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DIRECTORY

Best Essay Writing Apps in 2025

Showing 62 writing apps that match your search.

Grammarlookup.com uses artificial intelligence to check grammar and punctuation mistakes in your writing, eliminate spelling errors and highlight 1000s of style issues to make your writing exceptional among other writers.

Platforms: Online

Best for: Editing, Proofreading, Essay, and Free

Website: https://www.grammarlookup.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Grammar checker

Punctuation checker

★★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.7 on Capterra

We’re more than a doc. Or a table. Customize Notion to work the way you do.

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

Best for: Note-taking, Outlining, Journal, Book, Story, Essay, Poetry, Blog, and Free

Website: https://www.notion.so/product

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Create wikis

Link to different pages

Hundreds of pre-made wikis

Create table of contents

★★★★ Performance

★★★★★ Features

★★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.0 on TechRadar

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

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

Website: https://www.wps.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$29.99 monthly

Cross platform file management

Free templates

Colorful themes

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Also rated 4.0 on TechRadar

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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:

Easily navigable

Dozens of lists for settings and names

★★★★ Performance

★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Also rated 4.7 on the App Store

You have a story to tell, article to publish, or class notes to take. Scrivo Pro can help you organize your writing, research, generate ideas, and remove distractions so you can focus on the most important thing: writing.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

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

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scrivo-pro-for-scriveners-a...

Base price:

$9.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

Organize projects in tree-like structure

Live counters

Works offline

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Also rated 4.4 on the App Store

Mellel is a word processor designed from the ground up to be the ultimate writing tool for academics, technical writers, scholars and students. Mellel is strong, stable and reliable, and is the ideal companion for working on documents that are long and complex, short and simple, or anything in between.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, and Essay

Website: https://mellel.com/

Base price:

$49.00 one-time payment

Premium price:

Outline

Bibliography

Footnotes and endnotes

Multilingual support

★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★ Accessibility

★★ Value

Also rated 3.2 on the App Store

Gingko is a new kind of tool, that lets you shape your ideas with lists, outlines and cards, all in the same clean interface.

Platforms: Online

Best for: Outlining, Essay, Book, Story, and Blog

Website: https://gingkowriter.com/

Base price:

$9.75 monthly

Premium price:

$12.00 monthly

Drag-and-droppable lists

An intuitive outliner

Movable index cards

★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Joplin is an open source note-taking app. Capture your thoughts and securely access them from any device.

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, Essay, Blog, and Free

Website: https://joplinapp.org/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Multimedia notes

Shared notes with friends and family

Web clipper extension

★★★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.3 on the App Store

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:

Distraction free

Full screen

Plain text editor

★★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

Accessibility

Value

Also rated 3.6 on the App Store

Your thoughts in words. Say exactly what you mean through clear, compelling and authentic writing.

Platforms: Online

Best for: Editing, Proofreading, Blog, Essay, and Free

Website: https://www.wordtune.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$9.99 monthly

Find synonyms

Rephrase sentences

Avoid plagirism

AI autocomplete

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Also rated 4.4 on Capterra

FocusWriter is a simple, distraction-free writing environment. It utilizes a hide-away interface that you access by moving your mouse to the edges of the screen, allowing the program to have a familiar look and feel to it while still getting out of the way so that you can immerse yourself in your work.

Platforms: Windows, PC

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

Website: https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Full screen hide-away interface

Timers & daily goals

Customizable themes

Live statistics

★★★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.0 on TechRadar

Terminology is a browser for the English language – part dictionary, part thesaurus and part research tool. Terminology makes it easy to explore words and phrases, diving down to more and less specific terms - accessing the web and other apps for more detail and sharing.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Editing, Proofreading, and Essay

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/terminology-dictionary/id68...

Base price:

$1.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

Spelling suggestions

Offline US English dictionary

Add notes to any terms

Word browsing history

★★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Also rated 4.7 on the App Store

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

💡 Shortlist apps to save them.