AI writing tools have exploded in popularity, and Sudowrite has become one of the most talked-about options for fiction writers. Its ability to generate prose, expand scenes, and suggest plot twists has attracted authors looking for creative help. But there's an important question to consider: do you want AI that writes for you, or AI that helps you write?
In this comparison, we'll look at Sudowrite and Author's Forge - two tools with fundamentally different philosophies about AI's role in creative writing.
Quick Overview
What is Sudowrite?
Sudowrite is a web-based AI writing tool focused on generating fiction prose. It uses a proprietary AI model called "Muse" that's been trained on published stories to help writers generate, expand, and rewrite text. Sudowrite operates on a subscription model: $19/month for the Hobby tier (225,000 AI words), $29/month for Professional (350,000 AI words), or $59/month for Max (750,000 AI words).
The key thing to understand: Sudowrite's primary function is generating text. You give it prompts, beats, or existing prose, and the AI writes new content. You then edit what it produces.
What is Author's Forge?
Author's Forge is a desktop writing application for Mac, Windows, and Linux. The core features - full writing environment, organization tools, and EPUB export - are free. The AI Writing Assistant is available through Pro or pay-as-you-go pricing.
What makes Author's Forge's AI fundamentally different: it reads your entire library - every chapter you've written, every note, every character detail. It doesn't just generate plausible fiction; it understands your fiction. Author's Forge takes a different approach to AI: instead of generating text for you, it assists your writing with suggestions, consistency checks, and improvements to prose you've written - all with full context of your work.
Head-to-Head Comparison
AI Philosophy: Generation vs. Assistance
This is the fundamental difference between these tools.
Sudowrite: Sudowrite's AI is designed to generate prose. The "Write" feature creates new text based on your notes or story beats. The "Expand" feature adds content to existing passages. The "Rewrite" feature offers alternative versions of your sentences. In this model, you become something closer to an editor - reviewing, selecting, and revising AI-generated output. Users report that Sudowrite can produce "weird sentences that I had to fix" and that output quality is "hit or miss whether it captures your voice."
Author's Forge: Author's Forge's AI is designed to assist your writing, not replace it. The AI Writing Assistant understands your entire library - your manuscript, your notes, your world-building, your characters - and helps you improve the prose you've written. Suggestions appear as inline edits with a clear diff view, so you can accept or reject changes. You remain the author; the AI is a thoughtful collaborator who knows your story intimately.
The verdict: This comes down to how you want to write. If you want AI to generate first drafts that you then edit, Sudowrite is built for that workflow. If you want to write your own prose with intelligent assistance that understands your story, Author's Forge keeps you in the driver's seat.
Price and Payment Model
Sudowrite: Subscription only. $19/month (225,000 AI words), $29/month (350,000 AI words), or $59/month (750,000 AI words). That's $228-708 per year with no lifetime option. The credit system measures AI-generated words, and users report that "credits burn quickly on longer works" - some have "burned through all my credits in just a couple of weeks." There's no free tier for actual use, only a trial. If your subscription lapses, you lose access.
Author's Forge: Free forever for core features including the complete writing environment, organization tools, and EPUB export. The AI Writing Assistant is available through Pro ($19.99/month) or pay-as-you-go pricing. You can write complete books without paying anything; AI is available when you want it.
The verdict: Sudowrite requires ongoing subscription payments with no free option. Author's Forge gives you a complete writing tool for free, with optional AI. For authors on a budget, this difference is substantial.
Writing Environment
Sudowrite: Sudowrite is not a complete writing tool. It's web-based, has limited editing capabilities, and lacks features authors expect: no EPUB export, no book structure (front matter, chapters, back matter), no organization for series or multiple books. Many users write in other software and paste text into Sudowrite for AI processing. It's an AI generation tool, not a writing environment.
Author's Forge: Author's Forge is a complete writing environment. Libraries and Shelves organize your work. Book structure handles front matter, body content, and back matter. A tab system lets you work on multiple documents simultaneously. EPUB export is included free. Notes keep your world-building and character details accessible. It's designed for the entire writing process, not just AI generation.
The verdict: If you need a place to actually write and organize your book, Sudowrite doesn't provide that. Author's Forge is a complete environment where you can draft, organize, and export without needing additional software.
Offline Capability
Sudowrite: Web-only. No offline access whatsoever. If you don't have internet, you can't use Sudowrite. Your work is stored on their servers.
Author's Forge: All core features work offline. Your files are stored locally on your computer. Write on a plane, in a cabin, or anywhere without internet - your work is always accessible. AI features require an internet connection when you choose to use them, but everything else works regardless.
The verdict: For authors who write in varied locations or value independence from internet connectivity, Author's Forge provides genuine offline capability that Sudowrite lacks entirely.
Data Privacy and Ownership
Sudowrite: All your writing is stored on Sudowrite's servers. There have been questions and concerns in the writing community about AI training data sources and whether user content might be used to improve their models. With any cloud-only tool, you're trusting the company with your creative work. There's no local storage option.
Author's Forge: Your files are stored locally on your computer in standard Markdown format. No account required for core features, no mandatory cloud storage. Want backup? Put your library folder in Dropbox, Google Drive, or iCloud - you control where your data lives. The AI features process your content when you use them, but your files remain yours on your own machine.
The verdict: Author's Forge gives you complete control over your data. Sudowrite requires trusting their cloud infrastructure with your manuscripts and creative work.
AI Context and Understanding
Sudowrite: Sudowrite has a "Story Bible" feature for tracking characters and settings, and the AI attempts to use this context when generating. However, the AI's understanding is limited to what you explicitly tell it, and users report that maintaining voice consistency across longer works can be challenging. The AI is designed to generate plausible fiction, not to deeply understand your specific story.
Author's Forge: The AI Writing Assistant has access to your entire library - every chapter you've written, every note you've made, every character detail you've documented. This isn't just metadata; the AI actually reads your work. It can catch when chapter 20 contradicts chapter 5 because it's read both. It can maintain your voice because it's seen how you write. For series writers, this is transformative: the AI knows your entire series when helping you write book 4. That's not "Story Bible" context - that's true comprehension.
The verdict: Author's Forge's AI understands your complete work in a way Sudowrite's generation-focused approach can't match. For maintaining consistency across a novel - or a series - this is the difference between AI that helps and AI that creates new problems to fix.
Output Quality and Voice
Sudowrite: Reviews are mixed on output quality. Users note it can produce "purple prose" or clichéd writing. Voice matching is described as "hit or miss." The consensus is that Sudowrite output is "good for brainstorming, but final prose needs work" and requires "substantial revision." The AI is better at generating ideas than polished, publish-ready prose in your specific voice.
Author's Forge: Because Author's Forge's AI assists rather than generates, the output is inherently yours. The AI suggests improvements to prose you've written, maintaining your voice by definition. Suggestions appear as tracked changes you review - nothing is added without your explicit approval.
The verdict: Different approaches yield different results. Sudowrite generates content that needs revision. Author's Forge helps you improve content you've written. If maintaining your authentic voice matters, writing it yourself with AI assistance preserves that more reliably than editing AI-generated text.
Export and Publishing
Sudowrite: Sudowrite has no publishing-focused export features. No EPUB export, no book formatting. You'd need to copy your text to another application for any kind of book production.
Author's Forge: EPUB export is included free, with automatic table of contents and cover support. Your book can go directly from writing to Amazon, Apple Books, and other platforms.
The verdict: If you want to publish your book, Author's Forge takes you from writing to export. Sudowrite is just for the AI generation step.
Who Should Choose Sudowrite?
Sudowrite might be a fit if you:
- Want AI to generate first drafts that you then heavily edit
- Are comfortable with your role as editor rather than writer
- Have reliable internet access whenever you work
- Already have writing software you love and want AI generation as an add-on
- Have budget for ongoing subscription ($228-708/year)
- Don't mind your work being stored exclusively in the cloud
- Are looking for brainstorming help more than polished prose
Who Should Choose Author's Forge?
Author's Forge is a good fit if you:
- Want to write your own prose with intelligent AI assistance
- Value remaining the author of your work, not the editor of AI output
- Write series and need AI that remembers everything across multiple books
- Need a complete writing environment, not just AI generation
- Want AI that catches your inconsistencies instead of creating new ones
- Prefer keeping your files locally where you control them
- Write in locations without reliable internet (core features work offline)
- Don't want to pay $228-708/year just to access your writing tool
- Need EPUB export to publish your work
Can You Use Both?
Some authors do use multiple AI tools. You could write in Author's Forge for the complete environment and AI assistance, then occasionally use Sudowrite for brainstorming when you're stuck on a plot point.
The question is whether Sudowrite's generation capabilities add enough value to justify the subscription cost. Author's Forge's AI Writing Assistant can help with creative blocks too - and it does so while understanding your complete work, not just a pasted excerpt.
Final Thoughts
Sudowrite and Author's Forge represent fundamentally different visions of AI in creative writing.
Sudowrite's vision: AI as generator. Feed it prompts and beats, get prose back, edit it into shape. You become curator and editor of AI output. This can work, but it changes your relationship with your own creative work. The words on the page aren't quite yours. And you'll need other software to actually organize and publish your book.
Author's Forge's vision: AI as assistant. You write your story. The AI - which has read every word you've written - helps you make it better. It catches your inconsistencies, suggests improvements, understands your characters because it's read every scene they're in. You remain the author. The words are yours. The AI just helps you write them better.
For authors who want to write their own books with intelligent help, rather than edit AI-generated text, the choice is clear. Your voice, your story, your words - with an AI that actually knows what you're trying to say.