LivingWriter vs Novelcrafter
Both keep a book in one app, with planning beside the draft. They send the bill to different places: LivingWriter can include a capped AI allowance, and Novelcrafter sells the desk and expects you to bring the model.
LivingWriter
Freemium
Authors who want planning boards, a manuscript, and optional AI in one app, including screenwriters.
Novelcrafter
Subscription
Series authors who want a codex and the freedom to pick the model, including one running on their own machine.
| LivingWriter | Novelcrafter | |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | A writing desk for books and screenplays: boards, elements, outlines, and export. AI is optional and request-capped unless you pay for Pro + AI. | A manuscript desk and codex. The subscription is the app. From Hobbyist up, the model is your own key or a local runtime. |
| AI model control | You do not pick the model. Free includes 3 AI requests a month, Pro includes 25, and Pro + AI lifts the cap. The vendor says manuscripts are not used to train its AI. | You pick the provider, write the instructions, and can run a local model. More control, and a bland paragraph is easier to buy by accident. |
| Planning boards vs codex | Visual boards for chapters, elements, planning, and research, plus outline templates for novels, memoirs, and screenplays. | The codex is the point: characters, locations, and facts you can reuse, including across a series. Less of a drag-and-drop wall, more of a story database. |
| Pricing shape | Freemium. Free is one manuscript up to 25,000 words. Cards list Pro at $15/month and Pro + AI at $30/month, with other billing intervals and a $0.99 seven-day intro. | A paid app, with a 21-day trial and no lasting free plan. Public cards showed a cheaper plan without AI and higher plans that add bring-your-own-key. Token cost is extra. |
| A poor fit when | You want a fiction-specific co-writer, a chosen model, or academic citations. It is a general desk that also handles screenplays and nonfiction outlines. | You want the AI included, with no keys and no model choice, or you mostly write cited nonfiction. |