Ulysses — The Distraction-Free Writing App for Apple Authors

Ulysses is a subscription-based writing app made exclusively for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Developed by The Soulmen GbR and an Apple Design Award winner, it was built around one philosophy: get out of the way and let you write. Where Scrivener adds organizational tools that rival a project management application, Ulysses removes interface elements until only the words remain.

It works beautifully in the Apple ecosystem. iCloud sync keeps your library updated across Mac, iPhone, and iPad without configuration. The unified library holds everything you've ever written — personal essays, newsletter drafts, research notes, and novel chapters — in one searchable place. If you're a Mac author who wants clean, distraction-free drafting without Scrivener's learning curve, Ulysses earns serious consideration.

A Brief History

Ulysses was created by The Soulmen, a small software development team based in Leipzig, Germany. Originally released in 2003 as a Mac-exclusive app, Ulysses has undergone several significant redesigns and updates over the years. In 2017, it transitioned to a subscription model — a move that sparked some debate but enabled the team to deliver continuous updates and maintain feature parity across Mac and iOS. The November 2025 Liquid Glass update represents the most significant visual redesign in years, covered below.

Platform Compatibility and Pricing

Ulysses has no lifetime purchase option. Compared to Scrivener's $59.99 one-time purchase, Ulysses at $49.99 per year costs significantly more over a multi-year horizon. The subscription model is worth it for authors who value continuous updates and seamless Apple ecosystem sync — less worth it for those who prefer to pay once and own their software indefinitely.

🔗 https://ulysses.app

Learning Curve

Ulysses is significantly less intimidating than Scrivener. The core workflow — create groups, add sheets, write — is intuitive within an hour. Markdown syntax has a small learning curve for authors accustomed to toolbar-based formatting, but the basics (asterisks for italics, double asterisks for bold, hash marks for headings) can be learned in minutes. The full depth of Ulysses — custom export templates with CSS, keyword filtering for complex projects, direct publishing setup — takes more time, but the basics carry you a long way.

The November 2025 Liquid Glass Update

Ulysses received a significant visual redesign in late 2025 as part of Apple's new Liquid Glass design language, making it one of the most visually refined writing apps available for Apple devices. Beyond aesthetics, the update added resizable panels on iPad, Spotlight and Shortcuts integration for faster project navigation, and improved swipe gestures throughout the interface. If you tried Ulysses before 2025 and found the interface dated or the iPad experience limited, the current version is meaningfully different. It's worth a fresh look on the free trial.

Key Features

The Unified Library

Unlike most writing apps that organize by project or file, Ulysses uses a single unified library. Every sheet — Ulysses' term for a document — lives in the same library, organized into groups and filters. You can search across everything you've ever written instantly. For prolific authors who create a lot of ancillary content alongside their novels — newsletter drafts, blog posts, research notes, character bibles — this unified approach keeps everything accessible in one place rather than scattered across separate project files.

Sheet-Based Organization

Ulysses replaces traditional document files with sheets, allowing authors to break down manuscripts by scenes, chapters, or sections. These sheets can be reordered and grouped into folders — particularly helpful during the drafting and restructuring phase. Unlike Scrivener's Binder, Ulysses' organization is flatter and simpler, which is a feature rather than a limitation for authors who find Scrivener's depth excessive for their workflow.

Markdown-Based Writing

Ulysses uses a lightweight Markdown syntax for formatting rather than Word-style toolbar buttons. Surround text with asterisks for italics, double asterisks for bold; use hash marks for headings. The interface converts Markdown in real time, showing formatted text while keeping the underlying syntax available. Writers who are comfortable with Markdown find this fast and lightweight — it keeps fingers on the keyboard rather than reaching for menus. Writers accustomed to Word's toolbar formatting sometimes find the transition takes a few days, but the syntax is small enough to memorize quickly.

Writing Goals and Streaks

Set a word count target per sheet, session, or entire group. A progress ring appears at the bottom of the editor showing your completion. Streaks track consecutive days of hitting your goal — a simple gamification element that some authors find genuinely motivating. For authors who benefit from external accountability built into their writing app, Ulysses' goal system is one of the better implementations available.

Distraction-Free Interface

Ulysses offers full-screen Composition Mode, customizable themes (light and dark, with adjustable colors), and typewriter scrolling — which keeps the active line centered on screen as you write rather than climbing toward the top of the window. Focus Mode narrows your view to the current sentence or paragraph while dimming the rest. These tools collectively create a writing environment that removes visual noise and peripheral distractions more completely than most writing apps.

Keyword Tagging and Filters

Authors can tag sheets with keywords — character names, POV, locations, timeline markers — and create filters to view only specific scenes. This functions as a lightweight storyboarding or metadata system, particularly useful for tracking POV distribution across a novel or filtering all scenes featuring a specific character. It's less powerful than Scrivener's metadata system but simpler and faster to work with.

Autosave and Version History

Every keystroke is automatically saved in real time. Ulysses also maintains version history, allowing you to return to earlier drafts of a sheet — useful during revision when you want to recover something cut in a previous session. Combined with iCloud sync, this provides a meaningful safety net without requiring any manual save discipline.

iCloud Sync Across Apple Devices

Ulysses syncs seamlessly across Mac, iPhone, and iPad through iCloud without any configuration. Open your Mac, continue on your iPhone during a commute, pick up again on your iPad at a coffee shop — your library is current on every device. The sync is reliable and fast, and unlike Scrivener's iOS sync (which requires Dropbox and deliberate sync management), Ulysses' iCloud sync is effectively invisible and automatic.

Export Options

Ulysses exports to PDF, DOCX (Microsoft Word), EPUB, HTML, and Markdown. Authors can prepare submissions, ebooks, or blog posts directly from the app. Export styles can be customized with CSS for advanced users, and community-created export templates are available online. For most authors, the DOCX export handles the editor handoff cleanly, and the EPUB export works for basic ebook creation — though for final production-quality formatting, a dedicated tool like Vellum or Atticus will produce better results.

Direct Publishing

Ulysses can publish directly to WordPress, Ghost, and Micro.blog from within the app. Copy-paste publishing works with Substack. For authors who blog or maintain a newsletter alongside their books, this removes the step of exporting and reformatting in a web editor. It's one of Ulysses' more distinctive features among writing apps, and genuinely useful for authors with an active publishing presence beyond their books.

What Ulysses Doesn't Do Well

Ulysses is a drafting and writing tool — not a publishing pipeline. Its EPUB output is not publication-quality for final retail distribution; for final formatting of your manuscript for Amazon KDP, Apple Books, or IngramSpark, you'll still need Vellum or Atticus after you finish writing in Ulysses.

It also lacks the organizational depth of Scrivener. There's no visual Corkboard for structural editing, no dedicated Research folder integrated with your manuscript, and no scene-level metadata system. For authors who do heavy outlining and restructuring during drafting, or who need to keep extensive research alongside their manuscript in a structured way, Scrivener is a better fit.

Finally, Ulysses lacks professional editing tools. Editors request DOCX files with Track Changes — which means exporting to Word for the editing phase regardless. There's no native Track Changes or Comment functionality in Ulysses itself.

How to Write a Book in Ulysses

• Create a Group — name it after your book title

• Add Sheets — one for each chapter or scene. Name them: "Prologue," "Chapter 1," etc.

• Use Markdown for formatting — # Chapter One for titles, *italics*, **bold**

• Set Word Goals — daily targets per session or chapter targets per sheet

• Tag with Keywords — label scenes with POV characters, timelines, or locations

• Use inline comments — %%This is a note for later%% keeps revision notes without cluttering the visible text

• Track Progress — monitor session goals with the progress ring

• Export Final Draft — DOCX for your editor, EPUB for a quick self-publishing preview, PDF for your own proofread copy

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Beautiful, distraction-free interface — one of the cleanest in any writing app

• Unified library — everything you've written is searchable in one place

• Seamless, automatic iCloud sync across Mac, iPhone, and iPad

• Simple Markdown formatting keeps fingers on the keyboard

• Goal tracking and streaks for daily motivation

• Direct publishing to WordPress, Ghost, and Micro.blog

• Frequent updates — the 2025 Liquid Glass redesign is a meaningful improvement

• Library remains readable in read-only mode even after cancellation

Cons:

• Mac/iOS only — no Windows or Android version

• Subscription-only — more expensive than Scrivener over a multi-year period

• No Track Changes or Comments — editors require DOCX export to Word for markup

• No visual Corkboard or integrated Research folder like Scrivener

• EPUB export is not publication-quality — dedicated formatting tool still required

• Custom export templates require CSS knowledge to create

ScribeCount Author OS — AuthorFLOW and Ulysses

AuthorFLOW tracks your production regardless of whether you write in Ulysses, Scrivener, or Word. Ulysses' own writing goals track within your Ulysses library — daily targets, session progress, and streaks that show you how consistently you're hitting your output goals inside the app.

Conclusion

Ulysses is an excellent writing tool for authors who value simplicity, a clean creative environment, and seamless Apple device integration. It excels at distraction-free drafting, organizing long-form projects through its sheet and group system, and moving fluidly between Mac, iPhone, and iPad. The 2025 Liquid Glass redesign brought the app to a new level of visual polish and iPad usability.

Its limitations are equally clear: Apple-only, subscription-priced, lacking Track Changes for editorial collaboration, and requiring a dedicated formatting tool for final publication output. These aren't deal-breakers — they're workflow constraints that most Ulysses users accommodate naturally. Write in Ulysses, export to Word for editing, format in Vellum or Atticus, publish from ScribeCount's connected platforms.

For indie authors who work entirely in the Apple ecosystem and want a tool that keeps them writing with minimal distractions, Ulysses is a top-tier choice. For authors who need cross-platform access, prefer a one-time purchase, or require deep structural organization during drafting, Scrivener or Atticus will be a better fit.

— Randall