iA Writer vs GoodReader Pro PDF Editor
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
iA Writer
This writing application provides a clean, distraction-free environment to focus on your words. It offers features like Focus Mode to dim distractions, plain text writing with HTML preview, and customizable keyboard layouts. Organize and export your documents in various formats.
- Distraction-free writing environment
- Focus Mode for sentence/paragraph highlighting
- Plain text writing with HTML preview
- Document search, sort, and cloud syncing
- Customizable keyboard layouts
- Export to WordPress, Medium, Word, PDF
- Inverted light-on-dark mode
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“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
GoodReader Pro PDF Editor
This app offers robust PDF editing and annotation capabilities, alongside comprehensive file management for various document types. It allows users to securely store, organize, and access files from cloud services, enhancing productivity on mobile devices.
- PDF annotation and editing
- File management for various formats
- Cloud service integration (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.)
- Military-grade AES-256 encryption
- Split-screen viewing for iPad
- PDF Reflow feature
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GoodReader® Pro and our famous classic GoodReader app are essentially the same app, but this one comes with Pro Pack® pre-activated, no subscription or in-app purchase needed. First released in 2009, GoodReader® is truly a veteran of the App Store. In the modern app business, it's not easy to stay relevant that long. We're proud to say that after 17 years and counting, we've been delivering wonderful updates with extraordinary new features. And we're going to keep doing that! GoodReader is a perfect combination of document-reading and file-managing capabilities. It's your one-stop shop for all your document needs on your iOS device. Use the app once, and you'll be hooked. Soon you'll be wondering how you ever managed to work without it. -= File Reading =- PDF, TXT, MS Office, iWork, HTML, pictures, music & audio-books, videos. This is what you can view in GoodReader, plus you can also annotate PDF files and edit TXT files. -= PDF Reading and Annotating =- PDF files is where GoodReader truly shines. Reading experience is so superior, it's hard to describe. To rephrase one of our customers' review, "try it, and you'll see." While you're at it, give our PDF Reflow feature a try. You'll be surprised how much better PDF reading goes when you don't have to scroll left/right all the time, for every single line of text. Annotating PDFs is another star feature of our app. Adding notes and drawings, highlighting text, and then sharing your annotated files or annotation summaries will be your main productivity and collaboration asset. -= File Management =- While reading files is a big part of GoodReader, it's not all it can do. It can also serve as a central hub for all your files, even those that can't be opened by GoodReader itself. It's like bringing your personal computer experience to your mobile device — easily managing huge collections of files and folders will make you forget you don't have your laptop around. -= Connecting =- Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box.com, WebDAV, SMB, FTP, SFTP — these are all accessible from inside GoodReader. Download, upload, and sync individual files or huge folder collections. -= Security =- With GoodReader, your data security steps up to the level previously only dreamt of. With Pro Pack®, our new set of professional-level super-features, you'll get AES-256, a military-grade encryption, for all your data, at a price of a cup of coffee! And it's completely independent from the built-in Apple's Data Protection, so even if a hacker steals and unlocks your device, your data will still be protected by another strong layer of security, our own. -= Multi-Windows =- Seamlessly view and manage multiple files simultaneously on iPad. -= Notes =- Capture ideas and comments while reading or studying a technical document without even leaving the app. Sort and group your notes into categories.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: iA Writer at $19.99 against GoodReader Pro PDF Editor's $89.99. iA Writer also leads on chart position (#25 vs unranked) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 4 weeks). On rating, review sentiment, 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
iA Writer costs $19.99 and GoodReader Pro PDF Editor $89.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for iA Writer against 4.7 for GoodReader Pro PDF Editor. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iA Writer has 1.5K ratings behind it against 269, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of iA Writer's written reviews are positive against 68% of GoodReader Pro PDF Editor's.
iA Writer ships an update every 2 weeks, GoodReader Pro PDF Editor every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iA Writer | GoodReader Pro PDF Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 — better | $89.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (1.5K ratings) | 4.7 (269 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.1% of reviews — better | 67.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.5K — better | 269 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 4 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #25 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 70 MB | 53 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Information Architects AG | Good.iWare, Inc. |
Customer experience
iA Writer
GoodReader Pro PDF Editor
User reviews
iA Writer
From 1.5K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Distraction-free writing experience
- 👍 Elegant and minimalist design
- 💡 Helpful syntax highlighting and formatting tools
- 🚀 Seamless sync across devices
- 👍 Reliable and stable performance
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and sync issues
- 🔒 Limited cloud storage integration options
- 👎 Lack of advanced organization and navigation features
- 👎 Subpar text selection and cursor control
- 👎 Dated app icon and visual design
GoodReader Pro PDF Editor
From 269 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📂 Excellent file management
- 📚 Great for PDF organization
- ✍️ Powerful annotation tools
- 🚀 Fast loading and performance
- 🔄 Reliable syncing
Room to improve
- 💸 Expensive for some
- 🔄 Tedious data transfer to Pro
- ❓ Little difference between regular and Pro
- 🔌 Sync issues with cloud services
- 🚫 No PC version available
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
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- Collaborative editing features
GoodReader Pro PDF Editor
Reported bugs
15 issues- Cannot move bookmarks from old to Pro version
- Dropbox/OneDrive sync not working
- iCloud integration issues
- App crashes when adding photos
- App freezes after annotation
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- App does not keep pattern open after closing
- iPad version web server option not working
- Cannot change or disable app password
- Encrypted PDF export issues
- Glitchy highlighter and eraser
- Cannot access files through Dropbox
- No longer syncs with OneDrive or Dropbox
- Files lost after upgrading to new app
- Cannot download embedded video
- Cannot see iCloud files without workaround
Requested features
16 requests- Proper night mode (inverted colors)
- Bookmark sharing feature
- PC version of the app
- Profile switching for open tabs
- Editable text feature
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- Support for Chinese language
- Adjustable plain text font size
- Two-page PDF viewing
- Option to ignore finger/hand annotation
- True dark mode with inverted colors
- Edit text within PDFs
- Improve note-taking and thumbnail features
- Add text editing function
- Make max number of open tabs configurable
- Improve PDF annotation experience
- Allow editing of actual text in PDFs
In-app purchases
iA Writer
No in-app purchases
GoodReader Pro PDF Editor
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is iA Writer free?
Is GoodReader Pro PDF Editor free?
Which has better reviews, iA Writer or GoodReader Pro PDF Editor?
Do iA Writer or GoodReader Pro PDF Editor have ads?
Which is updated more often, iA Writer or GoodReader Pro PDF Editor?
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