Final Draft

RATING:

4.4

(27)

About Final Draft

Final Draft enables professional filmmakers and screenwriters to write, edit, and manage drafts for movies, teleplays, novels, screenplays and more. The application enables users to automatically backup and store documents in a centralized repository for future reference. Final Draft allows teams to collaborate on projects/outlines and brainstorm and visualize ideas on a unified portal. Organizations can plot location ideas, points, and character arcs using custom images, text, flow lines and color codes to represent information in an engaging manner. Final Draft’s features include speech to script, multimedia attachments, custom tags, night mode and more. It is available on a one-time payment and support is provided via email, documentation and other online measure...

Final Draft Pricing

Starting price: 

$249.99 one time

Free trial: 

Available

Free version: 

Not Available

Final Draft speech to script management
Slide 1 of 2

Final Draft Reviews

Overall Rating

4.4

Ratings Breakdown

Secondary Ratings

Ease-of-use

4.5

Customer Support

4.5

Value for money

3.5

Functionality

4.5

Most Helpful Reviews for Final Draft

1 - 5 of 27 Reviews

Gerald

1 employee

Used unspecified

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

Reviewed May 2022

Final Draft User Review

User Profile

Evelyn

Verified reviewer

Entertainment, 11-50 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2021

Best collaborative writing

I have used Final Draft as a student and then on some companies where I worked. On my new job this is the software we use for every script and I find it so comfortable and easy to use and to send the new versions. Is great to collaborate specially when developing tv scripts, I like the option to track the changes and the beat cards.

PROS

Final Draft is the best option when you are a professional writer. Even there are other softwares Final Draft is the one if you are working on the film or tv industry as most proffesionals and producers tend to use this one. The new version is great and the options to write along a colleague and see changes on real time is what I love the most.

CONS

I think is a little expensive for the ones that are just starting. Is not that much intuitive you need to learn trough the practice, but anyways there are plenty of tutorials on their site

Reason for choosing Final Draft

Because this is a one payment license and also because it is the standar, also I can use it on my two computers.

Reasons for switching to Final Draft

Final Draft is the software that the industry uses as standar and that makes it easier to collaborate

Paul

Entertainment, 1 employee

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed September 2022

Essential Software

I’ve had a good time using it as I sold a script. Wouldn’t have been possible without it.

PROS

Absolutely essential for screenwriting. So once I made the leap and spent the money ($200) it was incredibly easy to write my script. The one time I needed support it was personal and solved my problem

CONS

Just a bit of a learning curve with not much instruction. You have to kind of intuitively figure it out

Reasons for switching to Final Draft

Industry standard was pressed upon me by a producer

Trey

Entertainment, 1 employee

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

2

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed November 2022

The biggest brand, but not the greatest value

I loved what I accomplished with it. Seeing the scripts and really getting a knack for the craft that brought them to life. I was unfortunately rubbed the wrong way by the way my script fell apart and being told the only way to save my work was to buy the incredibly expensive, new version of the software. This led me to a much more cost-effective alternative that I have been incredibly happy with since.

PROS

There was an incredible thrill seeing a software that easily and smoothly formatted my words into industry standard screenplays -- ESPECIALLY after having done it for quite some time manually in a more commonly used word processor. The ease of use and the quality of the final document was a true thrill when I was beginning my career.

CONS

The list is long. Numerous features never worked for reasons that as far as I can tell were due to the compatibility of different software versions. While that might sound reasonable, the updates were frequent and always cost substantial amounts of money (for just an update!). This led to several collaborators having a different version of Final Draft that couldn't communicate with each other. While I understand the need for updates, I do not understand the frequency and the fact that it would knock out certain features such as the writer collaborating feature (which can now be easily replicated with online websites). I also reached a point where my software was working fine, but told that I needed to update it in order to work with my new computer. I went along with this, yet the update completely crashed my software, leading me to find alternative options.

Reasons for switching to Final Draft

Microsoft word, at the time, didn't have an easy way to format screenplays. I was constantly writing, then spending more time adjusting margins to what I hoped looked right. It was a time suck, not really the fault of Micrsoft word, but it did make Final Draft that much more alluring when I first received it.

Juan

Verified reviewer

Outsourcing/Offshoring, 1,001-5,000 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed January 2024

The Pro way to Go

I use Final Draft to work with some productions, especially when having a big budget and team. I love that I can work my preproduction with ease, using reports, production summaries, script breakdowns, etc.

PROS

My favorite feature is the ability to make production reports.

CONS

I find it expensive over other software when working on low-budget productions.