paragraph, add bold or italic. The file keeps its layout, tables and images. Open Word documents as real pages, like a PDF: page size, headers and footers, tables, images and charts kept. Search the text, jump through the contents built from its headings and pick up where you left off. With Pro, export them to PDF. Templates (.dotx) and macro-enabled files (.docm, .dotm) open too; macros never run. SAVE A COPY Keep any document in Files: choose the folder and the name, and the library copy stays as it is. Free. FILL PDF FORMS Fill in interactive PDF forms (text, checkboxes, options and lists) and save a copy while the original stays untouched. 20 READING THEMES 15 themes free (Light, Dark, Sepia, Paper, AMOLED, Nord, Dracula, Solarized, Gruvbox, Tokyo Night and more) plus 5 premium palettes with MarkDeck Pro. Switch themes without leaving the page. YOUR FONTS, YOUR WAY One font for the app, another for what you read, so a cozy serif for your book never restyles your menus. Two fonts free, eight more with Pro. COMFORTABLE PDF READING Fit-to-width zoom remembered per document, Night and Warm color modes (Pro), password-protected PDFs, and continuous or page-by-page navigation. FULL-SCREEN READING One tap hides everything but the page, with a slim progress line so you never lose your place. BOOKMARKS, HIGHLIGHTS & NOTES Bookmarks that take you back to the right spot. Highlight any passage, pick a color and add a note (Pro), then find every highlight and note in one place. A table of contents jumps to any chapter. ORGANIZE YOUR LIBRARY Group documents into collections, search your library and pick up right where you left off. READING STATS Total time, streak and sessions at a glance; Pro adds a full activity heatmap. OPEN FILES FROM ANY APP Got a .md, .pdf or .epub in Mail, Files or a chat app? Open it straight into MarkDeck, including documents inside ZIP files. PASTE & READ, OR IMPORT A LINK Paste Markdown from any app or AI tool and read it instantly, or paste a web link and MarkDeck turns it into clean, readable text. SYNC WITH GOOGLE DRIVE (PRO) Keep your library, highlights and notes in step across your devices with your own Google Drive. OFFLINE & PRIVATE No account needed for local reading. Documents stay on your device unless you choose to share them or use Google Drive sync. MULTILINGUAL English, Spanish and Portuguese; pick your language independently of your device's. MARKDECK PRO Remove ads and unlock every font, all 20 themes, PDF color modes, unlimited bookmarks, color highlights with notes, documents in tabs, PDF export, the full stats dashboard and Google Drive sync. Eligible subscribers get a 7-day free trial on the annual plan. SUPPORTED FORMATS: .md · .markdown · .txt · .pdf · .epub · .docx · .dotx · .docm · .dotm Privacy Policy: https://markdeck.dev/privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Margina

A private reader for your documents that allows you to highlight, annotate, and organize your reading materials. It offers a distraction-free experience with customizable reading settings and powerful search capabilities. Your library is stored locally for maximum privacy.

Highlights
  • Supports PDF, EPUB, Word, Markdown, and plain text
  • Highlight and annotate passages
  • Organize library into folders
  • Fast search across documents and annotations
  • Customizable reading experience
  • Private by design, local storage
Read full description

Margina is a calm, private home for everything you read. Send yourself a PDF, EPUB, Word doc, Markdown file, or plain text. Margina opens them all in one distraction-free reader that remembers exactly where you left off. No account, no cloud requirement, no clutter: just you and the page. A LIBRARY THAT LOOKS LIKE ONE Your documents live on a clean shelf of covers, each showing its format and how far you have read. Prefer rows? Switch to list view with one tap. Filter by what you are reading now, what is new, and what you have finished, and pin the book you keep coming back to. HIGHLIGHT AND ANNOTATE Mark passages in five colors, attach a note in the margin, and drop bookmarks anywhere. Drag across a PDF page to select and highlight in one motion. Every annotation is gathered in one place, ready to browse, filter, and revisit. Tap any highlight to jump straight back to its page. FIND ANYTHING, FAST Search across titles, authors, highlights, and notes at once. Matches light up inside the results exactly like highlights on a page, grouped by document so you always know where a passage came from. STAY ORGANIZED Sort your library into color-coded folders for work, study, research, or that stack of essays you have been meaning to get to. Jump back into any book at the exact spot, or the exact highlight, you were last at. MADE FOR LONG READING A reading experience designed like a well-set book: quiet paper tones, generous margins, and your progress drawn as a thin rule in the margin itself. Choose paper, sepia, or dark. Tune font, size, line spacing, and margins right in the reader. Includes a dyslexia-friendly typeface option and respects your system accessibility settings, from Dynamic Type to VoiceOver, Reduce Motion, and Reduce Transparency. EVERY FORMAT YOU ACTUALLY USE PDF reader, EPUB reader, Word document viewer, Markdown reader, and plain text, all in one app. Import from the share sheet, the Files app, email attachments, or anywhere else you can tap Share. Everything works offline, on the train, on a plane, or at the cabin with no signal. EXPORT AND SHARE Turn your highlights and notes into a clean Markdown file or a formatted PDF and send them to your notes app, your research workflow, or a friend. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your library lives on your device. No account, no sign-up, no tracking, nothing to set up. Margina hosts nothing about you. Reading is personal; your reading data should be too. MARGINA PRO Upgrade to back up your library to your OWN iCloud, unlock the sepia reading theme, export your annotations, and add unlimited documents. Available monthly, annually, or as a one-time lifetime purchase. Your backup stays in your iCloud, never on our servers, so even Pro keeps your data yours. WHO MARGINA IS FOR Students annotating readings and lecture notes. Researchers working through papers. Book club readers who argue in the margins. Writers collecting passages. Anyone who sends themselves things to read later and actually wants to read them, without ads, feeds, or noise. Read anything. Mark it up. Keep it yours. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://margina.app/privacy Margina Pro is offered as a monthly or annual auto-renewable subscription or a one-time Lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings.

Screenshots

MarkDeck4 screens
Margina4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Margina at none against MarkDeck's shown. Margina also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 2 days). MarkDeck's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, in-app purchases 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. MarkDeck sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Margina sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MarkDeck ships an update every 2 days, Margina daily. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
MarkDeck versus Margina: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarkDeckMargina
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 daysDaily — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Freemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size101 MB68 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJeisson SeguraEcho Persona LLC

In-app purchases

3 purchases

MarkDeck

Subscriptions2
  • MarkDeck Pro Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • MarkDeck Pro Annual7 Days trial$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • MarkDeck Pro Lifetime$44.99
3 purchases

Margina

Subscriptions2
  • Margina Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Margina Pro Annual$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Margina Lifetime$39.99

Questions

Is MarkDeck free?
MarkDeck is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Margina free?
Margina is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MarkDeck or Margina have ads?
MarkDeck shows ads; Margina does not.
Which is updated more often, MarkDeck or Margina?
MarkDeck ships an update every 2 days, and Margina daily. Most recently, MarkDeck was updated on October 25, 2026 and Margina on October 20, 2026.

Other comparisons