Comparison
A free Marked alternative for reading Markdown
Marked is an excellent paid preview-and-export app. But if you don't need exports or editor syncing — you just want to read Markdown in Finder — Glance does that for free, right inside Quick Look.
Glance vs Marked
| Glance | Marked | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Paid |
| Preview on Space in Finder | ||
| Standalone preview window | ||
| Mermaid diagrams | ||
| LaTeX math | ||
| Live sync with your editor | ||
| No telemetry |
Compared in May 2026 to the best of our knowledge. Marked is a mature, full-featured app — see its site for the current feature set.
Pick by what you actually do
Choose Marked if Markdown is your writing surface and you want a dedicated companion: live preview synced to your editor, export to PDF and HTML, custom CSS, and document statistics. It's a deep tool and worth its price for that workflow.
Choose Glance if you mostly read Markdown — README files, docs, notes, specs — and want them rendered the instant you press Space in Finder, without opening a separate app. It's free, around 8 MB, and previews tables, code, Mermaid, and LaTeX natively.
Read Markdown free, right in Finder
Free beta v0.1.9 — 8.3 MB — macOS 14+
Related
New to Quick Look extensions? Start with Markdown Quick Look for macOS or the step-by-step Finder preview guide. Replacing an older plugin instead? See the QLMarkdown alternative page.
FAQ
Not quite. Marked is a paid, full-featured preview and export companion that watches files from your editor and exports to PDF and HTML. Glance is a free, lightweight viewer that renders Markdown directly in Finder via Quick Look. If you mainly want to read .md files quickly, Glance covers that for free.
No. Glance is a read-only viewer focused on fast, accurate previews. It doesn't export, watch files, or show writing statistics. If you need those, Marked is the better fit.
Yes — free with no trial, no paywall, and no telemetry. Marked is a paid app.
Yes. Mermaid diagrams and LaTeX equations render natively in Glance, both in its window and in the Quick Look preview.
Ready to glance?
Free beta v0.1.9 — 8.3 MB — macOS 14+