Comparison

Warqa vs BookWrite

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

Head to head
About

Warqa

Features
Read full description

Warqa is a handwriting-first journal and notes app built for iPad. Pick up your Apple Pencil and start writing — everything else just happens. WRITE NATURALLY The canvas is the app. No modes, no switches. Ink flows immediately when your Pencil touches the page. Choose from blank, lined, dotted, or grid paper. Flip between pages with a natural page-curl gesture.

About

BookWrite

This app transforms your writing experience by allowing you to craft books with customizable aesthetics, from cover design to page style. It offers tools for organizing stories, drawing, illustrating, and exporting your work in various formats. It also includes features to help you maintain writing habits and ensure your work remains private.

Highlights
  • Customizable book aesthetics (cover, pages, pen)
  • Locked diary with Face ID/passcode
  • Drawing and illustration tools
  • Story organization (plot board, story bible)
  • Export to PDF, EPUB, TXT, audiobook
  • Writing goal tracking and prompts
  • Privacy-focused with no ads or tracking
Features
Read full description

Step through the door of an old bookshop and write. Open ScribeMe and you're standing at the door of a bookshop. Push it open, step inside, and your library is waiting on the shelf - every book you've written, standing spine-out, in whatever order you like. MAKE A BOOK, NOT A DOCUMENT Choose how a book feels before you write a word: hardcover, leather, cloth or paperback; the colour of the boards; cream, white or parchment pages; and the pen in your hand - fountain pen, ballpoint, pencil or marker, each with its own ink and weight of line. Pick a typeface with real character. Every cover gets its own grain, so no two books on your shelf look alike. Tall, square and wide picture-book shapes are all here. A DIARY THAT LOCKS Any book can be locked with Face ID or your passcode - a private diary that stays private. Night pages give you dark paper and light ink for writing after bedtime. WRITE, DRAW, ILLUSTRATE Real styling: bold, italics, centred lines, scene breaks. Draw straight onto the page with Apple Pencil or a fingertip, and add photo illustrations wherever you like. Draw your own cover, too. ORGANIZE A REAL STORY Chapters with a contents sheet. A plot board that lays your pages out at a glance. A story bible that interviews your characters and remembers your places. Story templates - three acts, hero's journey, fairy tale, mystery - that scaffold the chapters for you. Find and replace, and search across the whole shelf. TAKE IT OFF THE DEVICE Export a typeset PDF with cover, dedication, contents and illustration plates. Print a fold-at-home booklet. Make an EPUB ebook, a plain-text file, or an audiobook read aloud. Back up your whole library to a single file and carry it to another device. KEEP GOING Daily goals, streaks, milestones and writing sprints. A home-screen widget with your shelf and your streak. An evening writing prompt if you want one. Read a finished book with a real page curl, or have it read to you. YOURS, AND PRIVATE No account, no sign-up, no ads, no tracking, no subscriptions, and nothing is ever collected. Your books live on your device. Turn on iCloud sync (beta) and they sync through your own private iCloud - still nobody else's. Automatic version snapshots mean nothing you write is ever really lost. Everything in ScribeMe is included, free. It always will be. Made for iPhone and iPad.

Screenshots

Warqa4 screens
BookWrite2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: BookWrite at 18.1 against Warqa's 26.0. On price, update cadence, 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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Warqa ships an update fortnightly, BookWrite every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Warqa versus BookWrite: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWarqaBookWrite
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.018.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB5 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperAli AmerRichard Wheatley

In-app purchases

None

Warqa

No in-app purchases

None

BookWrite

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Warqa free?
Warqa is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is BookWrite free?
BookWrite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Warqa or BookWrite have ads?
Neither Warqa nor BookWrite shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Warqa or BookWrite?
Warqa ships an update fortnightly, and BookWrite every 3 weeks. Most recently, Warqa was updated on October 6, 2026 and BookWrite on October 8, 2026.

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