Novelcrafter vs Plottr

Novelcrafter

• Novelists and series writers who want a story bible tied to the manuscript
• Writers who want to pick and pay for their own AI models
• Co-authors and writing groups, on the Specialist plan

Plottr

• Novelists and screenwriters who outline visually before drafting
• Series authors who need one place for characters, places and continuity
• Writers who draft in Word or Scrivener and want a separate planning tool
• Writers who want a planning tool with no generative AI

Novelcrafter

• There is no free plan. Without an active subscription, data stays viewable and exportable but cannot be added to or edited.
• AI starts at the Hobbyist plan and is bring-your-own-key, so model usage is paid separately to the AI provider unless local models are used.
• Workshop Chat needs Artisan, and inviting collaborators or creating teams needs Specialist. Each user needs a subscription of their own.
• It runs in the browser with nothing to install, and is described as mobile compatible; no desktop or mobile app is listed.

Plottr

• Plottr is an outlining tool, not a manuscript editor: its docs recommend doing the bulk of the writing in another program.
• The web app, cloud sync and collaboration need Plottr Pro, which the docs say requires an internet connection. Each collaborator needs their own Pro subscription.
• The mobile app was removed from the app stores for a rebuild, and the docs say the Pro web app has no phone view. Native Linux builds are unsupported beta software.
• No refunds are given after purchase, and a Pro plan that lapses loses access to its projects until it is renewed.

Novelcrafter

The Codex

A wiki for characters, locations and lore with aliases, relations, tags and progressions over time. It finds mentions across scenes and can be shared by every book in a series.

Planning views

The Grid reorders acts, chapters and scenes by drag and drop, the Matrix shows the whole story as a spreadsheet-like table, and the Outline is a single-page summary.

Manuscript editor

A rich text editor with focus mode, highlighter markers, sections for alternative ideas, revision history, and import from Word, Markdown or HTML files.

Bring-your-own-key AI

From Hobbyist up, connects to services such as OpenAI, Anthropic and OpenRouter or to local models through LM Studio and Ollama, with custom prompts and a prompt preview.

Workshop Chat

On Artisan and above, a chat for feedback and brainstorming that can take the outline, a scene or the full novel as context and extract scene beats or Codex entries from the reply.

Collaboration and teams

Any account can be invited as a viewer, and editing needs a paid plan. Inviting others to a novel or series, and creating teams, needs the Specialist plan.

Plottr

Visual timeline

Scene cards are dragged along a timeline with separate rows for the main plot, subplots and character arcs. The view can be flipped, zoomed and filtered, and plotlines color-coded.

Plot and scene templates

Starter templates based on structures such as the Hero's Journey, Romancing the Beat, Story Circle and Three Act Structure. Users can also create and save their own.

Characters, places and notes

Character sheets, places and notes take custom attributes, tags, categories and images, with character templates and sorting and filtering across all of them.

Series bible

One project holds every book in a series with its characters, places and notes, and a Series View gives a timeline of the whole series alongside each book's own.

Outline and export

Generates an outline from the timeline that can be viewed, edited and exported to Microsoft Word or Scrivener. Projects can be imported from Scrivener and Snowflake Pro.

Plottr Pro cloud features

A web app that runs on Chromebooks, tablets and Linux devices, cloud storage and backups, automatic syncing between devices and live collaboration on a shared project.

Novelcrafter

• Scribe$4

  per month, or $40 billed annually

  Unlimited books, the Codex, series and basic review tools. No AI features.

• Hobbyist$8

  per month, or $80 billed annually

  Adds AI with your own API key or local models: scene summarization, character extraction and generating prose from scene beats, plus live chat support.

• Artisan$14

  per month, or $140 billed annually

  Adds Workshop Chat for feedback and brainstorming on scenes. Advanced review tools are listed for this tier but marked as planned.

• Specialist$20

  per month, or $200 billed annually

  Adds inviting other users to novels and series, creating and managing teams, and priority support.

Plottr

• Plottr$60

  per year, or $150 one-time for lifetime; no monthly plan

  Windows and Mac desktop app on unlimited household devices, with files and backups kept on the device. Shown against crossed-out prices of $80 and $199.

• Plottr Pro$99

  per year; or $9.99 per month, or $599 one-time for lifetime

  Adds the browser app, cloud sync and backups, and real-time collaboration. Monthly and lifetime are shown against crossed-out prices of $15 and $699.

• Plottr Pro + Community$129

  per year; or $14.99 per month, or $649 one-time for lifetime

  Pro plus a private community, the Education Vault and networking. Shown against crossed-out prices of $160 a year, $19 a month and $799 lifetime.

Novelcrafter

• Annual discount

  2 months off with annual billing

  Annual billing costs ten times the monthly price: $40 for Scribe, $80 for Hobbyist, $140 for Artisan and $200 for Specialist, against $4, $8, $14 and $20 a month.

Plottr

• Lifetime license

  Lifetime licenses from $150

  Each tier can be bought once instead of by subscription: $150 for Plottr, $599 for Plottr Pro and $649 for Pro + Community. Lifetime plans never expire and include updates.

• Annual discount

  Annual billing costs less than monthly on Pro

  Plottr Pro is $99 a year against $9.99 a month, and Pro + Community is $129 a year against $14.99 a month.

• Education

  Educational rates and bulk licenses on request

  The pricing page invites schools and buyers of bulk licenses to contact Plottr for special pricing. No rates are published.