Planetary Social vs writing.ink
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Planetary Social
A peer-to-peer social media platform focused on personal connections and censorship resistance. It prioritizes user ownership of content and relationships, operating without algorithms or advertisements. Compatible with other Secure Scuttlebutt protocol apps, it works both online and offline.
- Peer-to-peer data sharing
- Censorship resistant network
- User ownership of content
- No advertisements or algorithms
- Offline and off-grid functionality
- Open source
- Compatible with Secure Scuttlebutt apps
Read full descriptionHide full description
Peer to peer social media for humans, not algorithms. Planetary passes data from friend to friend, creating a network that is personal, censorship resistant, and minimizes abuse and spam. Planetary gives you ownership over your relationships and content, and is compatible with any app using the Secure Scuttlebutt protocol. In Planetary there are no advertisements or artificial intelligence algorithms trying to make you feel a certain way. Your content lives on your device and the devices of those around you, it isn't owned or controlled by a corporation. Experience social networking where you're the customer, not the product. Unlike most social media, Planetary: - Does not sell your data. - Is naturally spam-resistant. - Compatible with other apps including Manyverse, Patchwork, Patchfox, feedless, and more. - Works off-grid and offline. - Allows you to take your friends with you if you decide to move to another client. - Is open source! No one company should own the Internet’s public spaces, which is why we’re building on —and contributing back to— the open source Secure Scuttlebutt ecosystem. Their core technologies let us recreate a social network experience, but in a decentralized way that no one organization can dominate.
writing.ink
A minimalist platform for writing and sharing thoughts without distractions. Focus on your words with private drafts, public posts, and ephemeral status updates. Discover content without algorithmic feeds or engagement metrics.
- Private drafts with tags
- Publish share-worthy notes
- Ephemeral status updates
- No algorithmic feed
- No engagement metrics
- Data export and account deletion
Read full descriptionHide full description
writing.ink is a minimalist writing platform. No likes. No comments. No shares. No algorithm. No images or video. No links. Just writing. Every user gets a public microblog at writing.ink/@username. Write privately, publish if you're ready, or post an ephemeral status that disappears on its own. WRITE Draft private notes with tags to stay organized. Your drafts are yours — no one sees them unless you choose to publish. PUBLISH If a note is share-worthy, publish it to your public profile. Choose your URL slug, toggle search engine visibility, and preview before it goes live. STATUS UPDATES Share a fleeting thought. Status updates expire after 1 hour, 4 hours, 24 hours, or 1 week. Some thoughts are meant to be temporary. DISCOVER Follow writers whose ideas you enjoy. No follower counts, no notifications, no feed algorithm — just a quiet list of people you can bookmark. WHAT WE DON'T DO No ads, no tracking, no data sales No engagement metrics or behavioral profiles No follower counts or popularity signals No algorithmic feed No notifications Your data is stored in the United States. You can download all your data or delete your account at any time from Settings. writing.ink — enjoy the experiment
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: writing.ink at 100% against Planetary Social's 38%. writing.ink also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.1). Planetary Social's advantage is ratings volume (37 vs 4). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
writing.ink holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Planetary Social has 37 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of Planetary Social's written reviews are positive against 100% of writing.ink's.
Planetary Social ships an update every 9 days, writing.ink every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Planetary Social | writing.ink |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (37 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 37.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 37 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Verse Communications Inc | Eamon OBrien |
Customer experience
Planetary Social
writing.ink
In-app purchases
Planetary Social
No in-app purchases
writing.ink
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Planetary Social free?
Is writing.ink free?
Which has better reviews, Planetary Social or writing.ink?
Do Planetary Social or writing.ink have ads?
Which is updated more often, Planetary Social or writing.ink?
Other comparisons
