best creative writing software for windows

Book Writing Software (2024): Top 10 for Writers

by Joe Bunting | 20 comments

Writing a book is hard. I've written fifteen books and at some point during each one I had the thought, “There has to be a tool, a piece of book writing software, that would make it easier to reach my writing goals.”

The good news is there  is  book writing software that can make the writing process and meeting your daily goals easier!

(The better news is that once you've found the right software, we have the best resources to help you finish your book, like this book idea worksheet , which will get you started on your book in just a few minutes. Get your free copy here. )

In this article, we will cover the ten best pieces of software for writing a book and look at the pros and cons of each. Click the links below to get our review on the best writing software.

Best Writing Software: Contents

• Google Docs
• Google Sheets OR Microsoft Excel
• ProWritingAid
• Publisher Rocket
• Microsoft Word
• Bonus: Note Taking Apps
• Bonus: Google Drive OR Dropbox

Worst Pieces of Software for Writing a Book

Before we discuss writing software that will help you write a beautiful book, it's important to understand (and eliminate) what will hurt your writing progress. At least while you're writing a book:

• Video Games.  Especially World of Warcraft (always, always, always!) but also Solitaire, Sudoku, Angry Birds, Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, and Wild Rift/League of Legends.

• Facebook, TikTok, and Other Social Media Software.  Do I really need to say more? Fortunately there's a piece of book writing software for avoiding this very distracting software (see Freedom below). You can't write a book if you spend you writing time publishing social media posts.
• Other Productive Software Not Directly Associated With Your Writing.  Yes, it's good to reconcile your bank account on Quickbooks or make sure you're up to date on your calendar app, but responsible, well-meaning work can easily be an excuse for a quick distraction that turns into a major distraction from writing your book.

Set aside time for your writing every day and then stay focused. If you need a game, make writing your daily word count your game. If you want more “likes” on social media, imagine how great getting five-star reviews on your book will be.

If you need to check your bank balance several times a day, think about what your bank balance will be when you stop checking it constantly, finish your book, and become a successful author. Now let's talk about some book software for authors that can help you with your book writing process.

The 10 Best Pieces of Book Writing Software

First, there is no such thing as the perfect book writing software. No amount of key features or book writing templates or editing features will write a book for you. Still, these ten book writing software options can help. Take a look at the pros and cons of each:

1. Scrivener (Word Processor)

Scrivener  is the premier book writing app made by writers  for  writers. Scrivener's “binder” view allows you to break up your book into chapters and sections and easily reorganize it with drag and drop interface.

You can also get a high-level view of your book using the corkboard and outliner modes, allowing you to view book chapters, sections, or individual scenes as index cards. Project targets let you create word count goals and then track your progress daily. Its composition mode can help you stay focused by removing all the clutter.

Scrivener has formatting features for publishing (e.g. on Amazon or Barnes & Noble), as well as basic features for distraction-free writing, and has templates for novels, nonfiction books, screenplays, and more.

You can read our  full Scrivener review here .

To be fair, Scrivener also has its weaknesses. Formatting is more complicated than it needs to be and collaborating isn't easy, meaning it loses its effectiveness as soon as you bring on an editor (we recommend Google Docs for collaborating).

You can sync with your iPhone/iPad, but only through Dropbox, making it not as easy as it should be. It also has something of a learning curve, especially for its advanced features. But it more than makes up for that by being so helpful in the early stages of the writing process. Again, here are the pros and cons for Scrivener.

Pros of Scrivener:

• Easily manage a large book writing project (or screenplay) in the binder view
• Get a high-level view of your book's structure using corkboard and outliner views
• Manage your writing productivity with project targets and deadlines
• iPhone and iPad app

Cons of Scrivener: 

• Formatting can be overly complicated
• Learning curve
• ​Syncing with Dropbox isn't always easy
• No Android app

We believe in Scrivener so much, we published a book about how creative writers can write more faster using it. It’s called  Scrivener Superpowers .  If you’re using Scrivener or want a tutorial to save yourself time as you learn how to use it for your creative writing, you can  get Scrivener Superpowers here . You can also learn more about how to use the software with one of these resources:

• Scrivener Superpowers  by M.G. Herron
• 3 Reasons I Love Scrivener
• Microsoft Word vs. Scrivener

Cost: $59.99 for Windows, Mac

Scrivener  is the premier book writing app made by writers  for  writers. It's powerful set of tools allow you to write, organize, edit, and publish books.

• Easily manage writing projects
• Made by writers for writers
• Corkboard and outliner views
• Project targets and deadlines
• iPhone and iPad app
• Complicated formatting
• Steep learning curve
• ​Syncing isn't always easy

2. Dabble (Word Processor)

Similar to Scrivener, Dabble is a word processor that gives you the power to organize and rearrange scenes and chapters using drag and drop, manage your word count goals to keep to a deadline, and plot like a pro. (Screenshots seen here are in the optional dark mode.)

Dabble has a plot grid that allows you to easily see a macro view of your story. You can rearrange as needed, find plot holes easily, and make notes on each plot point as detailed as you like. 

Collaboration is easy. You simply add a co-author and they will be sent an invitation. They must also have a subscription or they will only be able to read the document. 

You can insert images in any scene or note, or add title images to chapters or full page images within or between chapters. You can even set cover art for the manuscript. 

Focus mode in Dabble is automatic. Simply start typing and everything else fades away. No need to worry about saving every few minutes either.

Dabble is cloud-based and automatically saves as you go. You can access your manuscripts everywhere: in your browser, on your phone, or in the desktop app. As you're writing, you can make notes and comments.

Don’t want to type? You can dictate. And when you’re done writing, there’s a Read to Me feature that reads your manuscript to you!

Cost : Subscription plans range from $10/month to $20/month; Lifetime access cost is $499; 14-day free trial 

Dabble is a word processor designed specifically for books. It gives you the power to organize and rearrange scenes and chapters using drag and drop, manage your word count goals to keep to a deadline, and plot like a pro. 

• Easy Learning Curve
• Streamlined collaboration
• Cloud-based syncing
• Built-in Dictation
• Easy Exporting
• Word count targets and deadlines
• Plotting tool
• Subscription service
• Lifetime access cost is high
• Only simple formatting options

3. Google Docs (Word Processing)

While Scrivener and Dabble are a great book  writing  software, once you get to editing and getting feedback, it begins to fall short. That's why Google Docs has become my go-to piece of book writing software for collaborating with editors, beta readers, and other writers.

It's free, easy to use, and requires no backups since everything is in the cloud.

Best of all are its collaboration abilities, which allow you to invite your editor to the document and then watch as they make changes, which are tracked in suggestion mode, and leave comments on your story (see screenshot below).

I also like the outline feature in the left sidebar. You can display it by clicking View > Show Outline. Then format the chapters and main sections of your manuscript as headings to make them appear in the document. You can then easily visualize and even click through your book to navigate it. This feature isn't as useful as Scrivener and Dabble's binder, but it makes navigating your book much easier.

While not the best for brainstorming, writing, or organizing your book, Google Docs, the free word processor available in Google Drive, is the single best word processor for collaborating with co-writers, beta readers, or editors.

• Real-time collaboration with editors, beta readers, or other writers
• Suggestion mode
• Outline View
• Few large-document organization features
• No productivity features
• Usually requires an internet connection

4. Google Sheets OR Microsoft Excel (Spreadsheet)

If you’d told me when I was first trying to become a writer that one of my most-used tools in my book writing software toolkit would be a spreadsheet, I would have told you I didn't major in English to have to use a spreadsheet.

But now, as I'm finishing my fifteenth book, I realize that I use spreadsheets almost daily. Spreadsheets allow you to get a sense of the elements of your book at a glance, and when you're working on a 300-page document, distilling it down to useable information becomes very necessary.

You might use spreadsheets for:

• Character tracking
• Breakdown of scenes
• A Foolscap/Beat sheet

Google Sheets is perfect for this because it's free and you can quickly share your documents with your writing partners, editors, or beta readers to get feedback.

Microsoft Excel is another great option, but Excel lacks the real-time editing with other users and is overall lacking in the collaboration functions. Still, if you already have Excel, it's a great way to quickly get started plotting your book or managing your project.

• Real-time Collaboration : Work with editors, beta readers, or co-authors in real-time.
• Speed : It's fast and responsive, which is useful for quickly developing an outline or managing a project.
• Cost-effective : It's so cost-effective it's free!
• Handling External Spreadsheets : Managing spreadsheets from other sources like Excel can be annoying.
• Internet Dependency : Although there's an offline mode, the overall experience is better with an internet connection.

• Familiar : If you already own or have used Microsoft Office, it should be familiar to you.
• Advanced Feature : Excel is slightly more powerful than Google Sheets (although for most writing related tasks, you will likely not need advanced features).
• Offline Access : Unlike Google Sheets, Excel doesn't require an internet connection, which is handy for working on-the-go.
• Cost : Unlike Google Sheets which is free, Excel comes with a cost as part of the Microsoft 365 Office Suite.
• Collaboration : Although Excel has collaborative features, they're more streamlined in Google Sheets.

5. Vellum (Book Formatting/Word Processing)

If you want to turn your book into an eBook, it's not that hard. Scrivener, Word, Pages, they all can format eBooks and print books. But that doesn't mean they'll look good. In fact, it takes a lot of skill and effort to format a printed book that looks good on any of those word processors.

That's why I love Vellum so much.

Vellum makes beautiful books.

Vellum picks up where Scrivener, Word, and Pages leave off, giving you a tool to make great looking eBooks and print books, usually in under an hour. The most important part of this is the previewer (see the image below), which lets you see how each formatting change or book edit you make will appear on Kindle, Fire, iPhone, Nook, and other eReaders.

It also has stripped-down, option-based formatting, which is perfect for designing both eBooks and print books. I really love this writing app!

Vellum is a book formatting tool to quickly and easily create beautiful eBooks and print books, often within an hour. It features a book previewer which allows you to see how your book will look on various eReaders and in print, and offers a simplified, option-based formatting to format beautiful books faster.

• Ease of Use: Easy to navigate and use, even for inexperienced writers.
• Quick Formatting: The simplified, option-based formatting lets you create books in as little as an hour.
• High-Quality Aesthetics: Delivers visually beautiful books.
• Book Previewer Tool: View how your book will appear on various eReaders as you work.
• Platform Limitation: Restricted to Mac users.
• Style Restrictions: Limited design and styling options can be a drawback for some.
• Cost: Higher price point compared to some other formatting software.

6. ProWritingAid (Grammar/Spell Check)

Can a grammar checker replace an editor?

Definitely not. But if you ask Alice Sudlow, our in-house editor, she'll tell you, “If you don’t have access to an editor (or if you do, but you don’t want to hire them to edit your emails or Facebook posts), software that performs grammar checks like  ProWritingAid  is an accessible, affordable alternative.”

If you struggle with grammar mistakes, sentence structure, spelling, or even writing style, ProWritingAid can help. It goes far beyond your built-in spellcheck. You should still learn grammar skills, but ProWritingAid can help you start to see the patterns and grow as a writer.

There's a free version that's very good. It can even be installed into your browser or Word processor, so you can check your grammar wherever you write.

The paid version, just $96 a year with our discount link (33 percent less than Grammarly ‘s price), gives you additional support on sentence structure, style, and vocabulary. Learn more about how writers can get the most out of ProWritingAid here .

• Grammar and Style Correction: Gives "as-you-type" grammar corrections as well as comprehensive style analysis to help you write clearer, more engaging prose.
• Writing Insights: You can learn a lot about your writing style with their detailed reports on readability, sentence structure, and more.
• Integration: You can integrate it with nearly any other writing tool or word processor..
• Subscription Cost: While more affordable than other options, there is a subscription cost for for full access.
• Overwhelming Feedback: Not all the feedback is useful, and without knowledge of the book writing process, you may get distracted by the amount of feedback.
• Internet Requirement: You must have an internet connection for most types of feedback.

• Easy to Use: User-friendly design (slightly more easy to use than ProWritingAid in my opinion).
• Spell-Check and Grammar Check: Detailed spelling and grammar check functionality.
• Goal-Setting Feature: It can help you tailor suggestions based on writing goals.
• Broad Integration: Works with many platforms (the Google Docs integration isn't very good though).
• Cost: While the free plan is robust, the premium plan is more expensive compared to ProWritingAid.
• Google Docs Integration: Lacks a fully functional integration.
• Big Picture Feedback: Does not provide as much overarching edits and style-based feedback as ProWritingAid.

7. Publisher Rocket (Book Marketing App)

How do you know if your book will sell? Wouldn't it be nice to know if there is a market for your book  before  you start writing? How do you find the most readers on Amazon for your published book? For all of these questions, Publisher Rocket has an answer.

Read our  full Publisher Rocket review here .

Publisher Rocket a book marketing research tool that helps you understand what readers actually want  and  how to connect with them with your books. Here are some things you can discover in Publisher Rocket:

• What phrases Amazon buyers are actually searching for.
• The psychology of how readers choose to buy books.
• How much money readers are spending on certain niches and topics.
• How much money specific books are making per month (for example, books that might be competing with yours).

I've personally used Publisher Rocket to take mid-list books to #1 bestseller status on Amazon. It's an amazing tool, perfect for anyone working on a book.

We also like KD Spy, another Amazon research tool (check out our review here ). You can compare and contrast the two tools below:

• Target Popular Keywords: Helps writers find specific phrases readers are using on Amazon to discover books.
• Market Understanding: Offers a clear view of what books are competing with yours (and how many sales they make, historically).
• Category Identification: Find the most relevant Amazon categories for your book.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Works on both PCs and Macs.
• Learning Curve: May require some time and education to fully utilize all features.
• Cost: One-time purchase required.
• Amazon-Centric: Tailored for Amazon, may not be as effective for other platforms.

• Amazon Category Research : Analyze Amazon book categories to understand competition and profitability.
• Keyword Tools : Provides niche and seed keywords to help in market understanding.
• Competition Snapshot : Ability to get an overview of your competitors.
• Traffic Light System : Visual cues to understand keyword difficulty and category competitiveness.
• Limited Keyword Data : Doesn't provide Amazon search numbers.
• Browser Extension : Limited to browser usage, not a standalone software.
• Basic Keyword Tools: Keyword functionalities are quite basic compared to Publisher Rocket.
• Dependent on Amazon : Insights are tailored for Amazon, may not apply to other platforms.

8. Atticus (Book Formatting/Word Processing)

Once you've  written  your book, how do you turn it into something people can actually  read ? If you're self-publishing, you need a tool like Atticus.

Atticus is a book formatting and word processing tool that allows you to take your manuscript and quickly and easily format it for publishing, including print and eBook formats.

But Atticus is more that just a formatter. It's an all-in-one solution for writers, giving you the organization features of Scrivener, the cloud collaboration features of Google Docs,  and  the book formatting abilities of Vellum. Yes, that's just as cool as it sounds!

It also works on all platforms, whether you're working on Windows, Mac, Chromebook, or even Linux. While I still love and use Vellum (see below), the benefit of Atticus is that it works for everyone, not just Mac users. Learn more about Atticus in my full review.

• All-in-One Solution : Combines writing and formatting capabilities seamlessly.
• Multi-Platform Availability : Available on PC, Mac, Linux, and Chromebook.
• Cost-Effective : Priced lower than some competitors like Vellum while offering similar capabilities

Cons: 

• Learning Curve : While intuitive, mastering advanced features may require some time.
• New Software : Being relatively new, it might have fewer features compared to established software, with some desired features planned for future updates.
• Crude Formatting : Out of the box formatting options aren't as refined as Vellum and will require more tweaking.

Atticus is a complete book writing and formatting tool that merges the capabilities of an online word processor with plug-and-play book formatting features. It can function as a one-stop solution for authors, with collaboration tools between authors, editors, and book designers, to take your book from idea to finished, publishable product.

9. Freedom (Productivity App)

One question writers always ask me is, “How can I stay focused enough to finish what I write?” I have too many thoughts on that for this article, but as far as using writing software to encourage focus goes, I recommend Freedom. It's my favorite writing tool for a distraction-free writing experience.

Freedom allows you to enter focus mode, blocking your biggest distractions, including both websites and mobile apps, for a set period of time. So when you mindlessly escape your book to scroll through Facebook, you'll find the site won't load.

You can also schedule recurring sessions, so that at a scheduled time (e.g. Mondays from 6 am to 10 am), you won’t be able to access the sites on your blocklist, even if you try.

There are other apps like this that we've written about before, notably Self-Control for Mac and StayFocused for Windows. But Freedom goes further, allowing you to block sites on both your computer  and  your phone, and enabling recurring sessions.

You can learn more about  how writers can get the most out of Freedom on our review here .

Freedom is a productivity app that can help writers in stay focused by blocking distracting websites and mobile apps for a designated period or during specific schedules, like during your morning writing time.

• Distraction Blocking : Helps you concentrate on writing by blocking distractions.
• Scheduled Focus Sessions : Schedule your focus mode in advance for recurring undistracted writing sessions.
• Mobile Device Syncing : Getting it working with mobile devices can be a bit challenging.
• Bypass Possibility : It's possible to find ways around its blockers if one tries hard enough.

Cost: $29 / year for Pro version, which I use and recommend (there's also a free trial available)

10. Microsoft Word (Word Processor)

Again: no piece of book writing software is going to write your book for you. If you're looking for the next “shiny new toy” to help you write your book, it might be an excuse to avoid doing the hard work of writing.

Most of us learned how to use computers by using Microsoft Word, or a program like it. Word gets the job done. Sure, Scrivener is a little better for books, but I wrote my first book on Word and it's fine.

I wrote a long review of  the pros and cons of using Word to write books —the main problem is that as your document grows, it becomes more and more difficult to work with, whereas with Scrivener, it becomes easier—but the point is, if Word is what you have, don't let that stop you from finishing your book.

You don't need a fancy tool to plan a book in the early stages, like if you draft a character description for your protagonist, or in the editing stages, like if you want to make comments on scene details.

As Jeff Elkins said in  his review of Word , “If you aren’t already putting in the hard work to be the kind of writer you want to be, it doesn’t matter what new writing software you invest in. It is not going to help.”

Microsoft Word is the industry standard word processing software. While limited in its features for writing books, it provides a familiar platform for writers to create, share, and review their work.

• Familiar Interface : Known and used by many, making collaboration easier.
• Extensive Features : Provides a wide range of writing and formatting tools.
• Cost : Requires a subscription to Microsoft 365.
• Lack of Book Writing Features : Despite its extensive feature set, it lacks specialized tools for book writing included with applications like Scrivener or Dabble.
• Lack of Real-Time Collaboration : While it offers some collaboration features, it falls short in real-time collaborative editing compared to some cloud-native applications like Google Docs.

Cost: $69 / year with Microsoft 365 (includes Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and other Microsoft software)

Note:  Another word processor we can't recommend is yWriter, which while it has a cult following and was designed by a fellow novelist, seems to be out of development and has no support for Mac/OSX.

BONUS #1: Google Drive OR Dropbox (Cloud Backup)

There's nothing worse that finishing a great writing session and going to save your work, then your computer crashes and you discover you've lost your best writing. It's enough to send any writer into the throes of grief and depression. There's a simple solution, though: save a copy of ALL your writing to the cloud using Google Drive, Dropbox, or BOTH.

Here's my process:  I have all my Scrivener book files saved on a folder on Google Drive on my computer. Then, Scrivener automatically backs up every few minutes to a Dropbox folder. That way, I know I will always have the document I need, no matter what happens. Best of all, both of these apps have free plans, making it extremely foolish NOT to use them.

Pros of Drive:

• Universal cloud backup
• Automatically syncs
• Free or inexpensive

Cons of Drive:

• Setup is a bit tricky the first time
• Maybe you WANT to lose your writing when your computer crashes

Cost: Free with Paid options

Sign up for Google Drive here »

Sign up for Dropbox here »

BONUS #2: iOS Notes OR Evernote OR Ulysses OR Bear (Note Taking)

When I'm writing for a long time, I like to get up and go for a walk. Sometimes, I wish I could continue writing while I walk. Other times, I find myself brainstorming ideas while I'm not at my computer, typing it up on my phone, and then wanting to easily move what I wrote to my laptop without having to go through the hassle of emailing it back and forth to myself.

That's where note taking apps like Ulysses and Evernote come in.

iOS Notes, Ulysses ,  Evernote , and  Bear  are note taking apps that allow you to sync between all your devices, so you have what you need wherever you are, ideal for jotting down ideas or thinking through your book while you're out and about.

While Scrivener recently released an iOS app which allows you to sync between devices, their process is clunky and requires you to purchase both the mobile and desktop apps. These note taking apps make the process much more seamless.

Like Scrivener, they all have a binder-like sidebar that allows you to move documents around. None of them are designed specifically for books, so they may take a little configuring to make it work for you, but once you have one set up the way you want, it's very intuitive.

And while I hate Markdown, a markup language that allows you to format your text, I actually like the paired-down formatting options Ulysses and Bear give, especially for brainstorming. Overall, I wouldn't convert from Scrivener to any of these apps, but as supplements, they work great.

Pros of Evernote:

• Sync notes between devices
• Write as you go
• Capture ideas

Cons of Evernote:

• Free plan is limited
• Becomes clunky as you get more notes
• Better for note taking than managing a large writing project

iOS Notes  Cost: Free with any iOS device

Get the app here »

Evernote  Cost: Free with Paid options

Ulysses Cost: $45 Note: Ulysses is only available for Mac, either in the App Store or from their website.

Bear Cost: $1.49 monthly / $14.99 yearly Note:  Bear is also only available for Mac, either in the App Store or from their website.

Bonus #3: Hemingway App (Style Checker)

Most writers think their sentences are easier to read than they are. You think you're coming across clearly, that your writing makes sense, but then someone reads it and comes away with something totally different. Hemingway App (sometimes called Hemingway Editor) helps with that.

Hemingway App is a free website that checks readability. You can copy and paste your writing into the website's input box. Then it will grade your writing based on your used of   adverbs , passive voice , and sentences as units . Hemingway App is useful, but even the best book writing software can’t replace a good editor.

Pros of Hemingway:

• Fast, easy style advice

Cons of Hemingway:

• Somewhat arbitrary advice
• Hemingway himself would fail

Cost: Free!

Try out Hemingway App here »

The 30+ Tools Every Writer Needs

Writing is no different, and while the right software is important, it's just one of the many tools you need as a writer.

That's why we published a list of all of our favorite tools for everything related to being a writer.

You can  download our tools for writers guide for free here .

The Most Essential Book Writing Software

Imagine it's three thousand years ago.

You're sitting around a campfire with some of your family and friends, tired from the day's work. You begin to tell a story. It's one you've told before, told a hundred times. You can see faces around the fire, the children with their eyes wide, the men and women who have heard the story before but still enjoy it because it brings meaning to their lives.

Storytellers—writers—have existed since the beginning of humanity. They didn’t always have book writing software. They didn't have the printing press or the internet. They didn't always even have the alphabet to write their stories down. Instead, storytellers had their imaginations, their voices, and a rapt audience. Y

ou don’t need book writing software to write a great story. Book writing software can make the process a little faster or easier, but the truth is great stories will always exist, no matter what kind of software we have.

The only three things essential to writing a great book:

• Your imagination
• A desire to tell your story

That’s all you need. Do you want to write your book? If you do, then do it. Write it. Nothing is stopping you except you.  So go get writing.

What pieces of book writing software do you use?  Let us know in the comments .

The world is full of powerful software to help you write your book. In the end, though, all these tools are just that—tools. The stories you imagine and your discipline to put the words on the page are far more important.

So for this practice, set aside all the fancy software. Eliminate all the bells and whistles and open up your computer's native text editor (TextEdit for Mac or Notepad for Windows).

Take fifteen minutes to write without any distractions.

Continue your work in progress, or start a new story based on this prompt: A student discovers one of their teachers is not what they appear to be.

When you're done, share your writing practice in the Pro Practice Workshop . And if you share, be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers!

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

Work with Joe Bunting?

WSJ Bestselling author, founder of The Write Practice, and book coach with 14+ years experience. Joe Bunting specializes in working with Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, How To, Literary Fiction, Memoir, Mystery, Nonfiction, Science Fiction, and Self Help books. Sound like a good fit for you?

20 Comments

Dragon NaturallySpeaking software. Following a comprehensive beat sheet (created in a screenwriting format), I dictate into MS Word. Grammarly sits to the side. 1000-2000 words a day. Requires a larger screen (mine is a modest 24″) and some computing horsepower. Very effective.

Good one! Personally I use dictation every once in a while, but it’s not my thing. Glad it’s working for you!

I just purchased ProWriting Aid. Its editor, grammar, sentence structure and readability scales. There’s a free app but i wanted the pro. I’m excited about this. I’ve had scrivener on my computer for 2 years and still use word. Learning Scrivener is overwhelming to me.

My practice from my current WIP:

“Please, Captain, may we take his body? Merk did have family.” Harper twisted his cloak in his hands.

“Aye. Do that.” Adam walked to the door, tapping the flat of the sword against his hand as he walked, doing his best to insure the blade touched the plate as little as possible. As he passed the bar, he grabbed the waiting pitcher of ale.

Outside, he found Carter leaning against the tavern wall, staring up at the moon. Without looking over, Carter spoke. “Come to arrest me?”

Adam snorted and passed him the pitcher. “No. Not for killing that filth. You know why his bounty was so high so quickly, right?”

Carter took a sip of the ale. “He carried it with him.”

“Gods, no. He built it entirely here.” Adam leaned against the wall of the building opposite of Carter. He pulled a small pouch and rolled a cigarette. “He killed the governor’s daughter in an argument.”

Carter looked over at his friend. “I thought the Thieves’ Guild didn’t go for killing?” “They don’t. They only took him on as a favor to his previous guild.”

“Let me guess: Assassins.”

Adam pointed at Carter. “Got it first try.”

He offered the cigarette to Carter who declined with a raised hand. Putting it between his lips, he patted his pockets. Carter leaned forward and snapped his fingers, producing a flame for the cigarette. Adam drew in a bit of smoke and nodded at his friend.

“Thanks.” He exhaled a pleasant smelling ring of smoke and glanced at Carter’s empty hand. “You can do magic now?”

“No.” Carter shook his head. “This is due to a minor cantrip on a scroll.”

This was cool and pulled me right into the story. Good work!

My personal favorite is Microsoft Word. It’s easy to use and I’m comfortable with it.

Here’s my practice. I’d appreciate comments/feedback! —

Julia finally slammed into the ground at the bottom of the steps. Swallowing back a sob, she pushed up on her hands and knees and cringed at the shooting pain in her shoulder, which had taken the brunt of the fall.

“Get back here, you little brat,” Sean shouted behind her.

A gasp shuddered into her lungs and she leapt to her feet and broke into a sprint up the sidewalk. She looked over her shoulder. He was still behind her. He shoved people out of his way and kicked over a baby stroller as he charged toward her.

Julia clamped a hand over her mouth as the baby in the stroller wailed. The woman who’d been pushing the stroller righted it and hushed the baby, stroking its head.

Julia kept pumping her legs, but nausea swished in her stomach and a sharp ache started in her chest. How could Sean treat people like that?

She’d probably never know the answer.

Cutting down an alleyway, Julia darted through puddles from the recent rain and chugged quick breaths.

Sean’s yelling voice echoed behind her. “When I get my hands on you I’m going to finish what I started.”

Breathing hard, she yanked herself to a stop by the rung of a ladder and lunged onto it, taking the rungs two at a time. She was shaking. Sean had tried to hurt her once. She wouldn’t let him do it again. Not without fighting back this time.

The ladder quivered and she stopped climbing to stare down between her shoes. Sean ascended, his hands quick on the rungs, his cold blue eyes swallowing her.

A gulp of air rolled down her throat and she pulled herself up faster. She kept her eyes focused high, fixing them on the handles at the top of the ladder. Memories slid their tentacles into her mind. Images of Sean looming over her, holding her down. Her own voice pleading.

Tears welled in Julia’s eyes and she blinked them away. She just had to focus on going up. To the roof. Once she reached it, she could either go into the building through a roof entrance or she could jump to the next building. She’d make it. She had to.

Julia curled her tired, chafed fingers around the vertical handles at the top of the ladder and hauled herself up onto the roof.

Then a hand clamped around her ankle.

I personally use a combination of my notebook, Google docs, Grammarly, Hemmingway editor, and thoughts and critiques from my writing friends. Best thing about paper: it doesn’t have internet.

So true! I find that I can write faster on a computer, but I love the focus you get from writing on paper.

It helps me, sometimes, I think, to feel the words as I write them, which I don’t get when I type. It does make it more of a pain to edit, though it does make it harder to permanently delete whole sections of writing and start over from scratch.

I use Scrivener to write and format my books and recommend it though the learning curve is steep if you want to take full advantage of all its features. But I would recommend the following items.

Pro Writing Aid does so much more than Grammarly. Checks for style, diction, overused words, and things I’d never even heard of before I started using it. there is a free version but the paid version which syncs with Scrivener is a less expensive subscription than Grammarly.

Excel is so limited. I’d recommend Airtable. It is far more flexible and I use it for everything from characters, to accounting, to research, tracking promotions, reviews and more. There are templates for authors. It is intuitive and will do just about anything you want. Support is excellent. Airtable is has a free version (which is all I need), sharable and collaborative.

Then there is Aeon Timeline for plotting and planning. It helps keep your story in order. It is flexible, customizable, and syncs with both Scrivener and Ulysses. It is not expensive and not a subscription, pay once and it is yours.

Rescue time has a free version that helps you track your time spent on various tasks and websites and is useful to prove to the IRS that you are indeed a full time author.

I use all these things daily in my writing. Check them out. They will probably help you too.

I would recommend using FocusWriter to block out any notifications and other programs which are running

Thanks for the great article. I use Google Docs right now and will check into some of the resources you recommended. I am an Astrologer and am writing my first basic Astrology book. I wasn’t clear whether the free handout for novelists would be appropriate for this project, and would appreciate your feedback.

The Hemmingway App no longer free. But $19.99 isn’t much to pay.

Wattpad (which isn’t on the list) is a very good writing site.

Have you had a look at The Novel Factory? Full disclosure, it’s made by me and my tiny team – but it’s starting to really get traction as we get so much positive feedback about how it’s helped people make progress like never before…

Another one you might like to try is http://wavemaker.co.uk It’s new and helps with the planning stages in particular. Disclaimer- I wrote it, but thought you’d like to have a look at least.

For free versions, try One Note. I’ve been using it for years.

I want to write a technical book that would be formatted such that it would be like a textbook and have horizontal bars that would separate topics. I need the ability to repeat essential elements of techniques repeatedly and denote them in various fashions. Any software come to mind for that?

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The Best Writing Software for Authors in 2024 [Free & Paid]

Whenever I come across the question “what is the best writing software?” I tend to focus on something else other than the answer.

To be precise, I start to think contemporary writers really have it easy. A hundred years ago or earlier, this wouldn’t have been an important question.

Don’t get me wrong, I honestly think writing is still a laborious task.

But when you consider that the likes of Shakespeare, Hemmingway, and Ted Geisel, among countless others who never used writing apps to polish their work, the premise that “it’s a bit easier to write nowadays” becomes a bit more accurate.

The process of writing has evolved—we dumped the quill for a pen, then came a typewriter, and finally a computer.

Now we have all sorts of writing tools at our disposal, such as our top-rated Scrivener ,  but finding the right one for “you” can be a bit of a hassle.

That is why I decided to lift some of that burden off your shoulder and review some of the best free and paid writing software for authors available in 2024.

Let’s get started.

Our Top 3 Book Writing Software at A Glance

The best book writing software, 1. scrivener.

Best Overall

When it comes to book editing software, you need to have tools that have a writer’s soul—made for writers by inventive writers.

Scrivener isn’t your standard word processor; it isn’t your regular grammar checker either.

Scrivener—a book-writing software program developed by an aspiring writer called Keith Blount back in 2007—is a package consisting of a typewriter, ring binder, and a scrapbook in one tool.

The software tool comes with valuable features like corkboards, pre-set formatting, templates, file importing, metatags, automated document listing, and many others.

These features are perfect for novelists, scriptwriters, academics, lawyers, translators, journalists, students, and other professional writers .

Key Features:

• Has the Cork Board and Outliner: Easy and convenient organization of notes and book sections.
• Hit the Ground Running: The templates give the user a head start because it saves him/her the time it takes to set a genre-based workspace.
• Goal and Progress Tracking: Scrivener’s customizable Goals and Targets are so important for tracking your progress. They are also helpful when you’re running against a deadline and want to know if you’re picking up the pace or not.
• Weigh your Work : The Snapshots enable you to compare rewrites to original notes.
• Made with Novelists and Fiction Writers in Mind: this software comes with specialized features for novelists and fiction writers, including the Linguistic Focus (MacOS) / Dialogue Focus (Windows).

Scrivener has separate payment plans for the three supported platforms— macOS , iOS , and Windows and they cost $49, $19.99, and $45, respectively.

What I Like About Scrivener

Scrivener has a bunch of features and capabilities that I like. It has customizable interfaces, the desktop apps work offline, offers a very generous trial period, and has specialized features for novelists and fiction writers.

What I Didn’t Like About Scrivener

I found out that Scrivener requires a separate License for each supported platform—which was a bummer. On top of that, the tool doesn’t have a plagiarism checking feature. Oh, did I forget to mention the steeper learning curve?

2. Write! App

Write! is another distraction-free text editor that offers an elegant workspace for you to create notes, to-do lists, create blog posts, novels, and texts of many different kinds.

In Writer App!, you’ll find similar features of a good word processor that have been neatly packed into a well-groomed interface.

It’s sort of like a regular word processor on steroids.

And it has some sleek looks too; Writer App has a browser-styled minimalistic interface that utilizes tabs to help you navigate— for bloggers and writers, the user interface alone is an appealing appetizer.

But the app isn’t all about the looks; here are some of the essential features and their benefits.

Key Features and Benefits

Two distraction-free writing options: To do away with distraction, you have two options:

• Either you use the “Full-Screen Mode,” which basically blocks all the features except for the outline and document interface.
• Or the “Focus Mode” that turns your screen into some sort of a typewriter—it only displays the sentence or paragraph with the blinker.

Sync Your Work : Write! App offers a cloud syncing feature, conveniently enabling you to access your work from any device you use. But, the sync feature comes at an extra cost of 4.95/year.

Collaborate with Your Team: Write! App allows you to publish your work directly to the web and get a share link which you can use to share and collaborate your work.

The tool costs $24.95 annually.

What I liked About Write! App

The goal-setting features, the customizable interface, and the sharing and publishing features.

What I Didn’t Like About Write! App

There are a bunch of things that I didn’t like (not necessarily related to the tool’s functionality). The tool has no trial period, no app for mac.

Novlr is less complicated than Scrivener; a shorter learning curve and simplicity offers relief to users that found Scrivener some sort of rocket science.

It has a feature that turns it into a distraction-free tool; it eliminates all the other distractive features. The tool also checks for grammar errors, gives cheerleading leading one-liners when you are about to achieve a goal, and helps track your progress and performance.

Novlr also has an ambient-dependent color setting, which feels comfortable and sometimes stimulating.

The good thing is since it’s cloud-based, you can access the tool from any device via a web browser.

Key Features and Benefits :

• Share or Keep Your Work Safe: Novlr can automatically sync with both Google Drive and Dropbox. This way, you can easily share your draft with a co-author, book editor, or an entire project group.
• Write Within the Language’s Rules : Novlr comes with a grammar checking feature that prevents your text’s syntax and semantics from derailing.
• Chase Goals and Achieve and Manage Your Objectives: Helps you track your performance and customize your goals
• Offline Writing: you don’t essentially need a working internet connection to use the app.
• Focus Mode – remove all kinds of distractions and stay focused on writing and editing.

But all these features come at a healthy price of $100 per year.

What I Like About Novlr

I like the offline capability, the Auto-save feature, the software’s suggestions for various writing styles, and the trial period.

What I Didn’t Like About Novlr

It is relatively expensive, exports fewer file formats, and is not available as a mobile app.

4. Microsoft Word

This list wouldn’t be complete with this word-processing warhorse—Microsoft Word.

Most contemporary middle-aged writers grew up using Microsoft Word and can literally point to any of its tabs with their eyes closed.

This veteran word processor is neat and is the most underrated writing tool nowadays.

It’s just like the beautiful wife you’ve had for years, and then she becomes a 5 out of 10 just because you’ve spotted some new “Jenny” on the block.

But… do not be fooled; MS Word is still the “OG” of the writing software category.

This tool still comes equipped with core features like translation, grammar checking, web publishing, and other standout features.

Here are some of these features (a mere glimpse of what MS Word has to offer):

• Custom Styles : Whether you want to customize headings, subheadings, or subtitles, the tool allows you to tweak your text however you like.
• Easy to Use Custom Navigation Pane : once you’ve customized the styles, the headings and pages appear in a very intuitive sidebar called the navigation pane. You can rearrange the headings by dragging them in the navigation pane.
• Automatic links: you can easily link a word or sentence to a place in the same document or a web page. This is convenient when you want to publish your document in digital formats—a reader can simply click on the link and jump to the desired content or page.
• Automatic Table of Contents : MS Word lets you create a table of contents to which is also hyperlinked the headings.
• Mailing : easily send your manuscript to an editor, straight from Word. You can either mail your document to a single recipient or multiple email accounts.
• Track Changes : the tool also lets you track, accept, and reject changes you or anyone else makes to your document. You can set the tracking feature on or lock tracking—whatever is your cup of tea, eh?

There are a bunch of Microsoft 365 plans available—too many, almost inconveniently too many. So for conciseness sake, I’m only going to list the basic plans (for personal and family use):

• Microsoft 365 Family – free for one month; $9.99 monthly or $99.99 yearly
• Microsoft 365 Personal – costs $6.99 per month and $69.99 yearly
• Office Home & Student 2019 –offers a one-time purchase priced at $149.99 (for both Mac and PC)

The pricing section doesn’t seem concise, but I had to exscind almost 75% of Microsoft 365’s catalog pricing plans.

What I Like About MS Word

The app is packed with powerful formatting options, templates for almost anything, and an easy-to-use interface.

What I Didn’t Like About MS Word

No virtual boards like some of the other dedicated writing software programs I’ve listed.

Ulysses has been in the game for a very long time. In fact, it is the software that inspired Scrivener.

And just like Scrivener (which seems to have overtaken it), it has a modern, streamlined interface and is stuffed with essential features for a modern writer. Ulysses provides document management, file syncing, style editing, and many other essential capabilities.

It is the perfect book writing tool for serious authors because it allows the writer to organize the manuscript in a clean, focused writing environment.

Improves Focus & Productivity: Ulysses comes with features that allow writers to completely focus on writing and increase their output.

It has a distraction-free interface that helps you get around in no time-such as; typewriter mode, keyboard navigation mode which enables you to operate Ulysses via keyboard only, markup-based text editor, and many other customizable features.

Offers Sufficient Organization & Management: Ulysses offers a wide range of organizational tools that helps writers organize their work from something as small as note-taking to a bulky novel. The tool has:

• A unified library for your texts
• Hierarchic groups which let you organize your drafts
• Enables you to attach additional information such as images, PDFs, notes, keywords, and others.
• Filters which allow you to narrow down your library’s content according to keywords, text occurrences, et cetera.
• Writing Goals for tracking your daily objectives, set word or character limits, and overall progress.
• Auto-Save & Automatic Backup feature, which automatically saves your work and keeps local backups.

Versatile Synchronization and Export functions: With Ulysses’ syncing capabilities, you write anywhere without repeatedly setting the tool . Ulysses offers full iCloud sync, macOS-iOS sync (iPhone to iPad to Mac), and you can add Dropbox folders to your text library.

Ulysses also boasts of a versatile export function; among other capabilities, you can export your document as a Markdown file or HTML code, DOC, PDF, and other file formats. You can also publish your text directly to medium and WordPress.

Ulysses costs $5.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. It also has a 14-day trial period.

What I Liked

The tool comes with a lot of perks. Still, there were some special ones including effective document management, progress tracking tools, multiple view options, and the direct WordPress and Medium publishing feature.

What I Didn’t Like

I didn’t like its exclusivity to Apple devices. I thought that it only affects the owner’s revenues more than anything else.

6. Manuskript 

Manuskript is an open-source tool for writers including novelists, journos, and academicians.

It comes close to providing the same features as its paid counterparts. It has an Outliner for you to hierarchically organize your work, allows you to set writing goals and has a feature called the “Novel Assistant,” which helps develop a random idea into a lucid plot by using the “snowflake method.”

The tool lacks cloud collaboration and other essential elements that paid tools have.

“If it doesn’t cost you money, don’t complain sonny!”

• Outliner: This feature lets you organize your ideas and little pieces of your story hierarchically. You can arrange and rearrange whichever way you like.
• Avoid Unnecessary Detours: With the Distraction-free mode, you can get rid of all distractions that impede the pace of your writing process.
• Monitor your Progress: Set personal goals
• Novel assistant:  You can utilize the snowflake method to develop your basic ideas into a coherent plotline or a full-fledged story with characters, plots, and comprehensive settings.

What I Like About Manuskript

Firstly, it’s an open-source tool. I also like how the “Novel assistant” adds something extra to your writing, the spell checker, and language translation.

What I Don’t Like About Manuskript

The app might be a bit difficult to install for people who are not tech-savvy.

7. Livingwriter

Here’s another tool with a shorter learning curve but stacked with all the necessary features to help you write your book—from the plotting phase right up to the publishing stage.

Livingwriter has an intuitive interface that was designed to make you feel comfortable right from the start.

You can collaborate with your co-authors and share your live chapters or the entire draft with an editor. The tool lets you restrict the view, comment, and editing permissions of your editor, proofreader, or co-authors to protect your work.

• Casually Organize and Plot Your Stories: Utilize the tool’s sidebar to arrange your chapter notes quickly.
• Get A God’s-Eye View of Your Writing: rearrange your plot lines or your book simply by dragging and dropping notes on the app’s board.
• Focus Mode : For a distraction-free writing experience, the right sidebar, which displays details on Chapters and Story Elements can be turned off, leaving the editor window only.
• Set Writing Goals: Writing goals enable you to observe differences in your writing pace and see how much content you have written.

Liivngwriter offers a 14-day trial. If you’re hooked, you have to choose between two payment arrangements: either pay $9.99 monthly or choose to fork out $96 once a year.

What I Like About Livingwriter

I liked the Grammarly Integration, the free trial, and its collaboration capabilities.

What I Didn’t Like About Livingwriter

I didn’t like the fact that the tool is not available as a desktop app and wasn’t ideal for screenwriting.

Although Dabble’s interface is more streamlined and intuitive than most of its competition, it is stuffed with features similar to those that Scrivener and its closest competitors have.

Well of course I used the word “stuffed,” but Dabble still has less features than Scrivener.

The tool comes with features like a word tracker, Cloud Sync, plot grid, and Spelling and Grammar checkers, among others.

Take a look at what you’ll be getting when you have Dabble as your writing software.

• Plot the “Bestseller Course”: One of Dabble’s most essential features is the Plot Grid.  With this feature, you can arrange plot lines and plot points in a notecard format. By dragging and dropping the notecards, you can develop basic ideas into a detailed scene chart.
• Up your Game—Focus: Dabble let’s switch into focus mode as you type, which reduces the distractions.  You can also customize the interface manually to give you a more focused writing space.
• Keep Track of the Mileage: Dabble has a goals module that keeps track of the daily word count. In the right module, there’s a bar graph that shows you the daily written amounts.

Dabble offers three plans: Basic, Standard, and Premium. The plans cost $5, $10, $15 respectively.

What I Like About Dabble

I like the Intuitive dashboard, the grammar checker, and the free trial

What I Didn’t Like About Dabble

There is one thing that I disliked about this tool; it isn’t ideal for writing screenplays, short stories, scripts, and other formats.

9. Google Docs

Google is the best Microsoft Word alternative—one of the most preferred writing tools out there. And just like its buddy, the word processor is supplemented by Google Sheets and Google Slides in G Suite by Google.

Unlike MS Word though, Google Docs tool is a cloud-based editor (although docs can be accessed offline). With the app, you can edit your docs offline and online (tablets, PCs, and phones).

This isn’t your sufficient Scrivener alternative though; it lacks the tools for you to seamlessly jump from one subsection of a bulky chapter to another section in another chapter. I usually use it for blog posts and other short reads.

Take a look at some of the standout features that Google Docs has to offer:

• Add Fonts: Just like MS Word, Google Docs lets you add fonts to its library, the good thing is that you don’t need to download and install the fonts separately.
• Enjoy the Voice to Text Feature: if you don’t feel like typing, you can utilize the voice typing feature and the app will translate your recording to text.
• A Variety of Styles: Google Docs comes with lots of different styles for formatting your text.

Google Docs Pricing

Google Docs is free, but you can purchase Google Workspace plans for you to get more storage space and other benefits of Google’s apps.

A Few Other Notable Pieces Of Writing Software Worth Mentioning

• Quoll Writer

What Makes the Best Book Writing Software?

Most writers I know are over 30, the average age being 40. Now, these seasoned wordsmiths have been doing all their writing using Word for a very long time.

For them to adopt a new tool to use in the writing process, the tool needs to have something extra special, an extra oomph!

They are not just going to start using a tool just because someone says it’s good (I’d expect the same attitude from you too), but some of the factors I have listed below would do a lot to convince them, and they’re the ones you should be considering before you decide which book writing software is the best for you.

How to Decide Which Book Writing Software Is Best for You?

The following are things to consider before choosing a book writing software:

Offline Functionality

Having a tool that only works online is okay, but sometimes writers take writing excursions to a remote location to get their writing juices flowing again.

They might choose an area with no internet connection and need their Scrivener working full time whilst they’re there.

Or the internet might be working just fine, but the writer might decide to go offline. Offline writing software comes in handy in such situations. 

Desktop App

Nobody expects to write or edit a whole 100k novel in a web-based text box. That would just kill the fun of writing the book.

Conveniently most good writing apps have desktop apps.

And the app ought to be available for both macOS and Windows (although I’ve listed some tools which are only available either as macOS apps or Windows apps).

Distraction-Free Writing

Focus is so important, especially when you’re writing bulky creative pieces.

But writing on a laptop or tablet computer offers plenty of distractions. With notifications flying in from everywhere, your unfinished movie staring at you, et cetera.

A good writing app needs to be able to block all these distractions from your writing environment.   

To achieve this, some apps go full screen and inhibit inessential background processes while others turn into a typewriter and only display the text being typed.

Easy or Steep Learning Curve

Although a steeper learning curve indicates the sophistication of a writing app, some tools are just complicated for no substantial reason.

If an app like Scrivener has a steeper learning, it is for a very good reason: the tool is stuffed with comprehensive features that help you from the first step to the publishing stage of your manuscript crafting process.

However, Scrivener is an exception (the steeper presents an investment into a Rambo of a book writing software), and writing tools need to be easy to master.

Tracking Your Progress

The best writing tools are equipped with features that help see how much ground you’ve covered.

They furnish you with stats to help you track your writing progress and set personal milestones.

Writing tools like the veteran MS word allow you to easily track, accept, and reject the change made to your document.

Scrivener and other tools like it have virtual boards called Cork Boards where you can organize, plan, and keep track of changes made to your draft.

Cost of Software

The overall cost of writing ought to be the least of your worries. The concern should be what you want from software.

If you are paying $49 to use Scrivener, it means you are paying for all its features.

But, are you using all of them?

If all you need the tool to do is help you outline your book and check some grammar and spelling mistakes , then you’re overpaying.

You can use a less sophisticated tool that costs less but has the basic features which you need.

But if a tool has the perfect features for your project (no major inessential elements), then pay up, buddy!

Is Free Writing Software as Good as Paid Software?

The answer—put simply—is no.

Free writing software is sufficient, but paid ones usually are more developed with better user features.

Free writing software tools feel like regular milk, but the paid have this extra edge, a thickness that feels more like condensed milk. The developers always make sure to stuff the paid ones with more indispensable features to make them way cooler than the free version.

And if a tool is completely free, then it probably generates revenue using other sources. Such tools usually bombard you with ads and lack many essential features you’d typically find in a paid tool.

So, the free ones will do the job for you, just not as efficiently as their paid counterparts.

What Software Do Most Writers Use?

The ‘word processor’ market has been flooded with a lot of software, but there is one that has stood the test of time.

The Granddaddy of word processors—Microsoft word. It’s been here for decades and still reigns as the most used writing software even though other apps do a better job.

The issue lies with trust. The tool still has millions of users (in the US only), and its popularity has never been matched anywhere else in the world.

What Writing Software Do Famous Writers Use?

1. stephen king.

The bestselling horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novelist uses MS Word for manuscript and Final Draft for screenplays.

2. J.K Rowling

The Harry Potter author uses MS word. She once tweeted that she writes her very first draft using pen and paper then transfers it to Word.

3. Sabba Tahir

 The bestselling author of a YA fantasy series uses both Scrivener and MS Word. Sabba starts out in Scrivener, then after organizing the book she moves it to Word and finishes it there.

4. Jeff Goins

Jeff is a best-selling author of books, including Real Artists Don’t Starve and The Art of Work. He uses Scrivener to craft his bestsellers.

So, What’s the Best Book Writing Software?

Scrivener , without Doubt.

It is so good that new apps strive to be the perfect copies of this standard-setting tool.

Just imagine, it completely tramples the app it was accused of copying.

And I have talked about the steep learning curve about a thousand times and why the case is so…

You can’t build something this good and expect the average joe to quickly and easily master it.

Almost anyone can drive a Cadillac, but how many can get a spaceship to mars?

You get the idea.

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© 2024 When You Write

It will come as little surprise that we think the Novel Factory is the best writing software. That’s because we’ve spent the last ten years trying to work out what makes novel writing software great, and then building it.

Nonetheless, we are aware that writers’ needs vary, and that there are apps out there that are more established or have a different focus or a development team with different areas of expertise.

So we have genuinely done our best in this review to give an honest rundown of some of the best novel writing software options, analysing their strengths and weaknesses. But we’ll start with the one we know best.

The main strengths of Novel Factory are its intuitive, clean design and the wealth and detail of the novel writing resources.

As well as providing a word processor, features for creating plots and managing subplots, and areas for keeping notes on characters, locations and items – the software integrates what some have described as ‘an MA in writing’.

As well as the Roadmap, which is a step-by-step guide to writing a novel, it includes detailed character development questionnaires, world building guides and plot templates based on popular genres.

So it’s not just the car, but the engine and map as well.

The software has a section for setting your writing targets, and then automatically updates colour-coded graphs so you can track your progress towards them.

It also autosaves your manuscript and has version history, so you can access previous drafts of your writing.

And as the data is centrally stored, it’s easy for writers to collaborate on a single novel, always able to access the latest changes.

If we have to focus on the weaknesses of the Novel Factory, then we have to admit it’s not the cheapest option out there. Writers on a tight budget may not be able to stretch to $7.50 per month. We hate the idea of anyone being priced out, so we do run promos a few times a year which bring the price down, and we offer educational discounts and occasionally free licences on a hardship basis (get in touch with us for more info).

Is the Novel Factory the best novel writing software for me?

The Novel Factory is perfect for new writers, who want to learn their craft while writing their first novel.

It’s great for planners, who want to use established structures to make their story skeleton bullet-proof and develop complex characters with desires, flaws and internal conflicts.

It’s the right fit if you want somewhere to keep track of all supporting data, as well as writing the novel itself, and if you want options to work Online and Offline, as it suits you.

It’s good for visual learners, who appreciate being able to add a lot of images, who like to see how different aspects of the novel link together and who like everything clearly categorised and aesthetically appealing.

It’s less useful for writers who want something more freeform, or something where they can set up and rearrange the categories themselves. And discovery writers may prefer something a bit more streamlined and simple, as they may not need the additional sections for supporting data.

Click here to find out more about the features included in the Novel Factory 3.0, or click here for a free 30 day trial .

No novel writing software list would be complete without Scrivener – the Goliath of the writing software world.

Scrivener was one of the first apps to appear on the market, and is by far the most well-known program today.

The main strengths of Scrivener are its flexibility and richness of features. It has had a long time to mature, and take into account feedback from its huge community, so it is packed full of features, from index cards to name generators. It offers goal tracking, word counts and places to keep your notes.

Plus, because the community is so huge, you can take advantage of freely shared resources, such as character and plot templates.

Scrivener is very reasonably priced at £47, and is available for Mac, PC and even IOS (though the licences for each of these are sold separately), though there isn’t a web-based version.

The widely accepted main weakness of Scrivener is the other side of the coin of its strength – it’s complexity.

The ‘steep learning curve’ is cited by many as a real issue, and while there are dozens of courses to help you get to grips with the intricacies of the program, people who are trying to write a novel are usually already struggling to find enough time just to write their manuscript. And it’s quite a big ask to require someone to invest dozens of hours learning a program before they’re even sure it’s the right one for them.

Is Scrivener the best creative writing software for me?

Scrivener is a great app, with tons of fantastic features, and there’s a reason it’s used by so many writers.

As they state on their website, they, ‘won’t tell you how to write’, so this it’s best suited to an experienced novelist who has time to learn the features and work out how to use them to plan and write their novel.

It offers a lot of flexibility and customisation so, you can use the tools in lots of different ways, to suit your style.

But for a newer novelist, who is just learning their craft and might want a little more guidance, it can be a bit overwhelming, while not offering guidance on how to actually write a novel.

And having so many choices can also lead to decision paralysis, or not really knowing the best way to proceed, so it probably won’t suit people who are less comfortable with advanced technology and customisation.

Click here to find out more about Scrivener and get a free trial.

YWriter is another veteran piece of software which is widely respected and loved.

YWriter contains all the key features you’d expect from novel writing software, including clearly defined places to keep track of your characters , locations, scenes, chapters and somewhere to write your novel.

A big strength is that it allows you to link everything together and handily cross-reference, and it has lots of tools to keep track of your word counts and progress.

The main weakness of yWriter is that it’s not clear where to start when you first open it, and the word processor takes a while to find. Also, some sections of the interface are a bit primitive, requiring you to enter code syntax, rather than offering a proper graphic user interface where you can simply, click, drag and drop.

The characters, locations and tools tabs are all fairly straightforward, but the interface is all table-based, which can get a bit monotonous. While you can add images to characters, locations and items, they’re not displayed in the main interface for quick reference.

Like Scrivener, it doesn’t give you any guidance on how to actually write a novel.

Is yWriter the best free novel writing software for me?

While yWriter isn’t the most intuitive software to use, or the most fully featured, it has one major advantage which, for many writers, will rocket it above all the competitors.

That is that it is completely free.

For a free product, yWriter is quite phenomenal and it is extremely generous of the developer to give away such a great app with no charge at all. Of course, you can donate to help support future development, but even the suggested donations are only up to $24.95 as a one off.

So if you are looking for dedicated software to keep track of the key aspects of your novel but you’re on a tight budget, then yWriter is a fantastic option.

Click here to find out more about yWriter.

Fictionary is an online creative writing software that approaches the process from a different point of view. Instead of starting with an idea and helping the writer grow it into a full novel, Fictionary has a stronger focus on improving your manuscript after you’ve written it.

The main strength of Fictionary is its analytical capabilities once you import your manuscript. It can help you get an overarching view of your story arc.

It has an attractive interface and a sidebar with lots of useful prompts to help you think about various aspects of each scene.

The ‘Plot’ section of the sidebar gives useful prompts to encourage you to consider the type, role and goals of each scene.

Likewise, the ‘settings’ section offers useful prompts to help you think not only about the practical details of your setting, but also how it impacts the story.

The main weakness of Fictionary is that the data is only as good as what you enter, and the analysis relies a lot on your own understanding of story and character.

It offers a lot of numerical analysis and helps you identify tangible things such as chapters or scenes which are excessively long, or which contain excessive numbers of characters, but whether those things are actually an issue or not depends a lot on context and your own choices, and at the end of the day, the quality of a novel can’t be boiled down to statistics.

Also, everything is viewed by scenes, so you can’t get much of an overview of your plot, apart from the quite limited Story Arc.

Also, like Novlr, it doesn’t have much support for plot structure development or developing your characters, which isn’t that surprising, since its focus is on after you’ve written the novel. You can enter your characters, but the data is limited to name and whether that character is POV. You can’t add any further information, or images. You can add information about locations to each scene, but there’s no database of locations that stands alone.

It’s also the most expensive option on our list, at $20 per month or $200 per year.

Is Fictionary the best novel editing software for me?

Fictionary is useful if you’ve already written a manuscript and you want to analyse it to find out where the inconsistencies or weak areas are.

It’s great if you love obsessing over data, and it can help you think about aspects of scenes to make them stronger and more compelling.

It’s not very useful for new novelists who want to learn how to write their first novel, or for planners who are looking for tools to structure, outline and develop characters before writing their novel.

Click here to find out more about Fictionary and get a free trial.

Atticus is a newcomer to the market, created by established self-publishing marketing guru, Dave Chesson.

The key unique strength of Atticus is its formatting and publishing functions. As a self-published author, Dave rightly recognised that there were few options on the market that allowed you to easily ready your manuscript for self-publishing – and even fewer if you weren’t on a Mac.

Atticus allows you to easily select between various formatting styles, and export your novel to a ready-to-go ebook format for all the major self-publishing platforms.

In conjunction with that, Atticus includes dedicated spaces for front matter and back matter, and it allows you to set writing goals, and even select which days of the week you plan to write, which is a nice touch.

It works in a browser, and you can also download apps for Windows and Mac, making it one of the most cross-platform options out there.

It’s got a slick, attractive, highly intuitive interface. It even features a cute cartoon dog – what’s not to like?

The weakness of Atticus compared to other novel writing software, is that it doesn’t offer any areas for keeping track of characters or locations, managing your plot. Of course if you don’t need those features, then that’s not a problem at all.

It also doesn’t get into the business of teaching you how to write a novel, so if you’re a beginner looking for more craft guidance, you’ll need to find that info somewhere else.

It doesn’t offer any free trial, which could be quite off-putting to some people, and the price isn’t that cheap, at $147, though that is a one-off cost. Asking people to pay that much without having been able to poke at the software first demands quite a lot of trust, though there is a no-quibble 30 day money back guarantee.

Is Atticus the best novel formatting software for me?

Atticus is almost certainly the best option for actively self-publishing authors who have a reasonable budget available and prefer to just get on with writing their novels without doing a lot of additional work creating character profiles, locations sheets or planning documents.

It offers a clean interface for writing, and easy formatting and publishing to all the major platforms, something very few of the other options offer.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for more comprehensive novel writing software which includes features and functions to help you keep track of characters, manage your plot and subplots and give novel writing advice, then Atticus is not that sort of one-stop-shop.

Click here to check out Atticus.

Write It Now

Write it Now is a desktop based novel writing software app available for both Windows and Mac, with a wide range of features, but quite a cluttered, dated interface.

The main strength of Write It Now is the wide range of features it includes.

As well as having sections to keep your characters, locations, events, props, notes and research, it has some cool tools which are rare in other programs, such as character relationship charts.

There are some prompts and guidance with regards to characters, such as including their birth and death date, and their relationship to other characters, but ‘personality’ is limited to sliders on different personality traits, such as ‘health’ or ‘aggression’.

Another strength is that it includes places for front and back matter, and offers a wide range of export options.

By far the biggest weakness of the software is its interface. Balance, style and consistency are lacking and it’s cluttered with fussy icons. And while at the top level the sections are quite intuitive, many of the buttons within the sections are quite confusing and it’s unclear what the intent behind them is, even after you’ve clicked them.

Finally, it doesn’t appear to offer many overview options, so apart from the tree list on the left hand side, you can’t view all of your characters at a glance. There also doesn’t seem to be a way to get an overview of your plot structure.

Is Write It Now the best novel planning software for me?

Write It Now is good for writers who are comfortable with technology and like to have lots of detailed features and functions, and who want to be able to drill down into lots of detail, and customise the software to suit themselves. And who aren’t that fussed about aesthetics.

It’s also a good option for users who prefer Desktop software, as many of the novel writing apps out there now are solely web-based.

It’s not good for people who value an aesthetically pleasing, intuitive interface. It’s also not good for people who want to keep things simple.

It doesn’t include any guidance on how to write a novel, so it’s less useful for new novel writers.

Click here to check out Write It Now.

FocusWriter

FocusWriter is a super-simple, free app to help writers focus and avoid distractions.

It’s biggest strength is exactly what it says – its focus. Its main objective is to minimise distractions, so you can get on with writing your novel.

It also has some customisation options, so you can change the background image to something you like and it’s available in multiple languages.

Its weakness is that it doesn’t offer anything else.

There is nowhere to keep track of any supporting information, such as that of characters, locations, items, research or notes. Of course, it doesn’t intend to offer those things, but if you want them – that’s a problem.

There’s no support on how to write a novel, and despite its simplicity, the interface still manages to look slightly dated.

Is FocusWriter the best novel writing software for me?

FocusWriter is perfect for authors who just want to get on and write a manuscript and not faff around with lots of planning and research. So it’s far better suited to discovery writers, rather than planners.

People who like to have a completely clear desk, and who find clutter impacts on their train of thought, will find FocusWriter the perfect solution.

If you’re looking for a more fully featured program, which will help keep track of supporting information, as well as the manuscript itself, then this is not the app for you.

Likewise, if you’re a new writer who wants a program that integrates guidance, templates and novel writing advice, then this is not a good option.

Click here to download FocusWriter.

Bibisco is a desktop based app with a clean, uncluttered layout and a good range of features.

It’s main strengths are the simplicity of its interface and the fact it has sections for all the major aspects of novel writing.

It’s nicely laid out, with the option to add images to things such as characters and locations. It has graphs to visualise things such as chapter lengths and character and object distribution. Another great feature is the character relationships tool.

It includes quite a few character development prompts, though how you fill them in is a little confusing at first, and it’s not possible to easily see all the information at a glance, you have to keep clicking to drill down, and then clicking to go back up to the top level again.

Another nice touch is the popup help boxes that appear as you move through the app, giving you extra hints and tips without making you grind to a halt to complete a lengthy tutorial.

The biggest weaknesses of the software are the fact that it has no free trial, and the lack of clear flow of overarching structure to the software.

This is one of the only programs that doesn’t offer a free trial. The price is very low (only $18, though you can pay more if you feel inclined to), so you could just take a punt on it, but it seems a big ask to require people to fork out before they’ve ever had a chance to take it for a test drive and see if it suits them.

The other issue is that it’s not always clear the best way to use the software. For many this is fine, as they’ll use it how they please – but if you’re looking for something that will guide you through the novel writing process, you’ll be disappointed.

Is Bibisco the best novel writing software for me?

If you’re looking for a low-cost desktop app to keep track of key information relating to your novel, then Bibisco is a great choice. It has a nice clean interface, contains all the key sections you could require with a few nice extras, and is very modestly priced.

However, if you’re a discovery writer who just wants to get writing, it’s unlikely to suit you, as the emphasis is on supporting data, rather than the manuscript. It actually takes a while to find the word processor.

And if you’re a planner looking for a way to shuffle around plot points and get a bird’s eye view of your structure, Bibisco doesn’t provide that.

It also isn’t designed for new writers who are looking for guidance on how to actually write their novel, as it doesn’t contain that sort of information.

Click here to find out more about Bibisco.

Wavemaker is a smart novel writing app which contains a range of useful features for novelists.

Like yWriter, it is a labour of love by a single developer who wanted to create software for his own writing, and like yWriter it is also available for free, with a gentle encouragement for you to donate money so he can spend more time on it.

It’s a progressive web app, which means it runs in a browser, but continues to work if you go offline, syncing as soon as it gets a connection back.

Our favourite Wavemaker strengths are its range of elegant planning features and its beautiful interface.

Wavemaker contains several different ways to plan your novel and gather your notes, each slightly different to take into account different ways of processing information, but allowing you to drag and drop items, and link ideas and notes in different ways.

It includes tagging, which can be very useful for cross-referencing and sorting, and it has a sidebar so you can view some of your notes while writing your manuscript.

It is very clean and pleasing to look at, and using the tools is very intuitive.

The main weakness of Wavemaker is that while it is a great selection of tools, they don’t integrate in any coherent way. You can’t enter info in one and then view it in one of the other sections to get a different perspective. There’s no flow, where you start in one section, then when that’s complete, move to the next. Then again, the freeform way will work better for many people.

Also, the tools mostly stop at the top level functionality, so they do what they say, but there’s not a lot more below the surface.

It doesn’t have any novel writing teaching resources, so people who are looking to write their first novel will need to find that information somewhere else, and there’s little in the way of prompts, to show you how to develop characters or settings, or structure a plot.

Is Wavemaker the best free novel writing software for me?

Wavemaker is great if you want a flexible, intuitive and aesthetically pleasing toolbox for working out the plot of your novel.

It will also be good for discovery writers who want a clean interface which works online and offline.

It’s less useful for new writers who are looking for writing craft guidance, or for those who like to see how all their data links together across the different sections.

Click here to check out Wavemaker.

Novlr is a web-based novel writing app with a beautiful interface, a bunch of great features and plenty of resources to help teach you how to write a novel.

One of the biggest strengths of Novlr is how attractive and pleasing it is to look at, with its slick layout. For some people, this may be considered unimportant compared to the features available, but for many of us a clear, uncluttered interface helps our thoughts flow more clearly.

It also offers spelling and grammar suggestions, in the same way Word does, which not many novel writing apps do.

It autosaves and creates a version history, which gives great peace of mind.

It includes word count info and even motivational messages when you achieve your goals.

One of its weaknesses is the price – it is among the higher priced apps at $100 per year.

Another potential weakness (though could be a strength, depending on your point of view), is that it doesn’t have any features relating to characters, plotting or locations. The focus of Novlr is solely on the manuscript, so any related research or development you want to do has to be done elsewhere.

Is Novlr the right story writing software for me?

Novlr is perfect for discovery writers (also known as pantsers), with its beautiful, clean interface, proofreading tools and version history.

It’s also good for new writers as, like the Novel Factory, it has an integrated course to help you write your novel.

It’s not so useful for writers who are looking for a more all round software, which will give them somewhere to keep track of their cast of characters, offer plotting tools and world building resources.

Click here to find out more about Novlr and get a free trial.

In summary – what is the best novel writing software for you? Our top three recommendations, for planners, pantsers, and those on a budget.

As we’ve seen, if you’re looking for novel writing software, you’re spoiled for choice. You can find software that will take care of all your supporting novel data, such as characters and locations, or you can find absolute minimalist apps to help you avoid distractions.

There is software that teaches you how to write a novel, and there’s software that gives you imaginative ways to view your data, such as index cards, mind maps and relationship charts.

Some of the software is perfect for discovery writers, while others are a dream come true for planners. You may also want to consider using Papertyper, a free AI essay writer tool that can help you organize your thoughts and ideas. This is also worth your attention.

Some are aesthetically pleasing and calming to look at and use, while others prioritise highly customisable detail.

The right software for you will depend on your personal preferences and priorities, but here’s a summary of our top three favourites, for the most diverse requirements:

Here are our top recommendations:

• Best all round novel writing software: The Novel Factory
• Best minimalist writing software: FocusWriter
• Best free novel writing software: Wavemaker

Whatever your needs, we hope you find the tool that’s a perfect partner for your novel writing future!

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• World Building resources
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The 15 Best Book Writing Software Tools

15 Best Book Writing Software Options in 2024

On the hunt for the top book writing software? Writing software can be hard to come by, especially since what might work best for someone else won't work best for you. So what software should you use?

Some might argue that the medium is not the issue – they'll tell you not to worry about fancy writing software and just start writing.

And while that may be true for some, in our experience with helping thousands of authors write and self-publish a book, we've found that every author has a tool that helps them organize their writing and increase productivity.

Software specifically designed to write a book can make your writing process more organized, efficient , and focused – ultimately allowing you to write your book faster .

In this article, we’ll not only take a detailed look at the free writing software tools available to authors, but we’ll cover some paid tools, as well. 

This 2024 guide to book writing software will cover:

• What book writing software is
• If you really need software to write a book
• The benefits of using book writing software

Free book writing software for beginners

• The best paid book writing software

Bonus software to help you write your book

What is book writing software.

Book writing software is a program designed to streamline the book writing process. It is essentially a word processor with added benefits specifically targeting authors and novelists (such as book organization tools, story development features, and more).

There are many options for free book writing software, as well as paid writing software for all budgets and price points. Depending on your own needs as a writer, there are many options to choose from.

Maybe you’re a writer that’s just getting started on how to write a book . Or maybe you’re a seasoned writer that’s researching how to become an author and you’re ready to commit to the best book writing software available. 

No matter what type of writer you are, there is software designed to streamline your writing process. It’s just a matter of finding the perfect one to fit your needs!

Do you really need software to write a book?

We know what you’re thinking. All that’s needed to write is pen and paper. In simple terms, yes – you don’t need a fancy writing tool to actually write. In fact, humans have been expressing their creativity and ideas through writing using the most basic tools available for centuries.  But the efficiency and ease of use of your medium can affect your writing productivity.

Think about how easy a typewriter or keyboard makes it to type a 50,000-word novel. Now, imagine having to carve that novel into stone. See how the medium can affect your productivity? 

Technology has made the writing process easier – there’s no doubt about that. But is writing software necessary?  I posed this exact question to a group of writers to see if they really use software. Based on their feedback, it’s clear that writers like you value these programs. Every writer has their preferred book writing software, and some use multiple programs, including the best mind mapping software for authors . Take a look at some of the responses: 

That's just a tiny glimpse of how many real-life writers use book writing software regularly to improve their writing , efficiency, and organization.

So, the next time you're in need of gifts for writers , consider buying them a subscription to their favorite book writing software!

The pros to using book writing software

Of course, you can write using whatever tools are available to you, but there are some important reasons to consider using special software for writing a book.

Writing is already hard – why make it even more difficult by not utilizing tools that were designed to make the process easier?

When you make technology work for you (and not against you) great things can come out of it – like that book you’ve been meaning to write!

Here are the main reasons to use writing software:

• Your book files are organized in one place. No need to have each book chapter file saved in various places throughout your desktop. Keep it clean and organized with book writing software. With most tools, you can even access files from anywhere, making it easy to pick up where you left off no matter where you are, or what time of day it is.
• They are designed to make writing easier . The best writing software programs have built-in features that can prevent a ton of issues. For example, you can check for spelling and grammar mistakes on the go, which cuts down your editing time. Or use features like a plagiarism checker , which automatically highlights sections in your text that need citation.
• Your work is saved automatically. Losing your unsaved work due to unavoidable circumstances (like your power going out) is a thing of the past! This is seriously a lifesaver.
• They prevent distractions. Some book writing tools have features to block you from unnecessary distractions. This ultimately helps you get done with your book in the shortest time possible and assists in creating a productive writing space .

Now that you understand why book writing software is important, how on earth do you pick one!?

How to decide which book writing software is best for you:

• Cost of the software. Think of your budget. Can you afford to invest in writing software, or do you need to rely on the free versions for now? 
• Accessibility. Think of where you write. Do you need to be able to access your book manuscript from multiple devices (like a phone or tablet), or do you only write on one? 
• Features. What features are important to you? Do you need spell checker, plagiarism checker, and productivity-improving features? 
• User-friendliness. Are you tech-savvy, tech-challenged, or somewhere in the middle? Some programs require a steep learning curve, and others are great for beginners. 
• Size of the software. Will the program take up a lot of space on your hard drive? 

With all those aspects to consider, let's take a look at the best free and paid book writing software options for authors.

Before we dive into the best paid book writing software, let’s take a look at some of the free options.

We always recommend taking advantage of the free tools out there – so you can get a feel for what you want to invest in. These free book writing tools have the basic essentials to provide you with the features you need, so that you can have more time for writing .

1. Zoho Writer

Writer by Zoho , also known as Zoho Writer, is an online word processor that comes with special features to help you write from anywhere and at any time you want to. It is a cloud software, which means you can access it on all of your devices, no matter where you are.  Even better, Zoho has different templates for you to choose from, depending on what it is you need to write.

Benefits to using Zoho Writer as a free book writing software for beginners:

• It’s readily available . You do not need to sign up or log in to be able to use Zoho Writer. It is user-friendly, and if you are part of a team of writers, you can work together and share documents with each other easily.

• You can write offline, without internet access.  Despite this software being an online writing tool, you can still write offline and have your work synced to your account.
• You can use it across all devices. You can use this book writing software across phone, Tablet, or PC. No need to worry about accessing your manuscript from the wrong device.

2. LibreOffice

Developed by the Document Foundation, LibreOffice is open source software that prides itself on being a free office suite. While it boasts other programs for spreadsheets and charts, Write is the name of its free word processor. 

Benefits to using LibreOffice Writer as a free book writing software for beginners:

• It’s a robust one-stop shop for writers. And it’s similar to Microsoft Word (which we’ll cover in our paid writing software section). 

• It’s an effective word processing tool with helpful features for authors.  It wasn’t only created for writers, but can be used by anyone who needs a word processor. The autocorrect and spell checker tools allow you to catch grammar and spelling mistakes on the fly, and it even supports multiple languages!
• It provides useful templates. LibreOffice includes readily available templates to choose from that are formatted to meet your needs. All you need to do is add your text! Whether you want to write your resume, brochures, letters, or your book, these templates can save you time and come in handy for clean, crisp formatting.

Related: Best Book Formatting Software

3. Google Docs

Google Docs is by far the most common and widely used writing software, and this list of free book writing software tools wouldn’t be complete without mentioning it. 

Google Docs is a word processing tool that comes with your Google account. If you have a Gmail account then you already have access to Google Docs.

Benefits to using Google Docs as a free book writing software for beginners:

• You can write and access it from anywhere. Like Zoho Writer, Google Docs is a cloud platform, which means you can write anytime inspiration strikes. You can also use this book writing software when you’re offline.

• Your work is autosaved. Each time you key a letter, your Google Doc will save your progress. No need to worry about clicking the “save” button every time you add a new page in your book! You can also view revision history in case you accidentally delete or change something that you want to restore.
• It’s easy to collaborate with a team, another writer, or an editor . Additional features streamline the collaboration process, be it your co-author or editor. You can also use the track changes feature for the editing process, so you can see exactly what your editor has changed. 

Note: A major downside to using Google Docs as your writing software is that it does not support heavy formatting and outlining. Therefore, writing an entire book on this platform can be a bit challenging, but you can still use it for short stories, articles, and note-keeping.

4. FocusWriter

FocusWriter is a “simple, distraction-free writing environment.” If you struggle to stay focused and on task during your writing sessions, FocusWriter may be the solution for you.

Benefits of using FocusWriter as your free book writing software:

• Designed to be distraction-free. Like its name suggests, FocusWriter helps you zero in on your project by eliminating anything that could produce a distraction.
• Timers and alarms. This is for my writers who love to write in sprints. Structure your writing sessions by planning and timing how long you'll write.
• Auto-save function. If you're a writer who struggles to remember saving your own work, FocusWriter has you covered with their auto-saves.

5. Evernote

Evernote has both free and paid versions. You can use the free version as a word processor and note-taking software, or pay for the premium version if you want the extra perks.

While Evernote isn't designed specifically for books, the tool's organization makes it a great option for writers.

Benefits to using Evernote as your free book writing software:

• Streamlines note-taking process. At its core, Evernote is a writing software that's designed to make note-taking easy and efficient. This makes it a useful book writing software because the same organizational principles can be integrated into the process of writing a book .
• Easy customization. While Evernote isn't designed for just authors and novelists, the versatility it brings to users with multiple uses for the program comes in handy, especially for those writing a book. The ability to create notebooks, tags, and sort information, as well as robust AI-suggested content means that this software is a powerhouse for personalization.
• A hub for your book research and inspiration. Anyone who is in the process of writing a book knows how often a random surge of inspiration hits us as we write. Evernote is perfect for housing all of our inspirational quotes or research, without derailing our book writing efforts altogether.

Best paid book writing software

Now that we’ve covered the top free book writing software tools available, let’s move on to the paid writing software. Here are our favorites!:

6. NovelPad

NovelPad is a novel-writing software developed for the way writers write.

Unlike other writing software on the market that requires you to download a program to your computer, NovelPad can be accessed on any device with web access. That makes it one of the best writing apps for Android or iOS. If you want to try it out before committing, take advantage of the company's offer (not always running) of a 14-day free trial !

Benefits to using NovelPad as your book writing software:

• Use it on any device, online or off . NovelPad is browser-based, so you can open your projects on any device. They also have an offline mode, if you'd like to limit distractions by disabling web connection, or if you're writing on the go.
• Minimal, distraction-free design. The layout is simplistic and minimal, with limited distractions. The NovelPad team has stated that they only include features when and where writers require them, which leads to an incredibly intuitive, easy-to-use system.

• Chapters page . A popular NovelPad feature is the ability to have a bird's eye view of your entire project. You can use scene descriptions, color labels, and other organizational tools to know at a glance what's happening in each scene, then simply click and drag to reorder them. This is a big time save for longer projects!
• Customizable word count goal and tracker . Trying to hit a specific writing goal ? NovelPad has you covered. Instead of tracking your word count goal externally through a spreadsheet or other means, NovelPad allows you to set goals and tracks them for you. Set vacations and sprints, customize which days you'd like to write more or less, and let NovelPad do the math for you.
• ProWritingAid is included. That's right! Get a streamlined drafting software and stellar grammar check with one subscription.

Price : Starting at just $5 a month

Ulysses is another full-fledged writing software specifically designed for Mac users . Whether you are a Sci-Fi writer or learning how to publish an eBook , Ulysses is an all-in-one software that allows you to focus on your main business – writing. 

Benefits to using Ulysses Writer as your book writing software:

• Minimalist interface. Getting distracted while writing can hurt your workflow. Ulysses comes with a minimalistic interface to help you stay focused and productive.
• The customizable editor comes with special perks. You can choose to switch to typewriter mode and can attach additional information from images, PDFs, keywords, notes, and anything in between.
• You can publish directly to WordPress and Medium. Instead of having to copy and paste all of your work to your website, you can simply publish directly to the site. This is especially helpful for authors who blog.
• You can share your writing in any file format you want. No more complicated conversion processes!

Note : Ulysses is only available on Apple products at the time of writing.

Price: $5.99 per month or $49.99 a year

8. Hemingway App

Have you heard of Hemingway App yet? If you have, then chances are you either love it or hate it. This software is great if you are a visual learner – just look at those colors!

Benefits to using Hemingway App as your book writing software:

• It comes with advanced editing and revising tools . The spell and grammar checker help you come up with top-quality work, and it uses different colors to highlight sentences/words that need restructuring.
• There is a helpful sidebar display . The sidebar shows things like readability score and overall word count. 
• It has a free editor. Even if you don’t want to pay for the subscription, you can still use the free editing tool! 

Note: We’ve all been advised to not edit as we write, especially when during the book writing process. Since Hemingway draws a lot of visual attention to errors, this could slow your writing down if you’re one to get distracted easily! Price : $19.99

9. Scrivener

Almost every modern book writer out there (regardless of the genre) swears by this powerful writing software.

It's jam-packed with features and tools to help you organize and write your book, but there is a learning curve to be aware of. If you want to try Scrivener out, plan to take some tutorials before investing in this program to determine if it's really right for you.

And this is likely because Scrivener was specifically designed for writers.

Benefits to using Scrivener as your book writing software:

• Scrivener boasts a user-friendly drag-and-drop feature. The Outliner tool helps you work on your book while having an overview of what your chapter, a page, or even the whole book would look like.
• Includes research tools for easy reference. The snapshot tool allows you to take snapshots that you want to view and reference later, without losing your train of thought.
• You can set writing targets. Scrivener has a target-setting tool to help you set your own targets and work towards achieving them.
• Customizable organization with the binder tool. If you are the type of writer who likes working on an organized and well-planned piece, then Scrivener is your perfect match. The binder tool allows organizing your manuscript in files, sub-files, sub-sub-files, and so on.

Note: While Scrivener is a super robust software for writing a book, you’ll most likely have to watch a few tutorials to learn how to master it. Check out our full review of Scrivener if you want a detailed look at what it does.

Price: $49 for Mac or Windows (but they have student discounts) and $19.99 for the iOS version 

10. FastPencil

This is also another writing software that can take your writing game a notch higher. With FastPencil , you can draft, edit, publish, and even sell your book through some of the best booksellers in the industry.

Benefits to using FastPencil as your book writing software:

• It’s an all-in-one software. Just like we mentioned above, this software not only helps you write your book, but it also includes editing, publishing, and marketing services – depending on your needs and budget.
• It’s fairly easy to learn how to use. The software is pretty user-friendly, so it's easy to get started with. 
• You can use it to write your book in an organized manner.  Because it is designed specifically for book writers, there are tools to help you section off chapters.
• A variety of special features are included. Preview how your book will look live, or make use of the chat tool, which makes collaboration with other writers and/or editors easy. 

Price: FastPencil is available for free if you only want to use it as a word processing tool, but you can pay for access to more advanced features, as seen below:

11. Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is one of the most widely used word processors out there – because it’s pretty much the oldest one.

But even today, Microsoft Word remains a preference for many authors. 

Benefits to using Microsoft Word as your book writing software:

• It’s very user-friendly . Many writers already have experience using it, whether they learned it in school or at work. While it’s an older program and has been updated numerous times, its function remains the same overall. 
• The simple visual interface can create a distraction-free writing space. Other than the top toolbar, the rest of the window is reserved as your page – with ample room for your text. 
• You can create and use templates. Because it’s so versatile, Word has many options for customizing the functions to meet your needs as you write. For example, you can use headers to create chapters or sections of your book. 

Price: If your device doesn’t already include access to Microsoft Word, you can buy it. The price of Microsoft Word will vary depending on your needs and which package you want. 

12. Grammarly

Grammarly is not just a writing tool but also an AI-powered program to help you write a clean, crisp book that’s free from grammar and spelling errors. There is a free version available, but the paid version offers more advanced features like the plagiarism checker tool. You can even add Grammarly as a Chrome Extension, so it can edit and revise any writing you do – from emails, to social media posts, and more! 

13. Freedom

When you’re writing from a computer or laptop, it’s easy to get distracted with the internet just one tab away. This is where Freedom comes in. 

Freedom helps you stay focused by blocking sites on the internet that might shift your attention.

14. ProWritingAid

We cover all the nuts and bolts of this writing tool in our complete ProWritingAid review .

But for a quick summary, ProWritingAid is a tool that can be used in conjunction with many writing programs , and is a robust tool that checks grammar, spelling, and writing style, and offers a number of writing improvement insights based on AI-powered reports.

If you're looking for a tool to pair with your book writing software of choice, and are dedicated to improving your writing quality and style, then ProWritingAid will offer more than any standard spellchecker can.

Get ProWritingAid here .

15. FocusWriter

A word processor that touts “distraction-free” features, this simple software is designed to keep your focus on your writing.

Although it's not as high-tech as some of the other writing programs available, it's not meant to be. FocusWriter uses a hide-away interface with a customizable environment and autosave.

Download FocusWriter here.

So there you have it! The best writing software programs you can choose from to streamline your writing process, improve productivity, and get your book written faster.  Researching all the different writing tools and software options can be overwhelming, but remember: it’s important to pick programs that work for you. If you start using one software, and discover that it’s not right for you – that’s okay. You don’t have to commit to one writing tool if it’s hindering your productivity.  Once you find the perfect book writing software for YOU, the rest will fall in line. 

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Best free writing app of 2024

Bring your words to life with the best free writing apps

Best overall

Best for markup, best word alternative, best word processor, best for mac, best online, how we test.

The best free writing software makes it simple and easy to better manage and organize all your ideas, outlines, and projects. 

1. Best overall 2. Best for markup 3. Best Word alternative 4. Best word processor 5. Best for Mac 6. Best online 7. FAQs 8. How we test

Like the best free word processors , writing apps help you get your thoughts on the page without breaking the bank (or your train of thought). But we’ve also made sure they’ll make it easier to save, share, and sync all your documents and keep them safe, whether you need a desktop writing app for work, school, or play. 

If you struggle to stay focused, we’ve tested some of the best free writing apps come with distraction-free layouts or gamification challenges to keep you in the zone. We’ve also reviewed those built for professional document creation, with advanced business features such as speech-to-text transcription and online collaboration tools. 

Our picks cover the best apps for writing on the web, Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS - so you’re always ready whenever and wherever creativity strikes. 

Scrivener: best writing software for authors Scrivener is packed with all the features a novelist needs, helping you track plot threads, store notes on characters and locations, structure your work and (most importantly) get some serious work done. It's not a free writing app like the tools below, but it's well worth the investment if your budget will allow it.

The best free writing app of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

1. FocusWriter

Our expert review:

Specifications

Reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

FocusWriter helps writers combat one of their biggest challenges: distractions. One of the best free writing software tools out there, it's specifically designed to let you just concentrate on your writing. 

The stripped-back interface is deliciously sparse - ideal for when you just need to get your head down and write - and not dissimilar to a moderately powerful version of Notepad, featuring support for TXT, basic, RTF, and ODT files. 

Even the toolbar is hidden until you actually need it. Just swoop your cursor to the top on the screen to reveal a barren menu, from basic formatting to themes and timers.

Features are light within the software, but FocusWriter isn’t made for heavy editing sessions. It’s designed to make the act of writing flow seamlessly onto the page. 

Elsewhere, the writing app boasts the ability to add themes and your own background images, which can help you stay motivated. 

The Daily Progress tool is a sweet extra, adding Duolingo-style gamification that lets you track your daily writing streak. For when it’s oh-so-easy to slip onto social media when you can’t find the perfect word, it’s a nice way to keep you within the app. 

Available for Windows, Linux, and macOS, the writing software also comes as a portable download, no installation required. So, you can pop it on a USB stick and plug it into any computer you’re working on. 

Read our full FocusWriter review .

• ^ Back to the top

2. WriteMonkey

WriteMonkey is another piece of free writing software that cuts down on the clutter to deliver uninterrupted writing sessions. 

The free word processor, cleverly described as zenware, is unbelievably pared back compared to more traditional writing apps. 

There’s very little in the way of distracting ‘screen furniture’, which means you’re better positioned to concentrate on the writing process. And absolutely nothing else. 

But don’t let that stripped-back approach fool you. As one of the best free writing apps, WriteMonkey is still rich with the sort of core features that matter to writers. 

However, most options are hidden in a context menu (so you’ll need to right-click to view it). It also only supports TXT files, which may limit those looking to read, write, or edit across multiple formats. It is, at least, a portable download, letting you take it wherever you need.

If you’ve enjoyed Markdown, the simplified text-editing language that lets you format, annotate, classify, and link as you type, then great. WriteMonkey’s inner workings will instantly chime. 

First-timers should spend a little time with this free writing software, to uncover that intuitive simplicity. 

Read our full WriteMonkey review .

3. LibreOffice Writer

Writer, the open-source, free writing software, serves almost all general writing needs.

LibreOffice is a near-perfect example of free office software - a familiar, feature-rich take on the office suite. What the veteran software package lacks in Microsoft polish (its interface is undeniably old-fashioned, for starters), it makes up for in its price-point: free. For that, you get access to six tools: Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, Math, and Writer. 

Earning it a slot on our list of best free writing apps is the fact that LibreOffice Writer packs the full editing toolbox. 

This isn’t just a note-taking app for staving off distractions when you’re deep in the zone; it’s for when you’re in pure writer-mode. 

If you’re at all proficient with Microsoft Word, you won’t have any problems using the Writer software. Layouts and functions are almost identical, and there’s support for DOC and DOCX file types, making it efficient to switch out of the Microsoft garden.

This free writing app is ideal if you’re hunting for a tool that almost perfectly replicates the Word experience without the cost. 

Read our full LibreOffice review .

4. Microsoft Word

When it comes to word processors, Microsoft Word is probably the baseline against which all others are compared. It’s the one most of us use at school, home, and work. It’s familiar, comfortable - and it’s available free on the web and mobile devices. 

That may not be the best way to write your masterpiece (unless you’ve hooked up a Bluetooth keyboard). But it’s a great way to jot down ideas on-the-go. When we tested the browser-based version we found it could be a bit slow at first, and we were typing faster than the words appeared on screen. This settles down (mostly) after a minute or so. 

Microsoft’s free writing apps on Android and iPhone had no such issues. Using these was velvety smooth. We especially appreciated the option to switch between mobile view and desktop view, so we could gauge how the document would appear in full-screen. 

As with Google Docs, you’ll need to sign up with a Microsoft account. And, like Google, that also lets you use free versions of PowerPoint, Excel, and the like. While Word offers one of the best free writing app experiences, there’s no denying that the paid-for upgrade is superior, offering more tools, and a true desktop app. 

Read our full Microsoft Word review .

Author promises to make it easier to ‘think, write, and cite’. It’s a promise capably delivered, with a clean interface and bags of writing features designed to make it easy to go from first draft to final copy. 

If you're an Apple user in search of the best free writing apps on macOS, this one demands your attention. 

Concept Maps is one of the best features. It’s a great mind-mapping tool to visualize and lay down all your thoughts while they’re fresh in your head without constraint. You can worry about whipping them into shape later. 

Students and report writers will appreciate Author’s ‘fast citing’ tools - speeding up assignment-writing by correctly adding and formatting citations, references, and contents. 

A paid-for upgrade of the writing software that offers exporting options is available. However, unless you need automatic formatting on export, you can stick with the free version. 

6. Google Docs

Google Docs is a great free writing platform for any writer. It’s an extremely clean, quick word processor available in the browser, on desktop, and phone and tablet apps. So, you can take notes wherever inspiration strikes. 

Docs is more or less Google’s spin on Microsoft Word. The interface is a bit more simple than the professional office software - although it’s no less powerful. 

You’ll find heaps of writing tools, including a pretty accurate speech-to-text transcription tool (just enunciate and don’t talk too fast). Keyboard shortcuts are very well-supported. 

For best results, you’ll need an internet connection, though documents can be used offline. They’ll be synced, and in our experience, that happens swiftly behind the scenes. 

To take advantage of the free writing app, you’ll need a Google account, which may be a deal-breaker for some - but that also opens up the rest of the Google-stuff in the Google-sphere, such as Sheets, Slides, and . With a free account, you get 15GB of storage, which should be more than enough for word documents. A Google One subscription upgrades your storage space, amongst other things. 

Additionally, Google Docs is great if you want to collaborate with one or more other writers. Just be warned to stay in Google Docs for that, because exporting the data into Word or other writing applications can result formatting errors.

Read our full Google Docs review .

What's the difference between a writing app and an AI writer?

AI writers vs writing apps - what's the real difference?

Artificial intelligence is growing in a big way - and when it comes to writing, it's ChatGPT that's been snatching all the headlines of late, with its ability to generate short- and long-form content based on user prompts.

Generally, an AI writer will write your content for you, based on its current learning (although often without 'understanding' the context). A writing app simply lets you write your way, in your own voice. 

Some platforms, such as Canva , have even integrated AI into its Canva Docs and Canva PDF Editor services. However. its Magic Write tool acts as a writing assistant, serving up suggestions and ideas, leaving real writers to work their magic on the content. Though usually hiding in the back-end, you can also find AI integrated in other ways across other the best PDF editor apps (and even the best free PDF editor apps, too).

As always with AI-generated content, whether it's the written word or an artwork masterpiece, human involvement is usually necessary and always desirable. Even if you're using the best AI writers out there, editing and proofreading is essential to give the content accuracy and emotional resonance.

How to choose the best free writing app for you

When deciding which free writing app is best, start by figuring out what sort of writing you want to do. 

Do you need a handy tool for quick scribbles and jotting down ideas here and there, or are you using the writing software to write and edit an epic novel? Tools like FocusWriter and Write Monkey are great for getting thoughts on the page without friction.

It’s also worth considering if you need a writing app with a distraction-free design, so you can concentrate on what really matters to you. Again, FocusWriter performs admirably here, but as a result, you lose core typography and editing functions. Unlike LibreOffice, this isn’t the best Microsoft Office alternative if you need those tools. In that scenario, it may be worth considering looking at some of the best free office software , which includes MS Word-style apps, alongside other tools similar to Excel, PowerPoint, and so on. 

Access is an important factor when using your writing software. A tool like Scribus needs to be downloaded to your machine. Lightweight apps like FocusWriter, however, offer a portable download that can be downloaded to a USB and carried with you. 

Check what file formats your chosen writing app supports, too. While some let you create and edit the common DOC and DOCX files, others only allow TXT or RTF documents.

But most of all, it’s important to choose the best free writing app for your unique creative flow. 

Testing the best free writing apps and software, we assess how easy it is to get your words down on the page with the least amount of friction. Portable writing apps rank high, because they let you use the program on whatever computer or laptop you’re using. 

We also look at performance for its intended audience. For distraction-free writing apps, do they really foster focus? For word processor-style software, does it offer good formatting and editing options? 

Most importantly, we expect to see free writing apps that are genuinely cost-free - no-one wants to stumble across hidden fees and charges in the contracts. 

We've listed the best laptops for writers .

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Steve is TechRadar Pro’s B2B Editor for Creative & Hardware. He explores the apps and devices for individuals and organizations that thrive on design and innovation. A former journalist at Web User magazine, he's covered software and hardware news, reviews, features, and guides. He's previously worked on content for Microsoft, Sony, and countless SaaS & product design firms. Once upon a time, he wrote commercials and movie trailers. Relentless champion of the Oxford comma.

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Best Writing Software for Novelists and Writers

There is no one size fits all writing software available in the market. Some writers prefer a distraction-free minimal interface, while others are comfortable with cluttered yet feature-rich softwares. In general, you need to try different writing software to find out which one works best for you. However, we have done the heavy lifting you. I have tested dozens of writing softwares to help you pick the best one depending on your needs.

Read:  List of Useful Online Tools for Bloggers

Why You Need an Advanced Creative Writing Software

While there are free and less expensive alternatives, if you are an advanced writer, you already know why you need a writing software instead of plain old word processors. For newbies and intermediates, who are looking for something more robust, here are some good reasons to upgrade to a premium software.

• More templates
• Advanced editing
• Better organization and tracking
• Advanced features with all the bells and whistles

Table of Contents

Best Writing Software

1. microsoft word – freemium.

Microsoft Word is standard for writers as it comes pre-installed on almost every Windows PC. You can begin typing the moment it launches. There are basic formatting options like font size, colors, links, attachments, page layouts and then some other options like exporting in PDF format.

MS Word also supports autosave, though you’ll have to manually turn it On by going to File  >  Options  >  Save and make sure the “ Save AutoRecover info ” box is checked. The default number of minutes set in this box will be 10, lower it to 1 minute.

Pros: There are many options and features built into Word

Cons: You cannot purchase Microsoft Word as a standalone program, it comes as part of the Microsoft Office 365 package ($149.99)

Verdict: Word is okay for shorter documents like blogposts and resumes. But not an ideal choice if you are looking for some creative writing like novels or books. That said, if you are looking for a free alternative to MS Word go with  LibreOffice Writer . It’s a capable of doing pretty much everything Word can do.

2. Google Docs – Free

Google Docs is everything MS Word never will be. It is free, in the cloud, and simply works on every platform you may use. Many writers use Google Docs, its word processor, to write articles, blogposts, and note down ideas. It is part of a bigger ecosystem , Google Drive, which comes with Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Drawings. Most writers tend to just use the word processor though.

Unlike Word, Google Docs also automatically saves your work every few minutes or so. Meaning even if you lose power or accidentally close the program, you don’t have to worry about losing your work.

Google Docs is extremely easy to use. Just open and begin typing. Formatting tools are not as advanced as some of the paid writing softwares, but covers pretty much everything. Apart from PDF, you can also export in EPUB format which is cool.

Pros: One of the biggest reason to use Google Docs is that you can access your documents from anywhere, even from your phone. You can also collaborate on a single document with other writers, editors, and proofreaders and see what changes are being made in real time. You can leave comments and track suggestions made.

Cons:  You normally need an active Internet connection to write in Google Docs, which might be a deal breaker when your Internet goes down or when Google servers are down. Although chances of both of them happening are getting lesser each day.

Verdict: Google Docs is an amazing little free tool that will allow you to write, collaborate, and export your work easily. It is simple to use and works everywhere. But on a flip side, you need internet to write documents.

3. Focus Writer  – Free

Focus Writer, as the name suggests, offers a distraction-free writing environment to the writers. If you are like me who often get distracted by constant pop-ups and notifications from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, then use Focus Writer to get things done.

The way it works is pretty simple. It offers a hide-away interface which hides everything else that is visible on your screen allowing you to work on what is important.

Pros:  You can set daily goals and add timers. It works on every platform from Windows and Mac to Linux.

Cons: While it is not as robust as Scrivener and WriteItNow (we’ll come to that soon), it is definitely better than Google Docs when it comes to features.

Verdict: Focus Writer offers a distraction-free writing platform with goal setting feature. It is good but Google Docs still wins as far as free tools are concerned.

4. Scrivener – $45

Scrivener is one of the best writing software you will ever use but it can be a little difficult to understand and master at first. Most writers and editors have repeatedly favored Scrivener over other writing software.

The best thing about Scrivener is how the content appears on the screen when you write is completely separate from how it appears when you compile your manuscript. It offers a distraction-free environment so that you can concentrate on the writing first, and once you are done with it, you can focus on formatting and organizing the content.

If you are a fiction writer, it will help you with creating plots and going back and forth in time.

You can write on the corkboard which you can later move around to work with synopses. You won’t have to reshuffle the index because every section is logged into a virtual index . This way when you move cards, you also rearrange the whole manuscript.

Once you finished writing, you can export the manuscript to Nook, Kobo, Kindle, B&N and other platforms.

Pros: Scrivener’s strength lies in the fact that you can save web pages, notes, images, and links and it will understand that you are still working on the same project. This makes brainstorming and creative writing easy.

Cons:  Ease of use is not its main strength, however, if you spend some quality time and have the patience to understand nitty-gritty things, you will fall in love.

Verdict:  Scrivener allows you to write drafts, organize references, and visualize manuscript on a single platform instead of working with 5 softwares at the same time. And if you are a plotter, Scrivener is probably the best place to get started.

5. WriteItNow – $59.95

If you thought Scrivener was jam-packed with features, WriteItNow will have your mind spinning. It is amazing how easy it is in spite of having so many tools and features.

Like Scrivener, you can easily create and keep track of plots, characters, and content depending on what you are using it to write. There is a separate tab for managing Characters which is really helpful for fiction writers. Each character must have different personality traits. You can assign values from 1-5 to each trait for different characters.

Organizing notes, links, and stories or ideas are pretty similar to how it is on Scrivener. One particular feature that it offers over and above others is the ability to keep track of submissions to publishers . You can surf the web using the inbuilt browser and download names of different countries, ethnicities, and cultures automatically to use for your characters.

Pros: WriteItNow is the best writing software when it comes to character and location support

Cons:  WriteItNow doesn’t supports genres which is something fiction writers need to consider

Verdict: WriteItNow offers all the features that Scrivener does, and then some more for a price that is pretty competitive. It scores better because it is easier to use and has some additional tools to offer.

Honorary Mentions

Storyist and Ulysses are few other amazing writing softwares but they didn’t make the list because they are not cross-platform and the later comes with a subscription plan which may not be suitable for all writers.

Wrapping Up: Best Writing Software

In the end, any software that helps you to complete projects in time is the best writing software for you. I like WriteItNow because it is easy to use, comes with tons of features like character and story management, web browsing, and better management.

When it comes to free writing softwares, I like Google Docs because it works everywhere and every time. It is free and allows me to collaborate with others.

Which one are you using?

Read:  Teach Yourself to Type Faster With These  Touch Typing Software

Gaurav Bidasaria

Gaurav is an editor here at TechWiser but also contributes as a writer. He has more than 10 years of experience as a writer and has written how-to guides, comparisons, listicles, and in-depth explainers on Windows, Android, web, and cloud apps, and the Apple ecosystem. He loves tinkering with new gadgets and learning about new happenings in the tech world. He has previously worked on Guiding Tech, Make Tech Easier, and other prominent tech blogs and has over 1000+ articles that have been read over 50 million times.

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The 5 Best Writing Apps for Windows

If you write professionally (or aspire to), you probably already know that the writing itself is only a part of the whole process.

To create a piece of writing that impacts your readers takes a lot of steps: research, outlines, drafts, edits, more drafts, proofreading, and getting feedback from editors.

If you have buckets of cash, you can hire a team of proofreaders and editors. But if you’re more like everyone else, you probably want to find cost-effective ways to better writing.

The good news is that software has come a long way in terms of helping writers. The web is full of free writing software ( Libre Office writer , Google Docs , Zoho Writer ), and it’s hard to know whether you should pay for something or not.

Today there are a lot of paid writing tools available and a wide variety of costs.

Our  content marketing agency  produces over 300+ articles/month, so we use these tools on a daily basis.

We’ve already covered the complete range of best free and paid writing tools  here. However, some of those writing tools are exclusive to Mac, iOS (iPhone, iPad) or Android, so this review covers Windows writing software exclusively.

Let’s review the best five writing apps for Windows as reviewed by our team.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prowritingaid, 1. scrivener.

No matter if you are writing for school, a business pitch, a script, or attempting the great American novel, Scrivener has you covered.

In fact, it’s the software that bestselling author Tim Ferris  used to write several of his books.

The Scrivener desktop app offers a wide range of tools and templates, and although it costs a little more ($49 for a lifetime license after a 30-day trial), the value is clear.

The most important features of Scrivener include:

• premade writing templates
• an easy-to-use text editor
• in-depth organization tools for large writing projects
• a distraction-free writing aid

Let’s look at some of Scrivener’s features in a little more detail.

Preloaded writing templates

Writing templates can be a huge timesaver if you find yourself staring at the blank screen trying to get started.

Scrivener offers more than a dozen writing project templates  for blog posts, novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, and more. And they’re all available in the Windows version.

And of course, if you can’t find what you need, you can create your own templates and save them.

‘Snapshot’ Restore Feature

If you tend to rewrite different sections of your content, then the ‘Snapshot’ will be a huge help for you.

With Snapshot, you can save the latest version in a folder before you delete or modify it. Then it is easily accessible should you change your mind and want to revisit your past genius.

Using Snapshot, you can save as many versions as you want. You can reopen older versions and compare them side-by-side.

Drag and Drop Editor

Scrivener also offers three different ways to organize content:

Corkboard and Outliner help break down larger books or blog posts by headings and sub-headings. Similar to Evernote , it gives an excellent visual overview. It feels like having a whole bunch of post-it notes that you can drag, drop, and reorder the format as you please.

Full-Screen Mode

If you are the type of person who finds it hard to keep focus, you will love the distraction-free ‘Full-Screen Mode’ option. The desktop app offers a pretty simple yet effective tool that enlarges your while minimizing everything in the background.

You can even customize how much of your screen you want to cover and how blurry the background appears.

Lots of Export Options

Scrivener has, by far, the most export options of any Writing App for Windows. Through the app, you can upload directly to sources such as:

• Final Draft (for screenwriting)
• Google Docs
• Google Drive
• Microsoft OneDrive
• Microsoft OneNote
• Script Studio (for screenwriting)

A lot of writers will start a blog post by gathering their notes on Evernote. Afterward they transfer their drafted pieces to Google docs for proofreading or sending to WordPress. Scrivener makes all these steps easier with simple import and export options.

30 Days of Use Trial

The coolest part about the Scrivener software is that it offers 30 days of use trial of the full version. That means you can use it for 30 non-consecutive days. So if you use the program one day a week, it will last 30 weeks. Or if you use it every day, it will last 30 days.

If you decide to upgrade and purchase a license, the cost is $45 for a lifetime license or $38 for a student license. This one time cost makes it one of the most affordable text editors and grammar tools on the market.

Check Out Scrivener →

Read the full review

2. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid aims to up the ante when it comes to helping you become a better writer. Yes, it offers proofreading tools that fix simple mistakes.

Best of all, there is no download needed. ProWritingAid integrates into many different writing programs (Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Google Chrome, and Google Docs, to name a few).

While the premium package offers some valuable formatting extras, the free version boasts features such as proofreading, grammar checking, and sentence structure. It’s probably the best Grammarly alternative  out there on the market today.

Grammar, Spelling, and Plagiarism Checker

ProWritingAid checks for grammar and spelling mistakes, but it adds more dimensions to your writing projects by looking for:

• writing cliches
• repeated words
• passive voice

The Premium Plus version includes a plagiarism checker , which is a hugely valuable tool to ensure you haven’t accidentally copied someone else’s writing.

Readability & Style Index

ProWritingAid references the Flesh-Kincaid reading score for readability analysis:

It also offers a writing style index to weed out common writing problems such as passive voice or excessive adverbs:

Yes, there is a free version of ProWritingAid. However, you can only check 500 words at a time (which can get annoying fast), and it only offers 19 free reports.

The cost for ProWritingAid premium is $70 annually or a lifetime license fee of $240. They do offer a 14-day money-back guarantee in case you are worried you won’t like it.

If you want to add the Plagiarism feature, it is an additional cost. The Premium Plus plan starts at $80 a year and is $340 for a lifetime license.

Check Out ProWritingAid →

3. Autocrit

If you are interested in writing stories, screenplays, or a novel, Autocrit is a worthwhile choice for a writing app for Windows users.

Not only will it help with writer’s blindspots like word choice and repetitive phrasing, but it will also give you instant feedback on the ‘quality’ of your writing.

Autocrit’s software will offer you an overall readability score based on several key factors.

That’s why AutoCrit goes to painstaking efforts to provide tailored suggestions and benchmarks based on the type of writing you’re doing. For example, the ‘acceptable threshold’ of adverbs might be different for general fiction vs. B2B, nonfiction stuff.

Autocrit’s distinct advantage is that it’s the only Writing App for Windows that analyzes your wording and flags pacing or momentum issues in your writing. Especially for stories, this can be a huge help.

Tidying Up Tools

The ‘Unnecessary Filler Words’ report inside AutoCrit should be an essential tool for every professional and aspiring writer. It will help you remove unnecessary words to make your writing much more concise.

AutoCrit does include a grammar checker, but it is not as useful as other tools such as Grammarly Premium . It’s advisable to use the tools together for the best effect.

You can think of Autocrit as a virtual writing coach. It provides real-time feedback and flags writing and formatting issues you can fix on the fly.

You can also improve your skills by learning from teachers or mentors like  MasterClass  offers.

Great for Fiction and Screenwriting

For fiction writers, it might be the best option available on the market outside of a human editor.

It can also help write screenplays, however, make sure to check out our review of the best screenwriting software  to learn what else is out there.

In terms of cost, Autocrit does offer a ‘Free Forever’ version with limited functionality. There are no word limits, and it has unlimited online storage.

For the paid versions, there are two options:

• Professional, which costs $30/month
• Elite, which is more expensive at $80/month

Most of the more useful writing tools are only available as part of the Professional package, and Elite offers some considerable bonuses, such as tips and tricks from professional authors and editors.

Check Out AutoCrit →

Read the full review.

4. Write! App

In some respects, Write! App is like a minimalist version of Scrivener. The user interface is spotless and simplified, which makes distraction-free writing its stronger selling point.

Distraction-Free Writing Tools

If getting off track while trying to write is an issue, the Write! desktop app helps you stay focused with two different options:

‘Full-Screen Mode’, which blocks everything except your document outline writing area.

‘Focus Mode’ that de-emphasizes everything on your screen except the sentence or paragraph you’re currently working on.

Best of all, you can combine both options.

Write! App also offers built-in cloud sync, giving you access to the same shared library from any device you use.

Plus, there are no limits on the number of files you can save. (However, cloud sync feature will cost you an additional $4.95/year).

Collaboration Features

One of the biggest downsides with several of the Writing Apps is no collaboration features. The ability to upload and share documents via a link is a big plus for the Write! App.

Multilingual Editing

Another great feature of the Write! App is the ability to do spell checking in up to 35 different languages. This can be very handy for any bi-lingual writers or those who are translating text.

The cost of the Write! App is probably the most enticing feature.

At $24.95 for a full license, it’s an excellent option for students or writers on a budget. For an additional $4.95 a year, the latest versions of all your documents are saved to the cloud for easy access.

If you just need a simple writing app, which removes distractions, helps with formatting, and can spell check in over 35 languages, then the Write! App is a great option.

Check Out Write! App →

Or read the full review

5. iAWriter

iA Writer is another simple writing app focused on minimizing distractions.

Thanks to its simplicity, iA Writer is one of the easiest Writing Apps for Windows available. It has a simple, clean user interface.

The only functionality of the app is actually writing, so distractions are minimal.

Their ‘Focus Mode’ allows you to just the current paragraph or sentence highlighted, and places everything else in the background.

iA Writer also offers a nifty Typewriter Mode’ which keeps the cursor on the same line and rolls the text up as you type, like an old-school typewriter.

iA Writer also has preloaded templates available to make the job of writing easier. Or, you can even create your own. This makes it a great free screenwriting software, or free blog writing tool.

Integration

iA Writer integrates perfectly with both Dropbox and iCloud. It also enables publishing to WordPress and Medium or as an HTML page.

However, if you don’t want to immediately publish the only two export options available (outside of WordPress or Dropbox) are PDF and DOCX. This limitation means there are no EPUB or Final Draft options.

iA Writer Pricing Plans

The iA Writer Windows license is reasonably priced at $19.99. They also offer a 14-day trial.

iA Writer is a good, simple writing app. It provides a basic text editor, and can also pull in spell checking features from Windows software.

If you’re looking for software that helps you take notes or for working on a blog post, it can be a great option.

Keep in mind that overall it’s a pretty limited writing app. You can’t really organize larger projects. It also lacks some key features and export options that don’t make it a well-rounded writing app like Scrivener or even the Write! App.

Check Out iA Writer →

It might seem like using a simple word document with spell check and a grammar checker might be enough for you to get started writing. And that’s true.

You can even look at combining several free writing apps such as Google Docs and Grammarly to do a similar job.

But if you want to improve your grammar, formatting, readability, pacing, and whole slew of other writing skills, then consider a writing program to help. We’d recommend checking out  Wordable  to publish  Google Docs to WordPress  in 1-click, instead. It will not only clean and properly format your HTML, but also compress images, open links in a new tab, automatically set featured images or create a table of contents, and lots more.

All these Writing Apps for Windows will add depth, finesse, and impact on your writing. And best of all, they will save you time and money in the long run.

Get long-term ROI.

6 Great Pieces Of Writing Software You Need To Try

• by Robert Wood
• January 20, 2016
• 45 Comments

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The New Year has arrived, and all around the world people have been making resolutions that are set to be broken by February. If you’ve sworn to visit the gym more or watch television less, then I’m afraid I can’t help you, but if you’re an author who swore that this is the year you’ll finally get serious about your magnum opus, you’re in luck.

A change in behavior is always helped by a change in venue, so in this article, I’ll be showcasing 6 pieces of writing software that could help improve your writing behavior in 2016. While traditional word processors do the basic job of letting you put words on the page, writing a book is a unique endeavor that can be made much easier with its own set of tools.

Whether this will be your first time using dedicated writing software, a chance to buckle down and write more , or you just want to try the best of what the market has to offer, this one is for you. But if I’m going to be making recommendations, first I have to clear up what a piece of great writing software can offer its user.

What do authors need from their software?

I’ve already said that word processors do the basic job of letting writers compose their stories. With that understood, every piece of writing software can be judged by how it improves on that experience. No writing software has yet invented the wheel, so your primary focus when choosing the software for you is deciding which advantages will help your writing style. Don’t be blinded by long lists of features or technical specs: software features only matter if they’re something you’re going to use.

That’s why writing software tends to offer improvements that fall into one of three groups:

Ease-of-use

Programs like Microsoft Word are designed to be used for every kind of writing task, which means they specialize in none. In contrast, writing software is designed around easier creative writing. This might mean designing the writing interface to be as simple and distraction-free as possible, or allowing you to collect all your materials in one program. It might mean helping you to place chapter markers, automatically creating a contents page, or presenting notes in a particularly helpful way.

Ease-of-use is easy to overlook, but it’s often one of the major driving forces in which writing software is attractive to authors. It’s the digital equivalent of finding somewhere quiet to work or the best way to organize your notes.

Advanced editing

Editing is a vital part of writing, but there’s a whole slew of mistakes that stand between ‘technically incorrect’ and ‘ready to publish’. Word processors will tell you if you’ve used incorrect grammar or punctuation, but writing software is capable of picking up on things like passive verbs, over-description, and recurring phrases.

Creative writing requires a keener eye than is needed for projects like essays or shopping lists, and writing software ups its game to catch the errors that will lose you readers.

Extra features

By their nature, extra features are difficult to define. They’re options like Word’s ‘Thesaurus’ which you’ll never have to use as part of the software, but which can offer extra value if they fit into your style of writing. These may include a character creator, twist generator , or custom storyboard creation. It’s here that identifying what you really want is vital – don’t judge extra features by how many are included but by how useful they sound to your way of writing.

Writing software you should try

Now that you’re thinking about the aspects of writing software that could do the most for your work, it’s time to talk about what’s on the market. Remember, though, that it’s about finding the best fit, and that might mean shopping around. If a piece of writing software has a free trial, or a free-to-use version, then it’s almost always worth seeing if it’s the right fit for you.

1. SmartEdit

SmartEdit is a way to adjust your word processor to make it more of a creative writing tool. It’s a small step, ideal for those who don’t want a big change or are worried about learning to use a new piece of software.

SmartEdit is an add-on that can be applied to Microsoft Word, adding features that mostly fall within the school of ‘Advanced Editing’. For a start, it flags repeated adverbs and phrases, keeping a count to alert author of overuse or problematic repetition. It also enhances Word’s error-checking facilities to pick up on inconsistent, rather than just incorrect, punctuation and grammar. SmartEdit doesn’t quite offer the same breadth of features as independent writing software, but the image below reveals capabilities that will stop dedicated writers in their tracks.

SmartEdit will even pick up on clichés, foreign phrases and (if asked) profanity, giving you a more complete idea of your story as a whole. Many writers work page by page and find it difficult to identify or fix errors that occur over long distance, and SmartEdit is a great way to arm yourself against such issues. Small step though it is, for many authors it will be ideal.

You can find out more about SmartEdit here .

2. Scrivener

Scrivener is a name you might know ( Scrivener review ), but it has to be included on this list because it remains one of the best-loved programs for creative writing. Like any dedicated writing software, Scrivener offers advanced editing and some valuable extra features, but its true strength lies in its ease-of-use.

Where Scrivener shines is in gathering all the material an author could need in one place. Notes, images and web pages can be stored, and displayed, alongside each other, with the program recognizing that they’re all part of a single project. That means incredibly varied options for displaying and utilizing notes. For authors who are used to opening five programs to see everything they need – losing each behind the other as they try to make disparate file types work together – this has been an incredible boon.

Scrivener is the proverbial ‘one-stop-shop’ with David Hewson (author of The Garden of Evil and Solstice ) stating that:

‘the more I use it, the more I realize it can replace every other application I’ve adopted over the years for writing books.’

That’s the charm of Scrivener in a nutshell – it gives authors the freedom to optimize their digital workspace. This includes a cork board feature for visual storage, automatically saving previous drafts so they’re never permanently lost, and adding documents to multiple ‘collections’ for a more useful way of referencing files, but the main selling point is that you won’t have to open another piece of software while you’re writing.

Buy (or trial) Scrivener here .

3. WriteItNow

WriteItNow is a rising star, combining Scrivener’s ease-of-use and organizational abilities with a host of compelling extra features. One of the most attention-grabbing is their character tab, which allows incredibly detailed character building. This includes the ability to give character traits and behaviors numerical values, encouraging consistency and helping authors develop compelling character arcs. It even allows you to download name sets depending on locations and time periods, and will choose an appropriate character name based on the author’s parameters.

Similar functions are available for adding notes and tracking timelines – the ‘events graph’ feature even allows you to view different strands of the plot as they’re experienced by different characters.

The thesaurus function is extensive, and includes relevant quotes, rhymes and Encyclopedia articles to give you options as you write. Perhaps most important of all, it can export files in RTF, PDF, HTML and EPUB, as well as to Microsoft Word. That makes it easy to repurpose your work, with only a few steps between a document your friends can print out and one you can view on an eReader.

You can find out more about WriteItNow here .

It’s important to start by saying that Sigil isn’t for everyone. Its main selling point is that it allows you to work directly into .EPUB format. That means that your work appears on the page pretty much exactly as it will on an ereader such as the Kindle or Kobo.

Usually, publishing your work to an ereader requires you to write the document on one piece of software and then edit on another. Problems can arise, and it takes a lot of effort to get a particular word processor’s formatting to work on an unrelated product. With Sigil, this editing happens as you write. If it can’t be done on an ereader then Sigil won’t allow you to do it.

That’s the part that can rub people the wrong way, and some authors will feel constricted by what Sigil does and doesn’t allow. However, whether you’re using it as your main word processor or to convert an existing document, Sigil is a godsend for self-published authors who want to keep things simple.

In fact once you get to grips with it, Sigil offers a lot more freedom. It spell-checks and has facilities for image insertion and chapter breaks, containing all the necessities of writing software along with its invisible but commendable editing advantages.

Sigil is also alone on this list in being the only program that’s entirely free . While it may not be perfect, this combines with its functionality to make it a program every self-published author should check out in 2016.

You can find out more about Sigil here .

5. WriteWay

WriteWay is another up-and-comer in the writing software world, primarily because it’s continually being updated with new features. WriteWay is a post-Scrivener piece of software, using ease-of-use as a bedrock and striving to set itself apart by adding as much advanced editing and extra features as possible. Its features allow you to plan a story, organize notes, write and edit, format to a range of file types and encourage yourself to keep going by setting writing targets.

It’s not the prettiest writing software on the market but it’s trying to become the best, and it’s worth giving it a try this year to see if it works for you. Like WriteItNow, it allows users to construct databases on characters and locations, but also offers templates and suggestions to stop you getting stuck. It also allows you to format for use on the Kobo and Kindle, track your story via ‘NoteCards’, maintain research folders and track more data than a standard word processor.

Place everything in this article so far in a blender, turn it on, and five minutes later you’ll have WriteWay. That doesn’t mean that it’s the best in every category, but it does offer the best all-round coverage for authors who think that being able to do everything well beats being able to do one thing brilliantly. Happily, the demo version is available for a thirty-day free trial , so you’ve got ample time to figure out if it’s the software of your dreams.

You can find out more about WriteWay here .

6. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is one of the best editing programmes on the market, and it doesn’t even require a download. Useable through a well-designed and easily navigable website, ProWritingAid allows you to paste or upload your writing for interrogation by its huge battery of tests. Those who think that’s too much work can also employ it as a Word, Google Docs, Scrivener, Chrome or API add-on, adding to their editing tools while preserving their favored writing software.

Conceived in a similar vein to SmartEdit, ProWritingAid will check your work for a laundry list of possible issues. These include useful additions such as checks on ‘sentence length’, ‘clichés and redundancies’, ‘dialogue tags’ and ‘pacing’, as well as more esoteric assessments that seek out ‘corporate wording’, ‘sticky sentences’ and ‘eloquence’. If the program turns up errors you don’t know how to fix, then there’s a ‘Human Editor’ button in the top right, providing an instant means to submit your work for editing by a member of the ProWritingAid team.

It’s difficult to imagine an editing programme that gives authors more to work with than ProWritingAid. Its only drawback is that in a rush to pick out every potential issue, its reports can flag content that would be best left alone. Self-doubting or inexperienced writers might find the suggested changes take more out of their confidence than is added to their work, but those who trust their own conclusions will be in their element.

Like any complex machine, ProWritingAid requires you to learn through use and with reference to its helpful and succinct user manual. What you put in is more than rewarded though, and with its wealth of output and casual interface it’s the kind of software that you try once and use for the rest of your life. That’s an easy theory to test, since ProWritingAid offer a free service to let authors try out their product.

You can read our detailed  ProWritingAid review here.

Spoiled for choice

It can be daunting when you first consider utilizing writing software. The market is so packed that you end up more concerned about the features you’re missing than the ones you’re getting. As I mentioned at the start, the only features you need to worry about are the ones you can imagine helping your writing, but even then the answer is almost always to shop around.

Spend a couple of months downloading demos and checking out free trials. It’s likely that your choice won’t come down to a list of stats and features, but to one program that just feels right with the way you work. The only way to find that program is to breeze through ten that don’t work as well.

My final piece of advice would be to turn your search into a writing exercise. Decide to write a certain number of words per piece of software – if you love the software then it’ll be easy, and if not then you’ll write that passage quicker so you can move on. At the end of the day, writing software is just another tool that can help your writing, but it’s nothing next to the outlook you decide to take on your writing behavior.

For more on writing software, check out Why You Should Use Evernote To Write Your Next Book and browse our writing tools archive for great articles like 7 (Free) Online Writing Tools That Will Make You More Productive .

Have you tried any of the software above, or do you have your own recommendation? Let me know in the comments.

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Robert Wood

45 thoughts on “6 great pieces of writing software you need to try”.

Excellent review, Rob, a real time saver for the rest of us. Thanks for all the research.

No problem whatsoever, glad it’s of use.

Scrivener? NO. It ate 2 books, I don’t know how many chapters and had the gall to eat a scene I just wrote when I left it open and opened a browser window to check a fact, when I returned to the scene window, the entire scene had been erased. They told me it was my computer after the scene. Then it started eating other parts of book files. I kicked that updated piece of crap to the curb and bought good software that does what Scrivener does without the extra bells and whistles and doesn’t have a huge learning curve.

The old Scrivener was solid. This update version is a piece of useless garbage. I have to rewrite I don’t know how many parts of books it cannibalized and two entire books. I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy. Now the program I replaced it with, WriteWay . Yeah, I would.

Thanks for sharing your experience. The more people who give recommendations, the more informed future readers can be in their shopping.

Sadly, I found out I’m not the only one this is doing this to when I complained on a writing forum. Scrivener is ignoring us and saying “It’s your computer.”

That’s a huge shame, especially as Scrivener’s draft saving feature is one of its flagship innovations. Aside from the obvious necessity of it not eating your work, how have you found WriteWay to compare to the features offered by Scrivener?

I love it. It’s faster and smoother and saves much better than scrivener. I was writing something and closed out only to realize after I hit exit, I hadn’t saved what I just wrote. I restarted and there it was in all its glory.

The learning curve was much easier, practically non existent. Every time I use Scrivener, I had to look something up especially if I didn’t use that feature a lot. Writeway? Everything is set more intuitive. I had to look one thing up and now I know where it is at. There is no frustrated hair pulling. It’s also better for cut and paste than Scrivener. If I moved my work via cut and past to Pressbooks.com, I always had to fuss with the format when I used Scrivener. No fuss with Writeway. It’s also faster. Much faster.

It makes me wonder why I bothered with Scrivener [well okay, I admit it was the half off that made me and the older version was as solid as a tank.]

Writeway offers the features I needed in Scrivener, it’s faster, it works. What more could I ask for?

Thanks very much for the review, hopefully that’ll help future shoppers avoid the pitfalls you discovered in your software experience. Intuitive design is so important with this kind of software – as you said, you don’t want to be fussing around adjusting settings; you want to write.

This is an interesting article but I’m very surprised that “ease-of-use” is applied to Scrivener. I’ve been using Scrivener for years and I’m considering jumping ship because their tools are so clunky and difficult to use. On several occasions I wanted to do something which should have been simple which (despite multiple tutorials and hours wasted searching forums) proved impossible to find or glitchy. I’m starting to think there are different versions of Scrivener: the one that works and is easy to use, and the one I downloaded. If OpenOffice or Word had the notecard/storyboard feature, I’d switch to that and never go back.

Thanks for your thoughts. You’re certainly not alone – while Scrivener remains an industry leader, and many people swear by it, there are definitely a significant number of users who find it unwieldy. This may be down to style of use or what different users are hoping to get from it, but hopefully this kind of discussion can help individual authors figure out if it’s right for them.

I’ve read previous comments and I used to work with Scrivener for a long time too, and already for a few month I changed it to yWriter and I’m really satisfied working with it. Also I think it would be great to see here such tools like EverNote https://evernote.com (desctop for all your thoughts and ideas), Hemingway App http://www.hemingwayapp.com (proofreading tool) and Unplag https://unplag.com/free-plagiarism-checker/ (free plagiarism checker). I think those tools are good for every writer.

Thanks for your recommendations – in terms of software, there are few things more helpful than authors sharing advice within the community. You can find our Evernote article via the link below.

//www.standoutbooks.com/evernote-for-authors/

Hi there I am not too worried about how to put together my novel by my main issue is that since English is not my mother tongue, my use of English is more of academic or professional language and not the day to day use and there are grammatical errors also. Which is the best software to help me structure my writing in a better way, identify grammar or sentence structuring errors.

I think something like ProWritingAid would probably be of most use to you, although it’s no replacement for a professional editor:

//www.standoutbooks.com/go/pro-writing-aid/

Thanks. At the moment I cannot afford editor so I have to rely on softwares. I checked and it was easy to use. Is there any better similar software that not only point out mistakes but gives more suggestions like if I have used adverbs then what could be better replacement verbs. Whether that software is more expensive than pro-writing-aid. e.g. have you tried autocrit and do you think it could do a better job?

Thanks for getting in contact. In terms of advanced functions, ProWritingAid is probably your best bet. I’ve looked into AutoCrit and while it’s certainly a viable alternative, there don’t seem to be any pronounced features that make it more suited to your needs.

Since you’re writing academically, it might be worth giving Grammarly a try, as it’s designed around general, consistent use, rather than improving documents in their entirety.

As Alex says, though, it sounds like you’ll need a human editor at some point for the type of in-depth, context-sensitive feedback you describe.

Thanks for the input

If you are on Windows, another one to try is WhizFolders Outliner

http://whizfolders.com/outline-software/

Thanks for the recommendation.

Hi Rob, I’m not a writer but, in my new position in academic I will be doing a lot of writing , i.e., articles and correspondence not sure which software to use! Thanks. Zell

I’d suggest giving Grammarly a look, as it’s designed with academic writing in mind.

Hello Robert. Any chance to get Storyline Creator on this list? (www.storylinecreator.com)

The free version allows you to visualize and write a few scenes and characters as well as start 30-minute writing challenges

Thanks for the recommendation. At this point, we’d be more likely to release a new list than to update this one. When that time comes, I’ll certainly keep Storyline Creator in mind.

Thank you for taking the time to write this article. It has been a great help to me. All of the best to you.

My pleasure – I’m really glad it was useful.

Thanks for a great article. After spending several months learning as much as Icould about the purchased program, I also lost a good amount of work on one of my novels, while on the Windows version of Scrivener.

While it does do spell checking, I also wish Scrivener had a built in thesaurus. I even wrote them about including the free thesaurus that comes with LibreOffice. They do not answer emails, nor even my questions on their forums, though many forum members are very helpfull.

Also Scrivener has a bug when importing documents containg smart quotes. For example, if I import:

“Did you go to work today?”

…Scrivener will change it to:

“?Did you go to work today?”

When you have a long chapter full of dialogue, it is a hassle to have to go through it and remove all the unwanted question marks. I also contacted them about this bug, but never heard back. So I am looking to jump ship. Perhaps I will try WriteWay Pro.

Hi Dr. Steve,

Thanks for your thoughts, which will help give other readers a broader picture of the available software.

Hi Rob and friends,

This is really helpful and informative. I’ve been using Libre Office, but have got fed up with its shortcomings and lack of grammar checking and editing tools. I write – mainly to keep my brain active and for fun at the moment – quite long and complex, multi- character fiction. I’m looking for tools that will work on Windows 10 and help with story arcs, character-building (in the sense of keeping track of age, appearance, relationships, etc.), research on a range of subjects, and grammar/editing.

From the comments here it looks like Writeway might do most of that with maybe one or two other tools. Evernote? But I’m not clear what it’s like to actually write in or if you can just download existing text produced in Word or Libre Writer. Any comments, suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks for commenting. Most writing software allows at least some degree of transfer from Word, given how popular it is. I’ve included some links below that may help you in your search.

//www.standoutbooks.com/evernote-for-authors/ //www.standoutbooks.com/scrivener-review-best-book-writing-software/

Just to let you know, the pro version of WriteWay is now free!

Thanks for the info!

“The Demo Edition you are about to download is a fully featured WriteWay Professional Edition, except that printing and exporting functions have been disabled. You will be able to create and import your own books, or view and modify the pre-loaded sample and its corresponding character profiles, research folders, notecards, etc. ”

It is NOT free if it is a demo and has features disabled. So, if you plan on just test driving it, then don’t bother. Otherwise you’ll have to shell out $$$ to get the most valuable key freatures to work. I don’t know about you, but if I can’t print or export, why even download it?

Writeway Pro is indeed free, the last version being 1.9.4. If you read the following page: http://www.writewaypro.com/ it confirms this. On the Registration page, it gives the License number to enable you to convert the free version to a full version.

Thanks for a very informative article. I’m looking for an editor that would spot missed quotation marks and deal with ellipsis and other punctuation related to dialogue.

Thank you, Jenni

My pleasure, glad it was useful. Most editors should automatically flag missing punctuation, but something like ProWritingAid or Word should allow you to tinker enough to pick up specific issues with dialogue.

Hi there, I own and use the Writeway Pro for my work and the owner/developer of the software posted the following below. I thought you might want to know.

“”It all started in 2002! My wife wanted a better way to write books. Since its launch in 2003, WriteWay has been helping writers of all experience levels, from basic hobbyists and aspiring authors, to multi-published New York Times bestsellers.

I found it personally fulfilling to provide a better way for writers to turn their stories into completed manuscripts.

So why free now? I have reached a point in my life where I needed to reevaluate my priorites, which are walking a beach with my wife and visiting with my grandson.

I wish you all the best in your writing endeavors, John (05/01/2017) “”

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

Do you have any ideas or comment about “StyleWriter”?

And would appreciate if anyone can share their ideas or thought about “StyleWriter”.

I don’t believe I’ve dived deep enough into StyleWriter to comment at this point, but I’ll look into it for a future review.

I want to publish a traditional book, not so much an ebook until later. Which of these programs would be best in helping me put in headers? I’m working on a collection of short stories. Each new short story has to have a different header for a title, with my name always on the adjoining page. But Microsoft Word is being incredibly difficult. I’m sick of the page breaks, I’m sick of the page breaks making big empty gaps in my writing, and I’m tired of trying to wrestle with it to get all these different headers of separate stories and my name on the pages, instead of just repeating the same header. Which one of these programs would be conducive for what I am trying to do?

Hi Jonathan,

Scrivener might be what you’re after. That said, it really does depend on personal preference. I’ve included our longer review below which should provide more information.

//www.standoutbooks.com/scrivener-review-best-book-writing-software/

I’ve worked with different programs, trying to find the one that lets me focus on writing with the nice extras not getting in the way. Haven’t found exactly what I want yet. I have used Scrivener. One you didn’t mention is yWriter6 or yWriter5 by Soacejock Software. It’s free though I think the developer takes donations. Basic, no effort trying to be “pretty”, but pretty ingeniously laid out offering different views of work I haven’t found elsewhere. I go back and forth between the two trying to get the feel for what works best for me. One of them I had trouble exporting without something that messed up the text in Word, can’t remember which. Like I said though, haven’t found the program that “flows” for me yet.

Thanks for sharing your experience and recommendations.

Surprised Campfire isn’t on here – probably because it’s newer. I use it for all my story planning, and I think it’s the best software out there for that part of the writing process!

For your next review consider including these strong products: WriteItNow, The Novel Factory, Power Structure, and Writers Block–all on Windows and Mac. Also Stoyrist only on Mac. These are more in the class of Scrivener in terms of functionality.

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Free writing software: 24 tools to help you create better content, faster

Find the best brainstorming, researching, writing, and editing tools.

As a freelance writer, I try to keep my app costs lean, so I'm a sucker for free writing tools. But with so many writing apps on the market, it's hard to tell which free options are actually valuable.

I've done some of the legwork for you by bringing together some of the best free writing apps on the internet. All of the options listed here are tools the Zapier team or I have used and enjoyed.

For this roundup, I prioritized completely free tools and freemium apps with a forever free plan that was sufficient for actual regular use. Many of the options have paid plans, but those plans are generally geared toward power users.

The best free writing software at a glance

Free writing tools for brainstorming and organizing your thoughts

Best free writing software for expanding your ideas.

Best free writing software for creating content outlines

Best free writing software for brainstorming together

You can even use Miro with Zapier (also free), so you can automate your brainstorming workflows. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started.

Create Miro widgets with new Trello cards

Add Miro cards from new rows on Google Sheets

Best free writing software for brainstorming topics

Keyword Research Tool pricing: Free

Best free writing software for brainstorming ideas with AI

ChatGPT pricing: Free; ChatGPT Plus is $20/month

Best free writing software for brainstorming out loud

Your computer's dictation software (MacOS, Windows)

If you process your thoughts best through speaking, there's a brainstorming app already on your computer. Boot up Windows 10 Speech Recognition on Windows or Apple Dictation on Mac to record your thoughts as you brainstorm out loud.

Windows 10 Speech Recognition and Apple Dictation pricing: Free

Free writing tools for research and note-taking

Best free writing software for keeping everything in one place.

Save new tasks in Google Tasks in Notion databases

Add new Microsoft Outlook calendar events to Notion databases

Notion pricing: Free plan available; from $8/user/month for team plans

Best free writing software for finding free copies of paywalled research

Unpaywall pricing: Free

Best free writing software for transcribing interview and video content

oTranscribe pricing: Free

Best free writing software for collecting research from other people

Create Trello cards from new Google Forms responses

Share Google Forms responses in a Slack channel

Google Forms pricing: Free

Free writing tools for solo and collaborative writing

Best free writing software for collaborative writing.

Create new Google Docs from text with new rows in Google Sheets

Create new Google Docs when Trint transcripts are ready

Google Docs pricing: Free

Best free writing software for messages and blurbs

WordCounter pricing: Free

Free writing tools for editing

Best free writing software for finding the perfect word.

OneLook Reverse Dictionary and Thesaurus offers all the synonyms you could dream of like a regular thesaurus, but it stands out in its reverse dictionary capabilities. Enter a phrase—or even a full sentence—to get words that match that meaning. This feature comes in handy when you want to write more concisely or find that word that's on the tip of your tongue.

OneLook Reverse Dictionary and Thesaurus pricing: Free

Best free writing software for finding the right word—anywhere

As a freelance writer, I find myself needing to switch up words when I write on various platforms across the internet. Power Thesaurus gives me synonyms, antonyms, definitions, and other forms of word assistance wherever I like to write. It can do the same for you—put it to use on its website, in your browser, on your phone, in Google Docs, in Word, and in Gmail.

Best free writing software for rewording what you write

Best free writing software for clear and concise writing

Best free writing software for creating compelling headlines

CoSchedule Headline Studio pricing: Free for basic features; from $8/month to buy "Premium Headline" credits that give you access to an SEO score, AI writing features, headline suggestions, and word banks for a certain number of headlines

Best free writing software for finding and removing cliches

Cliche Finder pricing: Free

Best free writing software for finding jargon in your text

De-Jargonizer pricing: Free

Best free writing software for varying your wording and sentence length

Expresso pricing: Free

Best free writing software for comparing your writing to AI content

Free writing tools for proofreading

Best free writing software for catching spelling and grammar mistakes.

Best free writing tool for proofreading short-form content

Best free writing tool for making MLA citations

EasyBib pricing: Free

Free writing software FAQ

Here are some questions lots of people have about writing apps and how to choose the right one.

What's a good free writing tool?

Tools like Google Docs and WordCounter are free forever and very functional. Other apps, like Grammarly or ProWritingAid, have free plans that offer basic features, with more advanced features available via a paid plan.

But there are a lot of free writing tools available that perform a wide variety of functions—everything from brainstorming to research and note-taking to writing to editing to proofreading.

What writing tool do most writers use?

There's a wide variety of writing tools out there, and which one a writer uses really comes down to preference. A lot of writers use Google Docs to write because they already use Google for so many other things—but some may prefer a tool like Notion, where they can combine writing with project management.

What makes a good writing tool?

In short, whatever helps you write! If a blank page and no distraction is what helps you actually get words down, then open a new Google Doc and go at it. If you need to organize your thoughts before you even think about writing, consider adding a brainstorming tool to the mix. Each writer's process is different, and it's all about finding tools that enable your writing, not add another roadblock to your process.

Sharpen your craft with your new toolkit

Related reading:

This article was originally published in June 2015 by Jane Callahan and has also had contributions from Jessica Greene. The most recent update was in August 2023.

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Melissa King

Melissa King is a freelance writer who helps B2B SaaS companies spread the word about their products through engaging content. Outside of the content marketing world, she sometimes writes about video games. Check out her work at melissakingfreelance.com.

• Content marketing
• Google Docs
• Google Forms

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The Best 50 Free Writing Software And Free Writing Apps

Writers are spoiled for choice when it comes to free writing software, tools, and free writing apps.

Are you a blogger, author, content writer, or student?

You want the best creative writing tools and software that will do the job for you.

But you don’t want to pay a lot of money to be able to write more effectively. Read on to discover all the choices you have for software, programs, and apps to help you write better and more productively.

Article Contents

Your free tools and software choices

There is no need for you to spend a penny to get some of the best free writing programs to help you write more productively and accurately.

You can choose and try so many terrific writing programs and tools today. You will find that most of them are unrestricted and will cost you nothing to use.

If you are looking for new apps and tools to improve your writing, you have come to the right place.

This page is regularly updated to bring you the biggest choice of free software and apps for writers.

It includes free writing apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux users.

You can find creative writing apps, grammar checking apps, word processors, mind maps, index cards, book writing programs, and productivity tools.

All of them will help you get on with what you do best, which is writing, of course.

There are also many lite versions of popular premium apps available that can offer you tons of fantastic features.

I have tried almost all the writing tools and apps in this article and use a lot of them every day.

Find the best free writing software and apps for you

You can find lots of writing software online, but you want writing apps that work best for you and your writing process and style.

With online writing software, I always start with a free version to make sure a new app does what I want it to do.

Very often, a free app will do everything I need.

But yes, sometimes I opt for a premium version to get all the features if it is really a fantastic tool.

It doesn’t matter if you are an author, a blogger, or an article writer.

Choosing the best tools for your writing needs will save you time, effort, and lots of money.

Free apps and writing software for students  are a huge bonus.

They will help you at school, college, or university.

For every type of writer, here are some of the very best free-to-use and freemium apps for you to make your choice.

Scan through my list of the best free writing software and apps below.

See if you can find a few new favorites to download for your laptop or to use online.

Please note that all the apps and software listed on this page are free to use.

However, some are a free version of a premium application, and in this case, the free version may be limited in features.

6 Free writing apps for accuracy

The most essential writing app you always need must be a reliable grammar corrector and a spellchecker.

There are a lot of online apps to check, correct, and improve your writing.

For every writer, the options will be different depending on your writing style and needs. There is no one best or better choice.

Some writers might only need a simple online checker for blog posts, articles, or essays.

But for a content writer or author, it is different. You are probably looking for more developed programs and options.

In my case, I always use two programs to check my writing.

I use one for grammar and spelling and another for writing style and readability. It always pays to check and double-check your writing and sentence structure before you publish it online.

Here are six of the most popular free grammar apps to get you on your way. Each one will help you improve the quality and accuracy of your writing.

Try them all to see which one or two work best for you and your style or type of writing.

1. Hemingway Editor – Free

I have a love-hate relationship with the Hemmingway Editor app.

The love is due to how quick and easy it is to check my readability score and grade.

The negative is that it always tells me to simplify my writing. It hates the passive voice, but that’s a good thing.

It is also a great tool for finding overused adverbs and difficult to read sentences.

It’s a simple app. But if you are looking for a free writing assistant, it is one of the handiest tools   a writer can have at their fingertips.

You can choose which Hemingway mode to use – either write or edit.

The online version is very convenient for checking up to a page or so of text. It gives helpful hints to improve your writing.

It’s one of the must-have free apps for any writer.

There is a paid version, but I am not sure it offers much value.

2. QuillBot – Free

QuillBot Grammar Checker is a quick and easy free tool you can use to check your manuscript.

One of the best features is that you can use one-click corrections to fix your grammar, punctuation, and spelling very quickly.

Another advantage is that it has a generous word count limit. I tested it with a text of over 2,000 words, and it quickly analyzed all of my text.

You can probably check one chapter at a time with the tool.

You can check each underlined suggestion and make a quick correction. But it also has a “Fix All Errors” button.

I’m not sure I would trust it for a long text. But it could be useful for a shorter text.

To use the checker, simply paste in your text, or you can use it as an editor and type your text.

When you finish correcting your writing, copy and paste it into your word processor.

Quillbot has other features, but these are only available with the premium version.

However, the grammar checker is totally free to use and is an excellent tool for checking and correcting your writing.

There is also a free Chrome extension you can try.

3. ChatGPT – Free and Premium

ChatGPT has to be on my list of free writing tools, but why is it under apps for accuracy?

Yes, it is a valuable and free tool for writers. You can use it as a writing prompt generator to inspire and generate ideas for new stories or articles.

You need only include keywords or phrases related to the topic you want to write about. ChatGTP will respond with various ideas and writing points to help you.

But you might not know that it can also help you correct your grammar and spelling.

All you need to do is start your prompt with, check the grammar and spelling:  then paste your text.

It will rewrite your text with the corrections.

You can also ask it to do other things. Ask it to change passive to active voice , and it will rewrite your text in all active voice.

Another use is to ask it to rewrite your text in a different point of view. Just ask it to rewrite in the second person .

However, don’t rely on it 100%.

It does an excellent job most of the time, but it doesn’t always get everything right, so make sure you proofread carefully.

AI writing tools are everywhere now, so writers can’t ignore them.

The free version of ChatGPT offers plenty of options with very few limitations.

So it’s probably one of the best tools to start learning how to use AI technology to help you with your ideas and writing accuracy.

Read more about how to use ChatGPT to correct your writing .

4. Grammarly – Free and Premium

Without a doubt, Grammarly is the number one online grammar checker.

For a lot of writers, it’s one of the best writing apps around.

I have used Grammarly for years now.

It is one online writing tool that I always have switched on in Chrome to use with my WordPress editor.

It works with so many sites, platforms, software, and applications. So it is always on and always helping me correct my writing in real-time.

Grammarly has a desktop app. It also has a plugin for Word in Microsoft Office for PC users.

You can use it in any web browser, with WordPress, and even on your social media sites. It also works on mobile devices as well as with an iOS Grammarly Keyboard app.

There is also support for Google Docs, but this feature is still in beta.

No matter what, when, or where you write, Grammarly will always help you write better and more accurately.

The browser version of Grammarly works very well for most users. However, a premium version is available for more advanced features to help you in your writing process.

You can read more in my Grammarly review .

5. Prowritingaid – Free and Premium

Prowritingaid is one of my favorite writing checkers for long-form writing.

You can use the free version of ProWritingAid.

It offers you a lot of functionality to help you write more accurately online using a simple Chrome extension to check your grammar and spelling.

Are you an author? Then you should consider all the editing and checking tools that are available with this app.

It is a superb writing aid for authors and writers of long-form content articles.

The premium version includes over twenty different writing analysis tools and reports. These will give you a wide range of suggestions for improving your writing.

There are also easy to use extensions available for Chrome, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Scrivener too.

It is my number one go-to editing tool when I need to work intensively on very long documents such as long-form articles or book manuscripts.

You can also read my full Prowritingaid review.

6. Grammar Lookup – Free

Grammar Lookup is another good choice for an online grammar-checking app.

I used 3,000 words from one of my book manuscripts to test the app.

It started checking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors almost immediately. It is a good app for checking short-form writing, such as blog posts and short stories.

If you’re looking for a robust grammar app with a generous word limit, this one is well worth trying.

Again, like a lot of online writing tools, it is ad-supported.

12 Free word processors

The first name writers associate with word processing is almost always Microsoft Word.

Many writers, bloggers, and authors use it as their default writing tool, but it is definitely not cheap.

Depending on your country, the annual license for Office 356 can range from $60 – $100.

If you want to buy the one-time purchase version, which is called Office Home & Student, it can cost you as much as $150.

Microsoft Office is, as its name implies, software for office use. It includes Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and other programs. You will never use these software programs for creative writing.

Do you need to pay for all these extra programs to have a word processor to write a blog post, article, or short story?

What is the best word processor for writers? Are there any free alternatives equal to Word?

Yes. If you want to write, you can always find great word processors that cost you nothing to use. Often they come with many other options and tools that are better suited for writers.

Most of them will be suitable for your writing goals and any form of short creative writing project.

But you should note that a word processor is not the best app for writing a book. You can find better programs for authors in the next section of this article.

1. Google Docs – Free

Like Microsoft Office, Google Docs is a suite of office tools. The big difference, of course, is that Google Docs is available for free online.

If you are familiar with Word, you will have no problem adapting to Docs, the word processor component.

All the formatting options are very similar, as is the user interface.

Unlike some word processors, Docs has a word count so you can keep track of your word count goal.

I know that many writers, particularly content writers, use Google Docs because of the simplicity of sharing documents online.

Writing projects can be quickly and easily shared using Google Drive, which comes with 5 gigabytes of storage. It is usually plenty of storage space for writers. You can also use Docs offline .

If you write every day and collaborate with other writers, content editors, proofreaders, or editors, Google Docs allows you to collaborate easily.

There is no need to know what file format or program others are using.

As long as each person has a Google account, and who doesn’t, working together is very easy.

2. Apple Pages for Mac Users – Free

If you are a Mac user and all you need is a word processor, Apple Pages can handle everything you could possibly need to do.

It really is the best free writing software for Mac.

Like Word, you can start with a blank document or use the template chooser.

Word processing in the page layout document view is easy to work with. All the text formatting, fonts, and writing tools are easy to find and use.

There is a spell checker, word and page count , and track change with an add comments option.

It also auto-saves directly to your hard drive or your iCloud drive when you are online. There is also the file duplicate function. It gives you very easy version control of your revisions and edits.

It is difficult to think of a standard feature or function in Word that is not available in Pages documents.

Pages also shines in one other area. It has much more control over images than Word.

One other big plus with Pages for authors is that you can export directly to epub. You don’t need to convert your file formats into another program.

Pages is one of the best writing programs for Mac users.

There is also a mobile app for iPad and iPhone. You can download it from the Mac App Store.

Related reading: Can Apple Pages Replace Microsoft Word For Mac?

3. MS Notepad and Mac TextEdit – Free

These two writing programs are already under your noses. They are installed by default on Windows and Apple computers.

They are both ideal little apps for writing blogs or short articles.

However, they are both worthy of mention because of their usefulness in converting to plain text.

Most word processors can add a lot of background code over the time you take to write a long document.

Cut and pasting, saving, deletions, forgotten tabs and spaces, and formatting changes all add up to a lot that can go wrong.

Because of all this code, there is a chance that the text might have issues when used online. This can be especially true if you use WordPress or publish ebooks.

The quickest and easiest way to clean a document, big or small, is to copy all the text into a plain text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit. Then, you can convert everything to plain text.

Then you can copy back the clean text into your blog editor or word processor for ebook formatting.

4. Libre Office – Free

I used Open Office for many years. It is an open-source project and is still available.

However, many writers now favor Libre Office.

These two office suites branched from the same development stable, so they have a lot of similarities.

Learning to work with Writer, which is the word processor, is easy.

However, it uses traditional and straightforward menus, toolbars, and icons but does not have the ribbon function found in Word.

In some ways, this is a good thing because it lets you get on with the writing process instead of hunting in ribbons for buttons.

If you want a word processor, and that’s all, Writer in Libre Office won’t disappoint you.

5. Word Online – Free

Microsoft Word Online is a free web browser version of Word.

You can create, edit, and share Word documents, but it comes with relatively basic features compared to the paid desktop version.

But for students and part-time writers, it’s a handy free alternative.

One benefit is that you can use it on any device with a web browser, including computers, tablets, and smartphones.

You will need to create a Microsoft account, which is free. You also get 5GB of free storage.

Overall, it’s a worthwhile option for users who want a free and easy-to-use word processing software similar to Google Docs.

6. WPS Office – Free Edition

If you have used Microsoft Word or Google Docs, then you can work with WPS Office immediately.

Like other alternative word processors, it has all the standard features you would expect, and it works with most file types.

One of its key features is that it allows drag-and-drop paragraphs, which can be practical at times.

Another time-saving yet straightforward feature of WPS is tabbed documents.

While Excel has had this for years, Word has never had it, so working on two documents simultaneously is much more efficient in WPS.

WPS also has a cloud storage service with 1G for PC and iOS.

7. SoftMaker Free Office – Free

Free Office gets a mention because it can export .epub. It is a convenient tool for self-publishers.

TextMaker is the word processor in this office suite.

However, unless you opt for the premium version, you cannot save in docx format.

But you can open and edit docx files.

Apart from that inconvenience, it has all the advanced features you would expect in a modern word processor.

It comes with advanced formatting options, the ability to create databases for bibliographies and footnotes, as well as track change.

8. Dropbox Paper – Free

All you need is your free Dropbox account to use Dropbox Paper .

It is a word processor, but there is so much more you can do with this app.

The design is clean and simple, but there are so many features at your fingertips.

As well as being a text editor, you can add audio, images, YouTube videos, Slideshare documents, and Trello cards.

It really is a great free writing app for you to create documents and then share them with your team or online.

9. Focus Writer – Free

FocusWriter is a simple, distraction-free writing environment.

It uses a full-screen hide-away interface that you access by moving your mouse to the edges of the screen.

It allows the program to have a familiar look and feel to it. But by getting everything out of the way, you can immerse yourself in your work.

It’s available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

10. Calmly Writer – Free

Calmly Writer has been designed to help you focus on writing.

As you start typing, all the distracting options disappear from the interface.

Calmly also includes a “focus mode” option, which highlights only the paragraph you are editing at the time.

If you are a writing minimalist, it could be a good choice for you.

It is a browser-based app, and there is a Chrome extension available.

11. Zoho Writer – Free

Zoho Writer is an online alternative to Microsoft Word.

You can sync between your PC or Mac, iPhone, Android, or iPad.

Almost everything you do in Word, you can do with this word processor. There are even collaboration tools.

You can import your existing Word documents and get to work.

There is also a plugin to link your Zoho documents to Word.

That’s not a bad deal for at all a gratis online writing tool.

12. Scribus – Free

Scribus is an open-source program for desktop publishing.

It gets a mention here because it is such a feature-rich cross-platform program.

Scribus is a page layout and desktop publishing program for Linux, FreeBSD, PC-BSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, OpenIndiana, Debian GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation, Haiku, and Windows.

Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK colors, spot colors, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation.

Perhaps it is not a choice for most authors and bloggers. But you might have a desktop publishing need one day.

4 Free book writing apps

Are you ready to start writing a book? You need to hunt a little to find good writing programs for writing books and novels.

A writing app or author software for a book is entirely different from a word processor.

The best book writing programs consist of many elements.

You need plot timelines, character builders, and event tracking. It should also include note-taking and research-pinning tools.

Here are four of the best free book apps for writing, formatting, and publishing your books or ebooks.

There is a link to seven more free book writing programs at the end of this list.

1. Shaxpir – Free and Premium

For a dedicated book writing tool, Shaxpir gives you a lot of features in its free version.

The Manuscript Builder uses drag-and-drop tools to rearrange your manuscript. You can change the order and hierarchy of chapters and scenes. So you can find a structure that works for you.

You can set your goals and track your progress. You can also keep detailed notes about your characters, places, and events.

It also allows you to add margin comments as well as collect concept art.

There is also an in-built spellchecker.

As far as a book writing program or author app goes, Shaxpir offers you a   huge range of features.

It is available for Mac and PC with offline and cloud access.

2. Scrivener – Free Trial

Although Scrivener is not free, I have to include It in this list of apps because there is a generous trial available.

Scrivener is one of the best book writing software tools for authors and screenwriters.

It has an outliner for chapters and scenes, a corkboard, and index cards.

There is also side-by-side viewing, word count targets, and a full-screen editor, along with print, export, and publishing tools. It has everything any writer could ever need.

There is a 30-day trial period offered by Scrivener.

However, the trial period is counted by the days that you use the software. So, if you use it every second day, your trial period will last 60 days.

If you only write at the weekend, it will last you for a good few months.

Scrivener is available for download for both Windows and Mac. There are also iOS apps for iPhone and iPad.

To access your trial, click the Download Trial link.

3. Calibre Ebook Tool

Calibre is often called the Swiss Army Knife of ebook formatting tools.

There is so much you can do with Calibre.

But for most new authors, you will use it to convert your Word manuscript to mobi, epub, and pdf.

If you have some technical ability, you can also edit the epub or HTML files of your ebook.

It really is one of the most powerful ebook tools for authors.

It is available for download for PC, Mac, and Linux.

4. Kindle Create – Free

If you are a self-publishing author on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Kindle Create is a must-have app for you to use.

The program has improved a lot over the last couple of years. Initially, it was a little unstable, and its primary function was to help you format a Kindle book.

But stability is much better now, and Amazon has been slowly adding new features since it merged Createspace into KDP.

Kindle Create can now format both ebooks and paperback books. However, this latest option is still in beta.

It is so easy to format beautiful ebooks using Kindle Create.

Do you want more free book writing software?

Are you trying to find the best apps for writing your book?

Do you want the best novel writing tool that can help you work on individual chapters and scenes?

Here are seven choices for apps and free writing programs for you that are specifically designed for writing your book.

Read our review of nine free book writing programs for authors.

7 Free apps for bloggers

Are you a content writer or blogger? You need to work with ideas, keywords, data, headlines, and images all day long.

It pays to stay one step ahead of your competition. You are continually working on improving your content, search engine optimization (SEO), and SERP rankings.

There is no way you can do all this work without having the best tools for the job at hand.

Make your life a little easier with some of these blogging apps to help you write and rank better.

Here is a choice of seven of the best blogging tools for busy content writers and bloggers. All of them will save you hours of work every day.

1. Fyrebox – Free and Premium

You’re writing lots of content for your blog.

But wouldn’t it be great if you could engage your readers a little more in your post topics?

Well, you can with Fyrebox by creating a free interactive quiz.

All you need to do is create your free account, and then you can start designing your quiz in a few minutes.

There are templates to help you get started with pre-made quizzes for you to personalize.

A quiz is a great way to keep your readers on your blog for much longer by letting them participate in your blog post subject.

2. Hubspot Blog Ideas – Free

Hubspot’s blog topic generator is an old favorite for many writers.

All you need to do is enter a few nouns, and it will produce a list of blog title ideas for you.

It is such a handy tool to have when you are looking for new writing ideas.

3. Portent’s Idea Generator – Free

Do you need a cure for writer’s block?

I adore this blog topic generator app.

Portent is an easy and clever way to find new writing ideas.

It is an app primarily designed for bloggers to find headlines and titles, not a genuine headline analyzer. However, writers can use it to discover new ideas for any piece of writing.

All you have to do is input your base word or words, and then you can select a working title for a new writing prompt.

4. ShareThough Headline Analyser – Free

How engaging is your article headline?

Sharethrough must be my absolute favorite little app. Once you have a blog or article title idea, run it through this app to see how effective it will be in attracting readers’ attention.

You can edit as you go, and the app keeps a record of your variations so you can choose the best one.

The app’s blurb says: “Like the lead paragraph in a news story or thesis in an essay, your headline is your one true sentence: the single most important asset for capturing attention in the feed.”

5. Website Grader – Free

Website Grader is a quick and easy app to help you improve your blog.

Checking and optimizing your blog’s performance is essential if you want to increase your site traffic.

You should make sure that your website is easy for users to discover and easy for search engines to understand.

It is a quick app to check your page titles, headings, and meta descriptions.

It only takes a few seconds to run this performance check of your blog to see if you need to make any improvements.

6. Privacy Policy Generator – Free

Privacy Policy Generator is an app to help you write your privacy policy page for your blog.

You don’t even need to register or give your email address.

It is a time and money saver for all bloggers.

Just add your basic information, and the app will create the full text for your privacy terms.

All blogs should have a policy page about privacy to make sure that your site is GDPR compliant.

7. Canva – Free and Premium

Now, this is not an app for writing articles. So it might not truly belong in a list of blog writing tools and programs.

But Canva is a fantastic tool for promoting your writing.

Canva is a free online tool for creating images.

Because Internet images you find on Google images are very often copyright protected, it is a much better idea to create your own unique images.

You can find and use stock images to upload to Canva that you can then design and transform into a unique image.

You can use Canva to create images for social media promotion, blog posts, Facebook headers, and even quick and dirty ebook covers.

While there is a paid option, the free version offers more than enough images, graphics, icons, shapes, and backgrounds for almost any image creation project.

It’s so useful; I sometimes feel a bit guilty because I use this app almost every day.

10 Free productivity apps

There are so many facets to writing. It would be great if all you had to do were to write.

But we all know that a writer’s life consists of lots of tasks and distractions.

You have to be organized to be able to write. Just collecting and collating your ideas takes a lot of time in your day. Then there is your to-do list and probably a long list of pending items.

It would be great if there was an all-in-one help for a writer’s app. But until it ever eventuates, here is a selection of some of the best productivity apps for writers.

Hopefully, some of them will help you stay organized and perhaps save a little time that you can invest in writing.

1. Trello – Free and Premium

Trello must be one of the most popular apps for writers.

There is so much you can do to organize your writing projects, notes, and to-do lists. You can collaborate and assign tasks, start discussions, and so much more.

Trello is a beautiful as well as highly functional app. It is available for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, iOS, and Android.

2. Evernote – Free and Premium

Evernote is a popular application for lots of writers. It is one of the most popular note-taking apps, but it is much more.

Never let an idea escape when you are not at your keyboard. You can organize your thoughts, and create checklists and to-do lists.

There is also a handy web clipper that lets you save parts of web pages to help you with your writing research.

The free version comes with more than enough storage memory to suit most writers.

3. OneLook – Free

OneLook lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept.

Your description can be anything at all: a single word, a few words, or even a whole sentence.

Type in your description and hit Enter to see all the related words.

This little writing app is a thesaurus on steroids.

4. Free Pomodoro Timer – Free

If you are a fan of the Pomodoro technique, to improve your productivity, you will need a Pomodoro timer .

There are many apps to choose from online.

But I like this one because it’s easy to set and to read. Nothing fancy, but effective.

5. Read-O-Meter – Free

How long will it take to read your article?

Find out with Read-O-Meter , and then you can add reading time to your blog post or article.

6. Wordcounter – Free

Wordcounter ranks the most frequently used words in your text.

You can use this browser app to see what words you are repeating too often and then make changes.

All you need to do is paste your text into the box. Then this little app will go to work and list all your repetitions.

7. Quetext – Free

Quetext is an online plagiarism checker.

Many paid apps feature checking plagiarism as a premium option.

But with this browser app, you can check your documents anytime you like.

8. Otter V0ice Notes – Free and Premium

Otter is a dictation-to-text app for iOS and Android.

All you need to do is hit the record button, start speaking, and watch your words appear in the app. It even adds in punctuation.

There are many paid and premium dictation apps, but Otter offers a generous free option of 600 minutes a month.

9. Freemind – Free

If you are into mind maps to develop story ideas, here is a software download for you.

Many authors use mind map apps to help write a book by keeping their ideas connected and logical.

Freemind is open-source mind-mapping software built in Java.

It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

It has a wide variety of features, including location-based mind mapping, collaboration tools, restore sessions, and more.

10. DiffChecker – Free

Do you sometimes get into a tangle when editing different versions of a text?

What and when did you make a change? Is it nearly impossible to remember every edit you make?

Well, with DiffChecker , it is easy to compare two versions of a text and find the differences between them.

It is a browser app, but if you want to save your revisions (Diffs), you will need to create an account to log in.

8 Quick mentions

The following software and writing apps are recent additions to this list.

They are not categorized. But all of them could be worth a look to see if they are a match for what you need in an app or program.

As they are quick mentions, you will need to investigate for yourself to see if they might be worthwhile.

1. Kindle Previewer – Free

The Kindle Previewer application is a free desktop program that lets authors preview how their ebooks will appear on all Kindle devices.

It makes it easy to check your ebooks for different screen sizes, display orientations, and text font sizes.

2. Zotero – Free

Zotero is a free and easy-to-use program to help you with sources and citations.

You can collect, organize, cite, and share your research.

You can create references and bibliographies for any text editor directly with Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs.

3. Reedsy Book Editor – Free

It is also a writing program and editor.

4. NaturalReader – Free

It’s often a good idea to read aloud when you proofread a draft text.

But with NaturalReader , you can create mp3 files from your text and then play them back to you. It makes it much easier to check your text for accuracy as you listen.

There is a generous free daily limit of 20 minutes for access to premium voices.

But if you select free voices, there is no restriction.

5. Bubbl.Us – Free

When you want to mind map your ideas, it is easier with an app.

Bubbl.Us is a good choice if you want free mind mapping. You can share your maps with others and even on social media.

6. Pixabay – Free

You’re right; this is not writing software. But I have to include Pixabay because I use it every day to find great free images for my blog.

There are many free stock image sites, but this one is my favorite because the choice of images is enormous.

7. Pixlr – Free

Again, this is not a writing app. But when you need to edit an image for your blog or ebooks, then Pixlr might do the job for you.

There is a premium version, but the free version can perform most basic photo editing tasks.

8. DramaQueen – Free

If you are writing scripts, this program could be what you are looking for.

With DramaQueen , you can format your script yourself or according to the official rules of the Writers’ Guild.

3 Fun free writing apps

Writers can sometimes be a serious bunch of people. But everyone needs to have a bit of fun from time to time.

To end my long list of apps for writers, here are three little apps to put a smile on your face.

Have fun, and enjoy being a writer.

1. Hipster Sound – Free

Do you have time to go to a café to relax and write?

If you don’t, you can bring the sounds of a Texas or Paris café to you with this cute little app.

Go to Hipster Sound , click play, pop in your air pods, and you will have all the ambient sounds you need to get your creative juices flowing. As an extra bonus, your coffee is on the house!

2. FlipText – Free

Okay, you are not going to use Fliptext often. But it is a fun and funny little writing tool.

¡uoıʇuǝʇʇɐ ʇɔɐɹʇʇɐ oʇ ǝɹns sı ʇı ˙uʍop ǝpısdn buıʇıɹʍ ʎɹʇ ʇou ʎɥʍ ‘uoıʇuǝʇʇɐ ʇɔɐɹʇʇɐ ןןıʍ ʇɐɥʇ buıɥʇǝɯos op oʇ ʇuɐʍ noʎ uǝɥʍ

Yes, you can write upside down. Did you have to turn your screen upside down, or did you twist your neck in pain trying to read it?

3. The Most Dangerous Writing App – Free

The Most Dangerous Writing App is a fun little writing tool with a mean side to it.

You start by setting yourself a writing time of, say, five minutes. Then you start writing. But if you stop writing for more than five seconds, you lose everything you wrote.

However, if you get through your allotted time without stopping, your reward is that you can save your work.

Yes, that’s a seriously nasty little writing app. It is a brutal yet brilliant idea.

But if you treat it like a game, it can be a fun challenge and maybe a clever way to overcome writer’s block.

Summary of free writing software

For all writers, there are plenty of software, programs, publishing apps , and tools.

You can also find free book writing programs that work very well for any book project.

You don’t need to spend any money at all to get some of the best software and apps.

There are so many open-source and free software alternatives for word processors, book writing, short story writing, and spelling and grammar correction tools.

Are you ready to write your book or get started as a content writer or blogger?

Then the writing tools in the list above will be more than enough to get you off on the right foot.

All of them are user-friendly, as well as quick and easy to learn how to use.

Make your choices based on what you need and want to achieve as a writer and what you think you will need to succeed.

Then head off to the coffee shop with your laptop, or pump up Hipster Sound at home and start writing.

Related reading: Choose Your Writing Apps For iPad To Write Anywhere

About The Author

Derek Haines

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28 thoughts on “the best 50 free writing software and free writing apps”.

No Ywriter? Easy to set up and use. Takes around two minutes to learn from installation. More important it’s free.

I have noted yWriter in our article about free book writing software.

Thank you for this article. It’s very useful.

As an editor and writer for thirty years, I’m not at all fond of grammar and style programs. None of them work well at all for the people who need them most. Every one I’ve tied, including Grammarly, makes terrible mistakes, and if you follow the style these programs want you to follow, you’ll never be a good writer. I can tell in a page or two whether a writer has used and RELIED such a program, and it’s almost always an instant rejection.

These programs should only be used by writers who don’t really need them, except for those brain fart moments, or when a truly esoteric question of grammar pops up. As a writer, you MUST know grammar inside out, and you must know style inside out, or you won’t have a clue whether Grammarly, or any such program, be it for grammar or style, is lying to you.

At BEST, these programs produce cookie cutter style that may be technically correct, but that simply is not professional level writing. Such writing may make you a couple of dollars on a site such as Medium, and you may even sell a few copies of something on Amazon, but this is all you’ll do.

If you really want to be a professional writer, you MUST learn grammar inside and out. These programs can’t give you the grammar you need, and contrary to popular belief, it is NOT an editor’s job to correct a manuscript full of bad grammar. Ain’t gonna happen. Grammar is your job, not the job of a software program, and not the job of an editor. Period.

Nor can you leave style up to software, or to an editor. Software can’t give you professional level style, and an editor simply doesn’t have the time. An editor will correct minor mistakes here and there, overlooked brain farts, but that’s it.

If you really want to be a writer, forget such silly software. Plant your butt and learn grammar. For style, story, characterization, plot, and other such necessities, read five hundred novels and a thousand short stories, then write several novel or fifty short stories. If you have any talent at all, this will bring it out. If you lack talent, well, you need a new profession.

This era of digitization has changed the publishing industry completely and is still revamping it . The book writing software and industries are a true companion for writers and editors. They are just making our work more easy and accurate. Totally agree with your article.

I have a fixed income due to my disabilities. I plan to purchase a new computer but is Microsoft Home and Personal a very reputable writing program? Is a Dell computer highly recommended?

I write • plays • poetry • historical fiction • children’s picture books • essays • short fiction for children and adults

Thank you! :-)

Sorry, Tom. But I can’t help you with advice about buying a computer. You’d be better trying computer review sites.

Hi Derek, I hope someone is interested in my Scribis Project, a series o free online editors dedicated to those who want to work quickly moving between dictionaries, thesauri and databases of sentences selected from the great classics. Based on what you type in the editor, you will get synonyms, collocations, intermediate concepts, semantic fields, and dozens of sentences that contain analogies, similarities, emotions and images. With another tool, Scribis Matrix, you can generate word matrices from the same dictionaries and thesauri.

Why no YWriter? It does everything important that scrivener can do, but it is free.

We do feature yWriter in our listing of free book writing software. So, we haven’t missed it. https://justpublishingadvice.com/choose-your-free-book-writing-software-for-your-new-book/

PowerWritingAid and Grammarly are not free programs. You have to pay expensive monthly subscriptions.

StyleWriter will make you a better writer and does not get a mention in your reviews!

Prowritingaid and Grammarly both offer free versions. But I will investigate Stylewriter.

I use Grammarly on a daily basis and only the free version and I don’t feel I am missing out on anything. I also use the free version of pro writing aid, not as often but I’ve never encountered an instance where I have wished I had the paid version. A lot of paid apps have a really good free version of those apps too. This is a pretty perfectly crafted reply because of my free Grammarly lol

Very great article with many great Apps. Recently I discovered Neperos, it is very intuitive and gives you the possibility to style your article with multiple pictures.

I bought Prowritingaid for the Word add-in, but found one of the most important features, the ability to customise reports, doesn’t work. Contacting the Support team led to promises of an investigation followed by nothing. A reminder led to a promise the issue would be passed to a developer who,would be in touch, then nothing. If you want it work with Word, look elsewhere or you’ll pay for a non-functional product with no support!

Hi Peter, Lisa here from ProWritingAid. I’ve just been through our support inbox and can’t find any emails under the name Peter Caffrey.

So far, I am enjoying 3 out of your 10 recommendations. Your reviews seem honest and unscripted-thank you for that.

The only serious free option for desktop publishing right now is Scribus. It’s software, not web-based. I’ve used it a few times and it’s pretty decent. Of course, I also have QuarkXPress, which I prefer. Hope that helps!

It was informational and I liked it very much.

I found this article to be informative. In search of one thing, I happily stumbled upon much more. Thanks!

Generally in life you get what you pay for so you should expect limitations from anything free. If you’re serious about writing then Scrivener is what you need. Yes, you have to pay for it but it costs about the same as a couple of takeaways and once you learn how to use it you’ll wonder how you lived without it. I agree about Canva, but I wouldn’t bother with anything else on the list!

There is free Windows alternative for Scrivener named Quoll Writer. Of course, it has some limitations but is a lot easier to use and gives you all essential features writer or journalist needs. Chapters, characters, items, linking, tagging, annotating and more. It has Idea Board and stats and readability indexes. Text formatting is basic but hey, it’s software for writers not for editors. You can export your texts as .docx or .epub and format them with Sigil or Calibre. I’m using it for couple of years.

Good article, but you don’t mention StyleWriter – a powerful program to change the way y0u write. It shows you how to write and edit like a professional.

So thankful I found this site. All the info I need in one place and much simpler than what I was trying to work with. Especially great for a tech dummy like me.

Great post, informative and gives me some options to consider that I didn’t know about before. Thanks.

Great article, I love Canva, Couldn’t run my website without it! Thanks for this. I learned some things.

Thanks for this informative post. :) — Suzanne

This post is one of the best and most informative I have read in years on publishing for home-based writers. Through your post, I have discovered new resources that will make my writing life easier. Thanks!!!

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The Best Writing Apps for Windows 11: Free and Paid

This article was contributed by Mathew Greeley for Onlineplagiarismchecker.net.

Writing skills are very important, whether you are a student or a professional. If you want to improve your skills or make your life a lot easier, there are certain apps that you can use for this purpose.

If you're working on a computer or laptop with Windows 11 as its OS, there are many writing apps for you to choose from. The apps you choose will depend on the features you need, the level of your writing skills, and your budget.

ProWriting Aid

ProWriting Aid is a very efficient writing app that generates more than 20 reports for you to analyze the content you have written. Apart from the reports, you will also get suggestions to improve the overall flow of your written work. 

This app emphasizes improvement rather than highlighting the individual mistakes and errors in your document. For this reason, ProWriting Aid is ideal if you frequently write long-form content and you want to learn how to improve your writing. If you want to try this app out, you can avail of the 14-day free trial first. If you like it, you can upgrade to the paid version, wherein you pay $299 for lifetime use, $79 per year, or $20 per month. 

FocusWriter

FocusWriter is specially designed to get rid of distractions while you write so that you can focus on the task at hand. When working on this app, you have the option to hide other apps, monitor your progress, and customize the appearance of your text.

This app has a clean and simple interface and it even allows you to add a typewriter sound effect to give you a retro feel while you type. You also have the option to change the wallpaper, text colors, and other features to make you feel more inspired. However, it's not the best app if you need to keep going back to what you have written so that you can edit your work. But it will help you stay focused, which is essential if you have a lot of work to do. This is a free, open-source app with multiple platforms.

Beewriter is a very effective writing assistant that will provide you with corrections and suggestions while you write. With this app, you can hone your writing as you receive ideas for better phrasing while fixing any grammatical errors.

It's a great app that even provides the reasons behind the mistakes. It's powerful enough to fix errors that other tools and apps can't even detect. Beewriter also offers support for six different languages, with more coming in the future. To try it out, you can avail of the 14-day free trial first. Then you can upgrade to the paid version wherein you pay $10 per month for the Premium plan or $5 per month for the Basic plan. 

Google Drive

Google Drive is one of the most commonly used apps today. With this app, you have 15GB of cloud space for uploading images, documents, and other files, then sync everything with all other devices that you use.

The great thing about Google Drive is that you can work directly on the file. Then you can install add-ons like Grammarly to help you correct and refine your written works as you write them. This is a free app that allows you to share folders and files with other people directly. You can even collaborate on writing projects with other people to see what they have written and add your own content to the files.

Check your content after writing

Writing apps are tools that can help you come up with the best content for your articles, blog posts, research papers, and other written works. But if you need to submit written work for your school or college, you must make sure that they're 100% original. This is where an  online plagiarism checker  comes in. Plagiarism is a very big issue in the world of writing and you should make sure that your work doesn't contain this. Run your document through a plagiarism checker first before submitting it.

Squibler is a very intuitive tool for writing and it's especially ideal for those who write a lot of stories, books, and novels. With this app, you can write faster without compromising the quality of your content. One standout feature is the “Note Cards” where you can divide your display screen, check your progress, and organize your content by creating cards. You also have the option to filter and store your content using tags.

When editing, this convenient app has a drag-and-drop feature, which makes editing a lot easier for you. When you're done working, you can share your files with your editor for them to start working too. Give this app a try by availing of the 30-day free trial. Then you can pay $9.99 per month to continue using it. 

Grammarly is another commonly-used app, especially for those who write for a living. It's a straightforward app that checks your written works for spelling and grammar mistakes. It also provides details behind the suggested corrections. 

With this app, you can set the tone of your writing based on the nature of your content and your target audience. Grammarly also checks your documents based on repetitiveness, readability, and clarity. This app is more suitable for writing short-form content rather than long-form content. You can use the Basic version of this app for free but if you want the Premium version, you will pay $139.95 per year or $11.66 per month. 

WriteMonkey

WriteMonkey is an excellent choice for you if you're used to  writing on Microsoft Word  and other similar word processing software. It has a clean and simple interface with all of the tools that you need to produce various written works.

One standout feature of this app is the “Markdown,” which is a text-editing language that allows you to classify, link, annotate, and format while you're typing. Simple as it looks, it's very powerful. This free app also offers file organization, an excellent highlighter, and automatic syntax highlighting. This is the perfect app for you if you write a lot of print publications, blog posts, and other written works.

Calmlywriter

Calmlywriter is another free app with a minimalistic interactive design. This is an online app that helps you maintain your focus while you write. You can do this through the “focus mode” that highlights each paragraph that you work on. 

Although it's very simple, it does have some very helpful features. For one, it supports syntax for formatting fonts, headers, and even bullet lists. With this app, you can use keyboard shortcuts to make your work faster. You don't have to pay anything to use this app and when you're done, you can export your document to a PDF file. It also has a word counter and you can perform a spell check using your browser.

LibreOffice Writer

LibreOffice Writer is an  open-source app  that you can use in place of MS Office. It comes with many powerful features similar to MS Word but it doesn't come with a high price tag.

The app offers a thesaurus, dictionaries for various languages, and several editing tools. There is also an active community of people who use the app so that you can find answers to any questions you might have. This app is free of charge, although it doesn't offer direct cloud support. But you can use it with a third-party storage service like Dropbox so that you can save or share your written works. 

Writing apps will help boost your writing skills while allowing you to learn other tips, tricks, and even skills that will make you improve as a writer. You can choose from the apps listed here, which are all compatible with Windows 11. With the right app, you can finish your tasks quicker and easier and have more time to do other things. The apps featured here are also very user-friendly, which makes them ideal even for beginners.

About the author

Mathew Greeley is a content writer at Onlineplagiarismchecker.net with rich experience in academic writing and blogging. He is known for his talent in SEO-optimized blogs and has always received rave reviews for his writing. His hobbies include fishing, cycling, and watching trending web series.

Last Updated on May 1, 2024 10:14 am CEST

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15 BEST Writing Apps & Software for Windows PC (2024)

Writing Apps are applications that help you to manage and boost writing stories, emails, ideas, social media posts, articles, and more. These programs have a user-friendly interface that helps you to manage your files. Following is a handpicked list of Top Writing Software, with their popular features and website links. The list contains both open source (free) and commercial (paid) software. Read more…

Grammarly is a widely used writing enhancement tool. It offers numerous writing styles, suggestions for grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. It offers a useful knowledge base for grammar learning.

Best Text Writing Apps & Software

1) Grammarly

Grammarly is a widely used writing enhancement tool. It offers numerous writing styles, suggestions for grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. You can use this tool via the website, as a browser extension or as an app that you download to your computer.

• It helps enhance your writing skills by highlighting grammatical mistakes and areas of improvement.
• Works with every type of website with ease.
• Detect contextual mistakes.
• Genre-specific suggestion abilities.
• It offers a useful knowledge base for grammar learning.
• Helps writer to boost their writing style.
• Make text corrections across different websites and platforms.

Supported Platform: Web and browser extension.

Visit Grammarly >>

Free Forever

2) Prowritingaid

Prowritingaid is a tool that offers world-class grammar and style checking facility. It helps you to edit documents faster. This software includes more than 1000s of style to improve your writing.

• It enables you to fix the writing style issue.
• Prowritingaid shows spelling and grammar mistakes.
• It has word explorer facilities to find the right word.
• It is one of the best writing apps for Windows that offers a consistent report to reduce mistakes.

Supported Platform: Mac, Web, and Windows.

Visit Prowritingaid >>

14-Day Free Trial

Surfer is an easy to use writing app that helps you to generate a whole content strategy in a few clicks. It allows you to develop data-driven content.

• Helps you to craft content marketing strategy through generating guidelines and insights for a single article.
• One-click content guidelines to make search engine results by storm.
• Help you identify content gaps and structural defects.
• Generate a content strategy according to your business needs.

Visit Surfer >>

30-Day Money-back Guarantee

4) Final Draft

Final Draft is a writing app that enables you to write and format screenplays for televisions. It enables you to collaborate with other people in real time.

• Allows you to store various versions of lines.
• It auto-fills commonly used locations and names.
• You can insert images on title pages.
• It enables you to write screenplays without using the keyboard.
• Eliminate distractions using night mode.

Visit Final Draft >>

30-Day Free Trial

5) Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a writing app that helps you to transform documents into web pages. It offers a real-time translation facility with just one tap. This program enables you to read and edit documents attached to the email.

• Provides templates for resumes and forms.
• You can read documents, PDF, letters, and scripts on your mobile device.
• It enables you to save a document as a PDF file.
• Share your file with others with a few taps.
• Support editing with rich formatting.
• Manage permission for documents
• You can comment in the documents.

Supported Platform: Android, Mac, iOS, and Windows.

Visit Microsoft Word

Frase is software for speech recognition. This application allows you to talk, and your words will appear on the screen. It helps you to make documents without using a keyboard.

• It allows you to control your PC by voice with accuracy and speed.
• This tool is faster than typing text with a keyboard.
• It can be used by students, enterprise users, and professionals.

Supported Platform: Windows, iOS, and Mac.

Visit Frase >>

5-Day Trial for $1

7) Scrivener

Scrivener is an ideal creative writing apps. It provides a management system for documents, metadata, and notes. This application helps you to organize and research the document for easy access.

• It highlights the phrases that you need to work.
• You can add comments and annotations.
• This software allows you to indent block quota.
• Make heading large and bold.
• You can import plain text files, and Word documents, PDF documents, and more.

Visit Scrivener >>

30-Days Free Trial

8) Calmlywriter

Calmlywriter is free writing software. The design of this program is minimal. This online application is design to help you to focus on your writing skills. It has a “focus mode” option that can highlight the paragraph you are writing.

• You can get the support of full-screen mode.
• It is simple to use.
• You can on or off typewriter sound.
• Supports syntax to format headers, bold, italics, as well as bullets.
• It allows you to use keyboard shortcuts.
• Spell check via a browser.
• It provides a word counter.
• You can export to PDF file.

Link: https://www.calmlywriter.com/

9) JotterPad – Writer, Screenplay, Novel

JotterPad is an Android application that is designed especially for writers. It is one of the best writing apps which has a plain text editor helping you to write books, poems, novels, essays, etc. The tool enables you to focus on converting your thoughts into a plain text file.

• You can quickly search for phrases.
• Supports Markdown (Text to HTML conversion tool).
• It allows you to count words.
• This tool helps you to control the version of the document.
• Write or edit the text in the cloud.
• Print or publish your work to PDF.
• It has a built-in dictionary to search for words.

Supported Platform: Android.

Link: https://jotterpad.app/

10) Google Doc

Google Doc is an online application that helps you to format text and paragraphs. It is one of the best writing app that contains numerous fonts and images. This tool offers templates for writing documents. You can use the application to create and make changes in files anywhere anytime.

• You can access it from a Phone tablet or computer.
• You can make changes in the document in real-time.
• Supports chat and comment in the file.
• Convert Google Doc file to Word file or vice versa.
• You can search quotes, text, and images in the Google Doc Android app.
• Supports a wide range of add-ons.

Supported Platform: Web, iOS, and Android, and Mac.

Link: http://docs.google.com/

11) Ginger software

Ginger is one of the oldest writing enhancement tool. It will help you to correct text as you type, picking up many common grammatical errors like punctuation, sentence structuring, subject-verb agreement, writing style, and wording. Apart from the usual grammar, the checker offers a set of unique little features in it like text reader, translator, trainer, etc.

• Ginger software is well efficient Grammarly checker tool to detect misspelled words.
• It is one of the best free Grammarly alternative app which helps you to correct all errors at once and also allows you to undo all changes with just one click.
• This program allows you to do the switching between US and UK English languages.
• Ginger punctuation checker helps you to check punctuation mistakes in your content.
• You can add your words to the personal dictionary to consider them as errors in the future.
• Identify document errors and correct them.
• Fast and effective spelling and grammar check.
• Help improve users’ English writing skills.

Supported Platform: Windows, iOS, Mac, and browser extension.

Link: https://www.gingersoftware.com/

12) Readable

Readable is a word processor that helps you to test readability, grammar, and spelling of your text. It is one of the best writing app which supports integration with API into your content management software. You can paste your text into this tool, and it will give you instant analysis. It also recommends improvement.

• Provides readability score in a spreadsheet.
• It can analyze the quality of the text.
• This tool can check the density of the keyword.
• The application gives readability alerts.
• It provides team management facility.
• Readable allows you to share text, file scores, and websites.

Supported Platform: Web.

Link: https://readable.com/

13) iA Writer

iA Writer is a text editor that gives users a clean, simple, and distraction-free writing experience. This tool can be used devices like smartphones, tablets, and more.

• Supports keyboard shortcuts.
• It can highlight the current sentence and word you are typing.
• You can connect to cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox.
• It has easy to use writing interface.

Supported Platform: Mac and Windows.

Link: https://ia.net/writer

14) Writing Challenge

Writing challenge is a tool that provides an easy way to improve writing. You can write stories step by step. It helps you speed up your writing by adjusting the timer.

• This tool helps you to generate creative ideas.
• It provides many combinations to start your stories.
• This software offers an option to suggest in your story.

Supported Platform: Android, Mac, and iOS.

Link: https://www.writingchallengeapp.com/

15) Ulysses (for Mac)

Ulysses is a tool that helps you to manage you’re your projects. It is one of the best free writing software which enables you to work anywhere, anytime. This tool helps you to transform the text into a PDF file. You can export text file HTML for use on the web.

• This software offers a clean and distraction-free environment.
• It helps you to enhance plaintext.
• Ulysses has a hierarchic group that enables you to organize your writing project.
• Collaboration, for example, with your colleague using Dropbox.
• Export text file to Markdown, HTML, or rich text.
• Publish stories to Medium and WordPress.
• Provides live preview to see how your output will look like.
• It has numerous styles and themes.

Supported Platform: Mac and iOS.

Link: https://ulysses.app/

Why use writing apps?

Writing apps are used because:

• They help you to make writing easier.
• It offers numerous writing styles, suggestions for grammar, vocabulary, syntax.
• Applications identify document errors and correct them.

What are the general features of writing apps?

The best writing software have the following features:

• Writing apps solve grammatical errors like punctuation, sentence structuring, subject-verb agreement, writing style, and wording.
• It helps you to make writing easier.

Writing Apps are applications that help you to manage and boost writing stories, emails, ideas, social media posts, articles, and more.

Here are some of the Best Writing Apps & Software:

• Prowritingaid
• Final Draft
• Microsoft Word
• Calmlywriter
• 11 Best FREE Grammarly Alternatives (2024 Premium Apps)
• Grammarly vs Ginger – Which is Better?
• 21 BEST Word Processing Software (2024)
• Grammarly vs ProWritingAid: Which to choose?
• 13 BEST Plagiarism Checker Software (Free & Paid)
• 18 Best FREE Grammar Checker Software (2024)
• 10+ BEST Privacy Policy Generators for your Website (2024)
• 9 BEST Sentence Rephraser Tools (2024 Update)

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Discussions about the writing craft.

Free writing software recommendations?

I'm currently using OpenOffice, and I'd like to switch to something more oriented towards authors. I'm a student, so I can't afford to buy anything. I know that makes my search harder. What would be ideal is something like Vellum or Scrivener. Google Docs, Word, Pages, and Libre are all a no. I want something specifically designed for writing, or at least geared towards writers to some extent. It must also be avavailable on Windows 10. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.

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The 5 Best Apps to Help You Write Better on a Windows PC

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"A great craftsman," as the old saying goes, "is only as good as his tools." Every writer who has struggled to find a writing app to boost their writing will undoubtedly nod in agreement with this statement.

If you've finally found yourself in a similar boat, look no further. We've rounded up a list of apps that will help you eliminate that writer's block, nudge you in your zone, and give you an edge in your writing. So let's jump right in and review the first writing app for your Windows PC.

1. Scrivener

Scrivener is a popular word-processing app used by writers of all shades. Whether you're a novelist, a struggling screenwriter starving for ideas and focus, or perhaps a ruminating technology writer like us at MUO—Scrivener has something for everyone.

For instance, its Corkboard feature is one of a kind planning tool. See, back in the old days, writers used to have index cards for writing and editing individual sections of a piece or story, and then shuffle them up on the typical bulletin board. Now, with Scrivener, you can do the same on your computer.

The "Collection" feature is another handy plus for this app. It helps you create a list of related documents from any part of your project or story. The third feature, and it combines well with the Collection, is Snapshots. Take a "snapshot" of any version of a piece of writing, and you can return to its earlier version whenever you want.

These and a litany of other features make Scrivener a writer's gem, despite the initial learning curve that some people report facing.

Download: Scrivener (free trial, $59.99)

2. Language Tool

Language Tool is a free, open-source grammar and spelling checker that helps you write or paraphrase your writing. Besides the simple grammar and spelling checker, the tool offers a host of other features, such as:

• Punctuation checker.
• Polish your style by detecting and getting rid of overused phrases, weak word choices, etc.
• AI-powered paraphrasing to rephrase your sentences.
• Add-ons for all the popular browsers, as well as Office plugins.

Another popular alternative to Language Tool is Grammarly, which only offers English support. Also, if you want to keep your privacy in check, Grammarly is not the right choice as anything it touches gets uploaded to its servers.

Language Tool, on the hand, also gives you the feature of self-hosting.

Download: Language Tool (free, $59.90/year)

3. Focus-To-Do

As its name suggests, Focus-To-Do doesn't have to do anything with writing itself. Instead, a combination of task management and Pomodoro app on Windows , Focus-To-Do helps you focus and get your writing down without any distractions.

Besides the features that help you get your writing out the way, what makes it stand out is its no-frills approach to design and task management.

Simply add a task to the "Add a task" section on the main page and hit Enter . Click on the 'play' sign, and the pomodoro will be launched. By default, it will be a 45-minute task. You can, of course, change the timings. Also, you can pause your tasks in between, stop them completely, and even add white noise to remove distractions.

If you're particularly prone to distraction, Focus-To-Do is an excellent tool to keep in your writer's bag.

Download: Focus-To-Do (free, $11.99)

Making huge waves in the AI scene, ChatGPT can help you with your writing. ChatGPT is an AI tool that can have a human-like dialogue with you, among other things. And when it comes to learning how to use ChatGPT , the use cases are as limited as only the user's imagination. As a writer, for you, that means the applications are infinite—at least theoretically.

While ChatGPT will never replace the human aspects of writing , there are ways you can use it to improve your writing process. Here are a few of them :

• Creative writing: While there's no machine that matches humans in creativity—for now, at least—you can use ChatGPT to brainstorm new ideas, learn new writing techniques and paradigms, or even help you develop your plots.
• Learning new information: It's been asserted that internet search is history now, soon to be entirely replaced by ChatGPT. While what happens in the future remains to be seen, it's undoubtedly the case that ChatGPT is handy for learning new information, facts, data, or figures. This is especially true if the information in question is static instead of dynamic. That means old statistics, historical instances, philosophical concepts, and a dearth of analysis on these topics—all are available at your fingertips. Though note that ChatGPT doesn't always give your correct data or information. So make sure you double-check the data before you make use of it.
• Editing: Have you ever thought how great it would've been if you could afford to get a personal editor? With ChatGPT, it's now a reality for a lot of writers on a budget. Again, while it can't match the nuance of a good human editor, it does a good enough job of tidying up your writing. You can use it to proofread, copyedit, keep a check on your style and tonality, etc.—basically, keep an eye out for all things a real, flesh-and-blood editor would.

The above applications, with a plethora of others, make ChatGPT a must-have tool to help you refine your writing.

As handy as ChatGPT is for a whole gamut of things, you need to remember that it's still fallible. In fact, users all around the globe have caught it handing out false facts or figures with utmost authority. So, it's important that you don't treat it as a panacea for all your queries. However, treat it as just another tool that will aid you in your personal or professional life, and you will have a good time.

Download: ChatGPT (free, premium version available)

5. Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is a popular web-based editor that highlights the use of passive voice, adverbs, and other incorrect use of phrases in your writing to make it read more clearly and boldly.

For example, if you see Hemingway has highlighted a sentence as yellow, it's probably because it's too complex or lengthy; shortening it or simplifying it is recommended there.

Similarly, you should use shorter or simpler words in places of purple highlights. On the other hand, phrases in green highlight the use of passive voice. Moreover, the app also gives you a quick overview of the reading time, the no. of sentences, words, and paragraphs in any specific writing.

Besides the online app, Hemingway also has a desktop version—available for both Mac and Windows.

Download: Hemingway Editor (free, premium version available)

Best Apps to Help Your Writing on a Windows PC

Writing is complicated. It's lonely, often dull at the beginning of a session, and can usually get painfully tricky for the procrastinators or unmindful among us—a reportedly large number of people in the 21st century. Therefore, it makes sense to use all the help you can get for getting your work done.

The apps we've listed above are a select set of tools from the huge variety of software out there and will undoubtedly help you write better and more productively. That said, there's always more ways to improve your writing, and so we'd encourage you to check out all the other apps that will help you in this process.

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13 Best Free Writing Software in 2024

February 23, 2024

by Washija Kazim

1. aiseo.ai

4. evernote, 5. frase.io, 6. grammarly business, 7. google workspace, 9. peppertype.ai, 11. scalenut, 12. scrivener, 13. writesonic, faqs on free writing software.

Writing can be hard. Or easy and fun. Or fun and hard.

Putting words on paper might seem straightforward, but putting them all together in the best sequence? That’s another story – probably one you don’t feel like writing.  

Jokes aside, writing fulfills us, so we keep doing it. From writing a seven-part book series to jotting down a to-do list, writing is a part of being human. 

Over the years, writing has changed its forms many times. One of the biggest shifts was going digital. Novels, short stories, scripts, textbooks, research papers, and magazine articles: we can find everything online. 

And while nothing can replace the satisfaction of scribbling in your favorite notebook, writing software solutions can assist your process in ways traditional methods can’t. The best part? It’s free!

Whether you’re looking for creative artificial intelligence (AI) writing tools or a simple note-taking platform , this list of free writing software surely has something useful for your needs.

What are the best writing software solutions in 2024?

• Grammarly Business
• Google Workspace
• Peppertype.ai

* These free writing software solutions have been arranged alphabetically.

Best free writing software

Writing software enhances the writing process with insights and suggestions. Some platforms assist with research, grammar, and tone checking, making it perfect for all kinds of drafts, including online articles, scripts, and books. 

The list below contains real user reviews. For context, the vendors that offer a free trial are also considered free . To be included on this list, a solution must:

• Create AI-generated text to assist in some portion of the writing process.
• Suggest insights on improving the work.
• Present relevant resources intended to educate the writer.
• Correct grammatical errors.
• Create editable, text-based documents.
• Allow users to store multiple notes.
• Offer collaborative note-taking and note-sharing tools.

* This data was pulled from G2 in February 2024, and the product list is ranked alphabetically. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity.

aiseo.ai combines the power of AI and search engine optimization (SEO) data to generate copy. It’s perfect for bloggers, copywriters, and content marketers aspiring to rank high on Google.

The software offers a variety of free tools for title generation, paraphrasing, rewriting, and rewording. It comes with a free 7-day trial that offers 60 credits with access to all features.

What users like best:

“I recently started using aiseo.ai, among several similar products, and I love them all! I think this is the only one with a readability improvement feature, and I really like it. It makes reading and understanding the text much easier and has helped me improve my writing. The other features are great too, but this is the feature that makes it stand out to me.”

- aiseo.ai Review , Kristen D.

What users dislike:

“One potential downside of using an AI Content Detector is that it may not always be completely accurate. While the tool is designed to identify characteristics commonly found in machine-generated content, it’s possible that it may flag content as being potentially machine-generated even if it’s actually written by a human. This could lead to unnecessary revisions or changes to the content, which could be time-consuming and frustrating for the user.”

- aiseo.ai Review , Dadash V.

Marketers turn to Anyword to write copy that converts. With text personalization and robust predictive analytics, you can validate the potential of every message you create for your customers. In fact, Anyword has increased conversion rates by 30% for several clients. 

There’s a 7-day free trial available for new users, after which their access automatically converts to a free plan. 

“It does not distort the tone or messaging of what is already written. It just takes a draft and makes it more engaging and easy to read. It also helps that it offers multiple versions so users can pick which one best suits what they're looking for and then they can edit it even more. It can simultaneously process large volumes of texts such as long-read blog articles.”

- Anyword Review , Seun O

“It lacks several templates, such as meta descriptions, headlines, social media posts, conclusions, and templates for rewriting/rephrasing. These are the features that I would like to see added in the near future.”

- Anyword Review , Habib K.

Use Copy.ai to generate content that’s more engaging and targeted and watch as it brings in faster and better results. The tool is perfect for sales and marketing teams trying to drive copy that closes more deals. From digital ads to social media posts, you can write any form of content with this writing tool.

The free version allows unlimited writing projects with 90+ copywriting tools. You can also register for a free demo to understand how to make the most of your plan.

What users like best: 

“The most important thing I like about Copy.ai is free credits. It helps me know about Copy.ai and AI generation. Also, the results are very satisfying, with many types of AI-generation word content for Facebook descriptions and YouTube title generation. The part I like the most is the landing page hero text; it greatly helps me.”

- Copy.ai Review , Kumaran R.

“What I find is missing from this product is the ability to pull data from an existing website. I'm not interested in plagiarizing! I just mean facts or data listed on an informational website. I would like to pull specific information and then write commentary around it. Also, the grammar is bad (run-on sentences, switching from first to third person, etc.) I always need to run it through a grammar check software after. I would also love to see a feature like a script writer for creating video scripts.”

- Copy.ai Review , Kate A.

Evernote has the ability to meet all your writing needs on a single platform. Whether you’re scanning documents, taking extensive notes, or jotting down a list, Evernote manages it all. 

You can get this free writing app for iOS, Android, Web, Windows, macOS, and Linux; it even has an offline mode. If you wish to upgrade to the paid professional plan, it comes with a free 30-day trial. 

“I have been using Evernote for a very long time, and I think the thing I like the most about it is that it just does such a good job of being both functional and fun. The user experience is clear and clean, I can search based on all kinds of tags, and there are many robust options for those times when I need more formatting than just basic headers and text.”

- Evernote Review , Sara C.

“One thing I don't like is the way notes are managed. When you’re a beginner with few notes, it works very well, but for more advanced users with a lot of information, this management is very short.”

- Evernote Review , Jesus M.

With Frase.io , optimizing your content for search engines is a matter of minutes, not hours. This all-inclusive free writing software provides everything from content briefs to analytics post publishing so you can make popular content. 

You can begin with a five-day (pretty much) free trial at only $1 and cancel your plan anytime you want.

“Frase.io is easy to use and gives you everything you need to create excellent content. I love how easy it’s to research competitors, find reference sources to use for blog posts, and create outlines and briefs. Most of all, their team is always looking to improve the product and takes customer feedback seriously.”

- Frase.io Review , Chris F.

“Too many updates and changes to the user interface. There should be a ‘use the old layout’ option. I'm used to getting what I need from the layout. It would be cool if you could connect SEMrush or Ahrefs to get the traffic data.”

- Frase.io Review , Marc P.

Grammarly Business offers advanced AI-powered features and a distraction-free writing experience. It improves word choices, refines sentence tone, enhances content clarity, and fixes grammatical errors.

The free forever plan is available for all platforms and is accessible through your browser or the app for desktops. You can also download it for Mac, iPhone, and other mobile devices. 

“Grammarly Business is the best to write content error-free. It has a  grammar checker and a spell check feature that easily identifies errors. We can install Grammarly Extension in our Chromium or Chrome Browser, which can help all websites where we want to write the correct content. Even G2 uses this service to allow customers to write error-free reviews.”

- Grammarly Business Review , Devang S.

“Sometimes, Grammarly may suggest corrections that are not necessary or even incorrect. This can frustrate users who rely on the software to catch errors.”

- Grammarly Business Review , Husnain M.

Google Workspace is powered by Google AI to create, connect, and collaborate. And when it comes to free word processors , Google Docs is the go-to answer for millions of users. With a premade template gallery, you can create all kinds of content, including project proposals, meeting notes, and newsletters.

Perfect for individuals or teams, users can sign up for Google Docs for free and get unlimited access to all features, including real-time collaboration and auto-save. 

“One of the things I appreciate is how easy it is to collaborate with other people in real time. Google Docs, for example, allows several people to edit the same document simultaneously, which is very useful for teamwork. In addition, having all the tools integrated into a single platform, such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar, makes work much more efficient and organized.”

- Google Workspace Review , Luã Fhelyp G.

“One area that could be improved is integrating Google Workspace and other third-party applications. While many integrations are available, they’re not always seamless and can require manual work. Enhancing the integration capabilities would make connecting with other tools easier for my work.”

- Google Workspace Review , Alejandro D.

Jasper encourages collaboration and the pursuit of creative writing ideas over word count. The software works for more than 29 languages and comes with a Chrome extension. Designed to match your brand voice and style guide, Jasper also optimizes your copy for SEO.

The starter plan is free forever for up to five users. Jasper also offers a one-hour AI masterclass tutorial to communicate best practices for using this tool. 

“Jasper is a great AI that will create helpful written content. Jasper is everything I have come to expect over the many years of using this AI. You can be sure pricing will be around the same as other competitors, if not less expensive. I use the highest tier, saving time and money as I learn how to use the platform.”

- Jasper Review , Justin D.

“It makes our content creation easy and fun to use. The mental fatigue and self-talk about what I wrote not being good enough are no longer factors. I can start with an idea, Jasper runs with it, I tweak around the edges to clarify the message/point/CTA, and what would take me hours or days to do, is completed way faster and much better than what I have previously created.”

- Jasper Review , Jonathan F.

Peppertype.ai learns from your writing style and makes it more competitive to work best for your audience. It provides an intelligent text editor, an SEO assistant, and integrations that ensure your writing is free from grammatical errors. 

New users can get a seven-day free trial to get started with this tool and enjoy unlimited access to all the features.

“I've used this tool to create countless pieces of content. It's really easy to use and is a great way to create high-quality content quickly. I've used it to create blog posts, ad copy, and Facebook posts. I love how it's written with a conversational tone that feels natural. And it's never written a line that my audience would find boring. I can literally create any type of content in seconds with Peppertype.ai. I've gotten content out the door in less than five minutes, which is great!”

- Peppertype.ai Review , Pallav B.

“Sometimes the input contents are not recognized correctly, and Peppertype returns the same input as output but takes the credits. They should not take the credit if they’re not rewriting anything.”

- Peppertype.ai Review , Md Farhanul I.

Rytr uses AI technology to create the best versions of written content. From social media captions and video ideas to business pitches and product descriptions, Rytr helps make the most compelling copy for your projects.

The free forever plan supports more than 30 languages and has an inbuilt plagiarism checker for a seamless experience. 

“I've been using Rytr for a few months now, and I absolutely love it. It's incredibly intuitive and easy to use, and the quality of the content it generates is top-notch. I've tried other AI writing and editing tools before, but none compares to the speed, accuracy, and convenience that Rytr offers. It's definitely the best AI writing tool out there!”

- Rytr Review , Abdi A.

“While AI writing can undoubtedly create exceptional quality content, its programming restricts it from offering truly creative or original ideas. Additionally, Rytr needs an internet connection to work optimally. If I’m in a region with slow or unreliable internet, it might be difficult for me to benefit from it.”

- Rytr Review , Chibuike U.

Scalenut helps marketers build their brands through AI-generated content, content planning, and keyword research. This free writing program offers a customizable user interface for multiple file formats. 

Try out Scalenut for free with a 7-day trial that comes with AI templates, an SEO editor, and search engine research page analysis functionalities. 

“One of the standout features of Scalenut is its user-friendly interface. The platform is easy to navigate, and the reports generated by its tools are well-organized and straightforward. This makes it a great option for businesses that may not have much SEO experience.

The platform offers tools for keyword research, content optimization, competitor analysis, backlink tracking, and more. After trying it for the first time, I realized it works great!”

- Scalenut Review , Teofil K.

“Customization. While Scalenut is designed to be easy to use, it may not offer the same level of customization or flexibility as other AI platforms. This may limit the ability of businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs or integrate it with existing systems and workflows.”

- Scalenut Review , Yashel M.

Scrivener is the go-to free script writing software for thousands of users, including self-published authors, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, and academics. With integrated research, outline, and writing support, creative writing becomes effortless. 

Also known for being one of the best book writing software tools, Scrivener supports footnotes, various text styles, and easy organization with its drag-and-drop function. Download the mobile app for iOS or the desktop version for Windows and macOS and get a free trial for 30 days (subject to use).

“When I'm writing, I need to keep things as organized as possible, and Scrivener makes that not only possible but easy and efficient with its organizational tools. It allows me to create multiple folders, manage my writing and outlines, and research characters how I want. It's ideal for working on a long project like a novel.”

- Scrivener Review , Alex T.

“I wish using cloud services to sync your writing was a little more intuitive. If you have two devices open working on the same document, it's possible to save over changes without being able to get them back.”

- Scrivener Review , Sydney R.

Writesonic is a complete solution for AI writing, copywriting, and paraphrasing. It works for long-form content like blog posts and website content and short copy like ads and emails. Writesonic’s platform supports over 25 languages and it’s the perfect addition for writers, entrepreneurs, e-commerce companies, and marketing teams.

New users can sign up for a free trial with their Google or Apple IDs or create a new account using their business email. 

“The options it offers with different tools. You can do literally whatever you need for your blog or social media ads. I like that it’s consistent with bullet points, subheadings, and everything else that really needs to be done.”

- Writesonic Review , Simon P.

“The tool sometimes generates content that is not entirely accurate or relevant to the intended use case and may require manual editing or rewriting. Additionally, sometimes I faced technical issues with the platform's interface and functionality. While generating articles using the AI tools, I noticed that the same sentences are used repeatedly.”

- Writesonic Review , Santosh E.

1. How do I choose from several free writing software?

Choosing the right free writing software depends on your specific needs and preferences. Here are some factors to consider when making your decision:

• Assess your writing needs and prioritize essential features.
• Choose user-friendly software that fits your workflow.
• Ensure compatibility with your devices and file formats.
• Opt for cloud synchronization for easy access and backup.
• Consider reviews and recommendations from other writers.

2. What are the challenges of using free writing software over paid options?

Choosing free writing software comes with some challenges when compared to paid options:

• Free software offers fewer tools and options.
• Storage space and export choices are restricted.
• Intrusive ads can disrupt your workflow.
• Updates are sporadic, leaving you with outdated features.
• Integration with other software is often lacking or non-existent.

Some of these capabilities may be available in free versions, but they will most certainly be restricted compared to their expensive equivalents.

3. Is free writing software compatible with different devices and operating systems such as Mac and Windows?

Many free writing software options are compatible with desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. While most options are cross-platform and can be used on multiple operating systems, they may have restrictions or limitations on certain platforms. Make sure to check compatibility before choosing a particular software.

Metaphors be with you.

If the complexity of the written language and the search for metaphors keep you up at night, turning to free writing software is the right call. 

Say goodbye to struggling with active-passive voice or the incorrect use of adverbs. AI writing assistants not only conduct spell checks and proofreading for your drafts but also generate content ideas from plain text. Whether you’re working on a script, sales copy, or a newsletter, writing software has features that get your words on the page.

Of course, many writing software solutions specialize in different kinds of writing as well. Check out the best free script writing software in 2024 to choose the perfect tool for drafting a screenplay. 

Let your creativity flow with the best AI writing assistants and create content that connects.

Washija Kazim is a Sr. Content Marketing Specialist at G2 focused on creating actionable SaaS content for IT management and infrastructure needs. With a professional degree in business administration, she specializes in subjects like business logic, impact analysis, data lifecycle management, and cryptocurrency. In her spare time, she can be found buried nose-deep in a book, lost in her favorite cinematic world, or planning her next trip to the mountains. Connect with her on LinkedIn .

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Best Writing Apps in 2024

Showing 128 writing apps that match your search.

NaturalReader

The #1 text to speech solution for personal, commercial, and educational use.

Platforms: Online, iPhone, iPad, Android

Best for: Editing, Story, Book, Blog, Journal, and Free

Website: https://www.naturalreaders.com/

Base price:

Premium price:

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

Also rated 4.5 ★ on TechRadar

Apple’s App of the Year with over 15 million downloads and 200,000 5-star ratings globally, Day One has reinvented journaling, letting you record your life as you live it. Securely save audio, video, photos, notes, and more wherever you are, whenever you want.

Platforms: iPad, Mac, iPhone, Android

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, and Free

Website: https://dayoneapp.com/

★★★★★ Performance

Also rated 4.8 ★ on the App Store

Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators and more.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, PC

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, Editing, Publishing, Book, and Story

Website: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview

★★★★★ Features

★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.0 ★ on Reedsy

Learn more about Reedsy Studio .

From boardroom to lecture hall, project plan to daily diary, Nebo makes note-taking smarter, more efficient and more enjoyable.

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, Poetry, and Blog

Website: https://www.nebo.app/

Also rated 4.3 ★ on the App Store

Apple Pages

Pages is a powerful word processor that lets you create stunning documents, and comes included with most Apple devices. And with real-time collaboration, your team can work together from anywhere, whether they’re on Mac, iPad, iPhone, or a PC.

Platforms: iPad, Mac, iPhone

Best for: Drafting, Book, Essay, Journal, Poetry, Story, Blog, and Free

Website: https://www.apple.com/pages/

★★★ Performance

Also rated 3.6 ★ on the App Store

Ideas, stories, and life’s events. Capture them in a journal that’s easy to carry and offers more than bound sheets. Chronicle for iPad is about you and your words. Write comfortably and benefit from being able to find anything you wrote with built-in search.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac

Best for: Note-taking and Journal

Website: http://slidetorock.com/apps/Chronicle-for-iPad-journal.html

★★★ Features

★★ Accessibility

Also rated 4.5 ★ on the App Store

Story Planner

Story Planner is an easy-to-use and yet powerful tool for plotting novels, screenplays, and any fiction story. It works great for writers, screenwriters, producers, directors, RPG masters … All kinds of storytellers!

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, Story, and Book

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/story-planner-outline-your-...

Also rated 4.7 ★ on the App Store

SoftMaker Free Office

FreeOffice 2021 is a complete Office suite with a word processor, a spreadsheet application and a presentation program – all seamlessly compatible with their counterparts in Microsoft Office.

Platforms: Mac, PC, Windows

Website: https://www.freeoffice.com/en/

Also rated 4.0 ★ on TechRadar

Typing Chimp

Typing Chimp Character is designed to help fiction writers create better characters, stories, and worlds fast.

Platforms: Windows, Mac, PC

Best for: Outlining, Worldbuilding, Book, and Story

Website: http://www.typingchimp.com/

★★ Features

WPS Office is a lightweight, feature-rich comprehensive office suite with high compatibility. As a handy and professional office software, WPS Office allows you to edit files in Writer, Presentation, Spreadsheet, and PDF to improve your work efficiency.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, iPad, iPhone, PC

Website: https://www.wps.com/

★★★★★ Accessibility

WhiteSmoke renders you with the highest quality proofreading abilities available, correcting not only simple spelling mistakes like old fashioned word processors, but everything from grammar, word choices and even style mistakes, all without breaking a sweat.

Platforms: Online, Windows, PC

Best for: Editing, Proofreading, and Essay

Website: https://www.whitesmoke.com/

Storyline Creator

Storyline Creator is an elegant writing tool that helps you streamline your writing process. It's incredibly fun to draft ideas, to visualize, enhance and organize your stories - so you can focus on your plot and the creativity instead of the paper war.

Platforms: Online

Best for: Outlining, Book, Story, and Free

Website: https://www.storylinecreator.com/

★★ Performance

What makes a good writing app?

Put simply, what makes a writing app good for you will depend on the kind of writer that you are. 

• If you’re an author , you might be interested in a writing app with outlining, planning, and formatting functionalities.
• If you’re a student , you’re probably in the market for a writing app that blocks out distractions while you’re writing.
• If you’re a screenwriter , you’ll want a writing app that’s specifically dedicated to writing screenplays.

Or, if you’re none of the above, worry not: that’s why we built this directory of writing apps. Whatever you need, we’ve gathered the outstanding writing apps of 2024 across multiple categories (drafting, editing, note-taking, etc) and platforms (Android, iOS, online browsers, etc) in one place. Feel free to use the filters to make your quest for the perfect writing app even easier!

So what are the best writing apps of 2024?

We can now put an end to the age-old debate of which writing app is best: Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs ? 

The answer, of course, is neither! Hopefully, this directory will point you towards a much better match that actually fulfills your writing needs. We objectively evaluated each writing app based on four metrics.

• Performance: How seamlessly does the writing app do what it’s purported to do? How good is the user experience, from top to bottom?
• Features: How many bells and whistles are built into the app to augment its use?
• Accessibility: Is it widely available on many different operating platforms (e.g. iOS, Windows, mobile, desktop, etc)?
• Value: Is it worth the cost that it would take to download it?

Here are some general recommendations to give you a headstart.

The best writing app for authors

If you’ve been searching for an all-in-one outlining, writing, formatting, and typesetting tool, look no further than Reedsy Studio . Used by over 50,000 authors every month, it’s publishing’s most trusted companion to take them from a first draft to a professionally exported manuscript.

💰 Price:  Free

🚉 Runs on: Web

The best writing app for note-takers

Evernote is the king of written organization. In addition to its free organizational templates, Evernote also gives you impressive tagging capabilities, an omnipresent Web Clipper, and the ability to share notes with collaborators, so that you’ll never forget anything again.

💰 Price:   Free basic plan, $4.99/month for premium

🚉 Runs on: Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android

The best writing app for screenwriters

Along with standard scriptwriting features, Final Draft enables you to measure character traits using its inclusivity analysis feature, and tweak your “beat board” until you find your perfect arrangement. And when you’re ready to bring in editors, you can all work simultaneously in real time.

💰 Price: Free trial for 30 days, $249.99 license fee

🚉 Runs on: Mac, iOS, and Windows

I’ve found the perfect writing app. What next?

Congratulations! Now the fun part begins: actually writing the project that you’ve got in mind.

For authors, this means that you have a long and exciting road ahead. In addition to a writing app, we recommend that you arm yourself with some writing knowledge before you embark on it: whether it’s an understanding of story structure or careful thought put into your character creation, all of it can help you realize your goal of a novel.

If you don’t know where to start, check out the list of free resources below. Good luck, and happy writing!

Free online materials

• How to Plan a Novel
• How to Write a Book
• Story Structure: 7 Types All Writers Should Know
• How to Create a Character Profile
• 500+ Creative Writing Classes
• Plot Generator
• Character Name Generator
• Book TItle Generator
• The Best Literary Agents Seeking Submissions

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Software Testing Help

Top 14 Best Writing Apps For Windows & Mac OS [2024 Review]

Edited by Vijay

We publish unbiased product and service reviews; our opinions are our own and are not influenced by our advertising partners. Learn more about how we review products and read our advertiser disclosures.

This Tutorial Explores the Best Writing Apps With Features, Cost and Comparison To Help you choose the Creative Writing App per your Preference:

Gone are the days when writing was merely a profession for journalists or novelists. Today, the Internet has opened doors to writers for both novice and expert in making a living out of publishing all sorts of content online. We are talking here about blogs, opinion pieces, business writing and so much more that have found a new pathway in a world driven by the content.

As such, the creators of the content have also found a new lease in life, an opportunity to earn both name and money with the help of their published content. Needless to say, content sells, and today you do not need a university degree in arts or writing to become a well-known blogger, novelist, or even an independent journalist.

What you do need, however, is the skill to write compelling content that has the capacity to engage your audience. This is easier said than done. With the Internet being an open playing field, it is crowded with both established and aspiring writers online. Getting your work noticed amidst a sea of similar content is extremely challenging.

This challenge can only be overcome by being the best among your flock rather than being a decent writer. Thankfully, if you are a decent enough writer, a creative writing application or tool will do the rest to turn you into a great writer.

Table of Contents:

What is a Writing App or Tool?

List of creative writing apps, #1) prowritingaid, #2) grammarly, #4) squibler, #5) scrivener, #6) ulysses, #7) evernote web, #8) microsoft word, #9) ia writer, #10) final draft, #11) google docs, #12) now novel, #13) a soft murmur, #14) freedom, #15) setapp, #16) xtiles, faqs for best writing apps, was this helpful, recommended reading.

A writing app is a tool, application, or technology that is powered by a powerful AI that assists in improving and enhancing the quality of your writing. Through its robust collection of features, a creative writing tool can improve a writer’s overall content by performing spelling checks, rectifying grammatical errors, and suggesting stylistic changes to make the overall content more engaging.

In this article, we will be looking at some of the most popular and best writing apps that the industry has to offer to writers today. We will go in-depth to learn of every individual tool feature, their best selling points, their issues if any, and what they will cost you. Ultimately, our goal is to make your decision making the process a tad bit easier.

After reading our article, you will be able to settle on a writing tool of your preference without any hassle.

Pro-Tips: The salient thing to consider while choosing a creative writing tool is its ability to improve your writing. Understand what kind of writing requirements you need satiated. Do you need a writing app that helps write long-form content or a simple grammar checking tool? Fix a budget before you go shopping.

Perform a comparative analysis by putting each app’s price, features, and compatibility against each other. Last but not the least; do refer to some honest reviews online on the tool which you consider trying.

• ProWritingAid
• Evernote Web
• Microsoft Word
• Google Docs
• Final Draft
• A Soft Murmur

Comparing Writing Apps for Windows & Mac

Best Writing apps review in detail.

Best for long-form writers trying to perfect their writing style.

ProWritingAid comes very close, next to Grammarly when it comes to grammar/editing tools. Unlike Grammarly, it generates a whopping 25 reports to analyze your content on. The suggestions it highlights, are more in-line with improving the overall flow of your written prose than it is to highlight individual errors and mistakes.

This is precisely why we recommend this tool to long-form content writers who want to improve the style of their content and make it more compelling to readers.

It analyses your content on the basis of clarity, redundancies, readability and so much more. However, the features it provides can be a bit overwhelming for novice users. Its user interface is also pretty jarring and confusing to use.

• Grammar checker
• Spell checker
• Plagiarism checker
• Dictionary/Thesaurus
• Text editor
• Style check

Verdict: We recommend ProWritingAid as a grammar checking tool for long-form content writers. It is comparatively way more affordable than Grammarly and provides more features than its counterpart. However, the absence of its mobile app does stick out like a sore thumb.

Price : 14-day free trial, the paid version is categorized as follows: $20 per month, $79 per year, $299 lifetime.

Best for performing grammar and spelling checks for bloggers and writers of short-form content.

Boasting of over 10 million active users as of today, Grammarly is perhaps one of the most widely used writing apps in circulation today. One look at its features and it is not difficult to find out why that is the case. No other app provides the accuracy with which Grammarly performs grammar and spell checks.

Not just that, Grammarly also provides detailed reasoning behind the corrections it suggests.

It also offers writers a chance to set the tone of their writing with respect to their audience and the nature of their content. Adding to that, it also offers a great tool to analyze your writing on the basis of clarity, readability, and overused sentences. Grammarly is best for short-form content than it is for long-form content.

The only glaring issue we have with the app is its absence on Google Docs, which we hope won’t be an issue in the coming years.

• Grammar check
• Spell check
• Customize setting to set tone and intent of writing
• Pop-Up box to explain suggested changes
• Analyze writing for clarity, readability, and redundant phrases or words.

Verdict: Grammarly is the most popular writing app on this list that is compatible with almost all systems. Its grammar checking abilities are probably its most appealing quality. We highly recommend it as a powerful grammar checking and editing tool for short-form content writers.

Price: Free basic version, billed at $11.66 a month, ($139.95 to be precise when charged annually).

Best for  authors who are seeking a tool to edit their books before publishing.

Reedsy is perhaps best known as a publishing house that makes the process of self-publishing fairly convenient for novice authors. In this process, Reedsy also provides authors with a powerful book editing tool that allows writers to save time on editing their books, and save money on hiring a professional human editor.

Further reading =>> Best Book Writing Software

Armed with a stylish interface, and robust features that allow you to customize the look of your book, Reedsy offers a tool that is in many ways notches high on quality than its paid counterparts. It comes with an advanced typesetting feature that saves you a lot of precious time on the formatting of books.

The book files that you create on this tool are clean and professional, thus uploading can be done instantaneously to any online eBook platform.

• Drag and Drop chapters
• Formatting and Typesetting
• Sleek User Interface
• Track Changes to check past versions of your book
• Export clean, professional files to any eBook retailer

Verdict: Reedsy’s book editor is a boon to creative writers and is hands down the best creative writing tool for authors when it comes to free writing tools available on the web. If you are an author with a book that needs editing than Reedsy can be the solution you need.

Price: Free Writing App

Best for authors and writers who want to write books with compelling prose, outline, and publish books.

Squibler provides an intuitive writing tool to satiate the creative geniuses of the story-telling world. It perhaps acts best as a productive hack that helps writers of novels and other books to write and produce content faster. Its ‘Note Cards’ feature allows writers to split their display screen, organize their work, and check its progress by creating note cards.

Writers can also store and filter their written material with the help of tags. It provides a convenient drag and drops feature to put elements in their respective places and create a clear-cut narrative structure to your prose. The books you create on Squibler can be easily shared with editors when you are done working on them.

• Drag and Drop editor
• Content management
• Notecards to track progress
• Tags to store and filter content

Verdict: Squibler is a great creative writing app, which works phenomenally to create and produce content faster for screenplay writers, authors, and other forms of fiction writers. If you have a story to tell, then you might want to use Squibler to help you tell it to the world.

Price: 30-day free trial, then billed at $9.99/month

Best for long-form writers and novelists.

None of the lists for the writing app is complete without the mention of Scrivener, which is a widely renowned tool among novelists. Scrivener provides its users with a tool that is both comprehensive and sophisticated in its structure. It allows writers to choose a template that best fits the nature of their written content. Templates for essays, screenplays, or novels are all readily available on the tool.

The left-hand sidebar displays sections like notecards and other elements that can come in handy in your writing. You also get to track the progress of your content while creating material such as front and back matter to personalize your work.

• Outline and Publish long-form written content
• A wide gallery of templates for writing
• Track progress of content and research

Verdict: Scrivener masquerades as a great writing app that was designed to cater to novelists and other such creators of long-form content. Its affordable price and sophisticated features make it a must-try tool for creative writers.

Price : 30 Days free trial, $45 license fee.

Further Reading => List of the TOP Screenwriting Courses of the Year

Best for productive formatting of written content.

Ulysses is a standard writing app that has so much in common with Scrivener. It is designed to make the formatting of your work easier. It offers several informative tutorials alongside its pragmatic features.

It uses the ‘Markdown’ approach in the formatting of content, thus helping writers maintain the flow of their prose while writing. It offers all of the standard features you’ve come to expect from tools like this to organize your written content effectively. The one thing that might bother users of this tool is its reluctance to appear outline friendly to its writers.

• Organize content with Keyword labels
• Intuitive sidebar to display your work
• Track progress of content

Verdict: Ulysses is a great app if formatting is the only thing you seek from an app. It is a fairly standard writing app that allows writers with a focused writing experience at a reasonably charged cost.

Price : $4.99/month, $39.99/year

Best for organizing and creating written content of all sorts.

Evernote is perhaps the best free writing app when it comes to catering to all kinds of multitalented writers. Its interface is home to oodles of creative templates that facilitate the creation of content like essays, novels, and simple classroom note-taking.

All of the templates we have mentioned above are available to writers for free. Apart from the templates, writers get to collaborate on writing projects with other users, chat with them, and even tag their content in specific categories. Its web clipper feature is its most appealing selling point, allowing users to save any excerpt from the web they might come across.

• Wide gallery of writing templates
• Collaborate with other users
• Chatbox to converse with other users
• Categorize content with tags
• Web clipper to save excerpts from the web

Verdict: Evernote is a great app to save both time and money and caters to all sorts of writers, whether they are bloggers or novelists. We highly recommend you try the tool for its sleek interface and pragmatic features.

Price: Free basic plan, $4.99/month premium plan.

Recommended Read => How to Create A Flowchart In Word With Pictures

Who hasn’t heard or tried this writing app for Windows in their lifetime? You have to be living under a rock to not have heard of Microsoft Word. Despite new writing apps in the market, MS Word has maintained its place with constant updates and advanced features pertaining to changing times.

An integral part of Microsoft Office, most users have known no other way to write on Windows except MS Word.

It is very simple to use, allows users with an exhaustive list of features that include convenient formatting pertaining to font size, style and color, easy alignment of pages, convenient bifurcation of content with headers, footers, page, and section breaks, use many clip arts, word art, and colors to make your work stand out, find and replace and a ton of other features that make it a mandatory tool to have for any writer.

• Basic Grammar and Spelling check
• Formatting and Font adjustments
• Insert an image, table, clip arts, stat, and graphical figures
• Find and Replace the word
• Bifurcate content according to headers, footers, page, and section breaks
• Highlight content
• Align content according to preference.

Verdict: MS Word has been around since what seems like forever. It has taken advantage of the changes in technology to remain relevant and is still the go-to choice as a legendary writing app.

Price: It comes included in the Microsoft Office app, Free trial for 30 days is available. Billed at $99.99/year for a family plan, $69.99/year for the personal plan, and $149.99 for student plan.

Best for writers who prefer simplicity in their writing tools.

iA Writer’s minimalistic design and easy to use interface are designed keeping only one salient goal in mind, a tool simply made to write. It also uses the Markdown formatting method that Ulysses employs, however, iA Writer is a much simpler tool to use than Ulysses.

Its major feature includes an upper hand toolbar that facilitates the highlighting of speech like nouns, adverbs, adjectives, etc. However, its purpose is singular, i.e. to offer writers with a tool that provides distraction-free writing experience impervious to clutters.

• Clean interface
• Markdown formatting
• Dark mode to highlight speech

Verdict: iA Writer is meant for those writers who aren’t technically sound and simply want a tool that will allow them to write without any distractive features according to their own skills. There isn’t much more to the tool.

Price: Free 14 day trial, buy-in $29.99 for Mac, $19.99 for Windows.

Best for  budding screenwriters with a passion for writing film screenplays.

Writing screenplays is a whole new ball game altogether. The rules are different, and the structure is in sharp contrast to simple novel writing. As such, screenwriters need to be well versed with the principles and structure that go into creating a good screenplay. Final Draft allows writers to create clean screenplays conveniently.

It offers all the features you need to write a fantastic screenplay, this includes line-by-line formatting, content analysis, appropriate implementation of elements like dialogues, character names, and fade-ins and outs.

Its collaborative feature allows you to bring in editors who you can work within real-time. When the time comes to shop your screenplay, you can easily export your content into a shareable file.

• Screenplay element inserts
• Tweak Beat Board conveniently
• Collaborate with the team in real-time
• Content analysis

Verdict: Final Draft is the perfect tool for screenwriters, and can help them write convenient screenplays. However, it is way too expensive and cannot be purchased by struggling writers. For everybody else, it offers a tool that makes screenplay writing a fun endeavor.

Price: Free 30 day trial, @249.99 license fee.

Best for   web-based writing and secure storing of content online.

Recommended read => How To Strikethrough On Google Docs (A Step-by-Step Guide)

Google Docs, in many ways, is a fairly straight forward web-based writing tool with all the features you need to write content online. Similar to MS Word, you get to write content, format it and store it in your personal Google drive for future reference.

The reason why Google Doc is so popular is its ability to save your written content in a secure cloud database. With Google Docs, you can rest assured that your content is safe and impervious to lose and theft.

Apart from that, it is a fairly simple writing tool that enables writers to collaborate with other Google users to edit and post comments on the written content in real-time. Perhaps it’s most appealing, and the seldom-used feature is its ability to write content by using voice rather than traditional typing. Go ahead and give this fascinating feature a try.

• Use voice to type-in content
• Clear formatting
• Extensive list of fonts
• Suggestion mode
• Tag others in comments
• Offline mode.

Verdict: Google Docs is a very simple web-based writing tool to use. If you have Google account then there is no harm in using google docs to write and store your content online. Its voice based typing feature is only like the icing on the cake.

Price: Free

Best for novice and aspiring authors with a passion to publish their own book.

Now Novel is a writing tool that caters specifically to fiction writers only. It provides writers with an intuitive writing tool that helps them write a fun, engaging plot for their book. With Now Novel, writers can create compelling characters, map out a story outline, and craft an engaging narrative by working in collaboration with coaches and critiques from the writer community.

• 400+ free article on improving your craft on writing
• Coached and Free writing courses
• Scene builder to add structure
• Develop ideas and outline in Story dashboard
• Coaching by expert authors and editors

Verdict: Now Novel is an educational app that helps in molding your fiction writing skills. Writers can get coached by expert authors and editors to sharpen their skills as an author. We highly recommend this tool to those who want to learn the intricate details of novel writing.

Price: Billed at the basic plan of $149/year, coaching plan of $799/year, and coaching + plan of $1499/year.

Best for producing ambient sound to focus on writing.

A Soft Murmur is technically not a writing app, but it does help in creating a distraction-free environment, which is needed when embarking on a creative journey. Writing, in particular, is a vocation that requires utmost focus from writers.

A Soft Murmur ensures that by producing an ambient sound changes the mood of your surroundings and allows you to engage more with the process of writing. Mesmerizing sounds of waves, wind, rain, birds, etc. can be used effectively to improve your focus.

• Fully offline operability
• Mix multiple sounds
• Create your own sound
• Play in the background
• Smooth gapless playback

Further Reading => An Exclusive list of the BEST Mac Apps

Verdict: A Soft Murmur is not your traditional writing app. It has nothing to do with writing but does help in creating a mood for effective writing. We highly recommend this app to create an environment that will help you focus more, especially if you are a creative writer.

Price : Free

Best for blocking websites, apps, notifications to avoid distraction while writing.

It’s not just your physical surrounding that can be antagonistic to your writing, the system you are working on can also be a source of constant irritation due to tons and tons of pop-ups, email notification, update alerts, etc. Freedom literally provides you freedom from such mundane annoyances by blocking websites, apps, and notification permanently, temporarily, or for a specific period of time.

With none of those things to disturb, you can focus on writing compelling content for your blog, business, or book. Writing is about to focus as much as it is about language and grammatical skills, Freedom takes care of the former so you can focus on the latter.

• Choose apps, websites to block
• Choose the time you would like the websites and apps to remain blocked for
• Select when to start and end the block
• Block across multiple mobile and computer devices

Verdict: Many well-known authors and journalists credit Freedom for their newly found productivity in writing. So if you seek to be more productive with your writing, then we highly recommend Freedom.

Price: Free trial for first seven sessions, $6.99 per month, $29.04 per year, $129 for lifetime use.

Best for Long list of writing apps exclusive to Mac and iPhone.

Why settle for a single writing app, when you can get direct access to multiple writing tools for the price of one? That is the benefit of using Setapp. This platform is home to more than 240 Mac-exclusive apps, some of which happen to be pretty great applications for writers.

Simply go to the platform’s APP gallery, select the ‘Writing and Blogging’ section and you’ll be greeted with numerous apps that will spoil you for choice.

With apps like Ulysses, MonsterWriter, Rocket Typist, etc. all available to you in a single reasonably priced suite, you basically have a plethora of options to experiment with and switch between with a single subscription.

• Write and Publish virtual content
• Store content securely in iCloud
• Applications to proofread content
• Convert written text into PDF files and eBooks.

Verdict: With Setapp, you basically get to own and use multiple different types of Mac-exclusive writing applications from a single place.

If you are not satisfied with one, there are plenty of others you can try without having to pay extra. This is what makes Setapp such an enticing app for creative writers, bloggers, journalists, and other types of writers.

Pricing: Mac: $9.99/month, Mac and iOS: $12.49/month, Power User: $14.99/month, 7-day free trial available.

xTiles is a flexible writing application for organizing your entire writing process and collecting any content you need in one place.

The template library contains various free ready-made solutions for different occasions. The interface is simple, making the app effective and easy to work with, allowing the writing process to be as easy as possible. You can write down their ideas and fully concentrate only on them and their development and implementation without long introductions.

It also allows organizing information (whether we speak about writing or rich content) the way one prefers. And the cherry on top is xTiles Web Clipper to help you save everything that may be useful for writing while surfing the web.

Flexibility and versatility are the essence of the app. It may serve as a task manager, dashboard, visual board, writing space, to-do list, planner, presentation, etc. Additionally, all of these documents can be shared with other users and even with those who don’t use xTiles.

• The ability to add links, text, and pictures within one document.
• An impressive quantity of available templates for writing and other purposes.
• The ability to share your documents with others
• The ability to create sub-documents
• Web Clipper to save data for later use or consideration.
• Suitable for a variety of purposes and tasks
• The ability to organize your writing content in a visually appealing way.

Verdict: xTiles is a great app for any people involved in writing. If you’re looking for something to ease your writing routine, help organize all of your ideas and thoughts, and where you will be able to work at the same time, you should try xTiles.

Price: Free basic plan, $10 per month, $96 per year, $300 lifetime.

Why do you need a writing app?

Inadvertently, if you are tech-savvy human meddling with a laptop and mobile devices, then it is sure that you are using a writing app. It can be in the form of MS Word, Docs, or simply an android keyboard. As to the question – why you need a writing app? It depends on your need. You might need a writing app to improve your grammar, you might need them to perform spelling checks, or you might need it to make your written prose appear more stylistically appealing to your readers.

Can writing apps result in perfect writing?

Most writing apps operate on AI for grammar and spell checks, in collaboration with the writer’s overall writing skills and command over a certain language. So if you are an amateur writer with no command over basic grammar and sentence structure, then an app won’t yield the results you are looking for. These apps are specifically designed for professional writers to improve the quality of their content.

What are some of the best free writing apps in the market?

Many writing apps like Google Docs, MS Word are already free and used widely around the world. Other tools like Grammarly offer its users with the free version of their tool to perform basic grammar checks. Here are some of the more popular free writing apps you can try online: – FocusWriter – WriteMonkey – LibreOfficeWriter – Scribus – Freemind

No matter what kind of content you are writing, whether it is novels or short-form blogs, your content quality needs to be top-notch for it to attract readers. Thankfully, writers today are blessed with the almighty power of technology and bequeathed with some of the most fascinating writing tools in the market.

=> We Recommend ProWritingAid as the Overall BEST Writing App! Get a 20% Discount Coupon here.

The choice to land on an appropriate writing tool can be overwhelming. If you have established what your desires are from the tool, then settling on one tool won’t be an issue. If you are looking for a tool that improves your grammar and enhances the quality of your short-form blogs then Grammarly is the best writing app on Windows, Mac, and Web that you can try.

If you are seeking a tool to write long-form content like novels, then a creative writing app like Squibler will work wonders for you. Other apps like Freedom and A Soft Murmur can also be used to free yourself from distractions for a much more focused writing experience.

• We spent 12 hours researching and writing this article so you can have summarized and insightful information on what writing app or tool will best suit you.
• Total writing apps Researched – 30
• Total writing apps Shortlisted – 14
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• Top 9 BEST Grammarly Alternatives For Error Free Writing
• 11 Best Writing Degree Programs For Bachelor’s In 2024
• 9 Ways to Quickly Improve Your Writing Skills as a Software Tester
• 10 Best Project Management Apps in 2024 For Android and iOS Devices
• 10 BEST VR Apps (Virtual Reality Apps) For Android And iPhone [2024 SELECTIVE]
• Top 10 Best Augmented Reality Apps For Android And iOS
• Top 10 Best Free Time Management Apps in 2024

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Best Screenwriting Software for 2024

If you have been involved in screenwriting in any way, you know that the job is much more than writing a story. From formatting and editing to adding script notes and real-time collaboration with other writers, the director, and the producer, there are many factors to consider before turning your ideas into a great movie.

Screenwriting software and collaboration tools are more than a luxury today. They are essential for optimizing your original content and paving your way into the booming TV/film industry. Let’s put it this way: in a world full of ideas, only those that meet industry standards will stand out.

There are many screenwriting tools and writing software on the market, but the question is which is the right screenwriting software for “you”? The answer depends on a number of factors.

For instance, the writing process differs for everyone. Some aspiring writers want every sentence to be perfect before they write anything else. Others prefer to write down the screenplay and then start editing and optimizing.

Plus, the specific niche market and the people you work with may have different perspectives, communication methods, and needs. Perfect screenwriting software should meet industry standards while keeping the writing process as simple, joyful, and comfortable as possible.

How Screenwriting Software Helps With TV writing

Professional screenwriting programs equip you with several features and benefits essential for developing a reader-friendly screenplay. Here are some of these features and benefits you should expect from screenplay software.

Screenwriting Templates

Great screenwriting software often includes templates to help you get started and plot your story quickly. Templates offer the basic features and elements required in a screenplay, but are usually customizable, and you can tweak them when needed.

Easy-to-Use Interface

When you want to spend a lot of time on an app, you expect it to have an intuitive user interface. Best screenwriting software should give you sophisticated features while keeping a simple interface with self-explanatory icons, drag-and-drop tools, and so forth.

Collaboration

Real-time collaboration is another excellent feature for professional writers who need to collaborate with fellow writers, editors, and stakeholders during the writing process. Some writers prefer to use separate collaboration tools to communicate with peers, but with screenwriting software, you can organize all your work in a single platform.

A word processing program may offer some of these features, but in the long run, you will notice that streamlining every aspect of writing projects in a well-designed screenwriting software will save you time, energy, and money.

8 Best Screenwriting Software Options on the Market

Choosing the best screenwriting software is more of a personal preference. However, the list below includes some of the most creative, easy-to-use, and highly customizable scriptwriting software and tools that have gained popularity over the years. Let’s start.

1. Movie Magic Screenwriter

Movie Magic Screenwriter is an award-winning software with tons of advanced features for writing screenplays, novels, etc. Movie Magic Screenwriter may lack a modern user interface design, but it will provide you with top-of-the-class writing tools and intuitive navigation.

Movie Magic Screenwriter is a professional choice, especially due to its simplicity, outlining features, and spell-check dictionaries for multiple languages, allowing users to write and organize their foreign-language scripts.

Movie Magic Screenwriter is user-friendly. Even without prior experience, you can start writing in just a few seconds. This screenwriting software also provides built-in formatting templates, making it easier to stay focused on your writing and customize your workflow.

Shonda Lynn Rhimes , the famous American television screenwriter, producer, and author, once said this is a screenwriting software that might be “single-handedly keeping alive with my five shows.”

• Excellent customer support
• Customizable features
• Various screenwriting templates
• Autosaving your scripts
• Best features for professional screenwriters
• Thorough and intuitive script formatting
• Simple integration features for exporting notes and data to other tools
• The app design/interface needs a refresher
• One of the most expensive screenwriting software on the market

Pricing: Pricing for Movie Magic Screenwriter starts at $169.

2. Arc Studio Pro

If you’re looking for powerful yet easy-to-use screenwriting software, Arc Studio Pro is your best bet. Arc Studio Pro is a fairly new screenwriting program with many incredible features that will help writers, novelists, and editors create industry-standard works.

For instance, the Plot Board feature gives authors more control over storyboarding, formatting, and outlining their scripts. Arc Studio Pro hosts many advanced formatting features that will help you keep track of your writing when working on a tight schedule.

Character development tools, storyboarding functions, and native support for multiple file formats give Arc Studio Pro a great advantage over many other screenwriting software in the market. You will also access a wide range of built-in templates to help you get started.

Arc Studio Pro has a more modern user interface, and is also budget-friendly. So, whether you are a seasoned screenwriter or you just want to get started, this screenwriting software can offer you many useful tools. Arc Studio Pro’s simple design creates a distraction-free writing environment, essential for any dedicated writer.

• Automatic backup feature that saves your project every step of the way.
• Collaborative features that allow multiple users to write, edit and work on the same project at the same time.
• The visualization feature is designed to organize all the pieces, headlines, tags, storylines, or characters in a single platform.
• Sleek, convenient interfaces
• Excellent storyboarding functionality
• Advanced formatting editor
• Desktop and mobile apps are available on premium plans only
• Limited access with the free version

Pricing: Freemium (with limited collaboration features and watermarked files when exported). Premium plans start at ​​$69/year.

3. Final Draft

Final Draft software is one of the most popular screenwriting software used by great screenwriters, including Jon Favreau (The Mandalorian), Christopher McQuarrie (Top Gun: Maverick), Doug Ellin (Entourage), Guillermo Del Toro (Nightmare Alley), and Sophia Coppola (Lost in Translation).

Final Draft offers a host of excellent features, like the Reformat Tool and Format Assistant, which has brought it multiple awards. Many entertainment studios, most notably Netflix and Pixar, claim to use this screenwriting software in-house.

Final Draft automates the formatting process and offers robust collaboration tools, so you can share ideas and work with fellow writers remotely. You can even add music, sound effects, and other audio elements to your script.

The Final Draft’s design has been focused on simplifying the screenwriting process. However, this is a valuable resource for other writers since Final Draft enjoys an extensive template collection for novels, TV, stage plays, and graphic novels.

• Built-in script templates
• Powerful collaboration features for multiple users
• Audio support
• Advanced change tracker
• Top-notch outlining tools for building characters, story arcs, etc.
• Easy export and conversion tools in fully editable formats
• Speech-to-text function for Mac users
• Occasional crashes when used by multiple people
• Final Draft may be a little more expensive than some other screenwriting software tools

Pricing: $199 per license.

4. WriterDuet

WriterDuet is a widely used cloud-based software for screenplays, books, and other formats with tons of useful features. WriterDuet emphasizes its efficient real-time collaboration, and creators believe this is the ultimate solution for co-writing a script.

It is one of the most powerful and comprehensive professional screenwriting software that has risen to industry standards with an incredibly intuitive interface and easy-to-understand design. Many Pro writers like Ed Solomon (Men in Black) have used this screenwriting software since its release.

WriterDuet screenwriting software is suitable for writers working on independent projects, but the selling point of this program is its potential as collaboration software. You can use WriterDuet on different devices, including Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Android gadgets, and enjoy its flexibility as well as accessibility everywhere.

WriterDuet’s optimized interface is another factor that puts it among the best screenwriting software. All the features are organized and displayed within an intuitive navigation setting, allowing writers to format scenes, actions, and dialogues as efficiently as possible.

• Cloud-based collaboration feature; users do not have to download anything, and changes appear in real-time.
• Users can also enable the Offline Editing feature so that edits will be viewable by other users when they connect to the Internet again.
• Powerful version control for easy revisions
• Lavish free tier
• Pre-made templates for popular content types (sitcoms, podcasts)
• Collaborative writing is available only on a premium plan.
• The free plan is limited to only three full-length scripts with limited features.
• Limited templates compared to other screenwriting software.

Pricing:  Freemium. From $9.90/month.

Trelby , formerly known as Blyte, is an open-source software perfect for creative teams, marketing campaigns, and all industries. It is also among the best free screenwriting software in the market that enjoys an intuitive interface and customization capabilities for all sorts of projects and businesses.

Trelby is available on Github, and its open-source coding database allows you to see, modify and tweak its code and create a flexible setup that works best for you. This free screenwriting software is a perfect fit for companies that rely on teamwork, run multiple projects and clients, and need custom workflows, fields, & reports.

In terms of design and user interface, Trelby is incredibly minimalistic, which makes it a perfect choice for distraction-free writing with minimal screen clutter. Moreover, the automated formatting feature helps writers to stay focused on their projects.

Trelby is an excellent choice for students or those working on a shoestring budget, as it requires no subscription payment or in-app purchases. Developers or tech-savvy writers can enjoy Trelby’s open-source code and freely develop and integrate the features they wish to use.

• Smart typing feature that will automatically change the element to Scene.
• No-distraction full screen writing mode
• Compact PDF conversion
• It is a well-designed FREE screenwriting software
• Unlimited document imports/exports in multiple formats
• Full customizability thanks to its open-source nature
• The writing interface may seem too simple compared to alternative screenwriting software.

Pricing: Free

6. Squibler

Squibler is one of the best screenwriting software for writers and authors working on their books and needing a productivity booster for faster and more efficient results. Squier script writing software allows you to split the screen and organize your tasks and notes based on taglines and subject-based segmentation.

You can track your writing progress and add note cards to structure your scripts. This way, when you search for specific sections in chapters or scenes, you can sort and filter all your writings with tags and note cards. You can also use the drag-and-drop feature to store your content in an elegant package and share them with editors when they are ready.

The export and preview features are fully optimized for various publishing platforms such as Kindle, PDF, or print. You can adjust the image resolution in the setting manually, but usually, Squibler automatically finds the right resolution for your files.

This powerful script writing software includes templates to help you better structure your project. Some of the available templates are Adventure, Romance, Mystery, Fantasy, and Non-fiction.

• Organizational features allow you to separate your work and divide it into smaller sections
• Excellent collection of built-in templates
• Formatting and exporting features
• Easy collaboration with others
• Split screen view
• Doesn’t have as robust features since it isn’t a purpose-built screenwriting tool
• It may be a little bit slower than other online story development tools

Pricing: From $ 9.99/month

7. Highland

Highland 2 is beautifully designed and intuitive screenwriting software created by John August, writer of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, and Aladdin. With Highland, you can write almost any document, from novels to blog posts and school reports.

Highland’s modern design and innovative tools help you focus on words without worrying about formatting. The two greatest qualities of Highland are its simplicity and its flexibility. You need no tips and tricks to start your screenwriting with this app.

The customization features are designed to adapt the software based on your own personal process. The tools at Highland may not be as varied as other screenwriting software, but they are more than enough for highly productive writing.

• Sprints and revision mode
• Well-designed templates
• Export features that allow you to take your old scripts in PDF format and convert them into editable documents
• Simple auto-formatting commands
• Robust auto-suggest feature
• Excellent User Interface
• It’s only available for Mac users
• The detective searching for clues should be improved

Pricing: Freemium. $50 payment for Premium license.

Celtx is one of the best screenwriting software tools, with over 6 million users from 190 countries. Celtx is designed to help video game developers and VR scriptwriters write and organize engaging dialogues and collaborate with partners or their teams in real time.

Celtx’s navigation feature is very intuitive and accessible. It allows you to immediately switch between scenes and chapters without having to scroll to the destination. Besides, you can drag and drop scenes and divide them into different segments.

If you need a powerful storyboarding tool, you can use Celtx’s index cards to add and organize “note cards” on your screen. The index cards are divided into two sections: the general outline and the scene-based arrangement.

• Fast and easy formatting options
• Outlining feature to sort content based on Scene summary, Characters, Locations, and Sets
• Visual Storyboard
• Extra pre-production planning tools 
• Scripts analytics tools that help you maximize creative time
• Greater focus on collaborative rather than individual writing

Pricing: From $15 per month.

There you go, folks! A list of the best screenwriting software and tools. This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, but it includes the most creative, user-friendly, and effective screenwriting tools created over the years.

They may not make you the next Charlie Kaufman or Quentin Tarantino, but they will certainly help you showcase your excellent writing skills. Keep in mind that the TV industry is moving fast, and you will have no choice but to follow best practices to keep up with industry standards.

However, there are two other factors to consider when choosing the right screenwriting software. First, understand your project requirements. Are you working alone? Are you sharing a project with multiple fellow writers? Do you need task-specific templates? Do editors demand continuous monitoring of the project’s progress?

Second, know your writing style. Some writers need a distraction-free platform to stay focused. Others are inspired by chaos. And don’t forget to check out the software’s free demo version -if available- to ensure it’s the right fit for you.

Comparison Table

Final Verdict

• Highland — best for beginner screenwriters
• Arc Studio Pro – best value for money
• Celtx — best for co-writing scripts
• Squibler — best for doing different types of writing
• Final Draft — best for aspiring writers
• Movie Magic Screenwriter — best for dedicated screenwriters
• WriterDuet — best for collaborative projects
• Trelby — best for screenwriters who fit the “struggling writer” stereotype.

Tomas Laurinavicius

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