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Best Text Editing Apps for iPhone (2026)
Quick answer
Runestone Text Editor is the top-ranked of the 8 tiered text editing apps on iPhone, at S tier with 4.7/5 from 3,309 ratings.
Tier list
Top 5
- 1
- 2
- 3
iA Writer: Get FocusedA tier★ 4.6 · 5.3K ratings · $19.99 - 4
★ 4.6 · 2.7K ratings · Free + IAP - 5
Key takeaways
- Runestone Text Editor ranks #1 of the 8 tiered text editing apps, S tier with a score of 92 out of 100.
- The highest-ranked free app with no in-app purchases is TextEditor (#5).
- Documents (Office Docs) has the most App Store ratings here: 155,623, averaging 4.5/5.
- 3 of the 8 tiered apps reach S or A tier.
- iA Writer carries Apple's Editors' Choice badge.
What belongs in this list
Create and edit plain text files on an iPhone.
Not here: Markdown editing alone; a document editor with page layout alone; a code editor alone; editing text in photos alone; a notes app with no file editing alone
How we pick
For this list we ask the App Store the same searches a person would, in several countries, and keep every app it returns. A model reads each app's listing and rejects the ones that only mention the use case. Every app that stays is scored out of 100 from four parts, each 0 to 100 and averaged: its App Store rating, how many people rated it, where the App Store itself ranks it for this list's searches, and how recently its current version shipped. An app showing Apple's Editors' Choice badge gets a fifth part of 100, which can only lift its score. Apps whose maker has verified ownership get a small score component, because an active maker is a sign the app is kept up to date. It never decides a tier on its own. Updated daily. Tiers follow fixed score bands: S from 90, A from 80, B from 70, C from 60, D from 50, F below. On a list of 20 or more ranked apps, a tier from S to D takes in new apps only up to a quarter of the top 40: an app pushed out of a full tier falls to the next tier with room, and F takes the rest. Read the full method →
Compare every app
| # | App | Tier | Score | Rating | Ratings | Price | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Runestone Text EditorBest overall | S | 91.8 | 4.7 | 3,309 | Free + IAP | |
| 2 | Text Editor.Most recently updated | A | 88.8 | 4.3 | 6,268 | Free + IAP | |
| 3 | A | 87.2 | 4.6 | 5,255 | $19.99 | ||
| 4 | Paper: Writing App, Notesprovisional | C | 66.6 | 4.6 | 2,702 | Free + IAP | |
| 5 | TextEditor : Rich Text EditorBest free | C | 64.3 | 4.4 | 8,354 | Free download | |
| 6 |  Just Write - App For Writerprovisional | C | 62.6 | 4.3 | 2,300 | Free + IAP | |
| 7 |  Documents (Office Docs)Most rated | C | 62.1 | 4.5 | 155,623 | Free download | |
| 8 |  Hanx Writerprovisional | F | 33.7 | 3.7 | 3,525 | Free + IAP |
New in the last 30 days
Questions people ask
What is the best text editing app for iPhone?
Runestone Text Editor, S tier, ranked #1 of 8, rated 4.7 by 3,309 people.
Which text editing apps are free?
7 of 8 are free to download: Runestone Text Editor (S), Text Editor. (A), Paper: Writing App, Notes (C), TextEditor : Rich Text Editor (C) and more. 5 of them sell in-app purchases. 2 report no in-app purchases.
Which text editing app has the best App Store rating?
Runestone Text Editor at 4.7 from 3,309 ratings.
How many text editing apps reach S or A tier?
3 of 8.