Novelcrafter Review (And 3 Amazing Alternatives)

Quick Summary

This article reviews Novelcrafter and explores top alternatives like DreamGen, Scrivener, Sudowrite, Squibler, and Bibisco. If you want creative control, rich characters, and immersive storytelling, DreamGen offers the most flexible AI writing experience for serious storytellers. Visit the DreamGen blog for more resources on AI role-playing and creative storytelling.

Looking for the Best Novelcrafter Alternative?

Novelcrafter has long been a go-to platform for writers, offering a suite of AI-powered storytelling tools designed to help you dream, draft, and deliver your story from start to finish.

However, some writers may seek more creative freedom, advanced features, or simply a different approach to storytelling.

In this DreamGen article, we’ll review Novelcrafter’s strengths and weaknesses and introduce some of the best alternatives available.

But first…

Why Trust Us?

At DreamGen, we have firsthand experience empowering users to craft immersive storylines and engage in dynamic character interactions through our cutting-edge AI tool. We understand the unique needs of writers and role-players, and our expertise allows us to provide insights into the best AI storytelling and role-playing tools.

What is Novelcrafter?

Novelcrafter is an AI-powered novel writing platform.

It’s designed to be an end-to-end writing partner that supports you through brainstorming, outlining, writing, and editing. At a fundamental level, it does this by providing a nice, functional editor and a great selection of organizational tools… but the real draw is the platform’s AI features.

The platform lets you “bring your own models” and use them to chat with characters, get feedback on plot points, and even generate whole storylines.

Key Features

• The Codex: Store and organize information about characters, settings, and lore in a personal wiki to help maintain continuity and depth in storytelling.
• Story Board: Visually organize and outline your scenes, plots, and narrative flow. It gives you a bird’s-eye view of your narrative structure and pacing.
• Distraction-Free Writing Mode: Access a clean, minimal writing space with essential tools tucked away.
• AI Customization: Bring your own AI models and integrate them into the platform, giving you access to your specific writing style or needs.
• Workshop: Brainstorm with AI—discuss characters, explore ideas, and receive custom writing prompts that align with your story's world via Codex integration.

Pricing

Novelcrafter offers a tiered pricing model to suit different needs:

• Scribe - Includes unlimited books, series, and basic review features.
• Hobbyist - Adds AI integration (bring your API key).
• Artisan - Unlocks full AI chat, Codex integration, and advanced features.
• Specialist - Adds collaborative writing and team management features for larger writing teams.

Why Consider a Novelcrafter Alternative?

• Limited Creative Flexibility: Tools like the Story Board favor structured planning, which can frustrate writers who prefer spontaneous, free-flowing processes. Such users might prefer AI story generators that provide fluid and flexible writing environments.
• API Key Requirement: Accessing advanced AI features requires an external API key, adding complexity for those seeking an all-in-one solution.
• Minimalistic UI: The distraction-free interface can feel too sparse, making essential tools hard to find and limiting formatting options.
• Repetitive AI Suggestions: Workshop outputs can be generic or lack originality, producing results that don’t match a writer’s unique voice.

Top Picks for Novelcrafter Alternatives

Before exploring the full comparison, here’s a quick look at our standout tools and what makes each one shine:

• DreamGen (Best Overall): DreamGen is perfect for writers who crave total creative freedom. Its multi-character role-plays, real-time story steering, and generous free tier give you unmatched control over dialogue, plot, and characters.  
• Scrivener (Best for Structured Planning): Scrivener is the gold standard for authors who love rigid organization. Its binder, corkboard, and compile tools make planning and structuring novels or screenplays easy, though it skips AI features entirely.
• Sudowrite (Best for AI Drafting): Sudowrite is ideal for writers who want to draft quickly with AI. Its Story Engine, Character Builder, and Canvas tools help generate detailed scenes and characters fast, but it focuses on drafting over interactive storytelling.

Choose the one that best matches your creative process.

5 Novelcrafter Alternatives To Consider

1. DreamGen
2. Scrivener
3. Sudowrite
4. Squibler
5. Bibisco

1. DreamGen

The first Novelcrafter alternative on the list is our tool–DreamGen. At DreamGen, we believe storytelling should be limitless, so we created an AI-powered platform that gives users a seamless, inspiring, and completely unrestricted AI story-writing experience.

DreamGen is built for writers who want to experience the time-saving, headache-reducing benefits of AI without sacrificing their own unique voice and style. Our AI features keep you in the driver’s seat while supporting you with:

• Paragraphs and dialogue
• Fresh ideas and plot twists
• Character development
• Powerful descriptions

…and more.

Whether you're writing fan fiction, role-play scenarios, or something completely original, our platform gives you the freedom to explore.

Key Features

• Open-Source Accessibility: Our models are available on HuggingFace, letting you customize and understand how our AI works. This gives you full control over your creative process.
• Unrestricted Creative Freedom: Our AI models let your imagination run wild. We don’t impose limits, so you can explore a wide range of narratives without restrictions.
• Multi-Character Role-Plays & Stories: Create multi-layered stories based on your inputs. You can tailor characters, backstories, and settings to fit your vision, offering endless creative possibilities.
• Advanced Scenario Crafting: Move beyond simple chats with our advanced tools. Create detailed and customized scenarios to enhance your role-playing experience.
• Story “Steering”: Guide your story with precise instructions. As your narrative unfolds, you can direct the plot, influencing the direction and outcome.
• Advanced Editing Tools: Our editor streamlines your storytelling process. It helps with editing, character impersonation, and forced character responses, making it easier to craft detailed and enjoyable stories.
• Image Generation: Generate high-quality AI images in all kinds of styles in seconds—just enter a prompt and find the settings you like.
• Story/Role-Play Assistant: On-demand help to brainstorm plot twists, add new characters, or rewrite a scene.
• Generous Free Tier: Enjoy thousands of monthly messages and images, letting you create rich stories without hitting paywalls early.
• Open-Source Models: Access DreamGen’s AI on HuggingFace or download locally, giving you total control over customization and privacy.

Pricing

• Starter: Great when the smaller AI is all you need.
• Advanced: Leverage the best AI model and have better AI memory.
• Pro: Unlimited use of the best AI model and the largest AI memory.

2. Scrivener

Scrivener, developed by Literature and Latte, is a comprehensive writing app designed for long-form projects like novels, screenplays, academic papers, and research-heavy nonfiction. 

It combines powerful organizational tools, an integrated research hub, and flexible formatting, making it a leading choice for serious writers looking for a non-AI, structure-focused alternative to apps like Novelcrafter. 

Key Features

• Binder, Corkboard & Outliner: Organize ideas visually with index cards on the Corkboard or hierarchically with folders and the Outliner to structure your manuscript.
• Integrated Research: Store notes, images, PDFs, and web pages directly within your project, keeping all materials in one place.
• Scriptwriting Support: Access templates and formatting tools for screenplays, stage plays, comics, and more, tailored for professional scriptwriting.
• Compile Tool: Combine and export sections of your manuscript into formats like DOCX, RTF, PDF, EPUB, and Final Draft with customizable formatting.
• One-Time Purchase: Get lifetime access to all features on the platform with a single payment, avoiding ongoing subscriptions.

Pricing

• Standard License:For macOS or Windows, includes all features and updates within the major version.
• Educational License: For students and academics.
• iOS Version: Offering a mobile version of Scrivener with most of the desktop features.

Licenses are platform-specific, so each platform requires a separate purchase. A 30-day free trial is offered for desktop; iOS has no demo.

3. Sudowrite

The next Novelcrafter alternative on the list is Sudowrite. 

Sudowrite is a well-known Novelcrafter alternative (that we’ve covered extensively on the blog already). It has an almost identical feature set to Novelcrafter. There’s a nice editor to write in, project organization tools, and the ability to outline your novel. 

In terms of AI features, you can use Sudowrite to generate images, items, characters, and whole scenes. The main downside is the expensive pricing.

Key Features

• Story Engine: Store and organize important details about your story’s world, characters, and key events for consistent, immersive writing.
• Character Builder: Create nuanced profiles covering physical traits, personalities, relationships, and motivations.
• Chapter Generator: Quickly generate entire scenes or chapters based on your saved story data, helping you maintain narrative flow.
• Customizable AI: Choose premium AI models from providers like OpenAI and Anthropic to match your desired writing style and tone.
• Canvas Tool: Visually lay out plotlines, character arcs, and relationships, making complex stories easier to plan and execute.

Pricing

Sudowrite has three plans: 

• Hobby & Student (225k credits): Perfect for people who write for fun or for school. 
• Professional (1M credits): Good for longer works, like a novel or screenplay.
• Max (2M credits with roll over for 12 months): For authors who publish multiple times a year.

Credits get used up when you use any of Sudowrite’s AI features. And according to many users, you’ll need to upgrade to Professional or Max before you have enough credits to write a novel.

4. Squibler

Squibler is a cloud-based writing platform built for speed and simplicity, designed for novelists, screenwriters, and bloggers. It provides Smart Writer AI for AI-assisted drafting, a visual storyboard, version control, and intuitive project organization tools. 

Squibler stands out as a fast, AI-enhanced alternative to Novelcrafter, particularly for writers who prioritize rapid drafting in a streamlined environment.

Key Features

• Smart Writer AI: Generates up to 6,000 words per month for free, helping you overcome writer’s block and quickly build drafts.
• Version History: Provides access to a 30-day history of previous drafts on the free plan, so you can revert changes or review earlier work.
• Distraction-Free Editor: Focus entirely on writing with a clean, clutter-free interface designed for deep work.
• AI Visualizer: Turn text descriptions into vivid AI-generated images, adding a visual layer to your storytelling.

Pricing

• Free Plan: 6,000 AI words/month, 5 images/month, 15 files, and limited elements.
• Pro Plan: Unlocks unlimited AI manuscripts, text-to-image generation, and live online training.

5. Bibisco

We conclude the list with Bibisco. 

Bibisco is a novel-writing software focused on deep story structure and character development. Ideal for planners, it offers tools like premise and fabula mapping, location and character interviews, and detailed analysis of narrative elements. It is a downloadable application, not a web-based tool, and operates offline, which is ideal for privacy-conscious writers.

However, it is important to note that Bibisco does not incorporate generative AI features, so it may not be as comparable to AI-driven tools like Novelcrafter.

For those looking for a private, non-cloud-based alternative, Bibisco offers robust features with full control over your writing.

Key Features

• Codex-Style Organization: Enables tracking of the story’s premise, settings, fabula (chronological story events), and narrative strands for a clearer overall structure.
• Character Interviews: Provides guided questions to flesh out characters’ motivations, backgrounds, and arcs.
• Scene and Chapter Management: Lets you organize and rearrange your manuscript hierarchically, with folders for scenes and chapters.
• Narrative Analysis: Helps evaluate elements like pacing, conflict, and character arcs, ensuring a balanced and engaging story.
• Offline-First Design: Work privately on your computer with full control, without relying on cloud storage or online accounts.

Pricing

• Community Edition: Free, with a 30-day trial of Supporters Edition.
• Supporters Edition: Includes two years of updates and extra features like mind maps, timeline, and groups.

Compare the Best Novelcrafter Alternatives

Here’s a side-by-side look at the top options we reviewed

With its generous free tier, multi-character role-plays, precise story steering, and unmatched flexibility, DreamGen is the best tool for writers who want complete creative control and a truly immersive AI storytelling experience.

Unlock Your Creative Potential With the Best Novelcrafter Alternative

We've explored 5 alternatives to Novelcafter, highlighting tools that offer better flexibility, AI customization, and storytelling support.

While options like Scrivener and Sudowrite provide creative control, DreamGen stands out as the most reliable alternative. With its interactive fiction capabilities, customizable scenarios, and real-time control, our platform enables you to craft immersive, dynamic stories effortlessly.

Whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional writer, DreamGen’s blend of AI-driven creativity and user-friendly design makes it the ideal choice.

Sign up today for free to redefine your storytelling journey.