Novelcrafter vs Sudowrite

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

Sudowrite

• Novelists who want AI help drafting and revising fiction
• Planning a book from premise to a chapter-by-chapter outline
• Writers who want to choose between fiction-tuned and general AI models

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.

Sudowrite

• There is no free plan. Without a paid plan the AI features stop, though projects stay accessible and exportable.
• Use is metered in credits rather than words: the docs say 1 million credits may produce anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 AI words.
• Unused credits expire monthly on Hobby & Student and Professional. Only Max rolls them over, for up to 12 months.
• The mobile apps are companions: series management and several other web features are not available in them.

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.

Sudowrite

Write

Reads the characters, tone and plot so far and suggests roughly the next 300 words in the author's voice, with more than one option to pick from.

Story Bible

Works step by step from an idea through synopsis, characters, worldbuilding and outline to chapter beats, then drafts scenes from them in the author's style.

Describe, Expand and Rewrite

Describe adds detail that places the reader in a scene, Expand builds out passages that feel rushed, and Rewrite revises a selection to the direction given.

Feedback

Reads a draft and returns areas to improve. The docs list Feedback, covering developmental edits, line edits and beta reads, as exclusive to Professional and Max.

Chat and plugins

A chat assistant aimed at novelists handles brainstorming, research and edits, and a library of more than 1,000 plugins adds other tasks. Users can build their own plugins.

Mobile companion apps

iOS and Android apps centered on Smart Dictation and chat, with Write and Rewrite included. Projects sync with the web app and credits are shared.

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.

Sudowrite

• Hobby & Student$10

  per month, billed annually ($19 billed monthly)

  225,000 credits a month with the writing tools, chat and every model, but not Feedback. Unused credits expire each month.

• Professional$22

  per month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly)

  1,000,000 credits a month (the pricing page also displays 450,000 beside it), plus Feedback: developmental edits, line edits and beta reads.

• Max$44

  per month, billed annually ($59 billed monthly)

  2,000,000 credits a month, and unused credits roll over for up to 12 months while the subscription stays active.

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.

Sudowrite

• Annual discount

  Up to 50% off with yearly billing

  Paid annually, Hobby & Student is $10 a month against $19 monthly, Professional $22 against $29 and Max $44 against $59. The pricing page labels yearly billing as up to 50% off.