Dabble vs Dillinger

Dabble is a fiction-writing tool aimed especially at novelists, from first-time hobbyists to professional authors. Its Plot Grid organizes plot lines, plot points, and labels, alongside character profiles and worldbuilding tools. The editor includes scene organization, focus mode, daily word-count goals, and auto-numbered chapters. For editing, it offers sticky notes, comments, highlights, and built-in grammar and style checks. Co-authors can work together on a manuscript in real time. Dabble says it provides automatic cloud backup and sync, along with regular online and offline backups. Projects can be exported to the web, Word, and Google Docs; a NaNoWriMo word tracker is included. It runs in a browser and has Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android availability. There is no free plan, though a 14-day trial is listed. Writer costs $19 a month, Author $29 a month, and Bestseller $49 a month. After a subscription ends, manuscripts and notes remain viewable and exportable but become read-only.

Dillinger is a free web-based Markdown editor with live preview, cloud sync, and no signup requirement. Its Monaco editor includes syntax highlighting, multiple cursors, find and replace, and autocompletion. A side-by-side preview renders Markdown as you type and keeps scrolling aligned with the editor. Documents can be imported by drag and drop and exported as Markdown, styled HTML, or PDF. Dillinger also imports and saves files through GitHub, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Bitbucket; GitHub support covers public and private repositories and lets users save edits back. After the initial load, the editor works offline and keeps drafts in local storage, although cloud sync requires connectivity. Other options include dark mode, fullscreen Zen mode, and Vim and Emacs keybindings. The site describes use by developers, technical writers, and AI builders writing READMEs, documentation, blog posts, and LLM prompts. Documents save automatically in the browser, and the features page says data is not stored on Dillinger’s servers. The Free plan is free, with no signup, paywall, or usage limits.