Comparison

iCodeEditor vs DraftCode for PHP IDE

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

DraftCode for PHP IDE

Develop and run PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS locally on your mobile device or Mac without an internet connection. Supports complex applications like WordPress and phpMyAdmin, with flexible workspace options and a comprehensive PHP stack.

Highlights
  • Offline PHP, JS, HTML, CSS execution
  • Run complex apps like WordPress
  • Custom workspace folder support
  • Session Inspector and error display
  • PHP and JS syntax coloring
  • Composer support for dependency management
Features
Read full description

Develop and run PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS locally on your iPad or iPhone (or an Apple Silicon Mac), without requiring an internet connection. Run Apps as complex as WordPress or phpMyAdmin right on your device. Freely choose your workspace location on your device, either inside DraftCode, or in the folder of a Git Client like WorkingCopy, on iCloud or other services that offer selectable folder locations. Access your PHP Web App from other Apps on your iPad while in Split Screen mode, for example Mobile Safari or Brave. DraftCode includes the standard PHP stack including PHP extensions typically available on a server: MySQL, SQLite, PDO, Curl, OpenSSL, FTP, XML, JSON, SOAP, GD and more. DraftCode can run different versions of PHP and you can switch between them: - Includes PHP 7.3, PHP 8.0, PHP 8.1 and PHP 8.2 - Available (via in-App Purchase): PHP 8.5 DraftCode Features: - Execute PHP/JS/HTML/CSS without requiring an internet connection - Run Apps as complex as WordPress on your device for offline development - Support for selecting a custom workspace folder in supported other Apps (like Git clients) or iCloud - Includes a Session Inspector showing state of current session variables - Shows PHP errors - PHP and JavaScript syntax colouring - Internal keyboard support with coding accessory - External keyboard support with additional keyboard shortcuts - Multitasking and split-screen support on iPad - Includes PHP packages: WordPress, phpMyAdmin, Composer and more - File workspace including support to zip, unzip, copy, move or duplicate files or folders - Code import/export from iCloud Drive, other Apps or iTunes file sharing - Kiosk mode that runs you PHP code fullscreen - Script mode to run PHP scripts without a web context or timeout INCLUDED PHP PACKAGES WORDPRESS 6.8 With just one tap you can run WordPress offline (using the included WordPress SQLite plugin) and develop themes and plugins for the popular platform. PHPMYADMIN Connect to EXTERNAL MySQL databases (MySQL is NOT included). PHPLITEADMIN Work with local SQLite databases. COMPOSER Use Composer v.2.1.12 to efficiently manage your dependencies. The package also includes an example project. For more information and answers to frequently asked questions please visit DraftCode's website. (Please follow the "Developer Website" link below.) Please note: - Included packages might not yet support all PHP versions available (check their website) - DraftCode's runtime currently does not support re-write rules - A MySQL database is NOT included. (We recommend using SQLite when working completely offline.) - A phpinfo() output of the current available runtime configurations is available on the DraftCode website, please follow the "Developer Website" link below. - In-App purchase pricing can be reviewed on this App Store page under "Information" by tapping the triangle next to 'In-App Purchases"

Screenshots

iCodeEditor4 screens
DraftCode for PHP IDE4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: DraftCode for PHP IDE at 66% against iCodeEditor's 14%. DraftCode for PHP IDE also leads on price ($4.99 vs $19.99) and ratings volume (88 vs 1). iCodeEditor's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and in-app purchases (none vs 6). On 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

iCodeEditor costs $19.99 and DraftCode for PHP IDE $4.99 up front. DraftCode for PHP IDE sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. iCodeEditor asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

iCodeEditor holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DraftCode for PHP IDE has 88 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 66% of DraftCode for PHP IDE'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, DraftCode for PHP IDE every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
iCodeEditor versus DraftCode for PHP IDE: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriCodeEditorDraftCode for PHP IDE
Price$19.99$4.99 — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.5 (88 ratings)
Positive reviews14.3% of reviews65.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings188 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#71 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB184 MB
Age rating4+17+
Developer斌 虞Solesignal Limited

Customer experience

iCodeEditor

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

DraftCode for PHP IDE

All ratings88 ratings
Positive89.8%
Neutral3.4%
Negative6.8%
Written reviews155 reviews
Positive65.8%
Neutral14.8%
Negative19.4%

Bugs and requests

iCodeEditor

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

DraftCode for PHP IDE

Reported bugs

15 issues
  • Scrolling snaps back to original position
  • Undo function deletes arbitrary number of steps
  • App freezes after entering characters
  • Crashes on iOS 9 and older versions
  • JavaScript console viewer always empty
Show 10 more
  • Cannot navigate to specific lines efficiently
  • Scroll position jumps when switching files
  • File deletion is buggy when deleting multiple files
  • Dropbox conflicted copy files created by autosave
  • iCloud file sync not automatic
  • Keyboard layout makes coding difficult
  • App loses work after tapping run
  • Address bar shows 'about:blank' and 'Not Found'
  • Cannot paste projects from Dropbox (helper app error)
  • Syntax highlighting slow on large files

Requested features

20 requests
  • Search and find/replace functionality
  • FTP and Dropbox integration
  • Updated PHP versions
  • Multiple syntax highlighting themes
  • Git/GitHub integration
Show 15 more
  • Ability to access localhost from external browsers
  • Font size adjustment controls
  • Code completion and snippets
  • Multi-project support
  • Drupal and CraftCMS support
  • MySQL full support
  • SSH/SFTP access
  • Swipe gestures throughout UI
  • Light theme option
  • Extended keyboard with more shortcuts
  • Undo/redo improvements
  • Split-screen multitasking support
  • phpMyAdmin updates
  • Manual save option instead of autosave
  • GD library support

In-app purchases

None

iCodeEditor

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

DraftCode for PHP IDE

One-time6
  • PHP 7.2 RuntimeFree
  • PHP 7.3 RuntimeFree
  • PHP 8.2 RuntimeFree
Show 3 more
  • PHP 8.1 RuntimeFree
  • PHP 8.0.28 RuntimeFree
  • PHP 8.5 Runtime$4.99

Questions

Is iCodeEditor free?
iCodeEditor costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is DraftCode for PHP IDE free?
DraftCode for PHP IDE costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, iCodeEditor or DraftCode for PHP IDE?
iCodeEditor is rated higher. iCodeEditor averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while DraftCode for PHP IDE averages 4.5 from 88 ratings.
Do iCodeEditor or DraftCode for PHP IDE have ads?
Neither iCodeEditor nor DraftCode for PHP IDE shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iCodeEditor or DraftCode for PHP IDE?
iCodeEditor ships an update every 3 days, and DraftCode for PHP IDE every 3 months. Most recently, iCodeEditor was updated on September 23, 2026 and DraftCode for PHP IDE on September 20, 2026.

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