bakspace
Download

Novels, short stories, a memoir, a thesis. Whatever you write: one binder, every version kept, a finished file at the end.

DownloadSee how it works

Try the editor. Right here.

This is the real one, not a picture of it. Select some text, type a slash on a new line, or open a character note: research lives beside the manuscript and stays out of the word count.

Pride and Prejudice

Chapter I

154 words / 437 in the manuscript

Write it, keep it, finish it.

Keep the files. They are yours.

A project is a folder of plain files on your disk. Open it in anything, back it up however you like, keep it for fifty years. No account, no export step.

The Ferry.bakspace/
  project.json
  binder.json
  nodes/
  history/
  manuscript/
    01 Part One/
      01 The Ferry.md
      02 Salt.md

Keep every version.

Rewrote chapter three and liked it better yesterday? Every version is kept. Compare any two, restore one, carry on.

The history panel listing snapshots of a scene

Finish in Word, EPUB or PDF.

One click compiles the manuscript: double spaced with a title page for an agent or a supervisor, or flowing for a reader.

.docx.epub.pdf

Focus mode: only the page, nothing else

Write with nothing in the way.

Focus mode is the page and nothing else. Typewriter scrolling keeps the line you are writing in the middle of the screen.

Take it with you, if you want.

Local by default and complete without an account. Move a project to the cloud to write from any machine, and move it back whenever you like.

US$29

once

| wʌns |adverb
1one time only; on a single occasion. You pay once.
2not monthly. See also: not yearly.

No subscription. One licence for macOS, Windows and Linux, every update included. Try it free for 14 days first.

Writing on more than one machine? Cloud sync and backups are a separate subscription, priced to keep the servers on and nothing more. Your first three months are included, and the app is complete without it.

Download

  • macOS, Apple silicon
  • macOS, Intel
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • In the browser

Leave an email and you will hear the day it ships. Nothing else.

Next to the ones you have heard of.

Feature
Bakspace
Scrivener
Ulysses
Dabble
Price
US$29, once
US$59.99 per platform
US$39.99 a year
US$19 a month
Subscription
Yes: None
Yes: None
No: Required
No: Required
Your files
Yes: Plain files on your disk
No: A .scriv bundle
No: Its own library
No: Their cloud; export to leave
Platforms
Mac, Windows, Linux and the browser
Mac and Windows, sold separately
Apple only
Browser only
Account
Yes: Not needed
Yes: Not needed
Yes: Not needed
No: Required

From each product's own website, September 2026. Scrivener, Ulysses and Dabble are good tools; this is only where we differ.

Questions people ask before buying.

What is Bakspace for?
Anything long enough to lose the plot of. A novel, a pile of short stories, a memoir, a thesis, a series with all its notes, a year of essays. If it has chapters, or research stacked up beside it, it belongs here. If it is a shopping list, the Notes app is right there and we will not be offended.
Is Bakspace a Scrivener alternative?
We took the parts everyone actually uses (the binder, the corkboard, a synopsis and status on every document, snapshots, compile to Word, EPUB or PDF) and left the other four hundred menu items where we found them. Smaller on purpose, half the price, and your files are plain text rather than a bundle only one app can read. Scrivener is a fine piece of software. We just think you deserve a lighter one and some change.
Can I open my work without Bakspace?
Always. A project is a folder on your disk with a Markdown copy of every document sitting in plain sight. No database, no export step, no ransom note. If we vanished tomorrow (we are not planning to), your book would still be a folder of text files, which is how it should have been all along.
Is there a subscription?
Not for the app. US$29, once, every update included, no tiers, no upsell hiding behind a toggle. There is a small subscription for cloud sync and backups, priced to keep the servers on and not a penny more, and your first three months come free with the licence. It is a convenience, not a core feature. A project is a plain folder, so if you would rather keep the money, put the folder in iCloud Drive, Google Drive or OneDrive and open it on whichever machine you are sitting at. We will not tell anyone.
Does it work offline?
Completely. Local is the default and a local project never touches the network, so there is nothing to phone home to and nothing to phone. The cloud is optional, and a project is either local or cloud, never both, so there is one copy of the truth and it is yours.
Which platforms does it run on?
macOS on Apple silicon and Intel, Windows, Linux, and the browser if you have a cloud project. Same files, same licence, no per-platform tax. We looked at charging separately for each one and could not keep a straight face.