Pendraic vs Wavemaker Cards

Pendraic is a long-form fiction writing tool for keeping a book's characters, world, voice and story details together. The editor provides prose, outline and arcs views, with optional panels for character lookups, voice consistency, beats and unresolved threads. Planning and revision are organized into eight areas: Promise, Engine, Nexus, Dynamics, Registry, Anchors, Iterations and Closure. Its World Builder links maps, family trees, calendars, languages, timelines and encyclopedia entries to the prose. Listed AI options include Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok and OpenRouter, using either a user's account or a Pendraic Managed AI wallet. When a user starts an AI generation pass, the prompt and needed context go to the chosen provider under that provider's terms. Pendraic says saved files are encrypted in transit and at rest, and that it does not train models on users' writing or sell their content. The Free plan supports up to three active books and includes Word, Markdown and plain-text exports. Pendraic runs on macOS, Windows and the web; paid plans start at $14.99/mo.

Wavemaker Cards is free planning and writing software for developing a book from an idea into chapters and scenes. Its planning board holds movable notes that users can turn into a to-do plan for a novel. A searchable research database organizes notes with hashtags, while the Snowflake tool uses cards to help expand an initial idea. Outlining and manuscript formatting are included, and projects can be exported as Text or RTF. The app can be installed as a Progressive Web App and used without an internet connection. The maker says projects are kept in a local database that users can back up and move, or back up to personal Google Drive; device syncing through Google Drive is also supported. Its privacy policy says the most recent app does not store novel information on the maker’s servers and that users retain ownership of their work. Wavemaker runs on Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and Mac, subject to browser support for installation. Real-time collaboration is not available. The assistant bot can be connected using an OpenAI API key, and OpenAI may charge for its service.