TRY OUR FREE APP

Write your book in Reedsy Studio. Try the beloved writing app for free today.

Craft your masterpiece in Reedsy Studio

Plan, write, edit, and format your book in our free app made for authors.

DIRECTORY

Best Writing Apps for PC

Showing 48 writing apps that match your search.

Polish & improve your novel. Identify word and phrase over-use. Monitor adverbs and clichΓ©s, crutch words and phrases. Improve sentence structure and punctuation.

Platforms: Windows, PC

Best for: Editing, Proofreading, Book, and Story

Website: https://smart-edit.com/

Base price:

$77.00 one-time payment

Premium price:

$139.00 one-time payment

Find repeated words and phrases

Identify overused adverbs and clichΓ©s

Edit long and winding sentences

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜… Value

WriteItNow is designed to help anyone writing a novel. Keep the novel text and all the background information in one place. Each novel is saved in a single file, and the program has two main sections: one for chapters and scenes and the other for background details

Platforms: Windows, Mac, PC

Best for: Drafting, Book, and Story

Website: https://www.ravensheadservices.com/about.html

Base price:

$59.95 one-time payment

Premium price:

–

Storyline editor

Word count and writing targets

Background details

β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜… Value

The Novel Factory helps guide new writers through the novel writing process - while completing your first manuscript.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Online, PC

Best for: Book, Drafting, Outlining, and Story

Base price:

$75.00

Premium price:

–

Plot templates

Plot manager

Character development prompts

Track your statistics

β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜… Value

Craft your masterpiece in Reedsy Studio

Plan, write, edit, and format your book in our free app made for authors.

Learn more about Reedsy Studio

Traditional word processors include dozens of options for formatting text, distracting you from what really matters: writing. Calmly Writer is an editor designed to focus on what you want to tell, with a simple, unobtrusive and ease-to-use user interface.

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Online, Chrome, PC

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

Website: https://www.calmlywriter.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$10.99 one-time payment

Focus mode

Auto save

Light and dark mode

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Value

Also rated 4.5 β˜… on TechRadar

Hemingway makes your writing bold and clear. It's like a spellchecker, but for style. It makes sure that your reader will focus on your message, not your prose.

Platforms: Windows, PC, Mac

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

Website: https://hemingwayapp.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$19.99 one-time payment

Grammar and spell checker

Readability score

Style checker

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Value

Also rated 4.0 β˜… on Reedsy

Capture your thoughts, discoveries, and ideas and simplify overwhelming planning moments in your life with your very own digital notepad. With OneNote, you can plan that big event, seize that moment of inspiration to create something new, and track that list of errands that are too important to forget.

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

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

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

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

–

Sync across devices

Share and collaborate

Secure notes with password

Pin important pages and notes

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Value

Also rated 4.5 β˜… on TechRadar

Ginger is more than a grammar checker, spell checker, and punctuation checker. Ginger is an all-in-one writing tool that includes Rephrase to empower you to write your best in ways that traditional online grammar checkers can’t.

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

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

Website: https://www.gingersoftware.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$6.99 monthly

AI-powered

Grammar and spell checker

Sentence rephraser

Punctuation checker

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Value

Also rated 4.6 β˜… on the App Store

Zoho Writer is a fully-featured word processor on the cloud, designed for collaborative work that gives you everything you need to create powerful documents. With a clean UI, intuitive interface and document modes, it introduces you to a new way of writing.

Platforms: Android, Windows, PC, iPad, iPhone

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

Website: https://www.zoho.com/writer/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

–

Focus mode & Night mode

Auto save

An AI-powered writing assistant

Hundreds of templates

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Value

Also rated 3.4 β˜… on Google Play

So, You’re looking to write a book. Well, wavemaker is here to help. It’s much much more than a text editor.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Chrome, Android, Online, PC

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, Book, Story, and Free

Website: https://wavemaker.cards/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

–

Connects to Google Docs

Mind maps

Timelines

β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜…β˜… Value

Also rated 3.7 β˜… on Google Play

The simplest way to keep notes. All your notes, synced on all your devices.

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

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

Website: https://simplenote.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

–

Automatic syncing

Tags for organization

Share documents and notes

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Value

Also rated 4.5 β˜… on TechRadar

Get organized. Stay creative. Milanote is an easy-to-use tool to organize your ideas and projects into visual boards.

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

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

Website: https://milanote.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$9.99 monthly

Boards for notes and to-dos

Web clipper

Collaborative functionalities

Integration across platforms

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Value

Also rated 3.0 β˜… on PC Magazine

The simplest way to keep notes. All your notes, synced on all your devices.

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

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

Website: https://simplenote.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

–

Automatic syncing

Tags for organization

Share documents and notes

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Performance

β˜…β˜…β˜… Features

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Accessibility

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… Value

Also rated 4.5 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

πŸ–₯️

Which writing app is best for you?

Take our 1 minute quiz to find out.