Software Alternatives & Reviews

Org mode VS Scrivener

Compare Org mode VS Scrivener and see what are their differences

Org mode logo Org mode

Org: an Emacs Mode for Notes, Planning, and Authoring

Scrivener logo Scrivener

Scrivener is a content-generation tool for composing and structuring documents.
  • Org mode Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-15
  • Scrivener Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-16

FROM LITERATURE & LATTE WEBSITE: Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators and more. Tailor-made for long writing projects, Scrivener banishes page fright by allowing you to compose your text in any order, in sections as large or small as you like. Got a great idea but don't know where it fits? Write when inspiration strikes and find its place later. Grow your manuscript organically, idea by idea. In Scrivener, everything you write is integrated into an easy-to-use project outline. So working with an overview of your manuscript is only ever a click away, and turning Chapter Four into Chapter One is as simple as drag and drop. Need to refer to research? In Scrivener, your background material is always at hand, and you can open it right next to your work. Write a description based on a photograph. Transcribe an interview. Take notes about a PDF file or web page. Or check for consistency by referencing an earlier chapter alongside the one in progress. Once you're ready to share your work with the world, compile everything into a single document for printing, self-publishing, or exporting to popular formats such as Word, PDF, Final Draft or plain text. You can even share using different formatting, so that you can write in your favorite font and still satisfy those submission guidelines.

Org mode videos

org mode is awesome

More videos:

  • Review - 2018-11-14: Building a Second Brain in Org Mode - Tasshin Michael Fogleman

Scrivener videos

Scrivener vs Word: Review of What Scrivener Can Do For You

More videos:

  • Review - Ultimate Scrivener 3 Review
  • Review - Why I Think Scrivener is For Everyone (and why I like it so much)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Org mode and Scrivener)
Task Management
100 100%
0% 0
Writing Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0
Markdown Editor
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Org mode and Scrivener

Org mode Reviews

Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?
Before going full Org Mode, I used MS OneNote, and liked it very much. My notes from that period has tons of images and annotated screenshots dumped into them. I miss that in my Emacs workflow nowadays. My dream software would be pieces of Org Mode on a OneNote-like canvas, with support for easily pasting images and drawing on them (especially using a graphics tablet, or at...

Scrivener Reviews

11 Best Scrivener Alternatives
The app’s interface looks similar to Scrivener, but you get a different experience based on your level and interests. Scrivener’s learning curve is designed for intermediate or higher levels of writers, but Ulysses makes it easier by offering tutorials along with its features.
7 Best Scrivener Alternatives
This writing tool is a Scrivener alternative that is similar to a Scrivener. The appearance of the user interface is identical to Scrivener but a little bit more modern.
5 Free Scrivener Alternatives to Manage Writing Projects
Ask most experts what the best novel writing software is, and they’ll usually tell you Scrivener. It’s also a popular tool for organizing research for most writing projects, although it’s not free. While they’re not always as robust, free Scrivener alternatives help you accomplish similar results without any fees. For students, full-time writers, and even freelancers, these...
9 Scrivener Alternative Tools: Overview, Pros, And Cons
No direct import from Scrivener: Ulysses doesn’t handle Scrivener files, at least not directly. You have to export your content as MultiMarkdown files in Scrivener first, click Save, and drag the .mmd file into Ulysses’ library.
17 Top Evernote Alternatives for Note-Taking for 2019
If your notes have anything to do with any type of writing: outlines, notes on drafts, brain dumps on story ideas, blog posts, scripts, essays, anything like that—you should migrate all of it to Scrivener.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Org mode seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 174 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Org mode mentions (174)

  • Ask HN: Has Anyone Trained a personal LLM using their personal notes?
    - or to visualize and use it as a personal partner. There's already a ton of open-source UIs such as Chatbot-ui[3] and Reor[4]. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Personally, I haven't been consistent enough through the years in note-taking. So, I'm really curious to learn more about those of you who were and implemented such pipelines. I'm sure there's a ton of really fascinating experiences. [1]... - Source: Hacker News / 26 days ago
  • My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file
    Obligatory reference to Emacs Org-Mode [1]. Author's approach is basically Org-Mode with fewer helpers. Org-mode's power is that, at core, it's just a text file, with gradual augmentation. Then again, Org-Mode is a tool you must install, accessible through a limited list of clients (Emacs obviously, but also VSCode), and the power of OP's approach is that it requires no external tools. [1] https://orgmode.org. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Show HN: Heynote – A Dedicated Scratchpad for Developers
    This reminds me a lot of [Org Mode](https://orgmode.org/). Do you have plans to add other org-like features, like evaluating code blocks? I don't personally see myself moving away from org-mode, but it would be nice to have something to recommend to people who are reluctant to use emacs, even if it's only for a single application. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • How to combine daily journal with general database of people, places, things, etc.
    If you want to spare a couple of detours, you probably could start with Emacs Org-mode according to Greenspun's eleventh rule: "Any sufficiently complicated PIM or note-taking program contains an ad hoc, informally specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Org mode.". Source: 5 months ago
  • Ask HN: Local Wysiwyg HTML Editor for Mac
    Wow, no one has recommended Org mode (https://orgmode.org). I started using Emacs nearly 20 years ago specifically because of Org. I use Org for all my static sites, note taking, to-do lists and calendar. Org has a lightweight markup language that has far more features than Markdown (e.g., plain text spreadsheets!), but the markup isn't visible to the extent that Markdown is in most editors. Emacs with Org files... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
View more

Scrivener mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Scrivener yet. Tracking of Scrivener recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Org mode and Scrivener, you can also consider the following products

Todoist - Todoist is a to-do list that helps you get organized, at work and in life.

Manuskript - Open-source tool for writers.

Workflowy - A better way to organize your mind.

iA Writer - Minimal Design, Maximum Focus

Trello - Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It's free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details.

yWriter - Free writing software designed by the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series. yWriter6 helps you write a book by organising chapters, scenes, characters and locations in an easy-to-use interface.