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Both cover motion graphics & animation and design & graphics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Blender | Rive | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | From $9 |
| Pricing model | Free | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | macOS, Windows, Linux | Web |
| 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 |
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
Interactive animation that ships into an app
Rive is the one to reach for when the animation has to respond to something rather than play. A state machine is built alongside the artwork, and runtimes drop the result into a real product. For a creator that mostly means website and app work rather than video, and the learning curve is closer to a design tool than to a filter.
Our note
Rive and Jitter get compared and should not be. Jitter makes a video; Rive makes a thing that reacts. If nobody is going to click it, Rive is the harder tool for no gain.
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.