Built for the whole world, not just the words.
There are wonderful writing apps out there. Many of us wrote in Scrivener and Ulysses for years, and still love them. Storybook simply starts from a different question: what does a fiction series need around the prose?
Scrivener, Ulysses, and Storybook
Two well made tools, set beside ours. Both are excellent at the job they were built for. Storybook was built for a different one.
Price
- Scrivener
- $59.99 per desktop operating system. Mac plus the $37.95 Windows cross-grade plus $23.99 iOS comes to $121.93
- Ulysses
- $5.99 a month or $49.99 a year, for as long as you write
- Storybook
- $49.99 once, iPhone, iPad, and Mac
If you stop paying
- Scrivener
- Nothing, you already own it
- Ulysses
- Library goes read only, you cannot create or edit
- Storybook
- Nothing, you already own it
Platforms
- Scrivener
- Mac, Windows, iOS, licensed per platform
- Ulysses
- Mac, iPad, iPhone only, no Windows
- Storybook
- iPhone, iPad, and Mac, one purchase, no Windows version
Sync
- Scrivener
- Dropbox, set up by hand
- Ulysses
- Automatic, Apple only
- Storybook
- Automatic iCloud, on your own account
Story bible and character web
- Scrivener
- Holds a series in folders, but the notes are not wired to the draft
- Ulysses
- Not included
- Storybook
- Built in, connected to your prose
In-world timeline
- Scrivener
- Not included
- Ulysses
- Not included
- Storybook
- Built in, era based
Story structure templates
- Scrivener
- Not included
- Ulysses
- Not included
- Storybook
- Nine templates, swappable per book
What it is built around
- Scrivener
- A deep manuscript workshop with a configurable compile step
- Ulysses
- A calm Markdown editor for writing of every kind
- Storybook
- A series, with the bible wired to the draft
The true cost
Ulysses runs $49.99 a year, so three years is about $150 and the fourth year still arrives. Scrivener is a one time purchase at $59.99 per desktop operating system, and writing on Mac, Windows, and iPhone or iPad works out to $121.93, since the Windows cross-grade is $37.95 and iOS is $23.99. Storybook is $49.99, once, for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. There is no Windows version.
A note on AI, since it comes up often. Storybook does not generate, autocomplete, or train on your prose, and it never will. That is a promise about us, not a comment on these two tools, neither of which writes for you either.
Built for fiction series
- Most apps
- Generic folders and documents
- Storybook
- Series → arcs → books, with a shared cast and world
Story bible / codex
- Most apps
- A research folder you organize yourself
- Storybook
- A native codex, connected to your prose
A map of how everything connects
- Most apps
- Scattered notes and folders
- Storybook
- The World Building web, a living family tree of your world
In-world timeline
- Most apps
- Not included
- Storybook
- Built in, so your chronology never drifts
Story-structure templates
- Most apps
- None. You build outlines from blank pages
- Storybook
- Nine structures, switchable per book without losing a note
Flexible series numbering
- Most apps
- Manual reordering, if any
- Storybook
- Custom spine labels (2.5, Novella) plus timeline-driven numbering
Story structure guidance
- Most apps
- Blank templates you assemble yourself
- Storybook
- 16-beat book and 6-beat chapter outlines
Version history
- Most apps
- Varies, often limited or manual
- Storybook
- Chapter snapshots built in
Clean export
- Most apps
- Formatting can drift between tools
- Storybook
- Tidy RTF you can compile anywhere, italics intact
Keep what you love
Attached to another tool's compiler or editor? Keep it. Storybook exports clean RTF you can take anywhere, italics intact.
Markdown-friendly
If a Markdown flow is a joy for you, Storybook speaks it too, while adding the cast, world, and timeline a novel needs around the prose.
When notes become a saga
A simple notebook is lovely until your notes grow into a series. Storybook gives them what their notes app never had: real structure, and a proper editor.
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