iA Writer vs Kaleida
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
iA Writer
This is a minimalist Markdown editor designed for focused writing. It offers features like focus mode, style checking, and AI authorship tracking to help users craft clear and concise text without distractions. Export your work to various formats.
- Distraction-free writing environment
- Focus Mode for sentence/paragraph isolation
- Style Check for clichés and clutter
- AI authorship tracking
- Markdown support
- Export to PDF, Word, HTML
- Configurable ⌘-Key
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iA Writer is the original Markdown writing app. Keep your hands on the keys and your mind in the text. No buttons, no popups, no title bar. Write first, format later. # Professional Text Tools iA Writer is not yet another layout program. It’s an app designed for writing and nothing else. iA Writer has less features and more focus. It doesn’t fill the screen with fonts, styles and toolbars. Every function deepens the focus. # Hyperfocus Focus Mode dims everything but the current sentence or paragraph, keeping you in the flow. It helps you re-feel, re-think, and re-write your text until it says exactly what you mean. # Authorship Did you write this? Or Claude? iA Writer tracks and shows what you wrote and what you pasted. Your words speak in black and white. AI stands out in technicolor. As you type, you make it your own. Don’t let AI speak for you. # The Elements of Style Cut noise, think clearly. Style Check flags clichés and clutter. You decide what to cut and what to keep. It helps you put everything in its right place. # Super Simple Structure text with Markdown. Embed links, photos, and tables, and see them in preview. Export to PDF, to Word, and to HTML. Your file stays in plain text and works everywhere. # Smart Keyboard Quick Search offers outline and fast access to other documents. The configurable ⌘-Key unlocks every function of the app. # The Original Writing App For 16 years, iA Writer has earned awards and praise. Four-time App of the Year winner and 2025 Apple Design Award finalist. Over three million writers have used it to focus on their words. “Beautiful. The gold standard for Markdown.” — John Gruber, creator of Markdown “A clean, simple and distraction-free environment for when you really need to focus on your words.” — The New York Times “A scalpel in a world of Swiss army knives. Powerful simplicity.” — The Guardian "Leaving life's mess for an ideal realm of words." — The New Yorker “Everything goes away except for the writing experience.” — Stephen Fry, actor and writer “It is tiny but it is huge. ” — Augusten Burroughs, bestselling author Try it for free for seven days. # Get in Touch Visit ia.net/writer for more information. Visit ia.net/writer/support for support and feedback.
Kaleida
This app guides you through complex decisions with structured thinking tools. It helps clarify trade-offs, identify risks, explore options, and check your biases to create a comprehensive decision brief.
- Structured thinking tools
- Personalized decision plans
- Trade-off analysis
- Pre-mortem risk assessment
- Options mapping
- Values clarification
- Bias detection
- Decision brief creation
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FOR DECISIONS THAT MATTER The big decisions (should I take this job, should I start a company, should I switch to management) deserve more than lying awake overthinking. They deserve rigorous thinking. --- HOW IT WORKS Tell Kaleida what's on your mind. Answer a few quick questions. Get a personalized plan — a sequence of thinking tools tailored to your decision. Each tool takes a few minutes. You tap, rate, choose. Active thinking, not passive advice. --- 6 WAYS TO THINK IT THROUGH • Trade-offs: Clarify what you can live without • Pre-mortem: Surface the risks before you commit, so you’re not blindsided later • Options Map: Uncover options you haven’t considered • Values Check: Get clear on what matters most to you before you decide • Focus Lens: Zoom in on one angle and explore it deeply • Bias Flags: Check your blind spots --- WHAT YOU GET A Decision Brief — a living record that grows as you work through each step. Your options. Your priorities. Your reasoning. All in one place. And when you make the call, a Memento — a personal keepsake of the decision. What you chose, what you weighed, what you're betting on. Something to look back on years from now. --- WHO THIS IS FOR Kaleida works well for deciding on job offers, big moves, hard conversations. The decisions that shape your trajectory. If you've ever made a pros and cons list, asked a friend "what would you do?", or spiraled at 2am — this is the tool you've been missing. --- FREE AND PREMIUM TIERS Explore the tools for free with 100 credits each week. Subscribe to Kaleida Pro to unlock full decision journeys. Kaleida Pro is a recurring subscription that renews automatically. --- WHY PEOPLE LOVE KALEIDA - “I used Kaleida when deciding if I should quit my job. Friends gave me mixed advice and ChatGPT felt too generic, but Kaleida really understood my situation. It helped me decide without endless second-guessing. Game changer.” - “It feels like a real thought partner. Great tool for figuring out complicated situations.” --- Note: Kaleida uses AI to create personalized step-by-step plans, questions, and reflections. It's designed to increase clarity and to improve decision making, but it’s not a replacement for professional medical, legal, financial, or mental health advice. By downloading Kaleida, you confirm you understand that. --- By downloading Kaleida you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy and Apple's EULA: https://trykaleida.com/terms https://trykaleida.com/privacy https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Support: support@trykaleida.com --- Make choices that age well.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Kaleida at Free against iA Writer's $19.99. Kaleida also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 73%) and rating (4.8 vs 4.6). iA Writer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and ads (none vs shown). On 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
Kaleida is free to download; iA Writer costs $19.99 up front. Kaleida sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $5.00 per 7 days. iA Writer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Kaleida holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iA Writer has 1.6K ratings behind it against 18, 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 100% of Kaleida's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iA Writer | Kaleida |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (1.6K ratings) | 4.8 (18 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 72.8% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.6K — better | 18 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #24 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 70 MB | 231 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Information Architects AG | Spacenotes |
Customer experience
iA Writer
Kaleida
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
Kaleida
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
iA Writer
No in-app purchases
Kaleida
- Kaleida Pro Weekly$5.007 Days
- Kaleida Pro Monthly$14.001 Month
- Every 3 months$35.003 Months
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- Kaleida Pro Yearly$79.991 Year
- Unlock one decision$14.99









