phpwin vs Runestone Text Editor
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
phpwin
Develop and debug PHP files offline with a built-in web server and Git client. This app provides a comprehensive environment for managing PHP projects, including code editing, file management, and support for popular frameworks.
- PHP 8 with extensions
- Offline web server
- Git client
- Code editor with auto-complete
- File manager
- Standalone web app support
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Turn your device into a web server with php support. With phpwin, you can develop, debug and manage PHP files offline without an internet connection using Scintilla script editor phpwin is a complete web server environment with PHP including POST/GET, sessions,openssl, libxml, curl, cookies... App features: - PHP 8 with most extensions (such as MySQL, SQLite, Curl, OpenSSL, SOAP, ImageMagick, PostgreSQL...) - Custom URL rules - Set iCloud drive as document root - Git client - Code editor - Auto-Complete - Image editor - Latest version of Composer - In-App Safari Web browser - html/js/css beautifiers in script editor - Multi-tabbed script/image editor - File manager - Set as standalone web application (Wordpress and Laravel supported) - Remote file manager (access multiple accounts) - FTP/SFTP/FTPS/iCloud managers - phpMyAdmin to access remote MySQL - phpLiteAdmin - Eruda (Console for Mobile Browsers) - Profiler - Syntax validator for PHP, HTML, JS & CSS - PHP lessons - "PHP: The Right Way" Book - Split screen on iPad - Multitasking on iPad Standalone web application feature allows you to use your web application in fullscreen at startup, similar to PhoneGap but with the support of PHP. Note: phpwin doesn't include MySQL server, only phpMyAdmin. For more information & inquiries please contact me through phpwin's website
Runestone Text Editor
A powerful plain text and code editor for iPhone and iPad. Offers syntax highlighting, line numbers, find and replace, and extensive customization options for developers and writers.
- Syntax highlighting for many languages
- Customizable themes and fonts
- Advanced find and replace
- Line numbers and cursor location
- Code formatting with Prettier.js
- Multiple windows on iPad
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A plain text editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers, search and replace, page guide, and much more. It's like TextEdit but more powerful and optimised for iPhone and iPad. Runestone is made by a single person with a love for text editors and a vision of building the most lightweight text editor for iPhone and iPad that still has the core features for editing code. Features: - Syntax highlighting of many languages including HTML, JavaScript, JSON, Markdown, Swift, Python, PHP, YAML, and many more. - Select one of the twelve standard themes including popular themes like Tomorrow, Dracula, Solarized, and One Dark Pro. - Innovative find and replace for searching and modifying text while still viewing your file. - Choose font and font size, including support for custom fonts imported using another third-party app. - Show the line and column the cursor is located on. - Uses the standard document browser for an experience similar to the Files app. - Quickly navigate to a specific line. - Automatically close opening brackets and quotes. - Multiple windows on the iPad. - Format code using Prettier.js. Supported languages include CSS,HTML, JavaScript, JSON, PHP and more. - Choose text encoding between popular encodings like UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO Latin 1, and many more. - Enable or disable autocorrection, autocapitalization, and smart punctuation. - Set default file extension of new files. - Open files in Runestone from the Share Sheet. - Print documents. Premium features: - Choose between eight app icons. - Show line numbers. - Highlight the selected line. - Increase line height and letter spacing. - Disable line wrapping to allow horizontal scrolling. - Show tabs, spaces, and line breaks using a selected symbol. - Enable page guide at a specific column to easily tell when lines are getting too long. - Add vertical and horizontal overscroll. - Remember the selected language per file. - Save file extensions and filenames that should always be treated as plain text files. - Enable soft tabs and choose the width of the tab character. - Specify whether pressing the tab key should insert a tab or indent the line. - Adjust the scaling of Markdown headings and disable highlighting of code blocks in Markdown. Runestone was built on the open-source framework with the same name. Find more information on the Runestone framework at github.com/simonbs/runestone
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Runestone Text Editor at none against phpwin's shown. Runestone Text Editor also leads on ratings volume (2K vs 37) and rating (4.7 vs 4.4). On price, review sentiment, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. phpwin sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Runestone Text Editor sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Runestone Text Editor holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Runestone Text Editor has 2K ratings behind it against 37, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of phpwin's written reviews are positive against 76% of Runestone Text Editor's.
phpwin ships an update every 6 weeks, Runestone Text Editor every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | phpwin | Runestone Text Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (37 ratings) | 4.7 (2K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | 76.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 37 | 2K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #31 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 15 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 172 MB | 64 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Firas Moussa | Simon B. Støvring |
Customer experience
phpwin
Runestone Text Editor
Bugs and requests
phpwin
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Runestone Text Editor
Reported bugs
6 issues- Disappearing files
- Difficulty pasting text
- Scroll position not saved
- Hangs on startup
- Trouble opening large files
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- Issues after iOS updates
Requested features
6 requests- Markdown preview
- Code folding
- Syntax highlighting for more languages
- Ability to run/execute code
- Multiple file/window support
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- Improved undo/redo functionality
In-app purchases
phpwin
- Unlock all features$4.99
- Standalone Web Application$9.99
Runestone Text Editor
- Premium$9.99
Questions
Is phpwin free?
Is Runestone Text Editor free?
Which has better reviews, phpwin or Runestone Text Editor?
Do phpwin or Runestone Text Editor have ads?
Which is updated more often, phpwin or Runestone Text Editor?
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