The Best Open Source Adobe After Effects AlternativesTop Motion Graphics Software & Animation Makers like Adobe After Effects

The best open source alternative to Adobe After Effects is Natron. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Adobe After Effects and 13 is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Adobe After Effects are Blender, OpenToonz, Friction and OpenCut.

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Adobe After Effects alternatives are mainly Motion Graphics Software, but if you're looking for VFX Software or Animation Makers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Open Source, Free, Linux, Android, Windows + Free, Mac and Online. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Adobe After Effects.
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Alternatives list

  1. Natron icon

    Natron

     208 likes

    Natron is an open source, cross platform nodal compositing application. It is built around industry standard open source tech such as OpenFX, OpenEXR, OpenColorIO and OpenImageIO. The feature set includes realtime playback/RAM cache, multi-threaded rendering, 2d tracking...

    18 Natron alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Natron screenshot 1
     
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    9
    236
    Comments about Natron as an Alternative to Adobe After Effects
    Top Positive Comment
    Paul
    4

    Free and open-source node based alternative to After Effects. It's pretty similar to Nuke, but doesn't cost anything.

    Top Negative Comment
    Guest
    10

    Awful documentation (blank page); The versions change so much that the old tutorials don't help at all; Difficult to learn by just messing around; High learning curve.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    ahmed52
    Positive
    2

    free ,open source a bit hard to use at first

    3 of 9 comments
    Natron icon
    Natron icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Natron is a great Adobe After Effects alternative.

    • Natron is Free and Open SourceAdobe After Effects is Paid and Proprietary
  2. Blender icon

    Blender

     1750 likes

    A comprehensive open-source 3D software suite for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, and animating. It supports renderings, simulations including fluid and cloth dynamics, complex compositing, video editing, and Python scripting, running across all major operating systems.

    140 Blender alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • Haiku
    • Steam
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
    Splash Artwork for Blender 4.3
     
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    29
    248
    Comments about Blender as an Alternative to Adobe After Effects
    Top Positive Comment
    sas_ja
    5

    Blender is has a bit different workflow, that doesn't make it worse than AE. People think that Blender is only a 3D program, but it fact it has greasepencil (2d animation tool), and it also includes node-based compositing, video editing and video tracking. With Blender you can combine 2d animations, 3d renderings and video footage without using any external program.

    Top Negative Comment
    danielmichel
    49

    AE's main purpose: Video effect editing. Blender has a whole range of possibilities, but it's hard to get into and it's not designed to be used solely for video effect editing.

    Guest
    Negative
    0

    It’s not a video editor anymore, they removed that feature.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    3 of 29 comments
    Blender icon
    Blender icon

    • Some users think Blender is a great Adobe After Effects alternative, some don't.

    • Blender is Free and Open SourceAdobe After Effects is Paid and Proprietary
    • Blender is Customizable, Lightweight and Privacy focusedAdobe After Effects is not according to our users
  4. OpenToonz icon

    OpenToonz

     126 likes

    OpenToonz is an animation program that is a free software version of Toonz, the animation software used by Studio Ghibli, amongst others.

    43 OpenToonz alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    GTS
     
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    1
    6
    Comments about OpenToonz as an Alternative to Adobe After Effects
    shay
    Negative
    3

    while this has video creation functionality, it is intended for animation rather than video editing and compositing. an ae user would find it difficult to do their type of work in this program

    OpenToonz icon
    OpenToonz icon

    • Some users think OpenToonz is a great Adobe After Effects alternative, some don't.

    • OpenToonz is Free and Open SourceAdobe After Effects is Paid and Proprietary
    • OpenToonz is Privacy focusedAdobe After Effects is not according to our users
  5. Friction icon

    Friction

     27 likes

    Friction is a powerful and versatile motion graphics application that allows you to create vector and raster animations for web and video platforms with ease.

    8 Friction alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Mac
    Friction screenshot 1
     
  6. OpenCut icon

    OpenCut

     14 likes

    The open source video editor that gets the job done. Simple, powerful, and works on any platform.

    58 OpenCut alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Docker
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    OpenCut screenshot 1
     
  7. enve icon

    enve

     37 likes

    Enve is a free and open-source 2D animation app. It can create both vector and raster animations and even use sound and video files. It has been created with flexibility and expandability in mind.

    56 enve alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Official Enve Screenshot
     
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    1
    Comments about enve as an Alternative to Adobe After Effects
    groundjet
    Positive
    0

    Free and open source, much easier on the memory; still a lot of bugs and features missing but it is an absolutely amazing piece of software that will hopefully one day do to Adobe what Blender did to Autodesk.

    enve icon
    enve icon
    • enve is Free and Open SourceAdobe After Effects is Paid and Proprietary
  9. TiXL icon

    TiXL

     17 likes

    TiXL is an open-source solution for creating interactive 3d content and animations. It combines the best aspects of animation, compositing, and coding into a lightweight and intuitive UI. Your designs can be shared as executable or rendered to movies.

    10 TiXL alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    TiXL screenshot 1
     
  10. ButtleOFX icon

    ButtleOFX

     16 likes

    ButtleOFX is a simple, user-friendly and open source compositing software. It is based on TuttleOFX, an open source, modular and sustainable image processing architecture.

    19 ButtleOFX alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Linux
    ButtleOFX screenshot 1
     
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    11
  11. Talos VFX icon

    Talos VFX

     2 likes

    Talos is an open source, node based particle effect editor that can be used in game development. It features a powerful but intuitive, drag-and-drop interface with the ability to import legacy LibGDX files for easy, visual editing.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Java
    Talos VFX screenshot 1
     
  13. Rebaslight icon

    Rebaslight

     1 like

    Rebaslight is a program where you can add glow effects.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  14. Wav2Bar icon

    Wav2Bar

     1 like

    Wav2Bar is a FOSS desktop app that lets you make nice visuals for your audio source, to then share on the internet.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Project settings tab, and a project with bar visualizers, time text and classic text, a timer, an image and a background (shape).
     
12 of 13 Adobe After Effects alternatives