# Essayist: Academic Writing App

> APA, MLA, Chicago & More

Canonical page: [https://chrome-stats.com/d/id1537845384](https://chrome-stats.com/d/id1537845384)

## Overview

- **ID:** `id1537845384`
- **Platform:** Apple
- **Type:** Apple app
- **Status:** Available
- **Publisher:** Essayist Software Inc.
- **Category:** Productivity
- **Rating:** 4.50 / 5 (407 ratings)
- **Version:** 2.1.0
- **Last updated:** 2026-09-11
- **First published:** 2021-01-11
- **Size:** 86 MB
- **Data as of:** 2026-09-13
- **Store listing:** [Apple App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/essayist-academic-writing-app/id1537845384)
- **Website:** [https://www.essayist.app](https://www.essayist.app/)
- **Privacy policy:** [https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/82031685](https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/82031685)

## Description

**Essayist** is an academic writing app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that handles formatting, citations, references, footnotes, page setup, and more. Choose from APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard, IEEE, AMA, Vancouver, and over 10,000 citation styles.

Organize sources with iCloud, import references from Zotero, Google Scholar, URLs, BibTeX, or manually, and add equations, figures, tables, abstracts, appendices, and tables of contents. Write in a distraction-free workspace, sync across Apple devices, work offline, and export essays as PDF or Word documents.

## Rankings

- #80,177 — Overall
- #3 — The Best Apps for Homework Help
- #15 — Tap Into Apple Intelligence
- #33 — Level Up Your Life
- #10 — citation generator
- #78 — reference

## Review summary

Overall, users praise Essayist for strong citation management and formatting support, plus a polished mobile experience for college writing. However, reliability problems like crashes and loading failures, coupled with high pricing and incomplete citation features, hinder adoption. Zotero integration is lacking and some workflows are manual, with additional copy-paste quirks noted. The app shows potential but reliability and pricing concerns are the main drawbacks.

### Pros

- Valuable citation management and a reference library that lets you reuse citations across assignments.
- Good support for multiple formatting styles (APA/MLA/Turabian) and overall paper formatting.
- Excellent mobile experience (iPhone) for writing, exporting, and submitting APA-formatted papers.
- Aesthetically pleasing UI and generally easy-to-use writing experience for college-level work.

### Cons

- Frequent crashes, bugs, and reliability issues (content won’t load, freezes or crashes).
- High subscription price and perceived poor value; the monthly/yearly plan is expensive.
- Citation features are unreliable or limited (generator/search issues, non-editable reference page).
- Poor Zotero integration and heavy manual import requirements (no bulk import; limited syncing).

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Source: [Chrome-Stats](https://chrome-stats.com/d/id1537845384)