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Wretify vs Scrivener
Wretify is a clean, minimalist writing app for nonfiction writers, built for focus — with an AI that has read everything you've written and refuses to write it for you.
What is the difference between Wretify and Scrivener?
Scrivener, by Literature & Latte, is a desktop writing application for long documents that combines a manuscript editor with tools for organising sections and research — in its maker’s words, a typewriter, ring-binder and scrapbook in one.
Wretify is a clean, minimalist writing app for nonfiction writers, built for focus — with an AI that has read everything you've written and refuses to write it for you.
Scrivener organises a book; Wretify is built around what you have already written. Its AI has read your whole body of work — every book, article, journal entry and note — and brings your own earlier passages and real research to the chapter in front of you, while refusing to draft it. Wretify also runs in the browser on any computer or phone, and keeps each chapter as a plain Markdown file in your own Google Drive.
What is Scrivener best at?
Scrivener is at its best on long, many-part projects. The binder holds every section and research file in one place; the corkboard and outliner let you rearrange a book by dragging index cards; you can edit sections one at a time or as one document, keep PDFs, images and web pages beside the draft, take snapshots of a section before you change it, and compile the whole thing into almost any format. It has one of the most flexible export systems of any writing app.
Novelists, screenwriters and nonfiction or academic authors assembling a large book from many pieces and sources, on Mac, Windows or iOS.
Wretify and Scrivener, side by side
| Wretify | Scrivener | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Nonfiction books and articles. | Long documents: novels, screenplays, nonfiction and academic writing. |
| Devices | In the web browser, on a computer or a phone. Nothing to install. | Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPad. Each licence covers one platform. |
| Price | One plan with every feature: $7 a month or $45 a year. The first 1,000 writers get 3 months free. Opens October 27, 2026. | One-time licence: $59.99 for Mac or Windows, $23.99 for iOS. A 30-day trial that counts only the days you use it. |
| Where your writing lives | Plain Markdown files in a Wretify folder in your own Google Drive. Wretify keeps no other copy. | A Scrivener project (.scriv) on your own computer, synced through a folder such as Dropbox if you choose. |
| AI | Bring your own key (Claude, Gemini or DeepSeek). The AI reads everything you have written, thinks with you and brings you real research and your own earlier passages. It does not draft your chapters; nothing reaches the page unless you press Replace or Insert, or drag it there. | None. “Scrivener itself contains no artificial intelligence.” |
| Footnotes and citations | Footnotes inside the sentence they support. Each chapter builds its own References list (APA 7) from them. Sources come from 250 million real papers (OpenAlex), never invented. | Footnotes are built in, with MLA and APA templates for papers. Citations are handled by an outside reference manager such as Zotero. |
| Export | A chapter as Markdown, Word or PDF; a whole book as Markdown, Word or EPUB, with a bibliography. | Word, RTF, OpenOffice, PDF, EPUB, Kindle, Final Draft, MultiMarkdown (for LaTeX) and Pandoc. |
Should I choose Wretify or Scrivener?
Choose Scrivener if you want a binder, corkboard and compile system for a large, many-part manuscript; you write on Mac, Windows or iOS; you prefer a one-time licence and no AI at all.
Choose Wretify if you write nonfiction and want an AI that knows your earlier writing and finds real sources without writing for you; you move between devices, including an Android phone or a borrowed computer; you want citations kept inside the sentence they support.
How does Wretify compare to other writing apps?
Every major writing app is good at something different. The full guide answers what the best software for writing books is, app by app.
Sources
- Scrivener overview (Literature & Latte) — www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview
- Scrivener FAQs — licences and trial — www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/faqs
- Scrivener prices and crossgrades — www.literatureandlatte.com/crossgrading
- Scrivener store (iOS price) — www.literatureandlatte.com/store/scrivener
- Syncing Scrivener projects to the cloud — www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/syncing-scrivener-projects-to-the-cloud
- Scrivener and AI — www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/scrivener-and-ai-why-do-i-see-ai-prompts-in-my-scrivener-projects-on-mac
Updated . Prices and features of other apps are taken from their own websites on that date and can change. Wretify is our product, so we have tried hard to be fair to the others. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.