Writing

A vast compilation of great writing apps and word processors, for all your writing needs. From office suites to publishing tools. Now with an emphasis on privacy.

coralinecastellList by coralinecastell, last updated 2019-11-23

Office
LibreOffice
Like this app
My favorite word processor. FOSS. The Android app is not very good, however.
Word Processor
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Android
BSD
Flathub
PortableApps.com
Snapcraft
Flatpak
F-Droid
...
Airborn
Like this app
Create and edit documents online without sacrificing your privacy.
Word Processor
Freemium • Open Source
Online
Software as a Service (SaaS)
...
ONLYOFFICE
Like this app
ONLYOFFICE is an opensource office and productivity suite that enables you to manage documents, projects, team and customer relations in one place.
Word Processor
Free Personal • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Online
Android
iPhone
Android Tablet
iPad
Self-Hosted
AppImageHub
Snapcraft
Flathub
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Flatpak
Cloudron
...
Note taking and to-do's
Joplin
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Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, can be copied, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor.
Note-taking Tool
Freemium • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Android
iPhone
Android Tablet
iPad
Self-Hosted
AppImageHub
Snapcraft
Google Chrome
Flathub
PortableApps.com
Cloudron
Homebrew
Chocolatey
Termux
Mozilla Firefox
...
Turtl
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Whether it's bookmarks or passwords, files or shopping lists...Turtl organizes it all and makes it easy to find later. Sync across your devices. Leave nothing behind.
Note-taking Tool
Freemium • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Android
Android Tablet
Self-Hosted
Google Chrome
Firefox
...
Markdown
Typora
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Both minimalistic and feature packed.
Note-taking Tool
Paid • Proprietary
Mac
Windows
Linux
Electron
...
Mark Text
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Mark Text is a Markdown editor for Mac, Windows and Linux. It is a concise text editor, dedicated to improving your editing efficiency.
Note-taking Tool
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
...
Zettlr
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From idea to publication in one app: Zettlr accompanies you while writing your blog post, newspaper article, term paper, thesis, or entire book.
Note-taking Tool
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Flathub
...
ghostwriter
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No excuses. No distractions. Just write. ghostwriter is a feature-rich text editor using Markdown syntax which makes it suitable for note-taking, document redaction, simple HTML website creation and much more.
Note-taking Tool
Free • Open Source
Windows
Linux
Flathub
Mac
...
WriteMonkey
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"Zenware" writing app.
Text Editor
Freemium • Proprietary
Windows
...
For novelists
Quoll Writer
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One-man software, filled with unique features and creative ideas.
Novel Authoring Tool
Free • Open Source
Windows
...
bibisco
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Helpful for novel writing, allows for character descriptions and helpful sorting.
Novel Authoring Tool
Freemium • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Electron / Atom Shell
Node.JS
...
yWriter
Like this app
Perfect for breaking down your novels and organizing plot ideas.
Novel Authoring Tool
Freemium • Proprietary
Mac
Windows
Android
Android Tablet
...
Scrivener
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Aimed at novel authors, Scrivener is know for being resourceful and reliable.
Novel Authoring Tool
Paid • Proprietary
Mac
Windows
iPhone
iPad
PlayOnLinux - PlayOnMac
Wine
...
Manuskript
Like this app
Feature-packed and distraction-free outliner and novel assistant.
Note-taking Tool
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Snapcraft
Flathub
Flatpak
...
For programmers
Boost Note
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Boost Note is a document driven project management tool that maximizes remote DevOps team velocity
Note-taking Tool
Paid • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Online
Android
iPhone
...
Atom
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Atom is an open-source, Electron based text editor with a massive ecosystem of plugins and themes that are easily accessible through a built-in package manager. Being built with Electron, it uses web technology (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Node.
Text Editor
Free Personal • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Chrome OS
BSD
Electron / Atom Shell
...
Blogging
TheRightMargin
Like this app
Focused on blogging, time tracking, writing prompts and encouragment.
Paid • Proprietary
Online
...
For collaboration
CryptPad
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CryptPad is a private-by-design alternative to popular office tools and cloud services. All the content stored on CryptPad is encrypted before being sent, which means nobody can access your data unless you give them the keys.
Word Processor
Freemium • Open Source
Self-Hosted
Software as a Service (SaaS)
...
Etherpad
Like this app
Collaborative writer.
Team Collaboration Tool
Free • Open Source
Online
Self-Hosted
Cloudron
...
Notion
Like this app
Docs with real-time collaboration and simple formatting.
Note-taking Tool
Free Personal • Proprietary
Mac
Windows
Online
Android
iPhone
Android Tablet
iPad
Software as a Service (SaaS)
...
Mobile
JotterPad
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Best writing app on Android, hands down. Totally worth the full-version purchase.
Text Editor
Freemium • Proprietary
Android
Chrome OS
Android Tablet
...
Proofing
LanguageTool
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Free proofreading tool, perfect partner in crime for LibreOffice!
Grammar Checker
Freemium • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Online
iPhone
iPad
Microsoft Edge
ONLYOFFICE
Google Chrome
Microsoft Outlook
Safari
Visual Studio Code
Microsoft Word
Eclipse
TinyMCE
TeXstudio
Google Docs
Thunderbird
Vim
OmegaT
Sublime Text
GNU Emacs
Opera
Gmail
Fidus Writer
LyX
LibreOffice
Apache OpenOffice
Mozilla Firefox
LibreOffice - Writer
...
Typely
Like this app
Online proofreading software.
Note-taking Tool
Free • Proprietary
Online
...
Hemingway Editor
Like this app
Highlights common mistakes and aims at making your writing bold and clear.
Text Editor
Paid • Proprietary
Mac
Windows
Online
...
Export/share your work
Reedsy
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Gets professionals together and helps authors publish their books.
Free • Proprietary
Online
...
GitBook
Like this app
Write, collaborate and publish books.
Documentation Generator
Freemium • Proprietary
Online
...
Booktype
Like this app
Write, collaborate and publish books.
Free • Open Source
Mac
Linux
...
Others
Nimble Writer
Like this app
Interesting acquisition on Steam, and those achievements are a fine productivity boost!
Novel Authoring Tool
Paid • Proprietary
Windows
Steam
...
Trelby
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Trelby is simple, fast and elegantly laid out to make screenwriting simple. It is infinitely configurable.
Story Writing Tool
Free • Open Source
Windows
Linux
Flathub
Flatpak
...
KIT Scenarist
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KIT Scenarist is a free and open source application for creating screenplays on desktops and commercial on mobiles.
Story Writing Tool
Freemium • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Android
iPhone
Android Tablet
iPad
...
Gingko Writer
Like this app
To organize your ideas. *
Mind Mapping Tool
Freemium • Proprietary
Online
Software as a Service (SaaS)
...
FocusWriter
Like this app
Immersive and clean word processor, to simply get stuff done.
Text Editor
Free • Open Source
Windows
Linux
PortableApps.com
...

This list was created by coralinecastell Nov 22, 2017 and was last updated Nov 23, 2019. The list has 33 apps.

You can create your own lists from our large database of apps either for your own sake or if you want to share some great apps with other people.

Comments

John Fastman

Comment •Apr 30, 2018

Some comments / suggestions

WPS:

Closed source and Chinese. You have to ask why they're offering their product for "free". That makes me suspicious enough not to want to install their software on my PC. Plenty of other Freemium software from China has proved insecure / privacy-invading (e.g. Maxthon). Libre Office is preferable in all regards and Only Office covers more ground for Microsoft compatibility.

Notion:

No Android app (what are they smoking?) and the pricing is very high if you're just one person.

Typora vs Mark Text:

Typora is nice, but will be free only during beta. For a similar open source app, see Mark Text. Another one to check out is Ghostwriter.

If you rely on a service to store your data, you should know that they can read your stuff if they don't use "zero-knowledge" or "end-to-end" encryption. Without this, they can also be forced to give your data up to government surverillance programs and your information is readable to any hackers that manage to breach the servers on which your stuff is stored. Here are some suggestions for writing apps that offer encryption and therefore cannot read or give away your data.

Collaboration + Encryption?

See Cryptpad. Open source, of course.

Encrypted html-based text editor

Try Airborn. It looks like Word, but it saves your stuff in .html format. Open source, as always.

[Edited by JohnFastman, April 30]

1 reply

coralinecastell

John, thanks for your comment. Sorry it took me so long to update my list, but it now reflects your suggestions.

Reply written Nov 22, 2019

Jezebelisgone

Comment •Apr 17, 2018

Fantastic! A delightful and productive list to stumble on. Thank you so very much..

Writing

Office

LibreOffice

Airborn

ONLYOFFICE

Note taking and to-do's

Joplin

Turtl

Markdown

Typora

Mark Text

Zettlr

ghostwriter

WriteMonkey

For novelists

Quoll Writer

bibisco

yWriter

Scrivener

Manuskript

For programmers

Boost Note

Atom

Blogging

TheRightMargin

For collaboration

CryptPad

Etherpad

Notion

Mobile

JotterPad

Proofing

LanguageTool

Typely

Hemingway Editor

Export/share your work

Reedsy

GitBook

Booktype

Others

Nimble Writer

Trelby

KIT Scenarist

Gingko Writer

FocusWriter