markru vs Local Memo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
markru
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Markdown notes are easy to write β and easy to forget. markru is built for what comes after writing: shelving, binding, and rereading your own notes like books. (Markdown writing, shelving, binding, and rereading all work without AI; only the AI helpers, such as tag suggestions and summaries, need a supported device and settings where Apple Intelligence is available.) No markru account to sign up for. Import .md and .txt files, and export your notes as .md files or a ZIP. YOUR NOTES, SHELVED LIKE BOOKS Promote finished notes from drafts to your bookshelf. Browse by shelf, search, and sort by what you read last. BIND NOTES INTO ONE READABLE BOOK Combine related pages into one book. Reorder pages, add new ones, and read them as a single piece β or unbind anytime. WRITE IN CLEAN MARKDOWN A focused Markdown editor with a formatting bar for headings, lists, checklists, tables, code, and more. Save your note, then read it in a clean, formatted layout. Some writing helpers β tag suggestions, formatting, and summaries β are partly powered by Apple Intelligence, on your device by default. Note: Whether the AI helpers appear depends not only on your device, but also on whether Apple Intelligence is turned on and ready. To check your device, open Settings in markru and look under Apple Intelligence. Where it isn't available, these helpers fall back to manual entry β everything else in the app still works. If you turn on Private Cloud Compute in the app's settings, formatting, summaries, and save comments are processed by Apple's Private Cloud Compute instead; tag suggestions always stay on your device. Your notes are never sent to our servers or any third-party server. CAPTURE IDEAS IN SECONDS Quick Capture works like a paper memo: jot it down, the title can come later. Send text from any app with the share sheet. IMPORT & EXPORT Import .md and .txt files. Export notes as .md files, or bundle them into a single .zip. KEEP YOUR SHELVES IN ORDER See your note, shelf, and book counts at a glance. Select the paragraphs you need and bring them together in a new note. Clean up or bind notes as your library grows. PICK UP RIGHT WHERE YOU LEFT OFF markru remembers your reading progress in every book, so returning to your notes feels like reopening one. USAGE AND COLLECTION LIMITS You can currently use markru without making a purchase. Your collection starts with room for 100 books and can be expanded without a purchase in steps of 50, up to 300. Each standalone page or book on your bookshelf counts as one book. Pages inside a bound book do not count separately toward your collection. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your notes live as plain Markdown files on your device or in iCloud Documents β never on our servers. iCloud sync uses the Apple Account signed in on your device, with iCloud Drive turned on β not a markru account. Without iCloud, notes are saved on this device. Write lightly. Reread deeply.
Local Memo
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Keep your notes close. Local Memo organizes notes, folders, photos and voice recordings on your iPhone or iPad, without an account or cloud sync. ORGANIZE YOUR WAY Create as many folders as you need, nested up to 15 levels deep. Choose folder colors from a palette or fine-tune them with hue, saturation and brightness sliders. Move items between folders, use drag and drop, and switch between grid and list views. WRITE AND COLLECT Write notes with bold, red or blue text. Add photos directly to folders or attach photos and files to notes. Record and play voice memos alongside your writing. FIND WHAT YOU NEED Search folder names, note titles and text, photo names and attachment filenames. Matching text is highlighted to help you find the right item. LOCK PRIVATE FOLDERS Protect selected folders with Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode. Your device must have a passcode set. The app does not store your password. Locked content is excluded from the Home Screen widget. MAKE IT COMFORTABLE Choose your own background color and black or white text. If a combination becomes hard to read, restore the default colors in Settings. Red and blue note text keeps its own color. QUICK ACCESS Use the small widget to create a new note, or the medium and large widgets to read a selected note. The layout adapts to iPhone and iPad, including landscape orientation. ON YOUR DEVICE Your notes and files stay in the app on your device. There is no account, advertising, analytics or in-app purchase, and the app does not sync through iCloud or an external server. Keep a device backup: deleting the app also deletes its contents. Links to the developerβs other apps open the App Store. 20 LANGUAGES Japanese, English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Local Memo at 17.0 against markru's 27.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | markru | Local Memo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 27.0 | 17.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | kazunobu tsujino | tomohide yanome |
In-app purchases
markru
No in-app purchases
Local Memo
No in-app purchases








