Noteline vs MDReader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Noteline
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Noteline is a fast, minimal note app for people who write in Markdown. Type a # and it becomes a heading. Type **bold** and it turns bold โ right where you typed it. Noteline gives you live preview: your formatting renders inline as you write, so there's no split-screen and no clutter. Just clean text that quietly becomes a clean document. Your notes are plain .md files stored on your device. No account, no sign-in, no servers of ours โ and if you want them on your other devices, you can keep the folder in your own iCloud Drive. Open them, back them up, move them, or edit them in any other Markdown app. Noteline works fully offline and stays out of your way. Every note is plain Markdown โ the same format AI tools read and write โ so your notes stay usable by whatever you reach for next. It's the calm, focused place to think, take notes, and write. Features: โข Live preview Markdown โ headings, bold, italics, lists, and checkboxes render inline as you type โข Local-first โ your notes are plain .md files on your device โข Works fully offline โ no connection required, ever โข No account, no sign-in โ nothing to set up โข Open format โ your files stay portable and yours โข The format AI speaks โ plain Markdown that AI tools read and write directly โข Minimal, distraction-free interface โข Checklists and task lists for quick to-dos โข Fast and lightweight No ads. No tracking. No telemetry. Just notes.
MDReader
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MDReader opens your Markdown files and folders and renders them properly. There is no library to import into, no account to create and no sync service in the middle. Your .md files stay exactly where you put them, and MDReader reads and writes them in place. FAST, EVEN ON BIG FILES A two-tier parser scans a document in a single pass and only fully parses the blocks you can actually see. A 10 MB file opens before other editors have finished showing a spinner, and scrolling stays smooth all the way down. RENDERS THE WHOLE OF MARKDOWN GitHub-flavoured Markdown with tables, task lists you can tick straight from reading mode, footnotes that jump both ways, YAML front matter shown as a card, LaTeX math inline and display, fenced code with syntax highlighting, and Mermaid diagrams rendered offline. AN EDITOR THAT STAYS OUT OF THE WAY Live syntax highlighting, lists that continue and renumber themselves, bold/italic/link shortcuts, find and replace, table and formula inserters, and paste an image to save it next to the document. Autosave goes through the system file coordinator, so editing alongside Obsidian, git or iCloud is safe. PICKS UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF Reading position is restored to the pixel, per document, across relaunches, rotation and window resizes. FOLDER WORKSPACES (PRO) Open a whole folder: a repository's docs, an Obsidian vault, a Zettelkasten. Fuzzy quick-open, full-text search across every file in the folder, [[wiki-links]] with a backlinks panel, a front-matter tag browser, and read-only git status per file. Changes made by other apps are picked up in place, without losing your position. MORE IN PRO PDF export and print, publishing to GitHub Gist and Telegraph, presentation mode for slides, a custom theme editor with imported fonts, focus and typewriter modes, word-count goals, reading statistics, text-to-speech with follow-along highlighting, local version history with diffs, snippets, Vim keybindings, and an AI pack that summarises and rewrites entirely on device. BUILT FOR APPLE PLATFORMS One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac. Keyboard shortcuts throughout, multiple windows, menu bar commands, a Share extension, Shortcuts actions, widgets, a URL scheme, Spotlight indexing, VoiceOver labels and Dynamic Type. PRIVACY MDReader collects nothing. No analytics SDK, no account, no server of ours to talk to. The only network traffic is what your own documents ask for, such as remote images, plus the publishing integrations you set up yourself. FREE AND PRO The reader and the single-file editor are free forever: all rendering including math and syntax highlighting, the base themes, table of contents, in-file search, HTML, Markdown and plain-text export, and position restore. Pro unlocks folder workspaces and the power features above, as a one-time purchase or as a yearly subscription with a free trial. SUBSCRIPTION AND PURCHASE DETAILS MDReader Pro (Yearly) - auto-renewable subscription, 1 year, USD 9.99 per year, including a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. MDReader Pro (Lifetime) - one-time purchase, USD 24.99, not a subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. A yearly subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage or cancel the subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when a subscription is purchased. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ App Terms of Service: https://gelfand.dev/mdreader/terms Privacy Policy: https://gelfand.dev/mdreader/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Noteline at none against MDReader's 2. Noteline also leads on iOS requirement (14.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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
Both are free to download. MDReader sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Noteline asks for nothing beyond the download.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Noteline | MDReader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No โ better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 โ better | 26.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 22 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Foo AI Corp. | Daniil Nuzhdin |
In-app purchases
Noteline
No in-app purchases
MDReader
- MDReader Pro Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
- MDReader Pro$24.99








