A fair fight

Every tool keeps your words. Only one sees your story.

Word processors store a novel as one long page. Binder-style apps store it as a folder tree. Both force a scene to live in exactly one place, and your story doesn’t work like that.

For the working novelist
novelpad
Scrivener
Word / Docs
One scene, on many boards at onceChapter, plot arc, character, timeline, with no copies and no drift
×
×
Characters tracked automaticallySmart Boards read the prose, including nicknames
manual
×
Plot, timeline & outline views of one draftDifferent lenses, same scenes
partial
×
Offline-first, multi-device syncBuilt in; no third-party file sync required
via Dropbox
online-first
Writing goals, streaks & sprintsAdaptive schedules with vacations built in
targets
×
Snapshots + scene revision diffsWord-by-word, formatting-aware, undo-safe restore
snapshots
history
Beta readers with enforced rolesA commenter cannot touch the prose
×
roles
DOCX in & out, structure preservedHeadings → chapters in; per-chapter export out
Native desktop + web, one accountmacOS, Windows, Linux, and a browser when you’re away
desktop
Pay once, own it forever$89 desktop · $349 lifetime with every future update
×

Based on publicly listed features, June 2026. Good tools evolve; check theirs, then check ours.

Coming from Scrivener

Keep the structure. Lose the bookkeeping.

Your binder instinct maps straight onto boards, except a scene is no longer trapped in one folder. Compile becomes per-column export: one chapter, one subplot, one click. Export your project to .docx, drag it into NovelPad, and the headings become chapters with formatting intact. The corkboard instinct carries straight over.

Coming from Word or Docs

Your draft already knows where to go.

Drag your manuscript in. headings become chapters, content becomes scenes, bold and italics and footnotes survive, with a live preview to tune the split. Sixty thousand words become a board in about a minute. And when your editor wants pages back, they get a clean .docx.

Cross-shopping?

See NovelPad head to head.

NovelPad vs Dabble · vs Atticus · vs Novlr · vs Ulysses

The verdict is yours

Bring fifty thousand words.
See what they look like as a story.

Import your draft for free.See all features.