# RegEx Lab: Regular Expressions — user reviews > 60 indexed App Store user reviews of RegEx Lab by sovio, rated 4.80/5 from 172 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/regex-lab-regular-expressions/id1252988123/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/regex-lab-regular-expressions/id1252988123.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 144 · 4★ 22 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 2 · 1★ 2 ## What do users think of RegEx Lab? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Beautifully designed UI - 🚀 Simple and easy to use - ⚡ Gets regular expression tasks done quickly - 💡 Useful offline Regex tool - 🛠️ Essential text tool for devs and writers - ✅ Excellent UI and workflow - 💯 Comprehensive and powerful - 💖 Love it - ✨ Constantly improving - 🚀 Works great - 🌟 Latest update making things better - 🎯 Gets the job done without annoyance - 📚 Great for practicing/learning Regex - 🧩 Nice implementation for extracting data - 🎨 Color coded grouping is great - 💡 Share feature is brilliant - 🖥️ Best Regex app on macOS - 💡 Clean simplicity and good tutorials - ✅ Works well and is free - 👨‍💻 Great for developers - 💡 Unique, handy, well-made app - ✨ Great UI - 💡 Live highlighting of group matches is awesome - 📚 Integrated documentation/cheatsheet - 📱 Fantastic tool to have in hand - 🚀 Best regex app out there - 💡 Elegant user interface - 📝 Simple design with great functions - 👍 Must-have for whipping up regex - 💡 Responsive developer **Cons** - 🐛 Files are hidden and not found in Files app - 🐛 Export option makes a mess - 🐛 Mac version has no effort put into it - 🐛 Takes a long time for load screen to go away - 🐛 'Select this match' option often doesn't work - 🐛 Difficult to figure out replace function - 🐛 Cheat sheet not easily accessible - 🐛 Terrible light/dark highlighting - 🐛 Keyboard does not go back down - 🐛 Import functionality is very broken - 🐛 Corrected errors remain highlighted in red - 🐛 Difficult to apply series of regex search/replace to multiple texts - 🐛 No support for named groups - 🐛 All English, difficult to use for some **Commonly reported bugs** - iPad's Files app cannot find the app or Regex files - Export option creates messy files - Mac version lacks developer effort - Slow load screen when creating new expressions - Select this match option is unreliable - Replace function is difficult to understand - Cheat sheet accessibility issues - Poor highlighting options - Keyboard behavior issues - Import functionality is broken - Highlighted errors persist - Difficulty with sequential regex application - Lack of named group support - Interface is entirely in English **Most requested features** - Make app and Regex files visible in Files app - Improve export option for Regex files - Add a button to clear the text window - Allow simultaneous viewing of text and replacement text - Add a button to copy and replace text on the previous screen - Add more examples to the cheat sheet - Add a user manual - Automatically jump to matched text - Add a Chinese language option - Add 'snippets' or templates - Add a special keyboard for common expressions ## Newest reviews (11 of 60) ### 5/5 — Replace was a mystery *2021-07-20* RegEx matching works well but It was difficult to figure out how the replace function worked. I received an immediate and clear response to my request for support so I’m a happy camper. **Developer response:** Thanks for using the app and for the feedback, I'm sorry to hear the Replace feature is not as clearly implemented or documented as needed. As a quick overview of the Replace screen, the top text field allows you to choose the replacement text, and the bottom text field shows the result of applying the replacement text to the regex matches. If you'd like more info or assistance with this, for example a video guide of the feature, just let me know - regexlab@sovio.co ### 5/5 — Where Is the Cheat Sheet? *2021-07-12, version 1.11.0* Update maybe 18 months later: INCREASING FROM 4 TO 5 STARS. Finally had a real use for this app. After re-learning regular expressions from Corey Schafer’s best-on-the-web YouTube tutorial, I used the app to develop an expression that I really, really needed for another hobby. WORKED GREAT!! I still would like to be able to see the text and replacement text simultaneously. (May be possible; still don’t know.) Feb 17: After using it some more increasing it to 4 stars. Would like to have the replace window and visible simultaneously with scanned text but maybe that is possible too and I haven't found it yet. Rating: 1 star. Am I dumb or what? The one thing I wanted was the cheat sheet to use to better learn about regular expressions. In the App Store they claim to have to have one but I can’t find it. Ok, I found it. Increasing rating to 4 until I decide if it is useful. On a second visit I couldn’t find it again! Finally! The cheat sheet should be accessible from any page of the app. This is a crap tool for learning regexes. Decreasing rating to 3. The “light/dark” highlighting is terrible. Looking for a way to turn that off. No luck so far. OK, I got control of the dang “theme”. Still a pain in the neck. I don’t get it. I was seeing a keyboard with an extra row with meta characters; very nice. Now it is gone, and I can’t get it back. But I do have access to emojis. How useless! A complete mess. Lowering to 2 stars. Needs a user manual. ### 5/5 — Handy, Educational, Enjoyable *2021-05-22* This app is a great way to experiment with Regular Expressions. It's saved me lots of time building Shortcuts. And it keeps getting better and better with periodic upgrades. My thanks to the developer. **Developer response:** And many thanks to you too for taking a moment to rate and review, glad you like the app! ### 5/5 — Simple and efficient *2021-05-18* A great place to develop and organize your regents patterns. **Developer response:** Thank you for using the app and for your review ### 5/5 — Share feature brilliant *2021-04-27* The new share feature is ideal and as promised I’ve given the RegEx app five stars Thanks for your consideration and work done **Developer response:** 26.April.2021 The "Share" feature has now been added (app version 1.9.0). It's under the top-right "more options" menu (three vertical dots). Thanks for the suggestion, hope it works well for you, let me know otherwise or if you have any other questions or queries - at regexlab@sovio.co 22.April.2021 Thank you for using the app and for your review. Regarding a share option, I assume something a bit more comprehensive than simply sharing the regex text (which can be done via usual copy / paste)? If you mean the ability to share a particular regex but also the test text and the substitution pattern - there's the Export / Import option, which can achieve this. Perhaps you would like something that generates a link, and if you share this link with someone, they can then tap it and it would open the app and add the regex to their list? I"d be happy to discuss this further: regexlab@sovio.co . Thank you. ### 5/5 — GREAT *2020-12-17* JUST GREAT, BEST REGEX APP ON MACOS **Developer response:** Thank you very much for using the app and for your review! ### 5/5 — I get REGEX now thanks to this amazing app! *2020-11-21* I have struggled for quite some time to get my head around regex and actually get it working to identify and capture key data from long bodies of texts such as e-mails. The clean simplicity of this app plus some good tutorial resources meant I have got it working with an integrated automation and I understand it so much better. THANK YOU! **Developer response:** Thanks for your review! ### 5/5 — 好用 *2020-11-07* 挺好用的一软件，五星五星！！！最后还是希望加个中文😂 ### 5/5 — Nicely designed, clear results *2020-11-02* While I have only touched the surface. The design of this app is really great. Love the color coded grouping. **Developer response:** Thank you for trying out RegEx Lab and for your review! ### 5/5 — Amazing! *2020-11-01* I look for someone like this app. I need learn and test my RegEx anywhere, anytime in my iPhone. Thanks for this! **Developer response:** Thank you! ### 5/5 — Really useful! *2020-10-10, version 1.7.1* I use this app to debug my regular expressions for Match Text actions in Shortcuts. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Where is the app and my files? All hidden files!! :( *2025-02-14* I was really enjoying this app until I went to backup my Regex files I’ve created in it. The iPad’s Files app cannot find the app or my Regex files. Why make them hidden?! The export option makes a mess of them. If you select Export All you get a file that’s not html but is full of HTML codes and everything is in quotes. If I can’t backup my Regex expressions to iCloud, then the app is not saving me any time. Please make your app visible! AND all of my Regex files I’ve created in your app. I shouldn’t have to buy a Shell to go on an Easter Egg Hunt to find my work. Geesh!! :(( **Developer response:** Thanks for your review and feedback. By default the data of the app (when a developer makes an app) is private, in fact it never creates typical "files" the way we usually think about these, and it is why it is not so easy to expose in the File manager or iCloud sync. That said, I completely agree that this app seems like a perfect candidate to integrate with standard "document editing" flows, cloud sync etc. I'll add it to the ToDo list for a future version release. Regarding the export/import feature - did it not work correctly for you? I would like to understand and fix this, message me on regexlab@sovio.co ### 2/5 — Beware: touch first app *2023-03-29, version 1.15.0* The developer has put no effort into the Mac version. ### 3/5 — App is great but needs updates *2022-10-14, version 1.15.1* The app is amazing and works great for the most part. However, there are some needed updates. When creating a new expression to test, it takes a long time for the load screen to go away. Also, I find that often the "select this match" option from the list view doesn't work to take me there. It gets close but the match it was taking me to isn't visible on the screen ### 4/5 — Great RegEx tool! *2021-12-16* I have been playing with regular expressions for almost 40 years, and I have relearned it over a dozen times. This is a very nice implementation for extracting data from text. I find it useful for doing simple tasks and practicing/learning. **Developer response:** Thanks for your feedback, glad you like the app! ### 4/5 — Un petit bouton pour vider la fenêtre….. *2021-11-03* Très bonne appli et fonctionnelle avec mon niveau de connaissances des RegEx. Je m’en sers aux Echecs pour convertir les pgn de chess.com avant de coller dans l’application « analyse this ». Il me manque juste un petit bouton pour vider la fenêtre de texte. Actuellement je suis obligé de sélectionner tout le texte existant et c’est pas très pratique sur l’iPad (pas de bouton « select all »). Ensuite je colle mon texte. Après avoir fait le replace j’ai plus qu’à copier et la le bouton « select all » existe et c’est bien pratique. **Developer response:** Merci pour votre avis et vos commentaires ! Sur la base de vos commentaires, dans la nouvelle version de l'application (1.15.0) il y a maintenant un bouton "tout sélectionner" dans la rangée supplémentaire (à droite des boutons "annuler"/"refaire") - cela permet de rapidement sélectionnez tout le texte du test et supprimez-le par exemple. J'espère que cela vous aidera ainsi que les autres utilisateurs. Merci! (via Google Translate - Google Traduction) ### 4/5 — The best app I have found for working with regular expressions *2021-07-23, version 1.12.0* This app is constantly improving and is the best app that I have found in its category of working with regular expressions. Thanks to the developer for such a useful app. **Developer response:** Thank you for taking the time to rate and review! Glad you like RegEx Lab ### 4/5 — Works as well as regex101 *2021-07-06* It’s so refreshing to have something that works on mobile. I love using the shortcuts app, so this is handy when I’m away from home. I could use regex101 on safari, but this app saves loads of time. **Developer response:** Thank you for using the app and for your kind review! ### 4/5 — Good Tool *2021-06-28* I would give it 5 stars, but a few bugs have irked me. The import functionality is very broken, I am unable to hide the keyboard to press continue, would love to read in files, not copy paste them, corrected errors remain highlighted in red, but definitely a solid and helpful app. **Developer response:** Thank you very much for your feedback - I always strive to improve the app, so user feedback is very helpful! Regarding the keyboard issue on the Import screen - I have now done a fix for this, in version 1.11.0, there's a "Done typing" button which dismisses the keyboard. Regarding your other feedback, I'd need some more info to be able to replicate and fix, please feel free to email at regexlab@sovio.co. Thank you. ### 4/5 — Good app *2021-06-23* I wish it would automatically jump to the matched text. Keyboard does not go back down. **Developer response:** Update: The feature to jump between results has now been added (app version 1.12.0). Thanks for the great suggestion! If you have any comments or questions, feel free to contact me at regexlab@sovio.co 25 June 2021 Original response: Thank you for your feedback. The jumping between results is a great idea, I’ll work on it for an upcoming release. Regarding the keyboard not going back down, it sounds like a potential bug, but I’ll need some more info in order to understand and fix the issue, you can message me at regexlab@sovio.co, thank you. ### 4/5 — 全是英文 *2020-03-28* 全是英文，不会用啊 **Developer response:** 你好。 谢谢您，对于您的评论。 我了解将其翻译成其他语言会很好。 不幸的是我不会说你的语言。 如果您认识可以帮助我进行英语翻译的人-请给我发送电子邮件regexlab@sovio.co。 谢谢。(via Google Translate) ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Really great one *2026-01-29, version 1.16.2* Beautifully designed UI. Simple and easy to use. Get my regular expression things done in just a few seconds. ### 5/5 — Useful offline Regex tool *2025-02-12* I wanted an offline Regexbuddy type of app on my iPad and RegEx Lab is a good option. It only supports the ICU Unicode flavor of Regex, at the moment. It’s been years since I retired and did any coding. This tool is helping me get back up to speed on Regex. Thanks for making this app! ### 5/5 — **Essential** text tool for devs and writers *2024-08-31, version 1.16.0* I use this every day. The **best** tool for developing and debugging scripts in Shortcuts, Scriptable, Pythonista and other automation apps. Excellent UI and workflow, simple to use yet comprehensive and powerful. ### 5/5 — I Love It - That is All *2024-07-10, version 1.16.0* 💕💕💕 ### 5/5 — Yesss *2024-03-07, version 1.16.0* I am new so advice is welcome ### 5/5 — The best app I have found for working with regular expressions *2023-11-16* This app is constantly improving and is the best app that I have found in its category of working with regular expressions. Thanks to the developer for such a useful app. **Developer response:** Thank you for taking the time to rate and review! Glad you like RegEx Lab ### 5/5 — App is great *2023-04-04* The app is amazing and works great. The latest update is making things better than ever before! Thanks for the great work! **Developer response:** Thanks for your rating and review, I'm glad you like RegEx Lab! Regarding the comment about the app freezing if the regex evaluation is too complicated - thanks for bringing this to my attention - I have on my ToDo list an improvement which should allow the evaluation to happen in the background and show a timer (with the option to cancel it) - this would allow to debug complicated regular expressions without freezing the app's UI. Thanks again and happy regexing! : ) ### 5/5 — my goto *2021-12-23, version 1.15.0* sometimes regex apps and websites over complicate the interface making it tiresome looking at. i goto this app because it gets the job done and i'm not annoyed. ### 5/5 — The best of the (many) Regex apps *2021-09-03, version 1.14.0* Most regex apps I've tried are good for only testing whether your expression is valid, etc. This one goes further with find-and-replace and outputing capture groups. I love this app so much I'm not even going to ding it for how much I hate its thematic color! This app makes it easy to quickly select the output and copy it to run a new regex on it. There's a lovely button that selects the whole output for you so you can easily copy and paste it wherever. (Suggestion: Is it possible to add a button that not only selects the whole output but also copies and replaces the text on the previous screen, i.e., the un-regexed stuff, if that makes sense?) ### 5/5 — Super helpful tool!!! *2021-09-02* Wow this app is great! I’m just learning RegEx and it’s so much easier to see instant feedback on these cryptic codes. **Developer response:** Thank you very much for using RegEx Lab and for your review, glad you are finding the app useful! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-03.*