With an endless amount of writing apps available on the Internet, it can be difficult to choose one. One of the best ways to reduce the headache of finding an efficient writing app is by using a free app and realizing it isn’t efficient at all. It’s not something anyone likes to do, but wasting some time and learning from your mistakes is the easiest route to better writing apps.
Check out this post which includes great apps that can help you with your next piece of writing from blogging, novel writing, poetry, essays, screenplays and more.
Scrivener
Price: $49
Scrivener is a writing tool aimed at anyone working on a long document. It could be a novel, an essay, a pillar article, or a lengthy blog post.
The main purpose of Scrivener is to help you organize your writing process, research and notes, and to “see the forest for the trees” as suits you at any given moment.
It can fully replace your regular word processor. If you have massive amounts of information to organize, this is a great tool to help you do it.
Pros:
- You will not have to waste time jumping around inside documents or back and forth between them in search of specific sections. Zooming in on the details or out to see the big picture is unbelievably easy.
- Break down long texts into small sections or edit the whole document–you have complete control.
- Integrated outlining and side-by-side document viewing make consistency checks a breeze.
- Track progress toward your writing goals, and accomplish them more quickly.
Cons:
- You can use Scrivener on Windows, iOS or macOS—but seriously, why is there no Android app?
- This writing software isn’t exactly fast. In fact, sometimes it lags while you’re typing. Super annoying.
Best For:
You will find Scrivener most useful if you’re working on long documents—especially multiple long documents simultaneously.
Novel-writers will probably glean the most value from Scrivener.
But if you’re working on essays or pillar posts—especially if they are part of a series—the organizing tools Scrivener offers should make it easy to visualize and manage your writing and edits.
Click here to check it out!
Sometimes we just run out of ideas for what to blog about. Answer the Public is a free keyword research tool that shows the questions people are typing into search engines about your topic. It’s perfect for when you’re facing writer’s block. Check out AnswerthePublic here.
The CoSchedule headline analyzer app evaluates how well your blog post’s headline will rank in search engines. It also scores how effectively your headline will result in social shares and click-throughs. The headline analyzer is a fantastic way to hone your copywriting skills and make sure your headlines are irresistible. Check out the Headline Analyzer here.
Write!
Price: $24.95 (one-time fee)
Scrivener is a great choice if you’re looking for bells and whistles. But the most elaborate writing tools and apps are not necessarily the best productivity tools. What if you want something more minimalist for your writing projects?
Consider Write!
The whole point of Write! is to help you concentrate. That means the interface is bare bones simple—no clutter, no distractions.
But even with its elegant, distraction-free interface, Write! still offers all the functionality you need in a word processor.
Pros:
- Write! offers a dark theme – yes! Not only is this easier on the eyes, but it also helps me concentrate.
- Save your work directly to the Cloud. If you jump from one device to another on a regular basis, you can say goodbye to USB drives, Google Docs, emailing yourself documents, and other hassles. Your work will be there waiting for you.
- You only need to pay a one-time fee for permanent access to Write! So many tools require subscriptions, making this a refreshing exception to the rule.
Cons:
- For some users, Write! could be a little bit too minimalist. If you’re looking to see dense information on your screen while you work, you will need a different app.
Best For:
If you feel like Scrivener and other online writing tools are deluging your brain in information overload, Write! Is the simple app that will let you take a deep breath, focus, and really immerse yourself in your writing process.
Click here to take a look!
Storyist
Price: $59 for macOS, $19 for iOS
Are you an Apple user who is looking for an additional option that is similar to Scrivener?
Storyist is another of the top writing tools aimed at novelists.
Like Scrivener, Storyist is not a minimalist, distraction-free program. It is packed with features, and can show you a lot of information on one screen.
It offers an all-in-one interface for planning and composing.
Pros:
- Templates for screenplays and manuscripts are already loaded in and ready to go. That way, you can be totally in the zone with composition and let the formatting effortlessly take care of itself.
- You have planning and composition tools all in one place, helping you stay organized and produce consistent content.
- It is hard to argue with the price, especially for the iOS version.
Cons:
- If you’ren’t an Apple user, you cannot use Storyist. You will need to go with Scrivener or another option.
Best For:
This is one of the best writing tools for novelists on Apple devices. But we imagine content writers and bloggers working on long post series may also find it helpful for organizing their work.
This is by far the most recommended Scrivener alternative.
Grammarly
Price: $30/month ($12/month if you pay annually)
Grammarly is without a doubt one of the most popular online writing tools around.
The company offers a free grammar checker that you can add as an extension to your browser.
You can use it while you’re composing emails, posting on social media, or working on projects in Slack, Asana, and other project management platforms.
But if you want to unlock the full power of Grammarly, you will need to purchase a premium subscription.
It will cost less and probably save you a few bottles of wine per year for your editorial processes 😉
When you log in, you can get twice as many corrections for grammar mistakes and other writing errors.
Pros:
- Type in real-time into Grammarly or compose elsewhere and paste your text in later. Grammarly makes pasting your work fast and painless compared to other apps. How so? It doesn’t add any extra spacing!
- You can specify the exact style you want by setting goals for tone, domain, audience and formality. Grammarly tailors its recommendations to your needs rather than trying to offer one-size-fits-all suggestions.
The best part? If you’re working with a team, this makes it a handy tool for getting yourself, fellow writers, clients, or other teammates on the same page regarding tone and voice.
It removes ambiguity from discussions about style by using specific rules based on your goal selections.
You’ll have no more worries about unintentional plagiarism. This writing app checks 16 billion pages, so you can be sure you’re in the clear.
Cons:
There are some things Grammarly is overzealous about.
For example, in an effort to stop you from re-using the same word too often, it will sometimes throw completely irrelevant and inappropriate replacement word recommendations your way.
You will spend a lot of time clicking through and dismissing irrelevant suggestions.
Grammarly also goes overboard regarding the passive voice in situations where it is not appropriate. An example would be when you’re listing technical specs for products.
Best For:
Grammarly does fine as a grammar checker.
Where it really shines is when it comes to defining and checking style.
It is an ideal writing tool to facilitate teamwork. I also can’t recommend it enough if you’re tired of removing extra spaces when pasting into online writing tools from Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
Frase
Price: $44.99 monthly for individual plan, $114.99 monthly for team plan
There are a number of online writing tools that are popular for SEO right now.
The best-known is probably Surfer, which we’ll cover next.
But my favorite writing tool when I want to create content is Frase.
I feel it easily trumps Surfer, Topic, and every other SEO optimization tool I have tried for writing blog posts and other content.
What sets Frase apart?
Pros:
- Tired of SEO writing apps that throw barely relevant or single-word keywords at you, cluttering the optimization process? Frase does a great job suggesting highly relevant long-tail keywords, and also makes it fast and easy to delete those that don’t make the cut.
- Frase makes it ridiculously easy to view the context of its recommended keywords, headings and questions. That way, you understand the reasons for its suggestions, and you can save time building context around keywords you want to work into your content.
- Frase seems to score content pretty accurately. It doesn’t ding your score because you used a common word more than an exact, arbitrary number of times.
- Get this–Surfer is $59 a month. Frase is actually cheaper without the SEO add-on–and I’m convinced it is the superior tool.
Cons:
- The biggest weakness of Frase is that you do need to purchase the SEO add-on feature separately if you want to use it. This does raise the cost significantly. So, you will need to be prepared for that before you take the plunge.
Best For:
This app is a fantastic choice if you’re in search of something that makes it a breeze to put together an outline for your content and compose a great article.
When you first glimpse the interface, you might feel a little overwhelmed. But trust me – once you learn the ropes, you should find this app more intuitive than others you’re using.
Surfer SEO
Price: $59/month
The most popular tool for content writers working on articles right now is probably Surfer SEO. If you build websites or you write for anyone who does, by now someone has probably at least asked you if you know how to use Surfer.
The way this tool works is similar to Frase or Topic. You can work in the interface Surfer provides, or you can use an extension in your browser to write with Surfer in Google Docs.
Pros:
- Surfer’s user interface is intuitive and easy to learn. You can see at a glance how optimized your text is with respect to length, headings, keywords, and more.
- So many people are using Surfer right now. If you write content for a living, learning to use this tool may make you more hirable.
Cons:
- Surfer’s user interface reports “connection lost” a lot when I work on it. When this happens, the work I just input disappears, and I have to redo it. If you type for a living, this is not awesome.
- A lot of the keyword suggestions are either irrelevant and/or standalone common words. If you do not use them the exact number of times Surfer specifies, it lowers your score. Taking all its recommendations literally can result in some unnatural-sounding text.
Best For:
If you want an SEO writing tool that is easy to use, this is probably the most straightforward one to learn.
Click here to sign up for a free account!
Conclusion
When we do anything, we make use of tools and apps to help us. If you are a writer and you write for a living, you will agree with me that the best way to start your writing session is by using great writing tool apps. These apps will help you out!