Retrotype vs Typewright
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Retrotype
Experience the satisfying feel of a classic typewriter on your device. Choose from multiple vintage models, customize sounds and visuals, and enjoy distraction-free writing with authentic haptic and audio feedback.
- Authentic typewriter models
- Customizable sound packs
- Haptic feedback
- Multiple color palettes and paper themes
- External keyboard support
- Distraction-free writing environment
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Rediscover the joy of writing without distractions. Retrotype transforms your device into a beautiful, tactile typewriter — complete with the sounds, rhythm, and charm of the classics. CHOOSE YOUR MACHINE Four meticulously crafted typewriter models, each with a distinct personality: - Clean, timeless design. The one that started it all. - Vintage European style with warm, earthy tones. - Mid-century curves in playful pastel palettes. - Bold industrial form with exposed ribbon cartridges. MAKE IT YOURS 22+ hand-picked color palettes. 12 paper themes. 5 authentic sound packs — from the sharp snap of a classic to the soft press of a modern electric. Dial in your haptics, adjust your margins, and set your bell. FEEL EVERY KEYSTROKE Authentic sound and haptic feedback bring every key press to life. Carriage returns, margin bells, and the steady rhythm of typing pull you into a focused flow. WRITE ANYWHERE Designed for iPhone, iPad, and Mac with seamless external keyboard support. Your documents are always ready. ONE PRICE. EVERYTHING INCLUDED. Retrotype Premium is a single purchase — no subscriptions, no recurring fees. Every model, palette, sound pack, and future update is yours forever. Retrotype is a place to slow down, find your flow, and let words unfold one keystroke at a time.
Typewright
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Typewright is a typewriter you can actually write on. Every key you press strikes a page. The carriage tracks across the paper, the bell rings when the line runs out, and the platen rolls the sheet up as you go. Backspace works the way it did on a real machine — you can take a character back, but you cannot go rearrange a paragraph you wrote an hour ago. That constraint is the point. It is why the words keep coming. FOUR MACHINES Classic Manual is free and always will be: black steel, a fan of typebars, cream keys. The Decades Collection adds three more, each with its own mechanism, its own sound, and its own feel — Riviera '65, a two-tone sixties manual with round glass keycaps; Golfball '72, an electric with a chrome type ball that hops and twists across a fixed carriage; and Wordline '84, a daisy-wheel electronic with an amber LCD that mirrors the line you are typing. Every machine ships in four factory colorways. PAPER AND RIBBON Nine paper stocks, from clean bond to lined, graph, aged parchment, and a red-and-blue-bordered airmail, drawn rather than photographed so they stay crisp at any size. A ribbon lever switches ink between black, blue and red, with an underline latch — exactly like the real thing, and your ribbon choices are saved with the text. A REAL PAGE Pages are A4 or Letter and behave like paper: the sheet fills, turns, and holds a fixed number of lines. Reading mode lays the whole document out as printed pages you can select, copy and search. EXPORT THAT LOOKS TYPED PDF export embeds the real typewriter fonts, draws the paper behind the text, and can add the slight rotation, doubled ink and softened opacity of a page that went through an actual machine. Plain text, print and style-preserving copy are there too, plus a full-library backup file you can re-import later. YOURS, AND ONLY YOURS Documents live on your device. Turn on iCloud sync and they follow you to your other Apple devices through your own private iCloud — there is no account to make, no server of ours, no analytics, and nothing to collect. Typewright works entirely offline. Four typewriter fonts. Synthesized mechanical sound and haptics. Hardware keyboard support on iPad. No subscription — the Decades Collection is a single lifetime purchase, restorable any time.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Retrotype at 15.1 against Typewright's 17.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Retrotype sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Typewright sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Retrotype | Typewright |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (6 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 85.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Good Loop Software LLC | Ideja 3000 doo Uzice |
In-app purchases
Retrotype
- Unlock Everything$4.99
Typewright
- Decades Collection$3.99









