Not Emacs vs Vimlike
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Not Emacs
A programmer's text editor that mimics common Emacs keybindings and supports iCloud document syncing across devices. It offers syntax highlighting for several languages and is optimized for external keyboards, with an extended virtual keyboard as a backup.
- Emacs keybinding support
- iCloud document editing
- Syntax highlighting (Lisp, Scheme, JS, CSS, XML)
- External Bluetooth keyboard optimization
- Extended virtual keyboard
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Not Emacs is a text editor for programmers that supports many of the most common emacs keybindings. It allows editing iCloud documents that are automatically available from other devices. The app has been designed to be used with an external Bluetooth keyboard, but if you forgot it at home, it is still possible to get by with the extended virtual keyboard. This app is based on the ymacs editor (http://www.ymacs.org) and the Gambit Scheme programming system (http://gambitscheme.org). It has syntax highlighting for the following languages: Lisp, Scheme, JavaScript, CSS and XML.
Vimlike
Enhance your Safari browsing with Vim-like keyboard navigation, link labeling, and an AI assistant for page interaction. Customize shortcuts and clean up web pages for a more efficient and personalized experience.
- Vim keybindings for navigation
- Link labeling for quick access
- AI assistant for page interaction
- Customizable shortcuts and site clean-ups
- Search bar for tabs, history, and web
- Keyboard editor for command mapping
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Vimlike puts vim's keys on every page in Safari. j and k scroll, f labels every link, o opens one bar for tabs, history, search and the AI. Version 2.0 adds an assistant that works the page, shortcuts and clean-ups the AI makes for each site, signed site packs and a keyboard editor. Free. No in-app purchases, no account, no tracking. iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro. KEYBOARD h j k l, gg, G, d, u. Link hints turn every link on screen into a one- or two-letter jump: f labels them, type the label to open, ⇧F opens in a background tab. t new tab, x close, q and w previous and next, ⇧Z reopen, g1…g9 by number. ⇧H back, ⇧L forward, gu up one URL level, yy copy the URL. Normal mode to navigate, Insert to type; Esc returns, and ` or § can stand in for it on iPad keyboards. Video full screen and picture in picture, zoom, and ? for the cheat sheet. SEARCH BAR Press o and type. The bar searches your open tabs, your local history, your top sites and the web in one list. ↩ opens the highlighted row; ⌘↩ sends the text to the AI instead. ↑ on an empty bar walks back through what you ran, like a shell. : opens your saved commands; / finds a link on the page by name. AI ASSISTANT Ask about the page, or have it do the work. It clicks, types, picks from menus, pulls tables out, opens tabs and reads your other tabs, with 28 tools. It asks before anything it cannot undo. Saved commands like :sum, :table, :translate and :links, plus your own. Five kinds of tool, each Allow, Ask or Deny, and a step limit per run. A long answer opens as a page you can copy as Markdown or print. Pick Apple Intelligence as the provider and it runs free on Apple's Private Cloud Compute, nothing to sign up for, nothing kept (iOS 27, iPadOS 27 or macOS 27 with Apple Intelligence on). Or use your own key for Claude, OpenAI, Gemini or DeepSeek; the key goes in the Keychain. Or Open in browser mode, which opens ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity or DeepSeek in a new tab with your prompt and the page's text already typed in. SHORTCUTS AND CLEAN-UPS FOR EACH SITE Suggest shortcuts reads the page's places and proposes keys: gj JavaScript, gl Learn, gb the blog. The keys work while you try them; Save keeps them, Esc discards. A key is a click or an address, never a script. Clean up this page hides ads, banners, the sidebar or comments with styles you can remove later; the main text can never be hidden. By hand, gk on any page: click an element, press a key, name it. KEYBOARD EDITOR Settings › Keyboard lists every command. Pick a command, record a key, exclude it on sites where it gets in the way. Conflicts are flagged as you go. Script mode keeps the settings script for anyone who prefers to write it. SITE PACKS One signed file for one website: keys for its places, a few AI commands, CSS, and the Vimlike keys it hands back so the site's own shortcuts still work. YouTube, Gmail, Google Search and News, Reddit, Wikipedia, GitHub, Hacker News, Netflix and more. Verified on your device each time it runs, no JavaScript. Updates keep your switches and re-keyed keys. VISUAL AND CARET MODE v starts a selection, ⇧V selects by line, c places a caret you move first. Then vim's motions: hjkl, w b e, 0 $, f and t to a character, aw a word, as a sentence. y copies, / finds text, : asks the AI about the selection. PRIVACY No account and no server. Nothing about your browsing is collected. The bar's history is stored on the device and can be deleted in Settings. API keys live in the Keychain, never given to the page. Settings sync through your own iCloud, or stay on one device. With an AI provider, your prompt and the page's text go to the provider you chose and nowhere else. Languages: English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Cantonese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese. Requires iOS and iPadOS 16.6 or later, or macOS 13 or later. Vimlike needs access to websites to take over the keyboard shortcuts; you choose which sites in Safari.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Vimlike at 4.7 against Not Emacs's 4.0. Vimlike also leads on review sentiment (85% vs 50%). Not Emacs's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (6.1 vs 16.6). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Vimlike holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 30 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Not Emacs's written reviews are positive against 85% of Vimlike's.
Not Emacs ships an update every 2 weeks, Vimlike every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Not Emacs | Vimlike |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (21 ratings) | 4.7 (30 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 84.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 21 | 30 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 6.1 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Marc Feeley | Jasmine Studios |
Customer experience
Not Emacs
Vimlike
Bugs and requests
Not Emacs
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Vimlike
Reported bugs
14 issues- Default mode setting does not work
- Scrolling bug on iPadOS
- Cannot use 'f' to press buttons on webpage
- Hitting F again does not cancel navigation
- Extension not working after a while, requires reinstallation
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- Scrolling no longer works on iPadOS
- Memory leak after Ventura update
- Issues with custom bindings in Gmail
- Scrolling animation feels choppy
- Scrolling stuttery on iPad Pro with ProMotion
- Cannot get out of YouTube fullscreen with control+u
- Reconfigs don't work
- Safari no longer inserts username/passwords
- Extension not working on Google Domains
Requested features
15 requests- Open search result in current tab
- Customized new tab URL
- Support for opening bookmarks/favorites
- Visual mode for highlighting text
- Custom search URL support
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- Ability to move tabs left/right
- Option to disable scrolling animation
- More subtle color scheme for link selection
- Website specific settings to exclude key bindings
- Simulate 'o' and 'O' from other Vim plugins
- Command focus the URL of the page
- Specify keys for ACTIVATE_LINK command with 'Ignore keyboard layout'
- Command for changing tab order
- Easy in-app config for exclusion list
- Dark mode option
In-app purchases
Not Emacs
No in-app purchases
Vimlike
No in-app purchases








