Comparison

Markd.ly vs md Viewer

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

Head to head
About

Markd.ly

Features
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The markdown editor that respects your output. Markd.ly is a native Markdown editor for iPhone and iPad with live preview, built for people who write in plain .md and ship a real deliverable. Open a file, write, and watch the preview render as you type. The same Bravely Account unlocks Markd.ly on Mac, Windows, and Linux too, so the document you start on your phone is waiting on your desktop. WRITE & EDIT โ€ข Native SwiftUI editor with adjustable font size and syntax highlighting โ€ข Live preview with multiple themes, side by side โ€ข Mermaid diagrams render right inside the preview โ€ข KaTeX math, inline and block โ€ข Open .md, .markdown, .mdown, .mkd, and .mkdn files from anywhere DOCUMENT INTEGRATION โ€ข Open files from the Files app and from any Markdown share โ€ข Save back to iCloud Drive, Files, or any document provider โ€ข Multi-document tabs to switch between drafts โ€ข Recent files for one-tap return FOLDER-BASED, NO LOCK-IN Your files stay plain .md on disk โ€” no vault, no proprietary format, nothing to migrate out of later. Git-friendly, and the same files open everywhere else you use Markd.ly. WHAT MARKD.LY IS FOR Blog posts. README files. Documentation. Technical writing. Markd.ly is for writing that lives in markdown but leaves the app as something polished โ€” not a note-graph or a second brain. If you need wikilinks and a graph, use a vault tool. If you want documents that look great when you ship them, this is the editor. ONE PURCHASE, EVERY PLATFORM Markd.ly is a tool, not a service. A single one-time purchase unlocks the complete app on every platform โ€” iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, and Linux โ€” carried by your Bravely Account. Buy it once on any platform and the rest unlock automatically, with no per-feature paywalls. The deeper export pipeline โ€” Pandoc to DOCX, EPUB, LaTeX, and slides, a custom CSS editor, a snippet library, vim mode, encrypted documents, the command-line tool, and an MCP server for AI agents โ€” lives on the desktop builds, included in the same one purchase. SIGN IN Signing in is free. Sign in with Apple, Google, or email โ€” the same sign-in works on every Markd.ly app you install. Try it free, then a single one-time purchase unlocks everything. Already bought Markd.ly on another platform? Sign in to restore it here at no extra charge. SUPPORT Questions, bug reports, and feature requests: support@bravely.dev Privacy: https://bravely.dev/privacy/markdly Terms: https://bravely.dev/terms

About

md Viewer

Features
Read full description

md Viewer opens Markdown files, shows them cleanly formatted right away, and lets you edit that same text in place, create new documents, and save them back to the file. No file browser. No account. No cloud. No tracking. Open a .md or .txt file from the Files app or the share menu. md Viewer renders headings, lists, tables, bold/italic, code blocks with syntax highlighting, and quotes. No raw text, no characters to decode. CREATE, EDIT, SAVE Start without a file: tap Paste on the start screen to take text from the clipboard, or choose Blank Document. The draft opens straight in the editor. The red checkmark saves it as a new .md file; you pick the folder and name in the Files dialog. After that, the checkmark writes to that same file as usual. Existing files: tap Edit in the top right. The preview turns into a text editor. Save with the red checkmark; after a short confirmation the original file is overwritten. The X discards your changes (after a confirmation), and the arrow steps back through individual changes. No autosave, no export, no second copy. .txt files open in the app and in the share extension too. When you edit a .txt, the app also offers Save as Markdown. If you only want to read, none of this gets in the way. Every file opens in the formatted preview first. WHY SO MINIMAL? Most Markdown apps today are full editors with file management, cloud sync, and menus. Handy, but too much when you just want to read a file quickly, jot down a quick note, or fix a typo now and then. md Viewer deliberately does only that: tap a file, read, change or create if needed, done. FEATURES - Open via Open With in the Files app or straight from the share menu (mail attachments, AirDrop). The share extension shows the document formatted right away, without switching apps - Create a new document from pasted or typed text and save it as a .md file - Opens .md and .txt - Clean Markdown rendering: headings, lists, task lists, tables (scroll horizontally), code blocks with syntax highlighting, quotes, links, images - Edit and save in place in the open file, with a confirmation before overwriting and before closing with unsaved changes - Full Unicode support: emoji, Arabic and Hebrew (right-to-left), Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters - Supports Dynamic Type and VoiceOver - Automatic Dark Mode / Light Mode - Runs entirely offline, no network access in the code PRIVACY md Viewer collects no data at all. No analytics, no tracking, no account, no cloud sync. Files you open, edit, and create are processed only locally on your device. The clipboard is read only when you explicitly tap Paste. Who is it for? Anyone who regularly receives or manages .md or .txt files (notes, READMEs, technical docs, meeting notes) and wants to read them quickly and cleanly, edit them now and then, or jot down a new one, without opening a full editor.

Screenshots

Markd.ly4 screens
md Viewer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: md Viewer at none against Markd.ly's 3. md Viewer also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs fortnightly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Markd.ly sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $95.99 per year. md Viewer asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Markd.ly ships an update fortnightly, md Viewer every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Markd.ly versus md Viewer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarkd.lymd Viewer
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 2 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size18 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBravely StudiosEric Pierre Bertrand

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Markd.ly

Subscriptions1
  • Bravely Premium (Annual)$95.991 Year
One-time2
  • Markdly Pro$19.99
  • Bravely Premium (Lifetime)$399.99
None

md Viewer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Markd.ly free?
Markd.ly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is md Viewer free?
md Viewer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Markd.ly or md Viewer have ads?
Neither Markd.ly nor md Viewer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Markd.ly or md Viewer?
Markd.ly ships an update fortnightly, and md Viewer every 2 days. Most recently, Markd.ly was updated on October 9, 2026 and md Viewer on September 30, 2026.

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