Remotion vs Cavalry
Remotion 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.
- Free
- No signup
- No watermark
Remotion vs Cavalry at a glance
| Remotion | Cavalry | smooth.video | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free for individuals and companies of up to 3 people, then a company license | Free for individuals | Free for everyone |
| Transparent video | WebM or ProRes 4444 | WebM, ProRes 4444, plus APNG, GIF and WebP | WebM |
- Price
- RemotionFree for individuals and companies of up to 3 people, then a company license
- CavalryFree for individuals
- smooth.videoFree for everyone
- Transparent video
- RemotionWebM or ProRes 4444
- CavalryWebM, ProRes 4444, plus APNG, GIF and WebP
- smooth.videoWebM
As of September 2026. Plans change, so check those of Remotion and Cavalry before you decide.
Remotion
- How you make a video
- React code
- What you need
- Node.js, a code editor and some React
- Rendering
- On your machine, a server or AWS Lambda
- Videos generated from data, at scale
- Yes
- AI assistants
- Agent skills and a Claude Code plugin
When Remotion fits better
You generate videos from data, personalize them for each user, render them on servers, embed a player in your app, or build your own video product. smooth.video has no API and no server rendering.
Remotion vs smooth.videoCavalry
- Install
- Desktop app for Mac and Windows
- Account
- Canva account required
- How you animate
- Keyframes plus procedural tools: duplicators, falloffs, behaviors
- 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
You want one video, not ten thousand: you'd rather see it and drag things into place than write components, or the person making it doesn't code.
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 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 generate many videos from a spreadsheet?
Not automatically. A script or an AI assistant can write one .smooth file per row, but each one is opened and exported by hand in the editor.
Can an AI assistant make the video?
Yes. The whole format is published at smooth.video/llms.txt: point ChatGPT, Claude or another assistant at it, describe the animation, and open the file it gives you.
Do I need to install anything?
No. The editor and the export both run in your browser.
Can I animate a chart from a spreadsheet?
No. In smooth.video a chart is built from shapes, and its numbers are texts you type, which can count up as they appear. That 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.
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