Made by the Feldar team. Feldar is our app, so it is our first pick here. Everything we say about other apps comes from their own pages, and we link to them.
The best novel writing software keeps your plan, your story world and your draft in one place, so you stop losing track of the book. Our pick is Feldar, which we make. If you want no AI, offline writing and a one-time price, choose Scrivener.
By the Feldar team · 12 apps compared · prices checked 5 to 8 November 2026
The 12 best novel writing apps, by what each does best
Every app here wins at something. The order is our preference for a novelist writing a first or a fifth book. It is an opinion, not a score, and our own app is at the top.
01FeldarPlanning, drafting and revising in one place, with AI you approve OursFree, then $20/mo
02ScrivenerLong manuscripts, offline, paid once$59.99 once
03DabbleA plot grid beside the draft, plus editors and co-authorsFrom $15/mo
04PlottrVisual outlining and series bibles$60/yr or $150 once
05SudowriteFast AI drafting with fiction-tuned modelsFrom $10/mo
06NovelcrafterBringing your own AI models, at a low entry priceFrom $4/mo
07AtticusTurning a manuscript into an ebook and a print book$147 once
08Reedsy StudioA free app with print and ebook typesettingFree
09LivingWriterApps on every device, and screenplaysFree plan
11Microsoft WordManuscripts going to agents and editors$9.99/mo
12Google DocsFree drafting and sharing chaptersFree
Side by side
Filter by what you cannot do without. Most writers can rule out half the list with one question: do you want AI in your writing app at all?
Show apps with
App
Best for
Price
Free option
Runs on
Offline
AI
Export
Feldar Ours
Plan, draft and revise, with AI you approve
Core $20/mo or $180/yr; Pro $40 or $400; Ultra $200 or $2,220
Free plan, 500 credits, no card
Web, macOS
No
Built in; suggestions stay only if you accept them
DOCX, PDF, Markdown, TXT
Scrivener
Long manuscripts, compiling
$59.99 once (macOS); Windows sold separately; iOS $23.99
30-day trial (Mac, Windows)
macOS, Windows, iOS
Yes
None
Word, PDF, ePub, Kindle, Final Draft and more
Dabble
Plot grid, co-authors, track changes
$19/mo, or $15/mo billed yearly; lifetime from $699
14-day trial, no card
Browser, phone, desktop app
Yes
None
Word, text
Plottr
Timelines, plotlines, series
Desktop $60/yr or $150 once; Pro $9.99/mo or $99/yr
30-day trial
Windows, macOS; web on Pro
Desktop app
None
Outline to Word and Scrivener
Sudowrite
AI drafting and brainstorming
$19/mo, or $10/mo billed yearly; higher plans up to $44/mo billed yearly
Free trial, no card
Web, iOS, Android
Not stated
Built in, with its own fiction models
.docx
Novelcrafter
Codex story bible, your own AI keys
$4 to $20/mo; AI billed by your provider
21-day trial, no card
Web, usable on phones
No (planned)
Bring your own key or a local model
.docx, Markdown
Atticus
Ebook and print formatting
$147 once
30-day money-back guarantee
Browser app on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook
Yes
None
EPUB, PDF, DOCX
Reedsy Studio
Free writing and typesetting
Free; paid add-ons
Free
Browser
No
None listed
Print PDF, EPUB
LivingWriter
Boards, story elements, screenplays
Pro and Pro + AI (prices did not load when we checked)
Free plan; 7-day trial for $0.99
Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android
Not stated
Optional, on Pro + AI
PDF on Free; .docx and print on Pro
Campfire
Worldbuilding modules
Standard $12/mo (sale); yearly and lifetime too
Free plan with limits
Browser, desktop, mobile
Not stated
None listed
PDF, EPUB
Microsoft Word
Agent and editor submissions
Microsoft 365 Personal $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr
1-month trial
Windows, macOS, phones, tablets
Yes (desktop)
Copilot included
.docx, PDF
Google Docs
Free drafting, sharing with readers
Free with a Google account
Free
Web, Android, iOS
With setup, in Chrome or Edge
Not checked
.docx, PDF and more
Prices in US dollars from each company's own pages, checked 5 to 8 November 2026. "Not stated" means the official pages we read did not say. The table scrolls sideways on small screens.
Start from where the book is stuck
Feature lists all look alike after a while. It is quicker to name the problem you have today and pick the tool that fixes it.
The plan keeps falling apart
Plottr if you think in timelines and plotlines. Dabble if you want the plot grid inside the manuscript app. Feldar if you want a scene list on every chapter that the AI can draft from.
The world is bigger than the book
Campfire, with modules for maps, magic systems and languages. Feldar's Canvas if you would rather keep characters, places and factions as linked cards beside the draft.
The blank page
An AI tool helps here, if you want one. Sudowrite drafts with you at speed. Feldar continues from your cursor in blue and waits for you to accept, revise or dismiss.
The draft is done and needs to become a book
Atticus for professional ebook and print formatting, Reedsy Studio for free typesetting, or Scrivener's Compile if you already write there.
Someone else needs to read it
Word for agents and editors, Google Docs for a writing group, Dabble or Reedsy Studio for comments and tracked changes inside a novel app.
Money is tight
Google Docs and Reedsy Studio are free. Feldar's Starter plan is free with 500 credits. Novelcrafter starts at $4 a month without AI.
The apps, one by one
What each app is, who it suits, where it falls short and what it costs. Every review ends with a link to the company's own site.
01Feldar Ours
Best for planning, drafting and revising in one place, with AI you approve
Feldar is a writing app for novelists. Every chapter carries an Outline of scenes, and the Canvas beside the manuscript holds cards for characters, locations, plot beats, items, factions and notes, linked by relations such as Causes, Guides or Opposes. Those scenes and cards are the context Feldar's AI writes from, so it knows who Nell's father is without being told again.
The AI never overwrites you. Continue from here writes at the cursor in blue and waits for Accept, Revise or Dismiss. Select a passage and choose Polish, Deepen or Enhance, or type an instruction such as "slow this down"; the rewrite arrives in a card with every change marked, and your original stays until you apply it. Draft Page writes a whole chapter from its scene list, at a word target you set.
For revision there are five Checks (grammar and spelling, clarity, word choice, dialogue transitions and point of view) and Lens, a panel of reader personas (Critic, Cheerleader, Poet, Editor, Plotter and Reader) who comment on a page or argue about it. Voice & Style learns from a 600-word sample of your prose. A private Writing record counts which words you typed and which came through Feldar's tools, which is useful evidence if a contest or publisher asks how the book was written.
A chapter beside its scene list in Feldar. You shape the scenes first; Draft Page writes from them, and every word stays editable.
Good
Scene plans, a story Canvas and the manuscript in one window. Every AI change is shown before it stays. A choice of six models: GPT-6 Astra, Sol and Luna, and Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 (the free plan uses GPT-6 Luna). Feldar does not train AI models on your writing.
Watch out
No offline writing. No Windows desktop app yet, though the web app runs in any modern browser. No phone app. No co-writing, track changes or version history. No ebook or print formatting. English only. AI features use credits, and the free 500 go quickly if you draft with AI.
Price
Starter free with 500 credits, no card. Core $20 a month or $180 a year (20,000 credits a month). Pro $40 or $400 (45,000). Ultra $200 or $2,220 (250,000). Writing and organizing never use credits.
Runs on
Web and macOS. Imports and exports DOCX, PDF, Markdown and plain text.
Literature & Latte's Scrivener has been the serious novelist's default for close to twenty years. The binder splits the book into sections of any size, the corkboard shows them as index cards with synopses, and the outliner adds labels, status and word targets. Research such as PDFs, images and web pages lives inside the project, next to the chapter that needs it.
Its real strength is the end of the process. Compile turns one project into a Word manuscript for an agent, a PDF, an ePub or Kindle file, or a Final Draft script, without retyping a line. Snapshots keep a section as it was before a big rewrite.
Good
A one-time price. Local files that work fully offline. The most flexible output of anything on this list. Snapshots, comments and footnotes. Project templates and writing targets.
Watch out
No AI. Each platform is a separate licence, and there is no Android or web version. Phone sync goes through Dropbox. Compile takes real time to learn.
Price
$59.99 once for macOS; the Windows licence is sold separately; iOS $23.99. 30-day free trial on Mac and Windows. Major upgrades are paid, at a discount.
Best for planning beside the draft, and for working with editors and co-authors
Dabble is a cloud writing studio with a Plot Grid that sets scenes against plot lines, plus character profiles and a story notebook next to the manuscript. It writes offline on any device and syncs later, which matters more than it sounds on a train or in a cabin.
It has no generative AI and says any future AI features will be strictly opt-in. On the Author plan it adds what editors care about: comments, track changes, grammar and style checks, and a beta reader workflow.
Good
Offline writing with sync. Co-authoring and versioning. Track changes and comments from the Author plan. Manuscripts stay readable and exportable if you stop paying. Lifetime plans.
Watch out
Export is Word and text only, so no ebook or print files. Grammar checks and track changes need the Author plan or above.
Price
Writer $19 a month, or $15 a month billed yearly ($180). Author $29, or $23 billed yearly. Bestseller $49, or $39 billed yearly. Lifetime from $699. 14-day trial, no card. 30% off for students and teachers.
Plottr puts scene cards on a timeline in lanes, one lane per plotline, so you can see the moment a subplot goes quiet for four chapters. Scene attributes track point of view, goals and conflict, and the series view keeps several books and one story bible together. It comes with 30+ structure templates, including the Hero's Journey, the Snowflake method, Story Circle and three acts.
It is an outliner, not a manuscript editor. You plan in Plottr, write somewhere else, and export the outline to Word or Scrivener. "No AI" is listed as a feature on every plan.
Good
Timelines and plotline lanes. A series view with unlimited books. Imports from Scrivener and Snowflake Pro. A lifetime licence. Unlimited household devices.
Watch out
You still need somewhere to write the book. Cloud sync, the web app and real-time collaboration need Pro.
Price
Desktop $60 a year or $150 once. Pro $9.99 a month, $99 a year or $599 once (sale prices when we checked). 30-day free trial.
Best for fast AI drafting with fiction-tuned models
Sudowrite is one of the best-known AI apps for fiction. Write, Rewrite, Describe, Expand and Brainstorm work on your draft, and a Story Bible of characters, outline and notes is the memory the AI draws on. Series Folders share that bible across books.
Next to dozens of third-party models it runs its own fiction models, Muse and Ballad; Sudowrite says Muse was trained with informed consent from the authors. The higher plans add developmental edits, line edits and beta reads.
Good
Fiction-tuned models. Continuity across a series. iOS and Android apps. Free live classes and a large community. It says it does not train on your writing.
Watch out
Heavy drafting uses credits quickly. The pricing page opens on yearly billing, so check which price you are paying. A project export does not include the Story Bible.
Price
Hobby & Student $10 a month billed yearly, or $19 monthly. Professional $22 and Max $44 a month billed yearly; monthly billing costs more. Free trial, no card.
Best for bringing your own AI models, and the cheapest way in
Novelcrafter is a web workspace with a deep Codex (its story bible, where entries can change as the story moves and link to each other), a planning grid and matrix, and AI that you connect yourself: an OpenRouter key, another vendor, or a model running on your own computer.
That makes it the most transparent AI tool on the list. You can preview and edit prompts, pick any model and keep chosen scenes away from the AI. The trade is setup time, and a second bill from your AI provider.
Good
From $4 a month. Full model choice, including local models. Revision history. Series and universes with a shared Codex. Collaboration on the top plan.
Watch out
The subscription includes no AI usage. Connecting keys takes effort. No offline mode yet. Support works European business hours.
Price
Scribe $4 a month (no AI), Hobbyist $8, Artisan $14, Specialist $20. Two months off with yearly billing. Prices are localized by region. 21-day trial, no card.
Best for turning a manuscript into an ebook and a print book
Atticus is writing and formatting software sold once. You can draft in it, but people buy it to typeset: 17+ chapter themes with a custom theme builder, 1,500+ fonts, full-bleed images, and previews on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iPhone and iPad screens.
It runs as an installable browser app on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook, online or offline, and exports EPUB, PDF and DOCX. Its help centre says there are no plans to add AI.
Good
Professional ebook and print formatting. One price with future updates included. Works offline. Collaboration roles with comments and track changes.
Watch out
No story bible, outlining or character tracking. No free trial, only a refund window.
Price
$147 once for ebook and print. 30-day money-back guarantee.
Runs on
Browser app on Windows, macOS, Linux and Chromebook.
Reedsy Studio is a free browser app that organizes a book into sections, chapters and scenes and typesets it to print-ready PDF and EPUB. Real-time collaboration with comments and tracked changes means an editor can work inside the manuscript instead of trading files.
Good
Free, including typesetting. Collaboration and tracked changes. 30 days of version history at no cost. Reedsy says your work will not be used to train AI.
Watch out
Browser only, and no offline writing yet, by Reedsy's own FAQ. No AI features listed.
Price
Free. Paid add-ons such as Craft (unlimited history, advanced stats, custom goals), with a 30-day trial.
Best for writing on every device, and for screenplays
LivingWriter is a cloud app for books and screenplays, with planning boards, structure templates such as Story Circle and three acts, and Story Elements: character and place profiles it recognizes as you type. It has native apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android as well as the web.
AI is optional. Chat, analysis, rewrites, outlines and summaries come with the Pro + AI plan, and LivingWriter says it does not use your manuscript, notes or Story Elements to train its AI.
Good
Apps on every major platform, in sync. Screenplay formatting. A free plan. Inline comments and collaboration.
Watch out
The pricing page did not show prices when we checked, so confirm them before you subscribe. Offline use is not stated. .docx export needs Pro.
Price
Free plan, then Pro and Pro + AI. A 7-day trial for $0.99.
Campfire is modular: manuscript, characters, timeline, maps, magic systems, languages, cultures and more, each a module you switch on. For fantasy and science fiction writers whose world needs its own encyclopedia, nothing else here goes as deep.
Good
Worldbuilding depth. Unlimited collaborators. PDF and EPUB export. Browser, desktop and mobile apps. A free plan.
Watch out
The free plan is tight: 25,000 manuscript words and 10 characters. Monthly plans are not refundable.
Price
Standard $12 a month (marked down from $19 when we checked), plus yearly, lifetime and per-module plans.
Word was not built for novels, but the .docx file is still what agents, editors and publishers ask for, and track changes is how most authors and editors trade revisions. Headings and the navigation pane give a long manuscript enough structure to move around in.
Good
The standard manuscript format. Track changes and comments. Desktop apps that work offline. Copilot is included in consumer Microsoft 365 plans.
Watch out
No scene cards, plot view or story bible. In our experience one long file gets unwieldy as a novel grows.
Price
Microsoft 365 Personal $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with a one-month trial.
We build a novel writing app, so we know this category well, and we know we are biased. To keep the comparison fair we asked every app the same questions:
Can it hold a 90,000-word manuscript as chapters and scenes you can rearrange?
Where does the plan live, and how close is it to the draft?
Is there a place for characters, places and the rules of the world?
How does revision work: comments, track changes, version history, editorial checks?
Is there AI, how much of the writing does it do, and is your text used to train it?
What files come out at the end: Word for agents, EPUB and print PDF for self-publishing?
Which devices does it run on, and does it work offline?
What does a year cost, with the billing as it really is?
Every price and feature of another company's app comes from that company's own pricing, feature or help pages, listed under Sources and checked between 5 and 8 November 2026. Where a page did not show a detail, we say so instead of guessing. There are no invented scores or star ratings. The order is our opinion. Feldar is first because we made it for exactly this job; read its limits before you choose it.
Questions novelists ask
What is the best novel writing software for beginners?
The one you will open every day. Google Docs and Reedsy Studio cost nothing and need no learning. If you want structure from the first page, Feldar's scene outline or Dabble's Plot Grid give a first novel a shape without a manual. Scrivener rewards the time you put into it, but it is a lot of tool for a first book.
What is the best free novel writing software?
For self-publishing, Reedsy Studio, which typesets print PDF and EPUB for free. For drafting and sharing, Google Docs. For a scene plan and a story Canvas with some AI to try, Feldar's free Starter plan with 500 credits. Campfire has a free tier for worldbuilding, and LivingWriter has a free plan.
Is Scrivener still worth buying in 2026?
Yes, if you want local files, offline writing, a one-time price and Compile's output options. It has no AI and is licensed per platform. If that suits you, nothing here replaces it.
What is the best novel writing software for Windows?
Scrivener, Plottr, LivingWriter and Word have native Windows apps. Atticus runs as an installable browser app on Windows. Dabble, Novelcrafter, Sudowrite, Reedsy Studio and Feldar run in any modern browser; Feldar's desktop app is Mac only for now.
Should novel writing software have AI?
Only if you want it. Scrivener, Dabble, Plottr, Atticus and Reedsy Studio cover a whole book without generative AI. If you do use AI, the question that matters is who decides which words stay. In Feldar every suggestion is marked and waits for you. In Sudowrite the AI drafts with you. Novelcrafter hands you the controls and the bill.
Will a writing app use my novel to train AI?
Sudowrite, Novelcrafter, Dabble, LivingWriter, Reedsy and Feldar all say they do not. Scrivener keeps your project on your own device. Consumer chatbots differ: OpenAI may use ChatGPT conversations for training unless you opt out, and Anthropic uses Claude chats for training if you allow it.
Do I need special software to write a novel?
No. Plenty of novels are written in Word. Dedicated software earns its place when the book gets big: when you lose track of scenes, forget the name of a minor character's sister, or face turning the manuscript into an ebook. Pick the tool that fixes the problem you have.
Sources
Checked 5 to 8 November 2026. Facts come from these official pages; the opinions are ours.
