iA Writer or Ulysses?

A surprisingly easy choice.

iA Writer (screenshot by author)

I’ve used Ulysses for years now and on the whole, I’ve been a happy bunny.

I don’t know about you, but any software that requires payment on a recurring basis is on thin ice with me. Subscriptions irk me. Each and every one needs to convince me at least once a year that it’s earning its keep — it’s increasingly rare for me to keep software that I can’t pay once for. As things stand, it’s a list of just one, but more on that some other time.

Anyhow, the renewal date was in sight, so Ulysses was under scrutiny. I had few complaints, so I was looking for something similar but without the bottomless bill.

Things I love about Ulysses.

• The interface is clean and minimal and the software does a decent job of keeping the feature set light but relevant. There is little that’s distracting; and for me, that’s a requirement.
• Syncing across devices works well, using Dropbox or iCloud in my case.
• The in-built writing tools are good. Word counts, setting targets for yourself and monitoring progress, grammar and style checking — they’re all there. Over time, I found myself using most of them less and less, but still, nice to have.
• The export to Wordpress and Medium works well…