smalltype vs MD Viewer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
smalltype
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Short notes, many times a day, saved as plain .md files in real folders. Open the same folder on your Mac in VS Code, Vim, or any editor. Calm, minimal, and ready for iPhone Duo. smalltype is for your notes. The small ones, the quick ones, the big ones, the unpolished ones. It's a fast, quiet place to type. ## Start No tutorial, no setup screen. Tap New Note and start typing. Leave one empty and it quietly disappears, so you never end up with a pile of blank untitled notes. That's the whole app. ## Yours Every note is a real .md file, sitting right there in the Files app. You can open it, copy it, or back it up yourself, anytime. Delete one and it still goes to Recently Deleted, same as any other file: nothing's gone for good. ## Sync or Don't Keep notes in iCloud Drive to have them on every device. Or keep them On My iPhone, fully local, never leaving your device. Either way, you can switch anytime. ## Visible Markdown Markdown markers stay gently visible as you type. What you see is exactly what's in the file. A bar above the keyboard types the markers for you, with undo and redo a tap away. ## Organize Folders, search, and quick note-making, all from one screen. Nothing to set up first. Put "daily" in a folder's name and new notes inside it get today's date as their name. ## No Catch No ads. No subscription. No tracking. No account, ever. Markdown notes. Yours to keep.
MD Viewer
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MD Viewer shows Markdown files as clean, readable documents. READ FIRST Every file opens in reading mode. Headings, lists, quotes, tables, code blocks, links and images are rendered natively with the system fonts, your text size and your accent colour. Text is selectable, links open in your browser, and the layout adapts from a phone to a full Mac window. EDIT WHEN YOU WANT Tap Edit to change the source. In Formatted mode the Markdown is styled as you type, with headings large, emphasis rendered, code monospaced and the syntax dimmed, plus a formatting bar for headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, code, links, images, lists, quotes, code blocks, tables and rules. Prefer the raw source? Text mode is a plain editor. Either way the file stays plain Markdown, saved automatically, with undo. YOUR FILES, WHEREVER THEY ARE Files app, iCloud Drive, Finder, Dropbox and other providers, Share, Open With, drag and drop. Multiple windows on iPad and Mac. Keyboard shortcuts including โงโE to toggle editing. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No servers, no analytics, no ads, no tracking. Your documents never leave your device; the only network use is loading images your own document links to. Supports CommonMark plus tables and strikethrough. Requires iOS 17, iPadOS 17 or macOS 14 or later.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: MD Viewer at 3 against smalltype's 1. MD Viewer also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
smalltype ships an update every 5 days, MD Viewer weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | smalltype | MD Viewer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days โ better | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac โ better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 โ better |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Herman Haidin | Enke Solutions LLC |
In-app purchases
smalltype
No in-app purchases
MD Viewer
No in-app purchases









