Stoichiometric CrN and Cr:N with different nitrogen (N) content are of interest for hard coating applications. In the Cr-N material system, bcc-Cr rich coatings, containing a few percent of diluted N, provide tunability in microstructure and mechanical properties. Additionally, the incorporation of Nb into the CrNx coatings may further tailor the materials properties. In this work, bcc-CrNx and CrNbNx coatings were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering, and their mechanical and microstructural characteristics were investigated as a function of N content. Depending on the N content, the phases observed by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) varied from metallic bcc-Cr, mixed bcc-Cr/h-Cr2N, to h-Cr2N/CrN. X-ray reflectivity (XRR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements show that a dense and nearly columnar-free bcc-CrNx coatings was obtained at ~13–25 at.% of N, while CrNbNx coatings composed of dense, column-free, and featureless microstructure at a N content of ~10–20 at.%. The dense and nearly column-free microstructure composed of dispersion of Cr2N grains into the bcc-Cr matrix for both CrNx and CrNbNx coatings, as shown by high resolution transmission electron microscope analysis (HRTEM). Nanoindentation revealed a hardening of the coatings due to the grain refinement, solid solution strengthening, and variation in phase content.