Renderforest vs Cavalry
Renderforest 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.
Renderforest vs Cavalry at a glance
| Renderforest | Cavalry | smooth.video | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free plan, then paid plans with monthly credits | Free for individuals | Free, no paid plan |
| Account | Required | Canva account required | Not needed |
As of September 2026. Plans change, so check those of Renderforest and Cavalry before you decide.
Renderforest
- Watermark
- On free plan exports
- Export resolution
- 720p on the free and Lite plans, 1080p on Pro, 4K on Business
- How you edit
- Template scenes, some with fixed, pre-rendered animation
- Where your files live
- In your Renderforest account
- AI video, text-to-speech, stock footage
- Yes
- Logos and websites
- Yes, in the same account
When Renderforest fits better
You want a finished video from very little input: an AI-generated clip, a voiceover read by text-to-speech, stock footage, or a logo and a website made in the same place. smooth.video has none of those.
Renderforest vs smooth.videoCavalry
- Install
- Desktop app for Mac and Windows
- 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
You want an intro, a logo sting or an animated title in full HD or 4K without buying a plan, and you'd like to change how things move, not only the text inside a scene.
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 I use a Renderforest template in smooth.video?
- No, but smooth.video has its own gallery of intros, logo reveals and titles, and every element in them can be changed.
- Is my video rendered on a server?
- No. The export runs in your browser, so there's no queue and nothing to upload. A long 4K video takes a while on a slower computer.
- Is there a watermark?
- No, never, at any resolution.
- 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.