bckendIQ vs Production Slate
Production Slate is film production software for line producers. It does budgets, the shooting schedule, call sheets, a crew list with rates, and crew hours with film overtime rules. Crew pay entries are unlimited. It is truly cheap. Free to start, $12 a month for one person, $20 per user for teams. It is the closest rival to the crew half of bckendIQ. It has no client side at all. No messages from clients, no invoices, no contracts, no galleries.
Production Slate
Free · $12/mo · $20/user
bckendIQ
From $39/mo
When to choose Production Slate
You are a line producer or production manager on film projects. You already bill clients some other way. Price matters. Production Slate is cheap. Its film overtime rules and shooting schedule are stronger than ours.
When to choose bckendIQ
You are a studio, not a production office. You own the client as well as the crew. You want one app holding both, not a booking tool bolted to a production tool.
Feature by feature
bckendIQ wins 5 of 11 rows. Production Slate wins 4. Checked against the live vendor pages on 2026-08-05.
| What it does | bckendIQ | Production Slate | Who wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $39 or $69/mo, storage included; 0% of client payments | Free to $20/user | Production Slate |
| Budgets and cost estimates | What you owe crew, per shoot | Full budgets, with estimates against real costs | Production Slate |
| Shooting schedule | Calendar and shoot days | Drag-and-drop shooting schedule | Production Slate |
| Film overtime rules | You approve extra hours. No tiered overtime | Tiered overtime at 1×, 1.5×, 2× | Production Slate |
| Crew list with rates | Yes | Yes | About the same |
| Crew hours | Crew clock in for each session | Log the wrap time | About the same |
| People asking about a shoot, and booking | Full form, quotes, packages | Not offered | bckendIQ |
| Invoices and contracts | Yes, signed online | Not offered | bckendIQ |
| Client galleries and approval | Yes | Not offered | bckendIQ |
| A booking makes the crew job | Happens on its own when the booking is confirmed | Does not apply. No bookings | bckendIQ |
| Reviews and weekly score sheets | Yes | Not offered | bckendIQ |
Common questions
Is Production Slate cheaper than bckendIQ?
Production Slate is free to start. It is $12 a month for one person, and $20 per user per month for teams. bckendIQ is $39 a month for 3 team members, and $69 for 5. Freelance crew are free on both. So the two cross over at 2 people. For one person, Production Slate is cheaper. From 2 people up, we are cheaper. And our freelance crew are free, where theirs are paid users. For crew pay entries alone, Production Slate is a cheap and strong tool.
What does bckendIQ do that Production Slate does not?
The whole client side. Production Slate has no form for people asking about a shoot. It has no quotes, invoices, contracts or client galleries. In bckendIQ, a confirmed booking makes the shoot and its crew slots on its own. So the client record and the crew record are one record.
See it on your own shoots
Free through October 31, 2026. Paid plans start November 1, 2026. No card needed.
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