Fade In and CineLog get compared because both write screenplays with locked pages, lettered scenes and colored revisions, both tag the script into production categories, both run as native apps on Mac and Windows, and both open more script formats than most. So on the writing side they look alike, and they are alike. What I usually like to do is pick on the shape of the job instead of the feature list, because a writer who buys a tool once and keeps it for a decade and a crew of 25 shooting that writer’s draft in twelve days lose things in completely different places, and these two tools are built around those two jobs. So if you got here by searching for a Fade In alternative, or for apps like Fade In, this is the long answer.
One thing before we start. Everything in here was checked on November 2, 2026. The CineLog side against the app itself, version 1.5.6. The Fade In side against their site, their knowledge base, all of it, the in-app help shipped with version 5.0.15, and the Fade In Access web service. Both tools ship changes every month, so read every number as correct on that date and check again before you decide.
Short summary
CineLog is the pick when the script’s next stop is a set. When the breakdown has to become a stripboard, a shot list and a call sheet in the same project instead of a CSV report. When six people change the plan at once and the tool is one subscription instead of six licences plus six Access accounts. When the crew is on phones and tablets with no signal, because Fade In’s native mobile apps are retired and Access is a web page. And when the new draft has to land on the breakdown as a diff instead of a new file.
Fade In is a desktop screenwriting app you buy once. It’s $79.95 for Mac, Windows and Linux on every computer you own, it needs no account, updates have been free for years, and Rian Johnson’s quote on the homepage is about stability, five times. The production side is the real thing: page, scene and element locking with A-numbering, omitted scenes, the standard revision colors with asterisks, printing by revision, dual dialogue, multi-column AV scripts, tagging into customizable categories with reports, and a compare-to-previous that marks additions and deletions. Since October 2025 there’s Fade In Access, a subscription web service for storage, versions, real-time collaboration and read-only sharing.
Those two paragraphs are the article. Everything below is the reason for it.
Let’s put a real production on the table
So we’re not talking in the abstract, let’s invent one. Let’s call it Harbor. It’s a scripted feature, about 90 pages, twelve shooting days, a crew of 25. Four locations, and two of them are out of town where phones drop to one bar. Six people need to change things in the plan. That’s the director, the first AD, the DP, the producer, the script supervisor and the production designer. The other nineteen need to get a call sheet every night and open it in the morning. We’ll come back to Harbor in every section, because the numbers only mean something on a real crew.
When CineLog is the pick
| Production shape | Why CineLog |
|---|---|
| A script going into production with the same crew, like Harbor | The breakdown becomes the stripboard, the shot list and the call sheet in one project. Fade In’s tags become HTML and CSV reports. |
| A draft that keeps changing after the lock | A scene-by-scene diff on every re-import, so the breakdown and the shot list survive. Fade In compares two drafts into a marked document. |
| Six people changing the plan | One subscription, free collaborators, view or edit rights per tool. Fade In’s real-time collaboration runs through Access, where each person needs a subscription. |
| A crew on phones and tablets without signal | Native apps on iOS and Android with the whole project on the device, offline for up to seven days. Fade In’s phone apps are retired and Access needs a browser. |
| A call sheet that has to be confirmed by morning | A personal PDF per person by email, with delivered, opened, confirmed and bounced. Fade In has no call sheet. |
Head to head
Prices are in US dollars, checked November 2, 2026.
| Fade In | CineLog | |
|---|---|---|
| Script editor | Yes, native desktop | Yes |
| Script import | .fdx, Fountain, PDF, DOCX, RTF, Celtx, Scrivener, StudioBinder, Highland, Adobe Story, HTML, Markdown, text | .fdx, Fountain, PDF, RTF, text, with a diff on re-import |
| Export | .fdx, Fountain, DOCX, RTF, HTML, EPUB, Avid script-based editing, StudioBinder, Open Screenplay Format, PDF | PDF, Fountain, .fdx, text |
| Revision mode | Yes, page and scene locking with 10A and 10A1, omit scene, blue through tan with asterisks, print by revision, a revisions report | Yes, scene and page lock, A-pages, OMITTED scenes, standard colors, asterisks, revised-pages-only export |
| New draft of the script | Compare to Previous marks additions and deletions in a separate document | Scene-by-scene diff on re-import |
| Breakdown | Tagging into cast, stunts, vehicles, props, wardrobe and your own categories, with auto-tag for cast, reports as HTML or CSV, no scheduling export | Yes, tagged from the script text into twelve categories, cast numbered, into the stripboard |
| Stripboard, shot list, storyboards, call sheets | No, images can be inserted in the script | Yes, all of them, in the same project |
| AV script | Yes, multi-column and A/V templates | Yes, with a client review link |
| Collaboration | Real-time through Fade In Access, read-only published PDF links | Real-time, with roles per tool |
| Works offline | The desktop app needs no account and saves locally | Yes, every tool, every device, up to seven days |
| Native apps | macOS, Windows, Linux, Access in a browser, added to a phone’s home screen, the old mobile apps are retired | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, plus the browser |
| Price | $79.95 one-time per writer, free updates, student $59.95, Access $9.95 a month or $99.95 a year per person, 7-day trial | Free plan, then $15, $40 or $90 a month, collaborators free |
Six things I compare, in order
There are six things I compare when I look at tools like these, and those are the script and its revisions, the breakdown and the schedule, the shot list and the storyboards, the call sheet, where you can actually use the thing, and who pays. I go in that order because that’s the order a scripted production moves in. With Fade In, the first section is most of the comparison, so this time it’s the long one.
The script and its revisions
The first thing is the script, because on a scripted production the script is where every other document starts, and this is Fade In’s home ground, so let’s give it its due.
Fade In opens more things than any editor in this series. .fdx and the older Final Draft files, Fountain, a screenplay PDF, Word, RTF, Celtx, Scrivener, Highland, StudioBinder’s own format and more, and it writes most of them back out, plus an Avid script-based editing file for the cutting room. Its production tools are complete. Lock Page Numbers and the scene numbers, and an inserted scene between 10 and 11 becomes 10A, and if you relock and insert again, 10A1. Omit Scene omits and restores. The revisions run blue, pink, yellow, green, goldenrod, buff, salmon, cherry and tan, the changed lines get an asterisk in the margin, the page is flagged with its color, and the print dialog lets you print the pages of a revision set on that color. There’s dual dialogue, true multi-column formatting for AV scripts, a revisions report by color, scene and page, and Compare to Previous, which marks the additions and deletions against an earlier draft in a separate document. All of it in a native app that needs no account.
CineLog has a full editor too, and it imports .fdx, Fountain, PDF, RTF and plain text. The part I lean on is what happens on the second import, because a scripted production gets new pages every week. CineLog shows the new draft as a diff against what you already have, scene by scene, and you accept what changed. It doesn’t wipe your breakdown and your shot list to make room for the new file. And once the script is locked, it does the same production things. A new scene between 12 and 13 becomes 12A, a new page after 16 becomes 16A, and a cut scene prints as OMITTED and keeps its number for good. Every revision round gets its color, the changed lines get their asterisks in the margin, and you can export only the revised pages on that color, because that’s what goes out to the crew on a Tuesday night. What CineLog doesn’t have is the Word, Celtx and Scrivener import, the Avid export, the dual dialogue or the scene timing tools.
So for Harbor, where the script gets locked about two weeks before day one and then revised every few days, both hand the AD the pink pages with the page numbers true. The difference is what the pink pages are attached to, which is the next section.
The breakdown and the schedule
Now that the script is in, the next thing is the breakdown and the schedule, and this is where Fade In stops.
Fade In’s Tagging window tags the script into cast, stunts, vehicles, props, camera, wardrobe, effects and categories you add, and Auto Tag can tag every character as cast. The reports, Scene, Cast, Location, Tagging, Element and the rest, print or save as HTML or CSV. That’s a breakdown you read and hand on. It doesn’t become a schedule. Their knowledge base says plainly that there’s no direct export to Movie Magic Scheduling, because .sex is a closed format, and there’s an export called Open Scheduling Format that no page explains. There’s no stripboard anywhere in the app, the help or the knowledge base.
CineLog does the breakdown by selecting text in the script and picking one of twelve categories, and it marks the page with the underline, the circle, the asterisk and the box that people know from paper breakdowns. The thing I like most is what happens with cast. CineLog tags every character on every line they speak, gives each one a numbered talent slot, and that number sits on the strip, in the shot list’s cast column and in the cast grid on the call sheet. You tag once. It shows up everywhere. The stripboard has day breaks, a boneyard for the scenes you haven’t placed yet, the standard strip colors, and it lets you split a scene across two days. A finished day flows straight into that day’s call sheet, and the board exports as a PDF. What CineLog doesn’t print yet is the day out of days report.
For Harbor, twelve days and 25 people, the AD tags and builds the board in one place on CineLog. On Fade In the writer tags and the AD gets a CSV.
Shot lists and storyboards
Now that the days are laid out, the next thing is the shot list, and this one is short.
Fade In has no shot list and no storyboards. A shot is a screenplay element, and you can insert an image into the script. That’s a writing app behaving like a writing app.
CineLog runs two shot lists off the same shots, a linear one in script order and one per production day, with seventeen default columns, your own columns on top, and your own dropdown values for shot type, angle, lens and movement. You can populate the first pass of the list from the script and then reorder by drag, whole scenes at a time. The Cast & Crew column shows the cast by the same numbers the schedule uses, so one look tells you who’s in the shot. Each shot holds several storyboard frames, and the shot list PDF prints the frames next to the rows. What CineLog doesn’t have is a drawing tool. You bring the frames in as images, from a sketch, a photo or a previs render.
For Harbor, the DP wants the shot list on an iPad at the location scout, and the scout has no signal. That’s CineLog.
Call sheets
The next thing is the call sheet, and this is the document the whole crew judges the tool by, because it’s the only part nineteen of our 25 people will ever see.
Fade In doesn’t make call sheets, and it doesn’t claim to. What it has for sharing is Access publishing, which puts a read-only PDF of the script at a link, kept up to date, with copy, print and download switched on or off by the owner.
CineLog’s call sheet pulls the day from the stripboard and the shot list, so the schedule block is a live copy of the day and not a re-typed one, and the cast grid carries the numbers the breakdown gave the cast. It fills the weather and the sunrise and sunset from the location and the date, it carries the nearest hospital and the parking you saved on each location, and it autocompletes the addresses. It sends a personal PDF to each person by email, and for every person you see delivered, opened, confirmed or bounced. And the night before day five, the sheet for day five starts from what day four already knew.
For Harbor, that’s nineteen people who need a sheet every night, from the same project the script lives in.
Where you can actually use it
Now that we’ve gone through the documents, the next thing is where you can open them, and here Fade In is a desktop app first and honest about it.
Fade In runs as a native app on macOS, Windows and Linux, one licence for all your own computers, and it needs no account and no connection, which is a real point for a writer. The mobile side moved. The old Fade In Mobile apps for iOS and Android are retired and gone from the stores for new buyers, and in their place is Fade In Access, a web service you open in a browser and can add to a phone’s home screen, which doesn’t paginate exactly like the desktop and doesn’t show the locked page numbers, though it keeps them. Real-time collaboration now runs through Access, with live cursors and who’s editing what, and the old session-based collaboration in the desktop app is deprecated behind a preference. Every collaborator needs an Access account, and for most creating, changing or sharing, an active subscription.
CineLog is a native app on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, and it also runs in a browser at app.cinelog.com. Every device keeps a local copy of the project, so the shot list, the script and the call sheets open with no signal at all. You can work offline for up to seven days after you’ve signed in, and when the connection comes back, your changes and everyone else’s merge in the background. The people you invite get view or edit rights per tool, so the script supervisor can edit the script and only read the schedule.
For me, for example, this is the one that decides it, because I’ve never been on a location where the signal was good in every room. On Harbor, two of the four locations are out of town. The DP scouts them with the shot list open on an iPad. The AD walks the stone-walled house with the schedule open on a phone and moves tomorrow’s first scene to the afternoon, right there. Fade In gives the writer the script at the desk, offline, forever. CineLog gives the crew the production in the house.
Pricing, and who pays for the crew
And the last thing is the money, and the key here isn’t the first number on the pricing page. It’s what the number buys once the script leaves the writer’s desk.
Fade In is $79.95, once, with $99.95 struck through on the page, for Mac, Windows and Linux on every computer you own, with free updates for years and a student price of $59.95. The Mac App Store copy is $89.99 and Mac only. The demo is free and watermarks the prints. For one writer, that’s the best price in this series by a mile, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Fade In Access, the part that holds the versions and the real-time collaboration, is a separate subscription at $9.95 a month or $99.95 a year per person, with a seven-day trial, and each collaborator needs one.
CineLog has a free plan with one project, every tool, offline mode, and two collaborators. Filmmaker is $15 a month with three projects and twenty collaborators. Production Company is $40 with ten projects and fifty collaborators. Studio is $90 with thirty projects and a hundred collaborators. There are no seats. The people you invite make a free account and get view or edit rights on the project, based on what you give them, and one subscription unlocks the app on every platform.
So let’s put Harbor on it. Six editors, nineteen readers, one project.
| Tool | Plan for Harbor | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Fade In | Six licences at $79.95, plus six Access accounts at $9.95 for the real-time collaboration | About $480 once and about $60 a month, for the script, plus a scheduler and a call sheet tool |
| CineLog | Production Company, all 25 on the project | $40 a month, for the script and everything after it |
That’s not a comparison of two prices. It’s a comparison of two jobs. Fade In is the cheapest way to own a serious screenwriter, and CineLog is the only one of the two that takes the script to the set.
What neither of them does
A quick word on what both leave out, because it’s the reason every production I’ve been on still had a spreadsheet open.
The budget. Neither has one.
Drawing. Neither has a pencil. CineLog holds several image frames per shot, and Fade In holds an image in the script.
Post. Both stop before the edit, and Fade In at least writes the Avid file. Review, approval and delivery are a separate tool and a separate bill.
A quick exercise before you pick
So here’s a quick exercise before you move on to a trial.
First, figure out whether this script is going to be shot by a crew in the next six months. If you want a screenwriter you own outright and keep for years, Fade In is a very good one. If the script has a shoot date, read on.
Second, tag three scenes in each tool and then try to put them on a shooting day. On CineLog the tags become strips with the cast numbers on them. On Fade In the tags become a report.
Third, count the people who will change the plan and the phones they carry. On Fade In each one needs a licence and an Access subscription, and the phone is a web page. On CineLog they make a free account and get a native app.
The bottom line
Fade In is the best-value screenwriter you can own, with full production revisions, every import format a writer meets, and a one-time price. CineLog is the pick once the script has a crew, because the breakdown becomes the board, the shot list and the call sheet in the same project, the whole crew is on it for one price, and the project runs on every device with or without a signal. That’s Fade In vs CineLog.
Questions people ask
Is CineLog an alternative to Fade In?
For writing a script that’s going into production with your own crew, yes. CineLog imports .fdx and Fountain, locks scene numbers and pages, colors revisions and exports the revised pages, and adds the breakdown, the stripboard, the shot list and the call sheet in the same project. For a writer who wants a one-time purchase, Linux, and the widest import list, that’s Fade In.
Which one is cheaper?
For one writer, Fade In, at $79.95 once. For a production with a crew on it, CineLog, because $40 a month covers 25 people and every tool, and Fade In is a licence per writer plus an Access subscription per collaborator, with the schedule and the call sheet in other products.
Does Fade In lock pages?
Yes. Page, scene and element numbers lock, inserted scenes get A-numbers, scenes can be omitted and restored, revisions run through the standard colors with asterisks, and you can print by revision. CineLog does the same on every plan.
Which one works offline on set?
Fade In’s desktop app works offline always, with no account. CineLog works offline on every device, including phones and tablets, for every tool, up to seven days, and merges everyone’s changes after.
Does Fade In do a script breakdown?
It tags the script into production categories, auto-tags the cast, and prints tagging and element reports as HTML or CSV. It has no stripboard, shot list or call sheet, and no export to Movie Magic Scheduling. CineLog’s breakdown becomes the stripboard and the call sheet in the same project.
Can I bring my Fade In script into CineLog?
Yes. Export it as .fdx or Fountain and import it. Re-imports show as a scene-by-scene diff so your breakdown survives.
Do my collaborators need to pay?
On CineLog, no, and they get view or edit rights per tool. On Fade In, real-time collaboration runs through Fade In Access, and each collaborator needs an Access account with an active subscription to change or share documents.
Which one has a two-column AV script?
Both. Fade In has true multi-column formatting and an A/V template. CineLog’s AV script has a client review link where the client comments and approves without an account.
Does Fade In have a phone app?
Not any more. The old Fade In Mobile apps are retired, and Fade In Access is a web page you can add to the home screen on iOS and Android. CineLog has native apps on both with the whole project on the device.
Can I switch from Fade In to CineLog?
Yes. Export the script from Fade In as .fdx or Fountain and import it. Fade In’s tags don’t travel, so the breakdown is re-tagged on the page with the cast done for you, later drafts show as a scene-by-scene diff, and CineLog exports .fdx and Fountain back.
To recap
To recap, in this article we talked about picking on the shape of the job instead of feature count, we walked six things in order, the script and its revisions, the breakdown and the schedule, the shot list and the storyboards, the call sheet, where you can use it, and who pays, and we put a twelve-day, 25-person feature on both. Fade In is the screenwriter you buy once and keep. CineLog takes the same script to the set, with the whole crew on it, on any device, for one price.
If you want to see the CineLog chain for yourself, the Free plan is one project with every tool, and you make the account inside the app after you download it. So put your own Harbor on it, and then move on to the part that matters, which is the shoot.