Novlr vs Scrivener Comparison 2026
Both cover self-publishing and writing & scripts. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
A writing app with a free plan that writes
A book-length manuscript that stays navigable
At a glance
- Novlr starts cheaper, at $8.
- Only Novlr has a free tier.
Side by side
Novlr | Scrivener | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $8 | From $59.99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | One-time purchase |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Not stated | One-time purchase |
| Free trial (they differ) | None | 30 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on (they differ) |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Novlr
A writing app with a free plan that writes
Novlr is a distraction-free place to write a book, with goals, streaks and version history around the page rather than on top of it. The free plan is a working writing tool rather than a locked demo. Paying adds the proofreader and the longer history, and it is billed yearly.
Our note
Start on the free plan and only pay when version history or the proofreader becomes the thing you miss. At $8 a month the Starter tier is the cheapest serious writing subscription in the catalog.
Scrivener
A book-length manuscript that stays navigable
Scrivener treats a manuscript as a stack of pieces rather than one long file, which is why people who have abandoned a novel in a word processor keep coming back to it. Research, notes and drafts live in the same project, scenes reorder by dragging, and the compile step turns the whole thing into an ebook or a print file at the end. The learning curve is real and front-loaded. It is bought once, per platform.
Our note
The learning curve is real, front-loaded, and the single most common reason people bounce off it. Give the trial a genuine week on a real project rather than an evening of poking, because almost nobody likes Scrivener on day one and most long-form writers who persist keep it for a decade.
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.