Comparison

MarkUp vs Concise

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

Head to head
About

MarkUp

This versatile editor allows you to write notes, research papers, screenplays, and long-form documents. It supports Word, Markdown, and LaTeX, with advanced features like live previews, offline typesetting, and data file integration. Work seamlessly across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Highlights
  • Edit Word documents with full formatting
  • Live preview for Markdown writing
  • Offline LaTeX typesetting with XeTeX engine
  • Support for CSV, JSON, YAML, HTML, RTF, Fountain
  • Cross-device syncing via iCloud
  • Templates and version history
  • Password protection for files
Features
Read full description

MarkUp is a writing app for notes, research, screenplays, and long-form work. Edit Word documents on real pages, write Markdown with a live preview, or typeset a full LaTeX thesis with a real XeTeX engine that runs entirely on your device. Work with CSV, JSON, YAML, HTML, Rich Text, and Fountain files too, and let your files work together, with the same features on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Made for students, researchers, and writers: draft a thesis in LaTeX, take notes in Markdown, and hand in a Word document, all in one app. Word (.docx) documents • Fully formatted Word documents on real pages, with Home, Insert, References, and Review tabs • Tables you can type straight into, with fonts, colors, shading, and bullets inside cells • Charts with editable data, over 30 shapes, text boxes, and signatures you draw or type • Photos and shapes with text wrap: in line, in columns, behind text, or in front of text • Table of contents designs, captions, cross-references, and citations with a works-cited list • Footnotes and endnotes, comments with replies, and tracked changes • Custom styles, multilevel numbering, columns, section breaks, and page color • LaTeX math inside Word documents (Pro) LaTeX, offline (Pro) • A real XeTeX engine on your device: no internet, no account, nothing uploaded • Tap the rendered page to jump to the line that made it, and back again (SyncTeX) • Autocomplete for commands, citations, references, and file paths • Errors and warnings in the margin, explained in plain English • Math symbol palette, visual table builder, and multi-file projects with BibTeX Markdown • Live preview as you type, side by side or on its own • LaTeX math and Mermaid diagrams • Citations from a BibTeX file, with the bibliography written for you • Edit any table in a simple grid Data, web pages, and screenplays • CSV opens as a grid you can type in, with rows and columns you can drag • JSON and YAML are checked as you type and previewed as a tree • HTML shows as a real web page and can run its JavaScript when you allow it • Fountain screenplays get a formatted preview, a scene list, and character name suggestions; Final Draft files open too Every language • Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, Greek, and more, in every kind of file • Right-to-left text, older text encodings, and word counts that work in every script Files that work together • Tables and charts made from a CSV, JSON, or YAML file update when the data changes • Convert between Word, Markdown, LaTeX, HTML, RTF, plain text, data files, and screenplays, and keep converted copies up to date (Pro) • Lock any file with a password; it stays locked on every device One app, all your devices • The same features on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, in one universal purchase • Documents, templates, and settings sync through iCloud Templates and version history • Start from an article, thesis, problem set, CV, screenplay, web page, and more • Save any document as a template (Pro) • Earlier drafts kept as you edit; compare them side by side and restore one in a tap (Pro) Files & workflow • Works with docx, rtf, md, tex, bib, txt, rmd, fountain, fdx, csv, json, yaml, and html files • Export to PDF or the document’s own format • Open any folder from iCloud or your device, and find & replace across all of it • Spell check that understands LaTeX, autosave, dark mode, and keyboard shortcuts MarkUp is free to use. MarkUp Pro unlocks offline LaTeX typesetting, LaTeX math in Word documents, converting between formats, version history, your own templates, and unlimited file exports. Try Pro free for 14 days with the yearly subscription, or buy it once and keep it forever, on all your devices. Privacy Policy: https://appsvaldonchevdeveloper.com/privacy/markup Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Concise

Enhance your writing with private, on-device analysis. Get instant feedback on readability, sentence structure, passive voice, and word choice to create clearer, sharper text.

Highlights
  • On-device writing analysis
  • Readability grade and reading time
  • Detection of hard sentences and passive voice
  • Suggestions for adverbs and complex words
  • Highlights wordy phrases
  • Local saved drafts
  • Offline analysis
Read full description

Concise helps you write clearer, sharper, easier-to-read text. Paste or type your writing and get instant private feedback on readability, hard sentences, passive voice, adverbs, complex words, wordy phrases, and weak qualifiers. Core writing analysis runs fully on-device, so your writing stays private. No account or internet connection is required for the core clarity checks. Use Concise for essays, emails, posts, notes, drafts, reports, captions, and any text you want to make cleaner before sharing. Features: - Readability grade - Word count, sentence count, and reading time - Hard sentence and very hard sentence detection - Passive voice detection - Adverb and weak word detection - Complex word suggestions - Wordy phrase highlights - Highlighted writing preview - Local saved drafts - Copy and reuse your edited text - Light and dark mode - Offline writing analysis Concise Pro Lifetime is an optional one-time purchase with no subscription. It adds local projects and folders, version history and comparison, smart fixes, six readability formulas, custom writing profiles, Markdown/RTF/PDF file tools, and batch analysis. Purchase and restore checks use the App Store and RevenueCat; writing and document content are not sent to them. Concise is built for fast, focused writing clarity. It is not a full grammar keyboard, AI chat app, or cloud writing assistant. It is a private editor that helps you spot the parts of your writing that may slow readers down. Privacy Policy: https://concise-clarity.netlify.app/privacy Terms Of Service(EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

MarkUp4 screens
Concise3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: MarkUp at every 5 days against Concise's monthly. Concise's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. MarkUp sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per year and Concise sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for MarkUp against 5.0 for Concise. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MarkUp ships an update every 5 days, Concise monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
MarkUp versus Concise: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarkUpConcise
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings4 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size71 MB48 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperValentin DonchevStarter Studio, Inc.

Customer experience

MarkUp

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Concise

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

MarkUp

Subscriptions1
  • MarkUp Yearly14 Days trial$3.991 Year
One-time1
  • MarkUp Lifetime$9.99
4 purchases

Concise

Subscriptions3
  • Concise Pro+ Weekly$4.997 Days
  • Concise Pro+ Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Concise Pro+ Yearly$39.991 Year
One-time1
  • Concise Pro Lifetime$14.99

Questions

Is MarkUp free?
MarkUp is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Concise free?
Concise is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MarkUp or Concise?
MarkUp and Concise are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 4 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do MarkUp or Concise have ads?
Neither MarkUp nor Concise shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MarkUp or Concise?
MarkUp ships an update every 5 days, and Concise monthly. Most recently, MarkUp was updated on November 5, 2026 and Concise on October 31, 2026.

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