Kanka.io vs yazar.io
Kanka.io and yazar.io are both world-building platforms for organizing characters, locations, organizations, and the rest of a fictional world, but they start from different places. Kanka.io combines worldbuilding with tabletop RPG and campaign management. yazar.io is built directly for novelists, short story writers, and other long-form fiction writers to shape their stories and worlds. If you're not running a D&D campaign, yazar.io offers a simpler, more direct workspace.
Why is yazar.io a better fit for novelists?
yazar.io's workspace is built around a book, not a campaign. When you create a new project you work directly with sections built for fiction writers: Characters, Locations, Organizations, Lore and World Rules, Races, Creatures, Items, Spells, Religions, Notes, Glossary, and Event Flow. That means you don't have to navigate systems built for RPG players (quests, inventory, abilities, player permissions) that you'll never use.
How do you connect your records to each other?
Information in a fictional world isn't isolated: a character belongs to a specific organization, has lived in a location, or is related to another character. In yazar.io, that relationship is created fully automatically: link a character to an organization or location once, and it shows up on the other side too (say, on that organization's or location's own page); as your world grows, you don't have to keep those relationships in sync by hand.
It's not just for building your world, you can share it with readers too
One thing that sets yazar.io apart from Kanka.io is that it combines the writer's and the reader's side in one product. The Shareable Wiki publishes sections like characters, locations, organizations, and lore as a read-only page. The Author Card also lets you show your books, social accounts, and wikis under a single writer profile.
Your creative content (character/location descriptions, notes) is also stored encrypted in the database (AES-256-GCM); the keys that unlock it are kept separately, protected by Google Cloud KMS.
When is Kanka.io the better fit?
Kanka.io is more comprehensive specifically for tabletop RPGs: fantasy calendars, interactive maps, quest management, inventory systems, player roles, and collaboration are all built in. Its free Kobold plan is genuinely generous too: unlimited entries and unlimited campaigns, with a standard campaign giving you 150 MiB of storage, 10 members, and 3 roles (ad-supported). If those are a core part of how you work, Kanka.io may be the better fit, but for a novelist, more features don't always mean a better experience.
| Feature | yazar.io | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Primary audience | Novelists and fiction writers | Worldbuilding + tabletop RPG |
| Project structure | Book | Campaign |
| Character / location / organization sections | Yes, ready-made | Yes, general structure |
| Writer-specific Glossary / Event Flow / Notes | Yes, dedicated sections | General record structure |
| How relationships are tracked | Automatic Linked Pages, two-way | @mention + Connections / Related Elements |
| Family tree | Yes, free | Advanced family tree needs a higher tier |
| Author profile | Yes, Author Card | No |
| Book showcase | Yes | No |
| Social account showcase | Yes | No |
| Shareable wiki | Free | Free (public campaign) |
| Ad-free experience | Yes, on the free plan | Requires a paid tier |
| Book export | Yes | Yes |
Can I write my novel's manuscript in yazar.io?
No, yazar.io isn't a word processor for writing your manuscript, it's a workspace for shaping your story and world (characters, locations, events, relationships). You'll typically keep writing the manuscript itself in a tool like Word or Google Docs.
Is yazar.io free to use?
Yes, yazar.io has a permanently free Writer plan (2 books, 15 records per entity type, 50 MB of image storage). You can also use Notes, Glossary, and Event Flow, and publish an Author Card and a Wiki; the Author Card stays permanently free on both plans.
Does yazar.io have RPG features?
No, yazar.io isn't an RPG campaign manager. Instead of quests, inventory, and player management, it focuses on novel and fiction writing.
Is Kanka.io's free Kobold plan more generous than yazar.io's?
In some ways, yes: Kobold offers unlimited entries and campaigns. But a standard campaign is capped at 150 MiB of storage, 10 members, and 3 roles, is ad-supported, and features like advanced family trees, custom themes, and plugins require a paid tier. yazar.io's Writer plan is capped at 2 books and 15 records per entity type, but nothing, including Family Tree, Wiki, and Author Card, is ad-supported or gated behind a paid tier.
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