My favorite writing apps

I recently spent some time trying to find the right writing app, I ran across many of them, and while a few were very good, it wasn’t until I ran across the Bear app that I decided to stop looking.

This app makes writing enjoyable to write, and how is that you ask? Well, it has a clean interface, a not-distraction mode, markdown syntax support, and many other features such as multiple options to share, export, etc.

I have tried other writing apps before, for example, before discovering Bear I was using iA Writer, another excellent writing app. While I still use iWriter when I’m on my iMac, I started using the Bear app because it has free versions for both macOS and iOS. iA Writer supports not only Apple operating systems, but also Windows and Android, and while they offer free trials, iA Writer doesn’t have free versions. I’d gladly pay for the software I use, that’s why I paid for iA Writer for my iMac.

Other Writing Apps and Tools

Another writing tool I use every day is Grammarly, their web interface is pretty good; it is fast and clean. I started using Grammarly out of necessity since English is my second language, a tool to help me fix grammar errors, and the like is something necessary. Grammarly also offers a keyboard for iOS and a browser plugin, but in my opinion, none of those work as well as the web version. Grammarly web is an excellent tool to check your writing, but as of now, it isn’t as good as the Bear app or iA Writer for writing.

WordPress is another place where a lot of my writing takes place, and until recently, their blog post editor was my primary writing editor. I use WordPress for blogging, and their editor has improved quite a bit. It’s a good text editor, it also supports markdown, which I appreciate, but it lacks some of the features the other two writing apps have. For example, the WordPress text editor is great for writing content for your blog, but it is not mean to be used for writing and then exporting your text.

What about MS Word and Google Docs? Well, I use those too, and while they are great for general note-taking or long-form writing, their interface feels dated, and unless you take time to remove some options, the editor will be very busy, it’s not a great writing experience. Other tools I use to take notes and to write ideas are OneNote, DayOne, both awesome apps but not for general writing.  

The ideal writing app

It’s not a surprise that the perfect writing app would be, at least for me, an app that combines the best of the apps I enjoy using for writing. The ideal writing app for me would be one that incorporates the following:

 • The clean design and the distraction-free environment of iA Writer

 • The export features, smart data recognition, rich keyboard shortcuts of the Bear app

 • The AI-powered writing assistance of Grammarly,

Now, if we can combine all of those things into one application, it would be a very valuable application to me and many other writers. B

What’s your ideal writing app? Are there any other apps you use and enjoy?