Comparison

Vim vs System Designer

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

Head to head
About

Vim

A highly configurable text editor with a long history, designed for efficient editing from both command lines and graphical interfaces. It offers extensive customization options for programmers and writers alike.

Highlights
  • Text editing
  • Command-line interface support
  • Graphical user interface support
  • Highly configurable
  • Free and open source
Features
Read full description

Vim is a text editor first released publicly in 1991. Based on the vi editor common to Unix-like systems, Vim is designed for use both from a command line interface and as a standalone application in a graphical user interface. Vim is free and open source software and is released under a license which includes some charityware clauses, encouraging users who enjoy the software to consider donating to children in Uganda. https://vim.sourceforge.io/about.php

About

System Designer

Design complex systems using a low-code platform that leverages UML standards. Generate code skeletons and manage components graphically. Run and test your system with dynamic type checking.

Highlights
  • UML-based system modeling
  • Code skeleton generation
  • Graphical component creation
  • MSON format for model definition
  • Dynamic type checking
  • Cross-device synchronization via GitHub
Features
Read full description

System Designer is a low-code development platform for creating systems. No matter the frameworks you use and the code you write, the most important is the model that you define to create your system. System Designer helps you to design this model and to generate the classes and components to build your system. DESIGN YOUR SYSTEM WITH EASE If you look at the different JavaScript frameworks on the market, you will notice that they all have their own way to define a model, generally only with code. System Designer uses UML, a standard, to define your model. So you probably already know how to design in System Designer even if you have never run it. The definition of the model is stored on a JSON format called MSON. With MSON you can define types, classes, one to one / one to many relationships and multi inheritance between classes. CODE THE BEHAVIOR OF YOUR SYSTEM Once you have created your model, System Designer generates the skeletons of all your methods. You only have then to add your code to implement them. System Designer provides you helpers to manage your components. You can easily navigate threw your components to create your application. CREATE COMPONENTS GRAPHICALLY There is no need to code to instantiate a component. Create a component in System Designer is like creating a document in a NoSQL Database. In fact, System Designer acts as an ODM (Object-Document Mapper) to manage your components as NoSQL Documents. RUN YOUR SYSTEM You can run your system directly from System Designer. Because you have defined a model for your application, a Dynamic Type Check is done on every action of your system. All warnings are send and shown in System Designer. DESIGN ON THE GO System Designer can be used on macOS, iPad or any browsers. System Designer has a Github module to synchronize your work between all these apps. You can begin your design on your Mac and then continue it on your iPad.

Screenshots

Vim1 screens
System Designer3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: System Designer at 4.4 against Vim's 2.9. System Designer also leads on review sentiment (78% vs 46%) and update cadence (monthly vs every 9 months). Vim's advantage is iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.6). On price, ratings volume, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

System Designer holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 17 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 46% of Vim's written reviews are positive against 78% of System Designer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Vim ships an update every 9 months, System Designer monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Vim versus System Designer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVimSystem Designer
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.9 (21 ratings)4.4 (17 ratings) — better
Positive reviews46.2% of reviews77.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings21 — better17
Update frequencyEvery 9 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS9.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperApplidiumErwan Carriou

Customer experience

Vim

All ratings21 ratings
Positive42.9%
Neutral9.5%
Negative47.6%
Written reviews117 reviews
Positive46.2%
Neutral15.4%
Negative38.5%

System Designer

All ratings17 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative11.8%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive77.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative22.2%

Bugs and requests

Vim

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • Escape key not recognized on external keyboards
  • Space bar non-functional with external keyboards
  • Font illegible on Retina and newer displays
  • Significant input lag between keystrokes and display
  • Window focus not maintained in multitasking
Show 8 more
  • Keyboard recognition delays
  • Graphics scrambled on iPhone 6 and newer
  • Character rendering issues (missing 'f' character)
  • Command line errors with certain commands (:ls, :echo)
  • Syntax highlighting broken
  • App crashes on older iOS versions
  • 32-bit app incompatibility with iOS 11+
  • Slow response to Bluetooth keyboard input

Requested features

15 requests
  • Custom keyboard row with Esc, Tab, Ctrl, and common symbols
  • Dropbox and cloud service integration
  • iOS copy/paste and clipboard integration
  • File browser and file management system
  • Better font rendering and scaling options
Show 10 more
  • Swipe gestures for common operations (Esc, Tab)
  • Plugin support
  • SSH/FTP connectivity
  • Customizable color schemes and themes
  • Better Bluetooth keyboard support and detection
  • MacVim-style tabs
  • iCloud synchronization
  • Open source project status
  • Support for external shell integration
  • Email attachment opening support

System Designer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Vim

No in-app purchases

None

System Designer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Vim free?
Vim is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is System Designer free?
System Designer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Vim or System Designer?
System Designer is rated higher. Vim averages 2.9 out of 5 from 21 ratings, while System Designer averages 4.4 from 17 ratings.
Do Vim or System Designer have ads?
Neither Vim nor System Designer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Vim or System Designer?
Vim ships an update every 9 months, and System Designer monthly. Most recently, Vim was updated on October 4, 2026 and System Designer on October 6, 2026.

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