iA Writer vs MarkNote
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
MarkNote
Create and manage markdown notes with rich formatting, image embedding, and code snippets. Sync across Apple devices via iCloud and access notes from any web browser. Publish notes as blog posts or share them easily.
- Markdown editing with live preview
- Embed photos, images, and code snippets
- iCloud synchronization across devices
- Web browser access for notes
- Publish notes as blog posts
- Graph view for note relations
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Take notes with markdown. Sync notes into iCloud. Access your documents with any of your mac or iOS devices. Share your notes with your friend. You can easily embed photos, format text, create tables, send rich formatted mail message, and share and edit notes from any devices. FEATURES - Embed photos and images into note - Live preview while writing - Auto save - Send mail with rich format - Swipe to delete a note - Syntax highlighting - Embed code snippets and mathematics formulas - Click to update the task status in todo list - Review and edit your notes from any web browsers or smart devices - Sync your notes into iCloud drive, and share with all your devices. You can read and edit your notes with marknote app on iPhone/iPad or marknotes on mac - Publish your note as blog posts - Import web page shared from apps like mobile safari, save in markdown format, so that you can read it later or edit it later - graph view, visualize notes relations You have complete control to your data. SUPPORT If you have any feedback or questions, reach us by mail at marknote@aliyun.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: MarkNote at $1.99 against iA Writer's $19.99. MarkNote also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (86% vs 73%). iA Writer's advantage is ratings volume (1.5K vs 5) and chart position (#28 vs unranked). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 MarkNote $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
MarkNote 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 5, 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 86% of MarkNote's.
iA Writer ships an update fortnightly, MarkNote every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iA Writer | MarkNote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (1.5K ratings) | 4.8 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.3% of reviews | 85.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.5K — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #28 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 65 MB | 63 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Information Architects AG | 淑敏 孙 |
Customer experience
iA Writer
MarkNote
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
MarkNote
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
iA Writer
No in-app purchases
MarkNote
No in-app purchases









