Frequently asked questions

The questions we get asked most. If your question isn’t here, check troubleshooting for runtime issues, or send a message.

Pricing and licensing

Is MD View free?

The Reader mode is free forever — open files, navigate, search, print, switch themes, use the watcher, all free. The Pro tier adds split view, PDF export with nested bookmarks, DOCX export, the git-diff overlay, the verification layer, and workspace mode. Pro is $24 lifetime, one-time payment. No subscription, ever.

What’s the founder edition?

The first 100 buyers get the same lifetime Pro license at $14 instead of $24. Once 100 are sold, the founder edition closes permanently and the standard $24 lifetime continues.

How does the 14-day trial work?

Every install gets full Pro for the first 14 days from first launch. No credit card, no account, no signup. After 14 days the Pro features lock and the app drops to free Reader mode — your files, recents, and Free features keep working unchanged. Enter a license key any time to unlock Pro again.

Do you offer refunds?

30 days, no questions asked. Email [email protected].

Per-device or per-user?

Per-user. Activate on up to 5 personal Windows machines you own per license key. Need more? Send a message and we’ll sort it out.

Product

Can I edit files in MD View?

No, by design. MD View is a viewer, not an editor. The whole product is built around being the best read-side window for the .md files your editor produces. Use Cursor, VS Code, Obsidian, Notepad++, or any other editor for writing — MD View slots in next to it.

This is a deliberate design constraint. Editors render markdown as a side effect of editing it; the read experience is always second priority. We flip that. Removing edit mode also means we can be faster, lighter, and ship a better reader.

Is there a Mac or Linux version?

Not yet. Currently Windows. We’re shipping deeper, not wider — the Windows experience needs to be excellent before Mac or Linux makes sense. The product name and domain are platform-agnostic for a reason. If you’d want a Mac or Linux version, drop your email on the download page and we’ll let you know if and when it’s coming.

Why no plugin system?

Plugin systems force every internal API into a stable contract, which slows down the product. They also create a long tail of “broken plugin” support. MD View’s surface area is small on purpose: a tight set of curated features, all maintained by us. If there’s a feature missing that we haven’t ruled out, tell us — we’d rather build it natively than expose a plugin hook.

Does MD View require an account?

No. There’s nothing to log into. The license key is a string you paste once into Settings → License — that’s the entire activation flow.

Does MD View phone home? Send telemetry?

No. The app reads files locally and ships zero telemetry. There’s no analytics SDK, no error reporter, no “anonymous usage stats” toggle hidden somewhere. The website (mdview.dev) uses Plausible analytics, which is cookieless and doesn’t track across sites.

Does it support Mermaid diagrams? Math? Wiki-links? GFM tables?

Yes to all four. See markdown support for the full list — including KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams (lazy-loaded), GitHub-flavored markdown (tables, task lists, autolinks), and [[wiki-links]] resolved within a workspace.

How fast is “fast”?

Cold start is fast on modern hardware — typically well under a second. The app folder itself is about 15 MB on disk. Markdown files of any reasonable size render effectively instantly. We’ll publish measured numbers from a known baseline alongside the 1.0 release.

Where are my settings stored?

%APPDATA%\md-view\state.json for window state and theme. %APPDATA%\md-view\recents.json for recent files. License key in %APPDATA%\md-view\license.key. Nothing in the registry beyond the standard install entry.

Comparison

How does MD View compare to Typora?

Typora is a markdown editor that renders. MD View is a markdown viewer that does not edit. Typora is cross-platform; MD View is Windows-only. Typora’s free tier exists but the paid tier is required for export features that ship in MD View Pro. MD View has faster cold start because it’s not loading editor infrastructure.

How does MD View compare to Markdown Monster?

Markdown Monster is a Windows markdown editor with a strong preview. MD View is purely the preview side — no editor, no source mode toggle. Markdown Monster has weblog publishing and ad-hoc extensions; MD View has none of those by design. If you want one app that does both, Markdown Monster fits. If you want the best read-side window next to your existing editor, MD View fits.

How does MD View compare to MarkText?

MarkText is an Electron-based open-source markdown editor. MD View is native Windows — Tauri (WebView2 + Rust), not Electron. Lower memory footprint, faster cold start, no Electron bundle to ship. MarkText is free; MD View has a free Reader mode plus a paid Pro tier.

How does MD View compare to VS Code’s markdown preview?

VS Code’s preview is built into VS Code — if you live there, it’s free and handy. MD View is the standalone reader for when you want markdown open in its own window without VS Code in the way: dragging .md from Explorer, pinning a watcher window in a corner of your monitor, or opening files outside any editor context. MD View also exports PDF with nested bookmarks, which the VS Code preview doesn’t.

How does MD View compare to Obsidian (read-only mode)?

Obsidian is a knowledge-base app with a vault and a graph. MD View is a single-file reader. Obsidian’s read-only mode renders one note at a time inside its vault context; MD View opens any .md anywhere on disk, no vault required. If you need backlinks and a graph, use Obsidian. If you want to double-click a .md and see it rendered fast without “creating a vault” first, MD View.