Marklens vs MarkDown Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Marklens
This app is a fast, native Markdown viewer for macOS, iPadOS, and iPhone. It renders .md files instantly with beautiful typography, themes, syntax highlighting, and diagrams. Designed for reading, it offers a private and friction-free experience.
- Instant Markdown rendering
- Syntax highlighting for 30+ languages
- Mermaid diagram support
- GitHub-Flavored Markdown
- Light and dark themes
- Export to PDF
- Quick Look preview on macOS
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Marklens is a fast, native Markdown viewer for macOS, iPadOS, and iPhone. Open any .md file with a click and see it rendered immediately — beautiful typography, light and dark themes, syntax-highlighted code, and Mermaid diagrams. No editor, no library, no friction. HIGHLIGHTS • Instant render — every .md opens in a clean, focused window • 30+ language syntax highlighting via highlight.js, bundled offline • Mermaid 11 diagrams — flowcharts, sequence, state, xy-charts and more • GitHub-Flavored Markdown — tables, task lists, footnotes, strikethrough • Light and dark theme matching the system appearance • Quick Look on macOS — press Space on any .md in Finder for a rendered preview • Export to PDF on every platform • Pinch-to-zoom on iPadOS and iPhone, ⌘+ / ⌘− / ⌘0 on macOS • Open files via drag-and-drop, the Share Sheet, or the Files app MADE FOR READING Marklens doesn't try to be a notes app or a knowledge base. It opens a file, renders it perfectly, and gets out of the way. If you write Markdown in another tool — VS Code, Obsidian, GitHub, your favorite text editor — Marklens is the viewer you reach for to look at the result. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Marklens collects nothing. No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reports, no network requests. Every rendering asset — Mermaid, highlight.js, fonts — ships inside the app. Read the full privacy policy at https://donald-jackson.github.io/marklens/privacy/ OPEN SOURCE Marklens is MIT-licensed and developed in the open. Source, issues, and contribution guide live at https://github.com/donald-jackson/marklens.
MarkDown Reader
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MarkDown Reader is a free, lightweight viewer for Markdown files. Double-click any .md file and read it beautifully rendered — no editor chrome, no distractions, just your document. It also turns a checklist into somewhere to work. Tick a task and the change is written straight back to the file, one character, instantly. Add a note to any item and it is saved as an ordinary indented bullet, so every other Markdown tool still reads it. On the Mac, drag a file onto an item to attach it, and click the chip to open it again later. Nothing is locked in a database. Everything this app writes is plain Markdown you can read in any editor. - Clean rendering of headings, tables, code blocks, and images - Interactive task lists: click a checkbox and the .md file updates instantly - Notes on any checklist item, saved as plain Markdown - Attach files to checklist items by dragging them in (macOS) - Clickable file references: a path in a code span opens in your editor (macOS) - Table of contents sidebar for long documents - Full-text search with match navigation - Live reload — edit the file elsewhere and the view keeps up - Zoom, print, and export to PDF - Copy the document's path or reveal it in the Finder (macOS) - Opens .md, .markdown, .mdown, .mkd, and .mkdn files - Sandboxed and private: no accounts, no analytics, no data collection
Screenshots
Verdict
Marklens and MarkDown Reader are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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.
Marklens ships an update monthly, MarkDown Reader every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Marklens | MarkDown Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Donald Jackson | Edward Juden |
In-app purchases
Marklens
No in-app purchases
MarkDown Reader
No in-app purchases









