Free sandbox · Windows 10 & 11

Take it for a spin before we take your money.

Download it free and use every part of it. Pay only when it's earned a place in your writing routine.

$49
one-time purchase · $59 at 1.0
  • Windows desktop app (macOS coming later)
  • Unlimited projects, plotlines, scenes, characters
  • Your projects as portable files you own
  • Works fully offline, forever
  • Free updates through 1.x
  • 14-day no-questions refund
Buy Plotloft — $49
Local sales tax and VAT are already included — $49 is what you pay, wherever you are. Secure checkout by Paddle, our merchant of record.
When you buy

Three steps, then you're plotting.

Buying Plotloft is about as involved as buying a paperback. Here is the whole of it, so there are no surprises at the checkout.

  1. You buy once — no subscription, no account, no sign-in. Checkout is handled by Paddle as merchant of record.
  2. A licence key arrives by email, a long line of text starting with PLOTLOFT. — that's the entire delivery.
  3. Open Help ▸ Enter Licence Key… and paste it. Anything you built in the sandbox up to that moment becomes a real project on disk, work and all.

The key is verified on your machine against a signature built into the app. There is no activation server to go down, no expiry date, and no limit on how many of your own machines you install it on. If we disappeared tomorrow, your copy would keep working.

Download

Free to download. Free to try. Every view, every tool.

Without a key, Plotloft opens as a full sandbox: build whatever you like — it just can't save or export, and closing the window clears it. It's the same app a buyer gets; a key is the only thing that turns what you're working on into a real project on disk.

Installer recommended
Plotloft-Setup-0.5.7.exe · 88.6 MB
Installs to your user folder, adds a Start-menu entry, associates .plotloft files, and updates itself.
Portable
Plotloft-0.5.7-portable.exe · 88.5 MB
A single .exe — run it from a USB stick, no installation. Doesn't self-update; download a new one when a version ships.
Version 0.5.7 Windows 10 & 11, 64-bit macOS and Linux after launch All releases
Windows will warn you the first time. That's expected.

SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC." for apps it hasn't seen many times yet. Click More info → Run anyway and Plotloft installs as normal.

Before you buy

The awkward questions, answered first.

Why $49 now and $59 later?
$59 is the list price at 1.0 this November. Until then Plotloft is in early access at $49 — the app is complete and in daily use, but it's young, and early buyers are trusting us before the reviews exist. You keep the app and its free 1.x updates at the price you paid; nobody who buys now is worse off in November.
What can I actually do with the free download?
All of it, except keep it. Every view, every tool, unlimited beats and scenes and characters — the sandbox is the real app, not a cut-down trial. It just can't write to disk or export until a key unlocks it, so treat this as a long test drive rather than a place to start your novel.
Will my sandbox work survive until I buy?
Only if you keep the window open: closing it clears the sandbox, but entering a key mid-session turns whatever is on the board into a real project on disk, work and all. Use the sandbox to find out whether Plotloft thinks the way you do; start the novel you actually care about once it's writing to disk.
What if I buy it and don't like it?
14 days, no questions. Email hello@plotloft.com and we refund it. Details in the refund policy — and yes, you can try the whole app in the sandbox before paying a cent.
Can I install it on more than one machine?
Yes — your desktop and your laptop, or a machine you replace next year. The key isn't bound to hardware and never checks in with us. We're asking you not to hand it to strangers; we're not building a system that treats you like one.