Comparison

Authora vs The Book I Wrote

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

Head to head
About

Authora

This writing companion helps aspiring authors reclaim lost minutes for their book projects. It offers tools for writing, storyboarding, and self-publishing directly from a mobile device, turning commutes and waiting times into productive writing sessions.

Highlights
  • Six writing format templates
  • Rich text editor optimized for mobile
  • Storyboard for characters, plot, and world-building
  • Export to EPUB/PDF for self-publishing
  • Speech-to-text dictation
  • On-device writing analysis
  • Encrypted cloud sync (Premium)
Features
Read full description

Turn waiting into writing. Most people who want to write a book never finish one - not for lack of ideas, but for lack of time to sit down. Authora is a mobile writing companion built for the life you actually have. Waiting rooms, commutes, flight delays, lunch breaks - the minutes that usually disappear into doomscrolling, reclaimed for the book you've always meant to write. WRITE ANYWHERE Six format templates - novel, journal, manuscript, academic paper, non-fiction, poetry collection. Rich text editor optimised for phones and tablets, not a desktop UI stuffed onto a small screen. Auto-save every two seconds. Focus mode for distraction-free writing. Preview mode to read your draft as a reader will see it. STORYBOARDING THAT MATCHES HOW WRITERS THINK Characters with bios, traits, and relationships. Plot arcs with scenes you can link to chapters. World-building notes. Colour-coded labels. Keep the people, places, and threads of your story organised without leaving your phone. FROM BLANK PAGE TO PUBLISHED BOOK Authora isn't just a writing app - it's a self-publishing pipeline. When your draft is done, add a cover image, and export as EPUB or PDF that's ready to upload straight to Amazon KDP, Apple Books, or Kobo. Front matter, back matter, TOC, metadata - all handled. Your finished book goes into your personal library inside Authora too, readable with a built-in ebook reader. No separate formatting tool. No desktop required. Draft to published, all on your phone. CAPTURE ON THE GO Speech-to-text dictation with live transcription. Chapter import from .docx, .rtf, and .txt - start with existing drafts, no retyping. On-device writing analysis flags passive voice, adverb overuse, clichés, and readability issues as you write. FREE FOREVER, PREMIUM WHEN YOU'RE READY Full writing experience, export, personal library, and a starter storyboard - all free, all local, no account required. Premium ($4.99/mo or $49.99/yr) adds encrypted cloud sync and backup across phone and tablet, unlimited storyboarding, inline figures with captions, and priority support. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Free users never sign in. Premium users' chapters, world notes, character bios, and plot descriptions are encrypted at rest with AES-256, and in transit with TLS - even in a breach, your draft stays unreadable. Biometric app lock on both platforms. We never read your work, never train on your writing, never sell your data. BUILT FOR PHONES AND TABLETS Native iOS App. Dark and light theme. Responsive layout on tablets. Biometric unlock. Full offline support. Dashboard showing word count trends and your completion stats. The book is already in you. Authora is where you finish it.

About

The Book I Wrote

Read full description

Your story deserves more than a blank page. The app interface is available in 12 languages. Set a writing language for each book; your manuscript is never translated or rewritten automatically. Writing intelligence remains optimized for English. The Book I Wrote guides fiction writers from the first idea to an exportable manuscript, with a local working copy and optional private iCloud sync. Plan the story, capture ideas, draft scene by scene, refine prose, protect continuity, and finish in one focused studio. BUILD A STORY YOU CAN FINISH Story Architect asks focused questions about character, desire, conflict, stakes, world, ending, and reader promise. Review its proposed outline, scene goals, and open decisions before adding anything to your book. WRITE ONE SCENE AT A TIME Organize chapters and scenes, keep planning notes beside your prose, search the manuscript, and return to automatic version snapshots. Long manuscripts are processed scene by scene, so one edit does not reprocess the whole book. REFINE WITHOUT LOSING YOUR VOICE Bookify offers Clean, Natural, and Expand modes with Apple Foundation Models on supported devices. Elsewhere, its conservative local fallback provides limited deterministic cleanup rather than claiming a complete literary rewrite. Compare the preserved original with every proposal, review possible new facts, and accept only what belongs in your manuscript. Voice Lock measures evidence from your sample and accepted edits, and lets you edit the final style guidance. KEEP THE WHOLE STORY CONNECTED Story Brain tracks characters, places, objects, events, relationships, timeline entries, plot threads, and author-approved canon. Local search retrieves the relevant scenes instead of loading an entire novel at once. FIND WEAK SPOTS BEFORE READERS DO Book Doctor and Beta Reader flag supported risks in consistency, duplication, pacing, transitions, clarity, predictability, and emotional impact. Findings are advisory and link back to evidence in your scenes. CAPTURE IDEAS WHEN THEY HAPPEN Save text, dictate directly into a scene, record a thought, or import audio. On-device transcription is available when Apple Speech supports the selected language. You always decide where an idea belongs. FINISH AND EXPORT Create plain text, DOCX, PDF, or reflowable EPUB 3 from an immutable manuscript snapshot. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No developer account. No ads. No analytics SDK. No developer manuscript server. No paid AI API. Version 1.1 keeps a local working copy and core writing tools work offline. Optional private iCloud sync is off until you enable it. Eligible writing records then use your private CloudKit database; private record contents are not visible in Apple’s developer portal. Audio recordings and rebuildable derived indexes remain device-local. FREE TO BEGIN. PRO FOR LIFE. The free edition supports one local book with up to two chapters. A seven-day trial unlocks the complete studio, including optional private iCloud sync when available. Lifetime Pro is one non-consumable purchase—never a subscription. Plain-text export remains free so your writing is never trapped. Apple Foundation Models features require a compatible Apple Intelligence device and system version. Speech availability varies by installed language and device support. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Authora4 screens
The Book I Wrote4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: The Book I Wrote at every 4 days against Authora's every 9 days. Authora's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). 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. Authora sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and The Book I Wrote sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Authora ships an update every 9 days, The Book I Wrote every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 18, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Authora versus The Book I Wrote: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAuthoraThe Book I Wrote
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRonan CampbellMiroslav Pulik

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Authora

Subscriptions2
  • Authora Premium (Monthly)$4.991 Month
  • Authora Premium (Yearly)$49.991 Year
1 purchases

The Book I Wrote

One-time1
  • Lifetime Pro$39.99

Questions

Is Authora free?
Authora is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is The Book I Wrote free?
The Book I Wrote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Authora or The Book I Wrote have ads?
Neither Authora nor The Book I Wrote shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Authora or The Book I Wrote?
Authora ships an update every 9 days, and The Book I Wrote every 4 days. Most recently, Authora was updated on September 18, 2026 and The Book I Wrote on September 9, 2026.

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