After Effects vs Biteable
After Effects and Biteable 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
After Effects vs Biteable at a glance
| After Effects | Biteable | smooth.video | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | From US$22.99 a month on an annual plan, 7-day free trial | From US$15 a month billed yearly, or US$29 billed monthly | Free, no paid plan |
| Account | Adobe account required | Required | Not needed |
- Price
- After EffectsFrom US$22.99 a month on an annual plan, 7-day free trial
- BiteableFrom US$15 a month billed yearly, or US$29 billed monthly
- smooth.videoFree, no paid plan
- Account
- After EffectsAdobe account required
- BiteableRequired
- smooth.videoNot needed
As of September 2026. Plans change, so check those of After Effects and Biteable before you decide.
After Effects
- Install
- Desktop app
- How you animate
- Keyframes, graph editor, effects and expressions across compositions
- Transparent video
- Yes
- 3D, visual effects, tracking
- Yes
- Plugins and scripting
- Yes
When After Effects fits better
You need 3D, particles, motion tracking, rotoscoping, compositing over footage, expressions or plugins, or you hand project files to a studio that works in After Effects. smooth.video is 2D only, with no particles, tracking or scripting.
After Effects vs smooth.videoBiteable
- Free option
- A 7-day trial: watermarked, no MP4 download
- Export resolution
- HD on Pro, 4K on Premium
- Formats
- MP4
- How you build
- Animated scenes, from a script or in the editor
- AI voices, avatars, automatic captions
- Yes
- Video hosting and viewer analytics
- Yes
When Biteable fits better
You write a script and want a video built from it, need AI voices, avatars or captions, or want to host the video and see who watched it. smooth.video has no script-to-video, no AI voices and no hosting.
Biteable vs smooth.videoWhen smooth.video fits better
You need a title, a lower third, a logo sting or an animated stat for this week's video, you don't open After Effects every day, and a monthly subscription for a few seconds of animation doesn't add up.
You want to download a short animated video today without a subscription, and you'd rather set the motion yourself than start from a script.
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
Can I open After Effects or Premiere Pro projects?
No. smooth.video opens its own .smooth projects, and imports images, video, audio and layered PSD files.
Can I use the exports in Premiere Pro or After Effects?
Yes, as regular video files. MP4 imports everywhere; for transparency, export a WebM and check that your version reads it.
Is it really free?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no server doing the work, so there's no subscription and no watermark.
Can a video be made from my script?
Not by smooth.video itself, but its project format is published at smooth.video/llms.txt. Give it to ChatGPT, Claude or another assistant along with your script, and open the file it writes in the editor.
Can I add captions?
Yes, as text elements you place on the timeline. There's no automatic transcription.
Is there a watermark?
No, and every download is free.
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