The closest to what Ulysses provides for long-form writing is Scrivener. A new license for Scrivener is $45 and paid upgrades don't happen often. The iOS version, which is a poor sibling to the desktop version, is $19.99. It was also last upgraded December 6th, 2017.
The numbers change if you use Dropbox to sync the iOS and Desktop versions. Dropbox now allows only 3 connected devices on its free plan.* So, if you have more than three devices connected, you need to pay at least $100 year to sync Scrivener. Unfortunately, Scrivener for iOS only syncs on Dropbox.
Scrivener is also fairly slow to updater for news OS versions. It took them about 2 months for the dark mode support, and they have not updated the iOS version for the new screen sizes. I don't think the iOS version is very high on the developer's priority list.
Ulysses uses iCloud to sync and I haven't had any problems with it. It is also updated several times a year with fairly substantial upgrades.
There are things I like about Scrivener, like the variables for part and chapter numbers, but Ulysses is well worth the sub for me.
*It's grandfathered for current connections, but for the math lets pretend you either added a new device or just signed up.
The numbers change if you use Dropbox to sync the iOS and Desktop versions. Dropbox now allows only 3 connected devices on its free plan.* So, if you have more than three devices connected, you need to pay at least $100 year to sync Scrivener. Unfortunately, Scrivener for iOS only syncs on Dropbox.
Scrivener is also fairly slow to updater for news OS versions. It took them about 2 months for the dark mode support, and they have not updated the iOS version for the new screen sizes. I don't think the iOS version is very high on the developer's priority list.
Ulysses uses iCloud to sync and I haven't had any problems with it. It is also updated several times a year with fairly substantial upgrades.
There are things I like about Scrivener, like the variables for part and chapter numbers, but Ulysses is well worth the sub for me.
*It's grandfathered for current connections, but for the math lets pretend you either added a new device or just signed up.