LottieFiles vs Spline Comparison 2026
Both cover motion graphics & animation and design & graphics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
At a glance
- Spline starts cheaper, at $15.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
LottieFiles | Spline | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $19.99 | From $15 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
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.
LottieFiles
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.
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.
Spline
3D scenes that run in a browser
Spline is a 3D editor in the browser whose output is an interactive scene rather than a rendered file, so the thing you made can sit on a web page and respond to a cursor. Video export and code export are there for when it needs to be flat or embedded properly. The learning curve is much shorter than the desktop tools it competes with.
Our note
Spline is the fastest route from nothing to a 3D thing on a web page, and the free plan is enough to find out whether you enjoy it. Blender is free and does everything, and will take you a month to reach the point Spline reaches in an afternoon.
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.