Comparison

iA Writer vs Kaleida

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

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.

Highlights
  • Structured thinking tools
  • Personalized decision plans
  • Trade-off analysis
  • Pre-mortem risk assessment
  • Options mapping
  • Values clarification
  • Bias detection
  • Decision brief creation
Read full description

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

iA Writer4 screens
Kaleida4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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 1.5K 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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard10 real differences · 1 level
iA Writer versus Kaleida: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriA WriterKaleida
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (1.5K ratings)4.8 (18 ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.5K — better18
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#22 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size70 MB231 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperInformation Architects AGSpacenotes

Customer experience

iA Writer

All ratings1,543 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral3.4%
Negative8.2%
Written reviews1,015 reviews
Positive73.0%
Neutral9.2%
Negative17.8%

Kaleida

All ratings14 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative7.1%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Kaleida

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

iA Writer

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

Kaleida

Subscriptions4
  • Kaleida Pro Weekly$5.007 Days
  • Kaleida Pro Monthly$14.001 Month
  • Every 3 months$35.003 Months
Show 1 more
  • Kaleida Pro Yearly$79.991 Year
One-time1
  • Unlock one decision$14.99

Questions

Is iA Writer free?
iA Writer costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Kaleida free?
Kaleida is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iA Writer or Kaleida?
Kaleida is rated higher. iA Writer averages 4.6 out of 5 from 1.5K ratings, while Kaleida averages 4.8 from 18 ratings.
Do iA Writer or Kaleida have ads?
Kaleida shows ads; iA Writer does not.
Which is updated more often, iA Writer or Kaleida?
iA Writer ships an update every 2 weeks, and Kaleida every 2 weeks. Most recently, iA Writer was updated on October 29, 2026 and Kaleida on October 28, 2026.

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