LegendKeeper vs yazar.io

How do structure and links differ?

LegendKeeper calls itself a worldbuilding toolbox and RPG campaign manager; game masters are its main audience, though it says it suits writers too. Pages are free-form ('no rigid forms or forced categories,' as its site puts it), and you build the structure yourself with templates, page tabs and tags. In yazar.io, everything lives inside a book: nine sections from Characters to Beliefs come with ready-made profile fields, next to a Glossary, Notes, the Event Flow and the Family Tree. You can add your own fields to records, and Yazar Pro opens up to three Custom Sections per book.

Both tools link pages with @. LegendKeeper's Autolink marks the names of existing pages as you type, and you turn them into links one by one or all at once. In yazar.io, the names of your records are linked automatically when you save a text, and the link appears in the other record's Linked pages list. Relationships such as membership, parents and spouses show up on both records as well: make a character a member of an organization and they appear on its page too.

Which one is stronger on maps and boards?

Maps are LegendKeeper's strongest suit: you add pins, regions, paths and labels to a map image and link pins to wiki pages, measure distances and areas on a calibrated map, and nest maps inside each other as deep as you like. yazar.io has no interactive map. You can add a map image to a location record, or put it on a board and draw on it with the pen, but there are no pins or measuring tools.

On a free-form canvas the two are closer. LegendKeeper's boards open in a page tab and hold page cards, sticky notes, shapes, images, arrows and embedded maps. yazar.io's Boards open full screen inside your book and bring record, note and quote cards, sticky notes, images, arrows and a pen together. When two cards on a board are already linked in the book, a faint line shows it. Boards are free for every signed-in yazar.io user.

How do they handle time and family trees?

LegendKeeper's timelines lay eras and events out with their durations, and you can zoom from eras down to days. The same events also open as a list or in a month-by-month calendar. The calendar follows your world: in the Time System editor you define the months, weeks, eras and moons. If you want a calendar with your own month names, LegendKeeper is the more flexible tool.

In yazar.io, the Event Flow is free on every plan: events stay in the order you set, the date note is free text, and you link the people involved and the place. On Yazar Pro, the Calendar shows events in Day, Week, Month and Year views, and the Timeline's Parallel view puts each character in a lane with a lifeline; open an event and you see how old everyone involved was. Both use the standard calendar (BC/AD) and don't know invented month names; on the free plan you can try them in the Sample Book.

The Family Tree is free in yazar.io and draws itself from family ties, with room for free-label ties like 'Stepfather'. LegendKeeper has no separate family tree tool; you build one yourself on a board, with page cards and arrows.

How do collaboration and sharing compare?

If you'll work with players or co-writers, LegendKeeper is clearly ahead. You edit the same project in real time; invited people are free and only the project owner needs a subscription. Secret blocks show notes inside a page to admins only, you can hide whole pages from players, and there's project chat, dice and version history. yazar.io has no collaboration; each book belongs to a single writer.

For readers, yazar.io has the Shareable Wiki, included in the free plan: you turn it on per book and choose the sections and records that show, and Notes are never published. On Yazar Pro you can also add a password to an Unlisted wiki; visitors are asked for it before the pages open. In LegendKeeper, anyone with the link can read a public project without an account while hidden content stays hidden; publishing to the web is a Pro feature. To share a line from your book, yazar.io's Quotes turn it into a shareable image.

What about phones, language and your data?

Besides the web, yazar.io has an iPhone, iPad and Android app; editing needs a connection. LegendKeeper has no native mobile app yet, and the company says it's improving the mobile web experience first, but it lets you work offline and sync later. yazar.io's interface comes in 15 languages, including Turkish, while LegendKeeper's site and help center are in English.

In yazar.io, record texts, field values and notes are stored encrypted on the server with AES-256-GCM, and the keys are kept apart from the database, protected by Google Cloud KMS. This isn't end-to-end encryption: the server decrypts content for authorized requests. You can download your book as JSON or Markdown, but there's no import tool. LegendKeeper covers more ground here: it imports from Markdown, Obsidian, World Anvil and Google Docs, exports pages to Markdown, HTML, JSON or its own file format, and offers an API on its paid plan. Neither tool generates text with AI.

How do the plans and prices compare?

LegendKeeper's 14-day trial doesn't ask for a card. After it, creating and editing your own projects takes Pro, at $9 a month or $90 a year. Pro has no limits on projects, maps, boards or collaborators, and the people you invite don't pay. Our LegendKeeper alternative article covers what the free Basic account allows after the trial.

yazar.io's Yazar plan is free for good: 2 books, 15 records in each of the nine main sections of a book and 50 MB of images, with the Family Tree, Event Flow, Boards, Quotes and Shareable Wiki included. Yazar Pro adds unlimited books and records within fair use, 2 GB of images, the Calendar and Timeline, and three Custom Sections; the pricing page shows its current price in your currency. If your subscription ends, nothing is deleted; records above the free limits stay read-only.

Which one should you pick?

Pick LegendKeeper if maps, working with players, your own calendar or offline editing come first for you. Pick yazar.io if you write your novel in Word or Docs and want its world organized with ready-made sections, if a phone app or an interface in your language matters, or if you want to share your world with readers on a free plan.