Comparison

SimpleMind Pro vs iA Writer

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

Head to head
About

SimpleMind Pro

Organize your thoughts, capture ideas, and generate new concepts with a beautiful and intuitive mind mapping tool. Seamlessly synchronize your maps across devices and platforms, and enhance them with media and documents.

Highlights
  • Free-form and auto layout options
  • Cross-platform synchronization
  • Add images, notes, and voice memos
  • Share maps as PDF or Image
  • Customizable styles and themes
  • Collapse/expand branches for overview
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Mind mapping helps you organize your thoughts, remember information and generate new ideas. We've created a beautiful, intuitive app, so you can mind map wherever you are and whenever you want. SimpleMind Pro is designed to synchronize your Mind Maps across platforms. For example (as a separate purchase) for Mac - https://simplemind.eu/download/full-edition/ Highlights • Easy to use. • Continuously fine-tuned based on customer feedback. • Trustworthy and reliable: 15+ years of updates and improvements. • Used in a wide range of applications: business, education, legal and medical. • Unique free-form layout or various auto layouts. • Seamless synchronization using clouds. • Add media and documents. • Share Mind Maps. • Change and customize the style of the Mind Map. • Tools to help you maintain overview. Create ○ place topics anywhere you want in the free-form layout ○ or use auto layout - great for brainstorming ○ reorganize and restructure using drag, rotate, re-arrange or reconnect ○ use checkboxes, progress bars, auto-numbering ○ connect any two topics with a crosslink ○ label relations ○ virtually unlimited page size and number of elements ○ supports multiple Mind Maps on one page Add media and documents ○ images and photos ○ notes ○ icons (stock, emojis or custom) ○ link to a topic, mind map, contact, file or webpage ○ voice memos ○ videos Seamless synchronization using clouds ○ sync mind maps with your iPads and iPhones ○ sync mind maps across platforms. For example with Mac - as a separate purchase ○ sync using iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, 坚果云 - Nutstore and Nextcloud Share your Mind Map ○ for example as PDF or Image ○ outline, can be imported in word processors ○ create a slideshow to present your Mind Map (Tablet only) ○ print ○ export to Reminders or Calendar Style your mind map ○ change the appearance by selecting one of the 15+ style sheets ○ create your own style sheets ○ style every detail, exactly how you want it ○ change borders, lines, colors, background color, the checkbox color, and much more Maintain overview ○ collapse and expand branches ○ hide or show branches or topics ○ block out distractions with autofocus ○ highlight branches by displaying branch borders ○ visually group topics with group borders ○ organize your Mind Maps in folders ○ outline view ○ search

About

iA Writer

A distraction-free writing environment designed to help you focus on your words. It offers features like Focus Mode, plain text writing with HTML preview, and robust organization tools. Customize your writing experience and export to various formats.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free writing environment
  • Focus Mode for enhanced concentration
  • Plain text writing with HTML preview
  • Document organization and search
  • Customizable keyboard layout
  • Export to various formats (Word, PDF, HTML, WordPress, Medium)
Currently charting
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“Leaving life’s mess for an ideal realm of words.” —The New Yorker “My favorite iOS app for writing in Markdown, without question, is iA Writer. iA Writer is just beautiful. To me, it’s the gold standard for Markdown syntax styling... an elegant champagne flute. That’s iA Writer for me.” —John Gruber “iA Writer creates a clean, simple and distraction-free writing environment for when you really need to focus on your words.” —The New York Times “iA Writer is an example of how powerful simplicity and accessibility can be.” —The Guardian “iA Writer is all about textual production—writing this phrase, this sentence, this word at this moment.” —WIRED 4 x Best of App Store Winner # The Simple Writing App iA Writer removes distractions. Giving you a calm, focused, writing space, so you can express yourself clearly. # Focus Focus Mode dims everything but the current sentence or paragraph, helping you stay in the flow. # Start Don’t worry about the format. First, write in plain text. Then preview in HTML. # Organize Search, sort, and quickly swap between documents from different clouds. # Customize When you tap and hold a key in the command keyboard, you’re given the chance to choose your own layout. Rearrange your keys, or pick new ones from the extensive list. # Search You can open documents and launch frequent actions in no time with the new Quick Search. It lives in the keyboard so it’s always close at hand. # Work iA Writer includes an inverted light-on-dark-mode, perfect for working day and night. # Clean Spot superfluous adjectives, weak verbs, repetitive nouns, false conjunctions and clean your text of the usual rumble. # Shape Customize your templates and export to WordPress or Medium, HTML, Microsoft Word (.docx), or PDF. # 100% Text Embed links, pictures, tables and text files in plain text and see them in preview. # Get in Touch - Visit ia.net/writer for more information - Visit ia.net/writer/support for support and feedback

Screenshots

SimpleMind Pro4 screens
iA Writer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: SimpleMind Pro at $10.99 against iA Writer's $19.99. iA Writer's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (1.5K vs 451). On rating, review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

SimpleMind Pro costs $10.99 and iA Writer $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for SimpleMind Pro against 4.6 for iA Writer. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 451 and 1.5K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 81% of SimpleMind Pro's written reviews are positive against 73% of iA Writer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SimpleMind Pro ships an update every 2 months, iA Writer fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
SimpleMind Pro versus iA Writer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimpleMind ProiA Writer
Price$10.99 — better$19.99
Rating4.7 (451 ratings) — better4.6 (1.5K ratings)
Positive reviews80.9% of reviews — better73.3% of reviews
Number of ratings4511.5K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#68#29 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size36 MB65 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developerxpt Software & Consulting B.V.Information Architects AG

Customer experience

SimpleMind Pro

All ratings451 ratings
Positive95.1%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.5%
Written reviews769 reviews
Positive80.9%
Neutral7.5%
Negative11.6%

iA Writer

All ratings1,539 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral3.4%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews1,006 reviews
Positive73.3%
Neutral9.1%
Negative17.6%

Bugs and requests

SimpleMind Pro

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

iA Writer

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when opening certain files
  • Sync issues leading to data loss
  • Formatting problems when exporting to other formats

Requested features

6 requests
  • Improved cloud storage integration (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.)
  • Enhanced file management and organization tools
  • Better text selection and cursor control
  • More customization options for appearance and layout
  • Integrated outline/table of contents view
Show 1 more
  • Collaborative editing features

In-app purchases

None

SimpleMind Pro

No in-app purchases

None

iA Writer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SimpleMind Pro free?
SimpleMind Pro costs $10.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is iA Writer free?
iA Writer costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, SimpleMind Pro or iA Writer?
SimpleMind Pro is rated higher. SimpleMind Pro averages 4.7 out of 5 from 451 ratings, while iA Writer averages 4.6 from 1.5K ratings.
Do SimpleMind Pro or iA Writer have ads?
Neither SimpleMind Pro nor iA Writer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SimpleMind Pro or iA Writer?
SimpleMind Pro ships an update every 2 months, and iA Writer fortnightly. Most recently, SimpleMind Pro was updated on October 1, 2026 and iA Writer on September 30, 2026.
Which is more popular, SimpleMind Pro or iA Writer?
SimpleMind Pro currently peaks at #68 in the App Store charts, and iA Writer at #29. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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