# Sanctum: Writing & Research — Read. Study. Think. Write.

> Private digital workspace for reading, research, writing, and knowledge organization. (iPhone/iPad app by Spencer Tally.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sanctum-writing-and-research/id6789706021 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Spencer Tally](https://appshunter.io/developer/6789706023)
- Category: Productivity
- Price: Free with in-app purchases (on sale, was $34.99)
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 332 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-07-17
- Data updated: 2026-10-28
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sanctum-writing-and-research/id6789706021/reviews.md

## What is Sanctum?

Sanctum is a private place for people who take learning seriously. Read, research, and write on a subject for months, and keep everything you know in one calm room that belongs entirely to you.

Your pages live as plain Markdown files in a folder you choose. No account. No servers. No subscription. Pay once, own it, and it comes to your Mac, iPhone, and iPad with one purchase.

ON iPHONE
A reader and a net. Open any page from your vault and read it on a proper page, with your place kept and the minutes left in view. Paste a link or an article, share from Safari, or scan book pages with the camera, and it lands in your Vault for later. Capture a thought in a tap. Everything you take in on the phone is waiting on the Mac.

ON iPAD
The full desk. Write in the editor, build sub-pages, work the Vault, and open the Observatory to see how everything you know connects. With a keyboard it is the Mac experience; with a finger it is built for touch.

TAKE IT IN
Paste anything: a YouTube link, an article, a PDF, raw text, a screenshot. Ember reads it, including full transcripts, distills it into a summary with the people, places, and concepts marked, and files it where you were working.

MAKE SENSE OF IT
Ask Ember about a single notebook or your whole vault. Or look: the Observatory draws your pages, links, and tags as constellations, one for each area of study. The more you write, the more sky you have.

MAKE SOMETHING
A clean, fast editor with focus mode, page history, and typing sounds tuned like instruments. Any page holds sub-pages. Excerpts become footnotes. Build a course, a thesis, a book.

A PLACE, NOT JUST A TOOL
Living scenes behind glass, on every device. Rain and a quiet score that follow the room. On the phone, download the scenes you want and they stay.

EMBER, INCLUDED
Your purchase includes a starting balance of Ember, one pool shared across your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. When it runs out, top it up, or bring your own key from Anthropic or OpenAI and pay them directly. Without Ember, everything else works exactly the same.

YOURS, ON YOUR DISK
Keep your folder in iCloud Drive and every device opens the same vault. Open your files in any app. Export everything anytime. Leave whenever you want; nothing is locked in.

Free to try for 7 days. Then monthly, yearly, or own it forever. One purchase covers every device. The room is yours.

Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Privacy Policy: https://getsanctumapp.com/privacy

## Key features

- Private writing and research space
- Local Markdown file storage
- Cross-device synchronization (Mac, iPhone, iPad)
- Content summarization and concept extraction
- Visual knowledge mapping (Observatory)
- Focus mode editor with typing sounds
- AI assistant integration (Ember)

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sanctum Yearly | $19.99 | per year |
| Sanctum Monthly | $2.99 | per month |

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sanctum Lifetime | $49.99 | one-time |
| Small Ember Pack | $9.99 | one-time |
| Medium Ember Pack | $19.99 | one-time |
| Large Ember Pack | $49.99 | one-time |


## Is Sanctum safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Sanctum.

## Is Sanctum legit?

Sanctum: Writing & Research has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Sanctum is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

## Recent user reviews (1 of 1)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sanctum-writing-and-research/id6789706021/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Perfect research workspace

*2026-08-26*

I’ve tried a few different tools, including Obsidian, and Sanctum’s functionality is easier to learn/requires less confusing setup and is more useful imo. The star feature is the “vault”.  When I’m coming across different research sources on a topic, it allows me to quickly paste links/upload docs and the app will synthesize them all into one area that is then searchable. It makes it way easier to keep track of all the information I’m collecting and actually access it later without having to worry about AI hallucinations or losing track of where the info came from since the sources stay there.

## Frequently asked questions about Sanctum

### What is Sanctum?

Sanctum is a private digital space designed for learning, research, and writing. It allows users to organize notes, connect ideas visually, and build knowledge in a calm, personal environment.

### How is my data stored in Sanctum?

Your pages and data are stored as plain Markdown files in a folder you choose on your device. There are no accounts or servers involved, ensuring your data remains private and locally controlled.

### What devices does Sanctum support?

Sanctum is available for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, with one purchase granting access to all devices. Your vault synchronizes across these platforms.

### Does Sanctum have ads?

No, Sanctum does not contain advertisements. It is a paid application with a one-time purchase model.

### Can I use my own AI models with Sanctum?

Yes, Sanctum includes Ember, an AI assistant. You can also bring your own keys from Anthropic or OpenAI to use their models directly within Sanctum.

### How often is Sanctum updated?

The latest version is 2.0.1, released on September 18, 2026. Updates are provided by developer Spencer Tally, ensuring the app is maintained and improved.

### What is the price of Sanctum?

Sanctum is available for a one-time purchase of $34.99, which includes access on all supported devices.

### Is Sanctum suitable for younger users?

Sanctum has an age rating of 4+, indicating it is generally suitable for a wide range of users, including younger individuals interested in learning and organization.

## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 2.1.0 — 2026-10-22

Sanctum is now free to download. Try all of it for 7 days, then choose how you keep it.

• Three ways to keep Sanctum: Monthly, Yearly, or Lifetime (own it once, forever). One purchase covers Mac, iPhone and iPad.
• Already bought Sanctum? Nothing changes — you own it, and this update knows that.
• Every plan, and the trial, includes about a month of Ember — summaries, Ask, synthesis — with no key of your own.
• Your pages stay plain files in your own folder, plan or no plan. Without a plan you can still open, read and export everything.
• Settings › Plan shows your plan, restores purchases, and manages a subscription.

### 2.0.2 — 2026-10-13

The Action button, and a notepad for every Space.

• Action button → Quick Capture. In Settings › Action Button, choose Shortcut and pick Sanctum's "Quick Capture." One press opens Sanctum ready to capture a thought. It also works from Siri ("Capture in Sanctum") and the Shortcuts app.
• Notepad on iPad. Long-press the Activity pane in any Space to switch it to a notepad. Notes stay with that Space and sync to your Mac. Long-press again to switch back.
• iPad Home: deleting quick captures no longer shifts the Vault and Observatory.
• Deep links on iPhone: sanctum://capture opens the capture sheet; sanctum://capture?text=… drops a note straight into your captures.

### 2.0.1 — 2026-09-18

Fixes for iPhone and iPad.

• YouTube links in the Vault now pull the video's transcript, so Gist summarizes the talk itself instead of the page around it. Long videos included.
• The app icon is the Sanctum arch, matching the Mac.

Everything from 2.0 is unchanged: your vault on every device, downloadable scenes, included Ember, the reader, and the Vault.

### 2.0.0 — 2026-09-15

No release notes.

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*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 2026-10-28.*