diff --git a/adeft/download/__main__.py b/adeft/download/__main__.py
index 0801e26..1422bb7 100644
--- a/adeft/download/__main__.py
+++ b/adeft/download/__main__.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
     setup_test_resource_folder
 
 
-# Create .adeft folder if it does not already exist
+# Create adeft data folder if it does not already exist
 if not os.path.exists(ADEFT_PATH):
     os.makedirs(ADEFT_PATH)
 
diff --git a/adeft/locations.py b/adeft/locations.py
index 988c9da..5313cb7 100644
--- a/adeft/locations.py
+++ b/adeft/locations.py
@@ -1,19 +1,18 @@
 """
 Contains paths to locations on user's system where models and resources are
-to be stored. These all live in adeft's home folder which defaults to the
-hidden directory ".adeft" in the user's home directory but which can be
-specified by setting the environment variable ADEFT_HOME in the user's profile.
+to be stored. These all live in adeft's home folder which defaults to
+a directory "adeft" in a location determined by Python's `appdirs` package.
+An alternative location can be specified by setting the environment variable
+ADEFT_HOME in the user's profile.
 """
 
 import os
-import pystow
 from adeft import __version__
+from appdirs import user_data_dir
 
-# If the adeft resource directory does not exist, try to create it using PyStow
-# Can be specified with ADEFT_HOME environment variable, otherwise defaults
-# to $HOME/.data/adeft/<__version__>. The location of $HOME can be overridden with
-# the PYSTOW_HOME environment variable
-ADEFT_HOME = pystow.join('adeft')
+ADEFT_HOME = os.environ.get('ADEFT_HOME')
+if ADEFT_HOME is None:
+    ADEFT_HOME = os.path.join(user_data_dir(), 'adeft')
 
 ADEFT_PATH = os.path.join(ADEFT_HOME, __version__)
 ADEFT_MODELS_PATH = os.path.join(ADEFT_PATH, 'models')
diff --git a/doc/requirements.txt b/doc/requirements.txt
index 41e26f7..fc51875 100644
--- a/doc/requirements.txt
+++ b/doc/requirements.txt
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ nltk
 wget
 requests
 flask
+appdirs
diff --git a/notebooks/introduction.ipynb b/notebooks/introduction.ipynb
index df2c11b..4704503 100644
--- a/notebooks/introduction.ipynb
+++ b/notebooks/introduction.ipynb
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
     "$ python -m adeft.download\n",
     "```\n",
     "\n",
-    "By default, models will be stored in the users home directory in a hidden folder named ``.adeft``. Users may set the environment variable `ADEFT_HOME` in their shell profile to choose an alternative location."
+    "By default, models will be stored in a folder named ``adeft`` within a platform specific user data location determined by the [appdirs](https://pypi.org/project/appdirs/) Python package. Users may set the environment variable `ADEFT_HOME` in their shell profile to choose an alternative location."
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -453,7 +453,7 @@
    "name": "python",
    "nbconvert_exporter": "python",
    "pygments_lexer": "ipython3",
-   "version": "3.8.5"
+   "version": "3.8.6"
   }
  },
  "nbformat": 4,
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 221cd6d..817fede 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@
       ],
       packages=find_packages(),
       install_requires=['nltk', 'scikit-learn>=0.20.0', 'wget',
-                        'requests', 'flask', 'pystow'],
+                        'requests', 'flask', 'appdirs'],
       extras_require={'test': ['pytest', 'pytest-cov']},
       keywords=['nlp', 'biology', 'disambiguation'],
       ext_modules=extensions,