Jitter vs Cavalry vs Fluos: three ways to make motion

Wait, Cavalry is free now?

Yes, and most comparison pages haven't caught up. Canva acquired Cavalry in February 2026, and by April the paid Professional tier was gone: the full application, previously a few hundred dollars a year, is now free for individual users with a Canva account. Enterprise teams still pay, but only for SSO and team management through a Canva plan.

That genuinely changes the comparison. Price used to be a reason to skip Cavalry. It isn't anymore, which means the only question left is whether its way of working fits your job. Good news if you're a motion designer. Mostly irrelevant if you're a marketer, for reasons below.

The comparison table

When is Jitter the right choice?

Jitter is what happens when someone rebuilds a motion timeline for people who live in Figma. It opens in a browser, it imports your design files, it has presets that make a layer feel animated in one click, and it exports Lottie so developers can ship the animation instead of a video. The paid tiers now run Pro, Max, and Ultra depending on export quality and how much of their AI you use.

Pick it when you want your hands on the motion, when the work is UI or product animation, and when handing something to engineering matters. The honest limit is that it's still manual, so a complex multi-scene sequence takes real time and real design judgment, and the AI features assist rather than build the thing for you.

When is Cavalry the right choice?

Cavalry is the most interesting of the three technically. Instead of animating each element, you build a system: connect nodes, define rules, feed it data from a CSV or JSON, and the motion falls out of the structure. For animated charts, generative patterns, or a hundred variants driven by a spreadsheet, it's faster and far more logical than keyframing, and professional studios use it for exactly that.

Pick it when your motion is systematic, when you're already a motion designer, and when free and unrestricted matters. The honest limit hasn't changed with the price: it's a professional tool with a professional learning curve, and it's desktop software, not something you open between meetings. For a marketer who needs a launch video today, free is not the obstacle — the node graph is.

When is Fluos the right choice?

Fluos removes the build step instead of improving it. You describe the video in a sentence or two, an AI writes the animation as code, it streams into a live preview in the browser, and you refine by talking to it: make the logo enter sooner, use our orange, cut the middle scene. Then you export MP4 or GIF. Across the first 500 videos made on Fluos, the average render finished in about three minutes.

Pick it when you ship on-brand marketing video on a recurring basis — logo reveals, launch teasers, social ad cuts, product demos — and nobody on the team is a motion designer. The honest limit is the mirror image of Cavalry's: you're directing, not keyframing, so if your job is frame-level art direction you'll want a timeline. Plenty of designers use it as a fast first draft and finish the hero piece elsewhere.

Which one should you actually use?

Choose Jitter if you're a designer or a social team who wants to animate by hand in a browser, and Lottie or Figma is in your workflow.

Choose Cavalry if you're a motion designer whose work is data-driven, generative, or produced in large systematic batches, and you want a professional tool at no cost.

Choose Fluos if your job is shipping on-brand video every week and the bottleneck is that nobody has time to learn motion design.

And these aren't exclusive. The most common real stack we see is a fast prompt-built draft for the weekly volume, plus a timeline tool for the two or three flagship pieces a year that deserve the hours. For the wider picture see the best AI After Effects alternatives, Fluos vs After Effects, and the easiest After Effects alternative for non-designers.

Ready to try the prompt path on a real brief? Start a video on Fluos.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cavalry free?

Yes, for individuals. Canva acquired Cavalry in February 2026 and removed the paid Professional tier in April 2026, so the full application is free with a Canva account. Enterprise teams still need a paid Canva plan for SSO and team management.

Is Jitter better than Cavalry?

They solve different problems. Jitter is a browser timeline for UI and social animation with Lottie export. Cavalry is a desktop node system for procedural and data-driven motion. Jitter is far easier to start; Cavalry goes far deeper for systematic work.

What's the best alternative to Jitter and Cavalry for marketers?

A prompt-based tool, because both Jitter and Cavalry still require you to build the animation. Fluos generates it from a description and exports MP4 or GIF, with no timeline or node graph to learn.

Do any of these replace After Effects?

Partly, each in its own lane. Cavalry replaces it for procedural motion, Jitter for lightweight UI and social work, Fluos for on-brand marketing video. For cinematic VFX and frame-level compositing, After Effects is still the tool.

Can I use more than one of these together?

Yes, and most teams do. Generate the weekly volume from prompts, keep a timeline tool for the flagship pieces that need frame-level craft.