Shotstack alternative
built for After Effects templates
Plainly is the Shotstack alternative for teams that work in After Effects. Upload your project once and render thousands of versions in the cloud, through our API or straight from a spreadsheet.
★★★★★
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
Trusted by
Comparison table
| Feature | Plainly | Shotstack |
|---|---|---|
| Template source | Your After Effects projects | Templates built in Shotstack's browser editor |
| Rendering Infrastructure | After Effects running in the cloud | Shotstack's own renderer |
| Parallel rendering | ✓ | ✓ |
| Layer scripting | 13 built-in scripts for timing, layout, and layer control | 2 scripts for timing only |
| Multiple templates per render | ✓ | ✗ |
| Cloud Storage | ✓ | ✓ |
| Native Integrations | 20+ | 9 |
| API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Team access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Security & compliance | ISO 27001, GDPR, SSO, and MFA | GDPR and SSO |
| Pricing | Starts from $69/month | Starts from $39 per month |
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.
Shotstack vs Plainly: Which is right for you?
Choose Shotstack if:
Nobody on your team works in After Effects, and you’d rather design templates in a web-based editor.
Choose Plainly if:
Your team works in After Effects, and you want their templates to render the way they built them.
Choose Shotstack if:
Your videos are mostly animated text and images, and anyone on the team should be able to build them in a browser.
Choose Plainly if:
You want thousands of dynamic videos from one After Effects template, keeping every advanced effect and detail intact.
Choose Shotstack if:
You need an out-of-the-box white-label video editor that offers both an API and SDK.
Choose Plainly if:
You need an API to build custom workflows or white-label After Effects automation into your own product.
Switch from Shotstack to Plainly
Build your template in After Effects once, then send Plainly the same data you were sending to Shotstack.
STEP 1
Upload your After Effects project
Bring your After Effects project, with all its comps and assets.
→
STEP 2
Mark what changes
Pick the layers that change in each version, anything from headlines and product shots to brand colors and background footage.
→
STEP 3
Render from your data
Send your data through a spreadsheet, integrations, or our API, and render every video variation automatically.
Why is Plainly the best Shotstack alternative
Native After Effects rendering
Continue designing in After Effects, just as you always have. Plainly takes your existing projects and renders thousands of variations in the cloud, preserving your original designs without changing your workflow.
Render multiple templates at once
Add every template from your After Effects project to the same batch. One row of data can generate square, vertical, and landscape videos at the same time.
Templates that adapt to your data
Use 13 built-in scripts to crop, trim, scale, and retime layers, like fitting text to its box or matching a scene to the length of your footage. Set them once, and they run automatically on every render.
Connect the tools you already use
Connect Plainly to Google Sheets, Airtable, Dropbox, HeyGen, Zapier, and 20+ other integrations. Bring in data and assets, automate rendering, and deliver finished videos directly to your existing tools.
Full API access
Connect Plainly to your existing product or workflow through a REST API. Automate video rendering, send dynamic data, manage batches, and access all the features available in the web app.
Video creation for your whole team
Make video creation accessible to everyone, not just After Effects users. Your team can select templates, update content, and render videos directly from Plainly's web app.
Some of our happy clients
Read All Success Stories
Ready to move from Shotstack?
Start a free trial with any After Effects project, or talk to us about moving your Shotstack setup.