Comparison

GitHub vs Runestone Text Editor

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

Head to head
About

GitHub

Manage your code projects, review changes, and collaborate with your team on the go. This app allows you to stay updated with notifications, respond to issues, and browse files and code from anywhere.

Highlights
  • Browse notifications
  • Read, react, and reply to Issues and Pull Requests
  • Review and merge Pull Requests
  • Organize Issues with labels and assignees
  • Browse files and code
  • Discover trending repositories
Read full description

There’s a lot you can do on GitHub that doesn’t require a complex development environment – like sharing feedback on a design discussion, or reviewing a few lines of code. GitHub for iOS lets you move work forward wherever you are. Stay in touch with your team, triage issues, and even merge, right from the app. We’re making these tasks easy for you to perform, no matter where you work, with a beautifully native experience. You can use GitHub for iOS to: • Browse your latest notifications • Read, react, and reply to Issues and Pull Requests • Review and merge Pull Requests • Organize Issues with labels, assignees, projects, and more • Browse your files and code • Discover new and trending repositories ——— Terms of Service: https://docs.github.com/en/github/site-policy/github-terms-of-service Privacy Policy: https://docs.github.com/en/github/site-policy/github-privacy-statement

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

GitHub4 screens
Runestone Text Editor4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: GitHub at 37K against Runestone Text Editor's 2K. GitHub also leads on chart position (#2 vs #41). Runestone Text Editor's advantage is review sentiment (76% vs 63%) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, rating, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. GitHub sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Runestone Text Editor sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for GitHub against 4.7 for Runestone Text Editor. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: GitHub has 37K ratings behind it against 2K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 63% of GitHub's written reviews are positive against 76% of Runestone Text Editor's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

GitHub ships an update weekly, Runestone Text Editor every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
GitHub versus Runestone Text Editor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGitHubRunestone Text Editor
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (37K ratings) — better4.7 (2K ratings)
Positive reviews63.3% of reviews76.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings37K — better2K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#2 — better#41
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size174 MB64 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperGitHubSimon B. Støvring

Customer experience

GitHub

All ratings36,862 ratings
Positive96.2%
Neutral1.7%
Negative2.1%
Written reviews913 reviews
Positive63.3%
Neutral9.1%
Negative27.6%

Runestone Text Editor

All ratings1,962 ratings
Positive93.5%
Neutral2.3%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews351 reviews
Positive76.1%
Neutral9.7%
Negative14.2%

User reviews

GitHub

From 37K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great app design
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 🚀 Fast and responsive
  • 👍 Helpful for on-the-go tasks
  • 🚀 Efficient for reviewing PRs and issues

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • 🔍 Limited functionality compared to website
  • 🔍 Difficult to navigate and find features
  • 🔍 Lacks key features like code editing and wiki support
  • 🔍 Intercepts GitHub links, forcing use of app

Runestone Text Editor

From 2K App Store ratings

What 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

GitHub

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Login issues and inability to switch accounts
  • Inconsistent behavior when navigating between app and website
  • Notifications not always loading correctly
  • Inability to view all files in large pull requests
  • Crashes when trying to perform certain actions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for multiple accounts
  • Improve search and filtering capabilities
  • Implement code editing and file management
  • Integrate GitHub Actions and Insights
  • Allow viewing and managing GitHub projects

Runestone Text Editor

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Disappearing files
  • Difficulty pasting text
  • Scroll position not saved
  • Hangs on startup
  • Trouble opening large files
Show 1 more
  • 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
Show 1 more
  • Improved undo/redo functionality

In-app purchases

4 purchases

GitHub

Subscriptions4
  • GitHub Pro$3.991 Month
  • Copilot Pro$10.001 Month
  • Copilot Pro+$39.991 Month
Show 1 more
  • Copilot Max$99.001 Month
1 purchases

Runestone Text Editor

One-time1
  • Premium$9.99

Questions

Is GitHub free?
GitHub is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Runestone Text Editor free?
Runestone Text Editor is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, GitHub or Runestone Text Editor?
GitHub is rated higher. GitHub averages 4.8 out of 5 from 37K ratings, while Runestone Text Editor averages 4.7 from 2K ratings.
Do GitHub or Runestone Text Editor have ads?
Neither GitHub nor Runestone Text Editor shows ads.
Which is updated more often, GitHub or Runestone Text Editor?
GitHub ships an update weekly, and Runestone Text Editor every 2 weeks. Most recently, GitHub was updated on September 24, 2026 and Runestone Text Editor on September 23, 2026.
Which is more popular, GitHub or Runestone Text Editor?
GitHub currently peaks at #2 in the App Store charts, and Runestone Text Editor at #41. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

Other comparisons