Comparison

Runestone Text Editor vs UCoW

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

Head to head
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

About

UCoW

This app provides a unified interface to access various online code editing and development environments. It enhances usability with custom keybars, shortcut access, and improved cursor control for mobile devices.

Highlights
  • Unified access to online code instances
  • Customizable keybar with cursor control
  • Full keyboard shortcut support
  • Optimized performance for iPad
  • Quick switching between instances
  • Multi-instance and window support
Features
Read full description

The Ultimate Code Wrapper gives you the ability to access all your Code-Server, OpenVSCode Server, gitpod, github.dev, vscode.dev*, github codespaces, github1s, jupyter notebooks, jetbrains projector and stackblitz online instances in one place "with tweeks". That means you can use all defined and global shortcuts without the limitation of a browser. UCoW also adds a custom Keybar, including an innovative new "cursor control stick" to the virtual keyboard. Short features overview: • Access to all keyboard shortcuts (physical keyboard required) • Extra Key-bar with many onscreen shortcuts (including a virtual stick to move the cursor without a trackpad/mouse) • Best possible performance on iPad devices • Quick switch between multiple code-server instances • Optimized Trackpad support • Multi instance and window support • Editor scale/zoom support ••• ! ••• This app requires a self hosted code-server instance or an account at one of the supported services ••• ! ••• Supported Services: • Code-Server (self-hosted) You can download code-server at: https://github.com/cdr/code-server • NEW! OpenVSCode Server (self-hosted) Download it at: https://github.com/gitpod-io/openvscode-server • NEW! Support for VSCode and Jupyter Notebook Add-On in Home Assistant (www.home-assistant.io) • NEW! Join a live share (VSCode Extension) on https://VSCode.dev via URL or Liveshare id • Gitpod (gitpod.io) • Github Codespaces (github.com/features/codespaces) • Github1s (github1s.com) • Stackblitz (stackblitz.com) • VSCode.dev* (github.dev) • Jetbrains Projector (jetbrains.com/projector) • Jupyter Notebooks (jupyter.org) • more services will follow soon * IMPORTANT! for VSCode.dev (VS Code Server & Liveshare) there is an new separate App available on the AppStore. Please check out: "VSCoW - Code Wrapper" for this case. ••• ! ••• An internet connection is required to work ••• ! ••• An external keyboard is recommended to use the app since selection with the touch cursor is not supported in VSCode at this moment. This is a wrapper app only and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft Corporation.

Screenshots

Runestone Text Editor4 screens
UCoW4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Runestone Text Editor at Free against UCoW's $3.99. Runestone Text Editor also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.8) and ratings volume (2K vs 12). UCoW's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On update cadence, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Runestone Text Editor is free to download; UCoW costs $3.99 up front. Runestone Text Editor sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. UCoW asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Runestone Text Editor holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Runestone Text Editor has 2K ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of Runestone Text Editor's written reviews are positive against 54% of UCoW's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Runestone Text Editor ships an update every 2 weeks, UCoW every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on September 23, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Runestone Text Editor versus UCoW: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRunestone Text EditorUCoW
PriceFree — better$3.99
Rating4.7 (2K ratings) — better3.8 (12 ratings)
Positive reviews76.1% of reviews — better54.2% of reviews
Number of ratings2K — better12
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#38 — better#127
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.014.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size64 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSimon B. StøvringChristoph Gogolin

Customer experience

Runestone Text Editor

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

UCoW

All ratings12 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral8.3%
Negative16.7%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive54.2%
Neutral12.5%
Negative33.3%

Bugs and requests

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

UCoW

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Runestone Text Editor

One-time1
  • Premium$9.99
None

UCoW

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Runestone Text Editor free?
Runestone Text Editor is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is UCoW free?
UCoW costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Runestone Text Editor or UCoW?
Runestone Text Editor is rated higher. Runestone Text Editor averages 4.7 out of 5 from 2K ratings, while UCoW averages 3.8 from 12 ratings.
Do Runestone Text Editor or UCoW have ads?
Neither Runestone Text Editor nor UCoW shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Runestone Text Editor or UCoW?
Runestone Text Editor ships an update every 2 weeks, and UCoW every 3 weeks. Most recently, Runestone Text Editor was updated on September 23, 2026 and UCoW on September 23, 2026.
Which is more popular, Runestone Text Editor or UCoW?
Runestone Text Editor currently peaks at #38 in the App Store charts, and UCoW at #127. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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