Previs Pro and CineLog get compared because both import the script, both break it into scenes, and both hang a shot list and frames off every scene. And Previs Pro’s October 2026 update renamed its tabs Breakdown, Boards and Timeline, which makes the two sound closer than they are. What I usually like to do is pick on the shape of the job instead of the feature list, because a director staging a sequence in 3D to find the lens and a crew of 25 shooting 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 Previs Pro alternative, or for apps like Previs Pro, 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 Previs Pro side against the App Store listing and its version history, the product and pricing pages, and the vendor’s own wiki for version 3.6, which is dated October 2026. Prices are from the US App Store on that day. Previs Pro’s free tier is described differently on five of its own pages, so read that one line as approximate. Both tools ship changes every month, so check again before you decide.
Short summary
CineLog is the pick when the shot list has to run the day. When it comes off the script in script order and in tomorrow’s order with the cast numbers on every row. When it sits next to the stripboard and feeds the call sheet. When the script itself is written, locked and revised in the same project. And when the crew is on Windows and Android as well as Apple, and six of them change the plan at once, because CineLog is a native app on every platform with real collaboration, and Previs Pro is one person’s project on one person’s Apple ID.
Previs Pro is a 3D previs app for Apple devices. You import the script, every speaking character gets a 3D body, you build the set from a library or a scan, place the actors and the lights, pick a real sensor and one of seventeen prime lenses, and the frame you see is the frame you’d get. It assigns shots to lines of the script, draws the lined-script tramlines, animates the moves into an animatic with audio, exports to an edit timeline, and sends a password-protected review link where people comment and approve. That’s a director’s and a DP’s tool for seeing the shot before the day.
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 scripted shoot of two to twenty days, like Harbor | Script, breakdown, strips, shot list and call sheets are one chain the crew runs together. Previs Pro stops at the boards. |
| A shot list in shooting order across days | A shot list per production day next to the one in script order. Previs Pro’s shots stay inside their scene in script order. |
| A script that keeps changing after the lock | A full editor with locked pages, A-pages, OMITTED scenes, the standard revision colors and a revised-pages-only PDF. Previs Pro merges a new draft and locks numbers, and doesn’t write. |
| Six people changing the plan | Real-time collaboration with view or edit rights per tool. Previs Pro projects are files on one device, shared as copies, with reviewers read-only. |
| A crew on Windows and Android | Native apps on macOS, Windows, iOS, Android plus the browser. Previs Pro says plainly: Apple only. |
Head to head
Prices are in US dollars, checked November 2, 2026.
| Previs Pro | CineLog | |
|---|---|---|
| Script editor | No, lines of an imported script can be edited, no blank-page writing, no revision colors, no page lock | Yes |
| Script import | .fdx, Fountain, Open Screenplay Format, Fade In, Celtx, text PDF on the Mac only | .fdx, Fountain, PDF, RTF, text, with a diff on re-import |
| New draft of the script | Merge with changed, moved, added and removed lines marked, matching scenes keep their shots | Scene-by-scene diff, breakdown and shot list survive |
| Locked numbers | Lock script freezes scene and shot numbers, later shots get 1A-style numbers | Scene and page lock, A-pages, OMITTED scenes, revised-pages-only export |
| Breakdown | Cast and locations from the script, no other categories, no cast numbers | Yes, tagged from the script text into twelve categories, cast numbered for you |
| Stripboard and call sheets | No | Yes, with day breaks, a boneyard, scene splits, and call sheets with per-person tracking |
| Shot list | Per scene, with size, angle, move, lens, duration and a lined script, PDF shot-list layout | In script order and per production day, seventeen columns plus your own |
| Frames | One per shot: a 3D render with real optics, a generated image, or an imported image, director’s markup | Several image frames per shot, no drawing |
| Previs | 3D sets, characters, lights, 17 lenses, sensor presets, AR, animatics, MP4, edit-timeline export | No |
| Review | Password-protected links, threaded comments, drawn notes, approvals, live comment sync | Client review link on the AV script |
| AV script | No | Yes |
| Works offline | Projects live on the device, generation, review links and publishing need a connection | Yes, every tool, up to seven days |
| Native apps | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision listed, no Windows, Android or full web app | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, plus the browser |
| Price | Free with a watermark, $39.99 a month, $119.99 a year, $359.99 lifetime, per person, generation on credits | 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 Previs Pro, the third section is most of the comparison.
The script and its revisions
The first thing is the script, because on a scripted production the script is where every other document starts.
Previs Pro imports the script in more formats than most, .fdx, Fountain, Open Screenplay Format, Fade In and Celtx, and a text PDF on the Mac. It pulls out the scenes, the speaking cast, the locations and the lines, and when a new draft comes in, it merges it, marks each line changed, moved, added or removed, and keeps the shots on the scenes that match, which is the right behavior and better than most single-purpose tools manage. You can lock the script so the scene and shot numbers freeze and later shots get a letter. You can also edit a line of dialogue or action in place, and make a temporary punched-up copy for a quick share. What Previs Pro doesn’t do is write. There’s no blank page, no formatted screenplay layout, no revision colors and no locked pages, and for an empty scene its wiki tells you to add the lines elsewhere and re-import.
CineLog has a full editor, 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 real production thing. 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.
So for Harbor, where the script gets locked about two weeks before day one and then revised every few days, both keep the shots attached through a new draft, and I’ll give Previs Pro credit for that. CineLog also makes the pink pages.
The breakdown and the schedule
Now that the script is in, the next thing is the breakdown and the schedule, and here the words are the same and the things aren’t.
Previs Pro’s Breakdown tab holds the script, the cast and the locations. Every speaking character gets a 3D body on the device, the cards show line and scene counts, and the locations come off the sluglines. That’s a breakdown for staging, not for production. There are no props, no wardrobe, no vehicles, no cast numbers, and no stripboard, schedule, shoot days or call sheets anywhere in the app or its documentation.
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 builds the board in CineLog and the shot list follows it into day order. Previs Pro never enters this part of the job.
Shot lists and storyboards
Now that the days are laid out, the next thing is the shot list, and this is Previs Pro’s home ground, so let’s give it its due.
Previs Pro’s shot is a staged frame. You build the set from the library or from a scan, place the characters and the lights, pick a sensor and a lens from seventeen real primes, and the frame obeys the optics. The Coverage view assigns shots to lines of the script, draws the straight and wavy tramlines of a lined script, and can draft a scene’s coverage for you. Each shot carries size, angle, movement, lens, duration, framing and focus, and the frame is a 3D render, a generated image or an imported one, with the director’s markup drawn on top. Then the shots go on a timeline with audio, the moves animate into an animatic, and it exports as MP4, as an edit timeline for Premiere and Resolve, as a single-file HTML player, or as a PDF in six layouts including a ten-per-page shot list. What it doesn’t do is cross days. Shots stay in their scene in script order, each shot holds one frame, and there’s no per-day list and no cast numbers.
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 3D. No sets, no characters, no lenses, no animatic, and no drawing tool. You bring the frames in as images, and a Previs Pro render is a good image to bring.
So on this section the two are good at different halves, honestly. Previs Pro finds the shot. CineLog runs the list. For Harbor, the DP wants tomorrow’s shots on an iPad at the location scout with the cast numbers on them. That’s CineLog. If the DP also wants to know whether the 24mm clears the doorway, that’s a Previs Pro scene next to it.
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.
Previs Pro has no call sheet, and no AV script. Its sharing is a review link for the timeline: password-protected, expiring after a week, a month or three, where reviewers play the animatic, leave threaded comments, draw on frames and mark shots approved, with the comments syncing live. That’s a good review tool for a director and an agency, and it isn’t a call sheet.
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 shot list 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 Previs Pro is honest about its answer.
Previs Pro runs on iPhone and iPad on iOS 17 or later and on the Mac on macOS 12 or later, and the App Store lists Apple Vision too. Its own support page says it: no Android, no Windows, and for a Windows or Android production, in its own comparison page’s words, “we are not your tool.” The browser version is the timeline only, for review links and publishing. Projects live on the device, and the paid plans keep working offline, which is a real point, but generation, review links and publishing need a connection. Each person who edits needs the app on their own Apple ID, and a project goes to another editor as a copy of the file. Reviewers are free and read-only.
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.
For me, for example, this is the one that decides it, because I’ve never been on a crew where everyone had a Mac. On Harbor, the production designer is on Windows, two of the six changers are on Android phones, and the AD and the DP change the same shot list on the same day. CineLog puts all of them on one project. Previs Pro puts the director’s project on the director’s iPad.
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 and who it buys it for.
Previs Pro has a free tier with a watermark on the exports and one animatic per project, and its other limits are described five different ways across the vendor’s own pages, so take it as free to try. Paid is $39.99 a month, $119.99 a year with a seven-day trial, or $359.99 once for a lifetime license, and the yearly and lifetime prices both came down since the September 2025 launch. The license is per person, each editor on their own Apple ID, with a volume discount above five. The generated images and video run on credits, 100 for $4.99 up to 1,200 for $39.99, and a subscription includes none. Reviewers need nothing.
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 and nothing metered inside. 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 | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Previs Pro | Annual for the director and the DP, the other four editors on copies or in other tools | $20, for the previs of the scenes they stage |
| CineLog | Production Company, all 25 on the project | $40, for the chain from script to call sheet |
That’s not a comparison of two prices. It’s a comparison of two jobs. Previs Pro is the cheaper way to stage a shot in 3D, and CineLog is the only one of the two that runs the shoot.
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.
Drawing a storyboard from scratch. Previs Pro renders frames and lets you mark them up, CineLog takes several images per shot, and neither is a pencil.
The budget. Neither has one.
Post. Both stop before the edit, and Previs Pro at least hands the animatic to it. Review, approval and delivery of the real footage 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 what the shots are for. If the question is what the frame looks like through a 32mm from the doorway, that’s what Previs Pro was built to answer. If the question is which twelve shots the AD runs tomorrow and who’s in them, read on.
Second, count the devices on the crew that aren’t Apple, and the people who need to edit the plan. Previs Pro’s own page says Windows and Android productions aren’t its tool, and every editor is their own license.
Third, check the signal at each location before you sign up for anything. Both tools keep working with the project on the device. The question is which one the AD can change from a phone with everyone else’s changes merging in.
The bottom line
Previs Pro is a serious 3D previs tool with real optics, animatics and a review link, for Apple devices, at a fair price per person. CineLog is the pick for the scripted shoot with a real crew, because the shot list comes off the script, runs in day order with the cast numbers on it, feeds the call sheet, and six people can change it at once on any device, with or without a signal. That’s Previs Pro vs CineLog.
Questions people ask
Is CineLog an alternative to Previs Pro?
For the shot list and the boards on a production, yes. CineLog builds the list from the script, orders it per shooting day, holds several frames per shot and ties it to the schedule and the call sheet. What CineLog doesn’t do is 3D previs. Previs Pro’s staged frames with real lenses and animatics are its own thing, and a Previs Pro render is a good frame to drop into CineLog.
Which one is cheaper?
For one director, Previs Pro, at $119.99 a year. For a production with a crew on it, CineLog, because $40 a month on Production Company covers 25 people and every tool, and Previs Pro covers one Apple ID per editor.
Does Previs Pro have a shot list?
Yes, per scene, with size, angle, movement, lens and duration, a lined script, and a ten-per-page PDF layout. It has no shot list per shooting day and no cast numbers. CineLog has both.
Which one works offline on set?
Both keep the project on the device. Previs Pro’s paid plans work offline, and generation, review links and publishing need a connection. CineLog works offline on every device, for every tool, up to seven days, and merges everyone’s changes after.
Which one runs on Windows or Android?
Only CineLog. Previs Pro’s support page says it’s only for iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Can two people edit the same project at the same time?
On CineLog, yes. On Previs Pro, projects are files on one device, shared as copies, and the review link gives other people comments and approvals, not editing.
Which one handles the script and its revisions?
CineLog writes, locks pages and scene numbers, colors revisions and exports the revised pages. Previs Pro imports in five formats, merges a new draft with the changes marked, locks scene and shot numbers, and edits lines in place, and doesn’t write from a blank page.
Which one makes the call sheet?
CineLog, from the schedule day, with the weather, the sun times and the nearest hospital, sent per person with delivery and confirmation tracking. Previs Pro has no call sheet.
Can I put a Previs Pro frame into CineLog?
Yes. Export the frame as an image from Previs Pro and add it to the shot in CineLog, which holds several frames per shot.
Can I switch from Previs Pro to CineLog?
Yes. Export the frames from Previs Pro as PNG or JPEG and attach them to the shots in CineLog, and bring the script in as the .fdx or Fountain file you imported into Previs Pro, since Previs Pro doesn’t export the script. Populate the shot list from the script and the frames sit on the rows.
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. Previs Pro finds the shot in 3D on an iPad. CineLog runs the shot list through the shoot, with the whole crew on it, on any device.
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.