Levity Markdown Notes vs MDReader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Levity Markdown Notes
Read full descriptionHide full description
Levity is a fast Markdown editor for your own plain-text notes, based on a folder in iCloud Drive or on your device. No account, no proprietary database, no separate sync service to set up. Point Levity at a folder and it mirrors every Markdown file inside it, and keeps mirroring as they change. Built for speed on your phone and read-compatible with Obsidian vaults. Levity opens, scrolls, and searches instantly, even in a large vault. It's tuned for mobile from the first line of code. If you already keep an Obsidian vault, Levity reads it as-is: the same files, the same folders, the same frontmatter. Your notes are just text files. They live in your own iCloud Drive or on your device, sync through your own Apple account, and open in any other editor. A live, clean editor: โข Formatting appears as you type. The raw Markdown symbols stay out of your way, while your files stay pure Markdown on disk โข Headings, bold, italic, task lists, checkboxes, blockquotes, code blocks, and tables you can edit cell by cell โข [[Wiki-links]] between notes, with autocomplete โข Inline images โข A formatting bar, so you never have to hunt for a raw symbol Organize without a database: โข Tag your notes and filter by tag โข YAML frontmatter โ add any property you like (status, type, dates, lists) and build filtered views around it โข Folders, templates, archive, and trash โข Full-text search across every note, instantly Made yours: โข Seven themes, plus an automatic day / night mode that follows your surroundings โข Adjustable font, size, and spacing โข Designed for both iPhone and iPad Levity is focused and supports text, tags, and links; no graph view or plugins, just the fastest way to write and read Markdown on iOS, on top of files you already own. Free to start. One optional yearly subscription unlocks unlimited note creation and editing; reading your notes is never limited. Your privacy, by design: your notes stay in your own iCloud or device storage. Levity Premium is an auto-renewing subscription billed yearly. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
MDReader
Read full descriptionHide full description
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 iOS requirement: Levity Markdown Notes at 17.0 against MDReader's 26.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Levity Markdown Notes sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $11.99 per year and MDReader sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Levity Markdown Notes | MDReader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | โ | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac โ better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 โ better | 26.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 22 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | S Tan | Daniil Nuzhdin |
In-app purchases
Levity Markdown Notes
- Levity Premium$11.991 Year
MDReader
- MDReader Pro Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
- MDReader Pro$24.99
Questions
Is Levity Markdown Notes free?
Is MDReader free?
Do Levity Markdown Notes or MDReader have ads?
Other comparisons















