Arc Studio Pro vs Zettlr

Arc Studio Pro is screenwriting software for drafting and managing scripts on Mac, Windows, iPadOS, iOS, and browsers. Its writing tools include industry formatting, Focus mode, timed sprints, notes, and outlining. Users can work offline, while automatic draft history lets them recover deleted text. Encryption and automatic backups protect work on devices and in the cloud. The Free plan includes up to two scripts and PDF export with a watermark; the free writing experience can begin without a credit card, and each account includes a free 7-day Pro trial. Free is free, billed annually. Essentials costs $69 a year and includes unlimited scripts, advanced formatting, desktop and mobile apps, and PDF export. Pro costs $99 a year and adds features including outlining, revision management, feedback links, and two collaborators. Collaboration works on Free, but inviting collaborators requires a subscription. The product is published by Arc Studio Labs, Inc., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

Zettlr is a writing workbench for projects that can run from early notes through journal submissions and book manuscripts. It began as a Markdown editor for academic researchers and is also used by students, journalists, authors, and others writing substantial amounts. The app works offline on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and files stay on the user's computer. It supports standard Markdown and exports to formats supported by Pandoc. Citation manager support includes Zotero, JabRef, and Juris-M, with more than 9,000 citation styles. Note features include IDs, wiki-style internal links, related files, navigation, and graph view. Pandoc-powered profiles can apply templates to papers or prepare presentations for Beamer, reveal.js, or PowerPoint. Zettlr also renders LaTeX equations and Mermaid charts and supports extensive settings and custom CSS. It is free and open source, with no payment required to download. The maker says app data is not collected and update checks can be disabled. Older releases are unsupported; nightly releases may contain many bugs.