Blender vs Cavalry Comparison 2026
Both cover motion graphics & animation. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
3D, motion and compositing, free forever
Procedural 2D animation, free for individuals
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Blender | Cavalry | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | Free |
| Pricing model | Free | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on (they differ) | macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS, Windows |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Blender
3D, motion and compositing, free forever
Blender models, animates, simulates, renders, composites and cuts video, and the Blender Foundation gives all of it away under the GPL with no tier above it. For motion graphics it is the free answer to a monthly subscription, and the ceiling is the artist rather than the licence. The learning curve is what it costs instead, and that is a real price.
Our note
The honest comparison is not against a cheaper subscription but against time: Blender costs nothing and asks for weeks. If motion graphics is a recurring part of the work that trade is worth making, and if it comes up twice a year it is not.
Only on this side
- Covers design & graphics
- Covers video editing
Cavalry
Procedural 2D animation, free for individuals
Cavalry animates by rules rather than by keyframe: shapes driven by generators, behaviours and data, so a hundred elements move together without a hundred edits. Motion designers use it for the work that would be tedious anywhere else, and it exports to the formats a video timeline expects. The company states plainly that individuals pay nothing. Coming from a keyframe tool, the model takes a while to click, and then it is hard to leave.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.