"Free" on a pricing page covers everything from a two-week trial to a plan you can use forever on one project. For a short film, a thesis, or a first micro-budget feature, the questions that matter are how many projects you get, whether collaborators can join, which features are held back, and whether you can get your work out as a PDF or spreadsheet at the end.
Everything below was checked on each company's own pricing or product page in September 2026. We ranked on how much real production work you can finish before paying, and we note where the free period ends.
1. Storiara - the most prep done in a free month
Storiara's free Beginner plan starts accounts created since April 2026 on a 30-day trial of unlimited stories. In that month you can take a script from import to a priced budget. Upload a PDF, Word, or Final Draft script and Storiara splits it into scenes, reads INT/EXT and day or night from each heading, measures page counts in eighths, and pulls out characters, locations, props, wardrobe, and music and effects. The scenes go onto a drag-and-drop stripboard, the cast Day Out of Days fills in from the schedule, and the budget is calculated from the breakdown and rate tables.
It ranks first because the trial extracts the whole breakdown for you and carries it into a board, DOOD, and budget in one project. Filmustage's free plan covers similar stages with no time limit but runs AI on only 20% of scenes. For a short film, a month is often the whole prep period.
Who it suits: directors and producers prepping a short or comparing a couple of scripts, who want the breakdown done from the script and a board to build on.
Where it falls short: the free period is the catch. When the 30-day trial ends, a trial-ended screen blocks the dashboard (Account Settings stays open), so a production that preps for longer than a month should plan on Producer at $39.99 a month. The Beginner plan also caps AI use at 1,000 calls a month. The schedule is built by hand (there's no auto-scheduling), and most output is print or save as PDF, with Excel export for the budget. See pricing.
2. Filmustage Free - every non-AI tool, one project
Filmustage's free plan is the most generous on non-AI features. One active project gets manual script breakdown, budget templates, call sheets and reports, storyboards and shot lists, scheduling, team collaboration, and PDF, Excel, Movie Magic Scheduling, and Movie Magic Budgeting exports. The AI breakdown runs on 20% of scenes, and new users get 100 coins. No credit card is needed.
Who it suits: productions that are comfortable tagging most of the script by hand and want exports to other software.
Where it falls short: an AI breakdown of the full script needs Director's Cut ($55 a month or $660 a year), and projects with full AI breakdown require an active subscription to access. Manual projects stay accessible on the free plan. See Filmustage compared with Storiara.
3. SetHero - a free first project for call sheets
SetHero's first project is free for up to 75 cast and crew and 5 shooting days, which covers most short films. It publishes call sheets by text message, email, and PDF and tracks who received, opened, and confirmed them. Students with an .edu email can apply to use SetHero free for a year.
Who it suits: short film and student shoots that need tracked call sheets and already have a schedule.
Where it falls short: after the first project, pricing is per project by headcount and shoot days. SetHero's site doesn't describe breakdown, stripboards, or budgeting. See SetHero compared with Storiara.
4. Saturation Creator - free budgeting with actuals
Saturation's Creator plan is free for one seat, one active project, 2GB of storage, and 1,000 account items, with budgeting and actualizing and public templates. No credit card is required. That makes it the only free plan here that tracks spend against the budget.
Who it suits: producers who want to budget a short and log what they actually spend.
Where it falls short: cost reports, EFC tracking, and QuickBooks integration start on Pro at $32 a month. It's a budgeting tool only. See Saturation compared with Storiara.
5. StudioBinder Free - call sheets and a production suite
StudioBinder has a Free plan, and its call sheet page says the call sheet tool is free to use on Free, Teams, Education, and Enterprise accounts. The call sheet builder sends by text and email with confirmation tracking, and the wider suite includes breakdowns, stripboards, shot lists, and storyboards.
Who it suits: small productions that want polished, tracked call sheets.
Where it falls short: StudioBinder's public pricing page didn't display plan limits or paid prices when we checked, so confirm what's on the Free plan before you build a whole project there. See StudioBinder compared with Storiara.
6. Gorilla Online Free - try Gorilla's scheduling and budgeting
Gorilla Online, the browser version of Jungle Software's scheduling and budgeting tools, has a Free plan so you can start without a subscription. It excludes collaboration, certain reports and exports, fringes in budgeting, and the Gorilla Ratebook.
Who it suits: film students learning the Movie Magic-style workflow that Gorilla follows.
Where it falls short: without fringes the budget isn't realistic, and without collaboration the AD and producer can't share the file. Paid online tiers add those. See Gorilla compared with Storiara.
7. Celtx Free - free for writing, not for production
Celtx's Free plan gives one seat and one project with the screenplay, multi-column AV, and stageplay editors and read-only script history. The production planning tools (breakdown, schedule, budget, call sheets) aren't included on Free or Writer.
Who it suits: writers drafting a short script before moving it into a production tool.
Where it falls short: for production work you'd need Writer Pro with add-ons or Team at $44.99 a month billed yearly. The Student plan is $79.99 a year. See Celtx compared with Storiara.
8. Google Sheets and templates - free with no limits and no automation
A spreadsheet has no project cap, no seat limit, and nothing held back behind a plan. Our stripboard template, call sheet template, and short film budget template are built for Google Sheets or Excel.
Who it suits: very short shoots and anyone who wants to understand the paperwork by building it.
Where it falls short: nothing is linked. Moving one scene means updating the board, the DOOD, the call sheet, and the budget by hand. See Storiara vs Google Sheets.
Side by side
| Tool | Free plan limit | Time limit | What's held back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storiara Beginner | Unlimited stories during the trial, 1,000 AI calls a month | 30-day trial for new accounts | Everything except Account Settings once the trial ends |
| Filmustage Free | 1 active project | None | AI on 80% of scenes |
| SetHero | First project: 75 people, 5 shoot days | Per project | Larger or later projects |
| Saturation Creator | 1 project, 1 seat | None | Cost reports, integrations |
| StudioBinder Free | Not shown on public pricing page | None stated | Not shown |
| Gorilla Online Free | Limited features | None stated | Collaboration, some reports and exports, fringes |
| Celtx Free | 1 project, 1 seat | None stated | All production tools |
| Spreadsheet templates | None | None | All automation |
Stretching a free plan
Pick the free plan that covers the stage where the work is heaviest. For most shorts that's breakdown and scheduling, and for a crowdfunded feature it may be the budget. Combine tools if needed: breakdown and board in one, tracked call sheets from another, and a spreadsheet for anything left over. Students should also read free film production software for students, since several companies offer education plans that go further than their free tiers.