Celtx vs Final Draft – Which Is Better?

Whether you’re pitching a pilot to Netflix, writing your first screenplay, or producing a short film, you need scriptwriting software to bring your exciting stories to life.

You need software that allows you to develop a story with action, character, and location.

The application should allow you to work from anywhere, support different viewing modes, make collaboration effortless, and conform to industry script formatting standards.

When talking about scriptwriting software, Celtx and Final Draft come into the minds of most writers.

But which of the two brands is suitable for your scriptwriting needs and budget?

Let’s dive in as we explore Celtx vs Final Draft.

What is Celtx?

Celtx is a pre-production and scriptwriting management software for ads, film, short format video, TV, documentaries, VR, commercial video, games, and more.

Celtx focuses on developing cloud-based software to help in the initial stages of production, such as planning, writing, and managing projects for television, commercials, film, interactive media, and documentaries.

Their all-in-one production studios exist to help studios, scriptwriters, and creative enterprises globally streamline their workflows from the initial concept to camera work.

Celtx was founded in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2000. However, it was introduced to the public in 2006. Backlight acquired the company in 2021.

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How Does Celtx Work?

Download Celtx – Celtx is available for mobile devices that run on Android and Microsoft Windows. As a desktop user, you can use Celtx Cloud, which doesn’t require downloading.

Open the user interface – When you open Celtx for the first time, a small box appears at the screen’s center. The left column lets you open a new project, while the right column lets you select any previously saved films.

Start writing the script: Use the following text tools:

• Text options/Tools – They have bold, underline, italics, paste, copy, and cut options.
• Project options – You can open new or previous projects, and save to your computer or online. This bar also lets you add other components, like a storyboard, screenplay, script, and more.
• Writing sections – It lets you choose what you are doing: writing, location, setting, dialog, or character.

Write your scene headings – When loading Celtx for the first time and choosing the Film Template, the script appears. You will see a gray bar moving across the page’s top. The gray bar indicates the screen heading.

A scene heading’s standard form is “(EXT or INT). Location – Time”. Each scene requires a scene heading. Use scene headings whenever the time or location has changed.

Action, dialogue, and characters – You will notice once you hit enter, the writing section changes to Action. When you press enter while in Action, the section changes to Scene Heading.

When you hit the tab when in Action, the Characters section appears. Additionally, hitting enter when in Characters mode changes the section to Dialogue.

Storyboards – They tell the reader more about the shot types, angles, and locations. They dictate what your film will look like at the end. To select a storyboard, go to Project Options/Tools, select Add, select Storyboard, and tap OK.

Organize data in the master catalog – This catalog has all the details about your movie, locations, characters, times, crew, props, ideas, and directors. It organizes your entire data in one file.

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What Is Final Draft?

Final Draft is a screenwriting software for production companies and studios globally. It lets you carry out screenwriting and editing while you collaborate.

The company claims to be used by 95% of television and film productions, particularly by aspiring and professional producers, screenwriters, directors, and industry executives.

Marc Madnick and Ben Cahan co-founded Final Draft in 1990. They discovered that Hollywood didn’t have a word processor that could automatically format a script that met the highest standards in the entertainment industry.

Final Draft gained popularity as the entertainment industry’s essential tool, and in 2013, the software received the Primetime Emmy Engineering Award.

In addition to being one of the top screenwriting software out there, Final Draft offers exclusive and free educational resources to help writers on their screenwriting journey.

Examples of resources include tech tips, podcasts, interviews with expert screenwriters, and how-to guides. The company organizes regular live events to connect writers with industry leaders and each other.

Final Draft embraces diversity, inclusion, and equity. Through the Big Break Screenwriting Contest, the company unravels the best talent and awards more than $100,000 in prizes and cash each year.

In 2016, Cast & Crew acquired Final Draft and they have offices across Canada and the United States.

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How Does Final Draft Work?

Download and Install: Start by downloading Final Draft on your Windows or Mac device.

Follow the steps in the video below to understand how Final Draft works:

Industry Standard Script Formatting

Celtx

When using Celtx, you don’t need to worry about your script looking accurate. That’s because the software automatically formats the script in Hollywood-style format, which is typically regarded as the ‘industry standard’.

A screenplay written with Celtx is 90 to 120 pages long, typed on an 8.5-inch by 11-inch white paper with three holes and in Courier 12pt font. Courier font’s one page is roughly equivalent to one minute of screen time.

This standard helps scriptwriters gauge the pacing and duration of their story for an enjoyable writing and viewing experience.

Final Draft

If you are writing a screenplay with Final Draft, the software automatically formats your action. Headings, and dialogue to the entertainment industry standard. You only need to input your creativity and story.

Verdict

Both Celtx and Final Draft automatically format your script to the Hollywood industry-standard formatting style.

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Templates

Celtx

Celtx has a screenplay template that your screenplay must automatically adopt when you start writing. They have a multiple-format AV script template.

But that’s not all.

When working on game and VR projects, Celtx lets you save node structures from your existing story map and reuse them to create a new narrative more quickly. Besides your own templates, Celtx comes with default templates that you can experiment with.

To make your template, select corresponding nodes and right-click on one. A context menu will appear; select ‘Create Template.’ Next, you will see a prompt to name the template. Click ‘OK’ to save the node.

To add a template to your story map, right-click on your story map’s background field, and select ‘Add Template’. You will see the template selection dialogue open.

Select a suitable template from the dropdown and tap ‘OK’. The action will add the chosen template to your story map. However, it won’t connect to existing nodes.

Inserting a template into your existing node structure requires you to select ‘Insert’ after right-clicking on the desired node.

Final Draft

Final Draft 12 provides templates that can generate your script’s framework.

When using Final Draft, you can select from a variety of templates, including TV, script, graphic novel, text, and customized templates.

Looking for more exciting templates? Select the category structure to get templates based on renowned structural guides, such as Dan Harmon’s Story Circle, Chris Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey, and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat!

Final Draft has a two-column AV script template, as well.

Verdict

Both have templates that you can use to customize for your own needs. However, Celtx has more template variety and complexity than Final Draft.

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Offline Mode

Celtx

Celtx comes with an offline mode on all its plans for single-script TV and film projects in your desktop browser.

When working offline, you don’t need additional software, whether working solo or as a team.

Enabling the offline mode is easy: go to your Script Editor and select ‘File’ and click ‘Go Offline’. You will see a link that you can save on your desktop or bookmark for quick access.

After enabling the offline mode, the online script and related project documents will be locked into the ‘Read Only’ mode for those trying to access the project online.

Also, when your script goes into offline mode, some features won’t be functional. The reason is the offline mode lets you edit the script, but not add additional writing or other documents, such as Breakdown or Catalog.

Final Draft

Final Draft’s offline mode works effortlessly. To start using Final Draft, you must first connect to the internet so the program can connect to the activation server and operate in full mode.

After activating the software, you don’t need online access for your screenwriting project.

Verdict

Final Draft wins. Its offline mode supports all features, unlike Celtx, which disables most of the features.

Dark Mode

Celtx

Do you have a tight deadline and have to work late into the night? Use Celtx’s night mode. To access the night mode button, go to the toolbar and toggle the little moon icon. However, this mode only works if you are in fullscreen.

The night mode makes the background dark gray, almost black, and the writing is light gray. You can click on the moon button to disable it.

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Final Draft

Final Draft 12 supports night mode that makes the text white and the background dark gray. Other aspects of the user interface turn dark, too.

Click on the moon icon to enable the dark mode. If you are using Final Draft 10 or earlier versions, go to Document then Page Layout then Colors, to enable dark mode.

Note that Final Draft 10 and other earlier versions don’t work with the dark mode on macOS 10.14 (Mojave). Whereas the night mode on Final Draft 12 isn’t doesn’t resemble Mojave’s dark mode, they have similar color schemes.

Verdict

Both platforms support dark mode although not all versions of Final Draft support it.

Pre-Production Tools

Celtx

Use a host of Celtx’s pre-production tools to manage your film production project, from concept to camera.

Breakdown: Use the script Breakdown mode to quickly identify, tag, detail, and track assets for production.

Catalog: This tool lets you organize everything you would like to know about the project’s locations, props, talent, equipment, and wardrobe.

Cast and crew: Keep tabs on every detail regarding your cast, vendors, and crew. You can integrate a project document to automatically reflect changes to your crew and cast across budget, script breakdown, call sheets, and schedule.

Schedule: Use auto-populated stripboards to create shooting schedules. Manage time on set well by organizing locations and shoots and balancing the crew, cast, and asset availability.

Sides: The Sides wizard helps you save time. Besides, you can produce and distribute casting rehearsal, call, and shooting day sides by scene or character with locations and call times.

Shot List: Use this tool to annotate the script with various shots to let the camera crew visualize all the scenes of your film. You can describe the movements, camera angle, and shot.

Final Draft

Among the pre-production features, Final Draft only has Tagging and Breakdown. Breakdown provides the television and film industry with a particular structure that producers can use to break down, budget, and schedule a film.

On the other hand, Tagging lets you tag any phrase or word in your script. Use tags to quickly spot items within a script necessary for production. The other pre-production features, such as Catalog, Schedule, and Sides are unavailable.

Verdict

Celtx carries the day, as it has more sophisticated pre-production features than Final Draft.

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Production

Celtx

Celtx has three powerful features to make production easy. The first one is Budget, which comes integrated with industry-standard templates to help you create your film budget, and write and assign a cost for each production need.

Call Sheets are another tool to help keep your crew and cast on the same page. You can dynamically produce call sheets that contain information from your schedule, scripts, and production catalog in real-time. The best part? You can download free templates.

Lastly, Production Reports give you a snapshot of your entire production using industry-standard reports, such as a one-line schedule, a day out of days, and shooting sides. Studio’s real-time data makes reporting effortless.

Final Draft

Use Final Draft’s production tools to take the legwork out of the entire process. For example, Basic Reports can help you keep track of scenes, characters, locations, and other data. You can also use the reports to budget scripts.

The Revisions feature helps you track down any drafts and revisions across the production stages. Use this tool to lock pages, set revision colors, track changes, omit scenes, and more.

Verdict

Celtx has more elaborate production tools than Final Draft.

Story Development

Celtx

Celtx puts excellent story development tools in the hands of storytellers. Storyboards, Beat Boards, and Script Insights help you lay good groundwork for a solid script.

The Storyboard helps you bring your script to life. It connects directly with the script editor to make storytelling flexible.

The Beat Board is a powerful visualization feature that lets you visualize your story prior to script writing. It makes story planning effortless.

Celtx’s Script Insights allows you to analyze the script while working. You can set goals and track progress when your mind is highly productive.

Final Draft

When working with Final Draft, you can use handy story development tools, including Beat Board and Inclusivity Analysis.

Beat Board is embedded in the script you are writing and goes with your script, so you can easily access it. The purpose of the Beat Board is to plan scenes, sequences, plots, and act structure for a feature film, a season, an episode, or even an entire series.

To open it, navigate to View > Beat Board. Those beats can be on the outline editor and be referenced throughout your writing process.

On the other hand, Inclusivity Analysis lets you enrich your storytelling by assigning and measuring various traits, such as age, gender, ethnicity, and disability of your script’s characters.

Verdict

Celtx has superior story development features than Final Draft.

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Collaboration

Celtx

Celtx was built for creative collaboration. Thus, you can invite other users to edit, read, co-write, or approve your script via the text-anchored comments.

You can see co-writers interact with your script in real-time. As the script develops, Celtx keeps the project organized with a history of script feedback, revisions, and approvals.

Final Draft

Final Draft 12’s collaboration feature supports real-time collaboration per script for co-writers of any number. You just need an internet connection to start collaborating.

After opening Final Draft, click on Collaboration. Enter your name and choose the script you intend to share with other users. If the script is already on your screen, click ‘Okay’ to get started. You will receive a session ID. Share this ID with your team and invite them to the session.

All collaborators can edit a script simultaneously. If you have a note or question for a colleague during the session, talk to them using the chat function. Besides, you can insert ScriptNotes while collaborating.

Verdict

Both software support real-time collaboration when working on a script.

Mobile Apps

Celtx

At the time of writing, Celtx Screenplay is available for Android devices and Windows computers. The iPhone version of the app is no longer available and the Celtx Script for Mac was discontinued too.

Final Draft

Final Draft doesn’t have an app for Android devices. However, they have one for iPhone and iPad and also for Mac sold separately.

Verdict

Both Celtx and Final Draft have mobile apps, although not on all mobile devices.

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Pricing

Celtx

Celtx offers paid subscriptions on four plans. Writer costs $14.99 per month. It includes not more than three projects, unlimited PDFs, and unlimited comments. It’s perfect for beginners

Writer Pro costs $24.99 per month and it includes all features in Writer in addition to story development tools.

Team costs $59.99 per month and comes with everything in Writer Pro, plus production planning tools. It allows up to five users.

The fourth one is Classroom, at $69.90 per month, which includes features like educator admin controls, unlimited PDFs and printing, unlimited projects, unlimited comments, production planning tools, and story development tools.

Each plan includes a free trial.

Final Draft

Final Draft 12 for Windows and Mac costs $199.99. You can install it on two devices (only two activations allowed) and it doesn’t run on Chromebook.

Not ready to commit yet? Download their desktop software and try it for 30 days free.

Final Draft Go, the iOS app, costs $1.99/month or $9.99/year and works on iPad and iPhone.

Verdict

Celtx has more affordable and flexible pricing plans than Final Draft.

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Celtx vs Final Draft: Pros and Cons

Celtx

Pros

• Flexible pricing plans to suit your budget needs
• Has comprehensive pre-production and production features
• Has elaborate and effective story development tools
• Both beginner- and expert-friendly
• Easy-to-navigate user interface
• Offline mode allows you to work from any location
• Powerful collaboration features
• It’s cloud-based meaning you can access it anywhere from the browser.
• Plenty of templates to work with

Cons

• Some users have reported occasional crushes while using the tool.
• If you used it purely for scriptwriting, you may find most of the features non-useful.
• The offline mode works when the most useful features are disabled.

Final Draft

Pros

• You can work offline.
• It has impressive collaboration features.
• Clean working interface
• Comes with several industry-standard templates
• Numerous view options

Cons

• Pricey
• The best autosave functionality works only once after three minutes.

Final Draft vs Celtx: Similarities and Differences

Similarities

• Both support offline mode.
• Both support night mode.
• Both offer free trials.
• Both have robust story development and production tools.
• Both support collaboration.
• Both follow Hollywood industry-standard script formatting.

Differences

• Final Draft is pricier than Celtx.
• Celtx has an Android app but no iOS app while Final Draft has an iOS app but no Android app.
• Celtx’s offline mode disables most features while Final Draft’s offline mode leaves almost all features working.
• Only Final Draft 12 supports night mode (earlier versions don’t), but Celtx works in the dark mode without restrictions.

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Final Verdict: Celtx vs Final Draft – Which is Better?

The discussion on Celtx vs Final Draft is a War of the Titans, as the two tools compete neck-and-neck.

However, I would go for Celtx because it has more powerful pre-production and production features, flexible pricing plans, works offline, works in dark mode, and has incredible story development features.

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