Scapple
A virtual sheet of paper for writers — freeform notes, no forced hierarchy, by the Scrivener folks.
About
Scapple comes from Literature & Latte, the Cornwall-based company behind Scrivener, and it is deliberately not a mind mapper in the hierarchical sense: you double-click anywhere on an infinite canvas to drop a note, then drag notes onto each other to join them with dotted lines or arrows. Every note is equal — there is no root, no levels, nothing forced. It is built for writers roughing out plots, essays, and arguments, and notes drag straight into Scrivener's corkboard. It runs on macOS and Windows with a one-time license — about $20.99 standard or $16.79 educational per 2026 listings (older pages show $14.99–$18; prices vary by region and storefront). The 30-day trial is unusually fair: only days you actually open the app count.
Honest limits: single-purpose by design — no mobile apps, no collaboration, no templates to speak of. No published performance benchmarks found.
What it can do
- Completely freeform canvas — notes anywhere, no hierarchy
- Connect notes with dotted lines or arrows via drag and drop
- Stack notes into columns and group with background shapes
- Custom fonts, colors, and border styles per note
- Drag notes directly into Scrivener
- Export to PNG, PDF, OPML, and text formats
- 30-day trial counted by days of actual use
Setup
Download the trial, then buy a one-time license from the vendor or the Mac App Store.
Prerequisites
macOS or Windows; nothing else.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (VERIFIED tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: freeform concept, Scrivener integration, and one-time pricing confirmed via TechRadar review, aiwriterstools, and the official product page; usage-counted trial documented by TechRadar. Strengths: the only serious anti-hierarchy tool in the category, fair trial, one-time price, tight Scrivener workflow. Docked for: (1) list price varies across sources ($14.99–$20.99) and regions — confirm at checkout; (2) intentionally narrow: no mobile, no collaboration. License: proprietary; one-time license.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 7.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 9.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 3.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · Literature & Latte (Cornwall, UK), makers of Scrivener; freeform canvas, no forced hierarchy.
- · One-time license ~$20.99 standard / ~$16.79 educational (2026 listings; region varies).
- · 30-day trial counted by days of actual use; drags notes into Scrivener.
- · macOS + Windows only; no mobile apps; no collaboration.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.