Try Essayist for free today!
"Mac App of the Year 2025" — Apple
"App of the Day" — Apple
"Editors' Choice" — Apple
"A-Plus Apps for Students " — Apple
"Mac Essentials" — Apple
Essayist allows you to write APA, MLA, Chicago & Harvard Style essays with ease. From in-text citations and footnotes to references and page setup, Essayist takes care of everything. It greatly simplifies the academic writing process.
AUTOMATIC FORMATTING
Essayist formats everything for you. Upon starting a new essay it sets up the title section/page, margins, font, line spacing, alignment, page headers/footers, etc. It formats your references, in-text citations, footnotes/endnotes, figures, tables, table of contents and more.
UNIVERSAL REFERENCE MANAGER
Store and manage references in a universal reference manager backed by iCloud. Search for, add, and store references in one place and use references across multiple essays. Create separate collections (folders) within the reference manager to organize and manage references. Add references quickly and easily using Google Scholar, Essayist’s built-in search, by pasting a URL or manual entry forms. Once added, references are automatically formatted and added to your essay’s references/works cited list.
CITATIONS (IN-TEXT CITATIONS, FOOTNOTES, ENDNOTES)
Add in-text citations and footnotes/endnotes with ease. Simply tap the insert citation button and select the reference you wish to cite. An in-text citation/footnote/endnote is automatically created for you
GENERAL FOOTNOTES
Add general footnotes to any essay.
EQUATIONS
Essayist supports equations backed by LaTeX.
CITATION STYLES
Essayist supports: AMA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard, MLA & Vancouver.
EXPORT
Export your work to PDF or Word.
MINIMAL INTERFACE
A simple interface helps you write without distractions.
ABSTRACT, APPENDICES & TABLE OF CONTENTS
Add an abstract, appendices and a table of contents to your essay.
FIGURES & TABLES
Easily add figures and tables with all the required information (caption, title, numbering, notes, etc.).
REGULAR UPDATES
We are working hard to make Essayist the best academic writing app it can be. If you have feature requests or encounter issues, please don't hesitate to contact us at contact@essayist.app
MORE
- iOS & macOS versions (universal purchase)
- Built-in Universal Reference Manager
- Pre-defined & customizable paragraph styles (Block Quote, Headings, etc.)
- Import BibTeX
- Various reference types (News Article, Magazine, Website, Dictionary, etc. …)
- Two paper sizes: US Letter & A4
- Two font choices: Times New Roman & Arial
- Word Count & Page Count
- Multiple background choices
- Spell Check, Auto Completion & Auto Capitalization
- Dark mode
- Designed for Accessibility
PRICING
Essayist Pro requires a subscription. Choose between a monthly and a yearly subscription.
Terms of Use: https://www.iubenda.com/terms-and-conditions/82031685
Privacy Policy: https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/82031685
The simplest way to compose an A+ essay. Choose your citation style and the app will format your work to match. Then use the built-in source manager to look up – and properly cite – your references.
The best writing tool!
lanadelpasta
I absolutely love the way this is formatted. It has made referencing so much easier, I write quicker and I do not have to worry about formatting. The minimal design has helped a lot with my focus and productiviy. However, I am very dissapointed that there is no table of contents option even though it is such an important component of an essay.Ho
Developer Response
Hi. Thank you very much! We are very happy to hear Essayist is helping you with your writing. A table of contents feature is in the works.Thank you for the review and feedback!Till
Good BUT text colour issues...
SamChaloner
This is an incredible app BUT if you have a touchbar on your Macbook and you use the feature to change the colour of your text - (like I did, to help edit my essay and highlight areas I wanted to cut for word count) - the app will freeze and when you reopen it all you coloured text will simply look like any other black and white text.Please fix this bug in the next update and I would happily give a glowing review!
Developer Response
Hi. Thank you for your review and thanks for pointing this out. We'll look into it!Kind regards,Till
Great But...
I said awesome !!!
This app is brilliant for writing essays and has saved me hours of work citing references and writing a bibliograpy but... It does not include footnotes in the final word count. I understand how not all universities abide by this rule, but in mine the footnotes contribute to the overall wordcount and had i not spotted that these are not included i would have gone over by about 600 words! It would be great to have an option to add the footnotes to the overall word count.
Developer Response
Hi, thanks so much for your review and kind words! We weren’t aware that some universities include footnotes in the word count but we will take this into consideration for a future update and look into adding an option to include footnotes in the final word count. Please don’t hesitate to email us if you have any other feature requests!
Essay Writing Just Got Easier:
This update addresses a reported issue with PDF export. Thank you for emailing us!
If you have feature requests or experience an issue, please email us. We usually respond very quickly and it really helps us improve Essayist.
Version 1.17.10
The developer, Essayist Software Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Purchases
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary based, for example, on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More