| nicemd | Glance | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Reader with Quick Look, plus a live editor | Reader with Quick Look, plus a live editor |
| Free | Reading, Quick Look, outline, live reload, find, PDF export | Reading, Quick Look, find, raw source pane, tabs, print and PDF export |
| Paid | $4.99 once (3-day free trial) — live editor, split view, HTML and Word export | $9.99 once after a 14-day trial — editing (Glance Pro) |
| Quick Look in Finder | Yes | Yes |
| Editing | Live editor that hides the Markdown as you write, plus split view | Click a line on the rendered page and type |
| Exports | PDF free; HTML and Word (.docx) with the unlock | |
| Diagrams and math | Mermaid and KaTeX, bundled offline | Mermaid and LaTeX, bundled offline |
| Requires | macOS 14 or later | macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon |
| Distribution | Mac App Store | Direct download (DMG) |
Of the three comparisons on this site, this is the close one. Glance is a native macOS Markdown reader with a free Quick Look extension, bundled offline rendering, no account, and a one-time purchase that unlocks editing. That is nicemd's description too.
So this page is mostly about the differences that are actually left, and there are fewer of them than either of us would probably like to admit.
What is genuinely the same
- Reading is free, permanently, with no account.
- A Quick Look extension is in the free tier, so Space in Finder renders the document.
- Mermaid diagrams and math render, bundled with the app rather than fetched, so previews work offline.
- Both are small native Mac apps — a few megabytes, not a bundled copy of Chromium.
- Editing is a one-time purchase, not a subscription.
If your requirement is "press Space on a .md file and see a document", both of these solve it completely, for free, and you can stop reading here and install either one.
Where Glance is the better pick
Stated plainly, because a comparison page that finds no reason to choose the competitor is an advert.
- Its free tier includes the raw-source pane. Glance puts a side-by-side view of the Markdown source in the free tier. In nicemd, split view is part of the paid unlock. If seeing source next to rendered output matters to you and you do not want to pay, that is a clear answer.
- An explicit tab command.
⌘Topens the next document in the folder as a tab, which is a real convenience when you are working through a directory. nicemd leaves tabs to macOS's own document-tabbing behaviour, so you get them only if your Mac is set to prefer tabs. - It opens more than Markdown. Plain text files open too, and JSON and YAML are pretty-printed with syntax colours. nicemd does neither.
- Editing model. Glance lets you click a line on the rendered page and type into it. nicemd has an explicit edit mode you switch into. Which is better is a matter of taste — but if you want the in-place feel, Glance has it and nicemd does not.
Where nicemd is the better pick
- The unlock is $4.99 rather than $9.99. Both are one-time, and both are cheap. If you are going to edit, nicemd's unlock is about half.
- Word export. nicemd exports to
.docxwith headings, lists, tables, code, links and footnotes as native Word formatting, so the person you send it to can edit rather than just read. Glance exports PDF. If you regularly hand Markdown to people who live in Word, that is the difference that decides it. - Live reload built for tools that replace files. Coding agents do not edit a file in place — they write a temporary file and rename it over the original, which is what makes naive file watchers go quiet. nicemd is built to survive that specific pattern. See why previews go stale when an agent edits the file.
- Task lists you can tick. Clicking a checkbox in a rendered plan writes the change back to the file, which matters if your agent hands you plans as Markdown task lists.
- Find and replace over the source, as one undoable edit, rather than find alone.
- It ships through the App Store. Glance is a direct download, so it carries the usual Gatekeeper step on first run and handles its own updates. An App Store install enables its extension without any of that, and updates with everything else.
The honest summary
For free reading and Quick Look, pick either. They do the same job and both do it well. Install whichever you find first — and if you install both, turn one of the Quick Look extensions off, because two extensions claiming Markdown compete and the winner is not something you control.
Beyond the free tier the decision gets easier, because it stops being about rendering and starts being about what you do with the document. If you want a raw pane without paying, JSON and YAML previews, or in-place editing, Glance fits better. If you want Word export, agent-proof live reload, or simply a cheaper unlock, nicemd fits better.
Both are small, native, offline and free to read. This is a good problem to have compared with where Markdown on the Mac was a few years ago.
Written by the people who make nicemd, so read it with that in mind. Facts about Glance come from its own website and release notes, checked September 2026; everything framed as a preference is a preference. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and it gets corrected.