Save the Cat and Cinequill
Cinequill vs Save the Cat software depends on whether you want the board or the project
Save the Cat software and Cinequill do not compete as two formatters. Save the Cat is a fifteen-beat method, and Story Suite is the official board for that method. The suite page lists Essentials at $29 a quarter or $89 a year, Premium at $39 or $119, Pro at $59 or $179, and a lifetime license at $599. It runs in the browser on PC, Mac, iOS and Android, and it does not list a free Story Suite plan. Cinequill includes Save the Cat as one of eight methods inside a story bible, a character system and a screenplay editor, with a dramaturg that asks questions and a free calculator that only scales the beats to a page count. Use the official tool when you want that board from the people who license it. Use Cinequill when the method has to live next to the draft.
Updated 24 October 2026
Prices verified on 24 October 2026.
Which Save the Cat are you shopping for?
Save the Cat is a story method before it is a piece of software. The beat board — opening image, theme stated, catalyst, debate, break into two, and the rest of the fifteen BS2 beats — is the thing writers mean when they say the name. Blake Snyder’s company sells books, coaching and Story Suite, a browser app at savethecat.com/save-the-cat-story-structure-software-suite. That page lists Essentials, Premium and Pro, billed quarterly or annually, plus a $599 lifetime license. It is not a desktop-only product, and it does not list a free Story Suite plan. Beat Mapper and Genre Mapper are separate free tools on the same site.
Cinequill is not a Save the Cat clone with a different logo. Save the Cat is one of eight narrative methods inside a story-development studio. The others are there because not every film wants that board. The free plan includes the methods, the bible, characters, the editor and FDX, Fountain and PDF. Pro includes 1,500,000 tokens a month. A one-off top-up is €5 for 500,000 tokens, and it does not expire. The public beat-sheet calculator on this site only does the arithmetic: it places the fifteen beats on a page count you choose. It is not the official suite, and the method page says so.
If you want the official board and the official lessons, go to the official site and read whatever they are selling this month. If you want the method inside a screenplay project, with a dramaturg that will not write the scene for you, the comparison below is the relevant one.
What does the Story Suite page print?
It can say what we read and refuse the rest. Cinequill Pro is €12 a month or €115 a year before VAT, about €9.58 a month if you pay annually. The free plan does not cap projects. Story Suite’s own page lists Essentials at $29 a quarter or $89 a year, Premium at $39 a quarter or $119 a year, Pro at $59 a quarter or $179 a year, and a lifetime license at $599. The annual tab also shows the per-month equivalents $7.42, $9.92 and $14.92. There is no free Story Suite plan on that page. The AI cell is still the method, not a model: a beat board, not an AI writer. Cinequill’s AI is a dramaturg with a token meter.
Those figures come from the suite page read on the verification date, not from an old listicle. Quarterly and annual are both printed. If the shop changes the cards, this page should change with them.
Export is on the same page. Story Suite says it formats a screenplay and exports PDF, Word and FDX-compatible files. Cinequill’s free plan exports FDX, Fountain and PDF. The official suite also says it runs in the browser on PC, Mac, iOS and Android, and that an installed copy can be used offline until it syncs.
| Cinequill | Save the Cat | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free 100,000 tokens/month; Pro €12/month or €115/year (about €9.58/month), before VAT | Essentials $29/quarter or $89/yr; Premium $39/quarter or $119/yr; Pro $59/quarter or $179/yr; lifetime $599 |
| Free | Yes: unlimited projects, bible, editor, export and 100,000 AI tokens/month | No free Story Suite plan. Beat Mapper and Genre Mapper are separate free tools |
| AI | Dramaturg: asks questions and rewrites only text you select; it does not write the film for you | The official method is a beat board, not an AI writer |
| Where it runs | Web app; you need a connection to write and collaborate | Browser on PC, Mac, iOS and Android. Offline after install; syncs when online |
| What it is | A story-development and screenwriting studio. Save the Cat is one of eight methods, not the whole product. | Story Suite in the browser: Essentials, Premium, Pro and a lifetime license. Not a production formatter. |
| Beat sheet | Method inside the project, plus a public calculator that scales the fifteen BS2 beats. Not the official suite. | The method’s beat board, plus script formatting and export to PDF, Word and FDX-compatible files on the suite page. |
| Export | FDX, Fountain, PDF | The Story Suite page says PDF, Word and FDX-compatible files. |
Where is the official Save the Cat tool the better buy?
It is the better buy when the method is the whole practice and you want that practice from the people who license it. A beat board designed only for those fifteen beats, with the language of the books, is a narrower and sometimes clearer instrument than a studio that also offers Field, McKee, the hero’s journey and the others. Narrowness is a feature if you are teaching the method or if you have decided the board is the only structure you will use this year.
It is also the better buy when you want to pay the rightsholders rather than a third-party implementation. Cinequill’s method page and calculator are explanations and arithmetic. They are not a substitute for the book, and they are not a license to the official software. If a class, a contest or a producer has asked for the official tool by name, an alternative is the wrong kind of clever.
The suite page is specific about the machine. It is browser-based on PC, Mac, iOS and Android, with no app-store install required, and it can be added to a home screen. Offline writing is described after that install, with a sync when you are back online. That is a subscription workspace, not a one-time desktop formatter.
Where is Cinequill the better tool?
Cinequill is better when Save the Cat is a lens, not a religion. Plenty of scripts break on that board and then need a different question: the character want, the thematic argument, the scene that does not earn the all-is-lost. A studio that can hold the board and the bible and the draft in one project lets you leave the board without leaving the project. The dramaturg is useful here exactly because it does not generate a “correct” beat. It asks whether the beat you placed is doing the job the method claims.
Cinequill is also the better tool when you need a screenplay, not only a board. The official method’s reputation is structure. A production still needs pages, revision and a file. The editor and the FDX export are the part a beat-board product is not required to be. If you already love the board and you are stuck translating it into scenes, the calculator will show you where the beats fall, and the project is where you find out if the scenes exist.
Collaboration and the free project cap matter if you are not working alone. One co-author is on the Cinequill free plan. Story Suite lists real-time story collaboration on the Premium card, not on Essentials. A beat board is not automatically a writers’ room.
How do you test the method without buying a logo?
Use the free calculator on a page count you might actually write. Read the fifteen placements. If they feel like a foreign language, read the Save the Cat method page on this site before you read any pricing page. The method page is the vocabulary. The calculator is the ruler. Neither one is the official suite.
Then put the same premise in a Cinequill project and fill only the beats you can defend. Leave the others empty. If the empty beats are the interesting part, you are using the method. If you feel obliged to name all fifteen before you know the protagonist’s want, you are collecting labels, and neither product will save you. The Logline Doctor is the other free door: a logline that cannot name a protagonist, a goal and an obstacle will not become a better beat sheet by changing software.
Only after that should you open the official shop. If you will use that board every week, the suite page prints Essentials, Premium, Pro and a $599 lifetime license. If the board only made sense beside a bible and a draft, Cinequill’s free plan is the experiment. The hub and the free-software page cover the rest of the market, including Final Draft, which is a formatter and not a beat method.
Try the workflow
Evaluate Cinequill on your next screenplay
If you are comparing tools, the clearest test is the full workflow: bible, characters, structure, scenes, screenplay and export.
Frequently asked questions
Does Cinequill include Save the Cat?
Yes, as one of eight narrative methods, not as the official Save the Cat suite. The free calculator places the fifteen BS2 beats on a length you choose. It is arithmetic, not a license to the official software.
How much does Save the Cat software cost?
The Story Suite page lists Essentials at $29 a quarter or $89 a year, Premium at $39 a quarter or $119 a year, Pro at $59 a quarter or $179 a year, and a lifetime license at $599. There is no free Story Suite plan on that page. Beat Mapper and Genre Mapper are separate free tools. It runs in the browser on PC, Mac, iOS and Android.
Is the beat sheet calculator the Save the Cat app?
No. It is a free page on this site that scales the fifteen beats. The method page explains the vocabulary. The official suite, if it is on sale, is on the official site.
Will Cinequill’s AI write a Save the Cat beat sheet?
No. The dramaturg asks questions and rewrites a selection. The calculator does the page arithmetic. You still choose the beats.
Related resources
More comparisons to help you choose
Save the Cat Beat Sheet Calculator
Free Save the Cat beat sheet calculator for the BS2. Enter pages or minutes and get all 15 beats with the target page, range and percent of the script.
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