Plain Markdown vs VisibleHour
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Plain Markdown
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Plain Markdown Read your .md files in place. Pick a folder on your iPhone or in iCloud Drive. The app lists every .md file inside โ nothing more, nothing less. Tap a file to read it; the markdown is rendered with quiet, weight-driven typography that gets out of the way. The app uses Apple's standard folder picker, so it works with iCloud Drive, On My iPhone, and any third-party Files app provider (Dropbox, Google Drive, Working Copy, etc.). Pick once, and the app remembers โ drill into subfolders, come back, switch folders. No accounts. No sync engine. No editor. Just a reader. ยท Folder picker with iCloud Drive and Files-app provider support ยท Drill into subfolders โ back-button navigation ยท Inline images (jpg, png, gif, webp, svg, heic, heif, bmp, avif) ยท GitHub-flavored markdown: tables, blockquotes, code blocks, task lists, strikethrough ยท Adjustable text size (5 steps) ยท Light & dark mode ยท Mono body font option for code-style reading ยท Local only โ your files never leave your device Privacy This app does not collect data, display ads, or communicate with any server. The folder picker is Apple's. Files are read on-device only. There are no analytics, no third-party SDKs, no telemetry. Less, but better.
VisibleHour
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An always-visible view of time on your phone, your wrist, and your spatial workspace. The day, drained as it passes. Your session, draining as you work. A quiet tap on your wrist when you've been at something too long. For when 30 minutes feels like 5. VisibleHour is a single-purpose external time sense โ designed for people whose internal clock isn't always reliable. For time blindness. For hyperfocus. For the moments when "just five more minutes" becomes an hour. The dial isn't a clock face you check. It's a clock face you live alongside, on every surface you already glance at. Three rhythms, on every screen. The day. Your waking hours rendered as a draining amber arc โ from the moment you start your day until you wind it down. Tells you how much day is in front of you, not just what time it is right now. The session. A focused block โ 15, 25/5 Pomodoro, 30, 60, or 90 minutes. The pie at the center drains as time passes โ a visual timer at session scale. Tap it to zoom into a visual timer face with minute marks. Pomodoro mode shows two amber tones โ work, then a softer break. The body. A quiet tap on the wrist at the interval you set โ 60, 90, or 120 minutes. No banner. No streak. No "you've been at this for two hours" guilt. Just a tap that says: notice the time. Optional desk mode โ keep your phone or iPad awake during a session so the dial stays visible while you work. Cross-device sync. Start a session on your Vision Pro while working in spatial. Within a second, the Live Activity appears on your iPhone Lock Screen and the dial fills on your Apple Watch. Stop on the Watch โ every screen clears together. Powered by iCloud private database, with no telemetry leaving your device. Calendar-aware. Optionally show your day's events on the dial โ a quiet ink line for each meeting, sitting alongside your session. Tap the dial to surface the next event's title. Widgets everywhere. Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets on iPhone. Native complications on Apple Watch in four families. A spatial widget on Apple Vision Pro that coexists with your email, your MacBook display, and whatever else is in your spatial workspace. What it isn't. This is not a habit tracker. Not a productivity hammer. Not a notification machine. There are no streaks, no leaderboards, no "you used the app 12 days in a row" celebrations. There's no analytics, no third-party SDKs, no ads. The whole product is one quiet answer to a quiet question โ how much time has passed? Privacy. No tracking. No analytics. No third-party services. The only data that ever leaves your device is the small piece of state that syncs through your private iCloud (active session, day boundaries, awareness interval, appearance preference). Calendar events are read locally on each device โ they never sync to the cloud. Made quietly by sthreelabs.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Plain Markdown at $2.99 against VisibleHour's $4.99. Plain Markdown also leads on iOS requirement (14.0 vs 18.0). VisibleHour's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On ads and in-app purchases 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
Plain Markdown costs $2.99 and VisibleHour $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Plain Markdown | VisibleHour |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 โ better | $4.99 |
| Update frequency | โ | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro โ better |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 โ better | 18.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yongmin Ji | sthreelabs LLC |
In-app purchases
Plain Markdown
No in-app purchases
VisibleHour
No in-app purchases









