iA Writer vs Whisper Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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)
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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
Whisper Notes
This app provides accurate, on-device transcription of audio and video files in over 100 languages. It offers a secure, offline experience with no subscriptions or cloud uploads. Easily record or import files and export transcripts with timestamps.
- 100% offline transcription
- Record voice or import audio/video
- Supports 100+ languages
- Export transcripts with timestamps
- Lock screen widget for quick capture
- Secure, on-device data storage
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Maybe the best offline transcription app — 70,000+ journalists, researchers, and professionals seem to think so. Turn meetings, lectures, and voice memos into accurate text with speaker labels — fast, 100% offline, on your device. No subscription. One purchase, yours forever. ■ Core Features - Record voice memos and capture ideas instantly—from the Lock Screen, widgets, Control Center, the Action button, or just say "Hey Siri" - Import audio and video from any app (WhatsApp, Photos, Voice Memos, etc.), several files at once—even extract subtitles - Turn meetings, lectures, and interviews into transcripts with speaker labels—see who said what and name each speaker - Fix a word where you read it: double-tap any paragraph to edit in place - 101 languages, auto-detected (optimized for English), accurate even in noise and mixed languages—three models (Parakeet, Whisper, SenseVoice), switch freely - Export as SRT, VTT, or TXT—timestamps and speaker labels included—or auto-save every new transcript to Files or iCloud Drive ■ Privacy & Speed Because everything runs on your device, there is nothing to upload—and nothing to leak. Turn on airplane mode before you record and leave it on: Whisper Notes works exactly the same. That matters when the recording is an interview, a client meeting, or something you would never put on someone else's server. Transcribing 5 minutes of audio on iPhone 15: ~18 seconds with Parakeet, ~1 minute with Whisper. SenseVoice is much faster than Whisper and strongest for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Each model has its strengths—choose freely based on language and use case. Older devices are slower but work fine. ■ Honest Pricing Because transcription runs on your device, we have no server costs—so there is nothing to charge you monthly for. Most similar apps charge $100+/year; we charge once. No subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no ads. Not satisfied? Tap Settings → Request Refund. ■ Common Questions Does it work completely offline? Yes. Your audio never leaves your device. Works on flights, in remote areas, anywhere. Can I transcribe WhatsApp voice messages or videos? Yes. Share or save audio/video from WhatsApp to Whisper Notes and transcribe offline. Perfect for extracting subtitles without uploading to cloud services. Is there a recording time limit? Up to 24 hours per recording, and hours-long recordings transcribe on every supported iPhone. Longer recordings just take more time. Does it support real-time transcription while recording? Not during recording, but yes during transcription—after you finish recording, you'll see the transcript appear in real-time as it's being generated. Do you support speaker labels (diarization)? Yes—fully offline. Tap ⋯ on a note → Detect Speakers, then rename each speaker. Where is my data stored? Only on your device. We have zero access. Note: If you delete the app, your recordings are deleted too (because we don't keep secret backups). Please export important files regularly. Can I summarize a transcript? Yes — copy it into whichever AI tool you prefer. Whisper Notes itself never uploads anything; your audio and text stay on your device. What if I switch apps while transcribing? iOS limits background processing, so transcription pauses and continues automatically when you come back. Which devices are recommended? iPhone 12 and newer. Older devices (iPhone 11, iPhone SE 2nd gen) are not recommended—the app will not function properly on these devices. What languages are supported? English, Español, Français, Deutsch, Português, Italiano, Nederlands, 简体中文, 繁體中文, 日本語, 한국어, Hindi, Arabic, Русский, Türkçe, Polski, Українська, Tiếng Việt, Thai, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia, Svenska, Norsk, Dansk, Suomi, Čeština, Greek, Hebrew, Română, Magyar, Persian, Urdu, and 65+ more languages. ■ Contact Questions? Email support@whispernotes.app Learn more: whispernotes.app
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Whisper Notes at $7.99 against iA Writer's $19.99. Whisper Notes also leads on chart position (#5 vs #43). iA Writer's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and update cadence 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 Whisper Notes $7.99 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 Whisper Notes. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.5K and 679 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of iA Writer's written reviews are positive against 66% of Whisper Notes's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iA Writer | Whisper Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 | $7.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (1.5K ratings) | 4.7 (679 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.1% of reviews — better | 66.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.5K — better | 679 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #43 | #5 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 70 MB | 656 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Information Architects AG | SmashMelon LLC |
Customer experience
iA Writer
Whisper Notes
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
Whisper Notes
From 679 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and accurate transcription
- 🔒 Offline, private processing
- 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
- 💡 Affordable one-time purchase
- 🚀 Impressive speech recognition accuracy
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes or freezes with longer recordings
- 🐛 Inconsistent performance on older devices
- 🐛 Transcription errors or missing punctuation
- 🐛 Inability to edit transcribed text
- 🐛 Lack of batch export/import functionality
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
Whisper Notes
Reported bugs
4 issues- Recordings disappearing after transcription
- Transcription process getting stuck at 1%
- Crashes on certain iOS/iPadOS versions
- Inability to import audio files consistently
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for speaker diarization
- Implement real-time transcription mode
- Allow customization of hotkey/shortcut
- Improve integration with Apple Shortcuts
- Provide option to choose transcription model size
In-app purchases
iA Writer
No in-app purchases
Whisper Notes
No in-app purchases









