Runestone Text Editor vs Subtext
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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
Subtext
A straightforward text editor for iPhone and iPad, allowing direct creation and editing of files within iCloud. It offers advanced controls for line endings and character encoding, ideal for on-the-go code or data file modifications.
- Direct iCloud file editing
- No import/export required
- Line ending control
- Character set encoding control
- Quick edits for code and data
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Subtext is a simple, no-frills text editor for iPhone and iPad. Create or edit files directly on your device or in iCloud, with no need to import or export. Includes advanced features such as line ending and character set encoding control. Perfect for making quick edits to code or data files on the go!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Subtext at none against Runestone Text Editor's 1. Runestone Text Editor's advantage is ratings volume (2K vs 79) and rating (4.7 vs 4.5). On price, review sentiment, ads and chart position 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. Runestone Text Editor sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Subtext asks for nothing beyond the download.
Runestone Text Editor holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Runestone Text Editor has 2K ratings behind it against 79, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 76% of Runestone Text Editor's written reviews are positive against 83% of Subtext's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Runestone Text Editor ships an update every 2 weeks, Subtext every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Runestone Text Editor | Subtext |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (2K ratings) — better | 4.5 (79 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.1% of reviews | 83.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2K — better | 79 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #41 — better | #91 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 64 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Simon B. Støvring | Charcoal Design |
Customer experience
Runestone Text Editor
Subtext
User reviews
Runestone Text Editor
From 2K App Store ratingsWhat 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
Subtext
From 79 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Simple and efficient
- 🚀 Fast and lightweight
- 🆓 Free and no ads
- ✨ Clean and intuitive UI
- 📂 Seamless Files app integration
Room to improve
- 🐛 Fails on network drives
- 🐛 Data corruption risk
- 🐛 Difficulty unselecting text
- 🐛 Buggy Chinese input method
- 🐛 Random capitalization issues
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 moreShow fewer
- 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 moreShow fewer
- Improved undo/redo functionality
Subtext
Reported bugs
11 issues- Fails to save work
- Jumps to top of document on blank lines
- Poor network behavior leading to data corruption
- Cannot open or create new text files
- Error when saving to network drive
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Cannot edit .tex files without renaming
- Chinese input method errors
- Random capitalization after paste
- Large text files cause errors
- File saving issues, creates extra copies
- Bug when using Chinese input method with delete key
Requested features
20 requests- Add 'Unselect all' option
- Add 'Replace all' function
- Add font size settings
- Add tab key
- Allow editing of non-text files
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Improve network drive handling
- Option to disable auto-save
- Add highlighter
- Add character count
- Add JetBrains Mono font
- Add 'reopen last file' option
- Add widget support
- Add highlighting
- Add font and background color settings
- Add distraction-free mode
- Add swipe to close gesture
- Option to release focus for collapsing skb
- Fix Chinese input method bugs
- Allow editing of files with arbitrary extensions
- Add Chinese input method bug fixes
In-app purchases
Runestone Text Editor
- Premium$9.99
Subtext
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Runestone Text Editor free?
Is Subtext free?
Which has better reviews, Runestone Text Editor or Subtext?
Do Runestone Text Editor or Subtext have ads?
Which is updated more often, Runestone Text Editor or Subtext?
Which is more popular, Runestone Text Editor or Subtext?
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