8 Best Film Budgeting Software of 2026

Picking the wrong budgeting software can derail a production before cameras roll. A tool that doesn't fit your workflow means re-keying numbers into spreadsheets, chasing approvals by email, and reconciling actuals at 2am during wrap week.

This guide covers the best film budgeting software for 2026 across every project type, budget size, and workflow. Whether you're a first-time producer on a $50K short or a line producer managing a $5M feature, there's a tool on this list that fits your production.

Looking for free options only? See our separate guide to the best free film budgeting software. This article covers both paid and free tools ranked for production professionals.

Quick Comparison: Film Budgeting Software at a Glance

How We Evaluated These Tools

Saturation is our product, so we hold the rest of this list to a simple standard: every price, plan limit and platform claim about another vendor comes from that vendor's own website, checked on October 24, 2026. Where a vendor does not publish something, we say so instead of guessing.

We compared each tool on the six things a line producer or production accountant checks before committing a show to it:

• Budget structure and fringes: account hierarchy, globals, fringes, overtime and union rates.
• Actuals: whether spending, payroll and purchase orders can be tracked against the same budget lines.
• Collaboration: whether two people can work in the budget at once, and what that costs.
• Formats in and out: which budgets it imports (Movie Magic, Showbiz, Excel) and what it exports (PDF, Excel, a Movie Magic file).
• Platform: Mac or Windows desktop, or the browser.
• Price and free access: free plan, free trial, and the price of the plan that includes budgeting.

Saturation's features and limits come from the Saturation help center and the pricing page, not from marketing copy. The sources for every other tool are listed at the end of this guide.

Last updated: October 24, 2026.

1. Saturation: Best Overall Film Budgeting Software

Saturation is a cloud-based budgeting and expense management platform co-founded in 2023 by producer Jens Jacob and Simon Tam. It brings together collaborative budgeting, expense cards, and actuals tracking in a single browser workspace.

Where Movie Magic and Hot Budget are designed around the idea that one accountant owns the budget file, Saturation is built for how modern productions actually operate: multiple people in multiple locations, all needing visibility into the numbers at the same time. Department heads can see their budgets without emailing anyone. The production accountant always has the current version. The producer sees budget vs. actuals without waiting for a Friday wrap report.

The platform covers the full financial cycle of a production. You build the budget, issue expense cards to department heads, and watch actuals reconcile against your budget lines automatically. No more chasing receipts. No retyping payroll if you use Wrapbook: its payroll log exports as a CSV that imports into Saturation.

Key Features

• Collaborative budgeting with real-time sync across the production team
• Expense management with physical and virtual Visa expense cards (Pro and Team plans)
• Budget vs. actuals tracking as spending happens
• Fringe rate calculations and tax incentive support
• Free film budget templates to get started immediately
• Payroll imports from Wrapbook CSV exports, Hot Budget payroll logs and Media Services .ULT files
• Works on any device with a browser, no installation required

Pricing

Saturation's free Creator plan covers one active project, one seat and 1,000 account items with no time limit; budget exports start on the paid plans. Pro is $32 a month billed annually ($40 month to month) for unlimited projects, cost reports and Saturation Pay, and Team is $79 a month billed annually ($99 month to month) with three seats, purchase orders and approval routing. Both paid plans start with a 14-day free trial. See full details at saturation.io/pricing.

Best For

Film producers, production accountants, and teams who need real-time collaboration on a live budget. Particularly strong for indie features, TV pilots, commercials, and music videos where multiple departments need access to current numbers without emailing files back and forth.

Pros

• Real-time collaboration: the production team always sees the same version
• Expense cards connect spending directly to budget line items
• Built-in fringe calculation and tax incentive fields
• Free tier for single projects, no credit card required
• Modern interface that doesn't require a training course to learn
• Imports Wrapbook payroll actuals from a CSV export

Cons

• Less name recognition than Movie Magic in large studio environments
• Cannot export back to Movie Magic format, and budget exports need a paid plan

See the full Saturation vs. Movie Magic Budgeting comparison for a detailed feature breakdown.

2. Movie Magic Budgeting: Best for Studio and Network Productions

Movie Magic Budgeting is the legacy standard for film and television. If you work on SAG-AFTRA signatory productions, network TV, or studio features, there's a reasonable chance the production company or studio will expect a Movie Magic file. It's the closest thing the industry has to a universal format.

The software is deep: customizable rule sets for fringes, cutoffs and globals, budget comparisons across locations, incentive estimates, amortization and pattern budgets for episodic work, and an integration with EP's SmartAccounting for tracking actuals. The tradeoffs are real. It is a desktop application for Windows or macOS, and although the current version stores budgets in a cloud library for sharing and offline access, EP does not advertise simultaneous editing, so one person usually holds the working version.

Key Features

• The budget format studios, networks and many financiers ask for by name
• Customizable fringe, cutoff and global rule sets for union and non-union crews
• Fringe rate tables and globals for applying rate changes across the budget
• Topsheet, detail budgets, and variance reports
• Cloud-synced libraries and a SmartAccounting integration from Entertainment Partners

Pricing

Movie Magic Budgeting costs $42.99 a month, or $299.88 a year per seat on the annual plan ($24.99 a month with a 12-month commitment), from the EP Store. Academic licenses are $125.88 a year. There is no free tier, and EP does not advertise a free trial.

Best For

Union productions, studio features, and network TV where a Movie Magic file is a hard requirement from the studio, financier, or network broadcaster. If someone in your chain requires a Movie Magic file, this is the only option.

Pros

• Universal acceptance at the studio and network level
• Deep fringe, global and reporting controls refined over decades of use
• Mature, battle-tested feature set used on thousands of productions

Cons

• No free tier: expensive for emerging filmmakers
• Desktop app: a cloud library for sharing, but no advertised simultaneous editing or mobile app
• Steep learning curve for new users
• Without live co-editing, version control depends on one person owning the working budget
• Requires Windows or Mac installation per seat

3. Hot Budget: Best for Commercials and Music Videos

Hot Budget is the commercial production industry's answer to Movie Magic. It runs as a workbook in Excel for Mac, with templates formatted to the AICP (Association of Independent Commercial Producers) standard, which is the format advertising agency clients expect when reviewing production budgets.

If you produce TV commercials, branded content, or music videos and need to submit AICP-formatted budgets to agency clients, Hot Budget is the standard. It's not glamorous and it doesn't live in the cloud. But in the commercial world, it is the format many agencies expect, and that matters when clients are reviewing your numbers.

Key Features

• AICP-formatted budgets: the commercial production industry standard
• Excel-based with pre-built account structure for commercial production
• Compatible with agency billing and review processes
• Built-in actualizing (original, running and actual budgets side by side) plus PO, petty cash and payroll logs that feed the cost report view

Pricing

A Hot Budget license costs $100 for one computer for the calendar year. The 2026 license expires on January 1, 2027, after which you can no longer create new budgets or change bid totals, though actualizing still works. It is built for Excel for Mac and works with limited functionality on some Windows versions of Excel. No free tier is listed.

Best For

Commercial production companies, music video producers, and branded content teams who submit AICP-formatted budgets to advertising agency clients. Essential for any production that interfaces with the commercial agency ecosystem.

Pros

• AICP format is what agencies expect: no reformatting required
• Affordable at $100 per computer per calendar year
• Tracks actuals in the same workbook, including timecard CSV imports into the payroll log

Cons

• Built for Excel for Mac; Windows support is limited and there is no cloud version
• No real-time collaboration
• Excel-based: accidental overwrites and version confusion are real risks
• License expires each calendar year and has to be renewed

See the Hot Budget vs. Saturation comparison for more on how these tools differ across production types.

4. Celtx: Best for Indie Filmmakers New to Budgeting

Celtx is an all-in-one production platform covering screenplay writing, scheduling, and budgeting in a single subscription. For filmmakers writing their own scripts and self-producing, having everything in one place is a real advantage over managing separate tools.

The budgeting module is simpler than Movie Magic or Hot Budget. It works well for short films, micro-budget features, and student projects. Productions with union crew or complex fringe calculations should test it on a real budget before committing.

Key Features

• Integrated screenplay, schedule, and budget in one platform
• Cloud-based, runs in the browser with no installation
• Budget lines pulled from the script breakdown, with industry-standard templates
• Collaboration tools for small teams

Pricing

Celtx has a free plan for scriptwriting on one project, but it does not include budgeting. Budgeting is an optional add-on to the Writer ($14.99 a month) and Writer Pro ($24.99 a month) plans and is included in the Team plan, which starts at three members for $59.99 a month billed monthly. New accounts get a 7-day trial of paid features, and students can buy a discounted annual Student plan that includes the budget tools.

Best For

Emerging filmmakers, student productions, and small indie projects that want an all-in-one writing and production tool without the complexity of professional budgeting software.

Pros

• All-in-one: screenplay, schedule, and budget in one subscription
• Cloud-based and accessible from any device
• Lower barrier to entry than professional tools

Cons

• Budgeting is less powerful than dedicated tools
• Not accepted by studios or agencies as a standard format
• Budgeting is a paid add-on on the Writer plans and included only on Team
• Free plan does not include budgeting

5. Showbiz Budgeting: Best for Advertising Productions

Showbiz Budgeting competes with Hot Budget in commercials and with Movie Magic on longer-form work. Showbiz Budgeting 10, now sold by Cast & Crew, is a desktop application for Mac and Windows with more than 100 customizable templates, including AICP formats, and an optional Showbiz Cloud subscription for real-time collaboration with per-user permissions.

Its strength is actualizing. Showbiz imports payroll expenses from Media Services, CAPS or Showbiz Timecards, tracks credit card, check, EFT and invoice expenses, and tallies purchase orders against the budget. It can also import Movie Magic budgets, which makes a switch from Movie Magic easier.

Key Features

• AICP-compatible commercial budget format
• Payroll imports from Media Services, CAPS and Showbiz Timecards
• Available for both Windows and Mac (unlike Hot Budget)
• Cost reporting and variance analysis tools

Pricing

Showbiz Budgeting 10 costs $399 for two computer installs, with volume pricing for more, from the Cast & Crew store. Showbiz Cloud is a separate monthly or annual subscription bought inside the app. There is no free tier, but a fully functioning 5-day free trial needs no credit card.

Best For

Commercial production companies that run payroll through Media Services or CAPS and want integrated budget-to-actuals tracking in an AICP-compatible format on both Windows and Mac.

Pros

• Imports payroll actuals from Media Services, CAPS and Showbiz Timecards
• Available on both Windows and Mac
• Established in advertising and commercial production workflows

Cons

• Real-time collaboration costs extra through the Showbiz Cloud subscription
• The upfront license makes most sense if you budget several projects a year
• No free tier

6. Filmustage: Best Free Budget Built From a Script Breakdown

Filmustage is a browser-based pre-production platform that runs script breakdown, scheduling, call sheets and budgeting in one place. Its budgeting module generates a budget template pre-filled with your tagged breakdown elements and day-out-of-days data, carries fringes and taxes through, and lets you add custom fringes and lines.

Filmustage is built for prep: its budgeting page does not describe tracking actual spend against the budget, so it won't replace a cost report. For a writer-producer or line producer pricing a script, it is a fast way to get from pages to a first budget, and the free plan exports to PDF, Excel and Movie Magic formats.

Key Features

• Budget creation, editing and templates on the free plan
• Script breakdown, shooting schedule, DOODs and call sheets in one platform
• Exports to PDF, Excel, Movie Magic Scheduling and Movie Magic Budgeting
• AI breakdown and AI budget on the paid Director's Cut plan

Pricing

Filmustage's free plan includes every non-AI tool, budgeting among them, for one active project. Director's Cut, which adds AI features through a monthly coin allowance plus unlimited active projects, is from $49 a month or $408 a year billed annually.

Best For

Producers pricing a script for financing, and indie or student productions that want breakdown, schedule and budget in one free tool before they need cost tracking.

Pros

• Free plan includes budgeting and exports
• All-in-one: breakdown, schedule, call sheets and budget
• Budget lines come from the script breakdown instead of a blank sheet

Cons

• Built for prep, not for tracking actual spend against the budget
• AI features run on coins, so heavy use needs the paid plan
• Free plan is limited to one active project
• Check any exported Movie Magic file with your line producer before delivery

7. Gorilla Budgeting: Best Budget and Schedule Suite for Independents

Gorilla, from Jungle Software, is a production suite covering budgeting, scheduling and script breakdown. It comes in two forms: Gorilla Desktop for Mac and Windows, and Gorilla Online, which runs in the browser with collaboration depending on the plan. It's positioned as a professional option for independent producers who want more depth than a spreadsheet at a lower price than Movie Magic.

Gorilla Budgeting handles accounts, globals, fringes, incentives, multiple currencies, expenses and reports, and Gorilla Budgeting Online includes the Gorilla Ratebook of union labor rates. The main appeal is scheduling and budgeting from one vendor, with projects that can move between the desktop and online versions.

Key Features

• Integrated budgeting, scheduling, and script breakdown
• Desktop app for Mac and Windows with offline work, plus a browser version
• Budget templates for independent film production
• Gorilla Ratebook union rates built into Gorilla Budgeting Online

Pricing

Gorilla is now sold by subscription. Gorilla Budgeting Desktop is $29.99 a month or $249 a year, and the Combo Pack with scheduling is $49.99 a month or $429 a year. Gorilla Online is free to start in the browser, and the desktop software has a 15-day demo.

Best For

Independent producers who want scheduling and budgeting from one vendor, on Mac, Windows or in the browser.

Pros

• Scheduling and budgeting sold separately or together as a Combo Pack
• Integrated suite: budget, schedule, and breakdown in one app
• Works offline

Cons

• Desktop version has no live collaboration
• Collaboration is only in the online version, depending on the plan
• Desktop and online versions differ, so check which features a plan includes

8. Wrapbook: Best for Integrated Payroll and Cost Tracking

Wrapbook is a production payroll and finance platform, not a traditional budgeting tool. It does not create top-down line-item budgets; it imports budgets from Movie Magic Budgeting, Showbiz Budgeting and Hot Budget to track against. What it does extremely well is track costs as they happen: payroll runs, vendor payments, and expense reconciliation in real time.

Where Wrapbook adds value in a budgeting workflow is through integrations. When you pair Wrapbook with Saturation, each payroll exports from Wrapbook as a CSV that imports into your live budget. You see department-by-department burn rates without manually entering payroll data, which is one of the most time-consuming parts of production accounting.

Key Features

• Production payroll for W-2 employees, both union and non-union
• Workers' compensation coverage and production insurance available through Wrapbook
• Real-time cost reporting as payroll runs
• Payroll log exports as a CSV that imports into Saturation's live budget

Pricing

Wrapbook charges a processing fee on payments run through it, with no monthly, annual or tech fees. Its payroll estimator shows a 1.49% platform fee, with workers' compensation, payroll taxes and fringes as separate lines; Wrapbook asks you to contact it for state-specific rates.

Best For

Productions that need payroll and want real-time cost tracking connected to a live budget. Most effective when paired with a dedicated budgeting platform rather than used as a standalone financial tool.

Pros

• Payroll and workers comp in one platform
• Real-time cost reporting as money leaves the production
• Payroll exports import into Saturation for live budget actuals

Cons

• Not a budgeting tool: cannot build detailed line-item budgets from scratch
• Per-payment processing fees add up on larger productions
• Requires a separate budgeting platform to get the full financial picture

Read the full Saturation vs. Wrapbook comparison to understand how these two platforms work together.

How to Choose the Right Film Budgeting Software

The right tool depends on your production type, team size, and how you actually move money. Here are the five questions that matter most:

Does your studio or client require a specific file format?

If a studio, network, or advertising agency specifies a format, the decision is already made. Studios typically ask for a Movie Magic file. Agencies typically require AICP (Hot Budget or Showbiz Budgeting). For all other productions, choose the tool that fits your workflow.

Do you need real-time collaboration?

Desktop tools like Movie Magic and Hot Budget are single-user by design. One person owns the budget file and everyone else waits. If your line producer, production accountant, and department heads all need to see current numbers simultaneously, you need a cloud-based tool. Saturation, Celtx, Filmustage and Gorilla Budgeting Online all work in the browser, and Showbiz Budgeting adds real-time collaboration through its paid Showbiz Cloud subscription. Movie Magic shares budgets through a cloud library but does not advertise simultaneous editing, and Hot Budget is an Excel workbook on one computer.

What production type are you working on?

Commercial and advertising productions belong on AICP-compatible software (Hot Budget or Showbiz). Union scripted film and television belongs on Movie Magic. Independent films, web series, and music videos outside the agency ecosystem belong on a modern cloud tool like Saturation.

What is your budget size?

For productions under $25K, a free tool is usually enough. Saturation's free tier covers one project with no time limit, and Filmustage's free plan includes budgeting for one active project. For productions with union crew, multiple departments, and real vendor payments, the collaboration and expense management features in paid tools save more time than they cost. See our comparison of free film budgeting tools for small productions.

Do you need expense management alongside your budget?

Most budgeting tools stop at the budget. They don't connect to how money actually leaves the production account. Saturation's Pro and Team plans include expense cards that reconcile against budget line items, giving you real-time visibility into what's been spent without waiting for accounting to close the week.

Which Film Budgeting Software Is Right for You?

If you already know what you are making, start here:

• Studio feature, network series or bonded film: Movie Magic Budgeting. Studios, financiers and completion guarantors often ask for a Movie Magic file, and rebuilding a budget at delivery costs more than the subscription.
• TV commercial or agency-billed branded content: Hot Budget or Showbiz Budgeting. Both use the AICP bid and cost summary formats agencies expect; Showbiz adds payroll imports and a Windows version.
• Independent feature, documentary or series that has to track real spend: Saturation. The budget, actuals, expense cards and cost reports live in one browser workspace, so the producer sees variance without waiting for a weekly report.
• Short film or first budget at no cost: Saturation's free plan if you want to track actuals against the budget, or Filmustage's free plan if you need free exports or want lines generated from a script breakdown. Our free film budgeting software guide compares the free options in detail.
• Writer-producer who wants script, schedule and budget together: Celtx on the Team plan, or Gorilla's Combo Pack. Both connect the breakdown or schedule to the budget.
• Production that already runs payroll on Wrapbook: Saturation plus Wrapbook. Each payroll log exports as a CSV that imports into Saturation's actuals.

If two of these describe your show, let the delivery format decide. Saturation imports Movie Magic budgets but cannot export back to that format, so if anyone in your chain needs a Movie Magic file, plan for it before prep starts.

Switching Film Budgeting Software Without Rebuilding Your Budget

Few producers choose budgeting software on a blank slate. There is a Movie Magic file from the last show, a Hot Budget bid the agency already approved, or an Excel budget a line producer has refined over years. Before you commit to a new tool, check how your existing budgets get into it.

How each format moves into Saturation

Because Saturation's film budgeting software imports Movie Magic and Showbiz budgets, a migration from either starts from your real numbers rather than a retyped copy. After any import, check two things before you trust the totals: that payroll taxes and union fringes are attached to the right labor lines, and that shared values such as shoot days are set up as globals, so a schedule change still flows through the whole budget.

When to switch

• Switch between shows, not during one. Move during prep, ideally before the budget is locked, rather than mid-shoot when the cost report depends on stable account numbers.
• Pilot on one show. Run a commercial, short or single episode in the new tool before you move the whole slate.
• Set roles before anyone edits. Decide who can edit, who can view and who only gets the top sheet before you invite the team (see the role table below).
• Keep the old file as an archive, not a working copy. Once the budget lives in the new tool, PDF and Excel exports are snapshots for outside readers. Two working versions is how version confusion starts.

Sharing a Budget With Department Heads, Investors and Bond Companies

A budget has many readers, and most of them should not see all of it. Talent deals, producer fees and the contingency reserve are sensitive. A department head needs their own accounts. A financier needs the top sheet and the variance. File-based tools handle this by emailing different exports to different people, which is how a production ends up with five versions of one budget.

A common access pattern on an independent feature or series:

Adjust it to your show, but write it down before prep starts. Giving every crew member full budget access is the most common way rates leak.

Live views versus snapshots

The production team needs live numbers. Outside parties usually need a dated snapshot they can file: a monthly cost report for the financier, the bond company's required format, a PDF top sheet for a sales agent. Good budgeting software produces both from the same source, so the snapshot never turns into a second working budget.

In Saturation, you save a view of the budget (only the art department's accounts, for example, or a top sheet with one phase) and share it as a read-only public link that expires after 30 days unless you regenerate it. Anyone who needs to comment or edit is invited to the project as a Viewer, Commenter, Editor or Admin, and that role applies to the whole project, so a saved view is a presentation, not a permission boundary. Phases keep estimate versions side by side with committed (purchase order) and actual phases, and you can lock a phase so nobody edits an approved bid. For formal reporting, the PDF builder (on paid plans) saves layouts as workspace templates, so the bond company's format and the EP's weekly summary come out the same way every time from live production cost reports. Comments with @mentions keep questions about a line attached to that line.

Budgeting and Scheduling: One Tool or Two?

Producers often look for one piece of budgeting and scheduling software. Few tools do both well, because the schedule (stripboard, day-out-of-days, call sheets) and the budget are separate documents usually built by different people.

• Movie Magic sells Budgeting and Scheduling as separate desktop products.
• Gorilla and Celtx bundle scheduling with budgeting, which suits a writer-producer on a small show.
• SetHero handles call sheets, crew management and production reports but has no budgeting module. Filmustage runs breakdown, scheduling and budgeting in one browser app.
• Saturation is built for the budget and the money that moves against it. It does not build stripboards or call sheets, so pair it with a dedicated scheduling tool.

What matters more than having one tool is how a schedule change reaches the budget. If the schedule drops from 22 shoot days to 20, every crew, equipment, location and catering line priced by the day has to follow. In Saturation you define shoot days once as a global and reference it on every day-based line, so changing one number recalculates all of them. Lines can also carry dates, and the calendar view shows spend by day, which helps when a crane day or a rental moves.

When you compare tools, test exactly that: change the shoot days and time how long it takes to get a correct budget total. For call sheet and scheduling tools, see our guide to film production software.

Sources

Every third-party price and feature in this guide was checked on the vendor's own site on October 24, 2026:

• Movie Magic Budgeting: EP Store monthly subscription, annual subscription, EP Store and product page
• Hot Budget: downloads and system requirements, features, license agreement and the Hot Budget store
• Celtx: pricing and budget tool
• Showbiz Budgeting 10: Cast & Crew store
• Filmustage: pricing and budgeting
• Gorilla: plans and pricing and desktop vs. online
• Wrapbook: pricing and integrations
• SetHero, which appeared in earlier versions of this list: features and pricing. It covers call sheets and crew management and has no budgeting module, so we replaced it with Filmustage.
• Saturation: pricing and the Saturation help center

Frequently Asked Questions

What film budgeting software do professional productions use?

Studio features and network TV productions use Movie Magic Budgeting as the industry standard. Commercial productions use Hot Budget or Showbiz Budgeting for AICP-formatted budgets. Independent productions increasingly use cloud-based tools like Saturation for collaborative budgeting and integrated expense management.

Is Movie Magic Budgeting worth the cost for indie filmmakers?

For most indie filmmakers, Movie Magic's $42.99/month price and desktop-only workflow are hard to justify unless you're delivering Movie Magic files to a studio or network. Modern cloud-based alternatives offer better collaboration at lower cost without the installation overhead and version control problems.

What is the best free film budgeting software?

Saturation offers a free tier for one project with no time limit. Google Sheets with a film budget template works for simple budgets at no cost. Filmustage's free plan includes budget creation, templates and exports for one active project. For a complete breakdown of free options, see our guide to the best free film budgeting tools.

What is the difference between Movie Magic Budgeting and Hot Budget?

Movie Magic Budgeting is designed for scripted film and television with customizable fringe, cutoff and global rules for union crews. Hot Budget is designed for commercial productions and uses the AICP format that advertising agencies require. They serve different production types with different industry format standards, and there is very little overlap in their use cases.

Does film budgeting software handle fringe rates and union contracts?

Movie Magic Budgeting lets you build fringe, cutoff and global rule sets for any guild, including IATSE and SAG-AFTRA. Saturation includes fringes, overtime, markups and published rate packs you can search from a budget line, plus tax incentive packs. Gorilla Budgeting Online includes the Gorilla Ratebook of union rates, and Showbiz Budgeting has five overtime tiers per line. Hot Budget handles AICP commercial fringe structures. Whatever the tool, check that payroll taxes and union fringes land on the right labor lines before you lock the budget.

Can I use Wrapbook as my film budgeting software?

Wrapbook is a payroll and cost tracking platform, not a budgeting tool. You cannot build a detailed line-item budget in Wrapbook. For productions already using Wrapbook for payroll, it works best paired with a dedicated budgeting platform. Saturation imports Wrapbook payroll from a CSV export of the payroll log, so payroll actuals land in your live budget without retyping.

Which film budgeting software handles tax incentives?

Tax incentives affect a budget in two places: which lines qualify, and how much comes back. Saturation includes tax incentive packs with the programs, rates and rules for US and Canadian jurisdictions, lets you tag line items by tax credit eligibility and filter the budget or cost report by that tag, and offers templates built for specific programs such as the California and Georgia tax credits. Whatever tool you use, confirm qualification with the program or an entertainment CPA before you count the credit in your financing plan. Our film tax incentive guides cover each state and country.

How much does film budgeting software cost?

Prices checked on October 24, 2026: Saturation is free for one project, with Pro at $32 a month billed annually ($40 month to month). Movie Magic Budgeting is $42.99 a month or $299.88 a year. Hot Budget is $100 per computer for the calendar year. Showbiz Budgeting 10 is $399 for two computer installs. Gorilla Budgeting Desktop is $29.99 a month or $249 a year. Celtx includes budgeting on its Team plan from $59.99 a month for three members. Filmustage's free plan includes budgeting, and its AI plan starts at $49 a month. Wrapbook is not a budgeting tool and charges a fee per payment processed.

How much does Movie Magic Budgeting cost?

The EP Store lists Movie Magic Budgeting at $42.99 a month, or $299.88 a year per seat on the annual plan, which works out to $24.99 a month with a 12-month commitment. Students and educators can buy an academic license for $125.88 a year. There is no free tier, and Entertainment Partners does not advertise a free trial.

Can film budgeting software build a budget from a script?

A first draft, yes. Filmustage generates a budget template pre-filled from your tagged script breakdown and day-out-of-days data, and its paid plan adds an AI budget. Celtx pulls budget details from its script breakdown, and Gorilla links breakdown elements to the budget. Saturation's 3.0 agent, which turns a script into a plan and a budget, is announced for this fall and is not available yet. Whatever the tool, a line producer still has to check every rate, fringe and quantity before the budget goes to financiers.

Which film budgeting software works on a Mac?

All of the tools in this guide do. Movie Magic Budgeting, Showbiz Budgeting 10 and Gorilla Desktop install on Mac and Windows. Hot Budget runs in Excel for Mac, with limited functionality on some Windows versions of Excel. Saturation, Celtx, Filmustage and Gorilla Online run in the browser, so they work on any Mac without an install.