openote vs MarkWrite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Free iCloud sync
- Plain Markdown files
- Live Mermaid diagram rendering
- On-device AI features
- Rich Markdown editor
- Folder and tag organization
- Full-text search
Read full descriptionHide 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.
MarkWrite
Read full descriptionHide full description
WYSIWYG Markdown editor that allows embedding pictures and natural language mathematics. MarkWrite is a fast, focused Markdown editor for Mac, iPad and iPhone. Your writing formats itself as you type โ headings, bold, lists, quotes, tables and code appear the moment you write them, while the Markdown syntax stays visible only on the line you are editing. Nothing to toggle, no split screen required. EMBED IMAGES, NOT LINKS Drag a picture into your document and it is really there. Grab its corner to resize it and MarkWrite writes the new size back into the Markdown for you. Text and images are saved together in one self-contained document you can move, rename, duplicate or send without leaving a single broken link behind. Images can be embedded in any of the common formats: VS Code, Pandoc or HTML. WRITE EQUATIONS BY DESCRIBING THEM Say what you mean: "x equals minus b, plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four a c, all over two a." MarkWrite turns that sentence into a properly typeset formula. There is no LaTeX to memorise โ though you can type LaTeX directly whenever you would rather. Powered by on-device Apple Intelligence; requires a supported device. ALSO โข Tables that line up in the editor, not only in the preview โข Live preview that follows your cursor, side by side or full width โข Themes: fonts, colours, spacing, line height, list spacing โ saved as presets โข Callouts, footnotes, highlights, code blocks and inline code โข Export to PDF or print, with your theme applied โข Open a whole folder in tabs and work across files โข Find and replace, including regular expressions STILL JUST MARKDOWN MarkWrite writes ordinary .md files. Nothing is trapped in a proprietary format, nothing is locked in a cloud, and nothing you have written is ever held behind a subscription. Open your work in any other editor, any time, or share it with anyone and they will be able to open it with any Markdown viewer, including the embedded images. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: openote at none against MarkWrite's 1. openote also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.4). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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
Both are free to download. MarkWrite sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. openote asks for nothing beyond the download.
openote ships an update every 5 weeks, MarkWrite monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | openote | MarkWrite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | โ |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Monthly โ better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No โ better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | โ |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac โ better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 โ better | 26.4 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Wooyoung Kim | Guy Shaviv |
In-app purchases
openote
No in-app purchases
MarkWrite
- MarkWrite Pro$9.991 Year









