MarkDash vs Portlivo

By Martin Romañuk, who makes MarkDash · Checked October 28, 2026

The short answer

Pick Portlivo if you want to share a local server with a public link or a QR code, check health, CPU and memory, use a CLI, or you’re on macOS 14 or an Intel Mac.

Pick MarkDash if you also want the pages and links you open every day next to your servers: saved pages per project that follow the port, and a links board with notes and statuses.

At a glance

Feature	MarkDash	Portlivo
What it is	Native menu bar app, macOS 15 or later	Native menu bar app, macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel
Price	$9.99 per Mac at launch, then $19.99, paid once. 14-day trial	$8.99 for the first 50 licenses, then $19.99 per Mac, paid once. 7-day trial
Lists listening ports	Yes Every listening TCP port with process, PID, folder and command. Rescans every 4 s	Yes Rescans every 2 s, with uptime, CPU and memory
Knows the project	Yes Your saved sites by name; any other server by its folder	Yes Project folder and git branch. Labels servers started by Claude Code or Codex
Starts your projects	Yes One click, with your login shell’s PATH. Detects the command from the folder	Yes “Stacks” read package.json, Procfile, Rails, Django, Go and Docker Compose
Stops a server	Yes Quit signal to the whole process tree, force kill after 3 s	Yes
Restarts a server	Yes For the sites you saved	Yes
Live logs	Yes For the servers MarkDash starts	Yes Including docker logs and laravel.log
Port conflict warnings	Yes Port taken, two copies of one project, a server that moved (5173 → 5174). One-click kill	Yes “Kill Holder & Retry” on address-already-in-use
Saved pages that follow the port	Yes Save /admin, /blog… per project. Paste a localhost URL and it’s filed under the right one	Not on its feature list
Links, notes and a board	Yes Categories, notes, search, To do / Doing / Done board	Not on its feature list
Menu bar	Yes	Yes
Scripting	Partly Shortcuts and Spotlight: open, start and stop sites, open links. No CLI	Yes devports CLI and Shortcuts actions
Also does	No No tunnels or share links	Yes Public share links via cloudflared or ngrok, QR codes, HTTP health

Where MarkDash pulls ahead

Saved pages per project, like /admin or /checkout?debug=1, that move with the port when Vite switches to 5174.
Paste any localhost URL and MarkDash files it under the project that serves it.
A links manager next to your servers: categories, notes, search and a To do / Doing / Done board.
Warnings for two copies of the same project and for a server that moved ports, not only for a busy port.
Sites and links in Spotlight.

Where Portlivo is the better pick

Public share links and QR codes for showing a local server to someone else.
HTTP health, response time, CPU and memory for each server.
Git branch per server, and a devports CLI.
It runs on macOS 14 and on Intel Macs. MarkDash needs macOS 15.
It stops Homebrew services and Docker containers through brew and docker, so they don’t start again on their own.

What they cost

Portlivo is a one-time purchase: $19.99 for one Mac ($8.99 for the first 50 licenses), $39.99 for 3 Macs and $59.99 for 5, after a 7-day trial.

MarkDash is a one-time purchase per Mac, from $9.99, after a 14-day free trial with every feature. See the licenses.

Questions

Which one should I pick?

Try both: each has a free trial. If sharing a local server or watching its health matters most, Portlivo is ahead. If you live in a few projects and their pages all day, and want your links next to them, MarkDash is.

Can I run both?

Yes. Both read the ports on your Mac and neither locks the other out. Stopping a server in one shows up in the other on its next scan.

Try MarkDash on your own projects

Free for 14 days, then $9.99 per Mac, paid once. macOS 15 or later.

Download the free trial See what MarkDash does

More comparisons

Sources for Portlivo: portlivo.com · Portlivo changelog