Comparison

Byword vs Metion

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

Head to head
About

Byword

This app simplifies writing on mobile devices with robust Markdown support. It offers cross-device syncing, offline access, and seamless publishing to popular blogging platforms. Enjoy features like dark mode, word counts, and accessibility options.

Highlights
  • Markdown writing and editing
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Offline document access
  • Publish to blogs (Medium, WordPress, etc.)
  • Dark mode support
  • Word and character counters
  • Export to PDF and HTML
Features
Read full description

Byword makes writing easier on your iPhone and iPad. # Key features of Byword - Designed to make writing with Markdown easier - Sync text documents across all your Mac, iPhone, iPad devices - Take all documents offline to access them anytime - Filter documents by searching all text (Find & Replace inside documents coming soon) - Alternate dark theme for extra comfort in low-light situations - The most complete Markdown support including footnotes, tables and cross-references - Export Markdown documents to PDF and HTML documents - Publish to Medium, WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger and Evernote # Optimized for iOS 13 - Dark mode support to match iOS preference; - Search documents directly from iOS Spotlight; - Multitasking and split screen on iPad; - Shortcuts to create new document and access most recent documents right from application icon. # Blog publishing Publish to Medium, WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger and Evernote from Byword. Publishing your story with Byword is as simple as: 1. Write in Byword 2. Open Tools and select Publish 3. Confirm metadata 4. Publish # More features - List continuations - TextExpander snippet expansion - Word and character counters with live update - Extensive VoiceOver support for visual impaired users - Spell and Grammar checking and Dictionary lookup - Keyboard shortcuts for formatting and navigating between screens Here are some ways to use Byword in your life: - For posting to your blog without using clunky web interfaces and risking losing your work - For research, meeting and class notes - To write that important email without being distracted - To capture ideas and notes and have them available in all devices # Rich text warning Byword for iOS only works with plain text formats. Supported file extensions are: txt, text, md, mmd, rmd, markdown, markdn, mdown, mkdn, markd and fountain. # Support We are proud to provide a super friendly customer support. If you need help and/or have suggestions, please contact us using the mediums below. Twitter: http://twitter.com/bywordapp Email: byword@metaclassy.com Web: http://bywordapp.com

About

Metion

This notebook tool prioritizes a superior writing experience using Markdown. It allows you to build knowledge bases, connect notes as networks, and offers a distraction-free Zen Mode. Data is stored freely in plain text files with built-in Git support for synchronization and version history.

Highlights
  • Markdown support
  • Knowledge base creation
  • Networked notes
  • Zen Mode writing
  • Open filesystem storage
  • Built-in Git sync
  • History versioning
Read full description

Metion is a notebook tool that focuses on the writing experience, uses Markdown as basic text syntax. ## Build Your Own Knowledge Base Metion 2.0 brings a new feature named "Knowledge Base", the plain text syntax, then becomes mindmap trees, or connected as a network... ## The Writing Experience is So Important Our goal is to create a great writing experience, specially for iPadOS, although it's not easy. Metion provides a relatively complete keyboard shortcuts support. After a keyboard connected, both iPad and iPhone can archive a huge improvement in writing experience. We also have redesigned the "Zen Mode" on iPad, a more focusing writing mode. It is very very beautiful, choosing a suitable background image, selecting the white noise you like in Zen Mode, and the irrelevant UI elements are hidden. Writing is a pleasure, writing is talking to the world, writing is your Zen. ## Data Freedom, Open Filesystem, Git Built-in Metion based on the open filesystem, no need to create another new format for storing data. An article is a plain text file, and the images in the article are also under a certain folder. Data freedom and open filesystems allow us to synchronize data across devices using iCloud or Git. If you have a higher requirement for data security, you can also make a backup very quickly by copying the entire folder (working directory). One more thing, Metion has a built-in support named "history version" that provides a little more reliability for your documents. **Also, if you know how to use Git, you can try Git to sync. Yes! We have the powerful Git as a built-in feature! ** ## Optimized for iPad Pro, Also for iPhone We tried the best to make Metion optimized for iPad Pro, when writing on iPad Pro by Metion, the iPad is a really more productive device. Metion is also optimized for the iPhone too. In recent years, most of the new iPhones have notch at the top of screen. Metion does not simply avoid the safe area, but makes a lot of technical efforts to apply every pixel on the screen as far as possible. If using the visual theme of "Dark", the notch sometimes look like disappeared, like the next generation of full-screen phone comes. ## The Exporting of Metion If using Metion to export as PDF, we suggest the theme of PDF can be set as "Printer" in Settings Panel. If there is a real printer connected in current local network, just print directly, it will be pretty when words on the real paper. Document in Metion can be exported as image, which is optimized for mobile device (iPhone). We can set text and QR-Code signature at the end of exported image. Send it to friends through some social Apps. The beautiful layout of text can highlight the value of your words. Metion can analyze the structure of current article automatically, then export it as "Mindmap" with one tap only. - - - - - - - - - - Privacy Policy: http://markeditor.com/privacy-policy.html Terms of Use: http://markeditor.com/page/terms.md

Screenshots

Byword4 screens
Metion4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Metion at Free against Byword's $5.99. Metion also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). Byword's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (179 vs 46). On rating, review sentiment, 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

Metion is free to download; Byword costs $5.99 up front. Metion sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Byword asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Byword against 4.3 for Metion. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 179 and 46 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 60% and 60% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Byword ships an update every 2 months, Metion every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Byword versus Metion: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBywordMetion
Price$5.99Free — better
Rating4.4 (179 ratings) — better4.3 (46 ratings)
Positive reviews60.1% of reviews — better60.0% of reviews
Number of ratings179 — better46
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS10.3 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB96 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMetaclassy, Lda.Hangzhou Quanduan Technology Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

Byword

All ratings179 ratings
Positive86.0%
Neutral2.8%
Negative11.2%
Written reviews328 reviews
Positive60.1%
Neutral13.7%
Negative26.2%

Metion

All ratings46 ratings
Positive84.8%
Neutral4.3%
Negative10.9%
Written reviews50 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral14.0%
Negative26.0%

User reviews

Byword

From 179 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Highly recommended, just works
  • 🚀 Reliable, efficient, and aesthetically appealing
  • 🚀 Excellent Markdown support
  • 👍 Clean, simple, and distraction-free writing experience
  • 👍 Seamless sync between devices

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Dropbox sync issues, including lost files and sync conflicts
  • 🐛 Crashes and performance issues, especially on newer iOS versions
  • 🐛 Limited font and theme options
  • 🐛 Lack of advanced features like search, word count, and dark mode
  • 🐛 Unintuitive organization and file management

Metion

From 46 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ✨ Seamless integration with Apple ecosystem
  • ✍️ Great writing experience
  • 💡 Promising features
  • 🎨 Minimalist and aesthetic design
  • 🚀 Enhances productivity

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent bugs and crashes
  • 📱 Not optimized for phones
  • 🗂️ Limited free version features
  • 🎨 UI issues and design flaws
  • ❌ Syncing problems

Bugs and requests

Byword

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Dropbox sync not working, files not syncing or disappearing
  • Crashes on launch or when opening certain files
  • Issues with file organization, renaming, and folder management

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for rich text formatting (bold, italic, underline)
  • Improve Markdown preview and rendering
  • Implement more keyboard shortcuts and customization options
  • Integrate with more cloud storage services beyond Dropbox and iCloud
  • Add search and replace functionality

Metion

Reported bugs

19 issues
  • Git sync not working
  • iCloud folder cannot be specified
  • Writing statistics not visible or crashing
  • Custom file sorting not working
  • New file creation bug (text pushed up)
Show 14 more
  • Hyperlinks only work with connected keyboard
  • Help documentation partially translated
  • PDF export formatting issues
  • App crashes when submitting bugs
  • iPhone gets hot and requires restart
  • App launches inconsistently, crashes, slow to switch folders
  • Undo function not supported, causes crash
  • App crashes on startup
  • Cannot open old documents (free version limit)
  • English input lacks auto-capitalization and spell check
  • Soft keyboard shortcut bar disappears
  • Character input issues causing extra spaces
  • Zen mode background color setting causes crashes
  • App crashes when trying to set Zen mode background

Requested features

35 requests
  • Optimize for phone usage
  • Add Windows version
  • Improve Git sync functionality
  • Allow specifying iCloud folder
  • Restore writing statistics feature
Show 30 more
  • Fix custom file sorting
  • Fix new file creation bugs
  • Improve hyperlink functionality on iPhone
  • Add Undo functionality
  • Fix app crashes on startup
  • Allow opening old documents
  • Improve English input (auto-capitalization, spell check)
  • Fix disappearing shortcut bar
  • Increase font size limit
  • Allow changing Zen mode background and text color
  • Fix PDF export formatting
  • Improve Russian translation
  • Simplify interface navigation
  • Improve interface glitchiness
  • Support existing markdown folders
  • Add more font choices
  • Fix character input issues
  • Increase maximum character limit
  • Add Dropbox or other cloud drive sync
  • Add password lock feature
  • Improve line spacing in Zen mode
  • Combine markdown preview and writing like Bear
  • Add floating TOC
  • Add dedicated preview button
  • Option to dilate interface scale
  • Add statistics for daily word count
  • Improve Zen mode text color
  • Add support for Chinese-to-English conversion
  • Add file system for recording information like Windows with graphical display and tags
  • Add statistics for word count

In-app purchases

None

Byword

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Metion

Subscriptions2
  • 订阅公众号图片上传中转3 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • Subscribe Pro Extensions3 Days trial$6.991 Year
One-time1
  • Standard Edition (iOS+iPadOS)$17.99

Questions

Is Byword free?
Byword costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Metion free?
Metion is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Byword or Metion?
Byword is rated higher. Byword averages 4.4 out of 5 from 179 ratings, while Metion averages 4.3 from 46 ratings.
Do Byword or Metion have ads?
Neither Byword nor Metion shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Byword or Metion?
Byword ships an update every 2 months, and Metion every 2 weeks. Most recently, Byword was updated on October 18, 2026 and Metion on October 13, 2026.

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