Checkmate vs Cloister Ink
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Checkmate
Organize daily tasks, notes, and calendar events in a single application. Utilize customizable Groups to consolidate related information for quick access. Streamline your workflow and eliminate the need for multiple productivity tools.
- Task management
- Note-taking
- Calendar integration
- Customizable Groups
- Unified productivity
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With Checkmate, you can organize your daily tasks, notes, and calendar events in one place. Keep relevant data together using customizable Groups, which allow you to easily access everything with the press of a button. Gone are the days of needing three separate apps to stay productive. Simplify everything with Checkmate. Generative artificial intelligence was used lightly in the development of this app.
Cloister Ink
This app provides a private, distraction-free environment for writing and managing plain text files across your Apple devices. It offers real-time markdown styling, document versioning, and flexible export options, with optional AI assistance using your own API key.
- Distraction-free writing environment
- Plain markdown file management
- Live markdown styling
- Document versioning and autosave
- Export to PDF, Word, HTML, and more
- Optional AI assistance with BYO API key
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Cloister Ink is a writing environment, not an AI writing app. Everything you write, every project and every format, lives in one private, distraction-free place as plain markdown you own. Free for seven days, then one purchase, once. No subscription, no account, no telemetry. YOUR WRITING IS A FOLDER, NOT A DATABASE Your work lives as plain markdown files in your own iCloud Drive or on this device. No accounts. No servers. No lock-in. If Cloister Ink disappeared tomorrow, every word would still open in any text editor you like. THREE PASSES, ONE EDITOR Draft keeps the checkers off and the page quiet. Terminal turns the page into a dark console where every markdown mark shows in its own colour, with the structure tools laid out flat. Revise turns spelling and autocorrect on, with a live count of what is left to fix. Switch from the corner of the editor whenever you like; there is no required order. A CALM EDITOR THAT STAYS OUT OF THE WAY Headings size themselves, bold and italic render live, lists continue on their own and step in and out with Tab. Stepped-in numbers letter the way Word's do (1, a, i) in Preview, PDF, and Word export. Tables paste straight from a spreadsheet, and on iPhone and iPad, Draft and Revise draw them as a grid you can type into. Curated book faces, your size, spacing, margins, and line width. Light and dark, one tap apart. DICTATE, ON THE DEVICE Tap the microphone on the bar and speak. The words are recognised on the device; your audio is never sent anywhere. EVERYTHING YOU HAVE ALREADY WRITTEN, GATHERED Import Word documents, PDFs, HTML, RTF, and text files. Converted copies land in your vault's Inbox as clean markdown, and the originals are never touched. On iPhone and iPad, share a page, a link, or selected text from any app straight into your Inbox. SAFE BY DEFAULT Autosave writes about a second after you stop typing. Every explicit save with new work takes a draft snapshot: browse up to 30 versions per document and restore any of them, with your current draft preserved first. Move any file between iCloud and this device with one command; nothing syncs that you did not choose to sync. FINISH, THEN PUBLISH ANYWHERE Preview your document as a reader sees it, as a designed page, as rich text, or as Word will show it. Export PDF, Word, RTF, HTML, Markdown, or plain text. Eight page designs come with the app, and your own JSON theme drops into the gallery beside them. Turn a chapter into a numbered social thread sized to your platform. Set a session word goal and watch it fill quietly as you work. AI ON YOUR TERMS, OR NOT AT ALL Ask is off until you turn it on. When you want it, bring your own key for Claude, Grok, or ChatGPT, point it at your own OpenAI-compatible endpoint, or use Apple Intelligence on the device with no key at all. Only the text you select and your instruction are ever sent, never your vault, never in the background, and an indicator shows whenever a request is in flight. Your key, your model, your call. BUILT FOR WRITERS WHO KEEP THEIR WORDS No analytics. No telemetry. No subscription. Try it free for seven days, then one purchase, once. WE ANSWER If something gets in the way of your writing, write to contact@sevenswordsproductions.com. A person reads every message and answers it, and the fix goes into the next update.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Checkmate at none against Cloister Ink's 2. Checkmate also leads on ratings volume (6 vs 1). Cloister Ink's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, rating, ads 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
Both are free to download. Cloister Ink sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Checkmate asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Checkmate against 5.0 for Cloister Ink. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Checkmate has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
| Parameter | Checkmate | Cloister Ink |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (6 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | — | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tanner George | Seven Swords Productions LLC |
Customer experience
Checkmate
Cloister Ink
In-app purchases
Checkmate
No in-app purchases
Cloister Ink
- 7-day TrialFree
- Cloister Ink$59.99









