Showrunner Pro vs SmartBreakdown
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Showrunner Pro
Read full descriptionHide full description
Showrunner is production management for film and television. The schedule, the call sheets, the breakdown, and the on-set day, in one place instead of eleven spreadsheets and a group chat. Built with people who make things for a living, not adapted from generic project software. PLAN THE SHOOT Import your script and get a scene breakdown you can actually work from. Tag characters, locations, props and wardrobe once and they follow the scene everywhere. Reorder scenes, split them across days, and watch the schedule update with them. BUILD THE DAY Drag scenes onto shooting days and the call sheet fills itself in โ cast, crew, locations, call times, weather. Publish it and everyone who needs it has it, on the device already in their pocket. RUN THE FLOOR On Set mode is built for the person calling the day. Mark scenes as they are shot, log takes and slates, track how far ahead or behind you are, and let the rest of the production see it happen without anyone asking for an update. WATCH THE FOOTAGE Upload dailies and share them with a link you can password-protect or set to expire. Comment on a specific frame. Sort by scene, take, or shooting day โ the way the material is actually organised. KEEP THE DEPARTMENTS TALKING Cast and crew lists, casting submissions, location scouting with maps and photos, continuity stills, props and wardrobe, storyboards and shot lists, budgets, expenses and timesheets. Each department gets what it needs and nothing it does not. MADE FOR iPHONE AND iPAD Not a website in a wrapper. Live Activities keep the current shooting day on your Lock Screen. Widgets show the next call time. Push notifications tell you when a call sheet is published or the schedule moves. Call sheets and scene lists stay readable when the location has no signal โ which, on location, it usually does not. Showrunner works on iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web, with the same production behind all of them. โ Showrunner requires an account. Productions are private and invitation-only: you see only what the production you belong to has given you access to. Privacy policy: https://showrunner.no/privacy Support: https://showrunner.no/support
SmartBreakdown
Read full descriptionHide full description
SmartBreakdown turns a screenplay into a breakdown your department can work from โ prepared on Mac, worked on iPad with scenes, script and notes side by side, checked on iPhone between set-ups. Nothing leaves your device. No account, no cloud, no uploads โ even the semantic search runs locally. For unreleased material under NDA, that is not an extra. It is the condition. NEW: MADE FOR IPHONE DUO Unfold iPhone Duo and the scene splits at the fold: the screenplay on the left page, departments, notes and costs on the right โ like pages beside a notebook. Fold it between set-ups and your scene is still open. READ THE SCREENPLAY Import a PDF and SmartBreakdown finds the scenes: headings, scene numbers, length in eighths, DAY/NIGHT and INT/EXT. Dialogue stays dialogue and action stays action, so the screenplay reads the way it was written. Scans work too, and any heading the app is unsure of is shown for you to check, not quietly guessed. BREAK IT DOWN YOUR WAY Name your own departments, give them your production's colours and a symbol, and assign them to any scene. Write notes per department โ with formatting โ attach reference images and videos, and highlight passages in the screenplay itself. Each department sees what concerns it, and nothing else. MARK UP WITH APPLE PENCIL On iPad, draw across the screenplay with Apple Pencil โ a highlighter on paper, except that what it leaves behind can be filtered and exported. Double-tap to switch department; write notes by hand with Scribble. COST IT Put an estimate on any note โ two phones, a rain bar, three doubles. Totals add up per scene, per department and across any scenes you choose, go into the PDF and Excel exports, and the app always shows what still has no amount. SCRIPT, STORY DAY AND CONTINUITY Every scene carries a running time, a story day and the clock time it plays at. Running times start as estimates from the scene's length and give way to the times you measure. See every scene of story day 2 at a tap, and know what the phone in shot or the watch in costume has to show. A NEW DRAFT KEEPS YOUR WORK Read in a revision without starting over. Departments, notes and markings hang on scene numbers, not on page positions. Coloured stripes in the margin show what each draft changed โ blue pages, pink pages, as on paper โ and you mark them as reviewed as you go. THE SHOOTING SCHEDULE Import a Movie Magic one-line schedule and the shooting days are linked to their scenes. Open a day to see its scenes in shooting order, with page count, running time, story days and your department's workload. FIND SCENES BY MEANING Search for "phone screen" or "someone gets a message" and find the scenes, even where the screenplay puts it in other words. EXPORT WHAT IS NEEDED, NOTHING MORE PDF and Excel reports filtered by department, scenes, episode or shooting day: the full breakdown, one department, a handful of scenes or a day sheet. Send a production โ or one department's work alone โ to a colleague as a single file, by AirDrop or any other way, and merge their changes back when it returns. YOUR WORK STAYS YOURS A production is a single file: save it, move it between devices, carry on where you left off. Open, read, print and export it โ always, with or without a subscription. TRY IT FREE No screenplay to hand? Open the demo production: a fictional episode with a finished breakdown. 14 days with every feature unlocked, no account required. SMARTBREAKDOWN PRO Auto-renewing subscription: EUR 12.99 per month or EUR 99.99 per year; prices vary by region. A one-off purchase is also available. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://smart-app.dev/SmartBreakdown/support/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Showrunner Pro at none against SmartBreakdown's 3. On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. SmartBreakdown sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. Showrunner Pro asks for nothing beyond the download.
Showrunner Pro ships an update every 2 weeks, SmartBreakdown every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Showrunner Pro | SmartBreakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks โ better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No โ better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac โ better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 โ better | 18.6 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Diverse AS | Stefan Hollekamp |
In-app purchases
Showrunner Pro
No in-app purchases
SmartBreakdown
- Pro โ monthly$11.991 Month
- Pro โ yearly$89.991 Year
- SmartBreakdown Pro โ one-off$229.00
Questions
Is Showrunner Pro free?
Is SmartBreakdown free?
Do Showrunner Pro or SmartBreakdown have ads?
Which is updated more often, Showrunner Pro or SmartBreakdown?
Other comparisons















