novelWriter vs Zettlr

novelWriter

• Novelists on Linux or Windows who want a free plain-text editor
• Writers who keep manuscripts under version control or file sync
• Books with many scenes and cross-referenced notes

Zettlr

• Researchers and students writing papers or theses in Markdown
• Zotero users who want citations inside a plain-text editor
• People who keep a Zettelkasten of linked notes
• Writers who want their files kept on their own computer

novelWriter

• macOS DMG releases were discontinued as of release 2026.1; on a Mac it runs only by installing the Python package.
• The Windows installer is made for Windows 10 or newer.
• It is scoped to novels and short fiction and uses its own Markdown-like syntax, not standard Markdown.
• No web or mobile version is offered.

Zettlr

• Desktop only: downloads are listed for macOS 12 or newer, Windows 10 or newer and Linux, with no mobile or web app.
• It has no cloud service of its own: files stay on the computer, with no built-in cloud synchronization.
• Citations draw on a library kept in an external reference manager such as Zotero, JabRef or Juris-M.
• Grammar and style checking beyond the spellchecker relies on connecting LanguageTool.

novelWriter

Project tree of documents

A novel is broken into as many documents as needed. They can be dragged into a custom order, organised into folders and given sub-documents.

Tags and references

Keyword and value tags in a document link it to project notes. References are clickable, and a References box lists every document that points back to the one being viewed.

Novel View and Outline View

The Novel View shows the book by headings instead of files. The Outline View lists chapters and scenes with their meta data and cross-references in configurable columns.

Build Manuscript

Assembles chosen files into a manuscript, an outline draft or a notes document, which can be printed or saved as Open Document, Word, PDF, HTML or Markdown.

Plain-text storage

Projects are stored as human-readable text files, a format the project describes as well suited to version control software and file synchronisation tools.

Focus Mode and themes

Focus Mode hides the project tree and view panel so the editor fills the window. Colour, icon and editor syntax themes are chosen separately, in light and dark variants.

Zettlr

Citations from a reference manager

Loads a library from Zotero, JabRef or Juris-M, previews citations in the text and formats them in any of more than 9,000 citation styles.

Export profiles with Pandoc

A profile pairs an export format with a template, so a paper can be exported for a journal or conference in one click. Beamer, reveal.js and PowerPoint slides are supported too.

Zettelkasten tools

Supports note IDs, wiki-style links between notes, related files and a graph view for building a personal knowledge base.

Adjustable Markdown rendering

The editor can show anything from raw Markdown to rich text. LaTeX math and Mermaid charts render inline, and the look can be changed with custom CSS.

Spelling, grammar and style checks

Includes a spellchecker and a Markdown linter, and can connect to LanguageTool for grammar and style checking.

Projects, snippets and statistics

Project support groups the files of a longer work, snippets insert reusable text with variables and tab stops, and writing statistics track progress.

novelWriter

• Free$0

  The complete editor: AppImage, Flatpak and Debian packages for Linux, a setup installer for Windows 10 or newer, and a Python package.

Zettlr

• Free$0

  The full editor for Windows, macOS and Linux, free and open source, with optional donations to support development.