But every timeline tool I tried was a disappointment. Some couldn't handle BCE dates at all. Some had interfaces that looked like they were built in 2005 and never updated. Some wouldn't let me add descriptions to events. Some were just... ugly. Most felt like they were designed for corporate project management, not for someone who just wants to plot the fall of Rome alongside the rise of the Han Dynasty.
I tried Excel. I tried Google Sheets. I tried Canva, TimeGlider, Preceden, Timetoast — you name it. Nothing worked the way I wanted.
So a few years ago, I made a Google Sheets template with workarounds for BCE dates and sold it on Gumroad for $5. It was clunky, but people bought it — which told me I wasn't the only one with this problem.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago — I had some Lovable credits expiring, so I finally built the real thing. Got v1 working in 2 days, then switched to Claude Code + Opus to polish it up.
What I wanted (and built): - Just enter dates — positive or negative — and it shows up on a timeline. No thinking required. - Add descriptions to events - BCE dates that just work - Compare multiple timelines side by side - Something that actually looks nice
Free tier gives you 10 timelines. No signup wall to browse — you can check out the community timelines right away. https://www.chronostimeline.com/
Would love feedback from fellow history nerds. What's missing? What would make this useful for you?