Comparison

openote vs Markdown Notes

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

Head to head
About

openote

This app offers a free and private way to manage your notes using standard Markdown files. It syncs across your Apple devices via iCloud Drive without requiring an account or subscription. Features include live diagram rendering, on-device AI capabilities, and robust editing tools.

Highlights
  • Free iCloud sync
  • Plain Markdown files
  • Live Mermaid diagram rendering
  • On-device AI features
  • Rich Markdown editor
  • Folder and tag organization
  • Full-text search
Features
Read full description

openote โ€” Markdown notes with free sync. No account. No subscription. Other note apps charge a yearly fee just to sync your own devices. openote syncs iPhone, iPad and Mac through your iCloud Drive โ€” free, with no account to create. Your notes stay plain .md files. Open them in the Files app or any Markdown editor, and take them anywhere. No proprietary format, no lock-in. --- WHY OPENOTE Free iCloud sync Notes sync through iCloud Drive on your own Apple account. No sign-up, no subscription. Plain Markdown files Every note is a standard .md file. Front matter, checklists and [[wiki links]] are kept exactly as you wrote them. Safe across devices If a note changes on another device while you're editing, openote keeps both versions instead of silently overwriting one. Your last words are saved even if you switch apps or quit right away. Mermaid diagrams Flowcharts, sequence diagrams and more render live from Markdown. Start from a template, pinch to zoom, tap to edit the code. Rendering works offline. On-device AI On devices with Apple Intelligence, summarize a note, get tag suggestions, or turn a sentence into a diagram. It runs entirely on your device โ€” nothing is sent to a server. --- FEATURES Editor - Rich Markdown editing, with a source mode when you want the raw text - Checklists, tables and code blocks - Auto-save - Word and character count Organize - Folders and #tags with autocomplete - [[Wiki links]] between notes - Full-text search in English, Korean and Japanese Sync & files - iPhone, iPad and Mac via iCloud Drive - Browse your notes in the Files app - Export a note as PDF Shortcuts & Siri - Create, open and search notes from Shortcuts and Siri - Notes appear in Spotlight search --- PRIVACY - No account, no email - No tracking - Your notes stay in your iCloud and on your devices - AI runs on your device Everything is free. openote has no in-app purchases. openote โ€” Your notes, your files.

About

Markdown Notes

Features
Read full description

A calm, keyboard-first Markdown notebook that also reads your handwriting. Write plain text, see it render, and keep every page on your iPhone. THE EDITOR Type in plain Markdown and switch to a rendered preview whenever you want to see how it reads. Headings, bold, italic and lists are handled inline, so you never leave the keyboard to format a line. A live counter shows words, characters and an estimated reading time as you write. FOCUS MODE One tap hides the chrome and leaves you with the page. Set a word goal on any note and a quiet progress ring fills as you get closer to it. Turn the goal off on notes that do not need one. HANDWRITING CAPTURE Open the ink canvas and write with Apple Pencil or your finger. Inkwell reads the handwriting on the device and drops the recognized text straight into your note, so the words become searchable like anything else you typed. The original drawing is saved with the note. HASHTAG ORGANIZATION Type #project or #recipes anywhere in a note and the tag is picked up automatically. You can also add tags by hand. The tag browser builds a tree of everything you have used, with a count beside each one, so a whole topic is one tap away. FIND IT AGAIN Search runs across titles, bodies and tags at once. Filter by one tag or several at the same time, then sort by most recent, most recently created or by title. Pin the notes you come back to and they stay at the top of the list. STAYS ON YOUR DEVICE There is no account to make and no sign-in screen. Your notes live in local storage on your iPhone and are never uploaded to a server. WHAT IT IS GOOD FOR Daily quick notes, meeting notes, a writing habit, a second brain of reference pages, code snippets, journaling, lecture notes and travel notebooks. Markdown Notes: Notepad Editor requires a Premium unlock to write in. Premium opens the whole notebook: unlimited notes, the plain-Markdown editor with rendered preview and live word, character and reading-time counts, focus mode with word goals, handwriting capture on the ink canvas with on-device text recognition, the hashtag tree and tag browser, search with multi-tag filtering and sorting, pinned notes, and the local-only vault with no account and no sign-in. Plans: a weekly subscription, a yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. A subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal in your Account Settings after purchase. Privacy policy: https://pnkl26.web.app/privacy-policy Terms of use: https://pnkl26.web.app/terms-of-service

Screenshots

openote4 screens
Markdown Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: openote at none against Markdown Notes's 3. openote also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 6 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Markdown Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. openote asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

openote ships an update every 5 weeks, Markdown Notes every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 6 level
openote versus Markdown Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteropenoteMarkdown Notes
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews100.0% of reviewsโ€”
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks โ€” betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
MonetizationFreeโ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPad โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size8 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWooyoung KimLinh Phan Nhat Khanh

In-app purchases

None

openote

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Markdown Notes

Subscriptions2
  • Tag Filter & Search$2.997 Days
  • Focus Mode & Word Goals$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Private Offline Drafts$29.99

Questions

Is openote free?
openote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Markdown Notes free?
Markdown Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do openote or Markdown Notes have ads?
Neither openote nor Markdown Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, openote or Markdown Notes?
openote ships an update every 5 weeks, and Markdown Notes every 6 months. Most recently, openote was updated on November 6, 2026 and Markdown Notes on November 13, 2026.

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