Simpletext appears legitimate, with a few gaps. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Simpletext is 73 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Simpletext User Reviews

Name: Simpletext
Rating: 4.1 (23 reviews)

Simpletext

Yeow Jin Gan

🔧 Utilities

📊 Productivity

Customer Experience

Positive experience73.3% of reviews

Neutral13.3% of reviews

Negative experience13.3% of reviews

~ Based on 30 written reviews from the US App Store.

Is Simpletext Safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Simpletext.

Is Simpletext Legit?

Simpletext appears legitimate, with a few gaps. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Simpletext is 73/100.

Based on 73 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

Most Recent Highest Rated Lowest Rated

An elegant weapon

for a more civilised age. The inheritor of WriteRoom's mantle for me, at least.

447980981475

8 months ago

Great app!

I really like this simple text editor! Works like a charm! It would be cool if you could add markdown syntax to it (headers, bold/italics, etc) but even as plain text it’s pretty sick! Also allowing the user to input a number for the line width setting (instead of the dropdown) would be pretty cool.

Gabestercat01

a year ago

Response from developer

Happy to hear that you’re enjoying Simpletext! Thanks for your feedback — I’ll look into making it more flexible in a future update. Thank you for your support!

Does exactly what it says on the box!

riva h. k.

a year ago

Almost perfect

This app is so promising. Sadly it had 2 dealbreaking bugs: When I open a file in the normal IOS files app, it doesn’t open in Simpletext if another file is already open.

alexander.hose

2 years ago

Response from developer

Updated Response: Hi, the issue has been resolved in version 5.0.2. I apologize for the inconvenience this caused and appreciate your patience. Happy writing! Original Response: Apologies for the inconvenience. I’ll look into this. In the meantime, do consider using the file browser within Simpletext instead of the iOS Files app. Thank you for your patience 🙏🏻

Perfect until 5.0 update - no custom font support

This was a great app that I used daily with a custom font (installed as a device profile via iFont) which is easier for me to read. The new version does not recognize custom fonts installed as profiles via font managment apps. This seems like a minor thing but it's a dealbreaker for me.

Phil Hochmuth

2 years ago

Response from developer

Sincere apologies for the issue you encountered. I’ve fixed it in the latest update (V5.0.1), so you should be able to use custom fonts again without any problems. Thank you 🙏🏻

The best immersive text editor

After many months of searching for the perfect text editor fit for my needs, I took a chance on SimpleText and I’m so glad that I did. It matches every one of my needs as a writer for drafting long form content without distractions; aesthetically pleasing and highly immersive, it’s my perfect workspace.

The “pay once, use forever” ethos is refreshingly old-school and increasingly rare in todays market of tying users into subscription models. The developer’s blog is worth a visit too!

mightyblues78

2 years ago

The (almost) Perfect Text Editor

Simple, clean, distraction-free. Extactly what I want in a text editor. The only thing I would like to see is the addition of tabs to be able to cyle through all open documents.

Great app!

Bret Wieseler

2 years ago

Response from developer

Updated Response: Hi, I’m pleased to share that Simpletext V5 was released today, featuring support for multiple tabs. Happy writing! Original Response: Thank you for your kind review. I take note of your feedback and will consider it for future releases!

It’s simple all right, simply awful

If you just want to write something and save a digital copy, this is your app. The developer does admit that you should not expect to care what it looks like. If you want to do anything else with it, forget it. I got the app because I wanted to paste some text and print it from my iPad. Lo and behold there is no print function. I wanted something simple, but not something that looks like a homework project in an introductory app development project, especially for 10 bucks.

Optout40

2 years ago

Response from developer

Sorry to hear that Simpletext doesn’t fit your use case. You may request for a refund by following the steps here: https://support.apple.com/118223 or contact me at yeowjin@simpletext.app. Thanks!

Simple and good

Thank you for this gorgeous app. It's really hard to find a minimal plain text editor for iOS that has native integration with the file system, beautiful design, and user experience. And this editor checks all the boxes.

ivantsn

2 years ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your kind words! Glad to hear that you’re enjoying Simpletext :)

Clean, relaxed, focused

I have been using Byword since 2017 for my day-to-day stuff on my iPhone, but recently noticed that it had not been updated for three years, which helped explain why it looked kinda wonky on my phone. So after spending way too long looking for an alternative, I finally found Simpletext, and I am very much in love with it. I even put it on my Mac, even tho I usually use Nisus on my Mac for text because of GREP. On my Mac, iPhone & iPad, the simpletext interface is clean with lovely typefaces. The responsiveness on screen on my new M2 macbook and my iPhone has that lovely relaxed, somehow cushioned, pace you have always seen on Macs vs Windows machines. I do miss in-line markdown formatting in simpletext, but I can live with that and it’s hardly fatal to my use case.

pgiltner

3 years ago

Response from developer

Many thanks for your kind review. Happy that Simpletext adds value to your workflow :)

Lovely, clean and focused

pgiltner

3 years ago

Response from developer

Many thanks for your kind review. Happy that Simpletext adds value to your workflow :)

Could use support for minimal formatting

Aesthetically, this is a very nicely focused app with a beautiful full-screen view. Still, what could be a bit distracting, is that there is no support for highlighting a piece of text, which could be very useful, if done minimally using the markdown syntax of double colons ::some highlighted text:: .

Graweeld

3 years ago

Finally!

I used WriteRoom for years, but his hasn't been updated and has a few glitches. I have tried many of the "simple" distraction-free editors over the years, and never found one with the simplicity of WriteRoom. Indeed, the distraction free editors are now competing with each other by adding features which are, well, distracting.

Well, I think I now have found the best true distraction-free text editor. Simpletext is great. Only comment is that it took a bit of tweaking to get the font size and colors right. White text on pure black background is a bit jarring, the text width is weirdly narrow, and the default font is verrryyyy small. But don't let these defaults put you off -- these can be adjusted. I am using the apple colors aluminum on lead, I think, with a readable font size. Memorize fn-F for full screen and you are off. Tweaking of defaults needed, but highly recommended.

youch1

4 years ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your support! ☺️

Textual perfection!

I've tried a few distraction-free editors in the past couple weeks, trying to find one that clicked with me, but to no avail. They either tried to do too much (and thus counter-intuitively adding distractions) or they were saddled with hefty subscription fees that rival that of Office 365.

Simpletext, on the other hand, does exactly what it says on the tin and is a one-time purchase of US$5 for all of the major Apple devices.

There aren't many features there, but that's not to say that zero thought went into it. Every time I use it I'm floored by how the editor gets out of my way and *stays* out of my way. In the age of constant notifications, extreme feature creep, aggressive auto-updates, and constant pointless UI/UX refreshes, this feels like a breath of fresh air. Typewriter mode also deserves a huge round of applause. It's one of those features that I didn't know I needed until I used it.

The best part about it is that unlike the old DOS editors, you can just as easily flip back to your desktop if you need to look something up, pop on some tunes, or send a quick message.

Simpletext also does a fantastic job at leveraging the built-in macOS/iOS services. Unsure about the spelling of a word? You can use the OS level spellchecker with a quick ⌘;. Want to make sure you're using the right word? Right-click and "look up" or just tap ^⌘D.

The truly best part about Simpletext is that its compiled code (which, mind you, supports two different CPU architectures) and its bundled fonts can fit on a high density floppy disk with room to spare. Simply magnificent.

I think the only thing I'd like to see at some point are a couple more "line width" options. With the font size I like to use wide doesn't feel quite wide enough (particularly on smaller devices like my iPad).

EDIT (2022-05-15): As promised in this review's initial response, Yeow Jin added additional line length and spacing settings. The "Ultra Wide" width setting works perfectly across all my devices when using my preferred font settings. Thank you! 😁

Spectere

4 years ago

Response from developer

Thank you for taking the time to share your review of Simpletext. So glad that it adds value to your workflow, and yes, will be adding more line length option in the next release to support larger screen sizes. Thanks!

LOVE! But also, I have a tip for everyone here...

User Pro-tip. I love the light and dark mode screenshot examples they show here in the app listing screenshots. I wanted to set up my Simpletext app like it shows in them so I went to the Simpletext menu VIEW -> COLORS and for each field (background/text) I tap the swatches to get the color picker to show up and then tap the inkwell icon to choose a color on the screen to sample from. I just sampled the screenshots to get those exact colors into my Simpletext color settings. It is such a pleasure to use these colors instead of Apple’s hard light/dark mode defaults. I know this is a minimal app and I love it that way so I’m not saying “Add these color settings to the app” because that’s "too extra". But I want to share how I got the effect in my own app so people can do it too.

Thank you for making this incredibly stunningly minimal typing app.

p.s. TYPEWRITER MODE... this is a dream innovation from the past I'm so thankful you offer here. I regularly type on my 63' Ollivetti Lettera 22 and getting that typewriter mode feeling in here is such a pleasant surprise! CHEERS!

WadeSellers

4 years ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your kind review and happy to hear that Simpletext adds value to your workflow!

Absolutely lovely

I have a problem: I try every text editor I see, looking for the right mix of features and simplicity. I can stop looking now; I have found the best one right here.
Thank you so much for Simpletext.

mrym9m

4 years ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your kind review and happy to hear that Simpletext adds value to your workflow!

Velká spokojenost

Zatím asi nejlepší a nejjednodušší notepad ze všech. Spolehlivá synchronizace přes iCloud propojuje Mac, iPhone i iPad. Žádné zbytečné funkce, ale ty nejzákladnějí zvládá excelentně. Doporučuji.

Váha

4 years ago

Search function does not work

I had hoped to replace the notes app with this app because I am so sick of notes not sticking to just the text I am trying to copy and paste into it. This app does really great with this part of my situation. Unfortunately I found out after writing hundreds of notes within the app that I can’t do search for a word inside one of the files created in the same way I can in the notes app. It’s a great app, but I can’t use it if I can’t find what I am looking for later.

WaltWhitman78

5 years ago

Response from developer

Hi, by default the search bar only searches for file names. If you’d like to search the content, you can tap on “Contains [Search Term]” right below the search bar. Do give it a try and I hope it works for you 😊

Needs some refinements

On the iPhone, screen space is limited, so, when a plain text app has line spacing that could have been smaller, without sacrificing readability, and hence can pack more lines on one page, it should try to maximise it. Comparing SimpleText with Paper, I was able to see only 28 lines on SimpleText versus 38 lines on Paper with the same font size per screen. In fact the Paper font size was a little bigger than the smallest extra small font size setting on Simpletext but yet it could display more lines. Cut the line spacing so that we can have more lines per screen. Many people read rather quickly so having to keep scrolling is a tad annoying. Finally it would be more productive to have the search button appear straightaway on top of the keyboard when the keyboard appears, instead of having to first click the hamburger. In fact, why have the hamburger when you can put all the selections (Preferences, Search, Copy All, Select All) right there in place of the hamburger? The extra step is really unnecessary.

Edited: Thanks for the clarification. My bad. The typewriter mode was indeed turned on. Once I’ve turned it off, I was able to select text without problem. On the last point, perhaps you can allow users to select which shortcuts they want to place on the keyboard?

Christopher Yip

5 years ago

Response from developer

Updated Response: Hello, just to update that Simpletext V4.1 has a new setting for compact line spacing so you can display more text on the screen. Hope it’ll come in useful! Original Response: Hello! Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with me. I note your comments and will definitely consider them for future releases. Regarding the scroll experience when trying to select long text to copy — it is due to Typewriter Mode which tries to maintain the scroll position at the middle of the screen. If copying long text is a frequent action in your workflow, perhaps you may consider switching off Typewriter Mode? If you just need to copy all text, another shortcut is to double tap the screen with two fingers (I usually do it with two thumbs). Hope this comes in handy! Finally, the More button was introduced to group less frequently used actions together to reduce visual clutter. I understand it’s subjective and every user has its own preferences, but it’s a design decision to ensure the keyboard bar appears lightweight and visually balanced especially when word count is shown. This design also allows for more actions to be introduced in the future (only if necessary 😊). Many thanks again and have a good day ahead!

Good, not great

UPDATED REVIEW
Updating the review because the bug I encountered seems to be an issue with Dropbox Integration on Dropbox’s end. I’ve tested SimpleText with iCloud and it doesn’t have the same issue with freezing and requiring a restart.

That said, there are still too many things keeping me from loving this app. As mentioned before, the largest font size is simply too small. Maybe the app isn’t optimized for an iPad pro 12.9” screen, but I can’t be squinting all the time.

The filesystem isn’t particularly intuitive either. Having to dismiss the keyboard and then swipe right to get back to the file selector isn’t an intuitive way to do it and I had to come here and search reviews to figure it out. Additionally, the inability to create a file with a specific filename is annoying. Sure, I can create the file on iCloud drive, go into the filesystem and change the name there, but that’s a pain.

I fully appreciate this no-frills app, and think a few tweaks could make it much better.

PREVIOUS REVIEW:
For some reason, it seems impossible to find a simple plain text editor that works. Simpletext seemed like it would be that app, and it might’ve been if it worked. The biggest problem I had is that in the span of five minutes, the app froze twice requiring a restart of the iPad. All I was doing was typing. If the app can’t handle that, then I’m definitely not going to trust it with my work. I removed the app and won’t be using it. Shame I’m out the $5. That aside, the other issue is that the largest text option is too small. Even if the app had worked, that issue alone might’ve kept me from using it.

Havok5178

5 years ago

Response from developer

Updated Response: Hello, just to update that Simpletext V4 has incorporated some new features based on the feedback received. You can now set the text size to any point size that suits you. The navigation has also been improved. Do give it and many thanks again 🙏🏻 Previous Response: Thank you for taking the time to update your review. I’ve taken note of your feedback and will improve Simpletext in future releases 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 As for the file name, the default name is the time stamp when the file was created — you can long press on the file and select “Rename” to rename it. Thanks again and have a nice day! Original Response: Hi there! Firstly, please accept my apology for the issue you faced. I would like to fix the issue but I’m not able to reproduce it on my device. Appreciate if you could share more information on your device and iOS version, and any other information on how to reproduce the issue so I can troubleshoot and resolve it. You can email me at yeowjin@simpletext.app. 🙏🏻 Secondly, the text size is relative to the system text size. Large is one point larger than the current system text size, and Extra Large is two points larger. If it is still too small for your preference, you may increase the system text size from the Settings app: (Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size). Hope this helps and many apologies again!