PureWrite vs Inkstone Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
PureWrite
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PureWrite is a writing app that gets out of the way. Open a folder of Markdown files you already keep, open a document, and start typing. The file sidebar and the table of contents fade out completely โ not dimmed, gone โ until only the page is left. Move the pointer back and they return. Nothing else is on screen. No tabs, no split panes, no graph, no badges, no notifications, no sync spinner. One document at a time, by design. That is the whole idea. Everything else is there to serve it. โข A folder you already have. No import step, no vault format, no database. The same folder can stay an Obsidian vault or a git repository โ keep using them. PureWrite is simply the window you open when the task is to write. โข Formatted text, plain files. You edit the document as it looks, and the file on disk stays ordinary Markdown โ tables and links included. โข Search the whole folder for the moment you do need to leave the page, with the context around every match. โข A toolbar you can pare down to nothing. Keep as many of the 18 buttons as you want, or none. โข Hebrew and English in one document, each paragraph facing the direction its own words ask for, with nothing written into your file to make it work. โข Autosave a second after you stop typing. There is no save button to remember. Nothing leaves the device: no network, no account, no telemetry. macOS, iPhone and iPad. Free, with no in-app purchases.
Inkstone Notes
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Inkstone keeps your notes as what they already are: plain Markdown files, in a folder you choose, on your own device. There is no database, no import step and no proprietary format. A vault another Markdown app created opens here, and a vault created here opens there. If Inkstone disappeared tomorrow, you would still have a folder of Markdown. WRITING Headings, bold, quotes, callouts, checkboxes, tables and code all render in place as you type, with the syntax revealed only on the line the cursor is on. Reading mode is a separate, read-only view for when you want the page without the scaffolding. Body font, code font and their sizes are set independently. LINKING [[Note]], [[Note#Heading]], [[Note^block]], ![[Embeds]] and aliases declared in frontmatter all resolve into one index. Every note shows what points at it, what it points at, and which of its links have no target yet. Rename a note and every link that pointed at it is rewritten across the whole vault, in the same action. SEEING THE SHAPE The graph view draws your notes as nodes joined by their links, and the simulation is deterministic โ the same vault draws the same picture every time, so you can learn its layout instead of re-reading it on every open. SPATIAL NOTES The canvas puts cards, files and connections on an infinite sheet, saved as JSON Canvas 1.0 โ the same open format other implementations read and write. FINDING THINGS A fuzzy switcher opens over every note with one gesture. Full-text search understands tag: and path:, and tags work inline or in frontmatter, nested, in any script. TYPOGRAPHY THAT HANDLES CJK Chinese sets solid โ no word spaces โ so a Latin word dropped into a Han sentence collides with it. Inkstone sets the gap between scripts properly, and lets you choose fonts and sizes that suit both. TWO DEVICES Sync a vault through iCloud, or push it to a GitHub repository with conflicts settled once rather than left as two copies. Per-file-type filters decide whether attachments and media travel with it. PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION No account. No telemetry. No network call you did not ask for. Your files are on your device and go only where you send them. Interface in English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: PureWrite at 4 against Inkstone Notes's 2. PureWrite also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | PureWrite | Inkstone Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac โ better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 โ better | 26.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yechiel Ben David | Orris |
In-app purchases
PureWrite
No in-app purchases
Inkstone Notes
No in-app purchases








