uFocus vs zOutline
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
uFocus
A distraction-free writing app designed for creative expression. It supports plain text files, offers advanced Markdown and Fountain syntax for various writing needs, and provides tools to enhance focus and productivity.
- Unobtrusive interface
- Text statistics
- MultiMarkdown support
- Fountain screenplay support
- Highlighting options
- Typewriter scrolling
- Customizable themes
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uFocus is a distraction-free writing environment that supports plain text files and allows you to keep them organized inside libraries. It allows everyone to express their creativity in the most simple way. • Unobtrusive interface: the navigation bar disappears while writing. • Swipe to show the sidebar. Here you can link your favorite libraries and quickly access your documents. • Show text statistics including character and word count and reading time. • MultiMarkdown: easily add headings, quotes, ordered and unordered lists, links, images, italics, bold, footnotes, citations, glossaries and acronyms. You can then export your documents to HTML or PDF. With CriticMarkup and Live Edit Mode you can easily mark removals, additions and substitutions, add highlghts and comments, and accept or reject them. • Fountain: create screenplays with the Markdown-inspired markup syntax and print or export them as PDF with industry-standard formatting. • Highlighting: you can stay even more focused by fading out all the text but the current sentence or paragraph. • Typewriter scrolling: automatically scrolls the text when you get on a new line. • Sound mode: experience the ultimate feeling of a typewriter. • No deletions mode: disable deletions and replacements if your greatest temptation is always to edit your text instead of writing. • Fullscreen: focus on your words and hide everything else. • Choose between three different editor widths, four font sizes and a light, dark, sepia or amber theme, or create your own theme. • Print single files or entire directory hierarchies. If you have any requests, suggestions or bug reports, you're welcome to visit the website through the Support link.
zOutline
This is a simple outline editor that allows for easy creation and management of hierarchical lists. It supports multiple outlines in tabs, text formatting, and various export options like HTML, RTF, and plain text. The app remembers your progress and allows sharing via email attachments.
- Simple tap and gesture controls
- Multiple outlines in tabs
- Text formatting (bold, italic, underline)
- Export to HTML, RTF, and text
- Email attachment sharing
- Persistent editing state
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A straightforward, uncomplicated outline editor. You tap an item to select. You double-tap to edit an item. You swipe left on an item to delete an item.. Or you tap-and-hold to cut & paste, etc. Multiple outlines can be edited at once in different tabs. zOutline remembers what you were editing even if you kill the app. You can send outline files as email attachments, and open outline file attachments. zOutline permits export as HTML, RTF or text. Outline items can be enumerated or dotted. Items can be bold, italic, underlined. Several fonts and text colors are available.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: uFocus at 91% against zOutline's 50%. uFocus also leads on ratings volume (35 vs 2) and device support (5 vs 3). zOutline's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
zOutline holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: uFocus has 35 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 91% of uFocus's written reviews are positive against 50% of zOutline's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
uFocus ships an update monthly, zOutline every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | uFocus | zOutline |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (35 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 91.0% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 35 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Nicolas Kick | Zack Smith |
Customer experience
uFocus
zOutline
In-app purchases
uFocus
No in-app purchases
zOutline
No in-app purchases









