Adobe After Effects vs. VEGAS Pro

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
VEGAS Pro
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
MAGIX Software headquartered in Berlin offers the VEGAS Pro line of video editing applications which combines the company's Sound Forge audio editing suite and a wide range of movie production features and effects.
$399
Pricing
Adobe After EffectsVEGAS Pro
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
Vegas Pro 18 Edit
$399.00
Vegas Pro 18
$599.00
Vegas Pro 18 Edit Suite
$799.00
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe After EffectsVEGAS Pro
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe After EffectsVEGAS Pro
Considered Both Products
Adobe After Effects
Chose Adobe After Effects
[Adobe After Effects] is a beast and VEGAS Pro is just a baby when compared to Adobe. It doesn't match [Adobe After Effects] when it comes to the feature and performance it offers.
VEGAS Pro
Chose VEGAS Pro
Due to [what I believe to be] a decline in software stability and lack of customer support I will be using Adobe Creative Cloud moving forward. I urge others to look at other options and companies that invest in customer support.
Chose VEGAS Pro
Not as many options, but does what I need it to at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the complexity
Best Alternatives
Adobe After EffectsVEGAS Pro
Small Businesses
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Maya
Score 8.7 out of 10
iMovie
iMovie
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Blender
Blender
Score 9.2 out of 10
iMovie
iMovie
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate
Score 8.1 out of 10
Vyond
Vyond
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe After EffectsVEGAS Pro
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(39 ratings)
3.8
(12 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(7 ratings)
8.1
(6 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe After EffectsVEGAS Pro
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.
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MAGIX Software
VEGAS Pro [in my opinion] has so much potential to be great. So many powerful features for audio and video editing. Unfortunately, after the sale from Sony to MAGIX [I believe] the software has become less stable even on CAD-certified workstations. [From what I've experienced] there is no customer service telephone number or support email address. All support requests must go through their website and my last requests have gone unanswered after a month. When Sony owned the software I [was] able to get on a live chat with a tech who would solve issues in minutes, not days. Not true today [per my experience]. With the decline in reliability and lack of customer support, I can no longer recommend a MAGIX product.
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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
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MAGIX Software
  • One of the things that I love about VEGAS Pro is that I can do automatic tracking control to an object or image, this is a very remarkable function in VEGAS Pro, because this way you can add better mobility to the video in general, in addition , you can focus the video view to a specific object.
  • The image edits with the VEGAS Pro filters are really fantastic. For us, having a good visualization and definition of our images is very important, which is why this function has provided really remarkable results. We have been able to modify the tonality of the images that we add to the video and we have also managed to change the colors thanks to the filters available for video in general. These filters are very varied, I can add a filter to give my image a warm touch, a touch of cold or sunset.
  • At the bottom of the platform, the audio barrier is shown, where you can add several audio tracks and thus be able to modify the audio of the entire video for every second that passes, however, this function is much more impressive as it also allows you to add another audio barrier to play two audio tracks at the same time.
  • The autosave is fantastic, VEGAS Pro has an excellent autosave system capable of saving all the progress that has been made in the video that is being edited, the autosave does not consume additional capacity to the computer, so it is very easy to have it activated and not worry about computer performance.
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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.
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MAGIX Software
  • While Vegas Pro does handle 4k video, I find that it still struggles a bit to keep up when playing back or processing 4k. I suspect this is at least partially due to the fact that the computer I am using for Vegas is not quite powerful enough to really handle 4k efficiently.
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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.
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MAGIX Software
The best and easiest editor I have ever used. I have used everything as an Emmy-Award-winning news journalist, and this program has always done what I needed it to do. Nothing less than the best out there and can get the job done.
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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.
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MAGIX Software
No answers on this topic
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.
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MAGIX Software
Because Vegas Pro is widely used software, the user interface is similar to smartphone editing tools. That is why learning time is very short in Vegas Pro. Whenever you have a question YouTube is your best support assistant. You don't need to contact anyone.
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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.
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MAGIX Software
I had Adobe Premiere but I don't like having to subscribe. VEGAS Pro is a one-time purchase which was a better economical and financial decision for me. My friends that are editors didn't like when Apple changed Final Cut so I did not elect to use it when I had the chance to. I believe it is just as good as other platforms just not as high profile.
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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
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MAGIX Software
  • For web design, creating spiffy video which integrates with a site!
  • This software has paid for itself over and over since I started using it in 2003.
  • Every year or so they upgrade it and so I upgrade every five or so years.
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ScreenShots