Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover self-publishing and writing & scripts. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Atticus | Plottr | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $147 | From $9.99 |
| Pricing model | One-time purchase | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | One-time purchase | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Everything, in an open format | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web, macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS, Windows |
| Covers | Self-Publishing, Writing & Scripts | Self-Publishing, Project Management, Writing & Scripts |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Write and typeset a book for one payment
Atticus is a writing app and a book formatter in one, which is the pairing self-published authors otherwise buy twice. It runs in a browser and offline, so a manuscript is not stranded by a bad connection, and it exports files the retailers accept. One payment covers unlimited books and there is no subscription behind it.
Our note
The comparison people actually make is against Vellum, which costs more and is Mac only. If you are on Windows this is the answer by default; on a Mac the question is whether Vellum's output is worth roughly twice the money to you.
Story structure on a timeline, before the draft
Plottr is for the part before the writing: scenes on a timeline, characters and places as cards, and templates built from the story structures people actually teach. It does not want to be your word processor and exports to the tools that are. Buying it once is an option, which is unusual in this corner now.
Our note
Buy the lifetime licence if you write more than one book, because the yearly price pays for it in under three years and the software is finished enough not to need reinventing. Pair it with Dabble or a plain word processor for the drafting.
Only on this side
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.