Comparison

Balance Check vs ghostWriter Markdown

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

Head to head
About

Balance Check

This app helps you improve your well-being by focusing on eight dimensions of personal health. Create custom daily checklists, get task suggestions, and use tools like a notepad and stopwatch to manage your day and personal growth.

Highlights
  • Personalized checklists
  • Wellness dimension suggestions
  • Daily notepad
  • Stopwatch for time management
  • Favorite checklist creation
  • Task completion tracking
Features
Read full description

Personal health can be broken down into 8 categories, which researchers call the "Eight Dimensions of Wellness." Balance Check allows you to the ability to create daily checklists, while providing suggestions that cater to each of the 8 dimensions of wellness. Focus on specific areas of your life each day to improve your overall well-being and quality of life. Balance Check also allows you to create your own "Favorite" checklists. Use these lists to personalize checklists for specific purposes like: "Morning Routine", "Fresh Week Routine", "Study Routine" etc. If you have any spur of the moment ideas, Balance Check also comes with a daily note pad to help you keep track of your day. Make sure to utilize the stopwatch feature as well, to keep you on track with time management. Start improving your life in small ways, one checkmark at a time. App Contents: - Create personalized checklists - Suggestions for tasks with each individual wellness area - Famous quotes for inspiration - Daily note for keeping track of your day - Stopwatch to help with time management and timed activities - Ability to set current checklist as todays primary focus - Keep track of which items are completed - User friendly - Ad free

About

ghostWriter Markdown

A plain-text writing app designed with accessibility in mind. It allows users to create, organize, and export documents in various formats, with features like voice control and outline navigation.

Highlights
  • Accessibility-first plain-text editor
  • Organize documents and chapters
  • Compile work into finished exports
  • Supports multiple export formats (HTML, EPUB, PDF, Word)
  • VoiceOver integration
  • Native Find and Replace
  • Outline navigation for headings
Read full description

ghostWriter Markdown is an accessibility-first, plain-text writing app for notes, articles, documentation, and full manuscripts. Write individual documents, organize chapters, and compile your work into a finished export. VoiceOver was at the center of the design from the first line of code. Created by a blind developer, ghostWriter gives screen reader users and anyone who loves plain text a clean, native place to write. So what's Markdown? Markdown adds structure using ordinary punctuation. A number sign makes a heading. A dash makes a list item. Your document stays readable as plain text, and you can render it to see the finished formatting. You don't have to know Markdown to start. Insert Actions adds common elements, the Markdown Reference provides examples, and the included ghostWriter Help Manual explains writing, organizing, and exporting your work. Writing Made Easy: • A native editor that keeps Markdown punctuation visible and you in control of the source • Insert links, images, headings, quotes, code, lists, tasks, tables, and rules • Automatic continuation for bullets, numbered lists, and tasks • Indent and outdent with tabs or spaces • Native Find and Replace, dictation, braille input, and text selection • A configurable Status Bar with line and column position, word, sentence, and character counts, heading level, and selection counts • Automatic saving, plus collision detection if the same document is open on separate devices • Start in the Library, a new document, or your last document Useful Navigation: • Use Outline to jump to document headings • Move through headings with a three-finger horizontal VoiceOver swipe while editing • Jump to Line in long documents • Search document names and contents • Return to your remembered editing position in each file Keep Files Organized: • Create, rename, and move nested folders • Pin documents you keep coming back to • Sort by name, created, modified, or last opened, or arrange files and folders manually • Restore removed files from Recently Deleted • Import Markdown, plain text, Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations into Markdown Build Your Manuscript: • Compile documents from nested folders into a single export • Choose which files to include and arrange chapters for each compilation • Keep research and notes nearby while excluding them from compilations • Track word, sentence, and character totals for individual files or whole folders • Control heading structure when combining documents Render and Share: • Render Markdown as structured HTML with semantic headings, lists, tables, and links • Export individual documents or compilations as Markdown, plain text, HTML, EPUB, PDF, Word, PowerPoint, eBraille, or BRF • Customize Word exports with your own JSON stylesheets, optional title and subtitle styles, and a supplied Large Print stylesheet Your Files, Your Devices: • Ordinary Markdown files, visible in the Files app • On-device storage or iCloud Drive syncing across iPhone, iPad, and Mac • Open and edit your files in other apps that read text • No proprietary format and no dependence on ghostWriter to keep your work Accessibility: Developed toward WCAG 2.2 Level AA and tested with VoiceOver as a primary interaction method. • Native controls with familiar roles and behaviors • Dynamic Type, including accessibility text sizes • System, monospaced, rounded, and serif editor typefaces • Light, dark, and system appearance • Voice Control, Switch Control, and hardware keyboard support • Optional keyboard shortcuts for common actions • Reduced-motion support Privacy: No accounts. No sign-in. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. No data collection. No AI tools. There is no server behind this app. Your documents stay on your device or in your own iCloud, and they never travel anywhere you don't send them. Made by a blind developer who got tired of tools that treated screen reader support as an afterthought.

Screenshots

Balance Check3 screens
ghostWriter Markdown4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Balance Check at 5.0 against ghostWriter Markdown's 4.0. Balance Check also leads on ratings volume (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.2 vs 17.6). ghostWriter Markdown's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 6 months). On price, review sentiment, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Balance Check holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Balance Check ships an update every 6 months, ghostWriter Markdown every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Balance Check versus ghostWriter Markdown: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBalance CheckghostWriter Markdown
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.2 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBradley EnsignMarco Salsiccia

Customer experience

Balance Check

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

ghostWriter Markdown

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Balance Check

No in-app purchases

None

ghostWriter Markdown

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Balance Check free?
Balance Check is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ghostWriter Markdown free?
ghostWriter Markdown is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Balance Check or ghostWriter Markdown?
Balance Check is rated higher. Balance Check averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while ghostWriter Markdown averages 4.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Balance Check or ghostWriter Markdown have ads?
Neither Balance Check nor ghostWriter Markdown shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Balance Check or ghostWriter Markdown?
Balance Check ships an update every 6 months, and ghostWriter Markdown every 2 days. Most recently, Balance Check was updated on October 8, 2026 and ghostWriter Markdown on October 13, 2026.

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