Comparison

MapScribe vs Book Writer

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

Head to head
About

MapScribe

Easily create antique-styled maps on your iPad or iPhone. Utilize a variety of "brushes" to paint features like mountains, trees, and towns. Export your creations in multiple resolutions.

Highlights
  • Draw antique-styled maps
  • Finger swipe and tap interface
  • Variety of map feature "brushes"
  • Multiple map resolutions
  • Selectable fonts for text
  • Color brushes for terrain
Features
Read full description

MapScribe is an IOS App that lets you draw maps on your IPad or IPhone. It has an easy to use interface that lets you quickly "paint" antique styled maps with finger swipes and taps using its map feature "brushes", such as mountains and trees. Are you an author who needs to create a map for your fantasy novel? Perhaps you are a video game designer who needs to create a map for players to use to navigate through your game? Or maybe you are an artist looking to create a unique kind of decor? ...AND You want to do it on your IPad or IPhone Then, MapScribe is for you. --Map Resolutions-- MapScribe let's you create maps as jpg files with the following resolutions both vertically(portrait) and horzontally(landscape) oriented: • 500 x 700 • 800 x 1000 • 850 x 1100 • 900 x 1200 • 1100 x 1400 • 1200 x 1600 --Fonts-- MapScribe let's you write on your maps with the following fonts: • Ariel • Bradley Hand • Noteworthy • Papyrus • Snell Roundhand • Zapfino --Brushes-- These brushes allow you to paint features on your map Mountains Hills Trees Fir Trees Palm Trees Dead Trees Bridge Castle Town House Swamp Dunes Water Compass Sea Monster Volcano 3 Kinds of grasses Roads Tower Shop Classic Building Mine Jail Tavern Mill City Hall Church Townhouse Arena - Color Brushes - Green (for grass) Blue (for water) White (for snow) Snow capped Mountains Green Hills Green Trees Green Fir Trees

About

Book Writer

This app provides tools for authors to organize and write novels or short stories. It allows for character creation, note-taking, and drafting, helping to streamline the writing process from idea to finished book.

Highlights
  • Book creation and organization
  • Character creation and notes
  • Drafting capabilities
  • Side note integration
  • Fast editing keyboard bar
  • Quick add and copy features
  • Cloud saving
Features
Read full description

MAKE YOUR BOOK A REALITY WITH THE #1 BOOK CREATOR AUTHOR APP Have everything you need to write your book in 1 app with -- Book Write - Extensive Writer--. Our easy to use and yet exceptionally efficient book creator app organizes your writings into a great book. Turn yourself into a quick, efficient and skillful writer in a faster and easier way. Understanding the need for organization, linking subjects, notes & characters, we specifically made our book creator as a simple notes & book writing tool for all authors and aspiring writers. Finally, you have 1 app with intuitive UI and features to turn your ideas and creativity into a book! ADD CHARACTERS, DRAFTS, AND SIDE NOTES Create quality and consistent book with an easy to use book creator app. Add text and let the book writing app organize everything you write beautifully and productively. Edit the lines you write, add side notes, and organize everything endlessly until you are completely satisfied. All our tools make the writing easier and consistent, which is especially important for character development, story flow and ending. For a neater experience, we made sure that each line you write within the book creator is accompanied by tiny glowing stars. Use this as an inspiration to create magic writing. BOOK WRITE FEATURES: - Detailed yet easy app to create a book - Character creation and taking notes about characters - Detailed book and line organization - Creating drafts for books - Keyboard bar for fast editing - Quick add and Quick copy features Whether you want to write a novel, short story or you just want to try your creative writing skills, this app is just the tool you need for writing. Don’t miss one of the best book writer apps to write a book. Subscription Service: 1. Required to access the app's capabilities 2. Creating books, characters, drafts and book chapters 3. Exporting books 4. Saving books to cloud, to reach them from all your devices. Payment models for Book Write Subscription • Book Write Monthly Subscription: $1.99 per month, • Book Write Yearly Subscription: $11.99 per year Terms of Use: https://hiappsco.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/book-write-terms-of-use/ Privacy Policy: https://hiappsco.wordpress.com/2020/02/27/book-write/ • Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. • Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current subscription period. • Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. • Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication. Download Book Write - Extensive Writer

Screenshots

MapScribe2 screens
Book Writer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Book Writer at Free against MapScribe's $2.99. Book Writer also leads on rating (3.9 vs 3.4) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 3 months). MapScribe's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and review sentiment (50% vs 19%). On ratings volume, ads and device support 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

Book Writer is free to download; MapScribe costs $2.99 up front. Book Writer sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 7 days. MapScribe asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Book Writer holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 47 and 81 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of MapScribe's written reviews are positive against 19% of Book Writer's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MapScribe ships an update every 3 months, Book Writer every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
MapScribe versus Book Writer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMapScribeBook Writer
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating3.4 (47 ratings)3.9 (81 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews — better18.9% of reviews
Number of ratings4781 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size36 MB104 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDaniel EskridgeKaan Yildiz

Customer experience

MapScribe

All ratings46 ratings
Positive52.2%
Neutral17.4%
Negative30.4%
Written reviews38 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral21.1%
Negative28.9%

Book Writer

All ratings81 ratings
Positive67.9%
Neutral11.1%
Negative21.0%
Written reviews53 reviews
Positive18.9%
Neutral17.0%
Negative64.2%

User reviews

MapScribe

From 47 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for beginners
  • 🗺️ Useful for fantasy map making
  • 📱 Good mobile tool
  • 💡 Simple and quick to grasp
  • 🎨 Decent art style

Room to improve

  • 💸 Waste of money (for some)
  • 🤔 Not worth the price (for some)
  • 🤷‍♂️ Hard to work with
  • 😞 Frustrating to use
  • 🤏 Limited functionality

Book Writer

From 81 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use for some
  • 👍 Good for organizing work
  • 👍 Character logging feature is good
  • 👍 Cloud saving works for some
  • 👍 Can be useful with patience

Room to improve

  • 💸 Expensive subscription required
  • 🐛 App doesn't save work
  • 🐛 Work is deleted frequently
  • 🐛 Cannot access notes of chapters
  • 🐛 Character details not saved

Bugs and requests

MapScribe

Reported bugs

11 issues
  • App crashes when exporting
  • App crashes with larger resolution canvases
  • App shuts down or freezes phone
  • Exporting map results in "eRrOr"
  • Undo doesn't work on first item drawn when zoomed
Show 6 more
  • Water brush not suitable for diagonal/vertical rivers
  • Erasing shows up as a different color
  • App crashes when using larger canvases
  • App doesn't work on some phones
  • Brush scales with zoom level
  • Export function crashes app

Requested features

23 requests
  • Add more brushes (ships, camps, lighthouses, ruins, animals)
  • Add town ruins and castle ruins
  • Add a smaller text brush size option
  • Add a military base building and outpost
  • Add a map adding feature (attach maps)
Show 18 more
  • Allow importing images to trace or add assets
  • Add Apple Pencil support for variable width strokes
  • Add a clone tool for stamping
  • Add more terrain stamps
  • Add tools for drawing coastlines/borders
  • Add ability to crop, resize, and drag maps
  • Add a redo button
  • Make compatible with iPad
  • Add urban map stamps
  • Add fields, mines, sea monsters, sea features
  • Add a volcano option for mountains
  • Add road drawing tool
  • Add ability to rotate canvas or compass
  • Add a cancel button for menus
  • Add ability to delete saved maps
  • Add more precise brush control
  • Add option to control canvas size and export resolution
  • Add a free version to try

Book Writer

Reported bugs

14 issues
  • Typing a word multiple times
  • Saving and exiting unavailable
  • App doesn't save text
  • Lost account, cannot log back in
  • Notes of chapters not accessible
Show 9 more
  • Character notes deleted when added to book
  • App deletes work
  • Work is deleted frequently
  • App doesn't save anything
  • Chapters are gone
  • Subscription notes not saved
  • Cannot create even one character in free version
  • Deleted everything every time
  • Wiped for a reason

Requested features

13 requests
  • Fix the issue of typing a word multiple times
  • Add option to remove numbering
  • Improve saving and exiting functionality
  • Provide a user guide or tutorial
  • Improve organization of characters for multiple books
Show 8 more
  • Make the writing space larger and clearer
  • Implement a more dedicated writing space
  • Add dark mode
  • Add advanced analytics dashboard
  • Add outline feature
  • Add world-building notes section
  • Pull everything together into a publishable format
  • Make it a one-time payment instead of subscription

In-app purchases

None

MapScribe

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

Book Writer

Subscriptions5
  • Book Writer Weekly$6.997 Days
  • Book Write Monthly$7.991 Month
  • Book Write Monthly$12.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • Book Writer Yearly$24.991 Year
  • Book Write Yearly Subscription$49.991 Year
One-time1
  • Book Write Lifetime$99.99

Questions

Is MapScribe free?
MapScribe costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Book Writer free?
Book Writer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MapScribe or Book Writer?
Book Writer is rated higher. MapScribe averages 3.4 out of 5 from 47 ratings, while Book Writer averages 3.9 from 81 ratings.
Do MapScribe or Book Writer have ads?
Neither MapScribe nor Book Writer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MapScribe or Book Writer?
MapScribe ships an update every 3 months, and Book Writer every 5 weeks. Most recently, MapScribe was updated on November 6, 2026 and Book Writer on November 7, 2026.

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