The planning and worldbuilding Reedsy leaves out
Reedsy Studio is a genuinely superb free editor for writing a book and formatting it to publish. What it doesn't do is the part that comes before and around the draft: the visual planning, the map, the cast, the covers. Inkling is the all-in-one for that side, a storyboard, a map maker, character cards, and covers, in one place beside your draft.
still smells like her coffee
the old flame, still in town
came home to run the diner
home an hour, already locked out
one’s addressed to her
| Inkling | Reedsy Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Visual planning | A freeform Storyboard of scene, character, place, and idea cards you connect with arrows, with your maps and cast on the same desk. | Planning boards in a card view, free, for laying out your book beside the manuscript. |
| Worldbuilding & maps | A fantasy map maker and character cards built in, for the world your book needs. | No maps or worldbuilding tools; the focus is the manuscript, not the world around it. |
| Book covers | Make a cover for your book right in the app. | No in-app cover design, though the Reedsy marketplace connects you to professional cover designers. |
| Formatting & export | Export to Word, plain text, a Google Doc, or a print booklet; Inkling isn't a typesetting tool and has no EPUB export. | Its specialty: free, one-click professional EPUB and print-ready PDF, genuinely excellent. |
| Where you write | In Inkling's own editor, with a “Previously…” recap at the top of each story, or connect a Google Doc if you prefer. | In Reedsy's own polished, distraction-free editor. |
| Price | $9/mo, or $72/yr as a Founding Writer. 14-day trial, no card. | Free to write and format, funded by Reedsy's freelance marketplace. |
Different jobs, not the same job cheaper
This is not really Inkling versus Reedsy on price, because they solve different halves of writing a book. Reedsy shines at the draft and the finish: a clean place to write and a beautiful, free export to publish. Inkling shines before and around the draft: planning the story, building the world, and keeping the cast and maps in one place. Many writers could happily use both.
A board for the whole world, not just the chapters
Reedsy now includes planning boards with a card view, free, which is a real help for laying out a book. Inkling's Storyboard goes wider: scene, character, place, and idea cards on one freeform board, arrows to trace a subplot end to end, and your maps and cast sitting on the same desk, so the plan, the people, and the world stay together.
Maps, characters, and covers in one place
If you write fantasy, sci-fi, or anything with a world worth drawing, Reedsy leaves you to keep that elsewhere. Inkling puts a fantasy map maker, character cards, and a cover maker in the same project as your plan, so the world lives with the story instead of scattered across other apps.
Honestly, Reedsy Studio is excellent, and free
We won't pretend otherwise: for writing a manuscript and formatting it into a professional EPUB or print-ready PDF at no cost, Reedsy is one of the best tools there is, and its marketplace of editors and designers is a real asset when you're ready to publish. Inkling is for the planning and worldbuilding side of the same journey. If you want to plan and build your world in Inkling and format the finished book in Reedsy, that's a genuinely great pairing.
All of it. In one place.
This isn't five apps stitched together. Your storyboard, your cast, your maps, your covers, and the story itself all live on one desk, right beside the words. Nothing to sync between tools. No five separate subscriptions. Just everything a writer needs, finally in the same place.
Your whole writing desk, in one place
Start free today. Bring one story in, and see how much lighter it feels with everything beside it.