Adobe Animate vs LottieFiles
Adobe Animate and LottieFiles side by side, as of September 2026: what each one costs, what it's made for, and when smooth.video, a free animation tool that runs in your browser with no account, does the job instead.
- Free
- No signup
- No watermark
Adobe Animate vs LottieFiles at a glance
| Adobe Animate | LottieFiles | smooth.video | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | US$22.99 a month on an annual plan, 7-day free trial | Free plan, then paid plans billed yearly | Free, no paid plan |
- Price
- Adobe AnimateUS$22.99 a month on an annual plan, 7-day free trial
- LottieFilesFree plan, then paid plans billed yearly
- smooth.videoFree, no paid plan
As of September 2026. Plans change, so check those of Adobe Animate and LottieFiles before you decide.
Adobe Animate
- Install
- Desktop app for Windows and macOS
- Account
- Adobe account required
- Development
- Maintenance mode: fixes, no new features
- How you animate
- Frame-by-frame drawing, tweens, bone rigging
- Interactive output
- HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, SVG, sprite sheets
- Photoshop files
- PSD and Illustrator layers imported
When Adobe Animate fits better
You draw frame by frame, rig characters with bones, or deliver interactive HTML5 Canvas content, games or sprite sheets. smooth.video has no frame-by-frame drawing, no bones and no HTML5 output.
Adobe Animate vs smooth.videoLottieFiles
- Output
- Lottie and dotLottie, plus MP4, WebM, MOV and GIF
- Where your files live
- In your LottieFiles workspace
- Video and audio in the scene
- No
- Interactive state machines
- Yes
- Lottie players for apps and websites
- Yes
- After Effects and Figma plugins
- Yes
When LottieFiles fits better
The animation ships inside an app or a website and should stay tiny, sharp at any size, recolorable with themes, or interactive. That's what Lottie is for, and smooth.video doesn't export it.
LottieFiles vs smooth.videoWhen smooth.video fits better
You used Animate for banners, animated logos or social posts, you'd rather not pay for a tool that no longer gets new features, and your animation is made of text, images and shapes that move rather than drawings.
The animation goes in a video, a social post, an email or a presentation rather than in an app: a logo reveal, a Reel, an animated banner, a lower third. You want a video file, maybe with photos or footage in it.
Open the editor- Free, full stop
- No plan, no trial, no credits, no export limit.
- No account
- Open the page and the editor is already there.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Your files are read and rendered by your own browser.
- No watermark
- Every export is clean, at any size, 4K included.
Start from a template
See all 203 templatesOpen one, change the words, export. Every element stays editable.
Questions
Is Adobe Animate discontinued?
No. Adobe announced its end in February 2026 and reversed the decision the next day: Animate stays available, with security and bug fixes but no new features.
Can I open .fla files?
No. Export your artwork from Animate as PNG images, then animate them in smooth.video.
Can I make HTML5 banner ads?
Not as HTML5: smooth.video exports video, GIF and images. Where an ad slot takes a GIF or an MP4, a banner made here works.
Can smooth.video open or export Lottie files?
Neither. It imports images, video, audio and layered PSD files, and exports video, GIF and images.
Can I use photos and video in my animation?
Yes. Add images, video clips and audio to the scene next to your text and shapes.
Do I need an account?
No, and there's no workspace either. Your current project is autosaved in your browser; save it as a .smooth file on your computer to keep it.
Or skip the decision.
smooth.video is free, opens in a tab and exports without a watermark. Try it while you compare.
Open the editor- Free
- No signup
- No watermark