Comparison

Markdown Editor and MD Viewer vs MDReader

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

Head to head
About

Markdown Editor and MD Viewer

Features
Read full description

Markdown Editor & MD Viewer is a clean, offline Markdown editor and viewer for iPhone and iPad. Open any .md file, edit it with a live preview, and export it to PDF, HTML, or Word โ€” with no subscription, no account, and no sign-in. Most Markdown apps now lock syncing or basic features behind a monthly fee. This one doesn't. The full editor is free, works completely offline, and keeps your files as plain .md โ€” yours to move, back up, and own. WRITE WITHOUT DISTRACTION โ€ข Distraction-free editor with a live preview pane โ€ข Syntax highlighting for fenced code blocks โ€ข Focus styling that dims the markup so your words stand out โ€ข Word, character, and reading-time counts โ€ข Find & Replace โ€ข A formatting toolbar above the keyboard, plus hardware keyboard shortcuts on iPad OPEN AND VIEW ANY MARKDOWN โ€ข Open .md, .markdown, and .txt files straight from the Files app โ€ข Set as your default Markdown opener โ€” "Open in" from Mail, Safari, and other apps โ€ข Tables, task lists, blockquotes, footnotes, and links render in the preview โ€ข LaTeX math and a linked table of contents EXPORT AND SHARE โ€ข Export to PDF for printing and sharing โ€ข Export to HTML โ€ข Export to Word (.docx) that opens in Word, Pages, and Google Docs โ€ข Copy as HTML or share the raw .md file STARTER TEMPLATES โ€ข README, notes, blog post, and more โ€” start from a clean structure PRIVATE BY DESIGN โ€ข Works fully offline โ€ข No account, no login, no cloud lock-in โ€ข Your documents stay on your device Built for developers, technical writers, students, and anyone who keeps notes in Markdown. No subscription. No account. Just a Markdown editor that respects your files.

About

MDReader

Features
Read full description

MDReader opens your Markdown files and folders and renders them properly. There is no library to import into, no account to create and no sync service in the middle. Your .md files stay exactly where you put them, and MDReader reads and writes them in place. FAST, EVEN ON BIG FILES A two-tier parser scans a document in a single pass and only fully parses the blocks you can actually see. A 10 MB file opens before other editors have finished showing a spinner, and scrolling stays smooth all the way down. RENDERS THE WHOLE OF MARKDOWN GitHub-flavoured Markdown with tables, task lists you can tick straight from reading mode, footnotes that jump both ways, YAML front matter shown as a card, LaTeX math inline and display, fenced code with syntax highlighting, and Mermaid diagrams rendered offline. AN EDITOR THAT STAYS OUT OF THE WAY Live syntax highlighting, lists that continue and renumber themselves, bold/italic/link shortcuts, find and replace, table and formula inserters, and paste an image to save it next to the document. Autosave goes through the system file coordinator, so editing alongside Obsidian, git or iCloud is safe. PICKS UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF Reading position is restored to the pixel, per document, across relaunches, rotation and window resizes. FOLDER WORKSPACES (PRO) Open a whole folder: a repository's docs, an Obsidian vault, a Zettelkasten. Fuzzy quick-open, full-text search across every file in the folder, [[wiki-links]] with a backlinks panel, a front-matter tag browser, and read-only git status per file. Changes made by other apps are picked up in place, without losing your position. MORE IN PRO PDF export and print, publishing to GitHub Gist and Telegraph, presentation mode for slides, a custom theme editor with imported fonts, focus and typewriter modes, word-count goals, reading statistics, text-to-speech with follow-along highlighting, local version history with diffs, snippets, Vim keybindings, and an AI pack that summarises and rewrites entirely on device. BUILT FOR APPLE PLATFORMS One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac. Keyboard shortcuts throughout, multiple windows, menu bar commands, a Share extension, Shortcuts actions, widgets, a URL scheme, Spotlight indexing, VoiceOver labels and Dynamic Type. PRIVACY MDReader collects nothing. No analytics SDK, no account, no server of ours to talk to. The only network traffic is what your own documents ask for, such as remote images, plus the publishing integrations you set up yourself. FREE AND PRO The reader and the single-file editor are free forever: all rendering including math and syntax highlighting, the base themes, table of contents, in-file search, HTML, Markdown and plain-text export, and position restore. Pro unlocks folder workspaces and the power features above, as a one-time purchase or as a yearly subscription with a free trial. SUBSCRIPTION AND PURCHASE DETAILS MDReader Pro (Yearly) - auto-renewable subscription, 1 year, USD 9.99 per year, including a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. MDReader Pro (Lifetime) - one-time purchase, USD 24.99, not a subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. A yearly subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage or cancel the subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when a subscription is purchased. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ App Terms of Service: https://gelfand.dev/mdreader/terms Privacy Policy: https://gelfand.dev/mdreader/privacy

Screenshots

Markdown Editor and MD Viewer4 screens
MDReader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: MDReader at every 2 weeks against Markdown Editor and MD Viewer's monthly. Markdown Editor and MD Viewer's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Markdown Editor and MD Viewer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and MDReader sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Markdown Editor and MD Viewer ships an update monthly, MDReader every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Markdown Editor and MD Viewer versus MDReader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarkdown Editor and MD ViewerMDReader
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS13.0 โ€” better26.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size51 MB22 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSahana A SDaniil Nuzhdin

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Markdown Editor and MD Viewer

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$19.99
2 purchases

MDReader

Subscriptions1
  • MDReader Pro Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • MDReader Pro$24.99

Questions

Is Markdown Editor and MD Viewer free?
Markdown Editor and MD Viewer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MDReader free?
MDReader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Markdown Editor and MD Viewer or MDReader have ads?
Neither Markdown Editor and MD Viewer nor MDReader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Markdown Editor and MD Viewer or MDReader?
Markdown Editor and MD Viewer ships an update monthly, and MDReader every 2 weeks. Most recently, Markdown Editor and MD Viewer was updated on October 4, 2026 and MDReader on September 28, 2026.

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