Slate vs WriterDuet: two philosophies of co-writing.
WriterDuet pioneered live co-typing in the cloud, and it's genuinely good at it. Slate takes the opposite bet: your pages live on your Mac, and collaboration happens in deliberate passes you review and merge. Which is right depends on how your partnership actually writes.
Written by the people who make Slate — bias disclosed, details from public pages as of July 2026, corrections welcome at support@slatescript.app.
The short version: if your writing partnership works best both typing in the same document at the same moment — a live room, a sprint on a deadline — WriterDuet is built for exactly that. If your collaboration is really an exchange of passes — "take the weekend, do your version, I'll read the whole thing" — Slate's proposed-revisions model matches how you already work, keeps every page on your own disk, and costs less.
Side by side
| Slate | WriterDuet | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $79/year flat, every feature, 30-day trial (no card) | Free tier (limited projects); paid plans ≈ $10–14/month, discounted annually |
| Collaboration model | Proposed revisions: your partner writes a pass on their own draft, you review it line-by-line, comment, and merge — or decline | Real-time co-typing with chat — both cursors in one doc, live |
| Where scripts live | On your Mac, as plain .fountain text — no server of ours exists | Cloud-first (with offline modes and backup exports) |
| Accounts | None — the trial starts when you open the app | Account required |
| Works offline | Always — it's a native Mac app with local files | Desktop/offline modes on paid plans |
| Does your partner have to pay? | No — reading and reviewing/merging proposals is free forever | Free tier exists with limits; full collaboration is smoothest when both subscribe |
| Platforms | Mac only (Apple Silicon & Intel) | Browser, Windows, Mac, mobile |
| Rewrite safety | Git-style drafts: branch, word-level compare, true 3-way merge, revert | Version history and restore |
| Story tools | Beats pinned to actual script lines; board that moves scenes when you move cards | Index cards and outlining tools |
| AI | None, deliberately — nothing you write is read by or trains any model | AI-assisted features available (see their site) |
| File exchange | Imports .fdx, Fountain, plain text · exports Fountain, PDF, teleprompter PDF | Imports/exports .fdx, Fountain, PDF and more |
WriterDuet details summarized from writerduet.com as of July 2026 — plans and features change; check their pages for the fine print.
Choose WriterDuet if…
- Your room writes simultaneously — two or more cursors in the same scene, talking while typing.
- You need Windows, browser, or phone access — Slate is Mac-only.
- You want to start on a free tier and upgrade later.
Choose Slate if…
- Your collaboration is really passes, not co-typing — most partnerships are. One of you takes the scene, does the brave version, and the other reads it whole. Slate turns that exact rhythm into a workflow: a proposed revision you review line-by-line with word-level diffs, then merge with one click. Nobody's typing surprises into your Act Two while you sleep.
- You want your pages on your own disk — plain-text files, no account, no server, no AI. If we disappeared tomorrow, your scripts open in any editor.
- You'd rather pay one flat price — $79/year, all features, no tier chart. Two years of a mid-tier subscription elsewhere buys three of Slate.
- You rewrite a lot. Drafts with real merging — not just history you can restore — is the core of the app, not a feature on a plan.
The part nobody puts in a table
Live co-typing is impressive the first time you see it. But ask working partnerships how they actually write and most describe turns: you take the pass, I take the read. Real-time editing optimizes for the rare moment you're both typing; Slate optimizes for everything around it — the honest compare when the pass comes back, the merge that doesn't eat either version, the paper trail of who changed what and why. That's the bet. Try both and keep whichever matches your partnership.
The fair test: send your co-writer one scene, have them do a pass, and review it as a proposed revision. If the merge doesn't feel better than a shared cursor, keep your $79.
Download Slate — free for 30 days, no card