A cloud-based Dataclay Templater® alternative
If you want to automate video creation from After Effects templates on your local machines, Dataclay Templater is a solid option. If you'd rather run that same automation in the cloud, from data source to delivered video, without rendering infrastructure or After Effects crashing mid-render, Plainly is the better choice.
★★★★★
4.8 on G2
You know you often hear business owners say we really just want technology to help us run our business better. Like this is it. This is what you do to run your business better.
Jody Poole, Team Lead Design @ Leads.io
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Comparison table
| Feature | Plainly | Dataclay Templater® |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Web app | Plugin inside After Effects |
| Cloud rendering | ✓ | ✗ |
| Concurrent rendering | Parallel, scales with your plan | Projector (Paid add-on) |
| Auto-publish to platforms & storages | ✓ | Projector (Paid add-on) |
| Native integrations | 20+ | 4 |
| Cloud storage | ✓ | ✗ |
| API | ✓ | QUE + Bot edition (Paid add-on) |
| Webhook support | ✓ | ✗ |
| Team access | ✓ | One machine, one user per license |
| Customer support | ✓ | Paid add-on |
| Free trial | 14 days | 30 days |
| Pricing | Starts from $69/month | Starts from $84/licence |
Dataclay covers these capabilities across their three products: Templater, QUE, and Projector. Plainly covers them in one plan. Templater® is a registered trademark of Dataclay, LLC.
Plainly Flows
A single system that connects your creative tools into an automated workflow that generates on-brand creatives.
Combine data sources, GenAI tools, and video templates
Add approval steps and brand controls
Distribute every finished variation automatically
Real reviews from Plainly users
Ben J.
Director, Technology Operations
★★★★★
Outstanding features - they understand what our developers need AND our After Effects creative professionals as well. The support is outstanding and responsive - they genuinely care about their customer's success and are willing to help solve our challenges in executing our creative vision.
RB
Ramon B.
Team lead, Motion design
★★★★★
There is much more possible within Plainly outside of our specific use case, as it can read all your After Effects layers, allowing you to make practically anything a variable. With our current plan, we easily render 700 videos within 15 minutes, as it renders multiple videos simultaneously.
Tony S.
CTO
★★★★★
Plainly is just brilliant. Compared to my old in-house rendering setup, it’s like night and day. It scales effortlessly, performs consistently, and has been rock-solid reliable. Integration with third-party services was quick and straightforward, and getting started was super easy.
AS
Andreas S.
Business Owner
The tool enabled us to render almost 20000 individualised videos in a relatively short amount of time with relatively low cost, which was a game changer for the way we as a company operate when it comes to content.
David C.
Co Founder
★★★★★
Integrating Plainly into our web app was a simple process from day one. The service has allowed us to easily render After Effects templates and provide customized video content.
Ann-Kristin Z.
Motion Designer
★★★★★
Plainly allows you to produce large amounts of video content very quickly. A great advantage is that your content can be still very individual and on-brand due to the ability of using Templates made in Adobe After Effects. Its interface is quite intuitive and the software gets new interesting features often.
Templater vs Plainly: Which is right for you?
Choose Templater if:
You want rendering on machines you control, including fully offline setups.
Choose Plainly if:
You want rendering and scaling handled in the cloud, with zero infrastructure on your side.
Choose Templater if:
Everyone who touches the workflow is an After Effects user, working in the app they know.
Choose Plainly if:
You need to collaborate with your team through the Web App, even with non-native After Effects users.
Choose Templater if:
Your automation runs through CLI scripts on hardware you operate.
Choose Plainly if:
You need an API to build custom workflows or white-label After Effects automation into your own product.
Switch without rebuilding your templates
Already have templates set up for Dataclay Templater? Keep the original After Effects files and move them to Plainly instead of recreating your creative from scratch.
STEP 1
Upload your template
Bring the After Effects project you already have, with all its comps and assets.
→
STEP 2
Mark the dynamic layers
Map the text, images, footage, colors, and other layers you want to change for each version.
→
STEP 3
Connect your data and render
Connect your data through a spreadsheet, integrations, or API, and render every video variation automatically.
Why is Plainly the best Dataclay Templater alternative
Cloud rendering at scale
Generate every video version in the cloud from a single After Effects project. Plainly renders variations in parallel, so you can scale from a few versions to thousands without managing your own rendering infrastructure.
Connect Plainly to your existing stack
Connect Plainly with 20+ native integrations, including Google Sheets, Airtable, Dropbox, Frame.io, HeyGen, and more. Pull in data and assets, trigger renders, and send videos straight to the tools and platforms your team already uses.
Full API access
Connect Plainly to your product or workflow with a simple REST API. Render videos, pass dynamic data, trigger batch renders, and access the same capabilities available in the app.
One web app for everything
Projects, templates, integrations, and renders, all managed from one interface. Anyone on the team can use templates, update content, and render videos without touching After Effects.
Help at every step
Get help from people who know video automation and After Effects, or find answers in our Help Center. Whether it’s setup, templates, API, or rendering, we help you get things working quickly.
Enterprise-grade security
Keep your video workflows and data secure at every step. Plainly is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, and built with enterprise-grade security for teams handling sensitive content and customer data.
Some of our happy clients
Read All Success Stories
Ready to move from Dataclay Templater?
Upload a template you already have and render your first video today.