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Atticus or Vellum: which one can you actually run?

Vellum is Mac-only and $249.99. Atticus is $147 and runs in any browser. For most authors the comparison is settled before it starts — by the computer on the desk. Here is what is left to decide once it is.

The Nueel team9 min read

Vellum requires macOS 13 or newer and publishes no Windows version. Atticus is a progressive web app that runs, in its own words, “on all devices with a browser”: Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook.

So for a large share of the people typing atticus vs vellum into a search box, there is no comparison to make. There is one option and one advertisement. It is worth knowing which of those two situations you are in before reading a feature table, because half the internet’s comparisons of these two tools are written as though everyone owns a Mac.

If you do own one, the choice is real, and it is less about features than about how many jobs you want one application to do.

What each one is

Both of them now write and format. That is worth saying plainly, because most comparisons of these two — including an earlier draft of this one — still describe Vellum as a formatter you feed a finished manuscript into. Its own documentation disagrees: Vellum’s Text Editor is “a full-featured word-processor”, and the question it opens with is “Need to fix a typo, add formatting, or write your entire novel from scratch? You can do it all here.”

So the difference is emphasis rather than capability. Vellum is formatting-first: the product, the pricing tiers and the workflow are organised around producing the finished book, and the writing tools are there so you do not have to leave to fix a sentence. Atticus puts the two on equal footing, and talks about writing “from here, there or anywhere” before it talks about output.

Which matters less than the price gap suggests, and much less than the next section.

The prices, as published

Vellum Atticus
Price $249.99 (Vellum Press), $199.99 ebooks only $147
Shape One-time One-time, “all future updates”
Runs on macOS 13+, Mac only Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook — any browser
Offline Native app Stated: “Work online, offline, in a plane or on a train”
Output PDF/X-1a print, EPUB 3 / EPUB 2 PDF, EPUB, DOCX
Refunds 30 days 30-day money-back guarantee
Try before paying Import, style and preview free, for as long as you like; pay to generate files Pay, then 30 days to change your mind

Read from vellum.pub, help.vellum.pub and atticus.io on 10 September 2026. Vellum states that its price does not include tax; Atticus’s terms make applicable taxes the purchaser’s responsibility. Atticus’s offline mode covers work on the project already open — importing, exporting and switching books need a connection.

The gap is about a hundred dollars, which is real but rarely decisive. What decides it more often is that one of the two columns is unavailable to you.

When the machine has already chosen

Vellum’s macOS requirement is not a soft preference. There is no Windows build to buy, and the vendor says it has no plans for one.

There is a workaround, and it is Vellum’s own: the company publishes a guide to running it on Windows through MacinCloud, a service that rents a Mac by the hour from about $1. That is a real answer rather than a forum hack, and for a single book it is cheap. It also means renting macOS on top of the $249.99 and doing your final production pass on a borrowed computer, which is a strange place to be when the file is the one thing you cannot get wrong.

If you are on Windows, Linux, or a Chromebook and would rather not rent a Mac, Atticus is the one of these two you can simply run. Whether it is the one you should buy is a different question with more than two answers — Reedsy Studio’s formatting is free, Kindle Create is free and now handles KDP paperbacks as well as Kindle ebooks, and Nueel is the browser tool we make.

On a Mac, what actually separates them

The page. Our judgement, and it is a judgement rather than a specification: Vellum sets the better page. The designs read as coherent typographic systems rather than chapter-heading decorations. What is checkable is the file it writes — PDF/X-1a:2003, the press-oriented flavour of PDF that printers ask for, and EPUB 3 by default with EPUB 2 available. If you want a book that looks like it came from a publisher, that is the argument for the extra hundred dollars, and you can test it for free before paying.

Where the manuscript lives. Both let you edit in place, so the old argument that Vellum forces you back into Word is out of date. What is still true is that a lot of authors keep Word or Scrivener as the master copy and import from it, and that habit costs the same in either tool: edit in the master, reimport, check the book again. If you are going to work that way, neither of these saves you. If you are willing to let the book become the master after import, both let you.

The trial shapes. Vellum’s is the more generous of the two, and it is worth using before you buy either. You can download it, import your manuscript, style it and preview the whole book for as long as you like; the payment comes when you want to generate the files. So you can answer does my book look right in this on your own manuscript, at no cost, with no deadline. And it is not a trade against a refund — Vellum also states you can “cancel your purchase within 30 days for a refund”, the same window Atticus publishes. Atticus asks for the $147 first and gives you 30 days to want it back.

Where the checking happens

Both vendors aim their output at real stores. Vellum generates store-specific ebook files and sets its print bleed for KDP and IngramSpark; Atticus says its files are ready to publish at the major services. Neither can promise a given upload will be accepted, because the store runs its own validation either way — and KDP’s is better than it is usually given credit for. Its Print Previewer checks the file before submission and lets you jump to the pages it flags, and Amazon says its review email carries direct links to the errors.

So the honest version of this is not nobody tells you what is wrong. It is when you find out. The store’s check happens after the upload, on a file you have already finished, with paperback and hardcover review published as taking up to 72 hours. Fix, re-upload, wait again.

Nueel moves that check before the export: pick the store and the file is validated against its published requirements — trim size, bleed, inside margin for the page count, embedded fonts, image resolution — while you can still change the setting that caused it. That is our pitch and you should weigh it as one; the difference it buys is a shorter loop, not a check nobody else performs.

A shorter answer

Own a Mac and care most about the page: Vellum. Use the free preview on your own manuscript first — it costs nothing and answers the question better than this article can.

Own a Mac and would rather keep the hundred dollars: Atticus.

Do not own a Mac and do not want to rent one: Atticus, or one of the browser tools it competes with, which is a longer list.

Whichever you choose, the sequence downstream is the same. The interior is finished first, because the page count comes out of it; the spine comes out of the page count — KDP’s cover calculator takes trim size, binding, paper and page count, and the spine width follows from the last two; and the cover cannot be final until the interior is. Change your type size late enough to move the page count, and you have changed the cover too, whether or not the tool mentions it.

Sources

Common questions

Atticus or Vellum, which is better?
On a Mac it is a close call and mostly a matter of taste: our judgement is that Vellum sets the better page, and Atticus costs about a hundred dollars less. Both now include a word processor, so neither forces you to draft elsewhere. On Windows, Linux or a Chromebook the question mostly does not arise, because Vellum publishes a macOS-only requirement and no Windows build exists.
Does Vellum work on Windows?
Not natively, and the vendor says it has no plans for a Windows version. Vellum does publish its own guide to running it on Windows through MacinCloud, which rents a Mac by the hour from around $1. That works, and for one book it is inexpensive, but it means renting macOS on top of the $249.99.
Is Atticus cheaper than Vellum?
Yes, as published: Atticus is $147 once, Vellum is $249.99 for Vellum Press or $199.99 for the ebooks-only tier. Both are one-time purchases rather than subscriptions, and both publish a 30-day refund window. Vellum additionally lets you import, style and preview a book for free, for as long as you like, and asks for payment only when you want to generate the files.
Can I try either one before paying?
Both, and Vellum's trial is the more generous. It is a free download that lets you import your manuscript, style it and preview the finished book with no time limit; payment comes when you want to generate files. Atticus takes the money first and offers 30 days to change your mind. Vellum offers the same 30-day refund on top of its free trial.
Do I still need Word or Scrivener with them?
No. Both include a word processor: Vellum describes its Text Editor as a full-featured one and says you can write an entire novel from scratch in it, and Atticus is built around drafting as much as formatting. Many authors still keep Word or Scrivener as the master copy and import from it, which is a workflow choice rather than something either tool requires.

Nueel is a web app that turns a finished manuscript into a typeset book, in your browser: import your Word file, choose a design, export a print-ready PDF and an EPUB. See how it works.