Comparison

MarkWrite vs Inkstone Notes

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

Head to head
About

MarkWrite

Features
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WYSIWYG Markdown editor that allows embedding pictures and natural language mathematics. MarkWrite is a fast, focused Markdown editor for Mac, iPad and iPhone. Your writing formats itself as you type β€” headings, bold, lists, quotes, tables and code appear the moment you write them, while the Markdown syntax stays visible only on the line you are editing. Nothing to toggle, no split screen required. EMBED IMAGES, NOT LINKS Drag a picture into your document and it is really there. Grab its corner to resize it and MarkWrite writes the new size back into the Markdown for you. Text and images are saved together in one self-contained document you can move, rename, duplicate or send without leaving a single broken link behind. Images can be embedded in any of the common formats: VS Code, Pandoc or HTML. WRITE EQUATIONS BY DESCRIBING THEM Say what you mean: "x equals minus b, plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four a c, all over two a." MarkWrite turns that sentence into a properly typeset formula. There is no LaTeX to memorise β€” though you can type LaTeX directly whenever you would rather. Powered by on-device Apple Intelligence; requires a supported device. ALSO β€’ Tables that line up in the editor, not only in the preview β€’ Live preview that follows your cursor, side by side or full width β€’ Themes: fonts, colours, spacing, line height, list spacing β€” saved as presets β€’ Callouts, footnotes, highlights, code blocks and inline code β€’ Export to PDF or print, with your theme applied β€’ Open a whole folder in tabs and work across files β€’ Find and replace, including regular expressions STILL JUST MARKDOWN MarkWrite writes ordinary .md files. Nothing is trapped in a proprietary format, nothing is locked in a cloud, and nothing you have written is ever held behind a subscription. Open your work in any other editor, any time, or share it with anyone and they will be able to open it with any Markdown viewer, including the embedded images. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Inkstone Notes

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Inkstone keeps your notes as what they already are: plain Markdown files, in a folder you choose, on your own device. There is no database, no import step and no proprietary format. A vault another Markdown app created opens here, and a vault created here opens there. If Inkstone disappeared tomorrow, you would still have a folder of Markdown. WRITING Headings, bold, quotes, callouts, checkboxes, tables and code all render in place as you type, with the syntax revealed only on the line the cursor is on. Reading mode is a separate, read-only view for when you want the page without the scaffolding. Body font, code font and their sizes are set independently. LINKING [[Note]], [[Note#Heading]], [[Note^block]], ![[Embeds]] and aliases declared in frontmatter all resolve into one index. Every note shows what points at it, what it points at, and which of its links have no target yet. Rename a note and every link that pointed at it is rewritten across the whole vault, in the same action. SEEING THE SHAPE The graph view draws your notes as nodes joined by their links, and the simulation is deterministic β€” the same vault draws the same picture every time, so you can learn its layout instead of re-reading it on every open. SPATIAL NOTES The canvas puts cards, files and connections on an infinite sheet, saved as JSON Canvas 1.0 β€” the same open format other implementations read and write. FINDING THINGS A fuzzy switcher opens over every note with one gesture. Full-text search understands tag: and path:, and tags work inline or in frontmatter, nested, in any script. TYPOGRAPHY THAT HANDLES CJK Chinese sets solid β€” no word spaces β€” so a Latin word dropped into a Han sentence collides with it. Inkstone sets the gap between scripts properly, and lets you choose fonts and sizes that suit both. TWO DEVICES Sync a vault through iCloud, or push it to a GitHub repository with conflicts settled once rather than left as two copies. Per-file-type filters decide whether attachments and media travel with it. PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION No account. No telemetry. No network call you did not ask for. Your files are on your device and go only where you send them. Interface in English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

Screenshots

MarkWrite3 screens
Inkstone Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Inkstone Notes at none against MarkWrite's 1. MarkWrite's advantage is device support. On price and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. MarkWrite sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. Inkstone Notes asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 3 level
MarkWrite versus Inkstone Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarkWriteInkstone Notes
PriceFreeFree
AdsNoβ€”
In-app purchasesYesNo β€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac β€” betterβ€”
Requires iOS26.426.0 β€” better
Further details β€” not scored
Size14 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGuy ShavivOrris Technology Pty Ltd

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MarkWrite

Subscriptions1
  • MarkWrite Pro$9.991 Year
None

Inkstone Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MarkWrite free?
MarkWrite is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Inkstone Notes free?
Inkstone Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

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