Comparison

BookWrite vs Kihya Memo

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

Head to head
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.

About

Kihya Memo

Features
Read full description

Kihya Memo is a lightweight, offline-first Markdown notepad. Write the source directly, use focused formatting tools, and switch to a beautiful native preview while every note remains a file you can keep. Markdown is the heart of the app. When needed, the same plain-text editor also opens safe UTF-8 text and source documents without converting them to a proprietary database. There is no Kihya account to create and no required Kihya memo server. Google Drive sync and remote server folders are optional. KEY FEATURES • Switch instantly between Markdown source and native preview • Toggle task checkboxes directly in preview • Use focused Markdown tools for headings, lists, bold, italic, strike, code, links, attachments, and underline • Convert pasted rich text into clean Markdown • Create, edit, rename, move, and share HTML, JSON, XML, CSV, PHP, ASP, JavaScript, SQL, and other UTF-8 text or source files when needed • Live syntax colors and line numbers without adding formatting to the file • Static HTML/SVG, pretty JSON/XML, table, calendar, contact, and color-source previews • Plain-text copy and paste for code; rich-text conversion only inside Markdown • Import photos, PDFs, archives, and other files from Photos or Files • Drag, rename, move, and safely remove nested folders in a dedicated manager • Search file names and full note contents • Find, Replace, and Replace All from the title menu, with case options, regex, and capture groups • Choose Save, Discard Changes, or Keep Editing when leaving an unsaved note • Move, rename, trash, or open past versions from the title menu • Open Recently Deleted from the folder list to restore items to their original location or delete them permanently • Optionally protect Recently Deleted with Face ID, Touch ID, or the device passcode • Keep pre-save versions locally and load one into the editor without saving it immediately • Recover the latest local edit draft after an unexpected app termination • Optional marker-texture highlighting for bold and underlined preview text • Preview local images and open clearly marked local-file links • Open and share editable text, source documents, and stored files through the system Files app • Optionally sync original files through a visible app folder in your own Google Drive • Add SFTP, plain FTP, explicit FTPS, or implicit FTPS servers as remote folders, with local recovery drafts, history, conflict detection, and verified saves • Export the visible folder tree as a ZIP without trash or private history • Start writing instantly from a resizable Quick Note Home Screen widget • See a sourced daily thought matched to morning, afternoon, evening, or night • Continue writing beneath a thought and share it as a 4:5 image card • Open a favorite document in full-screen reading mode from the Home Screen • Five bundled Korean typefaces in addition to the system font • Native phone navigation and an iPad three-pane or full-screen editor PRIVACY BY DESIGN • No Kihya sign-up or required login • No ads or cross-app tracking • Google Drive connects only when you choose it; notes are never sent to a Kihya server • Remote connections go directly from your device to the server you enter; credentials use device-only protected storage and remote contents, hosts, paths, and user names are excluded from analytics • SFTP and FTPS are encrypted. Plain FTP is visibly marked and requires a separate warning because its credentials, file names, and contents are not encrypted • Firebase usage events never include note text, file names, searches, or Google account details • Access is limited to local files and files the user explicitly selects • Normal history and recovery drafts stay on device; pre-overwrite sync text is also protected in hidden app data in your Drive

Screenshots

BookWrite2 screens
Kihya Memo4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Kihya Memo at daily against BookWrite's every 3 weeks. Kihya Memo also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.1). 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

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

BookWrite ships an update every 3 weeks, Kihya Memo daily. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
BookWrite versus Kihya Memo: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookWriteKihya Memo
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS18.116.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB33 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRichard WheatleyKihya

In-app purchases

None

BookWrite

No in-app purchases

None

Kihya Memo

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is BookWrite free?
BookWrite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Kihya Memo free?
Kihya Memo is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do BookWrite or Kihya Memo have ads?
Neither BookWrite nor Kihya Memo shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BookWrite or Kihya Memo?
BookWrite ships an update every 3 weeks, and Kihya Memo daily. Most recently, BookWrite was updated on October 8, 2026 and Kihya Memo on October 2, 2026.

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