PythonIDE vs WriteAccess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PythonIDE
This app provides a full development environment on your mobile device, allowing you to run Python and JavaScript code locally. It includes a professional code editor, SSH terminal for server management, and various developer tools. An AI coding assistant is also integrated to help with code generation and debugging.
- Local Python 3.13 and JavaScript execution
- Professional code editor with syntax highlighting
- SSH terminal with SFTP and server monitoring
- AI coding assistant for code generation and review
- Built-in developer toolbox utilities
- Scene canvas engine for graphics and games
Read full descriptionHide full description
PythonIDE turns iPhone and iPad into a local Python and Web development workspace. Run Python 3.14.7, build multi-file HTML/CSS/JavaScript projects, and turn code into notebooks, native MiniApps, widgets, and automations. HTML / CSS / JavaScript • Edit multi-file HTML, CSS, and JavaScript projects • Use offline completion and formatting for HTML/CSS, plus relative asset-path completion • Preview pages instantly with local images, scripts, styles, and other project resources • Inspect console output and resource-loading, Promise, and fetch errors in the built-in console Python Development & Debugging • Run Python 3.14.7 locally on your device • Use interactive input, launch arguments, ANSI/Rich output, images, and charts • Debug with breakpoints, step controls, call stacks, and a variable viewer • Use bundled scientific and development libraries, and install compatible pure-Python packages from PyPI AI Agent • Let the Agent understand project context, create or edit files, run code, and continue fixing issues from execution results • Git, SSH, web, and native tool calls are governed by permission and confirmation policies Notebooks & Native MiniApps • Open and edit .ipynb files, run cells, and display Markdown, HTML, images, and charts • Build MiniApps with native interfaces using Python + AppUI • Create widgets, Shortcuts, and automation workflows SSH, SFTP & Git • Connect over SSH with a password or key and verify host fingerprints • Browse, edit, upload, and download files over SFTP • Work with Git status and diffs, staging, commits, branches, remotes, and conflicts • Access WebDAV, Files, and iCloud Drive AI, remote connections, and some online features require a network connection. Installable packages must be compatible with iOS and the current Python version. Some features require Pro. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://pythonide.xin/privacy/
WriteAccess
Read full descriptionHide full description
A real SSH terminal, an editor that saves straight to the server, and live vitals — free, with no account and no subscription. Enough of a remote IDE to actually fix something from an iPhone or iPad. For the people who keep boxes running: a VPS, a homelab, a build server, the machine your coding agent lives on. A REAL TERMINAL, NOT A TOY Proper SSH shells, several at once over one connection. Full colour. A key row for the symbols a shell needs. Pinch to zoom. Tap where you want the cursor and the caret walks there, so fixing a typo mid-command is a tap rather than a marathon on the arrow key. It learns the commands you type and offers them back, on top of a bundled library of common ones. Copy out, paste in, both directions, like every other app on your phone. CHANGE A CONFIG. SAVE. DONE. Open a file over SFTP, edit it, save it, and it goes back exactly where it came from. No sync layer, no local copy to reconcile, no wondering which version is real. Saved means the server confirmed the write. And if a server cannot promise a clean atomic overwrite, the file opens read-only rather than gamble with your data — the one thing a text editor must never get wrong. YOUR AGENT, WHERE YOUR CODE IS Save a launch command per server — whatever CLI tool you run — and open a terminal straight into it. It runs on your machine, with your files and your toolchain, at your server's speed rather than your phone's. You just drive. SEE WHAT THE BOX IS DOING Uptime, load, memory, disk, and the processes eating your CPU, read off the machine over the connection you already have. Restart the service, watch the load settle, get on with your day. FILES AT BOTH ENDS Browse over SFTP — folders first, hidden files one tap away — and create, rename, delete and search filenames under the folder you connected to. Every connection is pinned to one folder you choose, so the browser cannot wander somewhere you did not mean it to go. Point the app at a folder in Files as well — On My iPhone, iCloud Drive, any Files provider — and edit in place, with proper Markdown highlighting. Get interrupted mid-sentence and your unsaved work is still there when you come back. YOUR SERVERS. YOUR KEYS. NOBODY ELSE. No account. No relay. No middleman. WriteAccess connects to your machines and nothing else. Sign in with a password, an SSH key — encrypted keys included — or the interactive prompt a lot of servers ask for instead. Host keys are pinned and checked on every connection; if one ever changes you see both fingerprints, and nothing connects until you say so. Credentials stay in the iOS Keychain. Your saved servers can follow you between devices through your own iCloud: the connection details travel, the passwords and keys do not. Those stay on the device you added them on. BUILT FOR iPAD, NOT JUST RESIZED Files and terminal side by side on a divider you can drag, vitals underneath. Landscape, multitasking, external keyboards, the lot. WHAT IT WILL NOT DO It is a hands-on tool, not a background service: sessions close when you leave, so it will not babysit an overnight job or notify you when one finishes. Logins that need more than one step, like an app code after your password, are not supported yet. UTF-8 text files up to 50 MiB, and anything over 5 MiB asks first. Filename search returns the first 200 matches. It is not an offline sync client and is not pretending to be one. Free, and free of the usual: no account, no subscription, no ads, no analytics, no telemetry.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: WriteAccess at none against PythonIDE's 17. PythonIDE's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and chart position (#188 vs unranked). On price, ads, device support 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. PythonIDE sells 17 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. WriteAccess asks for nothing beyond the download.
PythonIDE ships an update weekly, WriteAccess every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PythonIDE | WriteAccess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (39 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 89.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 39 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Best chart rank | #188 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.2 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 668 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 文禄 张 | Alec Burrett |
In-app purchases
PythonIDE
- PythonIDE Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
- PythonIDE Pro Yearly$12.991 Year
- Donate · Chicken Leg$0.99
- Donate · Lollipop$0.99
- Donate · Bubble Tea$0.99
Show 12 moreShow fewer
- Feed Dev Poop$0.99
- Lifetime Premium Upgrade$1.99
- Connect Your Own AI$1.99
- SSH Server Management$1.99
- 200次调用包$2.99
- Lifetime Premium (Upgrade)$3.99
- Lifetime Premium (Upgrade)$4.99
- Lifetime Premium (Upgrade)$5.99
- 500 AI Calls Pack$7.99
- PythonIDE Pro Legacy$7.99
- Lifetime Premium$7.99
- PythonIDE Pro Lifetime$24.99
WriteAccess
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is PythonIDE free?
Is WriteAccess free?
Do PythonIDE or WriteAccess have ads?
Which is updated more often, PythonIDE or WriteAccess?
Other comparisons















