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.

Yes. It runs in your browser with no server doing the work, so there's no subscription and no watermark.

Does smooth.video generate subtitles?

No. You can type captions as text elements and time them on the timeline, but nothing is transcribed automatically.

How long are my projects kept?

They stay in your browser until you clear its data. Save any of them as a .smooth file to keep a copy or open it on another computer.

After Effects vs Kapwing

After Effects and Kapwing 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.

Open the editorFree, no signup, nothing to install

After Effects vs Kapwing at a glance

	After Effects	Kapwing	smooth.video
Price	From US$22.99 a month on an annual plan, 7-day free trial	Free plan, then Pro from US$16 a month billed yearly	Free, no paid plan
Account	Adobe account required	Required to save a project	Not needed

As of September 2026. Plans change, so check those of After Effects and Kapwing 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 does none of that.

After Effects vs smooth.video

Kapwing

Watermark: On free plan exports
Export resolution: 720p on the free plan, 1080p and 4K on Pro
Projects: Deleted after 3 days on the free plan
Where your files live: In Kapwing's cloud
AI subtitles, translation, dubbing: Yes
Real-time collaboration: Yes

When Kapwing fits better

You edit talking videos and need subtitles, translations or dubbing in many languages, or several people edit and comment in the same project. smooth.video has no subtitle generator and no shared workspace.

Kapwing vs smooth.video

When 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're making the animated pieces of a video, like titles, lower thirds, logo stings or animated stats, want them at full quality without a watermark, and don't need a team workspace.

Open the editor

Start from a template

See all 172 templates

Logo reveal

1080×1080

A name that pops into place

Lower third

1920×1080

Name and title, on cue

Bold statement

1080×1920

Three lines, one point

Product drop

1080×1350

An announcement that lands

Count-up stat

1080×1080

A number that climbs

Quote card

1200×630

A line worth sharing

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.
Does smooth.video generate subtitles?: No. You can type captions as text elements and time them on the timeline, but nothing is transcribed automatically.
How long are my projects kept?: They stay in your browser until you clear its data. Save any of them as a .smooth file to keep a copy or open it on another computer.
Is there a watermark?: No, never.