Ulysses Writing App Review: A Powerful, Distraction-Free Writing Environment for Serious Writers

Ulysses is a professional writing app for Apple devices designed to provide a focused, feature-rich, and distraction-free environment for writers. Whether you‘re working on blog posts, articles, novels, scripts, or any long-form writing project, Ulysses aims to provide all the tools you need in a single, streamlined interface optimized for productivity.

I‘ve been using Ulysses as my primary writing app for over two years. As a writer whose work includes long-form content like software tutorials, ebooks, and in-depth articles, I‘ve found Ulysses to be an invaluable tool that helps me stay organized and productive. In this comprehensive review, I‘ll walk through my experience with the app and help you determine if it‘s the right writing tool for you.

Availability and Pricing

First, let‘s cover the basics. Ulysses is available exclusively for Apple devices including MacOS, iPhone and iPad. There are no Windows or Android versions available. For Apple users, this tight integration with the platform is an advantage, enabling features like iCloud sync, Handoff, and native OS integrations. But the lack of cross-platform support will understandably be a dealbreaker for some.

Ulysses uses a subscription-based pricing model. It costs $5.99/month or $49.99/year, and a single subscription unlocks the app across all your connected devices. Ulysses previously offered a one-time purchase option, but switched to subscription-only in 2017.

The move was controversial among some users. Critics argue that subscription pricing for a writing app is unjustified and that you shouldn‘t have to keep paying for an app you‘ve already bought. Ulysses‘ counterargument is that subscriptions enable faster development and more resources to keep the app updated and constantly improving. They also note that the subscription includes all future updates.

Ultimately, whether the subscription pricing works for you comes down to how much value Ulysses provides for your writing workflow. Personally, as a professional writer, I‘ve found the price justifiable for how integral Ulysses has become in my daily work. But I empathize with users who prefer one-time purchases.

If you‘re on the fence, Ulysses does offer a fully-featured 14-day free trial through the Mac App Store and iOS App Store. I recommend taking advantage of the trial period to test if the app is right for you before subscribing.

Distraction-Free Writing Environment

The heart of Ulysses is its clean, minimal and distraction-free writing interface. When you open the app and start a new sheet, you‘re greeted with a simple blank canvas, with all the menus and options neatly tucked away.

As you begin typing, Ulysses keeps you focused on your words and ideas, not menu bars, formatting options, and other clutter that can sidetrack your writing flow. In my experience, this clean environment does wonders for helping me get into a state of flow and bang out a rough draft.

But under this minimal exterior, there are a wealth of powerful writing and organization tools a single tap, click, or keyboard shortcut away. Let‘s walk through some of the key features…

Markup-Based Formatting with Markdown XL

Ulysses uses a system called Markdown XL for applying formatting and structure to your documents. Markdown is a lightweight set of formatting codes you can apply as you write to indicate where you want formatting like bold text, headers, links, and more.

For example, to make a word bold, you put two asterisks on either side of it, like this. To make a level one header, you start the line with a single #, and ## for a level two header. Links are added by putting the linked text in square brackets followed by the URL in parenthesis.

This markup language means you can apply formatting without ever taking your hands off the keyboard or interrupting your writing flow. Ulysses also puts a handy Markdown cheat sheet in the right sidebar if you forget a code.

As someone who writes for the web, I love using Markdown because it maps perfectly to HTML. But even if you‘ve never used Markdown before, the syntax is intuitive and quick to learn. After writing in Ulysses for a few days, using Markdown became second nature.

Keeping Organized with Groups, Filters and Keywords

Another area where Ulysses shines is its organization tools. The left sidebar allows you to organize your writing into groups and subgroups, which function similarly to folders. You could have a group for your blog posts, one for your book chapters, one for your articles, etc.

Within a group, each piece of writing is its own "sheet", which is like a document. One of my favorite Ulysses features is the ability to break down a large writing project, like a long article or book chapter, into multiple sheets.

For example, when writing an in-depth software tutorial, I‘ll often make a separate sheet for each major section. This allows me to tackle the writing in smaller, focused chunks and easily rearrange sections by dragging and dropping the sheets.

Ulysses also supports tagging your sheets with keywords. So in addition to groups, you could add keywords like "Draft", "In Progress", "Edited", and "Complete" to indicate the status of each sheet. You can then create filters to display only sheets that match certain keywords.

The search function is also robust, allowing you to quickly find sheets by text, keywords, and other attributes. Between the groups, keywords, filters, and search, Ulysses provides a powerful and flexible system for organizing and navigating your writing.

Writing Goals and Statistics

Ulysses has a unique feature called Goals that allows you to set writing targets for each sheet or group. You can specify goals based on text length (character, word or page count), reading time, or even a custom criteria like number of sentences or paragraphs.

I‘ve found the goals feature very motivating when I need to hit a word count for an assignment. Having the live update of my progress always visible gamifies the writing process in a productive way. It helps me stay on target without constantly stopping to check my word count.

The Statistics popover also gives you detailed metrics on the text you‘ve selected, the current sheet, or your whole group. It‘s a handy way to analyze your writing and productivity over time.

Cross-Device Sync and Mobility

Another key benefit of Ulysses being integrated across Apple devices is how seamlessly your writing syncs between them. As long as you‘re signed into the same iCloud account, every edit you make on one device automatically syncs to all the others within seconds.

This allows you to start a draft on your Mac, make some edits on your iPhone while in line at the grocery store, and then do a final proofread on your iPad in the evening, all without ever manually transferring files. Your entire Ulysses library is always available and up-to-date no matter which device you‘re using.

As someone who likes to write whenever and wherever inspiration strikes, I really value this kind of frictionless mobility between devices. The Ulysses iPhone app is especially well-adapted, making it quite ergonomic to write or edit even on a smartphone.

Of course, this integration only benefits you if you‘re fully bought into the Apple ecosystem across desktop and mobile. The lack of a web app or support for non-Apple devices will be limiting if you use other platforms.

Export and Publishing Options

When it comes time to share your writing with the world, Ulysses supports a wide variety of export and publishing options. You can export your sheets to plain text, Markdown, HTML, ePub, PDF, or Microsoft Word (docx), with a variety of style templates available.

You can also publish directly to WordPress and Medium blogs, or copy HTML to paste into other content management systems. When exporting to PDF or DOCX, you can access advanced layout options to fine-tune the look and formatting.

I typically write my web articles in Markdown in Ulysses, then copy the text into our content management system. For assets I need to deliver as a Word document or PDF, like an ebook or white paper, Ulysses‘ export handles the formatting reliably with no extra tweaking needed on my part.

Pricing and Value

Now let‘s address the elephant in the room: Ulysses‘ subscription pricing. There‘s no getting around it – $5/month or $50/year is notably higher than the one-time purchase price of many competitor writing apps.

Whether this pricing is justified for you depends on what kind of writer you are, how much you‘ll use the app, and how much value you‘ll get from its specific feature set.

If you‘re a hobbyist writer who just needs a simple text editor now and then, Ulysses is likely overkill. There are excellent basic writing apps like iA Writer that only cost a one-time fee of $30 or less.

However, if you‘re a professional writer, serious novelist, academic, or anyone else whose life and work revolves around long-form writing, I believe Ulysses is well worth the price. It‘s a specialized, powerful tool designed specifically for the needs of serious writers.

The way I justify the subscription personally is that Ulysses is integral to my daily workflow as a full-time writer. The time and friction it saves me from staying organized and productive across my writing projects more than pays for itself. It‘s a professional tool, and the price feels fair to me relative to the value it provides.

Everyone‘s writing needs and budget are different though. I recommend taking advantage of the free trial to determine how well it fits into your own process before making a long-term subscription commitment.

Ulysses Alternatives

Ulysses is a superb writing app, but it‘s not the only option out there, particularly for non-Apple users. Here are a few of the best alternatives:

• Scrivener ($45 one-time purchase): Scrivener is a popular app for long-form writing projects like novels and screenplays. It has a similar feature set to Ulysses, with a bit more emphasis on structure and research tools. It‘s available for Mac and Windows.

• iA Writer ($29 one-time purchase): iA Writer is a more lightweight, pared-down writing app compared to Ulysses. It still offers a clean, distraction-free interface and support for Markdown. It‘s a good option if you want something simpler and don‘t need all of Ulysses‘ bells and whistles. It‘s available for Mac, iOS, and Windows.

• Bear (Free with $1.49/mo Pro version): Bear is a flexible writing app for Apple devices that‘s something of a cross between a note-taking app and a long-form writing tool. While not as powerful as Ulysses, it does support Markdown and has solid organization and export options.

• Typora ($15 one-time purchase): Typora is a popular Markdown writing app for Windows, Mac and Linux. It offers a simple, streamlined interface and previews your formatted Markdown as you type.

The Bottom Line

Ulysses is the most powerful, polished, and thoughtfully-designed writing environment I‘ve used. For anyone who spends hours a day battling the blank page, it provides a rare combination of simplicity and depth that I find essential for my work.

By fading into the background, the uncluttered interface keeps me immersed in my writing. But when I need them, the app‘s wealth of clever tools for organization, editing, and publication are just a quick tap or keystroke away. It‘s an elegantly crafted all-in-one workspace that seems purpose-built for the diverse needs of the modern digital writer.

The elephant in the room is the subscription pricing. There‘s no denying Ulysses is more expensive than many competing writing apps, and the subscription model will be a bridge too far for some. But if you‘re a serious writer and Apple user who‘s willing to invest in tools that make your writing life easier and more productive, Ulysses is well worth taking for a spin.

It‘s become an indispensable part of my writing workflow that I‘m happy to budget for. As with any tool though, the real proof is in the testing. I highly recommend taking advantage of the 14-day free trial to see if it can becomes as essential for your own craft.