Nota6 vs PL NetTools
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Nota6
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Reader-first Markdown app for the AI era — with a built-in Reference Library so it's useful the moment you open it. BUILT-IN LIBRARY (12 references, all offline) The welcome screen has a "Browse Library" button. Tap it and you have 12 curated documents available immediately, in English and Simplified Chinese: • Markdown / GFM syntax references • Mermaid Diagram Gallery — 10 diagram types (flowchart, sequence, class, state, ER, gantt, pie, mindmap, timeline, git graph), each with source + rendered output • KaTeX Math Reference — symbols, operators, matrices, common formulas • Code Highlighting Gallery — Swift, Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust, SQL, and more (190+ languages bundled) • Reading AI-Generated Markdown — four shapes of agent output and how to read each • CLAUDE.md & AGENTS.md spec — how AI-instruction files work • README Patterns, Design Doc & RFC Patterns • Nota6 Tips & Tricks, iPad Keyboard Shortcuts, Themes Showcase These aren't placeholders — they're useful reading material for anyone who works with AI coding assistants and the .md files they produce. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT FROM A BROWSER • Mermaid diagrams, KaTeX math, syntax-highlighted code, all rendered offline. No network requests during rendering. Safari Reader can't do Mermaid; Nota6 can. • Auto-refresh on file change with smart scroll anchoring: when an external editor rewrites the file, the preview re-renders in place and stays at the same heading even if the document length shifts. • Open files from anywhere via the system share sheet, Files, iCloud Drive, or the "Open in Nota6" action. iOS-NATIVE INTEGRATIONS • Shortcuts / App Intents: "Open Markdown File" and "Export Markdown as HTML" are first-class Shortcuts actions. Automate from Siri or your iPad keyboard. • iCloud sync: your theme, font, width, and Custom-theme colors follow you across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. • Workspace full-text search (⌘⇧F) across an entire folder of .md files. • Bookmark self-heal: if AI tooling renames or moves files in your workspace, Nota6 reattaches by content fingerprint instead of breaking. • Deep links: nota6://open?path=...&heading=... jumps to a specific heading. READING EXPERIENCE • Quick Edit: switch to Source, correct raw Markdown, and save with Command-S on a hardware keyboard. Nota6 preserves the original encoding, BOM, and line endings, and warns before overwriting external changes. • 5 themes: GitHub · Paper · Notion · Terminal · Custom. Custom lets you pick body + monospace fonts and 4 colors (background, text, heading, code block) right inside the app. • 4 font sizes, 3 reading widths, Light / Dark / Auto appearance. • Outline panel with live filter and scroll-synced active heading; floating breadcrumb when the outline is closed. • Per-file reading-progress dots in the workspace sidebar. • Click-to-zoom for Mermaid diagrams and images; long-press to Copy or Save as PNG. iPAD HARDWARE KEYBOARD Full shortcut set: ⌘O · ⇧⌘O · ⌘F · ⌘P · ⌥⌘O · ⌘R · ⌘[ / ⌘] · ⌘W. Press-and-hold ⌘ for the discoverability HUD. EXPORT PDF or self-contained HTML via the system share sheet — straight to Files, Mail, Slack, Notion, or any other destination. PRIVACY No analytics. No third-party SDKs. No network requests unless the document itself references remote images. Rendering libraries (KaTeX, Mermaid, highlight.js) are bundled offline. English + Simplified Chinese.
PL NetTools
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PL NetTools is a native network toolkit for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Five essential diagnostic tools, fast and no-nonsense, built on native networking (no system shell, no third-party plugins). IP & GEOLOCATION • Your public IP address with city, region, country, coordinates • Network, ASN, organization, time zone, currency • Two selectable providers (ipapi.co / ipinfo.io) with automatic fallback • Optional API tokens to raise limits (stored in the device Keychain) PING • Native ICMP ping with real-time RTT • Continuous output, instant start/stop DNS • 12 record types looked up in parallel (A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, CAA, SOA…) • DNS-over-HTTPS (Cloudflare with Google fallback), decoded CAA records • TTL for every record WHOIS • Direct WHOIS server queries (port 43) • Structured summary (registrar, creation/expiry dates, name servers, status) • Full WHOIS text, with or without line wrapping TRACEROUTE • Native ICMP traceroute, hop by hop with RTT • Optional host name resolution (reverse DNS) FEATURES • Native SwiftUI app for iPhone, iPad and Mac • Recent-lookups history per tool • Adaptive light/dark interface • Fully localized in Italian and English • No account, no ads, no tracking PL NetTools does not collect personal data. The only network traffic is the lookups you start, sent directly to public geolocation/DNS/WHOIS services.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Nota6 at every 2 days against PL NetTools's every 5 days. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Nota6 ships an update every 2 days, PL NetTools every 5 days. Both last shipped on September 21, 2026.
| Parameter | Nota6 | PL NetTools |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 笑天 刘 | Luigi Caltarossa |
In-app purchases
Nota6
No in-app purchases
PL NetTools
No in-app purchases







