Campfire Pro vs World Anvil?

[DiaborMagics]

Hello everyone,

Today I first heard of these two tools. I write, I build stories, all that fun stuff. Now I'm wondering, which of these is better and what are differences between the two? Has anyone here ever used both?

Thanks in advance!

[Ary]

It might be late but i'm gonna reply anyway.
I used both, have to say they are both very good but i decided for Campfire. they are actually very similar and total opposite kind of things and i will explain why i use what, and what are some ups and downs (some personal points, some are just facts). Its might be a bit of a long winded answer tho, sry in advance x)

Campfire can not do all that world Anvil can, period.

Lets get that out of the way, and say the facts. I didnt count or look at features but from using it i can tell World Anvil can do everything that Campfire can plus more.

BUT - and its a big but! - this is not as strong or good a point as you might think, so i would advice you to read on....

To go straight to the point: Wolrd Anvil - and i cant stress it enough - is targeted towards Pen & Paper pretty heavily.

While Campfires targets are Writers (Novels or Plays or similar). If this doesnt sound like a big difference to you, then you dont know one of these sides enough ( no offence) as their goals are different in most cases and their execution and focus vary A LOT.

But back to all the things WA can do... bc it has so many "types" of articles, wich are all packed with options is very cluttered and it takes more time to get something done over there. you have to refresh and reload and jump between places all the time (wich takes me off my mojo after a while).

Its a great tool for Pen&Paper Writers/Worldbuilders and for people (other than you) to look at what you've done but not if you just write a novel and want to simply write up things to keep in mind.
You have tons of stuff you wont use and thats, as i said, a hinderance! You constantly nickpick what option to take and while you make your articles pretty precised ((and i would encourage to take a look bc you can actually find a view thinks you might not have thought about for your worldbuilding there)), i (personally!) would not always advice to use this format/tool longterm. Specially for beginner or even intermediate writers...

As for Campfire

- while Worldanvil does not let you change the Forms of these Articles and just gives you tons of options on all these Types of Articles instead -

in Campfire you can pretty much design most of it yourself. Its forming around what you need and want.

Sure you cant freely do EVERYTHING, there are some limits (wich people talked about a lot and the Devs are workin on it in the new Campfire Blaze thats coming, bc most stuff thats left now sadly cant implemented bc of the engine) but these limits are fine!
You can work around them easy enough and its easy to do so most of the time!

...to talk just from personal experiance:
i've written stories for over 10 years and i am a heavy world builder. i tried lots of things to keep tabs on my worldbuilding, and have thousands of notes in my digital notebook on my current story... but i decided to move my whole world bible to campfire bc i was that convinced of its abilities.
Do you imagine how much work that was? xD
And i didnt regrent it! To this very day!
.....okay personal comment over!

While these are my reasons, here are some strong points why some of my friends dont use it:
- you cant turn anything to private in World Anvil, if you are not a paying costumer i.e. have amonthly subscription (yes, all that youw write and type is public. some Writers dont like this. Also your work can be randomly featured to someone else if it gets clicks etc)
- World Anvil is a Worldbuilding SHARING community above else. Its ABOUT getting people to CLICK your page and look what your are doing. ITS NOT a private tool !! you can tunr it into one kinda, if you pay monthly but its not MEANT to be one....
- World Anvil restricts the tools you can use (although the free ones are plenty enough imho) without paying. Some tools only get unlocked if you have an subcription

What i would use World Anvil for, instead of any other software (PERSONALLY!):

Timelines! Gosh, you can do a lot of them in WA, and although its not perfect its the best i've come across and that says a lot actually!
This might actually change in the future bc of "Campfire Blaze" where they specificaly target their timeline, wich most users were not fully satisfied with (but honestly, other than WA i 've never seen a good timeline feature ANYWHERE...)

What i would use Campfire for, instead of any other software (PERSONALLY!):

Character Protrails and Character Pages!
damn, its so easy to use and costumise with multiple layers etc. I can put in all Information and then switch to the layout for their physical look and back to their backstory in 2 clicks! Its neat and tidy and i have all windows EXACTLY like i want them, bc i can freely drag and size and fill them with pics or text or other stuff! I've used a lot of programms but this feature alone is such a life saver for me...

Campfire does not have all the depth and speciality of World Anvil but they have different goals.
Campfire tries to give you means of costumizing and creating your own environment as best as possible, but cant do 100% of what you want to at some point probably. While World Anvil gives you a very very fix frame of what you can do, but its so wide you'll not notice this for a while and probably be very confussed at first and it might turn into a hassle (or even a pain) to switch between all these very speciallized but fixed tools.

In "short": Campfire

• free trial (+ all you create in it can be used in pro version)
  
• buy it and its yourse forever
  
• highly costumizable
  
• saved on your PC, only you can access it (if you dont use a cloud etc)
  
• easy to learn and use (very beginner friendly and not dumbed down, so even advanced writers can work with it well)
  
• if you master it you can work around the borders, you come across, a lot and get even more options out of it

In "short": World Anvil:

• "free" (you have most of the features and at first, will not notice that your limited!)
  
• if you want to use it for a longer period, you should really think about subscribing! Check the Costs in advance...
  
• you cant create articles like you want to, but there are LOTS of typed or articles tailered for you already. They have more detail than campfires but again, you cant change them like you want to, just decide to use or not to use their options)
  
• These articles are in focus of Pen&Paper and thus feature a variaty for mostly high fantasy but not just that. If you dont plan to write in fantasy or something similar you have a lot of articles and form you will never look at...
  
• hard to learn (bc every article is very specific and you'll need to click around a lot, get lost and probably get overwhelmed by all these options) but if you master it you have a very good tool at hand.
  
• if you use it for free, you cant put anything on private and its out for the world to see
  
• even if you dont want to (as far as i'm aware) you can get featured to other people, in order to make them click on your project.
  
• there are lots of contests and features of pages and creators going on, so if you like that (they are all in english though) you might want to use this tool over Campfire
  
• if you master World Anvil... well i dont think theres any benifit really. You will not get as confussed by all these taps and forms anymore. You know how to move from one thing to the next better but there is nothing to learn really, you have all options unlock at the start (although cou cant pick whats behind a paywall) and cant change the settings on your entries... yeah, pretty anti-climatic haha

Thats about it, i think i really covered everything :O
In the end, it all comes down to what you want & need

Both can be tested for free,
but this is pretty much what i can say after using both for many hours (although i dont think i have more than 30 in World Anvil), and after talking to people who used them :)

Sry this got so long but i hope this answeres all your questions and concerns!
Also, sorry for any spelling mistakes, english is not my mothertongue :P

[DiaborMagics]

Oh wow what a detailed response. Have to read this after work XD
Thanks a lot!

[Ary]

Originalmente postado por DiaborMagics:

Oh wow what a detailed response. Have to read this after work XD
Thanks a lot!

No prob, hope it helps :)
If you have any questions left, just ask or add me :)

[Retro]

I was looking for this but see it was from 2019, is this still true today?

[Ary]

Originalmente postado por J🅾JI:

I was looking for this but see it was from 2019, is this still true today?

You have the most funny timing! I actually subcribed to WorldAnvil for 3 months for a short project i wanted to get in order and try out one of their new features (calendars and stuff)

Long story short i still stand by my points but while campfire has been as it is (after worldbuilding update wich gave us new tools but also a pretty annoying sidebard at the bottom) WorldAnvil has definitely gotten better tools to use IF YOU BUY THE SUBSCRPTION.

Pretty much all new tools of WA are behind a paywall or can only be used in a very very limited form (that at the very least annoyed me more than not having it at all bc i KNEW i could do i rigth but wasnt allowed).
After i subed it got better since the tools themselfs do work pretty nicely (after you watch the tutorial video on the page and probably check out the forums where peiople are usually still confused on how to use them). Once they work, they work nicely-

So yea, your pick. WA is still not really a novilists tool but if you have complex systems it can be helpfull if you are willing to commit to learning it and staying inside the system it provides you. (Good luck if your ideas clash with it though... ^^")
And Campfire gives you more freedom to organize stuff and is targeting writers and storytellers more in a traditional way BUT it also gives you pretty rudamentary tools at times where you'd wish for a bit more specification.

Depends on your workstyle and project i suppose!
Also on your wallet, not sure if i would recomment WA for a long period or detailed project if you dont have the dough for subscribing Since i think you'd get annoyed about all the stuff you cant do but would like to....
If you have any other question i'm happy to try and provide an answer :)

[Faren (Lawful)]

The real question is campfire vs worldanvil vs manuskript. I hate subscriptions, so manuskript won for me. Pro is abandoned by its devs so they can milk a horrid subscription model. as for worldanvil, after they tried to cheat me out of a years subscription it left a bad taste in my mouth.

WA - their unsubscribe button would let me cancel and cause I didnt talk to a rep until after the next year started. They told me since I technically had access to their service for a few hours it wasnt eligible for a refund. They changed their mind when I made complaints to paypal instead of to them.

[Magnatude]

In my previous experiences with online world-building sites... I'd rather have my files here on my own computer, I have backup systems. I also answer to no one but myself for what I put into my world, and I have no fear of it potentially being flagged and ostracized from the community (because you make your Orcs "Evil" in your world, and other hot takes these days) I like Campfire pro, it's a little glitchy if you cloud and try to retrieve it on another comp (My desktop for online gaming to my laptop for offline envisioning) but I can also mail myself the file and carry on with no problems.
BTW this is why I wont go Blaze... don't want to be held captive to a bad internet day, or perhaps one day Blaze might not be making the $$ and cuts losses... who knows in this economy. Blaze seems a little much for this hobby... if I was making money on this, then yeah it might be a thing... but I'm no best-selling author churning out novels... I'm just a GM who like to play games with other friends online.

[Ary]

Originalmente postado por Magnatude:

In my previous experiences with online world-building sites... [...]BTW this is why I wont go Blaze... don't want to be held captive to a bad internet day, or perhaps one day Blaze might not be making the $$ and cuts losses... who knows in this economy. Blaze seems a little much for this hobby...

i absolutely agree with what you said! I also went against blaze and didnt buy it, though i was really disappointed for their move to an online plattform and a monthly membership (though i think you can buy a life time support or something...)

Anyhow why i'm writing again is: i think i heared recently that blaze is indeed beeing developped as a offline programm too. Like as an extesion for your pc outside of the browser. Depending on how it works (like, not just internet syncing and cloud data but with files on the pc) it could become campfire 2.0

i for one will at least try to remember to take a look at it in like half a year or so

[Anachronism]

Only thing Campfire Pro has over World Anvil is that World Anvil needs you to be online and you have to pay yearly. However, I have yet to see World Anvil ask me for my Steam information unlike Campfire Pro.

[Faren (Lawful)]

Originalmente postado por Anachronism:

Only thing Campfire Pro has over World Anvil is that World Anvil needs you to be online and you have to pay yearly. However, I have yet to see World Anvil ask me for my Steam information unlike Campfire Pro.

That's okay, they are already getting rid of that for that subscription money. campfire pro was abandoned before its completion in favor of campfire blaze. Which is exactly like PRo, but with the polish feedback and continued development gets you.