A Novlr Alternative, If You Want Your Book Out of the Browser.
Novlr is a friendly writing app in your browser, with a free plan, nothing to install, and a privacy policy that rules out AI in plain words. Shiro is a desktop app that keeps your book in files on your disk, works with no connection and no account, and has an optional AI. If you came looking for an app with no AI in it, Novlr meets that brief better than we do.
| Shiro | Novlr | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on your computer. Cloud is optional, see the pricing page. | Free for 2 projects, with sync. Starter $8 a month and Studio $16 a month, both billed yearly. Lifetime Studio $499 once. |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, Linux, and a web app for cloud projects. No phone app yet. | Web. No downloadable phone app, though you can save it to your home screen. |
| Where your book lives | Plain Markdown files in a folder on your disk, or Shiro Cloud if you choose it | Novlr’s servers. Studio adds backups to Google Drive and Dropbox. |
| Works offline | Yes on desktop, with no account | For short gaps. Work is kept in the browser and synced later, and Novlr advises against long stretches offline. |
| Built-in AI | Optional: local model, your own key or hosted. Can be turned off. | None. Its privacy policy says your writing isn’t processed by AI or shared with AI services. |
| Export | EPUB, PDF, Word, Markdown, HTML, plain text, with Kindle presets and a pre-upload checklist | DOCX, PDF, ODT, EPUB, RTF |
| An author website | An author page, on a paid plan | Novlr Sites, $6 a month or $60 a year, included in Studio |
Checked on the makers’ own websites in November 2026. Prices are in US dollars and change; tell us if we’ve fallen behind.
Choose Novlr If
- You want a writing app with no AI in it, and a written policy that says so. Shiro’s can be switched off, but it’s there.
- You write on whichever computer is in front of you and don’t want to install anything.
- You want to start free with sync included. Novlr’s free plan does that for two projects.
- You want a writing page, sprints and some statistics, and very little else to learn.
Choose Shiro If
- You write for long stretches with no connection. The desktop app doesn’t need one, or an account.
- You want your book in Markdown files on your own disk, which outlive any app, ours included.
- You want a plot board, a World and continuity checks in the same project as the text.
- You’re publishing it yourself and want Kindle presets and a checklist before you upload.
Two Ideas of Simple
Novlr’s idea of simple is a browser tab. You open it, sign in and write. There’s no installer and no folder to choose, the free plan gives you two projects with sync, and there are sprints and statistics for the days you need bribing.
Shiro’s idea of simple is a folder of text files that don’t need us. The app on top of those files isn’t small, though. It has a Board, a World, revision passes and a Publish lens that knows about trim sizes. Most of that stays out of the way until you open it, but it’s all in there, and if you left your last app because it had too many rooms, Novlr will suit you better.
No AI, in Writing
Novlr’s position is in its privacy policy, last updated in April 2026: your writing isn’t processed by AI, isn’t used to train it and isn’t shared with AI services. That’s about as clear as these things get, and a good reason to choose an app.
Shiro has an AI. You can turn it off and it stays off, and a good deal of the app has never needed a model: name mentions and the continuity checks are plain code. Our page on writing without AI explains how that works. If your objection is to AI being in the building at all, though, we won’t argue. Go with the app whose policy says what you want it to say.
When the Connection Drops
Novlr’s help pages describe what happens: if you lose your connection, it stores your work in the browser and syncs when you’re back, and it doesn’t recommend staying offline for long. That covers a train tunnel. It’s less comforting in the cottage you rented to finish the book, where the Wi-Fi is mostly a rumour. A native offline app was under consideration in a 2024 roadmap post, and we don’t know where that stands today.
Shiro’s desktop app doesn’t have this problem, because the book is on your disk. A file like 14 The Ferry.md opens in any text editor whether or not anyone’s servers are awake. The price is that you must install something, and syncing between computers means Shiro Cloud.
Where Novlr Is Ahead
Getting started, mostly. It works from any browser with nothing to install, and you can leave a project at home and pick it up on a borrowed laptop. Its free plan includes sync. It can be saved to your phone’s home screen, and Shiro has no phone app yet.
It offers a one-off option, Lifetime Studio at $499, for people who dislike subscriptions on principle. Its author website, Novlr Sites, comes with Studio. And its smaller scope is a feature in its own right: it’s much harder to spend a morning configuring a tool that doesn’t have much to configure.
Moving Over
Novlr exports DOCX, and Shiro imports Word with comments, tracked changes and footnotes, splitting at headings, page breaks or a marker line. Your Novlr account stays as it was, so you can try one book before you decide.
We make Shiro, and we didn’t install or trial Novlr for this page. What we say about it comes from its own site, read in November 2026.
The Questions People Ask
Does Novlr use AI?
No. Its privacy policy, last updated in April 2026, says your writing isn’t processed by AI, used to train it or shared with AI services.
Can Novlr work offline?
For short gaps. If your connection drops it keeps your work in the browser and syncs when you’re back, but Novlr itself advises against long stretches offline. A native offline app was under consideration in a 2024 post on its roadmap.
Does Novlr have a phone app?
There’s no phone app to download, according to an older help article, but you can save the web app to your home screen. Shiro has no phone app yet either.
Can I turn Shiro’s AI off completely?
Yes, and it stays off. Name mentions and the code-based continuity checks use no model, so they keep working. If you’d rather the AI weren’t in the building at all, Novlr is the plainer answer.
Sources: Novlr pricing, Novlr privacy policy, Can I use Novlr offline?, Novlr roadmap: offline app