Short answer: Only if — It's a top-tier tool for serious writers but a subscription overkill for casual users.
Worth it for: Professional writers, bloggers Skip if: You're a casual note-taker, prefer one-time purchases Better alternative: iA Writer The shift to subscription software is often a tax on people who don't need constant updates. Ulysses is a poster child for this. It's a fantastic app, but the monthly/yearly toll makes it a "depends" verdict for me.
What kills me about Ulysses is that it went subscription in 2017 and the app in 2026 is... not dramatically different. You're paying recurring money for incremental polish. The core writing experience hasn't fundamentally changed. That's either a sign of maturity or a sign that you're funding a team to maintain something that was already finished.
When It IS Worth It
It’s worth it if you write for a living and your workflow involves managing multiple long-form projects, exporting to various formats (Medium, WordPress, PDF, ePub), and needing a clean, focused interface. The library organization, sheet-based structure, and publishing targets are genuinely powerful. If you’re cranking out paid articles, book chapters, or regular blog posts, the subscription cost can be justified as a business expense that saves you time and hassle. Where Ulysses actually earns money over free alternatives:
- Direct WordPress/Ghost publishing — write in Markdown, publish in one click. No copy-paste formatting disasters.
- Multi-device sync that actually works — start a draft on your Mac, polish it on your iPhone during a commute. The handoff is instant and reliable.
- Sheet-based organization — think of it like index cards for your chapters. For book-length projects, this structure prevents the "180-page Google Doc nightmare."
- Writing goals and deadlines — if you need external pressure to finish, these built-in nudges are surprisingly effective.
When It Is NOT Worth It
It’s not worth it if you’re a student, a casual diarist, or someone who just needs a nice place to jot down thoughts in Markdown. You don’t need publishing targets or project folders. You need a text editor. Paying a recurring fee for software that edits .txt files is, frankly, absurd for this use case. And here's the thing prospective buyers don't consider: Ulysses creates a dependency loop. Your library, tags, and organizational structure live inside the app. If you stop paying, you can export everything — but the organization doesn't come with you. So the longer you use it, the harder it is to leave. That's not a bug. That's the subscription model working exactly as designed.
If you write fewer than 10,000 words a month, you are almost certainly overpaying. iA Writer at a one-time $50 does everything you actually need.
Who Should NOT Buy This
- One-time purchase die-hards: You will resent this app every year when the bill renews. And the renewal email always arrives right when you're questioning whether you even wrote anything last month.
- Apple Notes or Google Docs users: If your needs are met there, this is a massive and unnecessary step up in complexity and cost. You're paying for a professional cockpit when all you need is a steering wheel.
- Writers who don't publish: If your writing never leaves the app as a finished product, you're paying for features you'll never use.
Cheaper or Better Alternatives
| Alternative | Price | My Take |
|---|---|---|
| iA Writer | One-time purchase (~$30-50 per platform) | The purest, most focused Markdown writing experience. Does 80% of what Ulysses does for a single fee. |
| Obsidian | Free for personal use | Infinitely more powerful for research and linking notes. Steeper learning curve, but it's free and your data stays yours. |
| Bear | $2.99/month or $29.99/year | A beautiful middle-ground for Apple users. Cheaper, with tagging and some organization, but less focused on publishing. |
| Typora | One-time purchase (~$15) | A superb "what you see is what you get" Markdown editor. Simple, effective, and you own it forever. |
Check out our Ableton Live review for comparison. Check out our Adobe Creative Cloud review for comparison. The iCloud sync occasionally scrambles document order after a large reorganization, which is infuriating when you've carefully sequenced 30 chapters. It always fixes itself within a few minutes, but those minutes feel like watching your manuscript shuffle itself like a deck of cards.
Markdown export is where Ulysses quietly beats the competition. One-click export to WordPress, Medium, or clean HTML means your writing stays portable. In a writing app market full of proprietary formats and lock-in traps, that portability is worth more than any fancy feature.
Final Verdict
Ulysses is a beautifully engineered writing environment that has fallen victim to the SaaS-ification of everything. For the professional writer who takes advantage of its full suite of publishing and project management tools, it can be a worthwhile investment. For the vast majority of people who just want a nice, clean place to write? It's an overpriced, over-engineered subscription you will come to regret.
The irony is thick: a tool designed for writers has priced out most writers. The people who benefit most from Ulysses are professional bloggers and content creators who can write it off as a business expense. The aspiring novelist writing 500 words before bed? You're subsidizing features you'll never touch. Buy iA Writer, save the difference, and spend it on the actual book you're trying to write.
FAQ
Is the Ulysses subscription mandatory?
Yes. There is no one-time purchase option. You rent the software forever.
Can I use it on Mac and iPhone?
Yes, a single subscription works across all your Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad).
Is it better than Scrivener?
For long-form book writing with complex structuring, Scrivener is still king. For writing and publishing articles/blog posts directly to the web, Ulysses is smoother.
Does it work on Windows or Android?
No. It is exclusively for Apple's ecosystem (macOS, iOS, iPadOS).