Comparison

iCodeEditor vs Textastic Code Editor

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

Head to head
About

iCodeEditor

This app is a compact and powerful code editor and file manager. It allows for parallel file editing with diff operations, direct execution of Ruby and Lua code, and efficient file organization. It also offers advanced searching and navigation features for source code and documents.

Highlights
  • Parallel file editing with diff
  • Direct Ruby and Lua code execution
  • Fast indexing and searching of code
  • Advanced file management
  • Markdown live preview
  • Unicode and UTF-8 inspection
Features
Read full description

Ultra small, strong will. Enjoy edit code with an ultra small code editor. Write your code and immediately syntax checking, run and debugging, regardless they're written with JS, TS, Python, PHP, Ruby, Lua, Perl, Tcl, Java, OC, Clojure, Kotlin, Swift, Erlang, OCaml, Haskell, ...., almost any programming language. Fav Features --------------- * Parallelly edit files side by side. * Fast goto arbitrary file and scroll to particular line. * Side by side edit files with remote terminal and AI code assistant. * Record live log from remote device or server for fast inspect runtime issues. * Indexing all kinds of source code file and documents for fast autocompletion and jumping. * High performance search with Perl regular expression and powerful file filters. * Fast switch between multiple searched results and locating code lines. * Fast download and upload big folders from server or load into editor from other apps. * Efficiently organise and manage folders and files, add, duplicate, cut, paste etc. * View coloured file changes with diff operation and revert to particular version. * Automatically detecting text encoding of a file and it's a binary file or not. * Directly run diff and patch operation on file or folders. * Directly run JavaScript, Ruby and Lua code within the editor, the app is scriptable. * Inspect unicode codepoint and UTF-8 sequences of a single character. * Show invisible characters and efficiently edit them. * Write markdown document and instantly live preview with each typing in. * Add comments and print coloured file changes to pdf file or print as paper. .... mruby supports 3.4.0. Lua supports 5.4.x. *** Release Note *** More than just a code editor, but also a file manager, universal document viewer and multimedia player. In fact, emphasise the app is also a highly efficient file manager is never too much. Since 2012, the app was originally developed as a code editor for iPad for code review, and later, iPhone also supported, while reading code and viewing files on an iPhone is certainly convenient and useful, but editing text file on iPad is even better. Today's iCodeEditor is almost brand new after years of continuous development, reliable, small and fast. Large software is considered harmful, this small code editor also follows the design philosophy, making software as small as possible, pursue terseness and performance, all operations including source code parsing and autocompletion are locally executing except file download and upload requires a network connection, making the app independent of network is another unmentioned key feature. People should have independent thinking to find good stuff by themselves, but not by those prompt feeds, ad video, picture, article, comments and ranks.

About

Textastic Code Editor

A powerful text and code editor for mobile devices, offering syntax highlighting for over 80 languages, code completion, and formatting tools. It allows connection to various servers and cloud storage for seamless file management and editing.

Highlights
  • Syntax highlighting for 80+ languages
  • SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, and Dropbox client
  • Built-in SSH terminal
  • Code completion and formatting
  • External keyboard and trackpad support
  • Split View and Slide Over multitasking
Features
Read full description

Textastic is a comprehensive and versatile text and code editor for iPad and iPhone. It supports syntax highlighting for more than 80 programming and markup languages. Connect to SFTP, FTP, and WebDAV servers or to your Dropbox account. Use the built-in SSH terminal to work directly on your server. Features: - Syntax highlighting for more than 80 languages, including HTML, JavaScript, CSS, C++, Swift, Objective-C, Rust, XML, Markdown, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Lua, YAML, JSON, SQL, shell scripts, and many more (full list available on the website) - Compatible with Sublime Text 3 and TextMate 1 syntax definitions and themes - Code completion for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C, Objective-C, and PHP - SFTP (SSH), FTP, FTPS (FTP over SSL), WebDAV, and Dropbox clients - SSH terminal connections - Code formatter for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JSON - Git repositories from the Git client app Working Copy can be opened as external folders in Textastic - Emmet support - JavaScript console - iCloud Drive file synchronization - WebDAV server for easy file transfer between Textastic and your Mac or PC over Wi-Fi - Symbol list for quick navigation within a file - Full support for external keyboards, trackpads, and mice - Configurable keyboard shortcuts - Additional keys above the virtual keyboard for frequently used programming characters - Cursor navigation wheel for easy text selection - Move the cursor using swipe gestures - Split View and Slide Over multitasking on iPad - Open multiple files in tabs - Multiple windows on iPadOS - Dark Mode support - Support for common text encodings such as UTF-8, UTF-16, and ISO-8859-1 - Support for different tab widths and soft tabs (spaces instead of tabs) - Custom fonts - Find and Replace, including regular expression search - Find in multiple files - File information such as character and word counts - Local and remote web preview for HTML and Markdown files Pricing: Textastic requires a monthly or yearly subscription or a one-time purchase. Each subscription includes a 7-day free trial with full access to all features. Privacy Policy: https://www.textasticapp.com/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

iCodeEditor4 screens
Textastic Code Editor4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Textastic Code Editor at 69% against iCodeEditor's 14%. Textastic Code Editor also leads on price (Free vs $19.99) and ratings volume (2.5K vs 1). iCodeEditor's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Textastic Code Editor is free to download; iCodeEditor costs $19.99 up front. Textastic Code Editor sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. iCodeEditor asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

iCodeEditor holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Textastic Code Editor has 2.5K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 14% of iCodeEditor's written reviews are positive against 69% of Textastic Code Editor's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iCodeEditor ships an update every 3 days, Textastic Code Editor every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on September 23, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
iCodeEditor versus Textastic Code Editor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriCodeEditorTextastic Code Editor
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.7 (2.5K ratings)
Positive reviews14.3% of reviews68.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings12.5K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid — betterSubscription
Best chart rank#18 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer斌 虞Alexander Blach

Customer experience

iCodeEditor

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive14.3%
Neutral14.3%
Negative71.4%

Textastic Code Editor

All ratings2,510 ratings
Positive93.2%
Neutral1.6%
Negative5.2%
Written reviews599 reviews
Positive68.9%
Neutral8.7%
Negative22.4%

Bugs and requests

iCodeEditor

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Textastic Code Editor

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Issues with SSH/SFTP connectivity and authentication
  • Problems with handling large files or files with certain extensions
  • Inconsistent text selection and editing behavior

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add support for more cloud storage providers (e.g. Google Drive, OneDrive)
  • Implement a more seamless remote file editing and syncing workflow
  • Improve code editing features like code folding, multi-cursor support, and code beautification
  • Add a built-in terminal or ability to run code directly within the app

In-app purchases

None

iCodeEditor

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Textastic Code Editor

Subscriptions2
  • Textastic Pro (Monthly)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Textastic Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Textastic Pro (One-Time)$69.99

Questions

Is iCodeEditor free?
iCodeEditor costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Textastic Code Editor free?
Textastic Code Editor is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iCodeEditor or Textastic Code Editor?
iCodeEditor is rated higher. iCodeEditor averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Textastic Code Editor averages 4.7 from 2.5K ratings.
Do iCodeEditor or Textastic Code Editor have ads?
Neither iCodeEditor nor Textastic Code Editor shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iCodeEditor or Textastic Code Editor?
iCodeEditor ships an update every 3 days, and Textastic Code Editor every 2 weeks. Most recently, iCodeEditor was updated on September 23, 2026 and Textastic Code Editor on September 23, 2026.

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