A Zettlr alternative for when you write away from the desk
Zettlr is a free, open-source workbench for academic writing: citations from Zotero, a Zettelkasten, and Pandoc export to almost anything. It is also desktop-only. Inkiostro is the editor for the rest of the time — on Mac, iPad and iPhone, over the same plain .md files.
Zettlr is free, developed by Hendrik Erz, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. For a thesis or a paper it is hard to beat: it reads citations from Zotero, JabRef or Juris-M in more than 9,000 styles, links notes Zettelkasten-style, and exports through a built-in Pandoc to Word, LaTeX, slides and more. If that is your work, this page is not going to argue you out of it.
What Zettlr does not have is a tablet or a phone. There is no Zettlr for iPad or iPhone, and no sync of its own: files stay on your computer unless you keep them in a synced folder. Inkiostro is native on Mac, iPad and iPhone, and iCloud keeps the same document current on each of them in the free tier.
The two can share a folder. Both work on plain .md files, so many people will want both: Zettlr at the desk for citations and the final export, Inkiostro on the iPad for the drafting. And if your writing is not academic — articles, documentation, a book — Inkiostro may be all you need: its PDF export needs no LaTeX installation, and EPUB is built in.
Inkiostro vs Zettlr, feature by feature
A ✓ means it ships today. Notes mark the differences worth knowing about.
| Feature | Inkiostro | Zettlr |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free · Pro $19.99 once | Free, open source |
| Editing model | Your choice: visual editor (Pro, 7-day trial) or Markdown + rendered preview | Markdown with adjustable inline formatting |
| Mac app | Native | Electron |
| iPad and iPhone apps | ✓ | — |
| Windows / Linux | — | ✓ |
| Sync across devices | iCloud, free | None built in — use a synced folder |
| Citations (Zotero, JabRef) | — | 9,000+ citation styles |
| Linked notes, Zettelkasten, graph | — | ✓ |
| LaTeX math | Free (KaTeX) | ✓ |
| Mermaid diagrams | Free | ✓ |
| PDF export | Free, built in · formulas, diagrams and code stay selectable text | Through Pandoc, with a LaTeX installation |
| Word and LaTeX export | — | Through the built-in Pandoc |
| EPUB export | Pro, built in | — |
| Version history with restore | Pro · 40 versions per file, restore a single paragraph | — |
| Grammar checking | — | LanguageTool |
| Plain .md files on disk | ✓ | ✓ |
Zettlr — pricing and features checked on 10 October 2026 from the official site of Zettlr. Both products change — verify before you buy.
Where Zettlr is still the right choice
- You write with citations. Zotero integration and more than 9,000 citation styles are the heart of Zettlr, and Inkiostro has nothing comparable.
- You keep a Zettelkasten: note IDs, internal links, related files and a graph. Inkiostro is an editor, not a knowledge base.
- You hand in Word files, LaTeX sources or slides. Zettlr’s Pandoc export profiles cover them; Inkiostro does not export to Word or LaTeX.
- You work on Windows or Linux.
- It is free and open source, all of it.
Where Inkiostro pulls ahead
- It goes where you go. Native iPad and iPhone apps with the same two editors and a formatting bar above the keyboard.
- Sync that is part of the app. iCloud keeps every document current on Mac, iPad and iPhone in the free tier.
- PDF with nothing to install. No LaTeX distribution and no configuration: equations, Mermaid diagrams and highlighted code come out as selectable text.
- EPUB built in, with a navigation table of contents, cover and metadata.
- Version history: up to 40 automatic versions per document, a line-by-line diff and single-paragraph restore.
- A visual editor with no symbols on screen at all, for the days you would rather not see Markdown.
Same folder, both apps
There is nothing to convert. Keep the folder Zettlr uses in iCloud Drive and open it from Inkiostro — or point Pro’s external folders at it — and the same files open in both apps. Citation keys like [@smith2020] and [[links]] stay in the text exactly as written: Inkiostro shows them, it does not resolve them, so the cited, final export still belongs in Zettlr.