Ulysses: Writing App

Write a novel, story, book

Free · In‑App Purchases

2.1K Ratings
Awards

Editors’ Choice

Apps
Age Rating

4+
Years
Category

Productivity
Developer

Ulysses GmbH & Co. KG
Language

EN
+ 11 More
Size

353.1
MB

Ulysses is your one-stop writing environment for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Its pleasant, focused writing experience, combined with effective document management, seamless sync, and flexible export, make Ulysses the first choice for writers of all kinds. ++ Apple Design Award Winner ++ “The app is amazing. An absolute delight to use. Well done.” – David Hewson, Bestselling Author (The Killing) ### A Text Production Powerhouse Ulysses’ markup-based, distraction-free editor lets you focus on your most important task: Write, edit, and write some more. Formatting is kept for later, so you can completely immerse yourself in the text. Ulysses’ uniquely streamlined toolset covers the entire writing process, and its clean and simple interface will boost your productivity. From first to final draft, from prologue to closing chapter – Ulysses keeps you in the flow, so you can get stuff done. ### All Your Texts, All the Time Everything you’ll ever write is stored in Ulysses’ unified library. You can manage projects of all kinds and sizes, be it novels, diaries or study notes – they are always saved, and automatically in sync. And since Ulysses offers feature parity across macOS and iOS, it doesn’t matter where you are or when inspiration hits: All its tools, and all your texts, are always at your fingertips. ### Built-In Proofreader and Editing Assistant Write with confidence, thanks to Ulysses’ integrated grammar and style check. Available for over 20 languages, it analyzes your text and offers informed suggestions for capitalization, punctuation, semantics, redundancy, style and more. ### Create eBooks, DOCX, PDFs and HTML Ulysses’ export is flexible enough to cover any writer’s needs: Transform your text into beautiful PDFs, Word documents or eBooks. Or export HTML code, ready to be used anywhere on the web. You can even choose between a variety of pre-made formatting styles for all kinds of purposes, or create your own and share it with other users. ### Publish to WordPress, Ghost, Substack & More Do you blog? Ulysses’ offers best-in-class publishing to WordPress, Ghost, and Micro.blog. You can post to WordPress, Ghost and Micro.blog from right within the app – complete with images, tags, categories etc. All offer a built-in preview to proofread before submission. Ulysses also supports copy paste publishing to Substack and Basecamp. ### Pricing Ulysses requires a subscription. We offer monthly and yearly subscription plans. They include a fully functional trial, so you can test Ulysses (including export and sync). There’s also a special discount for students. All plans unlock the app on Mac, iPhone and iPad, and feature full synchronization. ### Questions Please visit ulysses.app for more information. You can also reach us via help@ulysses.app or on Twitter @ulyssesapp – we’re happily awaiting your feedback! Terms of Use: https://ulysses.app/app-terms-of-service Privacy Policy: https://ulysses.app/app-privacy-policy

Ratings & Reviews

4.6

out of 5

2.1K Ratings

Editors’ Choice

Focus on your prose with Ulysses’ distraction-free editor and character, word, and page goals, then organize your documents using keywords and document groups. With built-in blog publishing, grammar and style checkers, and Shortcuts support, this can be your do-everything writing app.
End game for novelists
Jul 14
IntrovertusMaximus
I think I have tried virtually every all-in-one writing app oriented at people who do big writing projects like books. Scrivener, Zettlr, Atlas, etc. Ulysses beats them all, for me. It is the perfect blend of feature-rich, well-designed UI, and minimalist, streamlined writing. Every time I think another app can do it better (or cheaper) than Ulysses, I find myself crawling back and falling in love with it all over again. Writing with it is just so smooth, I never have to think about saving or doing backups, and writing on mobile is just as delightful. No other app does exporting as easily or beautifully as Ulysses. There is a bit of a learning curve when you first use it, but once you get over that hump, it's all smooth sailing. I've been using it for almost three years now, and I plan to continue for the foreseeable future. I'll admit, I do wish there was a way to hide the markdown since I really don't like seeing it (or seeing the unsightly spaces when you use a theme that semi-hides it) but that's a very small gripe in the grand scheme of things. The pricing is also a bit steep, but again, there's just nothing else on the market like this, and the developers have done a very good job keeping it lightweight and polished for long-term use. The only thing that would make me seriously reconsider using it is if there was a subscription price increase.If you're reading this, Ulysses devs, thank you so much for the app. It's become a daily driver for me, and I would cry if it was discontinued at some point.

Developer Response
First of all, thank you so much for this kind review. We're really glad to hear that Ulysses fits your writing so well and that it beats the competition for you. It especially means a lot that you called out the minimalist UI and the features — that's exactly what our small team pours its energy into every day. On hiding the markup in the editor: I've forwarded your request to the team. In the meantime, are you currently using a theme that shows the markup fairly prominently? If you'd like something closer to a clean, WYSIWYG feel, the theme "Barely There" minimizes the markup nicely. It's free at styles.ulysses.app. On pricing: totally fair to bring up, and I'd love to understand it a bit better. Ulysses works out to about 10 cents a day, so I'm curious whether it's the amount itself that feels like a lot, or more that subscriptions in general add up once you're juggling several. If it's the latter, it might be worth checking out Setapp, Ulysses is part of that bundle, so it could be a good way to get more value across the subscriptions you're already paying for. We also offer a discount for students and academic staff, so if you're eligible, it's worth applying. Behind the app is a small European team who build every feature you enjoy and are paid fairly for their work, and we set the price hoping people who use Ulysses daily, like you, would find it a fair trade. That said, if there's anything specific that would make it feel more worth it, I'd genuinely like to hear it, feel free to reach out anytime at help@ulysses.app.
End game for novelists
Jul 14
IntrovertusMaximus

I think I have tried virtually every all-in-one writing app oriented at people who do big writing projects like books. Scrivener, Zettlr, Atlas, etc. Ulysses beats them all, for me. It is the perfect blend of feature-rich, well-designed UI, and minimalist, streamlined writing. Every time I think another app can do it better (or cheaper) than Ulysses, I find myself crawling back and falling in love with it all over again. Writing with it is just so smooth, I never have to think about saving or doing backups, and writing on mobile is just as delightful. No other app does exporting as easily or beautifully as Ulysses. There is a bit of a learning curve when you first use it, but once you get over that hump, it's all smooth sailing. I've been using it for almost three years now, and I plan to continue for the foreseeable future. I'll admit, I do wish there was a way to hide the markdown since I really don't like seeing it (or seeing the unsightly spaces when you use a theme that semi-hides it) but that's a very small gripe in the grand scheme of things. The pricing is also a bit steep, but again, there's just nothing else on the market like this, and the developers have done a very good job keeping it lightweight and polished for long-term use. The only thing that would make me seriously reconsider using it is if there was a subscription price increase.If you're reading this, Ulysses devs, thank you so much for the app. It's become a daily driver for me, and I would cry if it was discontinued at some point.
Developer Response Jul 15
First of all, thank you so much for this kind review. We're really glad to hear that Ulysses fits your writing so well and that it beats the competition for you. It especially means a lot that you called out the minimalist UI and the features — that's exactly what our small team pours its energy into every day. On hiding the markup in the editor: I've forwarded your request to the team. In the meantime, are you currently using a theme that shows the markup fairly prominently? If you'd like something closer to a clean, WYSIWYG feel, the theme "Barely There" minimizes the markup nicely. It's free at styles.ulysses.app. On pricing: totally fair to bring up, and I'd love to understand it a bit better. Ulysses works out to about 10 cents a day, so I'm curious whether it's the amount itself that feels like a lot, or more that subscriptions in general add up once you're juggling several. If it's the latter, it might be worth checking out Setapp, Ulysses is part of that bundle, so it could be a good way to get more value across the subscriptions you're already paying for. We also offer a discount for students and academic staff, so if you're eligible, it's worth applying. Behind the app is a small European team who build every feature you enjoy and are paid fairly for their work, and we set the price hoping people who use Ulysses daily, like you, would find it a fair trade. That said, if there's anything specific that would make it feel more worth it, I'd genuinely like to hear it, feel free to reach out anytime at help@ulysses.app.
Version 29 makes a world-class app even better
12/21/2022
junggai
I have been using Ulysses now for seven years as the primary tool for preparing scholarly articles, conference papers, books, and research notes. It is so far superior to any other writing and research organization app that there's no comparison. The familiar features – the zen-like writing mode, the progress bar – have markedly improved how I work. And since all my writing lives in one easy-to-organize space, when I have to prepare a new talk or magazine article based on research I've done years ago (a frequent task for academics), it's very easy to call up everything I've written before on the topic. And for those who have never used a progress tracker for writing, it is hard to express how motivating it is to see Ulysses' circles fill up and then turn green as you write away. One less obvious benefit of this is for presentations with a hard time limit; once you know how many words you typically speak per minute, it becomes very easy to gauge how long the entire text should be. Ulysses also allows you to set word counts for each individual section. Since using this app, my conference papers have not only never gone over time, but the proportions are always very easy to manage.So much for classic Ulysses. Version 19 gave us a feature I didn't realize how much I needed until it was there: Projects. At the moment I'm working on several books and book-length manuscripts. This new feature makes it easier, more streamlined, and even more motivating to organize large, multi-section texts. I take every chance I get to recommend this app to anyone I know who writes for a living.

Developer Response
We would like to thank you for your detailed review and for the time you have taken to write it. We are happy to hear that you have been using our app for a long time now. Your opinion of our features of Ulysses is extremely valuable to us and we are thrilled that you like them — especially projects! If you ever have any questions or feature requests, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us directly via help@ulysses.app. Happy writing! — Kayla
Version 29 makes a world-class app even better
12/21/2022
junggai

I have been using Ulysses now for seven years as the primary tool for preparing scholarly articles, conference papers, books, and research notes. It is so far superior to any other writing and research organization app that there's no comparison. The familiar features – the zen-like writing mode, the progress bar – have markedly improved how I work. And since all my writing lives in one easy-to-organize space, when I have to prepare a new talk or magazine article based on research I've done years ago (a frequent task for academics), it's very easy to call up everything I've written before on the topic. And for those who have never used a progress tracker for writing, it is hard to express how motivating it is to see Ulysses' circles fill up and then turn green as you write away. One less obvious benefit of this is for presentations with a hard time limit; once you know how many words you typically speak per minute, it becomes very easy to gauge how long the entire text should be. Ulysses also allows you to set word counts for each individual section. Since using this app, my conference papers have not only never gone over time, but the proportions are always very easy to manage.So much for classic Ulysses. Version 19 gave us a feature I didn't realize how much I needed until it was there: Projects. At the moment I'm working on several books and book-length manuscripts. This new feature makes it easier, more streamlined, and even more motivating to organize large, multi-section texts. I take every chance I get to recommend this app to anyone I know who writes for a living.
Developer Response 06/06/2023
We would like to thank you for your detailed review and for the time you have taken to write it. We are happy to hear that you have been using our app for a long time now. Your opinion of our features of Ulysses is extremely valuable to us and we are thrilled that you like them — especially projects! If you ever have any questions or feature requests, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us directly via help@ulysses.app. Happy writing! — Kayla
An Elegant Alternative to Scrivener
04/28/2020
Slade Roberson
I use Ulysses for writing ficiton. I was a Scrivener user for years. It's a powerful program that reminds me in some ways of Photoshop - incredibly powerful yet complex in ways I often never get around to using. The #1 reason I choose to write in Ulysses is the ability to sync and access my Ulysses projects from all my Mac devices - iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro. This is where Scrivener falls apart - their iPad app is a different program, and syncing across multiple devices requires third party programs and platforms ... and then it still doesn't work that great. I can write anywhere, anytime. My other favorite feature is being able to write in Markdown -- so with two keyboard clicks, I can leave inline notes to myself within the text that do not export to the finished document and don't exist in a sidebar. The simplicity of the design in relationship to the variety of function is great. Two feature requests - I still use Pacemaker for project wordcount setting and goal keeping. I'd love it if Ulysses' in app goal setting features were so robust. I also wish the color coding on keywords was more saturated/ high contrast, and that colors could be assigned to elements in the Library.
An Elegant Alternative to Scrivener
04/28/2020
Slade Roberson

I use Ulysses for writing ficiton. I was a Scrivener user for years. It's a powerful program that reminds me in some ways of Photoshop - incredibly powerful yet complex in ways I often never get around to using. The #1 reason I choose to write in Ulysses is the ability to sync and access my Ulysses projects from all my Mac devices - iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro. This is where Scrivener falls apart - their iPad app is a different program, and syncing across multiple devices requires third party programs and platforms ... and then it still doesn't work that great. I can write anywhere, anytime. My other favorite feature is being able to write in Markdown -- so with two keyboard clicks, I can leave inline notes to myself within the text that do not export to the finished document and don't exist in a sidebar. The simplicity of the design in relationship to the variety of function is great. Two feature requests - I still use Pacemaker for project wordcount setting and goal keeping. I'd love it if Ulysses' in app goal setting features were so robust. I also wish the color coding on keywords was more saturated/ high contrast, and that colors could be assigned to elements in the Library.

We improved the app’s stability and fixed a couple of issues. If you're happy with the app, please rate it, or even leave a review. This is a great way to support us indie developers. Thanks a lot!

Version 40.2 Jul 13

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Information

Seller: Ulysses GmbH & Co. KG
Size: 353.1 MB
Category: Productivity
Compatibility: Requires iOS 18.6 or later.

iPhone
Requires iOS 18.6 or later.

iPad
Requires iPadOS 18.6 or later.

Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later.
Languages: English and 11 more

English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
Age Rating: 4+

4+

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In-App Purchases: Yes

Monthly Plan $5.99

Yearly Plan $39.99

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Student Offer $10.99

Yearly Plan $39.99

Yearly Plan $39.99

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Copyright: © 2026 Ulysses GmbH & Co. KG

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