Lumin vs ghostWriter Markdown
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lumin
Manage your email hands-free using voice commands. This assistant can read, reply to, delete, and organize your inbox without you needing to look at a screen. It's designed for accessibility and privacy, allowing natural dictation for replies and quick summarization of long messages.
- Voice-controlled email triage
- Dictate and review email replies
- Search inbox by voice
- Summarize long emails
- Hands-free and eyes-free operation
- Accessibility features for low vision users
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Email, by voice. Lumin is a voice-first email assistant for your iPhone. Tap once, talk to it, and it reads, replies to, deletes, and triages your email — without you having to look at a screen. Designed alongside the blind and low-vision community. Useful for anyone who'd rather work with their voice than their thumbs. What you can do • Triage your morning inbox — "What's new?" and Lumin reads through your unread mail, one by one. Say "delete," "archive," "mark as read," "reply," or "next." • Write replies by voice — Dictate naturally. Lumin writes professional, full-sentence emails that don't sound like AI. Review before you send. • Find what you need — "Find the email from my doctor last week." Lumin searches your inbox and reads back what it finds. • Get the gist of a long email — "Summarize this." Lumin reads you the key points instead of the full message. • Hands-free, eyes-free — Works while you're making coffee, walking the dog, or anywhere you don't want to stare at a screen. Built for accessibility Lumin is designed to work alongside VoiceOver — or to replace the parts of email that VoiceOver makes painful. No more swiping through subject lines. No more wrestling with HTML emails. Just talk. Privacy Your email stays yours. Lumin only reads what you ask it to read, and only writes when you tell it to. We never sell, share, or train on your inbox content. Built by Luminade Inc. in San Francisco.
ghostWriter Markdown
A plain-text writing app designed with accessibility in mind. It allows users to create, organize, and export documents in various formats, with features like voice control and outline navigation.
- Accessibility-first plain-text editor
- Organize documents and chapters
- Compile work into finished exports
- Supports multiple export formats (HTML, EPUB, PDF, Word)
- VoiceOver integration
- Native Find and Replace
- Outline navigation for headings
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ghostWriter Markdown is an accessibility-first, plain-text writing app for notes, articles, documentation, and full manuscripts. Write individual documents, organize chapters, and compile your work into a finished export. VoiceOver was at the center of the design from the first line of code. Created by a blind developer, ghostWriter gives screen reader users and anyone who loves plain text a clean, native place to write. So what's Markdown? Markdown adds structure using ordinary punctuation. A number sign makes a heading. A dash makes a list item. Your document stays readable as plain text, and you can render it to see the finished formatting. You don't have to know Markdown to start. Insert Actions adds common elements, the Markdown Reference provides examples, and the included ghostWriter Help Manual explains writing, organizing, and exporting your work. Writing Made Easy: • A native editor that keeps Markdown punctuation visible and you in control of the source • Insert links, images, headings, quotes, code, lists, tasks, tables, and rules • Automatic continuation for bullets, numbered lists, and tasks • Indent and outdent with tabs or spaces • Native Find and Replace, dictation, braille input, and text selection • A configurable Status Bar with line and column position, word, sentence, and character counts, heading level, and selection counts • Automatic saving, plus collision detection if the same document is open on separate devices • Start in the Library, a new document, or your last document Useful Navigation: • Use Outline to jump to document headings • Move through headings with a three-finger horizontal VoiceOver swipe while editing • Jump to Line in long documents • Search document names and contents • Return to your remembered editing position in each file Keep Files Organized: • Create, rename, and move nested folders • Pin documents you keep coming back to • Sort by name, created, modified, or last opened, or arrange files and folders manually • Restore removed files from Recently Deleted • Import Markdown, plain text, Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations into Markdown Build Your Manuscript: • Compile documents from nested folders into a single export • Choose which files to include and arrange chapters for each compilation • Keep research and notes nearby while excluding them from compilations • Track word, sentence, and character totals for individual files or whole folders • Control heading structure when combining documents Render and Share: • Render Markdown as structured HTML with semantic headings, lists, tables, and links • Export individual documents or compilations as Markdown, plain text, HTML, EPUB, PDF, Word, PowerPoint, eBraille, or BRF • Customize Word exports with your own JSON stylesheets, optional title and subtitle styles, and a supplied Large Print stylesheet Your Files, Your Devices: • Ordinary Markdown files, visible in the Files app • On-device storage or iCloud Drive syncing across iPhone, iPad, and Mac • Open and edit your files in other apps that read text • No proprietary format and no dependence on ghostWriter to keep your work Accessibility: Developed toward WCAG 2.2 Level AA and tested with VoiceOver as a primary interaction method. • Native controls with familiar roles and behaviors • Dynamic Type, including accessibility text sizes • System, monospaced, rounded, and serif editor typefaces • Light, dark, and system appearance • Voice Control, Switch Control, and hardware keyboard support • Optional keyboard shortcuts for common actions • Reduced-motion support Privacy: No accounts. No sign-in. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. No data collection. No AI tools. There is no server behind this app. Your documents stay on your device or in your own iCloud, and they never travel anywhere you don't send them. Made by a blind developer who got tired of tools that treated screen reader support as an afterthought.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Lumin at none against ghostWriter Markdown's 4. Lumin also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.5) and ratings volume (67 vs 2). ghostWriter Markdown's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). On price, review sentiment, ads and monetization model 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. ghostWriter Markdown sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Lumin asks for nothing beyond the download.
Lumin holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lumin has 67 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Lumin ships an update weekly, ghostWriter Markdown every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Lumin | ghostWriter Markdown |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (67 ratings) — better | 4.5 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 67 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Luminade Inc | Marco Salsiccia |
Customer experience
Lumin
ghostWriter Markdown
In-app purchases
Lumin
No in-app purchases
ghostWriter Markdown
- Little Boo$0.99
- Big Boo$1.99
- Spooky Wail$2.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Startling Scream$4.99
Questions
Is Lumin free?
Is ghostWriter Markdown free?
Which has better reviews, Lumin or ghostWriter Markdown?
Do Lumin or ghostWriter Markdown have ads?
Which is updated more often, Lumin or ghostWriter Markdown?
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