Atticus vs Vellum: Which Book Formatting Software to Buy?

The short version

• If you use Windows, Linux or a Chromebook: Atticus. Vellum runs only on a Mac with macOS 13 or newer.
• If you want ebook and print for less: Atticus at $147, against $249.99 for Vellum Press. Vellum’s $199.99 Ebooks licence does not make paperbacks.
• If you are on a Mac and want box sets, store-specific ebooks or accessibility-checked output: Vellum lists all three; Atticus’s feature list in our data does not.

On the BookBird Author Score for formatting software, Atticus scores 8.9 and Vellum 8.6. Both confirm every formatting job on our list, so the gap comes from cost and search interest: Vellum is the dearest formatter with a confirmed USD price, and fewer people search for it.

Atticus vs Vellum, side by side

Prices in USD as shown on each vendor’s site on October 7, 2026.

Price: $147 against $199.99 or $249.99

Atticus has one plan: $147 for ebook and print, including all future updates. There is no free trial; instead, Atticus offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Vellum has two licences. Vellum Ebooks at $199.99 makes unlimited ebooks. Vellum Press at $249.99 makes unlimited ebooks and paperbacks. The prices exclude tax. You can download Vellum free and build, style and preview a book before buying; the purchase is needed to generate the files.

For an author who publishes in both formats, the comparison is $147 against $249.99, a difference of $102.99. For ebooks only, it is $147 against $199.99. The Cost part of the score spreads each one-time price over three years and uses the cheapest licence, which is why Vellum gets the minimum Cost points among formatters: Draft2Digital’s formatter, Kindle Create, Reedsy Studio, Affinity, calibre and Sigil are free.

Platforms: Mac only, or almost anything

This is the clearest difference. Vellum is a Mac app and requires macOS 13 or newer. Atticus runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook, and in a browser. It works offline as a progressive web app, saves automatically and backs up to the cloud.

If you write on Windows, Vellum is not an option without a Mac. If you work on more than one computer, Atticus’s browser version and cloud backup let you continue on any of them.

Export formats

Atticus exports EPUB, a print-ready PDF and DOCX, with one file producing both the ePub and the PDF. The DOCX export is useful if an editor or a narrator wants a Word file of the final text.

Vellum exports EPUB 3 and EPUB 2, MOBI for advance review copies, and print PDF in the PDF/X-1a standard. It can create store-specific ebooks for Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books. Vellum does not list DOCX export.

Not sure which ebook format a store needs? Our guide to electronic book file formats covers EPUB, MOBI, AZW3 and PDF.

Design and layout

Atticus offers 17 chapter themes with more than 1,200 combinations and a custom theme builder. It supports full-bleed images, footnotes, volumes and parts, large print and callout boxes, and lets you preview the book on iPhone, iPad, Kindle Paperwhite and Oasis, Kobo and Nook.

Vellum offers book styles with drop caps, ornaments and embedded fonts, 24 trim sizes plus large print, paperback or hardcover, and full-bleed pages and backgrounds. It sets margins, page numbers and headers automatically and handles widows. It previews the book on devices and in print, and its output is ACE-approved for accessibility. It can also build a box set from a finished series.

Both confirm all eight jobs on our formatting list: EPUB, a print PDF in KDP trim sizes, ready-made designs, device preview, Word import, front and back matter, full-bleed images and several editions from one file. If you are setting fonts and margins yourself, our guide to typography for self-published books covers what to choose before you upload to KDP.

Writing in the same app

Atticus is also a writing editor, so you can draft in it and format without importing. It allows unlimited books and pen names. Vellum is listed in our data only as a formatter, with no writing features. If you want one app for both jobs, Atticus is the one of the two that offers it, though as a writing app it has fewer planning features than dedicated tools; see how it compares in our book writing software ranking.

Search interest

About 1,000 people a month in the US search for “atticus book formatting” and about 320 for “vellum book formatting” (Google Ads data via DataForSEO). We used those phrases because “atticus” and “vellum” alone also mean other things. Atticus’s homepage carries its own comparison with Vellum; we did not use it as a source for Vellum.

Which one should you buy?

Buy Atticus if you are on Windows, Linux or a Chromebook, if you want ebook and print for the lowest one-time price, or if you want to write and format in the same app. Its 30-day money-back guarantee replaces a trial.

Buy Vellum if you work on a Mac and want its styles, box sets, store-specific ebooks or accessibility-checked output, and the higher price is acceptable. Download the free version first and build your book in it; you pay only when you are ready to generate the files.

If you are publishing only on Amazon and want to spend nothing, Kindle Create and the free formatters below are worth trying before either.

Other formatting software we score

Draft2Digital lets you download a converted EPUB and a paperback PDF free, without publishing through it. Kindle Create is Amazon’s free desktop app for Windows and Mac; its KPF files are for publishing on KDP only. Reedsy Studio typesets print-ready PDF and EPUB free in the browser. After formatting, our free cover calculator gives the spine width and full cover size for your page count.

Questions