iA Writer vs Scratch
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
Scratch
A fast and simple note-taking app for capturing ideas, drafting messages, or saving temporary text. It automatically saves your work and offers advanced text correction using AI. Easily copy, paste, share, or clear your notes.
- Automatic saving of all notes
- AI-powered spelling, grammar, and punctuation correction
- One-tap text copying
- Clipboard pasting
- Sharing to other applications
- Customizable appearance modes and colors
- Adjustable text size and haptic feedback
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Scratch es un espacio sencillo y rápido donde puedes escribir cualquier cosa justo cuando la necesitas. Úsala para apuntar una idea, preparar un mensaje, guardar un texto temporal o escribir algo que después quieras copiar y utilizar en otra aplicación. Todo lo que escribas se guarda automáticamente para que puedas volver más tarde sin perderlo. También puedes corregir la ortografía, la gramática y la puntuación de tus textos mediante Apple Intelligence. La corrección conserva el idioma, el significado y el tono original del contenido. Desde su barra de herramientas puedes: • Copiar el texto con un toque. • Pegar contenido desde el portapapeles. • Compartirlo con otras aplicaciones. • Borrar todo cuando quieras empezar de nuevo. Cuando aparece el teclado, la barra de herramientas se coloca automáticamente sobre él para que todas las acciones sigan estando siempre a mano. Además, Scratch permite personalizar el modo de apariencia, el color de la interfaz, el tamaño del texto y la respuesta háptica. Una aplicación directa, cuidada y sin distracciones para escribir, corregir y compartir.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Scratch at $1.99 against iA Writer's $19.99. Scratch also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (100% vs 73%). iA Writer's advantage is ratings volume (1.5K vs 1) and chart position (#31 vs unranked). 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
iA Writer costs $19.99 and Scratch $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Scratch holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iA Writer has 1.5K ratings behind it against 1, 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 Scratch's.
iA Writer ships an update fortnightly, Scratch every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iA Writer | Scratch |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (1.5K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.5K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #31 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 65 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Information Architects AG | Fran Besora Malo |
Customer experience
iA Writer
Scratch
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
Scratch
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
iA Writer
No in-app purchases
Scratch
No in-app purchases









