Runestone Text Editor vs Bit Alchemist
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
Bit Alchemist
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Bit Alchemist is a fast, native programmer's calculator built for people who think in hexadecimal, binary, and bits — developers, embedded engineers, reverse engineers, and CS students. Switch instantly between hex, decimal, octal, and binary. Choose 8-, 16-, 32-, or 64-bit word sizes with signed or unsigned interpretation, and watch every base update live as you type. Enter full C-style expressions with parentheses and correct operator precedence, or work in immediate/chain mode — one engine, one result. FREE • Hex / decimal / octal / binary conversion, side by side • 8, 16, 32, and 64-bit word sizes; signed and unsigned • Arithmetic and the core bitwise operators: AND, OR, XOR, NOT • Logical and arithmetic shifts: SHL, SHR, SAR • C-style expressions with parentheses and correct precedence • Hardware keyboard support • Display tuned your way: digit grouping, prefixes, uppercase hex, leading zeros • Recent history UNLOCK PRO (one-time purchase) Take it to the full workbench: • CPU flags — live carry, zero, negative, overflow, and parity • Rotate operations — ROL, ROR, and rotate-through-carry RCL / RCR • Bit editor — tap individual bits to toggle, set, clear, or test • Bitfields & masks — sign/zero-extend, mask to width, extract and build masks • Explain mask — break any value into its set-bit ranges • Registers R0–R7 — eight labelled registers with cross-word-size recall • Full, unlimited history • Copy as code — export values as C, Swift, Python, or JavaScript literals • ASCII view — read a value as its byte sequence • iPad workbench — a full-screen layout with every panel at once Pro is a single one-time purchase. No subscriptions. No ads. No account. Everything runs offline on your device. Bit Alchemist — turn raw bits into gold.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is chart position: Runestone Text Editor at #42 against Bit Alchemist's unranked. Runestone Text Editor also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, 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. Runestone Text Editor sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Bit Alchemist sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Runestone Text Editor | Bit Alchemist |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (2K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 76.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Best chart rank | #42 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 64 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Simon B. Støvring | Medasis Corporation |
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
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- 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
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- Improved undo/redo functionality
Bit Alchemist
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Runestone Text Editor
- Premium$9.99
Bit Alchemist
- Bit Alchemist Pro$14.99








