Free Alternative to Ulysses

Obsidian stores your writing as plain Markdown files on your computer. You own your data completely. While primarily a knowledge management tool, writers love its distraction-free editor, daily notes, and the ability to link documents together.

The plugin ecosystem adds features like word count goals, typewriter mode, and focus mode. With over 1,000 community plugins, you can customize Obsidian to match or exceed Ulysses' functionality. The Longform plugin specifically transforms Obsidian into a powerful novel-writing environment, letting you organize chapters, compile manuscripts, and track progress—all while keeping your work as portable plain text files.

Zettlr is the most popular open-source alternative to Ulysses, designed specifically for academic writing and longform content. It combines the simplicity of Markdown with powerful features like Zettelkasten note-taking, citation management with Zotero integration, and export to Word, PDF, and LaTeX. Unlike Ulysses' proprietary database, Zettlr works with plain Markdown files stored wherever you choose—your local drive, Dropbox, or any cloud service.

The interface is clean and distraction-free, with customizable themes and a built-in file manager. Academic writers particularly appreciate its citation support and ability to manage large research projects with thousands of notes.

CotEditor is a free, open-source text editor built specifically for macOS using Swift. It's lightweight, launches instantly, and supports Markdown syntax highlighting. Perfect for writers who want something faster than Ulysses without the complexity of a full writing suite.

Split view lets you work on multiple sections simultaneously. The interface follows macOS design guidelines perfectly, feeling instantly familiar to Mac users. While it lacks advanced features like live preview or library management, its simplicity is its strength—open a file, start writing, save anywhere.

No databases, no subscriptions, no complexity. Just a fast, native Mac text editor that respects your workflow.

MacDown is a free, open-source Markdown editor inspired by the legendary Mou. Its killer feature is live preview showing your formatted text as you write. Customizable themes, syntax highlighting for code blocks, and export to HTML and PDF make it ideal for writers who want to see their formatted output in real-time.

The split-pane interface lets you write on the left and see results on the right, making it perfect for bloggers, documentation writers, and anyone who wants immediate visual feedback. While development has slowed compared to its heyday, MacDown remains stable, functional, and completely free—no subscription ever required.

VS Code isn't just for coding. With the right extensions, it becomes a powerful Markdown writing environment. Zen Mode removes all distractions, Markdown Preview shows formatted output, and extensions add word count, grammar checking, and even Ulysses-like focus mode.

It's free, cross-platform, and you probably already have it installed. Writers appreciate the Git integration for version control, the ability to work with local files anywhere on their system, and the massive extension marketplace. Popular writing extensions include Markdown All in One, Code Spell Checker, and WordCounter. The learning curve is steeper than dedicated writing apps, but the payoff is a completely customizable writing environment that works identically on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Joplin is a free, open-source note-taking app with full Markdown support. It syncs across devices using your choice of cloud service and offers optional end-to-end encryption. Notebooks and tags help organize longer projects.

While designed for notes, many writers use it for drafting and journaling. The mobile apps (iOS and Android) make it easy to capture ideas on the go, and the desktop apps (Mac, Windows, Linux) provide a full writing environment. Joplin's standout feature is privacy—your notes can be encrypted before syncing to Dropbox, OneDrive, or Nextcloud, meaning even your cloud provider can't read your writing. For privacy-conscious writers, this is a huge advantage over Ulysses' iCloud sync.

Mark Text carves out its niche as a strong candidate for the best free Markdown editor by prioritizing a seamless, distraction-free writing experience. Unlike traditional split-pane editors, Mark Text uses WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) rendering—you write Markdown syntax, but it displays as formatted text immediately. This creates a writing experience closer to Ulysses' Markdown XL than traditional code-like Markdown editors.

The interface is clean and modern, with focus mode and typewriter mode for distraction-free writing. Export to PDF and HTML, support for mathematical expressions via KaTeX, and diagram support via Mermaid make it powerful for technical writing. Best of all, it's completely free and open-source.

ghostwriter is a free, open-source Markdown editor designed for distraction-free writing. While not available on macOS, it's the top choice for Windows and Linux users seeking a Ulysses alternative. The interface is beautifully minimal, with customizable themes and a hemingway mode that prevents you from editing what you've already written—forcing you to keep moving forward.

Live preview, syntax highlighting, and export to multiple formats make it practical. The built-in document statistics track your writing progress, and the drag-and-drop image support simplifies adding visuals to your work. If you're on Windows or Linux, ghostwriter delivers a premium writing experience without the premium price tag.

FocusWriter is considered by many to be the best free distraction-free writing app across all platforms. Available for Windows, Linux, and macOS, it features a minimal interface with timers and alarms to keep writing sessions on track. The entire interface can be hidden, leaving just your text on a customizable background.

While it doesn't support Markdown natively, it excels at what it does: helping you focus on writing without distractions. Daily goals, live statistics, spell checking, and auto-save make it practical for serious writing work. The theming system lets you customize everything from fonts to backgrounds, creating a writing environment that feels personal and conducive to deep work. For novelists and essayists who just need to get words on the page, FocusWriter is hard to beat.

While not free, Typora deserves mention as it's frequently cited as the best Ulysses alternative at a fraction of the cost. For a one-time payment of $14.99, you get lifetime access to a beautiful WYSIWYG Markdown editor with no subscription. Like Ulysses, Typora hides the Markdown syntax and shows formatted text as you type, creating a seamless writing experience.

The interface is minimal and elegant, supporting themes, outline navigation, and export to PDF, Word, HTML, and more. The 15-day free trial lets you evaluate it thoroughly. For writers frustrated by Ulysses' subscription but willing to pay once, Typora offers exceptional value—three years of Typora costs less than one year of Ulysses.

iA Writer is the closest paid alternative to Ulysses, offering similar distraction-free Markdown editing without the subscription. At $49.99 (one-time purchase), it costs the same as one year of Ulysses but you own it forever. The interface is beautifully minimal with Focus Mode (highlighting the current sentence), syntax highlighting for different parts of speech, and seamless sync via iCloud or Dropbox.

It works on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. Content blocks let you embed files directly into your documents, and direct publishing to WordPress, Medium, and Ghost matches Ulysses' capabilities. For writers who love Ulysses' approach but hate subscriptions, iA Writer is the obvious choice—same philosophy, better business model.