Animaker vs Rive
Animaker and Rive 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.
Animaker vs Rive at a glance
| Animaker | Rive | smooth.video | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free plan, 1080p from the Starter plan at US$19 a month billed yearly | Free plan, then Cadet at US$9 per seat a month billed yearly | Free, no paid plan |
| Account | Required | Required | Not needed |
As of September 2026. Plans change, so check those of Animaker and Rive before you decide.
Animaker
- Watermark
- On free plan exports
- Export resolution
- 1080p on Starter, 2K on Pro, 4K on Enterprise
- Exports
- Counted each month: 10 on Starter, 30 on Pro
- Where your files live
- In your Animaker account
- Characters and lip-synced voiceover
- Yes
- AI video from a prompt
- Yes
When Animaker fits better
Your video tells a story with characters that walk, talk and react to a voiceover, or you want an AI to draft the whole video from a prompt. smooth.video has no characters and no voiceover.
Animaker vs smooth.videoRive
- Exports on the free plan
- None
- Output
- .riv files for runtimes, plus video and images
- Interactivity and state machines
- Yes
- Runtimes for apps, websites and games
- Yes
- Rigging, meshes, real-time collaboration
- Yes
When Rive fits better
The animation lives in a product and reacts to people: a button that responds to hover, a character that follows the cursor, a loading state driven by your app's data. That takes a runtime, and smooth.video doesn't have one.
Rive vs smooth.videoWhen smooth.video fits better
Your video is made of text, logos, photos, shapes and numbers, you'd rather not count exports, and you want 4K or a transparent overlay without paying for a plan.
The animation ends up in a video, a post, an email or a slide, and plays the same way every time: a logo reveal, a product teaser, an animated stat, a GIF.
Open the editorStart from a template
See all 172 templatesQuestions
- Does smooth.video have characters?
- No. It animates text, images, video, shapes and drawings. To animate a character, bring it in as an image, or as a layered PSD to move its parts separately.
- Can I add a voiceover?
- Yes, recorded elsewhere: add the audio file to the scene and line it up with the animation on the timeline.
- Is there a limit on exports?
- No. Export as many times as you want, at any size.
- Can smooth.video export Lottie or .riv files?
- No. It exports video (MP4 and WebM), GIF and images.
- Can I put a smooth.video animation on a website?
- Yes, as a video or a GIF. It plays the same way for everyone, without reacting to the cursor or to clicks.
- Is there a watermark?
- No, on any format.