ObsiKO vs PureOpen
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
ObsiKO
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Tired of converting files or picking plugins? Spent the day on settings and never wrote a line? Plenty of features, none of them talking to each other? Everyday writing, LLM wikis, ontologies, Zettelkasten, mindmaps, reading logs, codices, schedules, file conversion ā one app, no account or subscription. Obsidian vaults (.md/.canvas/.base) open as-is. (AI runs on your own API key; with Apple Intelligence on, it can run on the device with no key.) ā You see it first, before anything changes Ā· AI rewrites arrive as a suggestion card ā nothing changes until you press Replace Ā· The AI agent works on a copy; only what you pick reaches your notes Ā· Before the first send to an outside AI, it shows what goes where and sends only if you allow ā Share to the web, sync between devices (GitHub) Ā· "Share to the web" publishes a note at one address ā theme, tables and images intact, comments too Ā· The text lives only in your GitHub account, never on our servers; "Stop sharing" takes it down Ā· Sync runs through your own repository and only ever deletes to the trash ā Write once, it connects itself Ā· A "color" property colors the tab, header, tree icon, .base and codex cards. Define your own types and relations too Ā· Type "book" pops a search that fills the rest; "project" adds start/due to the calendar Ā· Highlight a PDF and quotes collect into a note of the same name, searchable and on the graph Ā· Wiki links, types, relations and PARA form one constellation ā more links, brighter star ā Infinite mindmap canvas (.canvas) Ā· Apple Pencil drawing ā turn a sketch into an AI image. Have AI build an editable mindmap, or hand it yours Ā· Auto-build from a note's links, auto-layout, embeds, groups, relations. 5 styles, 10+ presets. Drop a URL or file to add a card ā .base files and search Ā· Projects, kanban, cards, charts, a library (book/paper search), PARA, a budget that pastes receipts. Dataview queries become tables Ā· Filenames, full text, Korean jamo, semantic search ā pin results, bookmark a query, or ask Siri ā A dashboard and themes you arrange Ā· 50+ widgets plus query and embed boards ā calendars, to-dos, habit trackers, stats. 20+ themes, your own fonts ā Markdown and a writing helper Ā· Calm editing tuned for Korean. Format bar and cheat sheet, Mermaid, 20+ charts, inline drawing, video in a note Ā· 70+ structures across 13 genres (Hero's Journey, Save the Cat, SCQA, character sheets), Socratic questions and style polish Ā· Spell check, dictionaries, device TTS, a saved assistant role, on-device translation ā Schedules and viewers Ā· A date in any file lands on the calendar (Obsidian Tasks compatible) ā year/month/week/day, timeline, widget, reminders Ā· One frontmatter line switches the viewer: book, web novel, messenger, visual novel, codex ā Clipping and conversion Ā· The article body and photos become a note, not just the URL ā share button or RSS Ā· One-click Markdown for doc/docx, PDF, hwp/hwpx ā one file or a folder; a read-only panel opens dozens more Ā· Import from Apple Notes, Notion, Evernote, Bear or Logseq ā always into a new folder Ā· Highlight PDFs and Markdown to insert or quote. AI OCR and transcription (labelled by speaker) ā AI agent Ā· Add an API key and go (Claude, Gemini, GPT) ā the app is complete without one Ā· Builds mindmaps and .base tables on your phone and reads existing ones. Read-aloud and images in the editor Ā· File creation, automatic memory, LLM wikis, ontology and Zettelkasten design, MCP. Bulk work is desktop-only ā Export, images, and everything else Ā· Marp properties make a deck. Export to PDF, HWPX, DOCX, EPUB, HTML, ZIP, wiki markup Ā· Dictate on iPhone (on device), Control Center, Lock Screen and Home widgets, Watch quick notes Ā· Ready for iOS 27 ā Markdown round-trips with Apple Notes, the new Siri can add to a note, 4Ć6 widget Ā· Image editing, free image search, colors panel, routines, palette, focus timer, screen lock All of it is free. No account, no payment, a small download.
PureOpen
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PureOpen is a Markdown editor for Mac and iPhone built for right-to-left writing. Most editors treat RTL as a switch: turn it on and the whole document flips, which breaks the moment you write Hebrew or Arabic with English words in it. PureOpen decides direction per block instead. Every paragraph, heading and list item takes its direction from the first strong character in it ā so a mixed document displays correctly with no setting, and with no direction marks written into your file. Files open in tabs, the way a browser opens pages, and your changes are on disk 600ms after you stop typing. RIGHT-TO-LEFT, PER BLOCK ⢠RTL and LTR live side by side in one file. A Hebrew paragraph aligns right, the English paragraph under it aligns left, and each stays that way as you edit. ⢠A Hebrew or Arabic sentence with English terms, code spans and links inside it reads correctly ā the block stays RTL and the Latin runs sit where they belong. ⢠A block with no strong character inherits the direction of the block above it, so blank lines and numbers don't break the flow. ⢠Nothing is added to your Markdown to make this work: no RTL marks, no wrapper tags. The file stays portable. OPEN IT FROM THE FILE, NOT FROM THE APP ⢠Right-click a Markdown file in Finder ā or long-press it in Files on iPhone and iPad ā and PureOpen sits at the top of "Open With". One click and the document is open in a tab in the window you already have. ⢠No launching the app first, no file picker, no importing into a library. Double-click works the same way, and so does dragging a file onto the window. ⢠Registered as the owner and editor of .md, .markdown, .mdown and .mkd. TABS ⢠Every file opens in its own tab. ā1āā9 jump by position, Ctrl+Tab cycles, middle-click closes, and āW closes the tab rather than the window. ⢠The tabs you had open come back the next time you launch. SAVING ⢠Autosave writes 600ms after you stop typing, and again on tab switch, tab close and window blur. A grey dot marks a tab with unsaved content. ⢠If the file changes on disk ā another editor, a sync client ā it is reloaded quietly and your scroll position is kept. If it is deleted, editing locks so stale content is not written back over it. ⢠Opening a file doesn't reformat it: an edit that didn't actually change the content doesn't trigger a write. EDITING ⢠17 formatting buttons: headings 1ā4, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bullet, numbered and task lists, subscript, superscript, quote, inline code, code block and horizontal rule. ⢠Each button reflects the block and the marks under the cursor, and updates as the cursor moves. ⢠Underline, subscript and superscript are kept as HTML rather than dropped when the file is saved. PRINTING AND PDF ⢠Print what you see. The page is the document as the editor renders it ā headings, tables, task lists, code blocks, Hebrew and English side by side ā without the tabs and the toolbar around them. ⢠Export the same page straight to a PDF file, without going through the print dialog to find "Save as PDF". ⢠Nothing is rendered a second time for paper, so what prints is what you were looking at. Pages break between lines, and the page is always light even when the app is in dark mode. ALSO ⢠On iPhone and iPad, files opened from Files are edited in place ā not copied into the app. ⢠Dark mode follows the system setting. ⢠Files past roughly 4 million characters open read-only as raw text, so the interface doesn't stall. ⢠No network, no account, no telemetry. Your files stay on your device. PureOpen is free, with no in-app purchases.
Screenshots
Verdict
ObsiKO and PureOpen are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters ā price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them ā neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ObsiKO ships an update every 6 days, PureOpen every 9 days. Both last shipped on October 10, 2026.
| Parameter | ObsiKO | PureOpen |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days ā better | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.0 ā better |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 75 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hyojin Kim | Yechiel Ben David |
In-app purchases
ObsiKO
No in-app purchases
PureOpen
No in-app purchases









