Best Free Movie End Credits Makers Online (crawlers, rolling credits) [year]

So you’ve finally finished your short film or first feature?

Or maybe you’ve created a nice SoMe video for your workplace, and now you need to name all the people involved at the end of a video.

Ok, you can create them in your video editing software. Just put some names on a black background and be done with it, right?

Well, there’s a little more to it than that.

Powerful editing tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, Hitfilm Express, DaVinci Resolve, and even iMovie include tools to make a credit sequence.

Some of these are even free. Here, you can check out my guide to the best free video editing software.

But in an advanced video editor, you need to define everything manually, from cast to stunts to catering.

Do you remember all the roles, from the lead cast to the executive producer to the costume designer to the music composer?

Do you remember the right order in which they need to appear?

If you don’t want the hassle of creating the design you want, then some great tools are available online that you use as a shortcut to a good-looking result.

So here are some of the best tools for creating scrolling credits online.

1. Endcrawl. Free and Paid options.

Endcrawl is a professional tool that makes it easy to collaborate on movie credits.

This is especially useful if you’re part of a production company with many people involved. That way, the different departments can fill in the people involved in making the movie – from preproduction to post.

When you create a project, you get sent a Google sheet with all the roles already defined, and you can adjust it to fit your project.

That way, you already have all the placeholders ready, and what you type into the Google sheet document can be viewed instantly in the end credit layout.

After that, you can easily go in and change the design of the end crawl, as each group is divided into different categories.

You can change everything from the typography to column width, text, and section alignment. You can also add subheadings, choose if you want a gutter, change the aspect ratio of your project, change the frame rate, and much more.

Endcrawl also includes logos and legal disclaimers for your closing credits.

Pricing

You can get a free demo project that doesn’t expire. The free version is limited to 1K resolution, though.

For professional users, you’d want to unlock the full potential that supports more video formats:

• Unlimited 2k uncompressed costs $499 flat per project at the time of writing.
• Unlimited 4k uncompressed costs $999 flat per project at the time of writing.

You can export in ProRes 422, ProRes LT, DNxHD, and even full-resolution DPX image sequences.

And because people ask: yes, that is unlimited DPX do-overs for the life of your film.

2. Studiobinder Film Credits Order Template (requires After Effects) and Worksheet. Free.

Studiobinder is an online management software for video, photo, television, and film production teams.

Within Studiobinder, you can collaborate and manage everything from call sheets, script breakdowns, shot lists, storyboards, shooting schedules, contact lists, files, and more.

Studio binder offers two free film credit tools for you:

The first is a film credits template for Google docs, Excel, or similar, with all the roles already defined and ready for editing. It includes both opening and end credits.

The second is an end credits crawler template for After Effects with all the roles already defined.

You can download both for free here.

3. Biteable. Free and Paid options.

Biteable is a neat template-based online editor that lets you easily create videos and short animated movies for social media. You can also mix video clips with motion titles, and it’s a fast way to create SoMe videos.

You choose the templates you want, add some text, change the text colors, change the background color, set the timing, add background music, and export your video project.

Biteable is a good choice if ease of use is a priority, but because it is a template based, the possibilities are limited. But if you know how to work within these limitations, you can quickly get great creative results.

You can do projects for free with limitations, but if you want to unlock all the possibilities, you can purchase a yearly subscription.

Biteable also has some opening and end credits templates, which you can find here.

They’re not rolling end credits (crawlers) but more in the title card (static cards) style. But they’re probably the easiest way to create video credits for online videos.

Tip: if you want to see how to create or use motion graphics, such as opening credits, lower thirds, or maybe a film title, check out this step-by-step guide to MOGRT files in Premiere Pro.

Conclusion

Creating an end crawler is daunting if you’re working on a larger production.

After all, you don’t want to forget anyone who has helped your vision come to life, whether that person is the director of photography, one of the supporting cast, or someone who deserves special thanks.

That’s why using a tool for the specific task of creating a credits roll is so helpful.

I think the options covered in this article are not only the best, but they also cover a wide variety of users – from the commercial film industry to the indie filmmaker making short films to the SoMe video content creator.

If you know of any other good tools for making end crawlers, please share them in the comment section below. That way, I can add them to the list.

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