Second Notes vs MarkText
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Second Notes
A text editor for creating notes with live Markdown formatting. Sync notes across your iOS devices and Mac via iCloud. Export notes as text files and import from other applications.
- Live Markdown formatting
- iCloud sync
- Cross-device compatibility (iOS/Mac)
- Export to text file
- Import from other apps
- Text search
- Keyboard shortcuts
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Second Notes is an text editor for making a note with Live Markdown in your iCloud folder. You can share the note with your iOS devices via Second Notes for Mac. And Live Markdown automatically indents lists and quoted strings, and changes font to bold or italic. ## Features - Typing text with Live Markdown - iCloud and Second Notes for iOS - Exporting a note as a text file to iCloud Drive - Importing a text file from other applications - Text search in whole Notes - Keyboard shortcuts - Autosaving - Dynamic Type
MarkText
This app is a markdown editor and note-taking tool for iOS devices. It offers real-time syntax highlighting, conversion to various formats like HTML, PNG, and PDF, and seamless syncing across Apple devices via iCloud Drive.
- Real-time markdown syntax highlighting
- Convert notes to HTML, PNG, PDF
- Share to Evernote, Dropbox, Email
- iCloud Drive sync across devices
- FlowChart & Diagrams support
- LaTeX and MathML rendering
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MarkText is a minimalist, lightweight Markdown text editor with local-first storage and iCloud sync. It supports syntax highlighting and comes with multiple built‑in preview themes, ideal for notes, writing, memos, journals and quick notes. Export to PDF, PNG or HTML in one tap for easy sharing. ## Key Features - Markdown syntax highlighting. - Built‑in HTML previews with various styles. - Move cursor by sliding the toolbar above the keyboard; - Simple import & export, edit files in Files app in place. - One-tap conversion to long image, multi-images, PDF or HTML. - Easily share to Dropbox, Email, or open with other apps. - Full-text search, word count, regex find & replace; - Sync between iPhone, iPad and Mac via iCloud Drive. - Mermaid and Graphviz support for editing and previewing flowcharts & diagrams. - MathJax support to edit and preview mathematical formulas. ## Import & Export Multiple import and export methods available - Directly manage file list via the Files app. - Import / export files through iTunes. - Upload and download files over WiFi. - Share MD, HTML, PNG, PDF files to other apps. ## Keyboard Toolbar - Tap buttons to quickly insert Tabs, headings, lists, code blocks, images, hyperlinks and more. - Customize toolbar buttons and reorder them. - Swipe toolbar left/right to move cursor fast. - Pinch toolbar with two fingers for quick text selection. - Custom quick input phrases and templates supported. ## Syntax Highlighting & HTML Preview - Built-in preview themes for light and dark modes. - Customizable preview style for code blocks. - Supports multiple Markdown flavors: Standard Markdown, MultiMarkdown, GitHub Flavored Markdown. ### GMF (GitHub Flavored Markdown) Syntax Supports extended syntax: strikethrough, tables, task lists, code blocks. #### Task Lists Lists starting with [ ] or [x] indicate incomplete or completed tasks. Example: - [ ] Incomplete - [x] Completed ## iCloud Drive Sync - Automatically sync and store all note files across your devices via iCloud Drive. - View synced note files inside the iCloud Drive folder on Mac. ## Supported File Extensions md, mmd, markdown, markdn, mdown, mkdn, markd, txt, text, etc. ## Other Features - Swipe left on note item to delete; long press to rename. - Add "#Hashtag" or "@Mention" inside notes to create tag categories, equivalent to folders. - Deleted notes go to Trash and stay there until permanently removed. ## scheme - Open App: marktext://x-url-callback/ - Open note: marktext://x-url-callback/open?name=xx - New note: marktext://x-url-callback/new?content=xx - New note from pasteboard: marktext://x-url-callback/new?pasteboard=1 If you have questions or suggestions, contact: xappbox+mt@gmail.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: MarkText at 54% against Second Notes's 0%. Second Notes's advantage is price ($0.99 vs $3.99). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Second Notes costs $0.99 and MarkText $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Second Notes ships an update every 6 months, MarkText every 4 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | Second Notes | MarkText |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | — | 3.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 54.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14 | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Goldbug Software | 刘生 林 |
Customer experience
Second Notes
MarkText
In-app purchases
Second Notes
No in-app purchases
MarkText
No in-app purchases









