Comparison

Author vs Smack P

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Author

This app serves as a companion to its macOS counterpart, offering a minimalist and powerful writing experience on iOS devices. It allows users to create and manage their written content seamlessly across platforms.

Highlights
  • Minimalist writing interface
  • Powerful writing tools
  • iOS companion app
  • Syncs with macOS version
Read full description

The iOS companion to Author macOS.

About

Smack P

This tool helps you organize web links into visual "Pages" for easy saving, searching, and sharing. Reduce tab clutter and keep important web resources accessible across devices. Ideal for individuals and teams needing to manage online information efficiently.

Highlights
  • Save web links from browser
  • Organize links into visual Pages
  • Pin single pages or all tabs
  • Reduce tab clutter
  • Access saved links across devices
  • Share link collections
  • AI-powered discovery features
Features
Read full description

Smack P helps you organize the web into Pages that are easy to save, search, share, and use again. Instead of losing useful links across open tabs, old folders, chat messages, documents, and emails, Smack P gives you a visual way to keep important web resources organized around the way you actually work. Create Pages for projects, teams, customers, research, departments, workflows, or personal collections. Save links into the right place, keep them organized, and come back to them whenever you need them. The Smack P browser extension makes saving web resources fast. When you find a page you want to keep, click the Smack P button in your browser toolbar, choose where it belongs, and pin it directly into Smack P. The link is added to the selected Page so you can find it later instead of leaving another tab open or dropping another link somewhere you may forget. You can also save an entire browser window at once. Right-click the Smack P extension button and choose the option to pin all tabs from your current browser window into Smack P. This is especially useful when you are doing research, collecting project resources, gathering customer links, preparing for a task, or cleaning up a browser window full of tabs you do not want to lose. Smack P is built for individuals, teams, and organizations that need a better way to organize the web. Use Smack P to: • Save useful websites directly from your browser • Pin a single page with the extension button • Pin all tabs from a browser window into Smack P • Organize links into visual Smack P Pages • Group resources by project, team, customer, workflow, or topic • Reduce tab clutter without losing important work • Access saved links across devices • Share useful collections with the right people • Keep organization knowledge easier to find • Use AI-powered discovery features for organization Pages, where available For organizations, Smack P helps turn saved links into searchable team knowledge. Teams can collect important resources in one place, organize them into shared Pages, and make internal web resources easier to rediscover. Organization features may include AI-powered search, AI summaries, AI tags, and semantic discovery depending on your Smack P plan and organization settings. The extension is simple by design. To save one page: Find a useful web page Click the Smack P browser button Choose where to save it Pin the link to Smack P Return to it later from your Smack P Pages To save all tabs in a browser window: Open the browser window with the tabs you want to save Right-click the Smack P extension button Choose the option to pin all tabs Save the full set into Smack P Close the tabs without losing the resources Smack P is for people and teams who constantly say, “I know I found that somewhere.” Stop letting useful links disappear. Save them into Smack P and turn browser chaos into organized, searchable Pages.

Screenshots

Author4 screens
Smack P4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Smack P at Free against Author's $19.99. Smack P also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). Author's advantage is rating (3.0 vs 1.0) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 9 months). On ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Smack P is free to download; Author costs $19.99 up front. Author sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Smack P asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Author holds the better App Store score, 3.0 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Author has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Author ships an update every 2 months, Smack P every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Author versus Smack P: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAuthorSmack P
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating3.0 (5 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews71.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 9 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision ProiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac
Requires iOS26.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThe Augmented Text Company LTDBLUE STRING COMPANY LLC

Customer experience

Author

All ratings5 ratings
Positive40.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative40.0%
Written reviews137 reviews
Positive71.5%
Neutral6.6%
Negative21.9%

Smack P

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

Author

Reported bugs

20 issues
  • App crashes frequently, causing data loss
  • iOS app shows blank screen and won't open documents
  • iPad app completely non-functional
  • Text disappears or becomes greyed out during iCloud saves
  • Vision OS app lacks cursor for text input
Show 15 more
  • Ask AI feature shows infinite loading spinner
  • Unexpected Russian pricing text displayed to US users
  • App doesn't launch or open on some systems
  • Files not detected in Downloads folder
  • Cannot open documents created in desktop version on iOS
  • Automatic file conversion to Liquid format breaks iOS compatibility
  • Text rendering issues (white text on white background)
  • Table function broken - cannot write in cells
  • App lags and deletes lines when typing quickly
  • Highlight feature not working
  • Citations not resolving automatically
  • Markdown export only exports preamble
  • Copy-paste functionality issues
  • French localization not working despite being advertised
  • App not compatible with iOS 18 and latest macOS versions

Requested features

20 requests
  • iPad and iOS app that actually works
  • Typewriter scrolling mode
  • Variable screen width for large displays
  • Complete LaTeX export with full file support
  • Markdown support
Show 15 more
  • Better image handling and integration
  • Find and replace functionality
  • Dark mode for older macOS versions
  • Inline predictive text support
  • Nested list creation and editing
  • Paragraph indentation options
  • Photo support on macOS version
  • Keyboard shortcut reference guide
  • Table editing improvements
  • Integration with reference management software (Zotero, EndNote)
  • Local AI endpoints or BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) for privacy
  • Better onboarding and UI guidance for new users
  • Typeface options (Courier, American Typewriter, serif fonts)
  • Line spacing options (1.5, double spacing)
  • Color themes and dark mode options

Smack P

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Author

One-time1
  • Export & AIFree
None

Smack P

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Author free?
Author costs $19.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Smack P free?
Smack P is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Author or Smack P?
Author is rated higher. Author averages 3.0 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Smack P averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Author or Smack P have ads?
Neither Author nor Smack P shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Author or Smack P?
Author ships an update every 2 months, and Smack P every 9 months. Most recently, Author was updated on November 1, 2026 and Smack P on November 12, 2026.

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