Comparison

Campfire vs Emend

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Campfire

This app streamlines the writing process for books, stories, and RPG campaigns. It offers interconnected tools for worldbuilding, character tracking, and plot organization, allowing for seamless collaboration and easy access to information. Write, edit, and organize your projects anywhere with unlimited storage.

Highlights
  • Custom character sheets
  • Worldbuilding tools (creatures, locations, magic)
  • Timeline plotting and map uploads
  • Write, read, and edit on mobile
  • Collaborate with editors and contributors
  • Export to PDF, DOCX, HTML, RTF
  • Unlimited cloud storage
Features
Read full description

Whether you want to write a book, tabletop RPG campaign, short story, or just create for fun, Campfire’s writing software streamlines the writing process to make beginning your project more efficient and staying on track easier. Campfire’s interconnected tools make for a seamless worldbuilding experience where you can quickly reference information, link story elements together, and collaborate with other users in one place. Whether you’re an author, worldbuilder, game master, or a hobbyist creator—nobody wants to spend half an hour sifting through old notebooks trying to find out what color a character’s eyes are. Get started with Campfire for free—We've already made writing easier for 100,000+ writers to date! MORE THAN A DOZEN MODULES Modules are what we call the writing tools that allow you to worldbuild and stay organized in Campfire. On the mobile app, each one is free to use. Here’s a sample of what they can do: • Keep track of what makes your characters unique with custom character sheets for your novels, short stories, and TTRPGs. • Build worlds with exciting creatures, locations, magic systems, and more. • Plot your story with timeline events and upload maps of your story’s world. Enjoy unlimited use for each module when using the mobile app! WRITE, READ, EDIT, AND ORGANIZE Campfire is more than just a writing app or a simple word processor. Whether at home or on the go, Campfire allows you to: • Write a whole book on your phone (if you really want to). • Read over your notes or review your manuscript chapters. • Edit your notes and stories wherever inspiration strikes. • Organize your notes in the way that works best for you. COLLABORATE WITH ANYONE Campfire allows you to work seamlessly on your projects with editors and contributors. • Invite other Campfire users to join you on mobile or desktop! • Send read-only links to anyone who you want to read your work. • Export files to PDF, DOCX, HTML, or RTF. 100% FREE + UNLIMITED STORAGE That’s right—free. Create as many projects as you like, work without any blocked features, and rest assured knowing that your work is saved on Google’s secure cloud servers: • Campfire’s mobile app is free to download and use. • Write without limits. • No ads (they’re just too distracting). • Unlimited secure storage. • Free updates and bug fixes. Whether your genre is fantasy, sci-fi, horror, or even realistic fiction, Campfire has the tools you need to write better stories faster. It’s perfect for seasoned authors, fledgling writers, and making sure DnD night with your friends runs smoothly. Download Campfire and start writing wherever you go for free. Use the same account on our Desktop App or on campfirewriting.com and you can pick up where you left off from home! Join the Campfire Discord community to stay in touch and chat with other writers like you: https://campsite.bio/campfirewriting

About

Emend

Features
Read full description

Emend is a quiet place to write fiction on your iPhone. Your library is a shelf of books. Each book has chapters, and each chapter is one continuous page of prose — no cards, no blocks, no formatting toolbar in the way. Open a chapter and you are back exactly where you stopped, caret and all. Ideas that don't belong to a book yet go in Ideas: a searchable list you can tag, attach to a book later, or start a new book from. Every save keeps a revision. Wander down the wrong path for an afternoon and you can read the earlier draft, restore it, or keep both as alternatives. Anything you remove goes to Trash first. For working with an AI in another app, Emend prepares a focused passage for the clipboard and brings the response back as a draft you review before it touches your manuscript. Nothing leaves Emend on its own. Everything stays on your device. There is no account, no sync service and no analytics. When you want a copy elsewhere, export a book as Markdown or back up the whole library as a single file you keep wherever you like — and restore it on a new phone in one step. • Books, sections, chapters and one continuous page per chapter • Ideas with tags, search and one-tap attach to a book • Saved revisions, alternative drafts and a per-book dictionary of names • Trash with restore • Markdown export and full-library backup and restore • Works entirely offline Made for people writing a novel a few hundred words at a time.

Screenshots

Campfire4 screens
Emend4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Emend at weekly against Campfire's fortnightly. Emend also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Campfire ships an update fortnightly, Emend weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Campfire versus Emend: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCampfireEmend
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (197 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews44.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings197 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size76 MB36 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCampfire Technology LLCSunlit Game Studio LLC

Bugs and requests

Campfire

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Login issues and getting logged out
  • Inability to delete unwanted elements
  • Attributes and chapters disappearing
  • Inconsistencies between mobile and desktop versions

Requested features

6 requests
  • Offline mode for travel
  • Proper iPad/tablet support
  • Word count feature
  • Undo/redo functionality
  • Ability to rearrange elements and panels
Show 1 more
  • More customization options

Emend

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Campfire

No in-app purchases

None

Emend

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Campfire free?
Campfire is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Emend free?
Emend is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Campfire or Emend have ads?
Neither Campfire nor Emend shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Campfire or Emend?
Campfire ships an update fortnightly, and Emend weekly. Most recently, Campfire was updated on October 30, 2026 and Emend on October 24, 2026.

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