Dabble

Dabble is the closest to a real online alternative to Scrivener—trust me, I'm pretty sure I've tested them all. I tried Dabble shortly after it came out and wasn't sure how it would go, but I've recently made a new account and have been amazed by how far they've come and how clearly focused they are on being an online novel writing tool. In the long run, Literature & Latte should probably kiss their Windows users goodbye, and maybe even prepare to lose some of their Mac users.

This service has a lot of features already (quite a few of the best from Scrivener, including a powerful search function), but still needs some more tools and customizable options. It's clearly getting there, though, and has a viable payment structure to afford ongoing development. (In fact, they could probably make subscriptions a hair cheaper...) As a bonus, being web-based, Dabble's editor is pretty easy to make small tweaks to with a tool like Stylus if you're on desktop and comfortable with CSS. This is a big deal for me personally and the usual reason I choose web tools.

Right now, my biggest concern about Dabble is security. As with Novelize, which I've left a poor review for in the past, novels are not encrypted on the backend. However, unlike Novelize, they make it a point of explaining their policy regarding that (how content is only accessed during content-related support). It still bothers me, and I'd like to see it change, but they're upfront about everything, and it's not like most services where we keep our work are doing what they should when it comes to encryption, anyway. For now the company seems legit, here to stay, and committed to big things.