AtramentumSwitching: a free alternative to Scrivener
Scrivener is a mature app with many years of development behind it. Atramentum is younger and still in early testing. This page shows fairly where it differs, so you can decide for yourself.
Price and platforms
| Atramentum | Scrivener 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | free, no paid tier | US$59.99 per platform (Mac or Windows); iPhone/iPad US$23.99 extra |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, Linux, Android; iPhone/iPad coming | Mac, Windows, iPhone/iPad |
Scrivener details from the Literature & Latte store as of 13 November 2026. Prices may change; the vendor's page is authoritative. Scrivener is a trademark of its owner; Atramentum is not affiliated with it.
What Atramentum offers
A familiar structure
Chapters and scenes in an outline, scene status, point of view, notes, versions of every scene.
Planning built in
A corkboard, a timeline that spots flashbacks, and a character web that shows relationships and states over time.
Manuscript format and e-book
PDF export as a standard manuscript (Courier) or a reading copy, plus Word, e-book (EPUB), Markdown and plain text.
No account, no data collection
Stored locally, works offline, never uploads your texts. Sync through your own cloud folder.
What Scrivener (still) does better
To be fair: Scrivener can do things Atramentum can't today, for example its very flexible compile with custom templates for many formats; Atramentum exports Word, PDF, e-book (EPUB), Markdown and plain text with a choice of page size, font and front matter, but without freely designed templates. Its spelling check uses your system's checker (with grammar on the Mac), and its style analysis is based on simple, explained rules. If you miss something, request it.
Bringing your manuscript along
- Export your manuscript from your current app as a Word file (.docx).
- Make sure chapters use the style Heading 1 and scene titles Heading 2. Scene breaks such as
* * *are recognised. - Create a new project in Atramentum and choose File › Import …. Chapters and scenes are created automatically; bold and italics are kept.
From Scrivener 2 or 3 you can also import directly: choose Import … and pick the “….scriv” project folder. Folders become chapters, texts become scenes, synopsis and notes become the scene note; character and place folders become characters and places.
After the import, a report shows anything that could not be carried over. Your original file stays unchanged.