Guides · · Maxwell Prehoda
13 After Effects Alternatives for Web Animation, Sorted by What a Browser Can Play
If your animation ends up on a website or in an app, the best After Effects alternative is the one whose export a browser can play without a workaround. For quick product and marketing motion in the browser, Jitter. For interactive animation, Rive. For a free, professional desktop app with Lottie export, Cavalry, which Canva now makes free for individuals. For designers already in Figma, Figma Motion, which copies animations out as CSS and React. And if you would rather write code than drag keyframes, Remotion and Motion Canvas build motion graphics in TypeScript.
Most After Effects alternative lists are about video editing and compositing. This one is only about motion that ships to the web, so every entry says what it exports. We checked each tool's site and pricing in November 2026.
1. Jitter: Best for product and marketing motion made in the browser
Platform: Browser-based; free plan with watermark, paid per editor
Jitter is the tool most After Effects users try first for UI motion. It runs in the browser, works like a shared design file with comments and links, and starts from 400+ remixable templates made by Jitter and outside studios. AI agents can turn a described idea into editable animations, and animated components update everywhere they are used.
For the web, the important part is the export list: video, GIF and Lottie are available even on the free plan, WebM is on Pro, and transparent export, for laying motion over a page, is on Max and above.
Watch out for: Free exports are 720p at 30fps and watermarked. It is built for short product motion, so long-form compositing and heavy effects work still belong in a video tool.
2. Rive: Best for interactive animation that runs live in the page
Platform: Rive Editor; MIT runtimes for web, iOS, Android and more; paid per seat to ship
After Effects renders a fixed timeline. Rive files run live: art, motion and state machines in one small .riv file played by an open-source runtime, so a button, mascot or onboarding scene can react to hover, taps and app data. It has bones and meshes for rigging, a graph editor for hand-shaped easing, responsive layouts, and imports from Figma and Flash.
Pick it when the animation needs to respond. Duolingo, Spotify and LinkedIn have all shipped Rive work; our Rive vs Lottie guide has the details.
Watch out for: There is no After Effects import, so existing comps are rebuilt by hand. Free-plan exports include a Rive splash screen.
3. Cavalry: Best for a free, professional 2D motion app with Lottie export
Platform: macOS and Windows desktop; free for individuals with a Canva account
Cavalry is a real-time 2D animation and motion graphics app that is now made by Canva and free to download and use for individuals; legacy Pro and Teams licenses can be swapped for the free version. It is procedural where After Effects is layer-based: duplicators, falloffs, rigs, rubber hose, magic easing and Forge Dynamics let one setup drive hundreds of elements, and Data Import connects a spreadsheet so you can animate charts and variants at scale.
It exports Lottie, which makes it one of the few pro-grade desktop tools with a direct path to the web.
Our Isometric Bar Chart Rise below is a pure-CSS take on the data-driven charts Cavalry is popular for, though ours has fixed values rather than a spreadsheet behind it.
Watch out for: You need a Canva account to use it, and it is a desktop app, so collaboration is file-based. A procedural workflow is a different way of thinking for After Effects users, so budget learning time.
4. Figma Motion: Best for designers who want motion in the same file as the UI
Platform: Figma Design, open beta
Figma Motion, announced at Config in June 2026, adds a timeline next to any Figma frame. You keyframe position, scale, rotation and opacity, refine with bezier curves and springs, stack preset styles like fade and scale, and keep motion values as variables in your design system. The Figma agent can also add keyframes from a description.
For web teams this replaces the After Effects round trip: developers open Dev Mode, see the timeline and copy the animation as CSS, JSON or React, and you can export MP4, GIF, SVG or WebM for everyone else.
Watch out for: It is in open beta: full screen-to-screen timelines and 3D transforms were marked coming soon, the agent for motion needs a paid plan, and Starter users get limited exports.
5. Lottie Creator: Best for After Effects-style keyframing that outputs Lottie
Platform: LottieFiles web editor; free with limited exports, paid per seat
If your team's After Effects work already ships as Lottie through Bodymovin, Lottie Creator is the closest replacement that skips After Effects entirely. It is a web editor with refined keyframe control, a graph editor for speed and easing, and state machines that connect animations to clicks, hovers and data. Motion Copilot builds editable layers and keyframes from a text prompt.
Exports cover Lottie JSON, dotLottie, WebM, MP4, MOV and GIF, so one file serves the app and the social post.
Watch out for: Free users can export only five animations, according to its FAQ. It is optimized for desktop browsers.
6. Lottielab: Best for animating Figma designs into Lottie
Platform: Lottielab; free plan exports GIF and MP4, Lottie on Pro
Lottielab is a motion tool for product teams that imports designs from Figma, converts SVG to Lottie, and exports GIF, MP4, WebM and Lottie. Pro adds HD and 4K video, file size optimization and Lottie hosting on a CDN, plus a team library and comments.
Choose it when the job is "animate this Figma illustration for the app" and nobody wants to rebuild it in After Effects first.
Watch out for: The free plan does not export Lottie, which is usually the reason to pick it.
7. SVGator: Best for logo and illustration animation as animated SVG
Platform: SVGator web app; free plan exports static SVG only
SVGator keyframes vector artwork and exports it as animated SVG driven by CSS or JavaScript, plus Lottie, React Native and Flutter code on its Starter plan, and video and GIF on Pro. An animated SVG is a single file you can inline in a page, with no video codec and no JSON player.
It is a good After Effects replacement for one specific, common job: a logo reveal or hero illustration that has to be sharp at every size.
Watch out for: Animated exports are paid only. Complex After Effects effects such as blur-heavy glows and particles do not translate to SVG well.
8. Remotion: Best for data-driven and personalized videos built in React
Platform: React framework; free for individuals and small companies, license for larger ones
Remotion makes videos and motion graphics with React components, so animation is code you can version, parameterize and generate. It has a Studio for previewing and editing, server-side and client-side rendering, and the Remotion Player, which embeds a live, customizable video inside a React app. Its homepage cites more than 69,000 GitHub stars and customers including SoundCloud, Musixmatch, Wistia and GitHub.
Pick it when you need hundreds of variants (one per user, one per product) or when your motion designer is really a front-end developer.
The clip below is our own Podcast Audiogram Studio style prompt, the kind of code-drawn, template-friendly video Remotion is often used to produce at scale.
Watch out for: The free license covers individuals, nonprofits and for-profit companies with up to three employees; larger companies need a company license. You are writing React, not dragging layers.
9. Motion Canvas: Best for explainer animations written in TypeScript
Platform: Open source (MIT), TypeScript with a browser editor
Motion Canvas describes itself as a way to visualize complex ideas programmatically. You write each animation step as a TypeScript generator function in your own editor, Vite updates a real-time preview as you type, and a web-based editor lets you sync the animation to a voiceover. It has about 19,600 GitHub stars and is MIT licensed.
It is a favorite for technical explainers where the animation follows the narration line by line.
Watch out for: It renders an image sequence (PNG, JPEG or WebP frames); you turn it into video with a tool like ffmpeg or a video editor. It is not built for embedding live animations on web pages.
10. Theatre.js: Best for keyframing three.js scenes and web UI in the browser
Platform: JavaScript library plus studio editor; core Apache 2.0, studio AGPL 3.0
Theatre.js brings an After Effects-style sequence editor, dope sheet and graph editor into your web project. You keyframe values visually while the page runs, and the library plays them back in production; it has guides for React Three Fiber, three.js and plain HTML, CSS and SVG. Because it only changes JavaScript values, it works with any stack.
It is the closest thing to After Effects for a live 3D or WebGL scene, where exporting a video would throw away the interactivity.
Watch out for: Only the core ships in your bundle; the studio editor is AGPL and meant for development. The public repository notes that development has moved to a private repo for now, so check the project's status before betting a large build on it.
11. Glaxnimate: Best for free, open-source vector animation with Lottie export
Platform: Desktop app for Linux, Windows and Mac; part of KDE
Glaxnimate is an open-source vector animation and motion design desktop app, now part of KDE. It exports Lottie, animated GIF, animated WebP and animated SVG, which covers most of what a website needs from a simple animation.
Pick it if you want a free, offline tool and your animations are flat vector work: icons, small illustrations, simple logo motion.
Watch out for: It is a much smaller tool than After Effects or Cavalry, with fewer effects and a smaller community. Its site does not list video export.
12. Our Animation Studio: Best for describing a scene instead of keyframing it
Platform: Motions Animation Studio, paid; exports HTML, React, MP4, GIF Ours
The Animation Studio replaces the blank After Effects timeline with a description. Describe the scene and Claude draws the art, choreographs the motion and checks every frame. Then you scrub the timeline, tune eases and springs, box any part of the frame to change it, and export to HTML or React for the web, or MP4 or GIF for everywhere else.
The Cinematic Title Card below is one of our CC0 style prompts with its rendered video.
Watch out for: It is for scenes built from type, shapes, illustration and UI. It is not a compositor for live-action footage, and it does not export Lottie or .riv.
13. Our Motion Prompts directory: Best for prompts people use to make motion design with Claude
Platform: Motions directory, free Ours
Some motion designers now skip the timeline and prompt Claude to write the animation as code. Our Motion Prompts directory has 601 entries: prompts and skills people used, credited to their creators, plus our own CC0 style prompts that each come with a rendered video.
The Motion Designer Showreel below, credited to kirill sh, is the one-line prompt behind dozens of model-made showreels. Our posts on motion graphics with Claude and Claude animation prompts show the workflow.
Watch out for: A prompt gets you a first draft, not a finished piece. Plan on several rounds of edits, and on checking timing by eye, the way you would review any animator's work.
How to choose an After Effects alternative for the web
Start from the export
Write down what the page or app will actually load. Interactive in an app: Rive or Lottie (Lottie Creator, Lottielab, Cavalry, Glaxnimate). Sharp vector on a web page: animated SVG from SVGator, or CSS. Code in your repo: CSS or React from Figma Motion, or HTML and React from our Studio. Video for social or a hero loop: Jitter, Remotion or any tool here. Then shortlist only tools that export it.
Match it to how you like to work
Timeline and keyframes in a browser: Jitter, Lottie Creator, Figma Motion. Pro desktop with procedural rigs: Cavalry. Code: Remotion for React video, Motion Canvas for TypeScript explainers, Theatre.js for live 3D. Description first: our Studio or a prompt from Motion Prompts.
Check what free really means
Several tools are free to design in but charge to export: SVGator's free plan exports only static SVG, Lottielab's has no Lottie export, Rive adds a splash screen, Lottie Creator caps free exports. Cavalry and Glaxnimate are free to export, and Motion Canvas is MIT. Remotion is free for individuals and companies with up to three employees. Our AI animation tools guide covers the generative options.
Ship one animation without opening After Effects
Take the next small motion job on your list (a logo sting, a feature highlight, an onboarding loop) and make it in one tool from this list that exports the format you need. Time how long the round trip to the live page takes compared with your usual After Effects export. That number usually decides it.
For scenes built from type, shapes and UI, describe it to the Studio and export the format you need.
Make a 6-second logo sting for a web hero: four flat shapes slide in from the edges on staggered springs 100ms apart, snap together into the logo mark at 1.8s, then the wordmark wipes in from the left over 400ms with an ease-out curve. Use a dark navy background and one warm accent color. Hold the final frame for 2 seconds so it can loop cleanly. Export as HTML, and give a reduced-motion version that fades the finished logo in over 300ms.
Common questions
What is the best free alternative to After Effects for web animation?
Cavalry is free for individuals and exports Lottie, Glaxnimate is free and open source with Lottie, GIF, WebP and SVG export, and Motion Canvas is free under MIT if you are happy writing TypeScript. Jitter's free plan exports watermarked video, GIF and Lottie.
Can I make Lottie animations without After Effects?
Yes. Lottie Creator, Lottielab (Lottie export on Pro), Jitter, Cavalry, SVGator (Starter and above) and Glaxnimate all export Lottie without After Effects.
Is Cavalry really free now?
Yes, for individuals. Cavalry's site says it is now brought to you by Canva and completely free to download and use, with a Canva account required. Enterprises go through Canva's enterprise plans.
What is the After Effects equivalent for UI animation?
For designers, Figma Motion and Jitter are the closest, with Rive for interactive work. For developers, CSS and libraries like GSAP or Motion. Our UI animation tools guide compares them.
Can I make motion graphics with code instead?
Yes. Remotion builds videos in React, Motion Canvas in TypeScript, and Theatre.js keyframes live web scenes. You can also prompt Claude to write the animation; our Motion Prompts directory collects prompts people used.