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DIRECTORY

Best Writing Apps in 2025

Showing 127 writing apps that match your search.

Elevate your writing, create beautiful documents, and collaborate with othersβ€”anywhere, anytime.

Platforms: Online, Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, Chrome, PC

Best for: Drafting, Essay, Journal, Book, Story, Poetry, and Blog

Website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/word

Base price:

$6.99 monthly

Premium price:

$9.99 monthly

Sharing and real-time collaboration

Premium templates and stickers

Dictation and transcription

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Also rated 4.0 β˜… on TechRadar

Don't let your word processor drag your process down. Ironically enough, traditional word processors weren’t designed for writers. Dabble’s book-writing software was developed for writers, by a writer.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Chrome, PC

Best for: Drafting, Book, and Story

Website: https://www.dabblewriter.com/

Base price:

$96.00 yearly

Premium price:

$192.00 yearly

Cloud storage

Word counts & goals

Co-authoring

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Write without distractions. WriteRoom is a full screen writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you're used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing.

Platforms: Mac

Best for: Drafting, Book, Story, Journal, Essay, Blog, and Poetry

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/writeroom/id417967324?mt=12

Base price:

$4.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

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Distraction free

Full screen

Plain text editor

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Also rated 3.6 β˜… on the App Store

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Bear is a beautiful, flexible writing app for crafting notes and prose.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Note-taking, Drafting, Book, Story, Essay, Blog, and Free

Website: https://bear.app/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$14.99 yearly

Focus & dark mode

Encryption

Convert into PDF and Word Docs

Cross note links & tags

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Also rated 4.3 β˜… on the App Store

Mind mapping starts with a main idea in the center of your mind map. As your map takes shape, add context to topics with attachments, embedded media and more. MindMeister’s features guide you through your first mind maps onto maximum creativity.

Platforms: Online, iPhone, iPad, Android

Best for: Outlining, Journal, Poetry, and Free

Website: https://www.mindmeister.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$8.25 monthly

Outline mode & focus mode

Comments and notifications

Collaboration

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Also rated 4.7 β˜… on Capterra

Writer Assistant (Wassi) is an application created specifically for inventors! We all constantly invent new characters for our stories, be it a comic, a novel, a script, a play, or a game. And so that our characters are alive and riveted the attention, they need to be developed a lot! That is what the Writer Assistant was created for! Plus, with Wassi you can easily outline your stories on the go.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Outlining, Book, Story, and Free

Website: https://apps.apple.com/app/writer-assistant-wassi/id14686...

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

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Outline

Interlinking

Character building template

Worldbuilding template

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Also rated 3.9 β˜… on the App Store

Lists for Writers is a great addition to any writer’s toolbox. Helpful to both novice and expert writers alike, this app delivers list after list of prompts and ideas for your brainstorming sessions: names, character traits, plot lines, occupations, obsessions, action verbs, and much more!

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android

Best for: Note-taking, Outlining, Drafting, Book, Story, and Essay

Website: https://thinkamingo.com/lists-for-writers/

Base price:

$2.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

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Easily navigable

Dozens of lists for settings and names

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Also rated 4.7 β˜… on the App Store

Note down, shape, & share your ideas with the world's best loved digital paper. Fall in love with handwriting all over again with Goodnotes’ digital ink.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, Book, Story, Journal, and Poetry

Website: https://www.goodnotes.com/

Base price:

$8.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

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Search your handwriting

Annotate PDFs

Organize with folders and subfolders

Personlize notebooks

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Also rated 4.8 β˜… on the App Store

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/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$2.92 monthly

An award-winning interface

Syncs across devices

Automatic backups

Password secured

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Also rated 4.8 β˜… on the App Store

Ignite your creativity. Coach your brain to think creatively & spark brilliant ideas at work and in life.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

Best for: Outlining, Journal, and Free

Website: https://brainsparker.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

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Creative card decks

Templates

Creative workouts

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Also rated 4.7 β˜… on the App Store

Diarly is built for the best journaling experience. With every feature you will need and a beautiful interface, starting a journal has never been so simple.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Note-taking and Journal

Website: https://diarly.app/

Base price:

$2.00 monthly

Premium price:

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Built-in gallery and maps

Timeline

Notes

Custom fonts and templates

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Also rated 4.8 β˜… on the App Store

Writemonkey is a Windows zenware writing application with an extremely stripped down user interface, leaving you alone with your thoughts and your words. It is light, fast and free.

Platforms: Windows, PC, Mac

Best for: Drafting, Book, Essay, Journal, Poetry, Story, Blog, and Free

Website: https://writemonkey.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

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Customizable with a clean text format

Visual progress bar

Timed writing

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Also rated 4.0 β˜… on TechRadar

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.

πŸ’° Price:  Free

πŸš‰ 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.

πŸ’° Price:  Free basic plan, $4.99/month for premium

πŸš‰ 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.

πŸ’° Price: Free trial for 30 days, $249.99 license fee

πŸš‰ 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

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Which writing app is best for you?

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