Comparison

Essayist vs BitBuilder

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

Head to head
About

Essayist

This app simplifies academic writing by automatically formatting essays in various styles like APA, MLA, and Chicago. It includes a universal reference manager, citation tools, and equation support, allowing for distraction-free writing and easy export to PDF or Word.

Highlights
  • Automatic essay formatting
  • Universal reference manager
  • In-text citation and footnote insertion
  • LaTeX equation support
  • Export to PDF and Word
  • Minimalist interface
Features
Read full description

Try Essayist for free today! "Mac App of the Year 2025" — Apple "App of the Day" — Apple "Editors' Choice" — Apple "A-Plus Apps for Students" — Apple "Mac Essentials" — Apple No more fighting margins, hanging indents, or citation formatting. Essayist streamlines academic writing so you can concentrate on your ideas while it takes care of formatting, citations, references, footnotes, page setup, and more. AUTOMATIC FORMATTING Essayist automatically formats margins, fonts, spacing, headings, page numbers, references, citations, footnotes, figures, tables, and other essential elements. UNIVERSAL REFERENCE MANAGER Store and organize references with iCloud, then use them across multiple essays. Add sources through built-in search, Google Scholar, URLs, BibTeX, or manual entry. Essayist formats each source and adds it to your references or works cited list automatically. ZOTERO IMPORT Import your Zotero references and start using them in Essayist. CITATIONS Quickly insert in-text citations, footnotes, and endnotes with the click of a button. CITATION STYLES Choose from APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard, IEEE, AMA, Vancouver, and more than 10,000 other styles. EQUATIONS Add equations using LaTeX. FIGURES & TABLES Insert fully formatted figures and tables with captions, numbering, titles, and notes. Cross-reference them throughout your essay. ABSTRACT, APPENDICES & TABLE OF CONTENTS Easily add an abstract, appendices, and an automatically generated table of contents. WRITE ANYWHERE, STAY IN SYNC Your essays and references sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with iCloud, so you can start on one device and finish on another — even offline. YOUR WORK IS YOURS No ads, no selling your data, no lock-in — export anytime as PDF or Word. EXPORT Export your essays as PDF or Word documents. MINIMAL INTERFACE Write in a clean, distraction-free workspace with customizable themes, backgrounds, and dark mode. MORE • Available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac with universal purchase • US Letter and A4 paper sizes • Times New Roman and Arial fonts • Word and page counts • Spell check, auto-completion, and auto-capitalization • Accessibility support REGULAR UPDATES Have a feature request or found an issue? Contact us at contact@essayist.app. PRICING Essayist is free to download and includes a free trial of Essayist Pro. Pro is available as a monthly or yearly subscription. Terms of Use: https://www.iubenda.com/terms-and-conditions/82031685 Privacy Policy: https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/82031685

About

BitBuilder

Features
Read full description

Your bits deserve better than the Notes app. Premises die in dead-end text threads. Setlists end up half-written across three apps. You know you wrote a great callback somewhere, and now you can't find it. BitBuilder gives your whole act one home: write it, tag it, run it, and learn what actually works. It's a one-time purchase. No subscription, no account to set up. The launch price is low right now and going up soon. WRITE Get a premise down the second it hits, before you lose it. Tag each line as a setup, a punchline, an act-out, whatever it is, so you can see how the bit is built instead of squinting at a paragraph. The tagging happens on your phone, so your material never leaves it and you don't need a signal. SET Build a setlist and watch the running time climb toward your spot, so you stop going long. Drag lines into order, then flip to cue cards before you go up. Road gig coming? Export the set and send it over. STAGE Record a set and listen back for the exact moment the room turned. Rate your bits afterward so you've got more than a foggy memory of how it went. Keep track of which rooms each bit has played. SEARCH Pull up any bit, line, or voice note in a second. Search the whole notebook by a punchline you half-remember or a scrap of an idea. Everything stays on your device and syncs through your own iCloud. No ads, no tracking, no account. It works on a plane or in a basement bar with no signal, and if you come back to it after a month away, it's all still there. Your unreleased stuff stays yours. First open mic or hour-long special, your next bit starts tonight.

Screenshots

Essayist4 screens
BitBuilder4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Essayist at Free against BitBuilder's $1.99. Essayist also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). BitBuilder's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and update cadence (every 2 days vs fortnightly). On 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

Essayist is free to download; BitBuilder costs $1.99 up front. Essayist sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. BitBuilder asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Essayist ships an update fortnightly, BitBuilder every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Essayist versus BitBuilder: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEssayistBitBuilder
PriceFree — better$1.99
Rating4.5 (429 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews60.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings429 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationSubscription—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size82 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEssayist Software Inc.Marco Donnici

Bugs and requests

Essayist

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App crashes when trying to add references
  • Formatting issues when copying and pasting
  • Inability to edit title pages and section headings
  • Inconsistent behavior across devices (iPad vs. Mac)
  • Issues with in-text citations and reference lists

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add more citation styles (e.g. MHRA, Vancouver)
  • Improve table and image handling
  • Integrate with reference managers like Zotero
  • Add grammar and spell check tools
  • Allow more customization of templates and formatting
Show 1 more
  • Improve export functionality to preserve formatting

BitBuilder

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Essayist

Subscriptions4
  • Monthly Subscription3 Days trial$5.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription3 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$39.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$79.991 Year
None

BitBuilder

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Essayist free?
Essayist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BitBuilder free?
BitBuilder costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Essayist or BitBuilder have ads?
Neither Essayist nor BitBuilder shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Essayist or BitBuilder?
Essayist ships an update fortnightly, and BitBuilder every 2 days. Most recently, Essayist was updated on October 29, 2026 and BitBuilder on October 25, 2026.

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