Comparison

Runestone Text Editor vs Fin

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

Fin

Features
Read full description

Fin is a terminal agent you can talk to. It connects to your computers, reads what is on their screens, and gets work done — by voice or by text — from your iPhone or iPad. SSH TERMINALS, DIRECT OR THROUGH THE RELAY • A real terminal: tmux-friendly reconnects, a dedicated key row, custom themes, and an instant resume that has your session on screen when you reopen the app • Connect over SSH straight to your server, or through Fin's relay, which carries the same terminal over HTTPS for computers behind a firewall or on a network where you can't open a port. Nothing to forward, no VPN • SSH keys import from Files or iCloud and are held in the Keychain REMOTE DESKTOP AND REMOTE BROWSER • Watch and control a computer's screen from your phone or iPad: tap, scroll, type, and use modifier keys • Or open just the browser your agent is driving, so you can sign in or approve a two-factor prompt yourself and hand it back • Each session opens behind Face ID or your passcode, and each computer opts in on its own A PERSISTENT AGENT, BY VOICE OR TEXT • Ask by voice: "Ask Fin whether the overnight build finished" — through Siri, or by dictating in the app. Fin reads the terminal, answers in a sentence, and offers the next step • It keeps working after you put the phone down: it watches long tasks, replies when there is a result, and only interrupts you when a decision needs a human • Run it where you want: Apple's on-device intelligence, Fin's cloud, or any model server you host yourself that speaks the standard chat-completions API (LM Studio, Ollama, vLLM) • Manual mode holds every command for your approval, and a destructive-command guard is always on • It remembers what you teach it, and every run, tool call, and approval is in a trace you can read FILES AND CLIPBOARD • A clipboard manager built for terminal work, and Markdown runbooks that live beside your sessions FIN PRO Try everything free for 14 days. After the trial, Fin Pro is an annual subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period, and you can manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. Remote Desktop and Remote Browser need Fin's small background service on the computer you want to reach (macOS, with Screen Recording and Accessibility permission for the desktop). Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://fin.africanintellect.ai/privacy

Screenshots

Runestone Text Editor4 screens
Fin4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Fin at none against Runestone Text Editor's 1. Runestone Text Editor's advantage is chart position (#27 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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

Both are free to download. Runestone Text Editor sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Fin asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Runestone Text Editor ships an update every 2 weeks, Fin weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Runestone Text Editor versus Fin: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRunestone Text EditorFin
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (2.1K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings2.1K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
Best chart rank#27 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, Vision Pro
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size64 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSimon B. StøvringLevi Schoen

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

Fin

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Runestone Text Editor

One-time1
  • Premium$9.99
None

Fin

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Runestone Text Editor free?
Runestone Text Editor is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Fin free?
Fin is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Runestone Text Editor or Fin have ads?
Neither Runestone Text Editor nor Fin shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Runestone Text Editor or Fin?
Runestone Text Editor ships an update every 2 weeks, and Fin weekly. Most recently, Runestone Text Editor was updated on November 7, 2026 and Fin on October 31, 2026.

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