RegEx Knife vs Banish
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
RegEx Knife
This tool simplifies working with regular expressions by allowing users to highlight and edit capture groups, immediately viewing the results. It also facilitates experimentation with regex substitutions, offering a straightforward approach to complex pattern matching.
- Highlight capture groups
- Edit capture groups
- See immediate results
- Experiment with substitutions
- Works on iPhone and iPad
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RegEx Knife is an easy and useful tool for working with Regular Expressions. RegEx Knife is unique in how it allows you to highlight capture groups within a Regular Expression, edit them and immediately see the results. RegEx Knife also makes it easy to experiment with regular expression substitutions. Version 2 retains the simplicity of the original RegEx Knife, with the added advantage that it works on your iPhone as well as your iPad.
Banish
This Safari extension blocks intrusive "Open in App" popups and other website annoyances on your iPhone and iPad. Enjoy a cleaner browsing experience without unwanted interruptions or dark patterns.
- Blocks 'Open in App' popups
- Removes website dark patterns
- One-time purchase
- Private and data-free
- Simple to enable
- Fast and efficient
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BANISH. The #1 Safari Extension to block annoying 'Open in App' popups & other dark patterns on the web. “Banish does one thing and does it well: it nukes dickpanels in Safari on iPhone and iPad” — John Gruber, Daring Fireball "The app proved incredibly useful. For instance, when on Quora, clicking a link to another Quora page would normally pop up a blocker that requires you to log in to continue navigating the website. With Banish, this pop-up was gone and you could use the site normally" — Sarah Perez, TechCrunch PRIVATE Banish does not collect or store any of your data - nothing leaves your device. BUY ONCE Just a one-time purchase and Banish is yours. No subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no ads, no nonsense. FAST The app performs the minimal, necessary changes to block popups and free up screen space. SIMPLE It's as easy as downloading the app and enabling it in Safari settings. No maintenance needed. MODERN Banish is written in Apple's latest programming paradigm Swift UI and Safari Extension functionality. --- NOTE: Even with Banish, Smart Banners can still appear at the top for apps you have installed. They can't be removed because they're built into Safari. Need Help? Contact us at BanishForSafari@gmail.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: RegEx Knife at Free against Banish's $2.99. RegEx Knife also leads on rating (4.3 vs 3.8) and review sentiment (62% vs 39%). Banish's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (263 vs 25). 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
RegEx Knife is free to download; Banish costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
RegEx Knife holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Banish has 263 ratings behind it against 25, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 62% of RegEx Knife's written reviews are positive against 39% of Banish's.
RegEx Knife ships an update every 3 months, Banish every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | RegEx Knife | Banish |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $2.99 |
| Rating | 4.3 (25 ratings) — better | 3.8 (263 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 61.5% of reviews — better | 39.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 25 | 263 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mark Alldritt | Big Pineapple LLC |
Customer experience
RegEx Knife
Banish
Bugs and requests
RegEx Knife
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Banish
Reported bugs
3 issues- Breaks Twitter functionality
- Causes issues with Reddit and other sites
- Doesn't work on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn
Requested features
3 requests- More granular control/whitelisting
- Statistics/logging feature
- Improved compatibility with more websites
In-app purchases
RegEx Knife
No in-app purchases
Banish
No in-app purchases
