LottieFiles vs Cavalry
LottieFiles 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.
LottieFiles vs Cavalry at a glance
| LottieFiles | Cavalry | smooth.video | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free plan, then paid plans billed yearly | Free for individuals | Free, no paid plan |
As of September 2026. Plans change, so check those of LottieFiles and Cavalry before you decide.
LottieFiles
- 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, recolourable with themes, or interactive. That's what Lottie is for, and smooth.video doesn't export it.
LottieFiles vs smooth.videoCavalry
- Install
- Desktop app for Mac and Windows
- Account
- Canva account required
- How you animate
- Keyframes plus procedural tools: duplicators, falloffs, behaviours
- Transparent video
- WebM, ProRes 4444, plus APNG, GIF and WebP
- 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 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.
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 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. Your projects stay in your browser, and you can save any of them as a .smooth file.
- 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.