Writing software without a cloud: pros and cons
Faustica stores everything locally, with no account and no cloud. Why I made that choice deliberately, and the drawbacks that honestly come with it.
Picture this: you're on a train. The scene you've been chewing on for days is suddenly crystal clear in your head. You open your laptop, launch your writing app, and at first: nothing happens. Sign in. Connecting. Syncing. And then the next tunnel.
Moments like these were one reason Faustica has no cloud. It was one of the very first decisions I made, before there was a compendium, a timeline or a plot view. But I want to be honest: this decision doesn't only have upsides. In this article we'll look at both sides so you can decide for yourself whether writing software without a cloud suits you.
What "without a cloud" actually means
With many programs, your texts don't just live on your device but also on a provider's servers. That usually requires an account, and in the background, everything you write is constantly being synced.
Faustica works differently. Your projects are stored locally on your computer, on Windows or macOS. There's no account, no sign-in and no server your manuscript gets sent to. Even the synonyms come from local word lists. When you select a word and look for alternatives, your text never leaves your device.
That might sound like a technical detail at first. In everyday writing, though, it makes a noticeable difference, in both directions.
The upsides: your texts belong to you
Nobody is reading along
A novel is something personal. Especially in the first draft, there's a lot in it that nobody is meant to see yet: half-finished sentences, discarded ideas, a character you're still a little embarrassed about yourself. When everything stays on your device, you don't have to worry about who could theoretically access it or what happens to your texts on someone else's servers.
If you want even more protection, you can lock Faustica at startup with a PIN or password and encrypt your backups with AES-256.
Write wherever you want
Without a cloud, you don't need internet. Faustica works on the train, in a holiday cottage without Wi-Fi, on a park bench. The program starts, your project is there, you write. No waiting for a connection, no notice that something couldn't be synced just now.
For me, that's part of what makes a calm writing app: it's simply there when you need it.
No account, no dependency
When your texts are tied to a service, you're tied to that service too. If the terms or prices change, or the service disappears one day, that directly affects your work.
Faustica doesn't need an account, and you pay once instead of every month. Your projects stay on your device, whatever happens.
No locked-away files
To me, independence also means you should always be able to get to your texts, even without Faustica. That's why every backup also contains readable Word and Markdown copies of your manuscripts. You can open them with almost any program. And with the export, you can get your book out as Word, PDF, e-book or Markdown at any time.
The downsides, honestly
Faustica isn't a jack of all trades, and a program without a cloud has its limits. You should know them before you decide.
No automatic sync between devices
If you write on your laptop in the evening and on your desktop PC during the day, you'll notice right away: Faustica doesn't sync your projects automatically. A project moves via a backup that you restore on the other device. That works, but it's one deliberate extra step. If you constantly switch between several devices, you may find that cumbersome.
You're responsible for your own backups
This is the most important point. With a cloud service, a copy automatically lives somewhere else. Without a cloud, it lives wherever you put it.
Faustica helps you with that: it automatically creates backups in a location of your choice, and you can back up manually at any time. It also automatically saves a version with the first change of each day, and you can restore up to 30 of them. So if you accidentally wreck a chapter, it's not the end of the world.
Still: Faustica doesn't replace a backup strategy of your own. If your computer's hard drive dies and the backups are on that same drive, both are gone. That's why important manuscripts also belong on another device, an external hard drive for example. It costs you a few minutes a week and, in the worst case, saves you a great deal of grief.
No real-time collaboration
Without a server, nobody can work in the same manuscript with you at the same time. If you're writing a book together with someone, that's a real limitation.
For feedback, Faustica offers a different route: the editing workflow. You export your manuscript as a Word file with track changes, send it to your beta readers or your editor, and later import the revised version again. In the split view, you then see both versions side by side. For most hobby authors that's entirely enough, but not for writing together.
No writing on your phone
Faustica is available for Windows and macOS, not for smartphones or tablets. So the quick idea you have while standing in line doesn't go straight into your project. Without a cloud, syncing with your phone wouldn't be possible anyway. If you write a lot on the go, you'll need to plan for that.
Who writing software without a cloud is right for
Putting it all together, this is how I see it: writing software without a cloud is a good fit if
- you mainly write on one computer,
- it matters to you that your texts stay with you,
- you also want to work offline,
- you don't want yet another account or yet another subscription,
- and you're willing to take care of a backup on a second device every now and then.
It's less of a fit if you constantly switch between devices, write a lot on your phone, or work on a text simultaneously with others.
Why I chose it anyway
Originally, I built Faustica just for myself. I only ever write on my laptop, so I simply never needed a cloud. I wanted a program that lets me write in peace. One that doesn't constantly want something from me: no sign-in, no syncing, no notifications. A program doesn't automatically get better just because it can do more.
When I later decided to publish Faustica, I did think about it again, of course. A cloud would certainly be nice for some people. But it would have meant rebuilding the program's basic architecture from the ground up. And there's a second reason that matters at least as much to me: a cloud means running an infrastructure that holds other people's manuscripts, and being responsible if something gets lost there. As a solo developer, that's a responsibility I don't want to take on. Your novel is better off on your own device and in your own backup than on a server I look after on the side.
Syncing between devices isn't completely off the table, though. A sync via services you may already be using might come later: iCloud on the Mac and OneDrive on Windows. Your data would then live with a provider of your choice, not with me. I can't promise that yet, but it's on my list.
The downsides I described above are real. I accepted them deliberately, because I believe that many people who love to write are looking for exactly this: a calm place for their book that belongs to them. No AI. No cloud. No subscription.
Whether this is the right path for you too is something you'll find out best for yourself. You can try Faustica free for 30 days with the full feature set, no account and no payment details required. After that, the full version costs a one-time 59.99 €.
And if you have questions or thoughts on the topic: feel free to write to me directly from the app or at faustica@posteo.de. I read every message myself.