Movie Magic Budgeting vs Saturation (2026): The Complete Comparison

By Jens Jacob | Film Producer (After Death, The Heart of Man) and Co-founder of Saturation.io | Updated February 2026

Movie Magic Budgeting has been the industry standard for film and television budgeting for decades. If you have spent any time working on a studio production, you have almost certainly used it. It earned that reputation for good reasons: comprehensive fringe calculations, deep template libraries, and universal acceptance by bond companies, studios, and accountants across the industry.

But the production workflow has changed. Teams are distributed across cities and time zones. Producers need to update budgets on location, share actuals in real time, and connect budgeting directly to expense tracking and banking. Movie Magic was built for a different era of production, and those constraints are becoming harder to work around.

This comparison covers what each platform actually does, where each one excels, and how to decide which one belongs in your production workflow in 2026. If you are searching for a Movie Magic Budgeting alternative because you need cloud collaboration, integrated expense tracking, or a lower per-seat cost, this guide will help you decide whether Saturation is the right fit. As someone who built Saturation after years of wrestling with production finance tools on real productions, I have tried to make this as honest and useful as possible.

What Is Movie Magic Budgeting?

Movie Magic Budgeting (MMB) is a desktop budgeting application developed and maintained by Entertainment Partners. It is the most widely adopted budgeting tool in professional film and television production, used by major studios, networks, and independent production companies worldwide.

The current version, Movie Magic Budgeting 10 (MMB10), runs as an installed application on both macOS and Windows. It saves work locally on your device and syncs to a cloud backup, which protects against device failure but is not the same as real-time cloud collaboration.

What Movie Magic Budgeting Does Well

• Industry-standard templates: MMB ships with detailed template libraries covering union and non-union productions, episodic television, commercials, and more. These templates are built around the account code structures that production accountants and bond companies expect to see.

• Fringe calculations: The software handles the complex fringe benefit calculations required for union productions, including SAG-AFTRA, DGA, IATSE, and Teamsters rates. These update when rule sets change.

• Advanced reporting: MMB generates detailed budget reports, cost reports, and variance reports that match the output formats studios and financiers have relied on for years.

• Budget imports and exports: Productions can import existing MMB7 budgets into MMB10, and the software integrates with EP SmartAccounting for accounting alignment.

• Offline functionality: Because it is a desktop application, MMB works without an internet connection, which matters on remote locations with unreliable connectivity.

• Universal acceptance: Bond companies, completion guarantors, and studio finance departments know MMB budgets. Submitting an MMB-formatted budget removes friction in the approval process.

Movie Magic Budgeting Limitations in 2026

• Desktop installation required: MMB10 requires a local installation on macOS or Windows. You cannot open a budget in a browser or on an iPad while on set.

• Single-user by default: The software is licensed per user. While you can share budget files, there is no native real-time multi-user editing. Two people cannot work in the same budget simultaneously without file conflicts.

• No integrated expense tracking: MMB handles the budget document, but it does not connect to actual expenses, vendor payments, or production banking. You need separate tools for actuals, then manually reconcile.

• No free tier: Access costs $42.99 per month per seat. For a lean indie production with multiple collaborators, that adds up quickly.

• Learning curve: The interface has not changed dramatically since earlier versions. New users, especially those coming from spreadsheet-based workflows, often find the learning curve steep.

What Is Saturation?

Saturation is a cloud-native production finance platform built for collaborative teams working on film, television, commercial, and music video productions. It combines budgeting, expense management, and production banking in one connected system, and it works in any web browser on any device.

Unlike Movie Magic, Saturation was not adapted from desktop software to the cloud. It was built cloud-first, which means collaboration, real-time updates, and cross-device access are core to how it works, not features added on top of a legacy architecture.

What Saturation Does

• Collaborative budgeting: Multiple producers, line producers, and department heads can work in the same budget at the same time. Changes are visible in real time, with full version history.

• Expense tracking and actuals: Saturation connects budget lines to actual expenses, so you can see where you stand against budget at any point in production without manual data entry.

• Production banking with Saturation Pay: Saturation Pay is an integrated AP and contractor payment system. You can pay vendors, contractors, and crew directly from the platform using production expense cards. This is not payroll for W-2 employees; it is designed for the contractor and vendor payments that make up the bulk of independent production spending.

• Free tier available: Saturation has a permanently free plan for productions working on a single project. There is no trial period that expires. You can start budgeting immediately without entering a credit card.

• Browser-based access: Saturation works on Mac, PC, iPad, or any device with a browser. Nothing to install, nothing to update.

• AI-assisted calculations: Saturation is rolling out AI-assisted fringe calculations and budget suggestions in April 2026, making it one of the first production finance platforms with native AI built into the budgeting workflow.

• AICP template support: For commercial productions, Saturation includes an AICP account code template, the same structure commercial producers and agencies expect.

Key Differences: Movie Magic vs Saturation

Desktop vs Cloud

This is the most fundamental difference. Movie Magic is an installed desktop application. Saturation is browser-based. For productions where everyone works in the same office, on the same Windows or Mac machines, this distinction matters less. For distributed teams, remote collaborators, or anyone who needs to pull up a budget on an iPad on set, it matters a great deal.

Single-User vs Collaborative

Movie Magic is designed around a single user working on a budget file. You can share that file, but you cannot have two people editing it simultaneously. Saturation is designed around teams. A line producer can be updating above-the-line while a production coordinator updates logistics costs in the same budget in real time.

Budget Only vs Full Financial Stack

Movie Magic handles the budget document with precision. Saturation handles the budget plus the actuals, the vendor payments, and the expense cards. If you want a single system that follows a production from pre-production budgeting through wrap accounting, Saturation is designed to do that. Movie Magic requires separate tools and manual reconciliation at each stage.

Paid Only vs Free Tier

Movie Magic costs $42.99 per month, per user, with no free tier. Saturation offers a permanently free plan for single-project productions. For indie filmmakers, student productions, or teams just evaluating their options, that difference is significant.

Pricing Comparison

For a production with three collaborators needing access to MMB, the annual cost approaches $1,500 at the monthly rate. With Saturation, multiple team members can collaborate on the same budget under a single paid plan.

Feature Comparison Table

When to Use Movie Magic Budgeting

Movie Magic is the right tool for specific production contexts where its depth and industry acceptance are non-negotiable.

Studio and Network Productions

Major studios and networks often mandate MMB-formatted budgets as part of their greenlighting process. If your production is working with a studio partner that requires a specific format, MMB is the safest choice. The account codes, report formats, and file structures are what those finance departments are set up to receive and review.

Bond Company Requirements

Completion bond companies universally recognize and accept MMB budgets. If your production requires completion bonding, check with your specific bond company about their format requirements. Most experienced bond companies work with MMB because it is what the industry has standardized on. If your bond company requires MMB-formatted documents, that settles the question.

Productions Requiring Full Offline Access

MMB works completely offline. If your production is in a remote location with no reliable internet connectivity, and you need your budget to be fully functional without a connection, MMB has the edge. Saturation requires connectivity for real-time sync, though it is continuously improving offline capabilities.

Productions Already Deep in the MMB Ecosystem

If your production accountant, line producer, and studio finance contact all live in MMB, switching mid-production creates friction. In that context, consistency with your existing workflow is a legitimate reason to stay with what the team already knows.

Complex Union Productions with Specific Fringe Requirements

MMB's fringe calculation engine has been refined over decades to handle the edge cases in union agreements. For multi-union productions with overlapping rate structures and cutoff calculations, MMB's depth is hard to match. Saturation handles fringes well for most productions, but if your production has unusual complexity in this area, MMB's established track record gives experienced production accountants confidence.

When to Use Saturation

Saturation is built for productions that want their financial workflow connected, collaborative, and accessible without the overhead of legacy desktop software.

Independent and Mid-Budget Productions

For productions where the team is not mandated to use a specific tool by a studio or bond company, Saturation gives you a full financial stack at a fraction of the per-seat cost of MMB. A production with five collaborators who all need budget access can work together in Saturation at significantly lower total cost.

Productions with Distributed Teams

If your line producer is in Los Angeles, your UPM is in Atlanta on location, and your production coordinator is working remotely, real-time collaboration is not a nice-to-have. Saturation's cloud-native architecture means everyone sees the same budget, updated in real time, from wherever they are working.

Commercials and Music Videos

Commercial and music video productions typically work fast, with tight timelines and budgets that shift constantly during pre-production. Saturation's AICP template support, fast setup, and connected expense tracking are well-suited to this workflow. You can have a working budget in minutes, share it with an agency producer, and track actuals against it through production without switching tools.

Productions That Want Budgeting and Banking in One System

If you want to reduce the number of tools in your production finance workflow, Saturation's integration of budgeting, expense tracking, and Saturation Pay (contractor and vendor payments) means you can manage the full AP side of production from one platform. Less reconciliation, fewer handoffs, less data entry.

Emerging Filmmakers and First Features

The free tier makes Saturation accessible to productions that cannot justify a per-seat subscription for budgeting software before they know if the project is moving forward. You can build your budget, get it to a place where you can take it to investors, and only upgrade when the production is moving into pre-production.

Productions That Need Mobile Budget Access

On a commercial or music video shoot, the producer is often on set making real-time decisions about where to spend the remaining budget. Being able to pull up actuals vs. budget on an iPad or phone without needing to connect to a desktop machine is a practical advantage that Saturation's browser-based design delivers by default.

Migration Guide: Switching from Movie Magic to Saturation

If you have existing MMB budgets and want to transition to Saturation, here is how to approach it.

Step 1: Export Your Existing Budget Structure

From Movie Magic Budgeting, export your existing budget in a compatible format (CSV or Excel). This gives you a clean starting point that preserves your line item structure and current estimates.

Step 2: Set Up Your Saturation Account

Create your free Saturation account at app.saturation.io/signup. No credit card required for the free tier. Set up your production details and select the template that best matches your production type.

Step 3: Import or Rebuild Your Budget

You can import your exported budget data into Saturation or use it as a reference while building directly in Saturation's interface. For most productions, a clean rebuild takes a few hours and gives you the opportunity to clean up any legacy line items from the MMB export.

Step 4: Invite Your Team

Add your line producer, production coordinator, and department heads. Assign appropriate permission levels so each collaborator can view or edit the areas relevant to their role. This is where Saturation's multi-user model immediately pays off, since everyone is now working in the same live document.

Step 5: Connect Expense Tracking

Link your expense tracking to the relevant budget lines. If you are using Saturation Pay for vendor and contractor payments, those will automatically feed into your actuals, giving you a live view of budget vs. spend without manual reconciliation.

Step 6: Plan for Bond Company Deliverables

If your production requires completion bonding, check with your bond company early about acceptable budget formats. Some bond companies are beginning to accept formats beyond MMB. If yours requires MMB specifically, you have a few options: continue maintaining a parallel MMB document for bond company submission while managing actuals in Saturation, or work with your bond company to discuss format flexibility.

The Broader Context: Where Production Finance Is Going

The shift happening in production finance is not unique to film and television. Every industry that relied on desktop enterprise software has been moving toward cloud-native tools that connect workflows and eliminate silos. The entertainment industry is moving through this transition now.

The argument for legacy desktop tools has always been stability and depth. Those arguments still hold for specific contexts. Movie Magic Budgeting remains the most trusted tool for the most complex union productions and the most established delivery requirements.

But the argument for cloud-native tools is speed, collaboration, and integration. Productions that want to move faster, give more team members access to budget information, and connect their budgeting to their actual spending are increasingly moving toward platforms like Saturation.

For many productions, the answer is not either/or. A large studio production might use MMB for the official budget document that goes to the studio and bond company, while using Saturation for the working production finance that the day-to-day team operates from. The two tools serve different functions in that workflow.

For independent productions that have the flexibility to choose their tools, Saturation offers a more complete and more collaborative production finance experience at significantly lower cost per collaborator.

You can read more about how Saturation compares to other options in our guide to the best film budgeting software or learn how to structure your production finance from the ground up in our guide to creating a film budget.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Movie Magic Budgeting available on Mac?

Yes. Movie Magic Budgeting 10 is available for both macOS and Windows as a desktop application. It requires local installation and is not browser-based. Saturation.io runs in any web browser on any device, including Mac, PC, iPad, and mobile, with no installation required.

How much does Movie Magic Budgeting cost in 2026?

Movie Magic Budgeting costs $42.99 per month for a monthly subscription through Entertainment Partners. An annual subscription is also available at a discounted rate. There is no free tier. Saturation.io offers a permanently free plan for single-project productions with no credit card required.

Can multiple people use Movie Magic Budgeting at the same time?

Movie Magic Budgeting is a single-user desktop application. While you can share budget files between users, two people cannot edit the same budget simultaneously in real time. Saturation is built for real-time multi-user collaboration, where multiple producers, line producers, and department heads can work in the same budget at the same time with all changes visible immediately.

Does Movie Magic Budgeting have cloud collaboration?

Movie Magic Budgeting 10 saves a cloud backup of your work, which protects against device failure. This is different from real-time cloud collaboration. You cannot open a budget in a browser, and multiple users cannot edit the same document simultaneously. Saturation is cloud-native, meaning all collaboration happens in real time through a browser.

What is the best Movie Magic Budgeting alternative in 2026?

The best Movie Magic Budgeting alternative depends on what you need. For cloud-based real-time collaboration with integrated expense tracking and production banking, Saturation.io is the strongest option, with a free tier and no installation required. For commercial-focused work, Showbiz Budgeting is another established alternative. For AI-powered pre-production, Filmustage offers script-to-budget automation. Each serves a different workflow; the right choice depends on whether your production needs bond company compatibility, multi-user collaboration, or mobile access as the top priority.

What is the best free alternative to Movie Magic Budgeting?

Saturation.io offers a permanently free plan that includes collaborative budgeting, expense tracking, and real-time cost visibility. It is available in any browser with no installation required. Unlike Movie Magic, which has no free tier, Saturation lets you start building a budget immediately without any payment commitment.

Is Movie Magic Budgeting required for bond companies?

Many completion bond companies are familiar with and accept MMB-formatted budgets because it has been the industry standard for decades. Whether a bond company requires MMB specifically depends on the company and the production. Check with your bond company early in pre-production about their format requirements. Some are beginning to accept formats beyond MMB as cloud-native tools become more common in production workflows.

What is the difference between Movie Magic Budgeting and Movie Magic Scheduling?

These are two separate products from Entertainment Partners. Movie Magic Budgeting is for creating and managing production budgets. Movie Magic Scheduling is a separate tool for creating shooting schedules and breakdown boards. They are sold separately and can be used independently or together. Saturation focuses on the financial side of production management, covering budgeting, expense tracking, and production banking.

Does Saturation support union productions?

Yes. Saturation supports union rate calculations for SAG-AFTRA, DGA, IATSE, Teamsters, and other guilds. For the most complex multi-union productions with unusual fringe calculation requirements, Movie Magic's fringe engine has a longer track record with production accountants. For most union independent productions, Saturation handles the calculations needed.

Can I use Saturation for commercial production?

Yes. Saturation includes AICP account code templates, which is the format commercial producers and advertising agencies expect for budget submissions. For commercial and music video productions, Saturation's fast setup, real-time collaboration, and integrated expense tracking are a natural fit for the fast-paced timeline of commercial production.

How does Saturation Pay work?

Saturation Pay is an integrated AP and contractor payment system within Saturation. It allows productions to pay vendors, contractors, and crew using production expense cards tied directly to your budget. Payments made through Saturation Pay feed into your actuals automatically, giving you a live view of budget vs. actual spend. Saturation Pay is designed for contractor and vendor payments, not W-2 payroll. For payroll, productions typically use a dedicated payroll service.

Is there a free trial of Movie Magic Budgeting?

Entertainment Partners occasionally offers trial access to Movie Magic Budgeting. Check the EP website for current trial availability. Unlike a trial, Saturation's free tier is permanent for single-project use, with no expiration date and no requirement to upgrade unless you need additional projects or features.

What happens to my budget data if I switch from Movie Magic to Saturation?

Your existing MMB budgets remain accessible in Movie Magic. You can export your budget data from MMB in CSV or Excel format and use it as the basis for setting up your budget in Saturation. Saturation does not import MMB's proprietary file format directly, but the export-and-rebuild process is straightforward for most production budgets.

Which is better for an indie film budget: Movie Magic or Saturation?

For most independent film productions without a studio mandate or specific bond company format requirement, Saturation offers more functionality at lower cost. The free tier, real-time collaboration, and integrated expense tracking are practical advantages for indie teams working across locations with limited budgets for production software. Movie Magic makes sense for indie productions where the line producer or production accountant is already operating in the MMB ecosystem and the team has no need to change.

What is the latest version of Movie Magic Budgeting?

As of 2026, the current version is Movie Magic Budgeting 10 (MMB10). Entertainment Partners ended technical support for MMB7 and earlier versions as of March 31, 2025. Users on legacy versions should upgrade to MMB10 for current operating system compatibility and support access.

Summary: Which One Is Right for Your Production?

Choose Movie Magic Budgeting if:

• Your studio, network, or financier requires MMB-formatted budget documents

• Your bond company mandates MMB format

• Your production accountant is deeply experienced in MMB and you are mid-production

• Your production requires full offline budget access in a remote location

• You are working on a complex multi-union production with unusual fringe calculation requirements

Choose Saturation if:

• You want real-time collaboration across a distributed team

• You need budget access on any device without installing software

• You want budgeting, expense tracking, and vendor payments in one system

• You are working on an independent, commercial, or music video production with flexibility in your tool choice

• You want to start building your budget immediately without a subscription commitment

• You are looking for a more cost-effective option for multi-user access

Ready to try Saturation? Start for free at Saturation.io, no credit card required. Build your first budget in minutes and see how a cloud-native production finance platform compares in your actual workflow.

For more context on how Saturation stacks up against other tools, see our complete film budgeting software guide. To learn the fundamentals of structuring a production budget, see our guide to creating a film budget.