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    6 apps instead of a motion designer

    After Effects, Jitter, Rive, LottieFiles, Versely, and Runway cover motion weeks. Pick by keyframes, Figma, runtime, Lottie, one-tap, or cinema.

    Versely Team••8 min read

    A motion designer is a person with a graph editor, a logo file, and a delivery that has to loop. A shop that posts every week often has a wordmark, a packshot, and a 4-second sting before the Reel. Six apps cover that week without booking a designer. After Effects is the real comp. Jitter is motion from a Figma frame. Rive is the interactive runtime. LottieFiles is the JSON you drop on the web. Versely is the one-tap or the packshot orbit when the "motion" is a clip, not a comp. Runway is the cinematic generate when the sting has to look directed. This page is that list. It is not "best AI motion graphics 2026." It is not a pitch to fire a human who already animates well.

    Hire the designer when the job is a brand system, a lower-third pack, or a logo that has to match a 40-page guide. Use the six apps when the job is Tuesday's 4-second loop.

    What weekly motion actually is

    Most weeks are not a Super Bowl bumper. They are:

    • A logo that eases in over 2 seconds
    • Type that slams, then holds
    • A packshot that turns once
    • A Lottie for the site header
    • An end card that matches last week's end card

    A motion designer solves the first one on a timeline and bills the rest as versions. The apps split the rest. The mistake is buying After Effects because the intern used it at school, or buying Runway because the demo was cinematic, when the file had to be a 12kb JSON.

    Motion in, file out. If the file has to be a photograph of the unit you ship, shoot it first. Then decide who moves it.

    The six apps

    1. Adobe After Effects. This is the default if the junior designer already thinks in keyframes. Adobe's After Effects page (read 17 September 2026) lists the single-app plan at US$22.99 a month on annual billed monthly. Creative Cloud Pro is US$69.99 a month, with US$34.99 for the first three months for eligible new subscribers. Photutorial's 30 July 2026 US recapture matches the $22.99 line. You get the desktop app, Express Premium, Frame.io, 100GB, and 25 monthly generative credits. After Effects is a comp. It is not a Lottie exporter unless you add a plugin workflow. Stay here when the sting has to be directed frame by frame. Leave when the source is a Figma frame and you wanted Jitter, or when the delivery is a .riv file.

    2. Jitter. Open Jitter when the motion starts as a design file, not as footage. Jitter's pricing page (read 20 September 2026) is Free, Pro, Max, Ultra, Enterprise, billed per editor. Annual saves 15 percent. Free is 720p, 30fps, watermark, 3 workspace files, limited AI credits. Pro removes the watermark, unlocks unlimited files, 1080p/60fps, ProRes and WebM, and image-to-video. Max adds 4K/120fps, transparent export, and 2x Pro AI credits. Ultra is 3x Max AI credits. Students get Pro free. An independent August 2026 comparison (iArt.ai, verified 16 September 2026) put paid Jitter from about $16 a month. Quote the live card at checkout. The dollars load in the plan picker. Jitter is Figma-to-motion. It is not After Effects. Do not buy Max because you wanted a graph editor.

    3. Rive. Open Rive when the motion has to run in an app, a game, or a site, not as an MP4. Rive's pricing page (read 20 September 2026, monthly) is Free at $0 (3 collaborative files), Cadet at $9 a seat a month (3 seats max, unlimited files, export .riv), Voyager at $32 a seat a month (25 seats, libraries, embed hosting, $20/seat agent credits), Enterprise at $120 a seat a month for orgs at $10M+ revenue. Rive's docs table (15 September 2026) lists Cadet annual at $108 a seat a year and Voyager annual at $304. Free is enough to learn. Cadet is the ship-the-runtime seat. Rive is the wrong first click if the Reel needs an MP4 with captions. It is the right click if the logo has to respond to a hover.

    4. LottieFiles. Open LottieFiles when the delivery is a Lottie, not a movie. LottieFiles' pricing page (read 20 September 2026) lists Individual at $19.99 per user per month billed annually, Team at $24.99, Enterprise contact. Independent March–July 2026 breakdowns of that table give Individual 300 AI credits a month and Team 600. Free exists for preview, testing, and the free library. You stay for Creator, CDN hosting, and the After Effects / Figma plugins. You leave when the file had to be a 4-second product orbit. A Lottie is marks in time. A packshot turn is pixels in time. They are not the same job.

    5. Versely. Versely sits here because a lot of "motion" weeks are a still that has to move, not a comp that has to loop. A packshot orbit is image-to-video with Hailuo 2.3 Fast at 12 credits for 6s discounted (23 full) and 23 credits for 10s (45 full). If the still is a person and the clip is a named dance, MJ Dance is about 57 credits discounted (63 full). That is motion control, not a graph editor. Do not run MJ Dance on a wordmark. Do not run Hailuo and call it a Lottie. Versely is not After Effects. It will not deliver a .aep. It is not Rive. It will not ship a state machine. It is the app when the designer would have been hired to make a 6-second product move, and you would rather pick a row.

    6. Runway. Open Runway when the sting has to look like a commercial, not like a template. Runway's pricing (read 19 September 2026, yearly) is Free at 125 one-time credits, Standard $15 / $12 with 625 credits a month, Pro $35 / $28 with 2,250, Max $95 / $76 with 9,500 and one-month rollover. Unlimited Explore is gone. Gen-4.5 is 12 credits a second on that table, so Standard is about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 before retries. Image-to-video from a locked first frame is a real Runway job. A weekly logo loop is a Jitter job you just made expensive. On Versely the published Runway Gen-4.5 row is a different door than the Runway seat. This list means the vendor app.

    How to pick for a Tuesday

    Write the week in one sentence before you open an app.

    • "The sting has to match last year's AE project": After Effects.
    • "The frame already lives in Figma": Jitter Pro if you need no watermark.
    • "It has to hover in the app": Rive Cadet.
    • "The site header wants a Lottie": LottieFiles Individual.
    • "The packshot has to turn," or "the clip is a named dance": Versely Hailuo or MJ Dance.
    • "The hero film has to look directed": Runway, from a still you would print.

    Two apps is a shop. Jitter plus LottieFiles covers a lot of web motion. After Effects plus a Lottie plugin covers a designer who already comps. Versely plus Jitter covers a week that is half packshot, half title card. Six apps is a stack you will not open.

    A motion designer on four stings a year is still cheaper than six seats you forget to cancel. The six apps win when the cadence is weekly and the files are 4 seconds.

    What still needs a human

    A logo system with 40 lockups. A broadcast package with safe-title and legal. A runtime that has to hit 60fps on a cheap phone. Those are hire days. Do not generate a cousin of the wordmark and hope the brand team does not notice.

    Loop still matters. A 6-second Hailuo clip is not a seamless Lottie. If the file has to cycle on the PDP, design the loop. If the file is a Reel, a one-shot orbit is enough.

    When the still is locked and the job is a short orbit, sign up and run image-to-video. When the job is a Figma frame, stay in Jitter. The list is six apps. The week is usually one file.

    FAQ

    Can these six replace a motion designer for a brand package?

    For a weekly 4-second Reel sting, often. For a 15-second broadcast open, a lower-third kit, or a logo that has to match print, no. The apps remove the Tuesday scramble. They do not remove a system you actually wanted designed.

    Do I need After Effects if Jitter already exports ProRes?

    No. After Effects is the comp the client named, or the graph editor you already think in. Jitter is Figma-to-motion. Using both is how you pay $22.99 a month to sit next to a browser timeline.

    Why is Versely next to Jitter and Runway?

    Because a packshot orbit and a named dance are different jobs from "animate this Figma frame" and "make a cinematic generate." Hailuo is not Jitter. MJ Dance is not Runway Gen-4.5. If your week is a title card, you do not need Versely. If your week is one still that has to move, you might.