With so many writing apps out there, it can be hard to choose the right one.
There are many types of writing and writers, but the following writing apps are great for business writers, creative writers, bloggers, or anyone who wants to get their words out there.
Here’s a quick summary of the best writing apps. Keep reading to see a comprehensive list and features.
- Best app for writing blog posts and articles: Google Docs
- Best app for grammar and proofreading: Grammarly
- Best note-taking app: Evernote
- Best writing app for novels: Novlr
- Best writing app for screenwriters: Final Draft
- Best writing app for creating outlines: Plottr
- Best distraction-free app: Freedom
- Best dictation and transcription app: Dragon Anywhere
- Best Journal app: Day One
- Best AI writing assistant: Jasper
Apps for writing Blog Posts and Articles
1. Google Docs
Google Docs is the best free writing app you can use in any writing project. This app is part of a suite of tools offered under Google Workspace.
If you’re looking for something free, user-friendly, and offers basic features such as spell check and organization, Google Docs is the best app.
Another reason to use Google Docs is that it’s available on mobile devices. And you don’t need technical knowledge to use it. It looks and works like the internet-friendly version of Word From MS Office.
And this app is critical to use because the majority of businesses and professionals use it for editing and collaborating on content today.
Price: Free. Although you get more storage if you pay for Google Workspace.
Who it’s for: Everyone.
2. Hemingway App
Want to ensure your writing is clear, concise, and internet-friendly?
The Hemingway App will help you with that. Just paste in your text, and it’ll give you feedback on what to improve.
It’ll help you make the text more readable by breaking down the sentences into smaller, more coherent for the readers. It is one of the best writing tools to help you make your blog posts and articles easier to read.
It’s a simple and non-expensive writing app to give your work the final touch that only professional writers seem to have.
Price: Free! If you want to download a desktop version, it’s $19.99 (one time).
Who it’s for: Bloggers.
3. Microsoft Word
Even with all the writing apps that have surfaced in the last decade, using MS Word can feel like riding a classic mustang in a world flooded with SUVs.
Microsoft Word is your go-to if you’re looking for something you can rely upon in the world of writing apps. From writing, editing, formatting, or creating graphical documents to creating professional write-ups with images, Microsoft Word is still a key writing tool.
Its Referencing and Review tabs are also critical features that reel in book writers and thesis writers alike.
Price: $159.99 for 1 PC or Mac.
Who it’s for: Everyone.
Apps for grammar and proofreading
4. Grammarly
Grammarly is a must-have app for anyone who wants to ensure their writing is error-free. It’s the best-known spelling and grammar checker in the market.
You can use it for free, but its premium version is a must-have for high-quality writing. The paid version will check if your tone, sentence variation, and other factors are good.
Just install the Grammarly extension in your browser, and it’ll check your writing for grammar mistakes. It also has its own editor where you can save your files to the cloud and access them anywhere.
It’s compatible with many writing apps like Google Docs and MS Word, and you can get a desktop app too. It’s a critical part of any content marketer’s toolkit and is a must-have to make your writing faster and more impactful.
Price: Basic plan is free. Premium starts at $12 a month.
Who it’s for: Everyone.
5. ProWriting Aid
ProWriting Aid is another great grammar-checking and writing tool.
However, its AI-powered tool will also help you check for overused words, emotions, and more.
Like Grammarly, it has a browser extension and an online editor. And it has premium and enterprise-level offerings.
It’s a good investment for businesses that want to maintain a cohesive brand image. And it’s premium offerings integrate major browsers, email providers, and writing apps.
Its yearly packages are also cheaper than Grammarly’s.
Price: Basic is free. Its Premium and Premium+ editions cost $79 and $89 a year.
Who it’s for: Everyone. Especially useful for academics.
6. Readable
If you’re concerned about the readability of your writing, then Readable is the app for you. Just paste in your text, and it’ll give you a score that tells you how easy it is to read.
It also allows you to import and export your documents in various basic file formats like PDF, Open Doc, Word, or HTML.
Price: Starts at $4 a month.
Who it’s for: Everyone
Writing apps best suited for notes
7. Evernote
Sometimes, you just need to get your ideas down without fleshing them out. You need a note-taking tool that fits in your pocket and syncs with your desktop browser or app.
Evernote is a versatile app that can be used for everything from writing to-do lists to collaborating on work with others. You can also use it to store images, PDFs, and more.
The free basic plan is all anyone needs to save the information and put down ideas on the go.
You can also use it to integrate it with Google Calendar, which helps maximize your productivity. Evernote also has templates such as ‘to-do lists’, ‘story premise’, ‘blog post worksheet’, and more.
Price: Personal $69.99 per year, Professional $99.99 per year.
Who it’s for: Everyone.
8. Roam Research
Roam is the next tier of note-taking applications.
It’s complex when compared to Evernote and other mainstream note-taking apps. But it’s a favorite with many people because it’s the first to have this feature: bi-directional linking.
With this feature, your ideas and notes don’t just link one way. They automatically link back to each other.
As a result, you can make cross-connections between your notes and visualize relationships. Something ordinary note apps can’t do.
If you want to take a high-level and intelligent approach to note-taking, organizing, and writing, then try Roam.
Price: $15 a year
Who it’s for: People who obsessively collect data.
9. Simplenote
Simplenote is one of the best writing apps to keep light, clean and free notes. It is available on the web, Mac, Android, and iOS.
Moreover, the notes stay updated across all your devices, automatically and in real-time, without any ‘sync’ button.
If you prefer simplicity over basic note-making along with collaboration support, Simplenote is a reliable but stripped-down choice.
Price: Free.
Who it’s for: Everyone.
10. Google Keep
Have you ever stumbled on a website and told yourself you’d remember it and come back? Only you didn’t. You forgot all about it and can’t remember even the letter the website starts with.
If you want to save websites and store random ideas that might escape you, then Google Keep is what you need.
It is a note-taking service included as part of the free, web-based Google Workspace platform offered by Google.
Although it falls short in areas of text formatting or notebooks, with it being the best free writing app, it’s a good tool to have on hand.
Price: Free.
Who it’s for: Everyone.
11. Notion
Notion is a software that brings project management and note-taking brought under one roof.
If you’re the kind of person who likes project folders, files, tags, categories, and more to organize your writing, then it’s for you.
It’s also great if you work in a team and need to coordinate objectives, track deadlines, maximizing productivity.
It’s an all-in-one workspace app. When used well, you can leverage it to draft blog posts, create to-do lists, and more.
Price: Free for personal use. $4 a month for premium features and collaboration.
Who it’s for: Professional writers, managers, and everyone who loves productivity tools.
Best writing apps for Novels
12. Novlr
Novlr is a great writing app for people who want a simple and distraction-free writing environment. It has a minimal interface and all the features you need to write, edit, and publish your work.
Novlr is the writer’s choice of novel-writing tool that works online as well as offline. It used to be a desktop app alone, but recently it too launched a mobile writing app to make it easier to access.
Organized chapters and scenes, advanced grammar checker, version history, and export & publish the work to ePub are all the AI writing tools to help you with your novel writing.
Price: Novlr Pro offers three plans – monthly, yearly, and lifetime. For the monthly and yearly plans, you’ll have to pay $18 and $15 per month respectively. While for the Lifetime plan there’s only a one-time subscription fee of $499.
Who it’s for: Novelists.
13. Dabble
Ever written a story or novel? If yes, then you would know how difficult it is to weave a captivating and consistent plot with characters who come alive.
And Dabble is the one-stop solution for all these challenges. Suggesting plots or developing real-like characters is not the limit of Dabble.
Dabble counts words, syncs them to the cloud, and has an inbuilt grammar and spelling-checking feature.
It’s a collaborative browser software, which allows your editor to make changes. With Dabble you can define and develop the connection between scenes and relationships among characters.
Here you can split and join scenes, export plots, highlight and replace sections and add view story notes. What makes Dabble unique is through this software you can directly submit for Wattpad or Kindle publication.
Price: Basic plan starts at $10/month and Standard and Premium plans it’s $15/month and $20/month
Who is it for: The browser version can be used by both novice and expert writers on mobile.
14. Scrivener
If you need more features such as project organization, idea management, and an outliner, then Scrivener will fulfill those needs. It’s also great for new writers who need to quickly get their first draft down.
Scrivener is brilliant for anyone who creates long-form content and other work that involves hundreds of pages. It’s great for novel writing and includes features where you can tag the status of different chapters, write notes for each one, etc.
If you are looking to find all tasks like research, organization, and formatting under one roof, then Scrivener is your go-to writing app. It is budget-friendly and also offers tones of writing templates.
Price: iOS $19.99, Windows or Mac at $49, Mac+Windows bundle $80 – One time
Who it’s for: Novel Writers, Researchers, Academics.
15. Ulysses
Are you tired of looking up various apps with different features and struggling with finding an all-in-one solution? Ulysses is a great writing app here to end your struggle.
It has everything you expect writing apps to have, from a built-in proofreader and editing assistant to an optimized publishing flow.
It also has colorful tags and icons to help you organize your work so that you can track your characters, story, and other critical details.
And best of all, switch from your Ulysses app to a PDF, Word, Kindle eBook format, and more with a click. Your work will be ready for a publisher’s eyes in an instant.
Price: $5.99 a month or $49.99 a year for iOS only.
Who it’s for: Writers and Apple users only.
Best writing apps for Screenwriters
16. Final draft
It’s a must-have screenwriting app if you’re a professional screenwriter or wish to be one.
Final Draft comes with a variety of industry-standard templates, along with some great collaboration features. You can use it to write stage plays, musicals, and graphic novels, as well as screenplays. And write simple text documents like query letters and outlines right on the app.
Smart auto-suggestions in the app help you format the work to industry standards for writing screenplays. Automatically compiling a list of characters & scene locations and auto save every three minutes makes your work easier.
There are several other features that will make this post too long. But Final Draft is worth its high price to achieve your dream of being a screenwriter.
Price: $199, one-time fee.
Who it’s for: Screenwriters.
17. Storyist
Want to stop worrying about rich formatting and giving a professional look to your work? Storyist includes all the right tools to make the job easy for screenwriters and other long-form writers.
It has a clean interface with tools for storyboarding, outlining, and building character sheets. It also has helpful exporting and importing options.
However, its biggest drawback is that there are no collaboration features and there are few templates or writing prompts.
But this app is a good option for professional screenwriters who wish to get the stories down fast.
Price: $59 for macOS and $19 for iOS.
Who it’s for: Screenwriters who are Apple users.
Writing apps for creating Outlines
18. Plottr
Want to be the next George R. R. Martin with intricate plots in your book? Then Plottr is the app for you. Use it to plan out your story, character arcs, and more.
It’s a visual outlining tool for writers in every field – from screenwriting to content marketing to academia.
This tool is different because it relies on visual tools and timelines to help you chart your long-form content.
You can rearrange your plots, scenes and character arcs with much ease.
Even better, it has over 30 starter templates for beginners and seasoned writers to play with.
And finally, it’s collaborative. Meaning you can access it via the web, share it with others, and save it on the cloud. For a specialized and modern outlining application, Plottr is a gamechanger. You can also check out some Plottr alternatives here.
Price: $25 for 1 device forever. Renew to get updates.
Who it’s for: Novelists and other long-form writers.
19. The Novel Factory
Do you find it difficult to keep track of your characters, plots, and more? You’ll stop worrying when you have The Novel Factory in your writing toolbox.
It provides you with features like outlining, creating characters, universe creation, word count tracking, and more.
It’s writing software that makes you a better writer. It enhances creative writing and will make you more productive. It helps you organize your novel, starting from the basic outline to the final draft.
Price: $75 a year for the basic package. You can also subscribe monthly for $7.50 a month.
Who it’s for: Writers and Novelists.
20. Squibler
Squibler’s strength is organization.
It lets you organize and browse your novel, screenplay, or research paper with chapters, corkboard organization, split screens, and more. It also allows you to move chapters with a easy drag and drop, eliminating the uncomfortable copy and paste way.
It also has a To-do list and project management set up, making it great for writers who need organization.
And you can use it to collaborate with others.
Price: $9.99 per month.
Who it’s for: Novelists, Screenplay writers, researchers.
21. Dynalist
Dynalist is a powerful idea-saving and note-taking app.
You can nest ideas infinitely. There are no limits to how many documents and items you can create. And you can link between ideas easily.
It appears to have a number of features like Roam and you can use it as a note-taker and an outline management tool.
Price: Free. Pro version is $9.99 a month.
Who it’s for: Thought leaders, story writers.
Other writing apps
22. Freedom
Freedom is the perfect app to block distractions such as social media, emails, and more while you’re writing. In fact, it’s for people who want extreme measure to avoid distractions.
It includes task scheduling and time management features to plan periods where you’ll have access to social media, the internet, or specific websites. And it’s available on all devices.
If you need access to a website during a writing session, just quit the app. But if that becomes a habit, use the Locked Mode. It’s where you can configure Freedom so it can’t be disabled no matter what you do. If you really need to end the session, you have to contact their support team.
Make this distraction management app a key tool to boost your writing productivity.
Price: $3.33 a month if paid yearly. And $95.99 for lifetime use.
Who it’s for: Everyone.
23. Dragon Anywhere
Why write when you can speak your book or blog into life?
Dragon Anywhere is a professional-grade dictation app that’s great for writers. It’s a mobile app and will need an internet connection to work. You speak into your device, and it’ll transcribe your speech to text.
There are plenty of dictation apps, but Dragon Anywhere shines because it’s highly accurate. And you can punctuate and format your content with voice commands. Add uncommon names and words so that Dragon Anywhere can recognize it and add it to your document without spelling mistakes.
You can also use it to dictate emails and open your files in Word and Evernote.
It’s a good investment if you get ideas on the go but can’t stop to write them down. It takes some time to learn how to use it well, but once you get used to it, you won’t drop the app.
Price: $15 a month.
Who it’s for: Everyone.
24. Day One
This app is described as ‘almost sacred: A completely private digital space.’ Making it a no-brainer choice for anyone who loves to journal.
It offers end-to-end encryption and has won awards for its user interface and design.
It’s available for all Apple devices and Android phones. You can add images, search previous memories using a timeline feature, and even go over your history by location.
It’s a beautiful app for anyone who loves journaling.
Price: Free for basic. $2.92 for audio recording, more devices, and unlimited media.
Who it’s for: Everyone.
25. Jasper – AI Writing Assitant
You can’t ignore AI writing tools today – not with ChatGPT 4 having millions of users around the world.
If you’re going to use an AI writing tool, then I recommend Jasper.
Jasper is a powerful AI writing assistant that has been around for a few years. It’s great for content writers, novelists, and marketers. It’s actually useful for anyone who depends on any kind of writing to work.
All you do is enter prompts like a blog title, a tone of voice, and a short description and Jasper will build you a whole blog post.
You can also generate poetry, haikus, story outlines, or even a proposal for a client.
I like Jasper because you can collaborate with other people on it. Not something you can do on ChatGPT.
So, make sure that you leverage the power of this AI writing tool if you want to speed up your writing.
Do you need a writing app?
Strictly speaking, you only need a personal computer and a word processor to start writing. However, today, writing isn’t a career where you sit in a room on your own, hunched over your work.
It’s a collaborative experience or job, and you’ll have to share your content with others, get feedback, make real-time edits, and talk to your audience with comments and social media posts.
Writing for the internet is different from how content was written decades ago. Modern tools help you write for a modern audience and enable you to collaborate with people.
The short answer is ‘Yes’, you do need writing apps to make your writing easier and to store, organize, share, and edit your content.
Looking for a free app for writing?
When it comes right down to it, the most comprehensive app that you can use that’s also free is Google Docs.
It lets you share, store, and collaborate with others. And it’s widely used by individuals and businesses alike.
So, if you’re looking for the best free writing app, then Google Docs is probably your best bet.
What is the best app for a writer?
The answer to this question depends on what you need and want in a writing app. If you need something simple and user-friendly, then Google Docs or Evernote might be the best option for you.
If you need an app with more features, such as project organization and visual idea mapping, then Scrivener or Ulysses might be a better fit.
Ultimately, the best writing app for you is the one that meets your specific needs and helps you get your work done.
Change your writing game with the best writing app
No matter what your writing needs are, there’s an app out there that can help you meet them. The key to choosing the best writing app for your needs is to have clear goals.
Do you want to write an intricate plot? Or do you need a collaborative tool? When you have clear goals and workflows, choosing the right app becomes easy.
I’ve laid out several best writing apps to up your game and help you achieve your goals. So, pick the right one today, and you’ll build a high-traffic blog or novel.
