After Effects alternatives that run in a browser (2026)

We make AtomCut, one of the tools below. This is our comparison, and we have tried to make it one you would trust: the same eight criteria for every tool, prices checked today, and After Effects still winning several rows outright.

AtomCut is a free motion design and video editor that runs in the browser: an infinite canvas and a multi-track timeline in one window, keyframe any property, export to MP4, SVG or Lottie, no account required. If you only want the table, skip to it. If you want to know which of these eight tools fits the thing you are actually trying to make, keep reading.

The criteria

Every tool here is scored on the same eight things: price model, platform, real vector tools (not stickers), timeline depth, keyframing (anything, or just position/opacity), effects, whether it handles video and audio at all, and what it exports to. After Effects is $22.99/month for the single app, billed annually (as of September 2026, adobe.com/products/aftereffects/plans.html). Every browser tool below is compared against that number, once, and then left alone.

Tool	Price	Vectors	Timeline	Keyframe anything	Effects	Video + audio	Exports to
After Effects	$22.99/mo	Yes (full)	Full NLE	Yes	Huge, plugins	Yes	MP4, MOV, Lottie (via Bodymovin)
Rive	Free–$32/mo/seat	Yes	Thin, state-machine	Position/shape only	Basic	No	.riv (runtime)
Jitter	Free–paid/seat	Yes	Thin	Position/opacity/shape	Basic-moderate	No	MP4, GIF, Lottie
AtomCut	Free / $29 yr	Yes (full, Bézier)	Full NLE	Yes, any property	36 stackable	Yes	MP4, WebM, GIF, PNG, SVG, Lottie
Fable	Free–paid/seat	Yes	Thin	Position/opacity/shape	Basic-moderate	No	MP4, GIF, Lottie
Lottielab	Free–~$18/mo	Yes	Thin	Position/opacity/shape	Basic	No	Lottie, GIF, MP4 (paid)
Motionity	Free (open source)	Basic	Moderate	Position/opacity/scale	Filters, masks	Yes	WebM, GIF, images
Canva (video) / CapCut	Free–$25/user/mo	Stickers, not paths	Template-based	No	Presets	Yes	MP4, GIF

Prices for Rive, Fable, Lottielab, Canva and CapCut are per-seat, tiered, and change with team size; check each tool's own pricing page for the current number (rive.app/pricing, fable.app/pricing, lottielab.com/pricing, canva.com/pricing, capcut.com). AtomCut is free for everything up to 720p export; $29 at launch (regular $49), once, for HD, 4K, transparent and per-layer export.

The tools, one paragraph each

Rive is built for interactive, runtime animation: you design a state machine, ship the .riv file, and an app or game drives it live with variables. It is the right tool when the animation has to react to input after export. It has no video track and no audio; that is not an oversight, it is a different job.

Jitter is a canvas-first tool built for designers making social motion graphics fast: pick a template-shaped layout, keyframe position, opacity and scale, export a GIF or MP4. Its timeline is thin by design, one track per layer with no nesting depth to speak of, and there is no audio track.

AtomCut puts a Figma-style infinite canvas above a real multi-track timeline in the same window. You keyframe anything, including whether an effect is turned on, groups are clips with their own row you can trim and drag, and it exports to MP4, WebM, GIF, PNG sequence, SVG and Lottie with a fidelity report. It is two months old, built by one person, and it shows in a few rough edges rather than in what it can do.

Fable is a team-oriented motion design system: shared components, a library, review links for stakeholders. It is closer to Jitter than to AE in timeline depth, and its free tier is for exploring rather than shipping.

Lottielab does one thing well: designing and exporting Lottie files, often starting from a Figma import. If the deliverable is a Lottie for an app or a website, this is a purpose-built path there. It is not trying to be a video editor, and does not have one.

Motionity is free and open source, a solo developer's project that mixes After Effects' keyframing model with Canva's drag-and-drop feel. It has real layers, masks and filters, exports WebM and GIF, and has no video track with audio mixing or a vector pen tool.

Canva (video) and CapCut are template-and-preset tools. You pick a layout or a trend, drop in your footage or text, and export. Neither has a keyframe you can drag on a curve or a vector you can reshape with a pen; motion comes from presets, not authored curves. That trade buys speed: nothing here is faster for a caption-heavy reel.

For long-form or heavy footage, two native, free NLEs are worth naming even though they are not browser tools: DaVinci Resolve (free tier is full editing, color and Fusion VFX with no watermark and no time limit; Studio is a one-time $295, not a subscription) and Kdenlive (fully free, open source, no paid tier at all). If the project is a 20-minute video and not a short motion piece, one of these two is a better fit than any tool above.

Choose After Effects if

• The project needs true 3D, a plugin ecosystem, or an existing pipeline built around .aep files.
• You are cutting heavy 4K+ footage for hours at a time.
• Your team already has Creative Cloud and the workflow is built around it.

Choose a browser tool if

• The output is a social clip, a UI animation, a Lottie, or a short brand piece.
• You want to stop paying rent on software you use for twenty minutes a week.
• You would rather open a tab than install anything.

Questions people ask

Is there a free version of After Effects? Adobe offers a free trial, not a free tier. Several tools in this table (AtomCut, Motionity, Rive's free plan, DaVinci Resolve for long-form) are free to use indefinitely, not just to try.

Can browser-based tools export MP4 with audio? AtomCut, Motionity, Jitter and Fable all export MP4. Audio mixing inside the export (gain, fades, EQ) is native to AtomCut's timeline; check the others' docs for whether audio is baked in or added after.

Do any of these run on iPad? AtomCut's workspace is the same at every screen size, including touch and tablet input. Rive, Jitter, Lottielab and Fable are designed for desktop browsers first.