SoloMD vs relnote
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SoloMD
A fast, distraction-free Markdown editor for creating and managing plain text files. It offers live editing, real typography, and advanced Markdown features like math and diagrams. Designed for privacy, it stores notes in your own files without accounts or tracking.
- Live Markdown editing
- Focus and typewriter modes
- KaTeX math and Mermaid diagrams
- Export to PDF, Word, HTML
- Split view and keyboard shortcuts
- Chinese language support
- Privacy-focused design
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SoloMD is a calm, fast Markdown editor for iPhone and iPad. Open the app and you are writing — no account, no sign-up, no subscription. Your notes are plain .md and .txt files. Keep them in SoloMD's folder in the Files app, or open a folder you already use, and edit the files right where they are. Any editor on any device can read them, today and in ten years. WRITING FIRST - Live editing: Markdown marks step aside once the cursor leaves the line, so you see the document, not the syntax. - Real typography: big headings, true bold, monospaced code, comfortable line length. - Focus mode dims everything but the paragraph you are in; typewriter mode keeps your line at eye level. - A formatting bubble appears over selected text; a keyboard bar puts headings, lists, links and code one tap away. - Find and replace with match case, whole word and regular expressions. - Light and dark themes that follow the system. ON IPHONE - A notes home screen, search and a new-note button within thumb's reach. - Full-screen editor with a simple navigation bar. ON IPAD - Sidebar with your folders and notes, tabs, and an outline of the current document. - Split view and Slide Over friendly; works with hardware keyboards and ⌘ shortcuts. MARKDOWN THAT GOES FURTHER - KaTeX math, inline and display. - Mermaid flowcharts, sequence diagrams and Gantt charts. - Tables, task lists with tappable checkboxes, footnotes, front matter, highlights. - Syntax highlighting for 13+ languages. - Tap an image or diagram to view it full screen with pinch-zoom. - Fold headings to see the shape of a long document. FOR CHINESE WRITERS - Simplified ↔ Traditional conversion, pinyin, and CJK-aware word counts. - Chinese proofreading for half-width punctuation and common slips. - Opens UTF-8, UTF-16, GBK and Big5 files correctly. EXPORT AND SHARE - PDF with math and diagrams rendered. - Word (.docx) with tables kept. - HTML, or copy as HTML, plain text or Markdown. PRIVATE BY DESIGN SoloMD collects no data. No account, no analytics, no ads, no tracking. Your notes stay in files you own. SoloMD is open source under the MIT license: github.com/zhitongblog/solomd 100% FREE FOREVER & SUPPORTER BADGE Every feature in SoloMD is 100% free forever — no paywalls, no subscriptions, and no locked features. Optional one-time In-App Purchases (Buy a Coffee / Buy a Lunch / Generous Support) are purely voluntary tips to support independent open-source development, and permanently unlock the exclusive "Supporter" badge in Settings and About.
relnote
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One calm app for everything you think, write, and remember — private by design. Relnote brings your notes, ideas, and knowledge into a single elegant workspace. Write in clean Markdown, connect your thinking with #tags and [[wikilinks]], and see it come together in a visual graph. Then lock anything you want behind zero-knowledge encryption that not even we can read. WRITE THE WAY YOU THINK - Clean Markdown editor: headings, lists, checkboxes, bold and italic. - Inline math with $...$ for quick formulas. - Draw inside any note — sketch a diagram or jot an idea by hand. - Voice notes: dictate and it becomes text. - OCR: snap a photo and pull the text straight out of it. ORGANIZE WITHOUT FRICTION - Notebooks to group related notes. - #tags that auto-link as you type. - [[wikilinks]] between notes — tap to jump, or create a new note on the spot. - Quick switcher: find any note by title in a keystroke. - Local-first and fully offline — your notes are always there. SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE - Brain view: a living graph of how your notes connect. - Mood line: on-device sentiment of your writing over time — your journal's emotional arc, computed privately with no server AI. - Daily note: today's calendar events pulled in automatically. BRING IN WHAT MATTERS - Import EPUB or PDF — each chapter becomes its own note. - Presentation mode: turn any note into clean slides in seconds. PRIVATE BY DESIGN - Zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption (AES-256) for any note or notebook. - Optional biometric unlock with Face ID or Touch ID. - Everything is encrypted on-device. Nobody — not even us — can read your content. - End-to-end encrypted sync keeps your notes in step across your devices, still unreadable to us. - Share a note through a secure link, only when you choose to. Because your encryption is zero-knowledge, only you hold the key. If you forget your password, no one — including us — can recover that content. That is what private means. Whether you keep a private journal, a diary, a second brain, or a knowledge base of ideas, Relnote stays elegant, fast, and genuinely secure. A serious markdown notes app and note organizer that respects what you write. Relnote is free and ad-supported.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: relnote at none against SoloMD's 3. SoloMD's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 months). On price, device support 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
Both are free to download. SoloMD sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. relnote asks for nothing beyond the download.
SoloMD ships an update every 2 days, relnote every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SoloMD | relnote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 92 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 向东 李 | RELTECO TEKNOLOJI SANAYI VE TICARET LIMITED SIRKETI |
In-app purchases
SoloMD
- Buy a Coffee$0.99
- Buy a Lunch$2.99
- Generous Support$9.99
relnote
No in-app purchases









