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Highland is the minimalist screenwriter’s tool, Fountain-native, Mac/iPad/iPhone, beautifully restrained, made by working screenwriters. Arqo is the alternative if you also write on Windows or Android, want collab, want an opt-in assistant, or want production-side reports without leaving the app.
We’d rather lose the click than lose the trust.
Highland is one of the best-feeling screenwriting tools on a Mac, period. Sprint Mode, typewriter scrolling, the Bin sidebar, the Gender Analysis pass, every surface feels considered. Arqo is more feature-broad; Highland is more feature-restrained, and that’s a real virtue.
Highland comes from John August (Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, Frankenweenie). The taste in the tool is real, and a lot of writers trust the brand for exactly that reason. Arqo is earning that trust; Highland already has it.
Mac, iPad, iPhone: each runs as a native app with iCloud sync between them. Arqo’s iPhone/iPad app is real and native too, but Highland’s is hand-built per platform and feels it.
Highland is Mac/iPad/iPhone only. Arqo runs the same Fountain editor on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and the web. If you ever switch laptops or write on a non-Apple device, Highland isn’t there.
Highland is single-writer by design. Arqo lets you co-write today: named presence, multiple in-editor cursors with character-level caret, live co-typing, threaded comments in the margin, and suggest mode / track changes. Pro carries 2 co-writers per script, Studio 5. If you ever co-write, a partner, a writers’ room, a producer pass, Highland routes you back to emailing the Fountain file around.
Highland exports FDX and PDF cleanly; it doesn’t ship character/location/DOOD reports or a coloured-page rotation engine. Arqo covers the production-side workflow, not just the writing-side one. If your script is going into prep, Arqo carries you further.
Highland deliberately skips content-generation features. Arqo ships Arqo Assist on Pro+, bounded routes, each doing one named job, like Scene Surgeon, Spark and Continuity, none of them writing into your draft unasked, and you can plug in your own key so prompts run through it, +$2/mo add-on on Pro, included on Studio. Both stances are coherent; if an assistant is part of your writing process, Arqo is the better fit. /no-list is what we won’t ship.
Highland deliberately ships no content-generation features. We respect the stance and disagree on the trade. Arqo Assist is opt-in, bring-your-own-key, and bounded, but it’s in the box. If you want a tool that refuses any assistant as a category, Highland is the right answer.
Even with Arqo Assist, the line we hold is Highland’s line: the tool will not finish your sentences. There is no inline completion surface, nothing proposes the next line, and nothing writes into your cursor. Every Assist route answers a question about pages you already wrote.
Highland on Mac is excellent, but if you also need to write on a Pixel on the train, Highland blocks you. Arqo will not gate platforms behind premium tiers, phone editor is in Free.
Full signed list at /no-list.
Free tier opens two scripts. No card. Bring your file, see how it lands.
Probably not, if you write only on a Mac and want a minimalist single-writer surface. Highland is great at what it does. Switch when you also write on Windows/Android/web, want live collab, or want an assistant on rails. Both tools can coexist, both are Fountain-native.
Yes. Save your Highland file as Fountain and import. Highland’s Fountain extras (notes, colored sections) survive as Fountain note blocks. The /switch-from-highland guide walks the four-step migration.
Yes. Set a word target and a 25 / 45 / 60-minute clock, and Arqo tracks the run, milestones as you pass them, and a summary of words written against the goal when it ends. Focus mode (hides everything but the current scene) is separate, and the two stack.
Yes: equivalent UI ships in Arqo, and Highland’s Bin items survive the import as Fountain notes that re-bin into our sidebar.
A coherent disagreement. Highland’s position is that any assistant in the editor changes the writing relationship, true. Our position is that an opt-in, narrow, bring-your-own-key assistant is more honest than pretending the category doesn’t exist. /no-list is what we will not ship; the line is conservative.
Honest answer: Highland is more polished as a Mac-only product. Arqo’s Mac app is real and native, but the typography and platform-feel work Highland has put in over a decade is something we’re still earning.
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