Comparison

md Viewer vs MarkDown Reader

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

Head to head
About

md Viewer

Features
Read full description

md Viewer displays your Markdown files as real documents: diagrams, maps, callouts and highlighted entities, with the typography and colours of the ok-ia.ch design language. FEATURES • Faithful Markdown rendering (headings, tables, lists, quotes) • Mermaid diagrams: flowchart, sequence, gantt, pie, mindmap — with full-screen zoom • Leaflet maps (Obsidian plugin style): positioned markers, OpenFreeMap/OSM base maps, full-screen button for portrait or landscape • Obsidian callouts (note, tip, warning, bug…), wiki-links, entity highlighting (NER) • Presentation mode: your document becomes a full-screen slideshow, split on ---, with transitions, a thumbnail browser and five colour themes • Vault: point the app once at your reports folder and it finds them — so does Siri • Siri, Spotlight and Shortcuts: “Open the latest report”, “Summarise a report”… • Automatic table of contents, in-document search, adjustable text size • Paginated PDF export (A4 or Letter), Word and PowerPoint; share the .md file • Interface in 5 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian • Dark mode, portrait and landscape, iPhone + iPad + Mac AI, ON YOUR DEVICE • Document summary, properly structured: a direct answer, chapters, lists — not a wall of text • Chat with the document: the opening screen offers questions drawn from the report itself, about its own subjects • Answers draw on its content alone; when the answer is not in it, the app says so instead of inventing one • They are written in the app's language, even when the report is written in another • The document is treated as data, never as a command: an instruction slipped into a report is not carried out • Everything runs on the device: no account, nothing uploaded, no text leaving it (requires an Apple Intelligence-capable device) 100% OFFLINE Rendering, diagrams, callouts, exports and the AI need no connection. Only map tiles load online. Open a .md from Files, the iOS share sheet, another app, or a web link (mdviewer://). “What algorithms don't know yet.” — ok-ia.ch

About

MarkDown Reader

Features
Read full description

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

md Viewer4 screens
MarkDown Reader3 screens

Verdict

The call

md Viewer 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

md Viewer ships an update monthly, MarkDown Reader every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on September 9, 2026.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
md Viewer versus MarkDown Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parametermd ViewerMarkDown Reader
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPatrick OstertagEdward Juden

In-app purchases

None

md Viewer

No in-app purchases

None

MarkDown Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is md Viewer free?
md Viewer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MarkDown Reader free?
MarkDown Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do md Viewer or MarkDown Reader have ads?
Neither md Viewer nor MarkDown Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, md Viewer or MarkDown Reader?
md Viewer ships an update monthly, and MarkDown Reader every 5 weeks. Most recently, md Viewer was updated on September 9, 2026 and MarkDown Reader on September 9, 2026.

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