Comparison

Markdown Editor & Reader vs Bifolium

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

Head to head
About

Markdown Editor & Reader

Features
Read full description

Open, read, edit and share Markdown โ€” beautifully. MD Preview is an all-in-one Markdown workspace for iPhone and iPad. Open Markdown files from Files, iCloud Drive, Mail or your favorite apps. Read beautifully rendered documents, edit when needed, browse GitHub READMEs, and export polished documents to PDF, HTML or DOC โ€” all completely offline. Whether you're reviewing a README, editing technical documentation, writing notes, or preparing documents to share, MD Preview gives you everything you need in one clean, native experience. KEY FEATURES โ€ข Beautiful rendering โ€” GitHub-flavored Markdown with proper typography, syntax-highlighted code blocks, tables, blockquotes and footnotes. โ€ข Two views, one tap โ€” toggle between rendered preview and raw source mode. Source view supports text selection. โ€ข Table of Contents โ€” auto-generated from headings; tap to jump anywhere in long documents. โ€ข 9 hand-crafted themes โ€” Parchment (warm cream), Eclipse (deep navy), Woodland (mossy green), Blossom (soft pink), Tide (deep sea), Iris (vivid violet), Sunlit (cream amber), Nocturne (inky violet), Glacier (frosted slate). Light and dark variants. โ€ข Folders & recents โ€” organize your markdown files into custom folders with icons and colors. Recently opened files reappear on home for one-tap access. โ€ข Smart export โ€” generate a print-ready PDF with your chosen theme baked in. Share the original file, or copy the markdown to clipboard. โ€ข Font controls โ€” adjust reading size for tired eyes or small screens. โ€ข Fully offline โ€” no servers, no tracking, no signup. Your files stay on your device. โ€ข Native iOS feel โ€” built with SwiftUI for iPhone and iPad. Supports light/dark mode, dynamic type, and the share sheet. PERFECT FOR โ€ข Reading READMEs from GitHub or local repos โ€ข Reviewing technical specs and documentation โ€ข Reading novels and notes written in Markdown โ€ข Sharing rendered docs with non-technical teammates โ€ข Exporting handouts as PDFs from a phone PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your documents stay on your device. โ€ข No accounts โ€ข No cloud processing โ€ข No tracking โ€ข No analytics SDK โ€ข No telemetry Everything works offline. PRIVACY MD Preview does not collect, store, or transmit your files. Everything runs on-device. There is no analytics SDK, no telemetry, no account. You can manage or disable auto-renewal in your Account Settings after purchase. For more details, please refer to our privacy policy and terms of use. Privacy policy: https://sites.google.com/view/nguyendangnam-privacy-policy/home Term of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ โ€” Open a .md file from Files, iCloud Drive, Mail or any sharing app โ€” and start reading

About

Bifolium

Features
Read full description

Bifolium reads and annotates Markdown, from your own files or straight from GitHub. Open a document on iPhone, iPad, or Mac and Bifolium reads it where it is, without importing or converting it. Bifolium detects the Markdown a document is written in and renders it correctly: CommonMark, GitHub Flavored Markdown, and Obsidian's flavor with wikilinks, callouts, and YAML frontmatter. Tables, images, footnotes, TeX math, and Mermaid diagrams render offline. Code is highlighted in more than 30 languages. Highlight a passage and note a thought beside it. Both are kept apart from the document, so reading never changes the file. Find them again across every document, or start from one highlight and see related passages from your other files. Matching runs on your device. Save GitHub repositories, public or private, as read-only snapshots you can read offline and refresh when you choose. On a Mac, pick files or folders to carry to iPhone and iPad through your own iCloud; highlights, notes, and reading position stay in step. Bifolium edits, too. When a file needs a change, open it in Source or Live Preview and save it in place. Four themes come built in, or make your own. Set type size, line height, text width, margins, and paragraph spacing. Export a document to PDF or HTML, or your highlights and notes to Markdown with links back to each passage. Bifolium needs no account. Rendering, search, and matching run on your device. Sync uses your iCloud account, and GitHub connections go directly to GitHub. Anonymous usage counts are on by default: no identifier, no document content. Turn them off in Settings. Your 30-day trial of the whole app starts the first time you open Bifolium. After that, a one-time purchase keeps Bifolium permanently, or pay monthly. If access ends, your originals stay where they are and your highlights and notes remain yours to export. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Markdown Editor & Reader4 screens
Bifolium4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Markdown Editor & Reader at 16.0 against Bifolium's 26.0. On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Markdown Editor & Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Bifolium sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Markdown Editor & Reader versus Bifolium: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarkdown Editor & ReaderBifolium
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” better
Requires iOS16.0 โ€” better26.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size18 MB74 MB
Age rating9+17+
DeveloperDang Nam NguyenFernando Flores

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Markdown Editor & Reader

One-time1
  • MD Preview Pro (Lifetime)$3.99
2 purchases

Bifolium

Subscriptions1
  • Bifolium Monthly$2.991 Month
One-time1
  • Unlock Bifolium$19.99

Questions

Is Markdown Editor & Reader free?
Markdown Editor & Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Bifolium free?
Bifolium is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Markdown Editor & Reader or Bifolium have ads?
Neither Markdown Editor & Reader nor Bifolium shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Markdown Editor & Reader or Bifolium?
Markdown Editor & Reader ships an update weekly, and Bifolium weekly. Most recently, Markdown Editor & Reader was updated on October 6, 2026 and Bifolium on October 3, 2026.

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