Comparison

Text Search Replace vs Samurai Search

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

Head to head
About

Text Search Replace

Enhance your note-taking experience with powerful text search and replace capabilities. This utility works across notes, clipboard, and other text-based apps, offering advanced options like case sensitivity and regex. Preview changes before applying them for error-free operations.

Highlights
  • Text search and replace
  • Notes plugin integration
  • Multi-app support
  • Preview before replace
  • Advanced settings (case, regex)
  • Batch replacement
Features
Read full description

#### Main Title:Text Search Replace: Notes #### Subtitle:Quick Find·Batch Replace Easy ● **Core Function**: Text Search & Replace ● **Notes Plugin**: Adds missing search/replace features to Notes ● **Multi-Scene Support**: Works with Notes, Clipboard & all text-based Apps ● **Preview Protection**: Check results before search/replace to avoid mistakes ● **Advanced Settings**: Case-sensitive, Regex, and Non-printable Characters supported ● **Flexible Operation**: Choose one-by-one replacement or batch replacement ● **Cross-Device Experience**: Input history cache, compatible with iPhone, iPad, Mac ● **Usage Benefits**: No usage limits after in-app purchase; free version gets access via watching ads

About

Samurai Search

Efficiently search text and PDF files across your device, iCloud, and external storage. Preview matched files or open them in other applications. Supports advanced search options like regular expressions.

Highlights
  • Search text and PDF files
  • iCloud and external storage support
  • File preview
  • Regular expression support
  • Customizable file types
  • Saved search locations
Read full description

Search your iOS device or iCloud for text, source code, plain text files, and PDFs. Find matches inside files and preview results instantly, or open any matched file in your favourite editing or viewing app. Flexible search options: whole word, case sensitive (all file types), and regular expressions (for text files). Choose which files to include by selecting standard or custom text file types, or by searching filenames that match a pattern. Select where to search from On My iPad, iCloud Drive, or external file providers such as SMB and USB folders. When possible, the app retains saved search selections so you can quickly repeat the same searches later. If you search selected folders in iCloud Drive, matching iCloud files are synced to your device before searching, ensuring fast local results. Searching plain text files is extremely fast and memory efficient. PDF search speed depends on the document content and can be slow. Note also that PDF search may consume large amounts of memory which can cause Samurai Search to crash.

Screenshots

Text Search Replace4 screens
Samurai Search4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Samurai Search at 100% against Text Search Replace's 0%. Samurai Search also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.8) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). Text Search Replace's advantage is device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). On price, ratings volume and 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

Both are free to download. Text Search Replace sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Samurai Search asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Samurai Search holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 25 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Text Search Replace's written reviews are positive against 100% of Samurai Search's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Text Search Replace ships an update every 6 weeks, Samurai Search every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Text Search Replace versus Samurai Search: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterText Search ReplaceSamurai Search
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (10 ratings)5.0 (25 ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1025 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size44 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer杨军 朱Michael Rourke

Customer experience

Text Search Replace

All ratings10 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Samurai Search

All ratings25 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Text Search Replace

One-time1
  • Buy Pro Version$0.99
None

Samurai Search

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Text Search Replace free?
Text Search Replace is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Samurai Search free?
Samurai Search is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Text Search Replace or Samurai Search?
Samurai Search is rated higher. Text Search Replace averages 3.8 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while Samurai Search averages 5.0 from 25 ratings.
Do Text Search Replace or Samurai Search have ads?
Neither Text Search Replace nor Samurai Search shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Text Search Replace or Samurai Search?
Text Search Replace ships an update every 6 weeks, and Samurai Search every 5 days. Most recently, Text Search Replace was updated on November 2, 2026 and Samurai Search on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons