Writing Tool Comparison: Scrivener & Zettlr (& Word)

Once I was asked on discord about writing tools for academic writing. This is the answer I gave — with minor changes and updates.

It is biased and undoubtedly incomplete.

While reading it, keep your own requirements and workflow in mind.

Scrivener

Pro

offers an encapsulated “project” environment in which important links, documents, notes, etc can be stored with the main text, and you can attach notes and status information alongside
- Notes and status information can be exported or printed out separately
works extremely well with bigger documents
splitting the editor window horizontally or vertically to work with two documents side by side
can break down longer documents in chapters or subchapters
text layout can be completely decoupled from the writing process
- It is possible to write up to the last 5 minutes and then push the text through the “compile” process and receive a perfectly formatted document that can be sent out right away. If one has invested prior work into setting up the compile configuration — this has saved my procrastinating ass over and over again
an active support community exists in the Literature & Latte forum
templates exist for the most use-cases
offers stats and goals, that are helpful when writing to a specific word count
Integration with some third-party tools like, for example, Aeon Timeline, is offered
available for macOS, Windows and iPadOS.

Folder structure showing various categories and documents. — Scrivener Binder showing my work for a German magazine over 5 years. — Click for a full view

Con

no truly good Zotero plugin exists
- yet, there are workarounds for some systems (for example macOS)
the RTF format is proprietary, even if it can be read by many applications
Scrivener is proprietary software and there is no guarantee that you will be able to open a scrivener project as it is, with the structure of the documents and additional information intact, in 10 years from now
understanding the “compile” configuration can be difficult and needs some time to get acquainted with
Scrivener is rarely offered by universities for their students; thus you’ll have to pay for it out of your pocket. Even though the price is bearable, it is an investment that has to be considered
many people coming from word are not used to the separation of the writing process from the layout/formatting process and tend to struggle at the beginning
no truly usable Linux version exists any more (I know that is a very niche problem. 😉)
Scrivener is an option that should be considered if an enclosed project environment is beneficial
- For example: This is the binder containing 5 years of articles I’ve written for the (German) Linux Magazin, and besides the articles documents about the magazine’s style guides, ideas, and brainstorming and everything easily accessible in one place:

Zettlr

Pro

works based on text only files with the Markdown markup language
- thus offers the best long-term archival properties of all those three options
works well with bigger documents
- breaking down longer documents into chapters, subchapters/sub-documents and fusing them together in the export process — similar to Scrivener, — is possible
- but parts of bigger documents can also just toggle open or closed
splitting the editor window horizontally or vertically to work with two documents side by side
layout process and writing process is somewhat decoupled — but not 100% like with Scrivener
fully open source and free of cost
an active support community exists on Reddit, Discord and on a Forum
export uses the popular and widely supported Pandoc tool
- popular among a certain crowd — 😉
- PDF export is thus filtered through LaTeX.
  - LaTeX has been developed for professional print layout. That results in the best and most sophisticated looking document layout of all three options
Zotero integration via the Zotero Better BibTeX plugin works seamlessly
- You can insert your sources without even taking the hands from the keyboard and without interrupting your writing process. You’ll just enter a “@” and then type the first few letters of the main author’s surname, and you’ll get a dropdown menu with matching sources.
LaTeX has hundreds of add-ons. You can do anything with LaTeX and tackle even the most complex formatting requirements
many universities and institutes offer LaTeX templates based on their requirements
has a “snippets” system that gives you quick access to stuff you’ll need over and over again, like keywords, or metadata you like to add to your documents
is developed by a sociologist and thus works especially well with workflows used in the humanities or social sciences
offers helpful tools like a built-in Pomodoro timer
you can add word count goals to documents
available for macOS, Windows and Linux, but no mobile version exists
Zettlr integrates LanguageTool and offers a Readability check. The control for style and grammar might be the best of all three options
Zettlr supports Mermaid as diagramming language.

Con

presently it lacks support for having split bibliographies (like for primary and secondary sources)
of all three options, it is most likely the most “tech-y” option and thus maybe not the most easily approachable.
- understanding how Pandoc and LaTeX works can be a daunting task
it lacks an enclosed “project” environment — like Scrivener, — and you can’t easily add ‘sidebar’ notes and status information. You can add notes inside a document, though, those won’t be visible in the export
it is a small project by a single developer (with support of two more people since a couple of months) thus sometimes it can take some time until problems are resolved. (Major problems are fixed pretty quickly, though.)
entering tables in Zettlr isn’t fun. Yet, there is a website to create Markdown tables, that works very well. You’ll just copy and paste the final table into your document.

Word

I’m not using Word. I haven’t used it for about three decades, if not longer. I’ll only go into Word at all, since it is the most common writing tool out there and most people will have prior experience with it.

For a lot, it will be even the only writing tool they have worked with — yet.

Pro

Everybody and their dog uses Word; thus help is often easy to find
The file standard is supported by many applications and (somewhat) open
a good Zotero plugin exists
plenty of templates exist, often offered by universities and institutes based on their individual standards
most people already know how to work with Word
most universities offer free access to Microsoft products for their students.

Con

still has issues with bigger documents, especially if they contain many tables or images
can become tedious to work with
complex office document formats lack good long term archival capabilities
layout isn’t separated from the writing process and can become a hassle
even though everybody uses it, support for niche problems can be challenging to find
lacks a sophisticated “project” environment
only available on Windows and macOS, not on Linux systems.

Last updated:

Jun 23, 2025

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Scrivener Binder Showing My Work for the Linux Magazin: Mela Eckenfels | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International