Comparison

iA Writer vs Iodine Code

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

Head to head
About

iA Writer

A distraction-free writing environment designed to help you focus on your words. It offers features like Focus Mode, plain text writing with HTML preview, and robust organization tools. Customize your writing experience and export to various formats.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free writing environment
  • Focus Mode for enhanced concentration
  • Plain text writing with HTML preview
  • Document organization and search
  • Customizable keyboard layout
  • Export to various formats (Word, PDF, HTML, WordPress, Medium)
Currently charting
Read full description

“Leaving life’s mess for an ideal realm of words.” —The New Yorker “My favorite iOS app for writing in Markdown, without question, is iA Writer. iA Writer is just beautiful. To me, it’s the gold standard for Markdown syntax styling... an elegant champagne flute. That’s iA Writer for me.” —John Gruber “iA Writer creates a clean, simple and distraction-free writing environment for when you really need to focus on your words.” —The New York Times “iA Writer is an example of how powerful simplicity and accessibility can be.” —The Guardian “iA Writer is all about textual production—writing this phrase, this sentence, this word at this moment.” —WIRED 4 x Best of App Store Winner # The Simple Writing App iA Writer removes distractions. Giving you a calm, focused, writing space, so you can express yourself clearly. # Focus Focus Mode dims everything but the current sentence or paragraph, helping you stay in the flow. # Start Don’t worry about the format. First, write in plain text. Then preview in HTML. # Organize Search, sort, and quickly swap between documents from different clouds. # Customize When you tap and hold a key in the command keyboard, you’re given the chance to choose your own layout. Rearrange your keys, or pick new ones from the extensive list. # Search You can open documents and launch frequent actions in no time with the new Quick Search. It lives in the keyboard so it’s always close at hand. # Work iA Writer includes an inverted light-on-dark-mode, perfect for working day and night. # Clean Spot superfluous adjectives, weak verbs, repetitive nouns, false conjunctions and clean your text of the usual rumble. # Shape Customize your templates and export to WordPress or Medium, HTML, Microsoft Word (.docx), or PDF. # 100% Text Embed links, pictures, tables and text files in plain text and see them in preview. # Get in Touch - Visit ia.net/writer for more information - Visit ia.net/writer/support for support and feedback

About

Iodine Code

A mobile code editor and Git tool that allows you to code, stage, commit, and push directly from your iPhone or iPad. It features syntax highlighting, code suggestions, and a diff viewer for a seamless coding experience.

Highlights
  • Powerful Git tool
  • Multi-tab code editor
  • Diff viewer
  • Project file manager
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Code suggestion
Features
Read full description

Iodine Code is a powerful git tool and beautiful code editor. With syntax highlighting and code suggestion, it offers you a fluent experience similar to coding on PC. Coding, staging, committing, pushing and viewing logs, every thing will be done just in your iPhone / iPad. • Powerful git tool (clone, pull, push, branch, tag, log, status, commit...) • Beatiful multi-tab code editor • Splendid diff viewer • Handy project file manager with Quick-Opener and Drag & Drop • iPad Pro smart keyboard shortcuts • Great syntax highlighting (Objective-C only so far) • Context awareness code suggestion (Objective-C only so far)

Screenshots

iA Writer4 screens
Iodine Code4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Iodine Code at $4.99 against iA Writer's $19.99. Iodine Code also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). iA Writer's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 1.0) and review sentiment (73% vs 33%). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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

iA Writer costs $19.99 and Iodine Code $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

iA Writer holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iA Writer has 1.5K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of iA Writer's written reviews are positive against 33% of Iodine Code's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iA Writer ships an update fortnightly, Iodine Code every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
iA Writer versus Iodine Code: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriA WriterIodine Code
Price$19.99$4.99 — better
Rating4.6 (1.5K ratings) — better1.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews73.1% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings1.5K — better3
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#37 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperInformation Architects AG典 熊

Customer experience

iA Writer

All ratings1,539 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral3.4%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews1,011 reviews
Positive73.1%
Neutral9.2%
Negative17.7%

Iodine Code

All ratings3 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative50.0%

Bugs and requests

iA Writer

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when opening certain files
  • Sync issues leading to data loss
  • Formatting problems when exporting to other formats

Requested features

6 requests
  • Improved cloud storage integration (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.)
  • Enhanced file management and organization tools
  • Better text selection and cursor control
  • More customization options for appearance and layout
  • Integrated outline/table of contents view
Show 1 more
  • Collaborative editing features

Iodine Code

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

iA Writer

No in-app purchases

None

Iodine Code

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is iA Writer free?
iA Writer costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Iodine Code free?
Iodine Code costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, iA Writer or Iodine Code?
iA Writer is rated higher. iA Writer averages 4.6 out of 5 from 1.5K ratings, while Iodine Code averages 1.0 from 3 ratings.
Do iA Writer or Iodine Code have ads?
Neither iA Writer nor Iodine Code shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iA Writer or Iodine Code?
iA Writer ships an update fortnightly, and Iodine Code every 4 months. Most recently, iA Writer was updated on October 21, 2026 and Iodine Code on October 2, 2026.

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