Comparison

uFocus vs Split Notes

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Unobtrusive interface
  • Text statistics
  • MultiMarkdown support
  • Fountain screenplay support
  • Highlighting options
  • Typewriter scrolling
  • Customizable themes
Read full description

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.

About

Split Notes

A versatile text editor that allows for split-screen viewing in both vertical and horizontal orientations, along with tabbed interfaces. It offers automatic saving, folder management, and advanced search capabilities. Users can also synchronize scrolling between panes and export notes to CSV.

Highlights
  • Split-screen editing (vertical/horizontal)
  • Tabbed interface
  • Synchronized scrolling
  • Automatic saving
  • Folder management
  • Character and regex search
  • Export to CSV
Features
Read full description

This is a simple notepad which can switch between vertical and horizontal screen division, tab use screen. You can synchronize the scrolling of each text view by enabling the magnet button. Notes is saved automatically. Others - Folder management. - Character search, regular expression search. - Undo/Redo - Character count display. - Change font size. - Export to CSV file. - Backup/Restore with iCloud.

Screenshots

uFocus4 screens
Split Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: uFocus at none against Split Notes's 1. uFocus also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months). Split Notes's advantage is rating (4.9 vs 4.7). On price 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

Both are free to download. Split Notes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. uFocus asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Split Notes holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 35 and 11 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 92% of uFocus's written reviews are positive against 83% of Split Notes's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

uFocus ships an update monthly, Split Notes every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
uFocus versus Split Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteruFocusSplit Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (35 ratings)4.9 (11 ratings) — better
Positive reviews91.5% of reviews — better83.3% of reviews
Number of ratings35 — better11
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNicolas KickKAZUTERU YOKOI

Customer experience

uFocus

All ratings35 ratings
Positive94.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.7%
Written reviews142 reviews
Positive91.5%
Neutral1.4%
Negative7.0%

Split Notes

All ratings11 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%

In-app purchases

None

uFocus

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Split Notes

One-time1
  • Remove ads$1.99

Questions

Is uFocus free?
uFocus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Split Notes free?
Split Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, uFocus or Split Notes?
Split Notes is rated higher. uFocus averages 4.7 out of 5 from 35 ratings, while Split Notes averages 4.9 from 11 ratings.
Do uFocus or Split Notes have ads?
Split Notes shows ads; uFocus does not.
Which is updated more often, uFocus or Split Notes?
uFocus ships an update monthly, and Split Notes every 4 months. Most recently, uFocus was updated on September 29, 2026 and Split Notes on September 28, 2026.

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