Compare Worldbuilding Software
The one that best fits your storytelling needs—now & for years to come. Compare World Anvil with Kanka, LegendKeeper, and Campfire. See why World Anvil is home to creators who want to build rich settings, stay organized, and beautifully showcase their worlds.
Should you use World Anvil?
You never know where imagination might lead. So why choose a worldbuilding tool that only does half of what World Anvil can? Get a software that fully supports gamemasters, novelists, game developers, and more.
For the RPG campaign that goes further
You can build a wiki and track some RPG elements on Kanka. But with World Anvil, you can bring your entire RPG campaigns and novels to life.
Choose World Anvil for more control over the way your world looks, who sees what, and how far your campaign can go.
Compare with KankaFor a dynamic world with deep lore
LegendKeeper makes you build article templates from scratch. World Anvil takes the heavy lifting out of worldbuilding. With optional prompts, a statblock library, and a full virtual DM’s screen, World Anvil makes game prep inspiring & fun.
Not to mention, World Anvil has a full novel writing software, gorgeous presentation themes, and advanced privacy for ultimate control of your secrets and lore.
Compare with LegendKeeperFor ideas too big for just one book
Campfire is fine for authors who want to write one book. World Anvil is built for writers who have a universe of stories to tell.
For deep lore, for worldbuilding tools that support creativity beyond mere pages, and for storytelling in RPG Campaigns, World Anvil is the gold standard.
Compare with CampfireWorldbuilding Tools Comparison
Comparing worldbuilding tools isn’t as simple as it seems. Different applications may use the same name for very different features. For example, Campfire & LegendKeeper have basic white board and flowchart tools. With them you can draw flat, linear charts.
But on World Anvil, family trees, bloodlines, diplomacy webs, taxonomy trees and organograms use contextual data. They automatically create the visualizations for you, from character to family trees, from organizations to a political network. No fiddly line drawing, just beautiful interactive charts for you to reference as you worldbuild. And share with your players and fans, if you choose.
Nevertheless, the below comparison table is the clearest comparison we could create to show features across different worldbuilding tools, so you can decide which might be right for you.
| Features | World Anvil | Campfire | LegendKeeper | Kanka |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everything you need to run your RPG campaign & write novels | Fiction support but almost no tabletop RPG Features. Limited worldbuilding features. | Basic worldbuilding & GM support. Not for authors. Limited privacy & display options. | A basic worldbuilding tool with a few RPG features. | |
| Worldbuilding Essentials | ||||
| Wiki-style linked articles Build an interconnected "wikipedia-style" encyclopedia of your world, linking articles. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable worldbuilding templates Create and adapt layouts for worldbuilding articles in your setting. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Interactive maps Add clickable pins that link to articles and other worldbuilding information, directly from your map | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fantasy calendars Create a calendar with your own months, weekdays and year structure. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Whiteboards & flowcharts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See article backlinks See which other articles link to the article you’re viewing. | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Forever free option | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Map layers Switch between layered images of the same map, such as political borders, historical periods or underground levels. | Yes | Yes | No | Deprecated |
| Worldbuilding timelines (with scale) Display events on a timeline where their spacing reflects the time between them, including events happening in parallel. | Yes | No | Yes | 3rd party plugin only |
| Guided worldbuilding prompts An optional menu of structured questions, helping you develop details of your setting. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Autolinker Detects matching articles in your text and (optionally) adds links | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Variables & reusable content blocks Reuse values or content across multiple articles, then update the original to change every linked instance. | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Lifetime purchase | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Family trees & bloodlines (automatic) Generate family trees automatically from your characters’ recorded family relationships. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Diplomacy webs (automatic) Generate relationship diagrams from recorded alliances and rivalries between factions, organizations or countries. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Chronicles (timelines & maps together) Explore your world’s history through connected timelines and maps, showing when and where events happened. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Automatic article hierarchy charts Automatically builds charts of your sub-locations, sub-species and more. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Content trees / taxonomy charts Generate hierarchy charts, organograms, and other content trees, and present them as interactive charts or a list | Yes | No | No | No |
| Game Master Tools | ||||
| RPG session chat | Yes | No | Yes | Deprecated |
| RPG session reports Record what happened in each session and connect the recap to relevant characters, locations and events. | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Party inventory | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Quest tracking | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Track current world date Set and advance the current date in your fictional world as your campaign progresses. | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Discord integration Send world or campaign updates to a connected Discord channel. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| System-specific Player Character sheets Use character sheets with fields and statistics tailored to your chosen tabletop RPG system. | Yes | No | No | 3rd party plugin only |
| Customizable roll tables Create tables of encounters, loot or other outcomes, then roll dice to select a result. | Yes | No | Basic | No |
| Live session Virtual DM screen Run sessions from an interactive dashboard that brings together campaign information, player characters and live session tools. | Yes | No | No | No |
| RPG session scheduler Schedule upcoming game sessions directly in your campaign, with dedicated session entries that connect to your game tools and reports. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Create custom random generators Combine your own lists and generation rules to produce names, characters, locations and other worldbuilding ideas. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Sheets & Blocks for 100+ TTRPGs Access a community library of stat blocks covering over 100 tabletop roleplaying game systems. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Customizable stat block library Browse, customize and reuse ready-made game statistics for creatures, characters, items and spells. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Play by post support (discussion boards) Run downtime, asynch or text-only RPG sessions through discussion threads, with players posting their characters’ rolls, actions and responses. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Novel Writing Software | ||||
| Manuscript editor | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Corkboard-style scene planner Plan scenes as cards, view their summaries and drag them into a new order. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Integrated world bible Access & edit your characters, locations and other worldbuilding notes from inside the manuscript editor. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Novel & serial-fiction publishing Publish novels online or release your story chapter by chapter for readers to follow. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Co-author support Give other authors access to edit and develop the same manuscript. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Beta reader support Share unpublished work with selected readers and collect their feedback before release. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| ARC sharing Share digital advance reader copies before publication with reviewers, bloggers and other early readers. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Author Monetization options Earn money through book sales or exclusive content for paying supporters, including through external services. | Yes chapter by chapter | Yes Whole book only | No | No |
| Publish without preapproval? Publish without waiting for platform approval. | Yes | No | n/a | n/a |
| Fanfiction sharing permitted? | Yes | No | n/a | n/a |
| NSFW sharing permitted? Share writing intended for adult audiences, subject to the platform’s community rules. | Yes | No | n/a | n/a |
| Audio book support Add audio narration to chapters using embedded audio players, so readers can listen alongside the text. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Comments on chapters (optional) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Reader Forums (discussion boards) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Professional Tools | ||||
| Premade Visual Themes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| White Labeling Remove platform branding from your presentation mode. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Custom CSS Use CSS styling code to customize your world’s appearance beyond the built-in visual controls. | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Patreon/subscriber exclusive content Give paying supporters access to private content, including when payments are handled on Patreon or another external service. | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Custom Visual styling Adjust your world’s appearance through visual controls, such as colour and font settings. | Yes (all elements) | Colors and fonts only | No | Interface colors only |
| Design & publish custom statblocks & SRDs Design statblock templates and publish a system reference document (SRD) explaining your tabletop RPG’s rules. | Yes | No | No | 3rd party plugin only |
| Fan comments (optional) | Yes | (not optional) | No | No |
| Custom domains Publish your world website at your own web address, such as lore.yourname.com. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Bulk subscriber import (for Patreon, Kickstarter etc) Add multiple supporters to an access group at once using a list of their email addresses. | Yes | No | No | No |
| "Self-service" access codes Share a code with readers so they can join an access group without adding each person individually. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Password protected pages Set a password-protection to a page. These can also be gamified. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Custom SEO settings Set custom page titles and descriptions for search engines, separately from the titles shown to readers. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Google Analytics integration Connect your own Google Analytics account to understand visits and reader behaviour on your world website. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Subscriber groups Organize readers into groups and choose which private content each group can access. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Professional seminar programme Attend regular sessions on publishing, marketing and building a business around your creative work. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Worldbuilding Task Tracking / To Do list Prioritize worldbuilding tasks and track progress on the articles you need to create or revise. | Yes | No | No | No |
It’s your creative home. Choose wisely.
See the complex relationships between your characters, places & events with charts you can explore, linked to articles & maps.
Don’t limit yourself! Let your worldbuilding evolve into a novel, tabletop RPG campaign, or something else entirely as your ideas develop.
Professionally-designed themes make your world something you’re proud to show off. Let your audience explore freely, with tools that control what you reveal.
The World Anvil advantage
A worldbuilding software should earn its place in your creative life. World Anvil does that by supporting your work with professional-grade tools. That’s why NYT Bestselling authors, pro gamemasters, and game studios trust it to help craft rich, fascinating worlds.
Choose World Anvil for a full creative toolkit, ready to grow with you. Explore the comparisons to see how its worldbuilding, writing, and campaign tools support the projects you want to bring to life.
Built with love, by geeks like you
Explore the changelog to see our newest features and most recent improvements to the everyday experience of creating. We forge the path others follow.
Use community suggestions to share the changes you want to see and support ideas from other creators. Your experience helps shape what comes next.
Create a free account and start with a small project. Explore memberships when you need more capacity, privacy, or advanced tools. Choose the tools that serve your next step.
Kickstart your creativity
Explore our worldbuilding software, prepare your next adventure with the RPG campaign manager, or compare worldbuilding tools.
Start with the part of your world you can’t wait to create. Give it shape, see what it sparks, and flow effortlessly into the next idea.
Looking to compare worldbuilding tools? Here are some quick answers for choosing your perfect creative tools!
There’s been a market rush of cheap, vibe-coded software recently. Some of it looks quite shiny, but it’s not built by experts – neither software experts nor worldbuilding experts! Don’t trust your beloved world to an app someone vibe-coded on cheap hosting, then started advertising as a side hustle. Our comparison table only includes reputable software with dedicated support.
In a word – there’s no comparison. Generic knowledgebase apps like Notion, Obsidian and OneNote just aren’t built for worldbuilding. If you want to try to make them work, they require hours of fiddly set-up and customization (which is liable to break!), and even then can’t offer the support of a custom built solution like World Anvil. If you want to put your time where it matters – building a world for your RPG Campaign or novel – choose a real worldbuilding software that’s an out-of-the-box solution.
When comparing worldbuilding tools, it’s important to consider two things: who made it, and what features it has. For features, choose a software with core tools like interactive maps, wikistyle articles, family trees and advanced timelines. An integrated novel writing software and RPG campaign manager means you can have all your work in one place. And select a worldbuilding tool that’s feature rich, because you never know what you’ll need as your world grows. Finally, choose software created by experts in both software and in worldbuilding. World Anvil was created in a partnership between two experts: a professional game writer and published fantasy novelist, and a software engineer working for one of the top agencies in the UK.
World Anvil is the most feature-rich worldbuilding toolset on the market. It’s a complete novel writing software and suite, as well as all the tools you need to run an RPG campaign. It’s used by both amateurs and well-known professionals.
Choose World Anvil if you want to build your setting, prepare your adventures and run your RPG campaign in one place. Its RPG campaign manager brings together your whole world wiki with interactive maps, timelines and more, alongside character sheets, statblocks, quest tracking, party inventory and session reports. The interactive virtual DM screen keeps your preparation at hand during play, while privacy controls let you decide what your players can see… and discover! With sheets and statblocks for 100+ tabletop RPG systems, including D&D, World Anvil supports your game as it grows—from your first adventure to a campaign spanning generations.
World Anvil is an excellent worldbuilding software for beginners because it helps you develop your world as well as organize it. Its ready-made worldbuilding templates include prompts designed by professional worldbuilders to spark ideas for characters, places, cultures and more. Start with one character or location, answer the questions that inspire you, and connect new details as you go. It has comprehensive tutorials and webinars to help you find your feet, and a free “How to Start Worldbuilding” course that guides you step by step through creating your first world. Then, once you’re ready, you can add maps, timelines and other tools when you need them.
World Anvil has a generous free worldbuilding allowance for creators who want an organized, connected setting from day one. The free membership includes worldbuilding templates, linked articles, interactive maps and timelines, so you can start developing your characters, places and history without paying. There’s no time limit on the free plan, giving you space to explore the tools and build at your own pace. Optional Guild memberships unlock more capacity and advanced features when you’re ready to level up your worldbuilding.
Yes – and you should because it will save you a lot of work! World Anvil combines worldbuilding, novel writing and RPG campaign management in one, so the same setting can support all your creative projects. Keep your characters, locations, cultures and history together in a connected world bible, then use the RPG campaign manager to prepare adventures within it. Use Manuscripts, World Anvil’s novel writing software, to plan and draft fiction with your worldbuilding at your fingertips, and either export it or publish and monetize as a web novel on the platform. A character from your novel can become an NPC, and a memorable game session can inspire your next story.
World Anvil is built for (and used by!) professional creators who want to develop extensive worlds, work with a team and build an audience. Its Sage membership combines worldbuilding tools with white labelling, custom domains, CSS customization, SEO settings and Google Analytics integration. You can present your world as a branded website on World Anvil, manage your team’s co-author permissions, and offer exclusive content to readers, players and paying supporters like Patreons and Kickstarter backers. Monthly professional seminars help you develop the business side of your creative work—whether you’re building a novel series, publishing an RPG setting or developing a shared universe.
Every great world starts somewhere
Dive deeper and learn about how World Anvil can help you!
