How to choose the ideal world building website for your story

Essential tools and features to build immersive story worlds

Synth Cities Environment by ansimuz

Great stories heavily rely on the world they unfold in. It must be believable and consistent, to allow great characters and plots to emerge.

Fantasy and sci-fi tales in particular—be them in novels, TV shows, video games, or tabletop RPGs—require painstaking world building, during which the writers design their story world's history and geography, not to mention defining physics, technology, or magic.

With so many web tools available to manage and structure your world, choosing the right world building website becomes a key step for any creator—and often an overwhelming task.

What to look for in a world building website

Before you dive in, here are the key criteria I recommend evaluating:

1. Ease of use & fit with workflow - A powerful tool is useless if it's painful to use. Look for clean UI, intuitive navigation, and templates or wikis you can adapt.

2. Core features - Depending on your project, you will need:

   • Maps and other spatial tools
   • Timelines and event tracking
   • Character sheets
   • Location-based metadata
   • Relationship graphs, lore linking, cross-references
   • Collaboration (multi-user editing, permissions)
   • Export options

3. Scalability - Will the tool hold up when your world grows? Can it handle many locations, characters, epochs?

4. Pricing & tiers - Free or trial versions are ideal to test. Which features are locked behind paywalls? Do they match what you need?

5. Integrations & workflow compatibility - Can it connect with your writing tools, game engines, exports (e.g. PDF, JSON, APIs)? Can you embed its maps in other media?

With those in mind, let's look at five standout world building websites for every taste.

The top 5 world building websites & tools for 2025

Choosing the right platform can be daunting, so we’ve highlighted five world building websites offering tools that stand out for their features.

1. World Anvil

Why it stands out

World Anvil remains the go-to for comprehensive, lore-driven world building. It offers a deep suite of templates (e.g. locations, characters, items, species), interactive maps (with region and point-of-interest pins), multiple timelines, and cross-entity linking. It's designed for both authors and game masters.

Trade-offs / cons

• The sheer amount of features can overwhelm a new user.
• Some advanced map tools and nested maps are gated behind higher tiers.
• Performance or navigation can feel slower on very large worlds.

Best for

If you want everything in one place—maps, lore, linking, public sharing—World Anvil is a strong choice. For writers or GMs who plan to deeply explore every nook and cranny of their world, it gives you the infrastructure to lean into.

2. Kanka

Why it stands out

Kanka is beloved for its flexibility and community-driven nature. It supports unlimited campaigns, collaborative editing, custom modules, and free usage for many features (with premium tiers for extras). Because it's modular, you can turn off or simplify parts of it to match your needs.

Trade-offs / cons

• Some modules or features require manual setup.
• Less polished map visuals compared to some premium tools.
• You may need to lean more on your own organizational discipline.

Best for

Good for creators who want flexibility and control, especially if you're working with collaborators or switching direction mid-project. If you don't need all the bells and whistles from day one, Kanka gives you room to grow.

3. Campfire

Why it stands out

Campfire is a modular, writer-friendly environment that blends narrative structure with world building tools. It allows you to assemble whichever modules you need—characters, world, timeline, plot, scenes. It supports collaboration and exportable documents. It tends to be more approachable for authors over GMs.

Trade-offs / cons

• As you add more modules, cost may accumulate.
• It doesn't always reach as deep map or geographic features as World Anvil.
• Some features (e.g. advanced linking) require higher tiers.

Best for

Perfect for writers who want to build up their world in parallel with drafting a novel or narrative. If your priority is story + character, with moderate world detail, Campfire is a balanced space.

4. Artificer DM

Why it stands out

While lesser-known in general writing circles, Artificer DM is tailored for game masters and worldbuilders seeking a modern, streamlined interface. It offers wiki-style nested notes, interactive maps (with hierarchical layers), and an AI assistant (Your Scribe) that can generate lore-consistent content. Its clean interface and forward-looking features make it particularly easy for GMs to manage complex campaign worlds.

Trade-offs / cons

• Some advanced AI features may require subscription credits.
• The tool is more focused on game / RPG contexts, so novel-specific features may be lighter.
• The user base and community are smaller, so shared examples and templates may be fewer.

Best for

If you're building for tabletop RPG campaigns (especially ones with branching decisions or procedural elements), Artificer DM gives you a modern, intuitive hub. Its AI assistance can reduce prep overhead. It's ideal when you want both structure and creative support.

5. LegendKeeper

Why it stands out

LegendKeeper is a rising star that emphasizes performance, minimalist design, and map nesting. It supports auto-linking wiki pages, boards for connecting ideas, and nested maps for organizing world layers. It offers a distraction-free writing experience. In many newer tool comparisons, it's consistently among the "promising upstarts."

Trade-offs / cons

• Not as extensive in feature count compared to World Anvil or Kanka.
• Some customization options are behind paywalls.
• Because it's newer, the community, template libraries, and longevity are less proven.

Best for

When you want a clean, no-fluff interface that still supports key world building features. If you care about speed, clean writing, and a minimal learning curve, LegendKeeper can be a great home base.

Choosing a world building website isn't easy. The tool must complement your workflow, grow with your world, and match your priorities. I suggest you try them out for yourself; all of them have free tiers to get your feet wet.

And after you've laid down that world, remember plot! The right combination of world building website and Arcweave ensures both rich lore and dynamic storytelling.

Arcweave, you say?

Let's be clear: Arcweave is not a dedicated world building website; it focuses on designing interactive story flow and branching narratives. Its components are great for representing and logging in characters and locations, but it lacks features like built-in maps with pin layers, spatial metadata, and timelines.

Here's where Arcweave does shine:

• Quest and plot mapping: Its node/flow-based structure is perfect for branching narratives, decision trees, or campaign sequences.
• Story flow logic: You can add variables, conditional branches, and logic to support dynamic interactive storytelling.
• Component relationships: Connect characters, locations, and plot elements to represent their interactions and dependencies within your story.
• Integration with world building tools: Use one of the above tools for lore, geography, and maps, and bring the result into Arcweave to map out how characters move through that world, how quests branch, and how plot threads interweave.

So in practice: many creators pair Arcweave with a lore tool. Use something like World Anvil or Artificer DM for your world's skeleton, then build your narrative muscles inside Arcweave.

And you can do this completely free. Sign up for a free Arcweave account and see how it complements your world building with its narrative structure features.