Comparison

TextEdit vs Lightweight Text Editor

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

TextEdit

A fast and versatile text editor for mobile devices, offering compatibility with various file formats and editors. It provides a distraction-free writing experience with advanced formatting, organization, and sharing features.

Highlights
  • Supports TXT, RTF, Markdown, TeX, and PDF formats
  • Cross-device and computer syncing via iCloud/Files
  • Distraction-free writing interface
  • Customizable keyboard extension for faster typing
  • Visual rich text formatting and one-tap options
  • Syntax highlighting for Markdown and TeX
  • Instant statistics and counters
Features
Read full description

TextEdit+ is the text editor your iPhone and iPad were missing. Like TextEdit on the Mac, it opens to a clean page and stays out of your way. Unlike it, it also speaks Markdown and LaTeX, marks up PDFs and puts an AI assistant right inside your document. Jot down a quick TXT, format a rich-text letter, write a README in Markdown or compile a LaTeX paper. One lightweight app, no clutter. ONE EDITOR, EVERY TEXT FORMAT • Create and edit TXT, RTF, RTFD, Markdown and LaTeX files • Open RTF files from macOS TextEdit, WordPad, Word and Scrivener, and keep working on them on your Mac or PC • Open PDFs and mark them up with highlights, notes and text • Work on files right where they live: Files, iCloud Drive or your cloud storage • Organize your documents in folders and subfolders A CLEAN PLACE TO WRITE • Distraction-free editor with Full Screen and Typewriter modes • Keep several documents open in tabs and switch with a tap • Extended keyboard row for cursor moves, selection and the characters you use most • Keyboard shortcuts for hardware keyboards • Read Aloud with your choice of voice and speed • Light and dark appearance, plus custom document colors RICH TEXT WITHOUT THE BLOAT • Fonts, sizes, colors, highlights, bold, italic, underline and strikethrough • Alignment, indents, lists, line and paragraph spacing, superscript and subscript • Insert images, tables and inline equations • Install your own fonts and use them in any document MARKDOWN AND LATEX, DONE PROPERLY • Syntax highlighting for Markdown and TeX • Live Markdown preview: edit, preview or split view side by side • Compile LaTeX right on your device and preview the PDF next to your source • Article, report, book and letter templates, command completion, error diagnostics and a document outline • Multi-file projects with included files and bibliographies AI THAT WORKS IN YOUR DOCUMENT • Turn a prompt into a first draft • Rewrite, shorten, expand, summarize or translate the selected text • Fix grammar, spelling and punctuation, or switch the tone between casual, concise, friendly and professional • Ask the assistant about your own documents and get answers with sources • Prefer to write without AI? Hide every AI feature with one switch TOOLS FOR EDITING • Find and replace across the whole document • Word, character, sentence, paragraph, line and page counts with reading time • Readability scores: Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch–Kincaid Grade, SMOG and Automated Readability Index • Automatic backups, so an edit is never lost • Scan paper documents with the camera EXPORT AND SHARE • Export to PDF, Word (DOCX), RTF, RTFD, Markdown, TXT, TeX and PNG • Print, email or send your work to any app • Send text, links and files to TextEdit+ from other apps with the share sheet • Shortcuts actions to create, open, search and rename documents Built for iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo, and localized in more than 70 languages. Privacy Policy https://www.noteswriter.com/Kairoos_Privacy_Policy.html Terms of Use https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Lightweight Text Editor

This application is designed for users who need to work with plain text files. It allows you to open any text file, organize documents into folders, and customize encoding and line endings.

Highlights
  • Open any plain text file
  • Create folders for organization
  • Change text encoding
  • Modify line endings
  • No formatting concerns
Features
Read full description

Lightweight Text Editor is a great tool for users who work with plain text files. If you want to work with raw text without having to worry about formatting, then this app is for you. It can open any plain text file, regardless of the extension. You can create folders to organize your documents. You can also change the encoding and the line endings (CR/LF/CRLF).

Screenshots

TextEdit4 screens
Lightweight Text Editor3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Lightweight Text Editor at 82% against TextEdit's 17%. Lightweight Text Editor also leads on rating (4.3 vs 3.7) and in-app purchases (none vs 4). TextEdit's advantage is price (Free vs $2.99) and update cadence (weekly vs every 15 months). On ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

TextEdit is free to download; Lightweight Text Editor costs $2.99 up front. TextEdit sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Lightweight Text Editor asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Lightweight Text Editor holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: TextEdit has 380 ratings behind it against 60, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 17% of TextEdit's written reviews are positive against 82% of Lightweight Text Editor's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TextEdit ships an update weekly, Lightweight Text Editor every 15 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard10 real differences · 1 level
TextEdit versus Lightweight Text Editor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTextEditLightweight Text Editor
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating3.7 (380 ratings)4.3 (60 ratings) — better
Positive reviews17.1% of reviews82.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings380 — better60
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 15 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#199 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS26.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size461 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKairoos Solutions SLErik Wegener

Customer experience

TextEdit

All ratings380 ratings
Positive65.8%
Neutral5.0%
Negative29.2%
Written reviews210 reviews
Positive17.1%
Neutral7.1%
Negative75.7%

Lightweight Text Editor

All ratings60 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral5.0%
Negative15.0%
Written reviews50 reviews
Positive82.0%
Neutral6.0%
Negative12.0%

Bugs and requests

TextEdit

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when opening certain file types
  • Formatting issues when copying/pasting text
  • Inconsistent behavior across devices

Requested features

3 requests
  • Allow users to choose iCloud directory
  • Offer one-time purchase option instead of subscription
  • Restore previous paid versions without AI

Lightweight Text Editor

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

TextEdit

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly$1.997 Days
  • TextEdit+ Monthly3 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • TextEdit+ Annual3 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • TextEdit+ Full Unlock$14.99
None

Lightweight Text Editor

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is TextEdit free?
TextEdit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lightweight Text Editor free?
Lightweight Text Editor costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, TextEdit or Lightweight Text Editor?
Lightweight Text Editor is rated higher. TextEdit averages 3.7 out of 5 from 380 ratings, while Lightweight Text Editor averages 4.3 from 60 ratings.
Do TextEdit or Lightweight Text Editor have ads?
Neither TextEdit nor Lightweight Text Editor shows ads.
Which is updated more often, TextEdit or Lightweight Text Editor?
TextEdit ships an update weekly, and Lightweight Text Editor every 15 months. Most recently, TextEdit was updated on November 6, 2026 and Lightweight Text Editor on November 3, 2026.

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