Adobe Express vs Cavalry
Adobe Express and Cavalry 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.
Adobe Express vs Cavalry at a glance
| Adobe Express | Cavalry | smooth.video | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free plan, Premium at US$9.99 a month | Free for individuals | Free, no paid plan |
| Transparent video | Not supported | WebM, ProRes 4444, plus APNG, GIF and WebP | Free, as WebM |
As of September 2026. Plans change, so check those of Adobe Express and Cavalry before you decide.
Adobe Express
- Built for
- Every kind of design: social posts, flyers, PDFs, presentations, video
- Motion
- In, Loop and Out presets, with duration, speed and intensity
- Photoshop files
- PSD and Illustrator files placed linked or converted
- Where your files live
- In Adobe's cloud, 5 GB on the free plan
- Templates and stock
- 100,000+ templates and Adobe Stock
- Generative AI
- Firefly, with monthly credits
When Adobe Express fits better
You need matching flyers, posts and presentations from a huge library of templates and stock, you work with Photoshop and Illustrator files that stay linked, or you want AI to generate images. Animation is a finishing touch.
Adobe Express vs smooth.videoCavalry
- Install
- Desktop app for Mac and Windows
- Account
- Canva account required
- How you animate
- Keyframes plus procedural tools: duplicators, falloffs, behaviours
- Animation driven by spreadsheets
- Yes
- Rigging, dynamics, scripting
- Yes
- Lottie and SVG export
- Yes
When Cavalry fits better
You build complex motion design: hundreds of shapes driven by one rig, charts animated from a spreadsheet, dynamics, scripts, or Lottie and ProRes deliverables. smooth.video has none of that.
Cavalry vs smooth.videoWhen smooth.video fits better
The animation is the deliverable: an intro, a lower third, an animated stat, a Reel. You want to decide exactly where each element is at each moment, and a transparent export to put over video.
You need an animated title, a logo reveal or a social post today, on any computer, including one where you can't install software, and you don't need procedural systems to get there.
Open the editorStart from a template
See all 172 templatesQuestions
- Can I bring my Adobe Express designs in?
- Yes, as images: download your design or its parts as PNG, add them to a scene and animate them in smooth.video.
- Can I animate a Photoshop file?
- Yes. Drop the PSD into the editor and each layer becomes its own element, in place, ready to animate.
- Is there a watermark?
- No. Every export is free and clean, transparent WebM included.
- Can I animate a chart from a spreadsheet?
- No, you type the values in. smooth.video suits a handful of figures; for charts built from real data, Cavalry is the better fit.
- Can I open Cavalry projects?
- No. smooth.video opens its own .smooth files and imports images, video, audio and layered PSD files.
- Do I need to install anything?
- No. The editor and every export run in your browser.