Making the work
Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover motion graphics & animation and design & graphics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
3D, motion and compositing, free forever
Lottie animations, from library to production
Blender | LottieFiles | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | From $19.99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on (they differ) |
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.
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
Lottie animations, from library to production
LottieFiles is everything that grew around a file format: a library of ready animations, tools to edit and optimise them, and the players that put them into a site or an app. A Lottie is vector, so it scales and stays small, which is why it ended up in most modern interfaces rather than a GIF. Designers hand off to developers here without a video file in between. It is not where the animation gets made from scratch.
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.
| macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android |
| Covers | Motion Graphics & Animation, Design & Graphics, Video Editing | Motion Graphics & Animation, Design & Graphics |
|---|
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
|---|
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
|---|
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
|---|
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
|---|
Our note
Most people need the free tier and a player, not a subscription, so start there and only pay when the editing or the private hosting becomes the blocker. The paid plans are aimed at teams producing animations rather than at people using them.