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What's the best app for writing on the Mac?

I need something for taking notes and putting together blog posts.

Veni KuncheEdited 2mo ago

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39 recommended

Bear

A beautiful, flexible writing app for notes and prose

Björn Antonissen4Designer & Developer · Written 2mo ago

Simple and beautiful app. For iPhone, iPad, and Mac

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Pablo J. MalacaraWritten 2mo ago

I have them all: iA writer a long time favorite of mine for many years, Ulysses was a revolutionary addition but I just simply couldn't adopt MD XL and there is just too many settings in my opinion, Scrivener is just as convoluted, nvALT started to feel old a while ago, Evernote - no thanks, and so many more on the list, but Bear, damn I love this app, it ticks all the boxes, no fuss, no fiddling with unnecessary configurations but you can get it to work the way you want to, it doesn't matter how complex your workflow is, design is beautiful, always updated, it embraces Markdown so I don't have to shift mental gears a… See more

Kartik ChaturvediDesigner, developer, futurist · Written 2mo ago

I switched from Evernote + Pages + Notes to Bear a few weeks ago and have never looked back

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Ulysses III

A powerful writing tool for Mac

Joel FischeriOS Team Lead, Livio · Written 2mo ago

By far my favorite long-form writing app on Mac. Clear and simple writing in Markdown with numerous output formats and styles. It was easy to create my own output style as well with a little digging. Simple, clean, beautiful, and powerful.

João PauloSr. UX Designer @ SocialBase · Written 2mo ago

The best one i've used!

Josh PigfordFounder of Baremetrics, maker of beards. · Written 2mo ago

I've tried nearly every app recommended here and I always come back to Ulysses. Organizational abilities plus no-frills...just fantastic.

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iA Writer 4

Embed images, tables and text as blocks of content in text

Michael QuirkeStrategist, Brand Union · Written 2mo ago

Really good on iPhone / iOS especially.

Philipp MoehringEurope, AngelList · Written 2mo ago

The cleanest, best integrated, and reliable text editor I've ever used on Mac or iOS.

Isa MCrafting code + content for the web · Written 2mo ago

It gets out of the way

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Grammarly

Clear, effective, mistake-free writing.

Ryan Hoover44Founder, Product Hunt · Written 2mo ago

Grammarly is a great tool to improve your writing and catch grematical and punctuaton errorrs. It's not a Mac app, but a Chrome extension so if it may only work if you write in one of the many browser-based writing tools like Medium or Draft.

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Ruslan GirichevEmotion Designer · Written 2mo ago

Love this app! It helps me with learning English by writing. Just wish to have one working on iOS.

Syed Irfaq R. ⚡️3Founder & CEO, Lukonet · Written 2mo ago

Been using this App for months now. Got their lifetime subscription, can highly recommend 💯 Especially if English is not your first language 👍

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Marked 2

Smarter tools for smarter writers

Brett Terpstraindependent · Written 2mo ago

Brett Terpstra made this product

Not an editor, but for "writing on the Mac" it's an essential tool. You can use it with _any_ text editor (including Ulysses, Scrivener, Bear, IA Writer, and more) and add a flexible and styleable Markdown preview, detailed analysis and checking tools (word repetition, spelling/grammar, reading time/scores), as well as multiple export formats.

Julia PetrykPR Manager, MacPaw · Written 2mo ago

That's an excellent tool for both - coders and bloggers.

Micah CooperWritten 2mo ago

I made my own styles and make fantastic-looking documents with it.

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Hemingway Editor 3.0

Make your writing bold and clear, send to Medium/Wordpress

AleksandraProduct Marketing · Written 2mo ago

I like how Hemingway helps me to improve my writing style. Also, integrations with Medium and Wordpress are very handy.

Nicole HennigIndependent UX educator, digital nomad · Written 2mo ago

Excellent app -- its suggestions make sense for clear, sharp writing style. I didn't know it had a Wordpress integration, so thanks for mentioning that.

BrianBestSoftware Developer · Written 2mo ago

Its really the best for writing content for the web and ad tech engines

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Sublime Text 3

Sophisticated Text Editor For Code

Yann3Kin.today co-founder · Written 2mo ago

Sublime isn't only for code, it's also great whenever you want to write large pieces of text.

Matthew JohnCo-founder, Typito · Written 2mo ago

No nonsense text editor. I use it daily for writing email drafts, blog posts and maintaining to-do lists.

Ahmad AwaisFull Stack Dev— WordPress Core Developer · Written 2mo ago

I too use, Sublime for writing content.

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Atom

A hackable text editor for the 21st Century

Beau GundersonSr. Software Gardener, Canvas Medical · Written 2mo ago

I specifically like Atom with Zen mode: https://github.com/defunkt/zen

Chris ChinchillaWritten 1mo ago

It needs some setup, but I have it working really nicely for (technical) writing - https://hackernoon.com/making-at...

Geoff SchaadtVP, Mobileyes Consulting · Written 1mo ago

Wildly flexible and configurable for those who are inclined, and especially great when paired with Marked 2. http://marked2app.com

Notion

Wesley ForlinesMaker at FormFunc. · Written 2mo ago

I've started to use Notion for writing drafts because of its very very simple interface (distraction free) and very easy way to drag around paragraphs and ideas. I can easily scrap a paragraph by tucking it into a toggle list but keeping it incase I need parts later. Extremely intuitive and virtually no learning curve for writing. Exports Markdown and PDF, but not recommended for publishing (unless your company uses Notion as a wiki or something). Big down side: it still doesn't integrate a spell check.

Ivan ZhaoCo-founder, Notion · Written 1mo ago

- Try the "Mono" text style option. It's designed for writing ✍️ - When you start typing, all UI fades away. 0 distraction. - Supports most Markdown shortcuts. - Pages can contain pages. Turn long sections/headers into pages. Great for organization. - Spellcheck is in the most recent Mac release 👈

Evernote

Note taking gets even simpler

Ariza Written 2mo ago

Classic tool.

J Keith HallCo-Founder & Developer, theWTFactory · Written 2mo ago

The web version is beautiful and minimal and really my go to

Manju HariharanFreelance web developer · Written 2mo ago

Have used this and found it useful

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Byword

Henrique MacedoUI Designer, CoolFarm · Written 2mo ago

I love the Byword App! Super clean, markdown editor, integration with Medium and Evernote, etc. 👌

Marc AbramsDirector of Communications Apps · Written 2mo ago

simple and fast, great support for extended markdown tags

Scrivener

My favorite writing tool

Intrepid EmPlayer One. Experience Strategy. · Written 2mo ago

If you are serious about your writing this is serious about your work. Doubly so if that's going to turn into a novel or screenplay.

Merzmensch KosmopolMedia supervisor · Written 1mo ago

I am using this nonlinear writing tool for my academic textes, but also for novels. Very intuitive and has fine functions like labeling, card view mode (for rearranging), storyboard mode etc. Actually I only use this one.

Mark AndersonAethervision, Videographer, mammal · Written 1mo ago

Easily the best collection of tools for writing on the Mac. I'm a little surprised it's this low. Combine it with nValt and you're cooking with fire.

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Dropbox Paper

Sachin BennyWritten 2mo ago

Wonderful for long form writing, have been using it for over 6 months now. Clean, beautiful and distraction free interface. It does not have a desktop app, which is a boon in disguise since you can use the Grammarly plugin on the web app (Its also the best designed web app note I have seen). Also has a clean, minimal IOS app that works wonderfully well. I had tried it out on Android as well, but the build of the app was not so great and kept crashing. If you want a free note taking app that is built to write long from content, research etc, Dropbox paper is the way to go

Stanley IdesisDeveloper, Consultant, and Teen Idol · Written 1mo ago

More votes for Dropbox Paper even if it's not offline-capable. This is my new favorite place to write, ever.

iA Writer

Jack DeMancheStrategist. Entrepreneur. Nice Guy. · Written 2mo ago

This is the best writing app I've ever used. Clean and simple. No fluff. I love the Focus Mode and Reading Time (which is where Medium got the idea) features, plus it's available on all your favorite devices.

nValt

Notational Velocity with MultiMarkdown features

Beau GundersonSr. Software Gardener, Canvas Medical · Written 2mo ago

For taking notes I haven't found anything better than nvALT; it makes search a primary function.

Julien L. Pham, MDSerial Healthcare Founder · Written 2mo ago

I can't think of a productivity app I would recommend more. Convenient hotkeys call-up, clean simple interface, super flexible.

Quip

Beautiful documents on any device.

Nikos SarilakisMarketing. Design. Tech. · Written 2mo ago

Quip is awesome! Simple and beautiful UI.

Constantine NicolaouFull Stack Developer · Written 2mo ago

I am surprised this is not on top of the list. Quip is a wonderful piece of software, designed beautifully and has a lot of powerful collaboration and writing features. I've been a user for almost a year and never looked for an alternative app again. Whether you're using the mobile or desktop app, the UX and UK are beautifully designed.

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Ommwriter

Ryan ShookCreative Director · Written 2mo ago

My go-to tool for reducing distractions and knocking out a rough draft.

Medium

Everyone's stories, now w/ an inline editor, tags & stream

Xiaomeng CuiInternational Marketing executive@XMind · Written 2mo ago

Auto sync, clean layout and easy interaction. Once written, you can get access to your article from anywhere and from any devices.

This Tenqyu Lifefounder, tenqyu · Written 2mo ago

I enjoy writing directly into Medium ( http://medium.com/ ) for my posts. Usually they range from 500-1200 words. The interface works for me and I can not bound to a specific computer to continue my work.

Paragraphs

A minimalist writing app for Mac

Ben Lang17@askspoke · Written 2mo ago

Super minimalistic and distraction free writing app.

Caret

Beautiful and clever Markdown editor for Mac and PC

Emanuil RusevWritten 1mo ago

Emanuil Rusev made this product

Combines the aesthetics of prose editors with the productivity features of code editors - features like syntax assistance, multiple cursors, file manager, etc.