Comparison

Simpletext vs Writemator

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

Head to head
About

Simpletext

This app offers a minimalist writing experience, focusing solely on plain text. It provides a distraction-free environment with beautiful typography and native performance across Apple devices. Ideal for those who want to concentrate on their words without unnecessary features.

Highlights
  • Zero clutter interface
  • Beautiful typography with professional fonts
  • Plain text only support
  • Fully native Apple app
  • Supports custom fonts
Features
Read full description

The Simplest Writing App for Mac, iPad and iPhone There are many writing apps for you to choose from today, so why bother with yet another one? Because Simpletext is simpler. Its single-minded commitment to simplicity means you’ll get a no-frills writing app that works well and looks great, forever. Simpletext started as a passion project because I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Most apps were trying to do too much and ended up bloated with features I never needed. So I built Simpletext based on a simple premise — what if there’s an app that refuses to do more, choosing instead to do just one thing, and do it well? For Simpletext, that one thing is writing. Why Simpletext? Most people would say Simpletext is lacking in features, and they’re right. In fact, Simpletext began the opposite way — by listing down everything I didn’t want in a writing app. The goal is to create a dumbed-down writing app that inspires you to do nothing else but write. In order to achieve this, I designed Simpletext around four cornerstone principles: 1. Zero Clutter Simpletext is unobtrusive. It provides a blank canvas to write with absolutely nothing to distract you from writing. There’s no visual clutter — the intent is to create a quiet space that helps you connect with your voice, get into the flow, and simply write. With zero clutter, Simpletext lets your words take centre stage. 2. Beautiful Typography Simpletext comes with three professional fonts for you to choose from, handpicked to provide the finest writing experience. They are: (1) Akkurat Mono by Lineto (Monospaced); (2) Graphik by Commercial Type (Sans Serif); and (3) Tiempos Text by Klim Type Foundry (Serif). And if you have a personal favourite font, you can use it in Simpletext too. 3. Plain Text Only Simpletext supports only plain text, which is fast, lightweight and platform-independent. It will never have formatting options, so your files will never be filled with unnecessary attributes. Plain text also ensures your files are always accessible on any device, now and in the future. 4. Fully Native Simpletext is a fully native app developed in Swift and runs natively on Apple silicon. It uses only Apple’s framework and UI components, just as they were intended to be used without any custom workarounds. This approach results in less code, less bugs and better overall performance. Here's What Others Have to Say “I just wanted to thank you for developing Simpletext. It’s perfect. I’ve enjoyed its simplicity and smoothness for quite some time, but now that I can use my favourite font in it (Sina Nova, free on Fontspring) it has truly become not just the best app to write in, but my favourite app period. Thank you for creating and maintaining it.” - Bart “This app does everything it says on the tin. It is not meant to do a lot, but what it does it does very well. It is well designed and suits well those who want to focus on writing and avoid dealing with formatting, proprietary file types and hidden saving locations. It produces and edits .txt files, which will probably be around for as long as there are computers, and saves them in plain sight. Five stars.” - Fernando “I’ve tried all sorts of writing apps but Simpletext is definitely the best of all. So grateful for your dedication and those productivity tips in the blog post are so good. Simpletext is such a joy to use.” - LWL Art Studio “A writing app that is as simple as stated, beautiful to write with and opens and closes wherever you want. Simple tweaks are easily accessible, if required, and only add to the minimalistic perfection. Good job.” - Tuntle Get Back to Basics In a world full of feature-rich, subscription-based apps, I wanted to create something that goes back to basics. Simpletext is intentionally simple, yet it has everything you need. It’s an app I use every single day. I hope you will too. Best wishes, Yeow Jin P.S. Simpletext comes with a promise — find out more at simpletext.app/promise

About

Writemator

This app provides a distraction-free writing environment for iOS and iPadOS. It offers robust text editing features, extensive customization options, and seamless integration with cloud storage and system tools.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free writing interface
  • Built-in Files App Support
  • Multiple Window and Drag and Drop for iPadOS
  • Search, Replace, Synonyms, and Antonyms
  • Dropbox Sync and TextExpander Support
  • Customizable fonts, colors, and line spacing
  • Keyboard shortcuts and extended keyboard row
Features
Read full description

◉ "New Apps We Love" - Apple ◉ "A solid new alternative to text editors like iA Writer and 1Writer" - Federico Viticci ◉ "I like the program very much" - Michael D. Shear ◉ "Best New App for iPad and iPhone" - imore.com ◉ "The original distraction-free writing app" - idownloadblog.com ◉ "WriteRoom for iOS lives on as Writemator" - Jesse Grosjean, founder of Hog Bay Software Writemator is based on the source code of WriteRoom app for iOS & iPadOS with all bug fixes and new features. FEATURES: • Based on WriteRoom source code for iOS & iPadOS. Fast handling of large documents. • Updated for the latest iOS and iPadOS with all bug fixes and new features. • Built-in Files App Support. • Support Multiple Window feature for iPadOS. • Drag and Drop Support (for items like plain text, xml, html, URLs, etc.) of iPadOS (in Split View). • Touch ID/ Passcode/ Face ID support. • Search tool that lets you search for and find every document that contains your search text. • TypeWriter Mode. • Live Word Counter. • Customizable System Dark Mode. • Reading Time option available. • Lined Paper option available. • Dropbox Sync API V2. Support both "Sync Automatically" and "Manual Sync". • Writemator allows you to choose the folder with which you link in your Dropbox account. • Keyboard Shortcuts. Toal 58 keyboard shortcuts are available (excluding iPadOS system keyboard shortcuts). • Quick Search & Replace text feature available. Works great even for a document with more than 500,000 words. • Synonyms, Antonyms, Rhyming words for a selected word. • Drag-to-scroll scroll bar for quick navigation bigger documents. Just like desktop app scrolling. • In full-screen view, tap margins to move cursor toward margin (iPad only). • Many new fonts are added like iA Writer Duospace, IBM Plex, SF UI Text, etc. More than 150 fonts are available. • Extended keyboard row with customizable keys. • Dark Mode keyboard. • Support TextExpander Touch Expansion. Updated to the latest SDKs of TETouch. • Document Picker Support. Support "Import" and "Export" methods of document picker. • Access Writemator files in iOS Files app. • Extra app icons available to change the app icon. • Customize your text and background color to any color, line spacing, font size to make your own writing room. • Line spacing is improved from the older version of WriteRoom. Margin option is available. • Siri Shortcuts. • Tint color option. • Sort the folder list by name or date, descending. • Hide or unhide status bar. Dark mode status bar for dark background • Scroll headings during typing to hide headings. • Rename your document or folder. • Swipe to delete a document or a folder. • Detect links in a document. • Support text right to left (useful for writers for languages like in Arabic) • Powerful URLs scheme support • Export and share file in PDF format. • Hide or show file extensions ;html, css, plain text, ft, etc.

Screenshots

Simpletext4 screens
Writemator4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Writemator at $2.99 against Simpletext's $14.99. Writemator also leads on update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 months) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). Simpletext's advantage is review sentiment (73% vs 54%). On rating, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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

Simpletext costs $14.99 and Writemator $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.1 for Simpletext against 4.0 for Writemator. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 23 and 58 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of Simpletext's written reviews are positive against 54% of Writemator's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simpletext ships an update every 3 months, Writemator every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and September 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Simpletext versus Writemator: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimpletextWritemator
Price$14.99$2.99 — better
Rating4.1 (23 ratings) — better4.0 (58 ratings)
Positive reviews73.3% of reviews — better53.7% of reviews
Number of ratings2358 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB77 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYeow Jin GanAmit Chaudhary

Customer experience

Simpletext

All ratings23 ratings
Positive73.9%
Neutral8.7%
Negative17.4%
Written reviews30 reviews
Positive73.3%
Neutral13.3%
Negative13.3%

Writemator

All ratings58 ratings
Positive74.1%
Neutral1.7%
Negative24.1%
Written reviews41 reviews
Positive53.7%
Neutral2.4%
Negative43.9%

In-app purchases

None

Simpletext

No in-app purchases

None

Writemator

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Simpletext free?
Simpletext costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Writemator free?
Writemator costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Simpletext or Writemator?
Simpletext is rated higher. Simpletext averages 4.1 out of 5 from 23 ratings, while Writemator averages 4.0 from 58 ratings.
Do Simpletext or Writemator have ads?
Neither Simpletext nor Writemator shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simpletext or Writemator?
Simpletext ships an update every 3 months, and Writemator every 6 days. Most recently, Simpletext was updated on September 26, 2026 and Writemator on September 3, 2026.

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