Comparison

Wander vs Twain

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

Head to head
About

Wander

This app offers a clean writing experience for markdown files, ensuring your notes remain in plain text and accessible in your own folders. It provides a WYSIWYG editor that accurately reflects your markdown while keeping files tidy on disk, allowing for seamless offline use and no vendor lock-in.

Highlights
  • Plain markdown in owned folders
  • WYSIWYG editing
  • Wikilinks, tables, code blocks
  • Fast and native for iPhone/iPad
  • Works fully offline
  • No account required
Features
Read full description

Wander is a markdown editor that respects your files. Your notes stay plain markdown in folders you control: no account, no lock-in, no cloud required. What you see is what lands on disk, byte for byte. Write in a clean WYSIWYG editor, where bold looks bold and headings look like headings, while the file on disk stays tidy markdown with clean diffs. Images render in place too, so a note with photos reads like a page, not a preview pane. Open any folder of markdown and start writing; Wander reads and writes standard files, so nothing you open is trapped in the app. • Plain markdown, in folders you own • WYSIWYG editing, clean files on disk • Wikilinks, tables, code blocks, task lists, footnotes • Images inline: photos, galleries and captions render right in the note, sized with plain markdown • Fast and native for iPhone and iPad: works fully offline, no account • Your notes never leave your device unless you move them • Wander Cloud: an optional subscription for private vaults, sharing and agent tokens, free for 14 days. Public vaults stay free • Monthly or yearly. It renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the period ends, and you can manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings • Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ • Privacy Policy: https://wander.md/privacy

About

Twain

Features
Read full description

Twain is a native Markdown and MDX reader for iPhone and iPad. Point it at a folder in Files or iCloud Drive and read your documentation the way it is meant to look, offline and on device. RENDERS MDX SAFELY Known components become styled blocks. Unknown ones become clearly labelled placeholders showing the tag and its props, so a docs site written for Mintlify or Docusaurus reads properly on a phone. No code in a document is ever run. OPEN A WHOLE FOLDER Point Twain at a folder in Files, iCloud Drive, or a provider like Working Copy, and it reads the whole tree. Move between documents without going back to a file manager. EVERYTHING RENDERS GitHub Flavoured Markdown with tables, task lists, footnotes and alerts. Mermaid diagrams and KaTeX maths render locally. Switch between the rendered view and the raw source whenever you want to see exactly what a document says. REVIEW AWAY FROM YOUR DESK Search across the folder, pin notes to exact passages, and share a line-anchored report when you are back at your Mac. PRIVACY Everything renders on device. There is no account, no telemetry, and no sync. Twain for iPhone and iPad is free, with nothing to buy inside it. There is a companion Mac app at twain.md.

Screenshots

Wander4 screens
Twain4 screens

Verdict

The call

Wander and Twain are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Wander sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Twain sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Wander versus Twain: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWanderTwain
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews92.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size151 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSystem Operator LLCPIXELITE, SL

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Wander

Subscriptions2
  • Wander Cloud Monthly14 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Wander Cloud Yearly14 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time4
  • Become a patron: $2$2.00
  • Become a patron: $5$5.00
  • Become a patron: $10$10.00
Show 1 more
  • Become a patron: $15$15.00
1 purchases

Twain

One-time1
  • Twain Pro$19.00

Questions

Is Wander free?
Wander is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Twain free?
Twain is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Wander or Twain have ads?
Neither Wander nor Twain shows ads.

Other comparisons