Inkflow vs Recto MD
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Inkflow
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Capture your thoughts, the purest way. • Bluetooth keyboard + iPhone + E-ink = portable typewriter • Wireless sync Markdown to E-ink for live preview • Full keyboard shortcuts, smooth typing experience • Minimal interface, distraction-free writing Inkflow turns your E-ink reader into a second screen. Pair a Bluetooth keyboard with your iPhone, type away, and watch your words appear on the glare-free E-ink display. Write in sunlight with no eye strain — like a typewriter, but better. Start your focused writing journey today. After confirming the purchase, the payment will be made through your Apple account. The PRO membership subscription will be automatically renewed by default. Unless you go to "Settings - Apple Account - Subscriptions" at least 24 hours before the current subscription ends to turn off the automatic renewal, your Apple account will be charged for the renewal fee 24 hours before the end of the current subscription. During the trial period of the PRO membership, if you do not manually turn off the automatic renewal, the subscription will be automatically activated and the fee will be deducted at the end of the trial period. The free trial opportunity is only available for one trial per user before the first subscription. The remaining free trial period (if any) after purchasing the subscription will automatically expire. Terms of use: https://pix3l.me/if-terms-of-use-en Privacy policy: https://pix3l.me/if-privacy-policy-en
Recto MD
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Recto MD opens a Markdown file and gets out of the way. Open one from Files, Mail or Safari with Open in Recto MD, or share it in from any app. On iPadOS and iOS 26, Files > Get Info > Always Open With makes it the default. Reading comes first: pick a file and it is on screen, typeset and ready, nothing to configure. When you want to change something, Edit mode puts the source next to the live preview - side by side on iPad, a Source/Preview switch on iPhone - and Save is explicit, so nothing is written until you ask for it. TYPOGRAPHY FIRST The reading column, the leading and the vertical rhythm are the product. Pinch to zoom the whole page from 50% to 300% - text, measure and margins scale together, the way a browser's page zoom does - the column measure also has three widths, and the page is laid out so a long document stays comfortable rather than merely legible. RENDERS WHAT YOUR DOCUMENTS ACTUALLY CONTAIN - CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown: tables, task lists, strikethrough, autolinks, footnotes - GitHub-style alerts: NOTE, TIP, IMPORTANT, WARNING, CAUTION - Mermaid diagrams, loaded only when a document has one - Mathematics and chemistry, typeset by KaTeX: inline and display LaTeX, and mhchem chemical equations. The delimiters are narrow on purpose, so a price written as $5 stays a price - Syntax-highlighted fenced code blocks, with a copy button - Wide tables scroll inside the reading column, so the page itself never scrolls sideways EDITING, WHEN YOU WANT IT Edit mode puts a source pane beside the live preview - side by side on iPad, a Source/Preview switch on iPhone. Save is explicit, and nothing autosaves in the background. Export the document as a PDF whenever you want a copy to share. FIND YOUR WAY AROUND An outline is generated from the document's headings: a sheet on iPhone, a sidebar on iPad that also holds your recent documents. Search inside a document with a live match count and step through the matches. Recents remembers where you stopped reading and puts you back there. IT UPDATES WHILE YOU READ Change the file somewhere else and the document updates in place - same scroll position, no flash, no reload button to hunt for. If you have unsaved edits, the app stops and asks instead of choosing for you. Turn auto-reload off and you get a "File changed" tap target instead. A THEME EDITOR, NOT A THEME PICKER Duplicate a built-in theme or start from nothing, and tune it in six groups: text (font, scale, line height, spacing, indent, justification); headings (font, weight, an accent color, rules, and a size for each of the six levels); layout (column width by characters, points or percent, a max width, custom margins, a page-card look); sidebar (font size and step per level, row height, indent, background and accent mix); blocks (code font and size, table density and zebra striping, blockquote style, the code syntax palette); and color, down to the selection highlight. Import or export any theme as JSON. OFFLINE, AND PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION The app makes no network requests at all. No account, no sign-in, no analytics, no tracking, nothing collected. Your documents are files on your device or in your iCloud Drive, and that is where they stay. BUILT FOR THE PLATFORM Dynamic Type through to the accessibility sizes, VoiceOver reading real document structure, Increase Contrast, Reduce Motion and Reduce Transparency are all honoured. With a hardware keyboard, every navigation shortcut is independently rebindable - pick the key, choose Command, Option or Shift, and the app flags a conflict before you save one - and Open, Find, Find Next, Reload, the zoom commands and Settings are all one keystroke away, listed in the Command-hold sheet. The interface is available in twelve languages, with a System option and a picker for the one you want.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Recto MD at none against Inkflow's 3. Recto MD also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price and ads 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. Inkflow sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Recto MD asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Inkflow | Recto MD |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | — | Every 3 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PIX3L DESIGN STUDIO | ITSUCARA, K.K. |
In-app purchases
Inkflow
- Pro Monthly3 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Pro Yearly7 Days trial$6.991 Year
- Pro Lifetime$6.99
Recto MD
No in-app purchases









