Comparison

Thread to Self vs PureOpen

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

Head to head
About

Thread to Self

Features
Read full description

Thread to Self is a private message thread with yourself. Capture a thought, observation, idea, or memory, then move on with your day. Everything lives in one continuous stream, arranged from oldest to newest. When you want to revisit something, jump directly to a month and year. Thread to Self is intentionally simple: • No AI • No ads • No account, nothing to sign up for • No social features • No folders, tags, or filters • Text only, no photos or attachments • No editing after you send • Messages can be deleted, but never changed Your messages are stored on your iPhone and synchronized through your private iCloud account. Export your thread as text whenever you choose. Optional weekly or monthly reminders are quiet and simple. No streaks, badges, or guilt. Try Thread to Self free for 30 days. After the trial, unlock writing permanently with a one-time $4.99 purchase. No subscription. Your messages are always yours to read and export, whether or not you buy.

About

PureOpen

Features
Read full description

PureOpen is a Markdown editor for Mac and iPhone built for right-to-left writing. Most editors treat RTL as a switch: turn it on and the whole document flips, which breaks the moment you write Hebrew or Arabic with English words in it. PureOpen decides direction per block instead. Every paragraph, heading and list item takes its direction from the first strong character in it — so a mixed document displays correctly with no setting, and with no direction marks written into your file. Files open in tabs, the way a browser opens pages, and your changes are on disk 600ms after you stop typing. RIGHT-TO-LEFT, PER BLOCK • RTL and LTR live side by side in one file. A Hebrew paragraph aligns right, the English paragraph under it aligns left, and each stays that way as you edit. • A Hebrew or Arabic sentence with English terms, code spans and links inside it reads correctly — the block stays RTL and the Latin runs sit where they belong. • A block with no strong character inherits the direction of the block above it, so blank lines and numbers don't break the flow. • Nothing is added to your Markdown to make this work: no RTL marks, no wrapper tags. The file stays portable. OPEN IT FROM THE FILE, NOT FROM THE APP • Right-click a Markdown file in Finder — or long-press it in Files on iPhone and iPad — and PureOpen sits at the top of "Open With". One click and the document is open in a tab in the window you already have. • No launching the app first, no file picker, no importing into a library. Double-click works the same way, and so does dragging a file onto the window. • Registered as the owner and editor of .md, .markdown, .mdown and .mkd. TABS • Every file opens in its own tab. ⌘1ā€“āŒ˜9 jump by position, Ctrl+Tab cycles, middle-click closes, and ⌘W closes the tab rather than the window. • The tabs you had open come back the next time you launch. SAVING • Autosave writes 600ms after you stop typing, and again on tab switch, tab close and window blur. A grey dot marks a tab with unsaved content. • If the file changes on disk — another editor, a sync client — it is reloaded quietly and your scroll position is kept. If it is deleted, editing locks so stale content is not written back over it. • Opening a file doesn't reformat it: an edit that didn't actually change the content doesn't trigger a write. EDITING • 17 formatting buttons: headings 1–4, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bullet, numbered and task lists, subscript, superscript, quote, inline code, code block and horizontal rule. • Each button reflects the block and the marks under the cursor, and updates as the cursor moves. • Underline, subscript and superscript are kept as HTML rather than dropped when the file is saved. PRINTING AND PDF • Print what you see. The page is the document as the editor renders it — headings, tables, task lists, code blocks, Hebrew and English side by side — without the tabs and the toolbar around them. • Export the same page straight to a PDF file, without going through the print dialog to find "Save as PDF". • Nothing is rendered a second time for paper, so what prints is what you were looking at. Pages break between lines, and the page is always light even when the app is in dark mode. ALSO • On iPhone and iPad, files opened from Files are edited in place — not copied into the app. • Dark mode follows the system setting. • Files past roughly 4 million characters open read-only as raw text, so the interface doesn't stall. • No network, no account, no telemetry. Your files stay on your device. PureOpen is free, with no in-app purchases.

Screenshots

Thread to Self3 screens
PureOpen4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PureOpen at none against Thread to Self's 1. PureOpen also leads on device support (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Thread to Self sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. PureOpen asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard3 real differences Ā· 3 level
Thread to Self versus PureOpen: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThread to SelfPureOpen
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Weekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYou-R-Here LLCYechiel Ben David

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Thread to Self

One-time1
  • Thread to Self Unlock$4.99
None

PureOpen

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Thread to Self free?
Thread to Self is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PureOpen free?
PureOpen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Thread to Self or PureOpen have ads?
Neither Thread to Self nor PureOpen shows ads.

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