Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe After Effects
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Adobe After Effects allows users to create cinematic movie titles, intros, and transitions, remove an object from a clip, start a fire or make it rain, or animate a logo or character. The vendor states that with After Effects, users can apply motion-graphics and animation to any digital object.
$20.99
Per User Per Month
Adobe Animate
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Animate (or Animate CC) supports but replaces the former Adobe Flash, and allows users to design interactive animations for games, TV shows, and the web. With it, the vendor states users can bring cartoons and banner ads to life, create animated doodles and avatars, and add action to eLearning content and infographics. With Animate, users can publish to multiple platforms in many formats, and reach viewers on any screen.
$20.99
per month
Adobe InDesign
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Adobe InDesign supports creating digital and print documents such as flyers, stationary, posters, and other types of media, with rich graphics, images, and more. Adobe InDesign is available standalone or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite collection of media management and creation products.
$31.49
per month
Pricing
Adobe After EffectsAdobe AnimateAdobe InDesign
Editions & Modules
Annual Plan (Paid Monthly)
$20.99
Per User Per Month
Monthly Plan
$31.49
Per User Per Month
Annual Plan (Prepaid)
$239.88
Per User Per Year
Annual Plan, Paid Monthly
$20.99
per month
Monthly Plan
$31.49
per month
Annual Plan, Prepaid
$239.88
per year
Monthly Plan
$31.49
per month
Annual Plan, Prepaid
$239.88 ($19.99)
per year (per month)
Annual Plan, Paid Monthly
$251.88 ($20.99)
per year (per month)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe After EffectsAdobe AnimateAdobe InDesign
Free Trial
NoYesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe After EffectsAdobe AnimateAdobe InDesign
Considered Multiple Products
Adobe After Effects
Chose Adobe After Effects
Because they are part of the Creative Cloud platform, all Adobe software. They are well integrated into each other. If I create a vector in Illustrator and save it, load it up in After Effects, and notice that I need to adjust it? Well I don't have to fully close out of After …
Chose Adobe After Effects
Because of our use of other Adobe products, and how they all play well together, we never really looked at using any other product.
Chose Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro are quite similar in the sense of their functionalities as far as I'm aware and the interfaces are more or less similar. But Adobe After Effects is preferred over Final Cut Pro mostly because of the fact that it is part of the Adobe …
Chose Adobe After Effects
The family apps advantage puts Adobe After Effects at a higher preference for me, but I have heard that Final Cut Pro is also great if you deal with footage and animation.
Chose Adobe After Effects
We have taken After Effects because Adobe Animate is completely focused on animation rather than other things which After Effects can handle very easily, like we needed a program which can handle the professional animation, speed up our workflow, and can do various things like …
Adobe Animate
Chose Adobe Animate
We initially used after effects for many of our animations because it was part of our creative cloud subscription and some teammates had experience. We discovered some of the all-in-on features of Animate and decided to migrate a large percentage of our training video …
Chose Adobe Animate
I find After Effects more difficult to learn. Both are in the same Adobe CC subscription and both have a great interface. But the possibilities in features make After Effects more difficult. Therefore I like to use Animate when the assignment does not need to much complexity, …
Chose Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate works best for advanced animation and cuts and works well with the entire Adobe suite. There is nothing that compares when it comes to working within the same product.
Adobe InDesign
Chose Adobe InDesign
I have previously used Quark Xpress, but as Adobe InDesign became the leader for professional designers, I transitioned to [Adobe] InDesign. I find Adobe InDesign a lot easier to work with. I have tried Affinity Publisher, but I have not [gotten] very far with trying it out. I …
Best Alternatives
Adobe After EffectsAdobe AnimateAdobe InDesign
Small Businesses
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Maya
Score 8.4 out of 10
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Maya
Score 8.4 out of 10
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 7.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Blender
Blender
Score 9.2 out of 10
Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects
Score 9.1 out of 10
Canva
Canva
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate
Score 8.4 out of 10
Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects
Score 9.1 out of 10
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 7.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe After EffectsAdobe AnimateAdobe InDesign
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(37 ratings)
8.0
(28 ratings)
9.0
(101 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(8 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
7.5
(11 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(64 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe After EffectsAdobe AnimateAdobe InDesign
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
I would recommend Adobe After Effects to a colleague above all other comparable software that I have used, however, with the caveat that it can be time-consuming to learn to use and can be frustrating if you are not familiar with the software. Difficulty aside, once you begin to understand how to use Adobe After Effects, it is the only software for the job.
Read full review
Adobe
Scenarios where Adobe Animate is well suited:2D animation for web, mobile, and video games: Adobe Animate is well suited for creating 2D animations for web, mobile, and video games. With its vector-based drawing tools, bone rigging, and inverse kinematics features, it's easy to create smooth, scalable graphics and realistic movement.Scenarios where Adobe Animate is less appropriate:Complex 3D animation: Adobe Animate is primarily a 2D animation software, and while it does have some basic 3D features, it is not as robust as specialized 3D animation software like Autodesk Maya or Blender.
Read full review
Adobe
Adobe InDesign is very well-suited to creating professional-looking page designs. If you want a newspaper or magazine to have attractive pages that go beyond simple templates, InDesign is the best option out there, to my knowledge. It's less suited to scenarios where people without page design skills are responsible for creating pages, as it requires some training and skills to use effectively.
Read full review
Pros
Adobe
  • Adobe After Effects allows you to exercise a great level of control over how to animate just about every aspect of an object. You can control animation speed of entry and exit, the direction of rotation, scale, position, and so many more attributes.
  • Adobe After Effects is so popular that you can find so many paid and free third-party plug-ins and scripts to incorporate into your project.
  • There is such a breadth and depth of features available in Adobe After Effects, you will never get tired of exploring the program and using its many features to take your projects to new heights
  • Adobe After Effects works well with other products in the Adobe Creative Suites including, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Media Encoder
  • Adobe After Effects allows you to customize the setup of your workspace and panels
Read full review
Adobe
  • The adaptability of what Adobe Animate can do makes it so helpful. You can accomplish something basic like make a ball bob on-screen over certain letters prior to showing your logo, or something more mind-boggling like building up a vivified short to show.
  • Utilizing Adobe Animate recordings on sites is typical, so individuals are accustomed to seeing it and have the essential modules introduced as of now.
  • The records are little, and the pressure is extremely smooth. This aids in the event that you are attempting to send substance to cell phones or essentially keep your site impression little to guarantee quick stacking times.
Read full review
Adobe
  • Customization - With Adobe InDesign, as well as many other applications in the Adobe Creative Suite, I can fully customize my workspaces and save different workspaces. This makes it easy to navigate through my project and have the panels and tools I need easily accessible and configured based on my project needs.
  • Styles - Adobe InDesign has character styles, object styles, and tables styles. This speeds up my workflows and allows me to easily apply the same format across multiple elements. This is super helpful, especially when working with length documents.
  • File compatibility - I can easily export my files into so many different file types.
  • The Book feature - This feature is really helpful when creating books or very long documents with multiple sections.
Read full review
Cons
Adobe
  • I would like the Re-Link file structure to mimic Premiere.
  • I would like to see native .obj importing and manipulation.
  • I would like to see better audio editing available within Adobe After Effects. if it could be given a separate layer/panel.
Read full review
Adobe
  • There are too many updates and they are constantly popping up - especially during the middle of a projects, which causes me to shut down the application and restart the program. Wastes time.
  • There is no mobile browser or device support. Limits a lot of projects - especially apps.
  • Flash player can require a lot of RAM and battery
Read full review
Adobe
  • Not naturally a WYSIWYG display (this is an option, and doesn't always work as intended)
  • Moving images and photos around while holding an additional key
  • Layers or objects are not easily clickable behind other objects.
  • Adobe InDesign does require some fair system resources to work smoothly
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
I will renew my use of After Effects since it's affordable and always has been reliable. They also always continue to update new features and add new things to compete with other software out there. I also like all the 3rd party plugins out there that keep my interest for the future and new toolsets and creative solutions.
Read full review
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
I've had great experiences with the product and plan to continue to use it. It has been my go-to product for designing and creating materials. I have had great luck with it and have been able to create all of the needed marketing materials that have been requested for our company.
Read full review
Usability
Adobe
There's a lot of features and functionality that Adobe After Effects offers that can be hard to navigate at times. Depending on the depth you plan to use the software for, that can take some time to learn. The built-in templates and tutorials really help soften that learning curve. Once you get past some of the basics, it's fairly simple to use.
Read full review
Adobe
Adobe Animate is difficult to learn because its totally different from the other animation tools but one thing for sure if you want to build a quality on industry standards then Adobe Animate is your knight in shining armour. so using Adobe Animate is easy but you have to spend a lot of time learning it and practicing it. their ui is more like a design software with added keyframes. but if you know your way to work it will be a legend to work with.
Read full review
Adobe
If you know what you are doing it is an amazingly granular and powerful application. You can control pretty much any aspect of the design and layout of your documents and make changes globally and rapidly. But, if you don't know what you are doing...you will be staring at your screen in bewilderment for a long time. You can learn it, but be ready for a hefty time investment.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
I've needed Adobe InDesign team very little which is a bonus in and of itself.
Read full review
Performance
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
One of the advantages of Adobe InDesign is it is faster and less glitchy than Microsoft Word.
Read full review
Support Rating
Adobe
Adobe customer support is wonderful. They genuinely care about their product and the end user experience. The products they create have always been innovative and continue to improve. They have a huge chunk of the user market in their field and still strive to improve. This is such a big deal for me and other small business/organizations that need their products and don't have a large voice on our own.
Read full review
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
Adobe support is ok but not great. Chat support often doesn't initially understand the question at-hand and it takes awhile to get to the right agent. Phone support has long wait times, and though I've had more luck there, it does take quite a time investment if you are looking for help. However, Adobe does have some online learning solutions available as well as a knowledgebase for frequently asked questions. If you're looking to learn how to use the platform, there are lots of resources which can typically be found in a few Google searches. If you have a technical issue with the system, that's going to be a bit more of a time investment as far as getting a tech's assistance to resolve the problem.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
Attending Adobe MAX each year is extremely valuable.
Read full review
Online Training
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
The online training works well and is not wholly necessary as it is user-friendly and you can learn by doing.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
Implementation was smooth and easy.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Adobe
I find Adobe After Effects to be superior to iMovie and Final Cut Pro in that I am able to do much more with the software. It isn't as limiting as the other two. I also like that it isn't an Apple product. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Apple. There is a bigger learning curve with After Effects, but once you get the hang of it, there's really no comparison.
Read full review
Adobe
Adobe Animate was always the preferred software as the support was much better than the competition. And the ease of rendering was also a deciding factor. Results with character animations are much more crisp with Adobe Animate than in any other 2d based animation software.
Read full review
Adobe
Microsoft products do not match the aesthetic tools that [Adobe] InDesign offers, cannot support the customizable options available for export, and do not produce documents with as high a degree of accessibility. That said, they do have their place in collaboration in a team- I'd consider Office to be the first step and [Adobe] InDesign to be the final product.
Read full review
Scalability
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
Working in a cloud environment makes it easy to scale and share resources.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Adobe After Effects has a great impact on business as maximum work can be done in one software
  • To run this software you need to have good configuration system
  • Motion Graphics, 2d Animation and video editing can be done in one software
Read full review
Adobe
  • Negative, anyone who spent time learning the program now feels sad that it's going away.
  • Animation that was done on Flash but can now be made with Toon Boom or even Adobe After Effects.
  • On the plus side, since it's an Adobe product, you can rent it instead of buying the full license. That means potentially people could use it for a little longer without having to shell out as much money.
Read full review
Adobe
  • A great ROI for time in my small architectural practice, [especially] when a design has been updated and a report needs to be submitted. We can be submitting many reports that all look similar, clean and beautiful. We just save as the file and replace the images with more updated images. This way the client finds it easy to navigate updated reports, as many as they can be.
Read full review
ScreenShots