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I found that creating a wiki may be the best way to keep track of everything. It shouldn't be too complicated for me to get into. But most importantly I want to be able to edit it on my computer and on the go on my phone. But I don't want to host it somewhere. It would be amazing if it would be simple a file/folder that I could put on Google Drive and open it with a Desktop app from home and with an Android app on the go.

Is there something like this?

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  • $\begingroup$ Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please click here to learn more about our culture and take our tour. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 13:46
  • $\begingroup$ Definitely related: What software is available for keeping and organising notes about your world? $\endgroup$
    – user
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 14:20
  • $\begingroup$ OneNote, Checkvist, CherryTree, StackEdit, ... Or, if you are willing to run a small local-only web server on your computer, DokuWiki. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 14:26
  • $\begingroup$ I use evernote for this sort of stuff $\endgroup$
    – Muuski
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 16:10
  • $\begingroup$ Another possibility is Zim desktop wiki. $\endgroup$
    – jbclaypool
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 1:28

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Our list of worldbuilding resources includes World Anvil, which sounds like it's what you're looking for.

Welcome, Worldbuilder! If you’re a writer or author, World Anvil is a game-changer in the best way possible! Our integrated worldbuilding system is the perfect World Bible for storing your setting information, images and research. Our mentions system makes it incredibly easy to navigate! You can map out and nest your plots, plan your character arcs, keep track of locations, side characters and languages, and add timelines to document the history behind your writing.

You can also publish your writing on World Anvil with the easy-read prose template, and give access to select groups - for example, your Beta Readers or your Patreon supporters. You can embed images and soundtracks into your work, and change the presentation of your world’s pages, for an even more immersive reading experience.

It's a free service if you put up with advertising, or you can pay to be ad-free.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you. But World Anvil isn't private except if you pay a monthly fee, wich is a bit of a bummer. $\endgroup$
    – Regemens
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 13:51
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    $\begingroup$ @DanielTheophel Sonofagun! I've not personally used the service and didn't realize they basically held your copyright hostage if you didn't pay them. That's rude.... Unfortunately, it probably hints that "free" and "private" don't go together. Let's hope our users can come up with some other options! $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 14:11
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    $\begingroup$ I'll add three - though only one is private & fully free - (and add them to the list after work) $\endgroup$
    – LinkBerest - SO sold our work
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 14:16
  • $\begingroup$ @JBH To be fair, they don't claim copyright over your work. It is quite the opposite. But everyone can see your work if you don't have a paid membership. $\endgroup$
    – Regemens
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 16:18
  • $\begingroup$ @DanielTheophel Good point, let me clarify. Unless you pay them, you cannot assert copyright protection over your work. They're the publishers (I've been one, I've seen this issue in action) and their users are the authors. By forcing them to publicly display their intellectual property unless a fee is paid the publisher is fundamentally holding the copyright hostage. Said another way, you have no copyright unless you pay for it. Creative Commons is so ubiquitous on the Internet that the site owners would be challenged to prove they were protecting copyright. But, it's not relevant here. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 22:58
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As @JBH has already mentioned World Anvil (great software, used it for a few things myself); I'll list a few other options I've used over the years (one currently):

Microsoft OneNote

I currently use Office 365 with OneNote for collaborating with others on research papers & know that several of them use it for writing and/or worldbuilding as well. It offers a lot of features (and offline capabilities), is usable on tablets & phones (draw diagrams regularly), and all the other basic note-taking & organizing capabilities. It is not focused on Worldbuilding but on generic note taking and is not free

Notion

Now Notion is free for the basic usage (which includes offline & private capabilities) but I would recommend at least the $4 a month version for the advance permissions if you really want to collaborate (control more than "all private" or "all public"). This one, I have not used much at all but know it includes full Android & iOS versions and allowed me to do all the things I did with OneNote but with a steeper learning curve.

Scabard

Once again, Scabard is free but for the fully private mode you will need to buy the $40 yearly subscription (making it the cheapest private version I've found). The free version allows you to set certain items as "not viewable by players" but not everything and you cannot make secret pages. This is geared (heavily) towards RPG & TableTop campaigns but I've used it for general Worldbuilding too. It offers: Map creation, Timelines, Event handling, Character/Group/Item/Location creation options, and graph options for seeing connections. This is my absolute favorite tool for RPGs and is awesome for any world/story which you need to build as well.

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A straight up personal wiki: http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/

It’s a downloaded program with files saved to your computer so no one but you can access it. I don’t think there’s a mobile version, though.

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You may want to look at TiddlyWiki. It's basically a single HTML page but with functionality to make it act like a wiki. I haven't looked at this in a long time, but always thought it was cool because it's browser based, which means you have to host it somewhere but then you can access it wherever a browser runs. I also believe it is free. As for privacy, I think you can set it up with a password.

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I'd like to also suggest TiddlyWiki as a good alternative.

I started using it a few months ago and it's absolutely wonderful!

  • As Terri stated, the wiki itself is a simple compact HTML file. I believe you can either host images directly on your hard drive or through an external source such as Imgur, but that shouldn't be much of a problem.
  • There are a myriad of ways to edit it. You can't edit directly in your browser AFAIK but there exist browser extensions to enable editing, or even full-on dedicated clients for all platforms. I use TiddlyDesktop on my PC and AndTidWiki on my Android phone myself.
  • Editing is not complicated at all. It boasts a rather simple WSIWYG editor and documentation isn't too difficult to understand.
  • Since TiddlyWiki is just a single file, you could (hypothetically) have multiple wikis for multiple worlds all in the same folder.
  • Best of all, you don't need to host it online! I use Syncthing to sync a TiddlyWiki folder between my PCs and my phone, all on my home network. No one that you have to pay to host your content :)
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  • $\begingroup$ I will have to check out Syncthing. It sounds useful. $\endgroup$
    – Terri Simon
    Commented Mar 23, 2021 at 20:53

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