Feldar vs Scrivener

At a glance

How the work differs

Both apps start from the same idea: a novel is easier to write in pieces than as one long file. They part ways on what sits next to those pieces.

Structure: the binder and the page list

Scrivener's binder is its heart. A chapter can be one document or twenty, a scene can be a paragraph long, and you can nest folders as deep as the book needs. Scrivenings mode stitches any selection back together so you can read three chapters as one. Moving Chapter Four to the front is a drag.

Feldar is simpler. A book is a project, and a project is a list of pages, usually one chapter per page. Inside each page the structure lives in its Outline: the scenes that chapter has to hold. If you like to split a book into dozens of small fragments and shuffle them, Scrivener gives you more room to do that.

Planning: the corkboard and the scene outline

On Scrivener's corkboard every section is an index card with a synopsis. You can see a whole act at once and rearrange it, and the outliner shows the same sections as rows you can scan. It is a planning tool that works the same way if you plot first or restructure after a messy draft.

Feldar plans one chapter at a time. Each page has an Outline: a list of scenes with a title and a short description. Type them in yourself, or describe what happens next and let Generate scenes lay out a first version to edit or cut. When the plan is right, write the chapter with the scenes beside you, or press Draft Page for a first pass at the word count you set. Scrivener shows more of the book at once. Feldar keeps the plan attached to the chapter it describes, and its tools read it.

Research and the story world

Scrivener stores research inside the project: PDFs, photographs, web pages, interview audio. You open them in a split beside the chapter. Many novelists also keep a folder of character and place sheets in the binder. Feldar does not store research files in the project that way.

What Feldar has instead is the Canvas: a board of cards for characters, locations, plot beats, items, factions and notes, linked with labels like Part of, Causes or Opposes. The difference that matters is that Feldar reads the Canvas when it helps you write, so a suggested line uses the name of the town you already set down rather than inventing one.

Revision and feedback

In Scrivener, revision is you, the text and your tools: snapshots before a big rewrite, comments in the margin, a second editor pane to compare two chapters. It never suggests a word.

In Feldar you can select a paragraph and choose Polish, Deepen or Enhance, or type an instruction such as "Slow this down." The rewrite arrives in a card with the changes marked, and you apply it or keep what you had. Checks reads the page for grammar and spelling, clarity, repetition and word choice, dialogue transitions and point of view, and marks each issue in the text. Lens gives the page six readers, from Critic to Cheerleader, and Reader reactions marks the moments a chosen audience felt in the margin. What Feldar lacks is snapshots: there is undo, but no version history to go back to last month's draft.

Getting the book out

This is where Scrivener has no real rival in this comparison. Compile takes one project and produces a submission manuscript in Word, a formatted PDF, an ePub or Kindle file, a Final Draft script or LaTeX, each with its own formatting rules. Feldar exports the whole book or selected pages as Word, PDF, Markdown or plain text. That covers sending a draft to an agent or an editor. It does not lay out an ebook.

When Scrivener is the better choice

• You want to pay once. $59.99 on the Mac, minor updates free, and paid major upgrades years apart and discounted.
• You write offline, or want your files on your own disk. Scrivener projects are local files. Feldar needs a connection.
• You format and publish the book yourself. Compile to ePub, Kindle and print-ready PDF is something Feldar does not do.
• Your research is files. If you write historical fiction from scanned letters and photographs, keeping them inside the project beside the chapter is a real advantage.
• You work on Windows or an iPad. Scrivener has native apps for both. Feldar runs in a browser on Windows, and its desktop app is Mac only for now.
• You do not want AI anywhere near the manuscript. Scrivener has none. Feldar's AI is optional and never changes your text without your OK, but it is part of the app.

When Feldar is the better choice

• You want help on the page, not just a place to keep it. Continue from here when a scene stalls, a rewrite of a slack paragraph, a revision pass with Checks. New text appears in blue or in a card and stays only if you accept it.
• You want your plan and your world to inform the draft. The scene Outline and the Canvas are the context Feldar uses when it writes, so its suggestions follow your plan and your names.
• You want a reader before you have readers. Lens and Reader reactions give a first response to a chapter at two in the morning.
• You never got along with Scrivener's settings. Feldar has far fewer of them. There is no compile setup to learn because there is no compile.
• You want a record of how you wrote. The Writing record keeps a private account of which words you typed and which came through Feldar's tools, in case a publisher or contest asks.
• You move between computers. Your books live in your account, in the browser or the Mac app, without setting up Dropbox sync.

Cost over a year

The two apps charge in different ways, so here is the first year side by side. Prices in US dollars, checked November 5, 2026.

Over one year Scrivener is cheaper than any paid Feldar plan, and over five years the gap grows. The paid Feldar plans are paying for the AI: Core comes with 20,000 credits a month and Pro with 45,000, used by rewrites, chat, Checks, scene generation and drafting. If you would use Feldar only to write and organize, the free plan does that. When credits run out, AI features pause and your writing stays available. Full details are on the pricing page.

How to move a Scrivener project into Feldar

Feldar does not open .scriv files. The route is through Word, and it carries your prose well and your project structure only partly. Here is what to do and what to expect.

1. Compile to Word in Scrivener. Open Compile from the File menu, choose Word (.docx) as the output, and include the sections you want to bring. Keep chapter titles in the output so you can find your place.
2. Import the .docx in Feldar. Choose Import manuscript in your Library, or Import in the editor's Options menu. Feldar takes DOCX, PDF, Markdown and plain text files up to 20 MB each. A full novel in Word is usually far under that.
3. Read it through. Check that chapter titles, scene breaks and italics came across the way you expect before you start writing in the new copy.
4. Rebuild the people and places that matter. Add your main characters, key locations and the objects the plot turns on as Canvas cards, and link them. Start with the ten you would most hate a suggestion to get wrong.
5. Add scene plans where you are still writing. For the chapters ahead, put your corkboard synopses into each page's Outline as scenes.

What does not carry over: research files, corkboard cards and their synopses, keywords, and snapshots. None of these come through a compiled Word file, so keep the Scrivener project as your archive. Nothing about trying Feldar requires giving it up, and you can export from Feldar back to Word at any time.

Questions

Sources

Scrivener facts come from Literature & Latte's own pages, checked November 5, 2026.

1. Buy Scrivener (licences, platforms, system requirements, iOS price, trial)
2. Scrivener overview and features (binder, Scrivenings, research, import, compile)
3. Will I have to pay for updates? (macOS price, upgrade policy)
4. Scrivener 3 on the Mac App Store (features, compile formats)
5. Scrivener downloads (free trial)
6. Feldar pricing