Show HN: Verso – A $14.99 Mac word processor with no subscription

Built for the Mac.Not ported to it. You open it. You write. That’s the whole thing. $14.99, once. 7-day free trial. No payment until you decide. macOS 14+. $14.99 one-time purchase after trial. No subscription. Writing shouldn’t require a subscription. I switched to Mac and discovered that writing on it is... complicated. Maybe complicated is the wrong word. There is choice, a fair amount of it. But nothing that was working for me. Word wants a subscription. Pages is a lot of app. TextEdit tops out at bold and italic. Others are too single-minded. So I built my own. It does what I need, nothing I don’t, and it never asks me to log in. Tomasz Brighton, 2026 Focus Mode. Everything else fades. One click. The toolbar goes. The sidebar goes. The paragraph you’re writing stays lit. Everything else gets out of the way. It turns out that’s all you needed. ⌘ShiftF Track Changes. See every edit. You turn it on. Every insertion gets underlined, every deletion shows through. Accept or reject one at a time, or clear the lot. The sidebar keeps a running list so nothing slips past you. Five page colours. One click to switch. Five backgrounds. One for the essay you’re finishing at midnight. One for the notes you’re taking in bright sun. One for when you just want it to feel like paper. Light or dark. Your call. Verso follows your system appearance, or you can pick one and stick with it. Either way, it looks right. Drag to compare. Opens your Word files. No import wizard. Someone sends you a Word file. You open it. Nothing breaks. You send it back. Still nothing breaks. Nobody needs to know you didn’t use Word. Same document. Drag to compare. Works with your files Write in your language. Verso speaks 16 languages. Every menu, label, and tooltip is translated natively, not machine-translated after the fact. Follows your macOS language setting. No configuration needed. What makes Verso different Comments Select text and add a comment. Resolve when done. The sidebar lists every comment with its resolved state. Round-trips through .docx. Markdown round-trip Open .md files, edit as rich text with syntax-highlighted code blocks, save back as Markdown. Headings, lists, tables, and formatting all preserved. Syntax highlighting 22 languages including Swift, Python, TypeScript, Rust, and Go. Paste code into your document and it highlights automatically. Works in both light and dark mode. Everything else “If you have bugs, questions, hopes, or dreams, feel even more free to get in touch.” Tomasz Pay once. Write forever. Most writing apps are either too much app or too much cost. Verso is neither. No subscriptions. No recurring charges. Verso is yours for life. Office 365 $99.99 per year But you can’t just buy Word. Ulysses $49.99 per year, forever iA Writer $49.99 one-time (Mac only) Verso $14.99 one-time, yours forever $14.99 one-time. No subscription, ever. All updates included. Click to preview Clean writing Track Changes Page colours Markdown Dark mode Syntax highlighting Loved by Mac writers Real reviews from people who switched from Word, Pages, and other writing apps. "A great lightweight writing app. It's fast, simple, and does exactly what I need without getting in the way." Dr-Greg Excellent MS Word Replacement "Didn't expect much, but this is solid! Opens .docx files perfectly and launches instantly. No bloat, no subscription." MacUser_2026 Simple and effective "Finally, a Mac word processor that feels like it was built for Mac. Clean, fast, and the focus mode is a game-changer." Sarah_Writes Best Mac-native option