How Setapp streamlines workflows for writers and bloggers

Setapp brings together the best writing apps for Mac, like Ulysses, MindNode Classic, and Craft, in one affordable subscription. These clean, distraction-free tools are crafted to support every stage of writing and publishing, making your workflow more organized, focused, and efficient. 

Whether you're blogging or drafting long-form content, Setapp’s curated collection of blogging software Mac users love can seriously level up your creativity.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how Setapp supports writers and bloggers, plus share my go-to Mac tools for content creation.

Why writers and bloggers need integrated Mac workflows

Being a writer or blogger isn’t just about writing. It’s jumping between tabs, switching apps, and trying to remember where your draft even is. 

One app for writing, another for research, a few more for images and editing. It gets messy fast. Here are more challenges writers face and how they can improve the workflow.

Common challenges in writing and blogging workflows

Here is what writers or bloggers face in day-to-day life to complete their writing:

• Constant switching between tabs: Jumping between writing, researching, note-taking, editing, and publishing tools breaks your focus every time.
• Tool overload: Installing and using separate apps for each task takes a lot of system memory and makes switching a real chaos when completing even a simple copy.  
• Confusion with file versions: Which draft is final? This is a real issue with every writer as you get confused between various file versions.
•  Each app subscription fatigue: Paying for 6-7 different tools separately can quickly shoot up your expenses. Additionally, it becomes challenging to track the subscriptions of each tool, as you often purchase them at different times.  
• Missed deadlines: When your entire writing workflow is scattered and you are overwhelmed, timelines slip, and you miss important deadlines. 

All this creates chaos, wastes time, breaks focus, and leaves you feeling burned out.  Therefore, to make writing enjoyable, organized, and easy, you need integrated Mac workflows, and Setapp offers you that.

What an ideal Mac workflow looks like for writers

If you’re someone like me, your writing workflow probably includes switching between multiple apps to complete just one article, and that’s not including tabs I open for research. For me, Setapp was a game-changer, and I am sure it will be for you, too. 

Here’s an ideal Mac workflow plan for writers:

• One solid app for drafting: Tools like Ulysses keep everything clean and let you focus — whether you're writing a blog, ebook, or email campaign.
• A visual tool for outlining and brainstorming: Use visual Mac tools for writers for better structure. I love using MindNode Classic when I’m stuck; it helps me organize complex ideas or break down a series.
• A simple system for notes and research: Give priority to note-taking and outlining tools like NotePlan or MarginNote for easy collection of sources, ideas, and highlights. In this way, you can pull the notes quickly, without breaking your writing flow.
• Tools that actually talk to each other: All writing apps for Mac need to work in collaboration. This saves you a lot of time and keeps everything organized while writing a blog. 
• No login fatigue: All your tools should work with one login and not with separate logins. Also, there should not be a number of subscriptions to remember every month.

The great solution for this is Setapp. It’s a subscription-based platform that manages all the apps and their updates, without extra charges for premium features, as they are included in the subscription plan.  

Learn more about Setapp benefits.

The best Setapp apps for writing and blogging in 2025

The best Setapp apps for writing and blogging include Ulysses, Downie, CleanMyMac, CleanShot X, and more. Setapp isn’t just a bundle of random tools. It’s a handpicked collection of Mac, iOS, and web apps that cover every part of the writing process, from brainstorming and outlining to screenshots and formatting. And they all work beautifully together.

Plus, some writing apps offer both Mac and iOS versions, allowing you to sync your content easily and access it anytime, anywhere.

Here are the top apps I use (and genuinely love) for writing and blogging in 2025. No fluff, just tools that get the job done.

Drafting, outlining, and organizing ideas

Before I start writing, I outline my thoughts. Otherwise, I get lost halfway through. These apps assist with drafting, outlining, and organizing ideas into clear, structured pieces of content:

• Ulysses: It is my long-form writing sanctuary. Whether I’m wrangling a 3,000-word deep-dive or prepping bite-sized blog posts, Ulysses keeps drafts organized and in one beautiful, minimalist view.

• Craft: It feels like a digital whiteboard. Perfect for gathering snippets, sketches, and links before organizing them into structured documents.

• MindNode Classic: This blogging software for Mac delivers pure magic when I’m stuck. I drag around topics and connections, watching messy ideas map into article outlines. 

Note-taking and research

You know, writing ideas can hit anytime, and research piles up fast. So to quickly save everything, I use these writing apps:

• NotePlan: This app captures quick thoughts and to-do lists. The daily notes become my running scrapbook for each writing project.

• MarginNote: It’s ideal for research-heavy articles, letting me annotate PDFs and web content. No more losing highlight context.

• TaskPaper: It is refreshingly simple for outlining research or task lists with a markdown-esque flair.

Markdown editors and formatting tools

Clean formatting matters, especially when publishing online. These markdown editors for Mac help you make everything look polished, even with plain text:

• Marked: Before I upload to WordPress or Ghost, I push every draft through Marked for a quick look and polish. It catches those wonky headings and missing links.

• MarsEdit: It lets you preview your blog post exactly how it will look once it's published. You can also apply Markdown, MultiMarkdown, or line break conversions, and even add your own preview filters if needed.

Grammar, editing, and cleanup

Even great writing needs a clean workspace, and that includes your Mac, too. These tools help improve your text and keep the system clean for distraction-free writing.

• TextSoap: It helps you tidy up your text by fixing things like extra spaces, inconsistent capitalization, and small formatting errors. The app uses smart built-in tools to clean everything up quickly and accurately.

• CleanMyMac: It handles the tech side of cleanup. It clears out junk files, frees up memory, and keeps your Mac running fast so you can focus on writing.

To keep your writing environment optimized, check disk space on your Mac and free up room using Setapp tools. You can even use it alongside browser-based plug-ins for a clean, smooth writing flow.

Publishing, screenshots, and content promotion

Once writing is done, it’s time to publish it. These tools help you stay with screenshots, images, and all the little details that make a blog or post look polished:

• CleanShot X: This is hands-down the best screenshot tool I’ve used. You can capture anything, annotate it instantly, and even record short videos or GIFs. Perfect for tutorials or social posts.

• Squash: It keeps my images lightweight and blog-ready. Just drag, drop, and done — your visuals stay sharp without slowing down your site. You can also recover deleted photos from your iPhone if you accidentally remove an image you planned to use.

• Yoink: It is my quiet little helper. It gives me a handy drag-and-drop shelf where I can quickly stash screenshots, images, and files until I’m ready to publish or upload — no more digging through folders mid-post.

Sample Setapp workflows for different types of writers

I understand that every writer has a different style— some write in long-form drafts, others juggle media, research, and fast deadlines. The good news? Setapp has all the needed Mac tools for writers that fit all kinds of writing styles. 

Let’s find out how the Setapp workflow works for different types of writers.

Bloggers 

Bloggers handle many responsibilities: You are a writer, editor, researcher, and sometimes even designer. This workflow keeps everything organized so you can create, polish, and publish without chaos.

Organize blog ideas with Craft

Planning is essential before writing any blog, and Craft is your best companion. It works as a digital whiteboard, where you can open a new document, structure subheadings, and create a blog outline. It has all the sections needed to generate a perfect structure for a blog. 

The best part? You can even embed links, PDFs, or research notes easily without any need for switching apps. 

Write drafts in Ulysses

Now, when the blog outline is ready, it’s time to write. 

For the writing part, Ulysses is one of my favorite apps. So, I suggest you use it for effortless formatting and distraction-free writing. With it, you can manage multiple blog drafts, tag articles by topic, and attach images or links to each page. 

Capture visuals with CleanShot X

Want to add a how-to guide or a tutorial? If so, then adding screenshots to the blog is the best option. To capture screenshots, CleanShot X is one of the best Mac tools for writers. You just need to open it and snap a clear image of your screen. 

After this, annotate with arrows or text or blur out private info. This tool can even record GIFs or screen videos if you need to add motions to your blog. 

Compress images with Squash

You’ve got beautiful visuals, but they’re huge files, which can slow down the loading of your blog. So, compress images with Squash. It doesn’t degrade the quality of images, but makes them lightweight to insert in a blog. Simply drag and drop the image, and it’s done!

Publish your blog 

Once your post is ready, export it from Ulysses and publish it directly on WordPress or Medium. Yes, Ulysses allows it. Or, simply copy-paste the blog into your CMS like Ghost or Wix. 

Long-form writer 

Writing a novel or non-fiction book? Setapp gives you the perfect trio to keep everything structured, focused, and flowing.

Plan with MindNode Classic

Start by mapping your story or chapters in MindNode Classic. It’s a visual mind-mapping tool that helps you lay out scenes, timelines, character arcs, or research sections. Drag and drop to reorder as your ideas evolve.

Draft in Ulysses

Move to Ulysses for writing. It’s distraction-free and built for long-form. Organize your manuscript into parts and chapters, set writing goals, and sync across devices. You stay in the zone, without clutter.

Preview and polish in Marked

Once your draft is ready, open it in Marked. It gives you a live preview with clean formatting and styles. You can check headings and structure, and you can even export ready-to-print PDFs or eBooks.

Tech or product writer 

I am a technical writer, and I know proper planning, drafting, and tools are needed to write the best tech article. I have used these writing apps for Mac that help me a lot in many ways.

Structure content with MarsEdit

MarsEdit lets writers organize blog posts before publishing. You can write, edit, and format your content offline, preview how it’ll look on the web, and then publish directly to platforms like WordPress — all from one clean interface.

Organize references with Paste

As you research and write, it is very common to forget a few things or miss references. To protect yourself from it, I suggest the Paste app. It keeps track of everything you copy, including snippets of code. So, you can go back anytime and reuse what you need without wasting time or breaking flow.

Save media with Downie

Now, it’s time for media files. Better to save the demo videos and images with Downie. It can be downloaded directly from sites like YouTube or Vimeo. You can save them on your device for screenshots.

Why Setapp is great for writing workflow

If you're looking for the best writing apps for Mac, Setapp makes things easy. 

It bundles powerful tools like Ulysses, Craft, MindNode Classic, and others into one clean, affordable subscription. No need to search, compare, or pay for each app separately. 

Whether you're writing blog posts, drafting articles, or organizing research, Setapp gives you distraction-free, thoughtfully designed apps that support every stage of your creative process. It's also a great solution if you're using blogging software on Mac and want to stay focused and productive without clutter.

Feel free to explore over 250 tools with a 7-day free trial on Setapp and discover if it suits your needs well.