Outliner vs iWriter Pro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Outliner
Organize your thoughts, tasks, and projects with a powerful outlining tool. Create structured lists, track project progress with visual indicators, and collaborate with others. Sync your work across devices and cloud storage for seamless access.
- Create structured outlines
- Track project progress with pie charts
- Sync with cloud storage (OneDrive, Dropbox)
- Collaborate with other users
- Drag and drop editing
- Search and filter outlines
- Archive old outlines
Read full descriptionHide full description
CarbonFin Outliner allows you to organize your thoughts, tasks, and projects. Easily create a todo list for today, or track an entire project anywhere you are. Share your outlines, edit them online, and collaborate with other Outliner users. Highlights • Create outlines full of notes, structured lists, tasks, or detailed projects • Sync your outlines automatically to Outliner Online, OneDrive, or Dropbox for web or desktop editing • Get a quick view of project progress - tasks with subtasks show a pie-chart indicating percent completed Organize • Search through all your outlines or an individual outline • Tag your outlines, and filter based on tag • Archive old outlines to hide them from view without deleting Easy-to-use Editor • Drag and drop to move items within an outline • Copy, paste • Undo, redo • Expand all, collapse all • Optional outline numbering • Zoom in to focus on a single subtree Outliner Online • Securely synchronize your outlines with Outliner Online • View and edit your outlines in any web browser • Import and export outlines as plain text or OPML • Keep all your devices synchronized • Share an outline with other Outliner users to collaborate OneDrive and Dropbox • Sync your outlines with OneDrive or Dropbox to allow quick import/export • Seamlessly access and edit across your iOS devices and PCs -= Recent version history =- Version 3.20 • iOS 27 support • Updated Dropbox and OneDrive integrations • Bug fixes Version 3.19 • iOS 26 support and adoption of liquid glass Version 3.18 • iOS 18 support • Dark and tinted app icons Version 3.17 • Minor bug fixes Version 3.16 • Minor bug fixes • iOS 17 support Version 3.15 • Fixed Dropbox integration • Show a warning when unlinking Dropbox/OneDrive if there are unsynced outlines • iOS 16 support Version 3.12 • Dark mode • Added confirmation to "Delete Completed" • Changing "Archived" won't update the outline's modification time • iOS 13 support Version 3.11 • OneDrive sync support Version 3.10 • Sync the order of outlines across devices (CarbonFin outlines only) • iOS 12 support Version 3.9 • iPhone X support • iOS 11 support Version 3.8 • Open In... support • Ability to hide the outline list on iPad • Minor UI tweaks
iWriter Pro
A minimalist text editor with robust Markdown support and distraction-free writing. It offers iCloud sync, live syntax highlighting, and various export options for documents.
- Clean and minimal interface
- iCloud sync
- Live Markdown syntax highlighting
- HTML Preview
- Typewriter mode
- Document Browser with tags
- Export to HTML, PDF, EPUB, DOCX, and more
Read full descriptionHide full description
# iWriter Pro is elegant and minimalist text editor with built-in Markdown support. Distraction-free and subscription-free. ## Features: - Clean and minimal interface. - iCloud sync across iPad, iPhone, and Mac¹ devices. - Text editing with live Markdown syntax highlighting. - HTML Preview for Markdown and MultiMarkdown documents. - Typewriter mode² with focusing on line, sentence, or paragraph. - Powerful Document Browser³ with tags support. - Integrated counters for words, symbols, sentences, and paragraphs. - Fast and responsive editing even for large files. ## iWriter Pro supports: - Highlighting and rendering of LaTeX equations. - Flowchart and Mermaid diagrams. - Source code highlight in HTML preview. - Exporting documents as HTML, PDF, RTF, EPUB, LaTeX, and DOCX. - Keyboard shortcuts⁴ for text formatting and quick navigation. - Search and Replace in your documents. - Light and dark layouts (auto-switching included). - Automatic number/bullet/task list formatting. ¹ - iWriter Pro for Mac is available as a separate purchase on the Mac App Store. ² - Typewriter and Focus modes are available only on iPad. ³ - Editing files in Dropbox, Google Drive, and other 3d-party storage providers is not guaranteed. ⁴ - External keyboard is required.
Screenshots
Verdict
Outliner and iWriter Pro both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 87% of Outliner's written reviews are positive against 68% of iWriter Pro's. Outliner also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.6). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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
Outliner costs $4.99 and iWriter Pro $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Outliner against 4.7 for iWriter Pro. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 88 and 130 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of Outliner's written reviews are positive against 68% of iWriter Pro's.
Outliner ships an update every 4 months, iWriter Pro every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Outliner | iWriter Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (88 ratings) — better | 4.7 (130 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.7% of reviews — better | 68.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 88 | 130 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CarbonFin | Serpensoft Group |
Customer experience
Outliner
iWriter Pro
User reviews
Outliner
From 88 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast, simple, and intuitive
- 🔒 Reliable and stable
- 👍 Excellent outlining functionality
- 👍 Seamless sync across devices
- 👍 Clean and uncluttered interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and data loss issues
- 🔒 Concerns about data security and privacy
- 👎 Limited customization options (e.g., no color coding)
- 👎 Clunky data entry and navigation in some cases
iWriter Pro
From 130 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✨ Simple and clean interface
- 🚀 Fast and efficient performance
- ✍️ Distraction-free writing experience
- 💡 Good value for money
- 🔄 Seamless iCloud sync
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and freezes
- 🔋 High battery consumption (iCloud sync)
- 🐛 Data loss or corruption issues
- 🐛 Syncing problems (iCloud, Dropbox)
- 🐛 Exported DOCX files have restrictions
Bugs and requests
Outliner
Reported bugs
3 issues- Unexpected error: 500 when saving data
- Pane that lists outlines won't go away or resize
- Keyboard takes up too much screen space
Requested features
5 requests- Add due dates and priority levels for tasks
- Improve export and sharing options (e.g., PDF, Word)
- Implement better organization and search capabilities
- Introduce a desktop companion app for easier editing
- Add support for voice notes and other multimedia
iWriter Pro
Reported bugs
31 issues- App crashes and freezes frequently
- Data loss or corruption during editing/syncing
- iCloud and Dropbox sync issues
- Exported DOCX files are not fully compatible
- Autocorrect option is confusingly named
Show 26 moreShow fewer
- Cannot rename documents outside of iWriter folder
- List indentation can be problematic
- Markdown menus on keyboard have delayed response
- Automatic dark mode not working after update
- Mermaid plugin not working with iOS 18
- Preview barely works
- App not being updated to fix bugs
- Developer does not respond
- Multiline LaTeX not supported
- App crashes on iPad Pro 2020 after update
- Conversion to DOCX has restrictions
- No preview section in settings for plugins
- Photos cannot be inserted (folder access permission issue)
- Cannot read images from hidden folders
- Line breaks in exported documents turn into spaces
- Formulae not working
- Occasional rendering bug where text doesn't fill screen
- App crashes immediately upon opening
- Google Drive sync issues and inability to open/save files
- iCloud synchronization consumes too much battery
- App deletes work for no reason
- Dropbox connection is poor and leads to conflicts/data loss
- Font compatibility issues in document names
- App is very basic and doesn't work well with other Markdown editors
- Impolite developers
- App is unstable
Requested features
22 requests- Add table support (Markdown)
- Allow reordering of shortcuts
- Cycle visibility on headings using Tab
- Add Mark Set and cut region
- Wordpress export
Show 17 moreShow fewer
- Syntax highlighting
- File tree or explorer in sidebar
- Regex search
- Auto dark mode
- Select and open a folder
- Obsidian support (hyperlink function)
- Chinese support
- Add math input
- Passcode lock feature
- Change font color
- Hybrid/mixed editor/preview mode
- Automatic backup to Dropbox/other cloud storage
- Add file opening options in preview mode
- Enter title edit mode immediately after creating a new file
- Change shortcut keys from moving cursor to indent
- Customizable paste symbols
- Full-text search
In-app purchases
Outliner
No in-app purchases
iWriter Pro
No in-app purchases









