Legendkeeper vs World Anvil: which worldbuilding tool should you choose?

LegendKeeper is the World Anvil alternative that focuses on supporting your creative flow. Stop getting distracted by ads, giant forms, and pop-ups so you can get back to actually building your world.

A screenshot of Legendkeeper's map making tool.

Though World Anvil is probably the most well-known worldbuilding tool for tabletop RPGs out there, that doesn’t necessarily make it the best. It’s always good to know what your options are, so that you can choose the one that actually works for you and your creations. 

Obviously, with Legendkeeper being a direct competitor to World Anvil, there’s going to be some biases here. However, we’d rather you choose Legendkeeper because it’s the right tool for the job, so we’re going to lay out all the facts, pit Legendkeeper vs World Anvil and let you decide.

What is World Anvil and what does it offer?

World Anvil is a worldbuilding tool designed to help various people, but more specifically tabletop RPG game masters and players.

The service includes a selection of features meant to assist with worldbuilding, such as articles, maps, timelines, whiteboards and notebooks. World Anvil also contains features to help with campaign organization and inspiration such as discussion boards and TODO items. All of these features are available to free users but with some stipulations: such as the inclusion of ads, a limited amount of data storage and a restriction on the number of co-authors, subscribers, campaigns and worlds you can make. Paid users can gain access to an ad-free version of World Anvil, alongside an amount of data storage and fewer restrictions depending on how much they pay. 

The main advantage of choosing World Anvil as your worldbuilding tool is mostly its large number of features and users, which offer plenty of stuff to play around with and people to talk about it with.

What is Legendkeeper and what does it offer?

Legendkeeper is also a worldbuilding tool that can be used by anyone, including tabletop RPG players and GMs. 

The main features of this World Anvil alternative are its wiki and editor, map Atlas, boards and asset library, which can all be used to create useful worldbuilding documents, organize information and plan future sessions. There are also plans to introduce additional features in the near future: such as timelines, mobile support and improvements to existing features like the Atlas. 

Legendkeeper includes a 14-day free trial, with users able to maintain access to their creations even once the free trial ends. Paid users have unrestricted access to all of Legendkeeper’s features, including an unlimited amount of storage and users for a single price. 

The main advantages of Legendkeeper are its straightforward membership system - with no ads and a single price point - unlimited storage and user support for paid users, as well as its regular updates and focus on providing an uncluttered and easy-to-understand user experience. 

Why is Legendkeeper a better worldbuilding alternative to World Anvil?

Now that we’ve outlined the details and advantages of both worldbuilding tools, let's actually get into why Legendkeeper could be the better World Anvil alternative. 

You’re completely new to worldbuilding tools

Whilst World Anvil includes a myriad of different features, this can also be a lot more confusing if you’re not familiar with how to use them. Whereas Legendkeeper’s smaller collection of robust features presents a more digestible system for less experienced users, alongside an archive of useful information found across the Legendkeeper platform, website and Discord.

You’re looking for a clean platform with minimal distractions 

Though World Anvil and the World Anvil app’s various features may look shiny, they could serve as a frustrating distraction from your worldbuilding efforts, not to mention all the ads if you’re using the free version. By contrast, Legendkeeper’s streamlined and ad-free dashboard enables you to focus on putting your ideas to page, without having to hunt through dozens of busy menus to find what you need. 

A screenshot of Legendkeeper's board tool.
Legendkeeper's Boards tool allows users to brainstorm their worldbuilding ideas in an open space

You don’t want to be stifled by annoying restrictions 

World Anvil users will always be restricted to having to edit online, with a limited amount of available storage and number of supported co-authors - even with the tool’s most expensive pay plan. By contrast, the World Anvil alternative Legendkeeper has a single pay plan that provides users with an unlimited amount of storage, and number of supported co-authors, all with the option to edit offline as well.

You want to collaborate in real-time

Collaboration in World Anvil is possible, with the caveat of it being asynchronous - meaning that any changes made by any users cannot be seen in real time. Meanwhile, Legendkeeper allows for complete real-time collaboration between users, which enables you and your players to instantly share ideas and provide feedback - without any time being wasted.

You want to make some really cool maps

Map making on World Anvil is restrictive: images cannot be larger than 25mb, as well as there being limitations on map markers and various cartography features at the free and lower cost tiers. Whereas Legendkeeper supports images up to the size of 10,000+ pixels and 100 MB - which is positively huge - without any limits, allowing you to make some really cool maps.

When comparing World Anvil vs Legendkeeper, which you prefer may depend on what you need for your worldbuilding projects. However, Legendkeeper could be the perfect worldbuilding tool for your needs, one that you’d never even previously known was an option. Start your worldbuilding journey right now with Legendkeeper.