Five writing apps, two books, and the one I still pay for every year.

In October 2024 I lost three thousand words of a client white paper because Google Docs glitched during a train ride through rural Austria. The wifi dropped, the sync failed, and when I reconnected my carefully crafted conclusion had vanished into an earlier autosave. I had to rewrite it from memory on a bench in Salzburg while my coffee went cold. That afternoon I started looking for writing software that did not depend on a cloud connection.

I have since drafted two short books and roughly forty freelance articles across five different writing apps. Most of them were fine. Two of them were genuinely great. One was actively bad for my workflow. This article is the honest breakdown of what worked, what did not, and what I recommend depending on what you actually write.

I am not going to pretend there is a single best app for every writer. If you write social media posts, you do not need the same tool as someone writing a seventy-thousand-word novel. I will walk through Scrivener, Ulysses, Google Docs, and Notion, explain what each one is best at, and tell you when to ignore all of them and just use a plain text file instead.

Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy through one, I get a small commission at no cost to you. I only link things I actually use, or things I’d recommend to a friend who wasn’t clicking anything.

What freelance writers need from software

The mistake I made at the start was thinking that more features meant better writing. I tried an app with a built-in thesaurus, a mind map mode, and a daily word-count widget that played a piano sound when I hit my goal. I spent more time configuring the piano sound than I did writing. The tool became a toy.

What I actually need is simple. A place to write that does not crash. A way to organize research notes without opening seventeen browser tabs. An export function that does not destroy my formatting when I hand the draft to a client. And an interface quiet enough that I forget it is there.

Freelance writing has three modes, and each mode needs something slightly different. Mode one is the rough draft. You want a blank screen, fast typing response, and no notifications. Mode two is the edit. You want version history, comments, and the ability to move big blocks of text around without breaking formatting. Mode three is the handoff. You need to export to Word, PDF, or a CMS without the headers exploding into giant fonts.

Google Docs handles modes two and three beautifully. It falls apart in mode one because the interface is cluttered and the browser itself is a distraction machine. Scrivener handles mode one and three for long projects but struggles with collaboration. Ulysses handles mode one and two for Apple users but locks you out of Windows entirely. Notion tries to handle all three and ends up being mediocre at the actual writing part.

Scrivener: the long-form powerhouse

I bought Scrivener in November 2024 after the Salzburg incident. It costs $59.99 for a single-platform license or $95.98 for both Mac and Windows. There is no subscription, which already makes it an outlier in a world of monthly SaaS bills.

Scrivener is built for people who write books, scripts, or research-heavy reports. The interface looks intimidating at first. There is a binder on the left, an inspector on the right, and a toolbar with more buttons than a spaceship. I almost gave up during the first hour. Then I watched one tutorial video, ignored everything except the binder and the composition mode, and fell in love.

The binder is the killer feature. You drag and drop sections, chapters, and research notes in a sidebar tree. I wrote my first book by breaking it into thirty micro-chapters, each around two thousand words. If I got stuck on chapter twelve, I clicked on chapter twenty-three and wrote that instead. When the draft was done, I hit compile and Scrivener spat out a formatted EPUB in about twelve seconds. I had previously spent a full day formatting the same manuscript in Word.

The corkboard mode is also useful for freelancers doing white papers or case studies. You pin index cards to a virtual board, rearrange them until the structure makes sense, and then write inside each one. It is the digital equivalent of spreading paper across a living room floor, except your dog cannot eat the outline.

The downsides are real. The iOS version is slow and buggy. I stopped using it after two weeks because sync conflicts drove me insane. The interface is not native to any operating system, which means it looks slightly off on both Mac and Windows. And the learning curve is steep enough that some writers will never get past it.

If you write anything book-length, Scrivener is worth the pain. If you only write articles and emails, you do not need it. I use it for books and long client reports. I do not open it for blog posts.

Ulysses: the Apple-only perfectionist

Ulysses is the most beautiful writing app I have ever used. It is also the most restrictive. It only runs on Apple devices, which means Mac, iPad, and iPhone. There is no Windows version, no web app, and no Android client. If you live outside the Apple garden, you cannot even try it.

It costs $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year via the App Store. That makes it more expensive than Scrivener over time, though still cheaper than most subscriptions freelancers pay for without thinking.

What Ulysses gets right is focus. The interface is a sheet of blank paper with a sidebar you can hide. It supports Markdown, which means you format with simple characters instead of hunting for buttons. I write almost all of my blog posts in Ulysses now because the Markdown export is flawless and I can send a clean HTML file straight to my client without opening a converter.

The export options are the best in the business. You can publish directly to WordPress, Medium, and Ghost with formatting intact. You can export to PDF, EPUB, DOCX, and HTML with custom stylesheets. I once exported a twelve-thousand-word article to WordPress in under a minute and the subheadings, bold text, and links all landed perfectly.

The iPad version is genuinely great. I wrote a third of my second book on an iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard in a cafe in Porto. The sync is instant and reliable in a way Scrivener never achieved. I opened the app, saw my current chapter, and kept writing. That sounds like a low bar, but after years of sync anxiety it felt luxurious.

The problems are predictable. No native Windows support means I cannot recommend it to most of my freelance colleagues. The yearly subscription adds up if you do not write consistently. And the library structure, while elegant, forces you to organize everything inside Ulysses rather than in your own filesystem. I am fine with that tradeoff, but some writers want to own their files.

If you are deep in the Apple ecosystem and you write primarily in Markdown, Ulysses is the best money I spend on software every year. I have recommended it to three writer friends. All three still use it.

Google Docs: the collaboration default

I do not need to explain Google Docs to you. You have used it. It is free, it runs in a browser, and every client on earth knows how to share a link to a Google Doc. I still use it for roughly half my freelance work because the comment system and real-time collaboration are unmatched.

The problem is that Google Docs is not built for deep focus. The browser tab invites you to check email. The toolbar is busy. The offline mode works until it does not, which is exactly when you need it most, as I learned on that Austrian train.

I use Google Docs when a client insists on it, when I need live collaboration with an editor, or when the project is short enough that distraction does not matter. For everything else, I draft in Ulysses or Scrivener and then paste the final text into Docs for comments. That workflow adds one step but saves me hours of attention.

One genuine advantage: version history is excellent. You can see every change across the document’s entire life, restore earlier versions, and name specific drafts. Ulysses has version history too, but Google Docs makes it easier to browse. Scrivener requires snapshots, which are powerful but clunky.

If you are a freelance writer who only works with clients through Google Docs, you do not need another app. But if you find yourself losing focus in the browser, consider drafting elsewhere and treating Docs as a delivery layer rather than a workspace.

Notion: the all-in-one that forgot about writing

I tried Notion as a writing workspace for three months in early 2025 because my project manager used it for everything. Notion is an incredible database, a decent task manager, and a mediocre word processor. I would not recommend it for serious drafting.

The block-based editor is slow on large documents. I pasted a ten-thousand-word draft into Notion and the typing lag became noticeable after about six thousand words. The page load time was also worse than native apps. On a slow connection in a hotel lobby in Barcelona, I waited eleven seconds for a chapter to open.

Where Notion shines is research organization. I now keep a Notion database of article ideas, source links, and interview transcripts. When it is time to write, I export the notes to Ulysses and draft there. Notion is my filing cabinet, not my desk.

If you already live in Notion for project management, you can write short pieces inside it. For anything longer than two thousand words, the experience degrades. I have not paid for Notion because the free tier handles my research needs. I would not upgrade just for writing.

The free option most people ignore: plain text and a good folder system

Before you spend money on any of these apps, ask yourself if you actually need them. For a full year I wrote everything in iA Writer, a $29.99 plain-text editor that is little more than a white screen and a keyboard. It handled every blog post, every client email, and every book chapter until I outgrew the lack of project management.

iA Writer is available on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. It syncs through iCloud or Dropbox. It has a focus mode that grays out everything except the current sentence, which sounds gimmicky until you try it. I wrote some of my cleanest prose in that focus mode because I could not see the mess I had already made.

For two weeks in late 2024 I forced myself to write every article in iA Writer before moving it anywhere else. The result was a twenty-percent increase in my daily word counts because I was not tempted to edit while I drafted. The separation of writing and editing into different apps turned out to be a productivity hack I had been missing for years.

Even iA Writer might be overkill. A free plain-text file in a Dropbox folder, organized by date, has handled the writing workflow of countless professionals for decades. The tool is never the bottleneck. The thinking is.

Who should keep using Google Docs for everything

If you write under a thousand words per piece, collaborate constantly with non-technical clients, and do not care about offline access, Google Docs is already perfect. You do not need Scrivener’s binder or Ulysses’ export pipeline. You need a shareable link and a comment thread. That is fine. Most freelance writing is shorter than people think.

The writers who should upgrade are the ones who feel a specific pain. If you lose work to cloud sync failures, you need offline-first software. If you spend a full day formatting a manuscript, you need Scrivener’s compile feature. If you write on an iPad and a Mac and need them to stay in sync, Ulysses is worth the subscription. If none of those pains sound familiar, do not buy anything yet.

How writing software fits into the freelancer toolkit

Your writing app does not exist in isolation. It connects to your research tools, your project management, and your client delivery pipeline. I covered project management software in my guide to the best project management tools for freelancers because the app that organizes your deadlines should talk to the app that handles your drafts.

If you bill by the hour, you also need to know how long each writing phase takes. I reviewed the best time tracking software for freelancers because guessing your hours leads to undercharging, and writing projects are especially easy to underestimate.

And when the draft is done, you need a clean way to get paid. My review of the best invoicing software for freelancers covers the tools that turn finished words into deposited money without the awkward follow-up emails.

Questions freelance writers ask about writing software

Do I need special writing software if I already use Google Docs?

Google Docs is enough for most freelance work. You only need a dedicated writing app if you write long-form projects like books, white papers, or research-heavy articles where you need offline access, advanced organization, or distraction-free focus modes.

Is Scrivener worth the learning curve?

If you write anything longer than ten thousand words, yes. The binder structure and compile features save hours of formatting time. If you only write short blog posts or emails, Scrivener is overkill and Google Docs will serve you better.

Can I use Ulysses on Windows or Android?

No. Ulysses is Apple-only. It runs on macOS, iPadOS, and iOS. If you work on Windows or need to switch devices often, Ulysses will lock you into the Apple ecosystem.

Which writing app has the best export and publishing workflow?

Ulysses has the best native publishing integration. You can export directly to WordPress, Medium, and Ghost with formatting intact. Scrivener excels at exporting to EPUB and PDF for books. Notion exports are clean but basic.

Will these apps work offline?

Scrivener and Ulysses work fully offline. Google Docs and Notion have offline modes, but they are limited and you need to configure them in advance. If you travel often or have unreliable internet, prioritize a native desktop app.

Pick the tool that disappears while you work

I spent too long searching for the perfect writing app and not enough time actually writing. The app does not matter until it breaks. What matters is the sentence on the screen. Scrivener, Ulysses, Google Docs, and even a blank text file will all handle that sentence if you show up to type it.

My recommendation is simple. Start with what you have. When a specific pain becomes unbearable, upgrade to the tool that fixes it. I bought Scrivener because I needed better organization for a book. I subscribed to Ulysses because I wanted clean Markdown exports. I kept Google Docs because clients demand it. Each purchase solved a problem. None of them made me a better writer. They just removed the friction that was stopping me from working.

Start writing. Fix the tools later.