Comparison

PureOpen vs MD Viewer

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

Head to head
About

PureOpen

Features
Read full description

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 — 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 — 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 — or long-press it in Files on iPhone and iPad — 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. ⌘1ā€“āŒ˜9 jump by position, Ctrl+Tab cycles, middle-click closes, and ⌘W 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 — another editor, a sync client — 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 1–4, 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 — headings, tables, task lists, code blocks, Hebrew and English side by side — 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 — 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.

About

MD Viewer

Features
Read full description

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 ā‡§āŒ˜E 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

PureOpen4 screens
MD Viewer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: PureOpen at 15.0 against MD Viewer's 17.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

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

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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PureOpen ships an update every 9 days, MD Viewer weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference Ā· 5 level
PureOpen versus MD Viewer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPureOpenMD Viewer
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYechiel Ben DavidEnke Solutions LLC

In-app purchases

None

PureOpen

No in-app purchases

None

MD Viewer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PureOpen free?
PureOpen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MD Viewer free?
MD Viewer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do PureOpen or MD Viewer have ads?
Neither PureOpen nor MD Viewer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PureOpen or MD Viewer?
PureOpen ships an update every 9 days, and MD Viewer weekly. Most recently, PureOpen was updated on October 10, 2026 and MD Viewer on September 23, 2026.

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