A Plottr Alternative, If You’d Rather Plan Inside the Book.
Plottr is an outlining specialist: timelines, plotlines and scene cards, for planning a book or a whole series, then handing the plan to the app you write in. Shiro keeps the plan and the manuscript in one place, so moving a card moves the scene. If you’re happy writing in Word or Scrivener and only want a better planner beside it, Plottr may be all you need.
| Shiro | Plottr | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on your computer. Cloud is optional, see the pricing page. | Plottr: $60 a year or $150 once. Pro: $9.99 a month, $99 a year or $599 once. Pro + Community: $14.99 a month, $129 a year or $649 once. Its comparison table shows higher figures beside most of these, without saying why. 30-day free trial, no refunds. |
| What it’s for | Writing the book, with a planning board built in | Planning first, then export to your writing app |
| Plotting tools | Cards, list, timeline, plot grid, charts and a series view, all on the manuscript’s own scenes, and whiteboards beside them | Timelines, plotlines and scene cards, across a series |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, Linux, and a web app for cloud projects. No phone app yet. | Windows and Mac. Pro adds a browser app that also runs on tablets. |
| Where your work lives | Plain Markdown files in a folder on your disk, or Shiro Cloud if you choose it | Files on your device, synced through Dropbox, iCloud or OneDrive. Pro works in its cloud, with optional local backup copies. |
| Built-in AI | Optional: local model, your own key or hosted. Can be turned off. | None listed on any plan |
| Export | EPUB, PDF, Word, Markdown, HTML, plain text, with Kindle presets and a pre-upload checklist. Outline as CSV. | Word and Scrivener files |
Checked on the makers’ own websites in November 2026. Prices are in US dollars and change; tell us if we’ve fallen behind.
Choose Plottr If
- You write in Scrivener or Word and have no wish to move. Plottr exports to both and asks you to change nothing else.
- You like your plan kept in a quiet place of its own, with no draft in the next room looking at you.
- You plan on a tablet. Plottr Pro’s browser app is made to run on one, and we make no such promise.
- You want a planner whose plans list no AI at all.
Choose Shiro If
- You want the outline and the manuscript to be one thing, so they can’t drift apart halfway through the draft.
- You work on Linux.
- You want one app from the first card to the finished EPUB and print PDF.
- You also want your characters, places, maps and series facts in the same project as the text.
An Outline Is a Promise
An outline is a promise made by someone who hasn’t met the characters yet. The book will break it, usually around the middle, and what matters then is where the outline lives.
Plottr gives it a home of its own. You lay out plotlines and a timeline, fill them with scene cards, follow a thread through a whole series, then export to Word or Scrivener and go off to write. The plan stays tidy because nothing else happens there, and the way you already work doesn’t have to change at all. The cost of that arrangement is two documents, and two documents drift. By the second act, the duke you cut in March is still on the timeline, poisoning people.
In Shiro the plan is the manuscript seen from higher up. Each card on the Board is a scene, so dragging it to another chapter moves the text, and when the scene goes, the card goes with it. There’s nothing to keep in step. That’s also the catch: you have to write in Shiro for any of this to work.
What Planning Looks Like in Shiro
Cards sit in columns, one per chapter. The Grid view is a plot grid, with plotlines down the side, scenes along the top and beats in the cells. The Timeline sorts scenes by when they happen rather than when you tell them, in lanes by point of view, plotline or series, and it accepts real dates, “Day 3” or a calendar you made up. There’s a Series view for when one book has quietly become four, and whiteboards in World for working things out with no rules at all.
If you like a formal structure, Save the Cat, the Hero’s Journey, three acts and the seven-point plot are all there, and your book is free to ignore them. If you haven’t settled on a method, start with our guide to outlining a novel, which doesn’t need Shiro to be useful.
Where Plottr Is Ahead
It’s a specialist, and the whole product is about planning. Shiro’s Board shares a building with a manuscript, a World, an AI and a department that makes EPUBs, and some people plan better with fewer neighbours.
It also leaves your setup alone. If you have a Scrivener project you’re fond of, or a publisher who lives in Word, Plottr slots in beside them and asks for nothing. Moving your writing to Shiro is a far bigger decision than buying a planner, and you should treat it as one.
Its plans list no AI, which settles the matter for some writers. Pro’s browser app runs on tablets, and Shiro has no phone app yet. There’s even a plan with a community attached, which an app as young as ours can’t offer.
Trying Them Without Regret
Plottr has a 30-day free trial and doesn’t refund purchases, so use the whole trial before you pay. Shiro’s desktop app is free to download and needs no account, so the only thing it can cost you is an afternoon.
You can also combine them: plan in Plottr, export a Word file, and import it into Shiro. We haven’t tried that route with a real Plottr export, and we didn’t install Plottr to write this page. Everything here about it comes from its own site, read in November 2026. We also make Shiro, which you’ll have noticed.
The Questions People Ask
Can I use Plottr and Shiro together?
Yes. Plan in Plottr, export a Word file, and import it into Shiro, which can split it at headings, page breaks or a marker line. From then on you have two documents, so decide which one you’ll believe. We haven’t tested this with a real Plottr export, so try a small one first.
Does Shiro have beat sheets and plot templates?
It has structures including Save the Cat, the Hero’s Journey, three acts, the seven-point plot and Romancing the Beat, plus processes like Snowflake. Beats appear on your cards as an indication. Nothing gets blocked or rewritten if your book ignores them.
Does Plottr have AI?
Its pricing page lists no AI on any plan. Shiro does have an AI, and you can turn it off entirely.
Is Shiro free, where Plottr is paid?
The desktop app is free on your computer and needs no account. The paid part of Shiro is Cloud: sync, the web app, co-authors and hosted AI. See the pricing page. Plottr’s plans start at $60 a year, or $150 once, after a 30-day trial.