Pyto IDE vs Runestone Text Editor
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pyto IDE
This app offers a powerful integrated development environment for Python, C, and C++ on iOS devices. It includes a Python interpreter with extensive libraries, a C/C++ compiler, a terminal, and a code editor with advanced features like code completion and debugging.
- Python 3.10 Interpreter
- C/C++ Compiler
- Code Editor with Completion
- Terminal with UNIX Commands
- Graphical Interface Builder
- Debugging Support
- Shortcuts and Picture in Picture
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Pyto is an IDE for iPhone and iPad with a Python 3.10 Interpreter and all of the standard libraries plus more than 100 third party packages, as well as a C & C++ compiler and bitcode interpreter. Includes a terminal with standard UNIX commands, a code editor with code completion, support for Shortcuts, Picture in Picture, a graphical interface builder and a debugger. * Full version exclusive third party modules * - Cython, cryptography, typed_ast, cv2, _cffi_backend, kiwisolver, matplotlib, numpy, pandas, lxml, Bio, sklearn, skimage, scipy, erfa, pywt, nacl, bcrypt, statsmodels, zmq, regex, gensim, astropy, emd, wasm3, yaml * Built-in UNIX commands * - alias, awk, cat, chflags, chmod, cksum, clang, compress, cp, curl, date, diff, dig, du, egrep, env, fgrep, find, grep, gunzip, gzip, head, host, ifconfig, link, lli, llvm-link, ln, ls, md5, mkdir, mv, nc, nslookup, open, openurl, pbcopy, pbpaste, ping, printenv, pwd, readlink, rlogin, rm, rmdir, say, scp, sed, sftp, sort, ssh, ssh-keygen, stat, sum, tail, tar, tee, telnet, touch, tr, unalias, uname, uncompress, uniq, unlink, uptime, wc, whoami, whois, wol Take advantage system features with the following modules: - pyto_ui - Build an user interface - widgets - Home Screen Widgets - file_system - iOS file system - notifications - Schedule notifications - remote_notifications - Receive remote notifications - background - Run code in background - pasteboard - Clipboard access - userkeys - Save values on disk - sound - Play sounds - music - Access the Apple Music library - photos - Accessing photos and the camera - location - Access user's location - motion - Motion sensors - multipeer - Peer to peer wireless connection - apps - Open third party apps - xcallback - Interact with other apps - sf_symbols - A list of SF Symbols names - watch - Complications and static user interfaces for the Apple Watch
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 rating: Runestone Text Editor at 4.7 against Pyto IDE's 3.7. Runestone Text Editor also leads on review sentiment (76% vs 35%). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Pyto IDE sells 4 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 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 995 and 2K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 35% of Pyto IDE's written reviews are positive against 76% of Runestone Text Editor's.
Pyto IDE ships an update every 8 days, Runestone Text Editor every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pyto IDE | Runestone Text Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (995 ratings) | 4.7 (2K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 35.3% of reviews | 76.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 995 | 2K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #38 — better | #40 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 922 MB | 64 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Develobile S.p.A. | Simon B. Støvring |
Customer experience
Pyto IDE
Runestone Text Editor
User reviews
Pyto IDE
From 995 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great app for Python development on iOS
- 👍 Supports many Python libraries like Pandas, NumPy
- 💡 Integrates well with Shortcuts and Apple Watch
- 👍 Paid version offers good value
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
- 👎 Confusing user interface and poor documentation
- 🔒 Difficult to cancel subscription/trial
- 💰 Paid-only access to core functionality
Runestone Text Editor
From 2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💎 Excellent text editor
- 🚀 Smooth and responsive
- 🎨 Customizable themes and appearance
- 🔒 Secure file storage and sync
- 👍 Clean and intuitive interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes or bugs
- 🔍 Difficulty navigating files/folders
- 📝 Limited functionality without premium
- 🔌 Performance issues on older devices
- 🔒 Difficulty accessing files in cloud storage
Bugs and requests
Pyto IDE
Reported bugs
3 issues- Inability to run scripts after a few executions
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between apps
- Paywall issues - app asking to repurchase after prior purchase
Requested features
4 requests- Improved code editor with better keyboard support
- Ability to read/write external files (CSV, TXT, etc.)
- Support for more Python libraries like Selenium, Tensorflow
- Longer trial period for new users
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
Pyto IDE
- 3-day TrialFree
- Upgrade to Full Version$6.99
- Lite Version$7.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Full Version$14.99
Runestone Text Editor
- Premium$9.99
Questions
Is Pyto IDE free?
Is Runestone Text Editor free?
Which has better reviews, Pyto IDE or Runestone Text Editor?
Do Pyto IDE or Runestone Text Editor have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pyto IDE or Runestone Text Editor?
Which is more popular, Pyto IDE or Runestone Text Editor?
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