Although we'd love to tell you there is one best writing app to rule them all, it simply isn't true. The best writing app is the one that helps you with the unique challenges of whatever you're writing. Do you need an app that has scene cards for mapping out a screenplay, one that reduces distractions, or one that can publish directly to a website? We've been reviewing writing apps for over a decade, so you can trust that we can help you get words down on the page. Final Draft (for script writing), Scrivener (for structured writing), and Ulysses (for distraction-free writing) are our current Editors' Choice winners, but one of the other apps on our list might speak to you better. Check out our in-depth reviews of each pick below, along with what you need to know to choose the best one for your needs.
Overview
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![Final Draft]()
Best for ScreenwritingFinal Draft
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![Scrivener]()
Best for Genre TemplatesScrivener
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![Ulysses]()
Best for Distraction-Free WritingUlysses
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![Fade In]()
Best for Screenwriting on a BudgetFade In
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![Storyist]()
Best for Word Processor PowerStoryist
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![iA Writer]()
Best for Online PublishingiA Writer
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![Script Studio]()
Best for Referencing Films While WritingScript Studio
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![yWriter]()
Best for Scene-Based WritingyWriter
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![Novelize]()
Best for Web-Based Novel WritingNovelize
You Can Trust Our Reviews
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
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![Final Draft]()
Best for ScreenwritingFinal Draft
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Final Draft is the industry standard for professionals who write or make movies and television shows. It's a mature product with lots of viewing options and tools for plotting out your entire story.
Who It's For
Final Draft is the writing software to choose if you are in the screenwriting business. It has all the features you need to get the script right from both the story and technical perspectives. Final Draft also has templates for other kinds of writing, such as graphic novels.
Specs & Configurations
Collaboration Features iOS App Library Mac App Price Is $249.99 Screenplay Formats Windows App Learn More Final Draft Review -
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Credit: Literature & Latte
![Scrivener]()
Best for Genre TemplatesScrivener
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Scrivener is the best writing app on the market for long-form works. It gives you everything you need to research, compose, reorganize, and edit your writing for a low, one-time price. The app provides lots of templates to help you get started, and granular toolbars are never far away.
Who It's For
Scrivener is ideal for writing novels, nonfiction books, dissertations, and other long-form works. It's affordable enough for professionals and aspiring professionals alike. This is also the app to get if you like a lot of structure.
Specs & Configurations
iOS App Library Mac App Price Is $59.99 Screenplay Formats Windows App Learn More Scrivener Review -
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Creidt: Ulysses
![Ulysses]()
Best for Distraction-Free WritingUlysses
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
If you're looking for a distraction-free writing environment that doesn't skimp on features, Ulysses is the app to get. It pares down, eliminates, or hides menu options to keep the interface simple and minimal. Ulysses can even track writing goals and publish content directly to Medium and WordPress.
Who It's For
Ulysses is the best writing app if you don't want to deal with the bloated menus of a traditional word processor. Just keep in mind that it doesn't coach you through your draft the way some other writing apps do and that it's available only on Apple devices.
Specs & Configurations
iOS App Library Mac App Price Is $39.99 per Year Supports Markdown Learn More Ulysses Review -
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![Fade In]()
Best for Screenwriting on a BudgetFade In
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Fade In is a capable screenwriting app with most of the features scriptwriters need. It's an excellent and more affordable alternative to Final Draft, with real-time collaboration features and support for industry-standard formatting conventions.
Who It's For
Fade In's reasonable, one-time price makes it a top choice for aspiring screenwriters. You don't lose out on too much compared with Final Draft, either.
Specs & Configurations
Android App Collaboration Features iOS App Library Mac App Price Is $79.95 Screenplay Formats Windows App Learn More Fade In Review -
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![Storyist]()
Best for Word Processor PowerStoryist
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Storyist is a dedicated writing app for Apple devices that has the power of a word processor. It has formatting options galore, including style sheets, which help writers create works with consistent formatting.
Who It's For
Storyist gives long-form writers all the tools they need, including a corkboard view and folders for plot notes and character development. Its one-time price is reasonable, too.
Specs & Configurations
iOS App Library Mac App Price Is $59.00 Screenplay Formats Learn More Storyist (for Mac) Review -
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![iA Writer]()
Best for Online PublishingiA Writer
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Taking minimalism to the extreme, iA Writer may have the fewest built-in distractions of any writing app. It's relatively inexpensive, too.
Who It's For
iA Writer is an excellent choice for bloggers and short-form writers. It's also a good choice if you prefer to write in Markdown language.
Specs & Configurations
Android App iOS App Mac App Price Is $29.99 Supports Markdown Windows App Learn More iA Writer Review -
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![Script Studio]()
Best for Referencing Films While WritingScript Studio
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Script Studio’s standout feature is its inclusion of popular movie scripts you can use as models for your own. The app has a decent set of features for helping you draft, plot, organize, and write, too.
Who It's For
Script Studio is best for screenplay and teleplay writers (script is in its name, after all), but you can also use it to compose novels and other works. Its one-time price is somewhat high, but you might prefer that to paying a subscription fee.
Specs & Configurations
Library Mac App Price Is $199.95 Screenplay Formats Windows App Learn More Script Studio Review -
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Credit: yWriter
![yWriter]()
Best for Scene-Based WritingyWriter
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
yWriter is unique because it encourages you to compose small scenes of a novel rather than chapters because the former are more manageable. It also has dozens of places to store details about your work and compiles all this metadata into useful charts and tables.
Who It's For
If you crave organization and data about your work, the free and stats-heavy yWriter app is the choice. It's available for Windows and mobile platforms but not macOS.
Specs & Configurations
Android App iOS App Library Mac App Price Is Free Windows App Learn More yWriter Review -
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unknown
![Novelize]()
Best for Web-Based Novel WritingNovelize
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Novelize is one of the few writing apps that works on the web. It's easy to use and capable enough to handle young adult series, novellas, and other simple pieces with plenty of styling tools.
Who It's For
Novelize is for creative writers who specifically don't want downloadable writing software and are working on short to medium-length works. Just be prepared to pay a pricey monthly or annual subscription fee.
Specs & Configurations
Library Price Is $65 per Year Web App Learn More Novelize Review -
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4.5 Outstanding |
4.5 Outstanding |
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4.0 Excellent |
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3.5 Good |
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Best For | Best for Screenwriting | Best for Genre Templates | Best for Distraction-Free Writing | Best for Screenwriting on a Budget | Best for Word Processor Power | Best for Online Publishing | Best for Referencing Films While Writing | Best for Scene-Based Writing | Best for Web-Based Novel Writing | Best for Screenwriting | Best for Genre Templates | Best for Distraction-Free Writing |
Price Is | $249.99 | $59.99 | $39.99 per Year | $79.95 | $59.00 | $29.99 | $199.95 | Free | $65 per Year | $249.99 | $59.99 | $39.99 per Year |
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Buying Guide: The Best Writing Apps for 2026
How Much Do Writing Apps Cost?
Apps for writers tend to be less expensive than other kinds of software. Many charge a one-time fee, though a few require a subscription. In addition to the cost of the desktop app, you should factor in a potential fee for the service's mobile app, which often costs extra.
We include three types of writing software here:
- Low-cost, lightweight apps that cost around $30 (you can find cheaper ones, but they tend not to be very good).
- Writing apps for long-form writers (such as book authors) that cost between $50 and $75 for a perpetual license or between $50 and $60 per year as a subscription.
- Screenwriting software that costs anywhere between $70 and $250 for a perpetual license.
Some writing apps include storage, but many don't. To make sure you never lose your work, you should back up your work early and often. A cloud storage service like Dropbox or iCloud is often the most convenient solution. The good news is that pages of text don't take up much space, so you might be fine with whatever free allotment of storage you already have. Just keep in mind that you might eventually have to pay for more storage.
What's the Best App for Screenwriting?
As a genre, screenwriting has unique requirements. Scripts for movies, television, and the stage must clearly distinguish between action, scene descriptions, spoken dialogue, and so forth. Scripts do this through formatting. For example, lines of dialogue are always centered on the page, while the name of the character who speaks them is always centered and in all caps directly above the lines. The formatting rules are standard so that all the people involved in creating the final product—actors, directors, editors, and film crews, among others—can understand the script and do their jobs.
Because the formatting for screenwriting is exceedingly precise, it helps tremendously when a writing app applies the correct formatting automatically. Most professional screenwriters use Final Draft, which is the industry standard. In addition to suggesting the correct formatting, Final Draft has a beat board where you can map out the beats of your story and view them on a timeline above your script as you write.
Fade In is a great, low-cost alternative to Final Draft, while Script Studio offers sample scripts to help you structure your work.
What's the Best Writing App for Long-Form Works?
Book authors spend a lot of time simply organizing their manuscripts. Whether it's for fiction or nonfiction works, many authors put an incredible amount of effort into outlining their chapters and sections, moving them around, and trying to structure everything into one cohesive piece. The same can be said for other types of long-form works, such as dissertations, graphic novels, and so forth.
We have two favorite apps for long-form writers. One is Scrivener, which has templates and tools for a variety of genres and forms. The other is Ulysses, which is better if toolbars, menus, and options tend to get in your way; it has a great distraction-free mode.
Writing for Medium, WordPress Blogs, and More
Book authors and screenwriters aren't the only types of writers, of course. Many writers create shorter pieces that they publish directly online, often without ever passing through the hands of an editor, agent, publisher, or movie producer. If you're publishing on Medium or WordPress, it's handy to have a writing app that can seamlessly export your work to those platforms.
Ulysses and iA Writer both integrate with Medium and WordPress. Like Ulysses, iA Writer is a distraction-free writing app, but it's much more pared-down. It has some neat functions, such as text transclusion, which allows you to use inline commands to import and order sections, files, and images. In other words, you can make a document that essentially says, "Pull in all the text from this file, then place this image after it, and then pull in the text of this other file." Using this method, the text of your document could be all of four sentences long and yet produce a final piece that, when exported, is 25 pages long.
Which Distraction-Free Apps Support Markdown?
If you're after minimalism, getting an app with a distraction-free mode or view is a great place to start. You may also want to write in Markdown language.
Markdown is a lightweight set of codes that you use to apply formatting instead of using the rich-text formatting options that are common in word processors. If you've ever typed asterisks or double asterisks (depending on which app you're using) around a word to make it bold like this, that's Markdown. The idea is that by removing menu options and toolbars for formatting, you can simply focus on writing.
Ulysses, iA Writer, and Byword all support Markdown natively and focus on delivering a distraction-free interface. A few other apps allow you to write in Markdown, but they don't necessarily emphasize it or minimize other kinds of interface elements.
Additional Tools to Improve Your Writing
Some writers need a little bit of help to make their words flow or to smooth out word choice when they aren't native speakers of the language. In such instances, tools such as Hemingway Editor (a tool that steers you toward brevity), AI keyboards, or Grammarly might help. Grammarly, in particular, is popular among non-native English speakers because it's very good at hunting down typos and repetitive phrases. It also makes suggestions for word choices that might not be quite right.
Grammarly isn't a writer's app in the sense that the other apps on this list are, since it doesn't have any tools for organizing your writing or ideas. But you can use it in tandem with another writing app, including Final Draft. If your app of choice doesn't integrate directly with Grammarly, you can use the Grammarly browser extension for web-based tools.
Alternatives to Writing Apps
If you decide that a dedicated writing tool just isn't for you and that you prefer a plain old word processor, see our list of the top office suites. Microsoft Word is the industry standard because of its advanced features and exceptional reliability, while the online-focused Google Docs might appeal more for collaboration.