# Mellel

> Mac word processor for long academic and technical documents

Mellel is a word processor for Mac aimed at scholarly, scientific and technical manuscripts. It structures long documents with automatic titles and an outline, supports several streams of footnotes and endnotes, and formats citations and bibliographies through the Bookends reference manager. It is sold as a one-time license with two years of updates, and a companion iPad app, Mellel Mobile, opens the same documents.

- **Category:** Writing Tools
- **Made by:** Mellel Software (since 2002)
- **Website:** https://www.mellel.com
- **Runs on:** macOS, iOS
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 9, 2026

## Pricing

Mellel is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $69.99 one-time for Mellel for Mac; iPad in-app purchases from $9.99.

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 30-day free trial of Mellel for Mac, without restrictions.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mellel Mobile | $0 | Free iPad app with in-app purchases: Standard at $29.99 and Premium at $9.99 on the US App Store, which does not show their billing basis. |
| Mellel for Mac | $69.99 one-time license | Personal license for up to 5 computers that never expires, with two years of free updates. The vendor's store page rounds the price to $69. |
| Mellel + Bookends Bundle | $114.99 one-time purchase | Mellel for Mac together with the Bookends reference manager, against $144.98 when the two are bought separately. |

Read from https://sites.fastspring.com/mellel/product/new_regular_web on Oct 9, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Mellel before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Upgrade from any older license for $44** (Other savings): The store lists a $44 upgrade to the latest version for holders of any Mellel license, however old, with two more years of free updates. Source: https://www.mellel.com/mellel-store/
- **Mellel + Bookends bundle** (Other savings): A license for both Mellel and the Bookends reference manager costs $114.99, instead of $144.98 when each is bought separately. Source: https://www.mellel.com/bookends-combo/
- **Crossgrade price for Nisus users** (Other savings): Nisus users are offered a Mellel for Mac license at a discounted $51.75, with two years of free updates. Source: https://www.mellel.com/blog/nisus-to-mellel-crossgrade/

## App Store prices by country

"Standard", as each country's App Store showed it on Oct 9, 2026. These are the app's prices, not the website's.

| Country | Price | In US dollars |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | $29.99 | |
| United Kingdom | £29.99 | about $39.65 (32% more) |
| Germany | 34,99 € | about $39.21 (31% more) |
| Canada | $39.99 | about $28.11 (6% less) |
| Australia | $49.99 | about $34.90 (16% more) |
| India | ₹ 2,999 | about $31.00 (about the same) |
| Brazil | R$ 199,90 | about $39.94 (33% more) |
| Mexico | $599.00 | about $32.91 (10% more) |
| Turkey | ₺1.499,99 | about $30.50 (about the same) |
| Indonesia | Rp 599ribu | about $33.50 (12% more) |
| Philippines | ₱ 1,990.00 | about $31.68 (6% more) |
| South Africa | R599.99 | about $36.29 (21% more) |

## Key features

- **Auto-titles and outline:** Automatically formatted headings and captions define a document's structure on several levels. The outline gives an overview for jumping to any part and rearranging it.
- **Footnotes and endnotes:** Supports an unlimited number of footnote and endnote streams, with endnotes placed at the end of the document, chapter, section or any combination of these.
- **Bibliography with Bookends:** Integration with the Bookends reference manager updates citations and the bibliography as you write, with one bibliography for the document, one per chapter, or both.
- **Styles and style sets:** Styles apply to characters, paragraphs, pages, notes, sections, tables and lists, and are grouped into style sets that can be reused in other documents.
- **Multilingual and right-to-left text:** Mixes languages, scripts and writing directions within one document, paragraph or sentence, with right-to-left support for Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac.
- **Import and export:** Opens Word (docx), RTF, OPML and plain-text files, and exports to PDF, Word (docx), RTF, OPML and ePUB.

## Good for

- Academics and students writing theses, papers and books on a Mac
- Long, structured documents with many notes and cross-references
- Writers mixing Hebrew, Arabic or Syriac with other languages
- Bookends users who want citations formatted as they write

## Worth knowing

- Mac and iPad only: there is no Windows, Android or web version.
- A license covers two years of free updates; later versions need a paid upgrade, listed at $44 on the store page.
- Mellel Mobile runs on iPad only, lacks some editing options of the Mac version, and needs Premium for bibliography scanning.
- Citations and bibliographies rely on Bookends, a separate reference manager that is sold with Mellel as a $114.99 bundle.

## Works with

Bookends, iCloud

**Tags:** Documents, Long-form writing, Citations, One-time purchase

## Alternatives

- [Scrivener](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scrivener): Manuscript writing app with a binder, corkboard and outliner. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mellel-vs-scrivener)
- [Microsoft Word](https://toolgpa.com/tools/microsoft-word): Word processor sold with Microsoft 365, free in the browser. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mellel-vs-microsoft-word)
- [LibreOffice Writer](https://toolgpa.com/tools/libreoffice-writer): Free, open-source word processor for Windows, macOS and Linux. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/libreoffice-writer-vs-mellel)
- [Ulysses](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ulysses): Markup-based writing app for Mac, iPad and iPhone. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mellel-vs-ulysses)
- [Overleaf](https://toolgpa.com/tools/overleaf): Collaborative online LaTeX editor for papers and theses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mellel-vs-overleaf)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 9, 2026:

- https://sites.fastspring.com/mellel/product/new_regular_web
- https://sites.fastspring.com/mellel/product/mellelbookendscombo
- https://www.mellel.com/mellel-store/
- https://www.mellel.com/
- https://www.mellel.com/mellel-for-mac/
- https://www.mellel.com/mellel-mobile
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mellel-mobile/id6504607923
- https://www.mellel.com/download/
- https://www.mellel.com/faq
- https://www.mellel.com/aboutlicense/
- https://www.mellel.com/guides/quick-start/
- https://www.mellel.com/eula-retail/
- https://www.mellel.com/bookends-combo/
- https://www.mellel.com/blog/nisus-to-mellel-crossgrade/
- https://www.mellel.com/about-us/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/mellel
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).