Comparison

uFocus vs Compo

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

Compo

A minimalist writing application designed for composing and saving various types of written content. It offers a distraction-free environment, automatic iCloud syncing across devices, and easy sharing options. The app prioritizes an intuitive and user-friendly experience for effortless writing.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free writing environment
  • Automatic iCloud syncing
  • Universal app for iPhone and iPad
  • Share to various services
  • Customizable fonts and sizes
  • Word count and reading time
  • Spell check and dictionary
Read full description

Compo is the simplest way to write on iPhone or iPad. Compo gives you a single, beautiful place to compose and save all of your writings, whether they be short stories, articles, blog posts, poems, essays... whatever inspires you. It's designed around simplicity, eliminating the endless distractions of most word processors and letting you simply write. Everything is automatically saved and synced to iCloud, making it available on all your devices, from iPhone to iPad to Mac or PC. From there you can share your writings to countless other apps and services. Everything about Compo is intuitive and user friendly. Writing can be hard, but using your tools should be effortless. Features: - Universal app that works on both iPhone and iPad - Automatically syncs and backs up all documents to iCloud Drive - Share your writing with large variety of services including Facebook, Tumblr, WordPress, Notes, Dropbox, Slack - Change writing environment with beautiful fonts and sizes - Check word count, page count, and estimated reading time at a glance - Spell check and dictionary functions included - Uses "plain text" format compatible with TextEdit, Pages, Microsoft Word, Google Docs

Screenshots

uFocus4 screens
Compo4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: uFocus at 91% against Compo's 35%. uFocus also leads on rating (4.7 vs 2.9) and device support (5 vs 3). Compo's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). 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

uFocus holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 35 and 56 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 91% of uFocus's written reviews are positive against 35% of Compo's.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
uFocus versus Compo: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteruFocusCompo
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (35 ratings) — better2.9 (56 ratings)
Positive reviews91.0% of reviews — better35.4% of reviews
Number of ratings3556 — better
Update frequencyMonthly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNicolas KickMotileware

Customer experience

uFocus

All ratings35 ratings
Positive94.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.7%
Written reviews144 reviews
Positive91.0%
Neutral2.1%
Negative6.9%

Compo

All ratings56 ratings
Positive41.1%
Neutral10.7%
Negative48.2%
Written reviews65 reviews
Positive35.4%
Neutral12.3%
Negative52.3%

Bugs and requests

uFocus

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Compo

Reported bugs

14 issues
  • App crashes on launch
  • App closes automatically
  • Work disappears/is deleted
  • App shuts down immediately
  • Kicked off at random points
Show 9 more
  • Dark mode toggle broken
  • Notes disappearing
  • Files erased from app and iCloud
  • Cannot sync to phone
  • App overwrites new version
  • Random untitled notes created
  • Developer needs to update for new iOS
  • Pages didn't work
  • Help page site not secure

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add printing availability
  • Add dark mode
  • Add different fonts and styles
  • Add folders for organization
  • Allow reordering of writings
Show 1 more
  • Ability to upload pictures

In-app purchases

None

uFocus

No in-app purchases

None

Compo

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is uFocus free?
uFocus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Compo free?
Compo is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, uFocus or Compo?
uFocus is rated higher. uFocus averages 4.7 out of 5 from 35 ratings, while Compo averages 2.9 from 56 ratings.
Do uFocus or Compo have ads?
Neither uFocus nor Compo shows ads.

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