A LivingWriter Alternative, With Your Book in Your Own Folder.
LivingWriter is a cloud writing workspace for books and screenplays, on the web, desktop, iOS and Android, with optional AI and export for Amazon KDP. Shiro keeps your book in plain files on your own computer and lets you choose where its AI runs. If you write on your phone or write scripts, LivingWriter covers ground we don’t.
| Shiro | LivingWriter | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on your computer. Cloud is optional, see the pricing page. | Not listed on its pricing page when we read it. Its home page offers a free start with no card. |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, Linux, and a web app for cloud projects. No phone app yet. | Web, desktop, iOS, Android |
| Where your book lives | Plain Markdown files in a folder on your disk, or Shiro Cloud if you choose it | Its cloud, with sync and backup |
| Works offline | Yes on desktop, with no account | Not stated on the current pages we read. An older post of theirs says a connection is needed. |
| Built-in AI | Optional, and can be turned off entirely | Built in, and every feature is optional |
| Local models or your own key | Both | Not mentioned on the pages we read |
| Training on your writing | Shiro never trains models on your writing | Its site and terms say your work isn’t used for AI training |
| Export | EPUB, PDF, Word, Markdown, HTML, plain text, with Kindle presets and a pre-upload checklist | DOCX, PDF, EPUB, Amazon KDP and more |
| Screenplays | No | Yes, with script formatting built in |
Checked on the makers’ own websites in November 2026. Prices are in US dollars and change; tell us if we’ve fallen behind.
Choose LivingWriter If
- You write screenplays as well as books. LivingWriter formats scripts, and Shiro has no screenplay editor.
- You want to write on your phone today. It lists iOS and Android, and Shiro has no phone app yet.
- You’d like an AI that turns a chapter into a script, which is a feature it advertises and we don’t have.
- You’d rather have the whole book in an account that follows you, with no folder to look after.
Choose Shiro If
- You want your book in files on your own disk that any text editor can open, with no account needed.
- You want to run the AI on your own computer, or pay for it with your own key.
- You work on Linux.
- You want to see every request sent to a model, and mark scenes no model may read.
- You’re coming from Scrivener or Novelcrafter. Shiro imports both, with their structure.
The Price, Since You Were Going to Ask
You’ll want to compare prices, and on this one we can’t help. LivingWriter’s pricing page showed no plans and no figures when we read it in November 2026. Its home page offers a free start with no card. Other sites quote numbers that don’t agree with one another, so we aren’t repeating them. Have a look at the page yourself, since it may well show you what it didn’t show us.
Same Instinct, Different House
Both apps begin from the same instinct: a long book is a pile of parts that need to be seen and moved, with its people and places close at hand. From what its site shows, LivingWriter does this as a clean workspace that follows you around, on the web, on desktop, on iOS and Android, with your work synced and backed up in its cloud.
Shiro does it on your disk. A project is a folder of Markdown files with names like 14 The Ferry.md, which open in any text editor, with no connection and no account. Shiro Cloud is there if you want to sync and write with other people, but the desktop app doesn’t need it.
Neither is obviously right. A cloud app asks you to trust someone else’s servers. A folder asks you to trust your own backup habits, and we have all met ourselves. Shiro does take zip backups when you open and close a project and every few minutes while it changes, which helps.
AI Is a Choice on Both Sides
LivingWriter’s AI is built in, and it says every feature of it is optional. It also says it doesn’t train its AI on your manuscript, notes or story elements, and its terms back that up. That’s a clear position, and it deserves credit.
Shiro’s AI can be turned off altogether. When it’s on, you choose where it runs: on a local model that stays on your own machine, on your own API key, or hosted through Shiro Cloud, where chat goes through OpenRouter. “What Shiro sent” shows every request, and a scene marked ai: never is hidden from all models and agents. Shiro never trains models on your writing, and with your own key, that provider’s terms apply. In Manual mode, edits wait as proposals. Auto and Max land them as they go, with undo.
We saw no mention of local models or personal keys on LivingWriter’s pages. That’s not the same as saying they aren’t there.
Where LivingWriter Is Ahead
Phones, to begin with. It lists iOS and Android apps, and Shiro has no phone app yet. If your book gets written in instalments on the 7:42, the rest of this page hardly matters.
Screenplays too. LivingWriter formats scene headings, dialogue and action, and offers templates for film structure. Shiro has no screenplay editor, and a novelist with a script on the side would need a second app.
It also names Amazon KDP among its exports on the home page, and we can’t say from here how its output compares with Shiro’s Kindle presets and checklist. Being a cloud app, it has no folder for you to lose.
Moving Over
LivingWriter exports DOCX, and Shiro imports Word with comments, tracked changes, footnotes and tables, splitting at headings, page breaks or a marker line. We don’t know what its export does with story elements, so check that before you close an account.
We make Shiro and we didn’t install LivingWriter for this page. What we say about it comes from its own site, read in November 2026.
The Questions People Ask
How much does LivingWriter cost?
We can’t tell you. It’s not listed on its pricing page as we read it in November 2026, and we don’t repeat figures from other sites. Its home page offers a free start with no card, so look at the pricing page in your own browser.
Does LivingWriter work offline?
We couldn’t confirm it either way. An older post on its blog says an internet connection is needed, and that may have changed. Ask them if you write in places without a signal.
Does LivingWriter train AI on my book?
It says not. Its AI page says your manuscript, notes and story elements aren’t used to train its AI, and its terms, in the June 2025 version we read, say the same.
Does Shiro have a phone app?
Not yet. Shiro runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, with a web app for cloud projects. LivingWriter lists iOS and Android.
Sources: LivingWriter home page, LivingWriter pricing, LivingWriter downloads, LivingWriter AI features, LivingWriter terms of service, Older LivingWriter post on Scrivener, for the offline note