The best animation software helps you craft unique and creative 2D and 3D animations. My team and I have tested, reviewed, and used a wide range of software for animation, and these are my top recommendations.
For professional animators, the best animation software is Autodesk Maya. This tool is exceptionally powerful, letting you freely create without restrictions. However, for those looking for the best free animation software, Blender remains my top choice - it's an impressive open-source app that delivers professional-grade results.
Check out my full round-up below, with reviews focusing on overall design process, essential tools and features, and system requirements across Windows, Mac, and mobile devices.
Best animation software overall
When we say that Maya is the best animation software you can get it, there is a caveat: this tool means business.
Maya is used to create interactive 3D applications, animated films, TV series, and visual effects. And the price-tag reflects that. Like Adobe, it’s a subscription service, but if you thought the Creative Cloud All Apps package was expensive at $60 per month, try $1875 per year for a single app.
The upside of venturing into Maya is the freedom to create anything you can imagine, as long as you know how to use it (it’s got a steep learning curve). You can create 3D characters, including realistic hair and fur, and imbue them with realistic movements. When it comes to setting the scene, your backdrops can include smoke, fire, sand, snow, explosions, and so on.
Maya runs on Windows, MacOS and Linux. It’s massive, it’s expansive (and expensive), and if you’re aiming to work in the animation industry, it might be a wise investment. For everyone else, though, it could be viewed as overkill.
Best free animation software
Free, open-source, and running across Windows, Mac, and Linux, Blender is massively popular with professional and beginner animators.
This is a 2D and 3D drawing and animation tool. With it, you can render intricate scenes, sculpt models, and even create special effects that can be inserted into a real-life scene thanks to accurate motion tracking and masking.
What really stands out with Blender is the customizability. Every tool can be scripted to make it do exactly what you need it to do. This level of customizability extends to the interface itself, which could lead to a confusing UI, potentially limiting your ability to jump onto another computer running Blender with a different customized layout.
If this sounds like it could be tricky to learn, you wouldn’t be wrong. But it's an incredible, powerful tool with loads of brilliant community support and online tutorials out there for getting the best results from Blender, so it's a strong recommendation from us.
See what our sister site Creative Bloq thought of Blender in its review.
Best 2D animation software
2D animation can be very versatile, and Cartoon Animator 5 is as versatile as you can get. You can bring in static images into it, apply a wireframe rig to a subject, and animate it within the confines of what you can do with a 2D image. However this includes spring dynamics, the ability to use your webcam to apply your facial expression to the animated face you created, which feels similar to Adobe Character Animator,. You can animate clothing and other objects, link objects together to move them as one, warp an object to exaggerate its animation, even perform freeform deformations. That's an impressive toolkit, with the software working with both bitmap graphics and vector images, too.
Best of all, no subscription for you: a perpetual license means you pay a one-off $150 and it's yours to own. For us, the biggest drawback - aside from a somewhat steep learning curve - is that the 2D animation software is only available for Windows users.
Best 3D animation software
It's not just Maya that Autodesk includes in its line-up of software for animation and modeling. 3ds Max is another great tool (and yes, it has the same hefty price-tag as Maya).
Although 3ds Max and Maya are used by professional animators, 3ds Max’s interface could be seen to be more user-friendly, and it might be better for the creation of outdoor and interior designs - but you can still create animations, and its rigging process is actually easier to manage. You can work with particle and light simulation, there’s a cloth engine and scripting. You’ll find a couple of animation tools, to help you animate humanoid and non-humanoid characters, and the inclusion of motion paths makes it easy to move an object on the screen and get an instant preview of the result.
If there’s one major deciding factor that will seal the deal for you as to which software to use for 3D animation, is the fact Maya is multi-platform, while 3DS Max only works on Windows.
Best animation software for beginners
Adobe Animate is great animation software for beginners. All the tools you’d expect to animate anything are there, such as keyframes, onion skinning, rigging, the works.
The flexibility is quite impressive, giving you a lot of freedom when it comes to creating unique shapes, but the part we liked the best is the app’s Asset Warp tool. This allows you to add motion to an object that wasn’t originally designed for such a process. Adding a rigging allows Animate to articulate an object over time with ease.
The software is remarkably easy to use, and helps you create even complex animation with little effort. Our only issue is the high subscription price for a beginner tool. It will cost you around $23 a month (depending on the contract you get into). What you get for that though animation is software that is very simple for new starters. If you don't want to pay anything yet, check out Blender instead. It's trickier to use, but it's free.
Read our full Adobe Animate (2024) review
Best animation app for Android & iOS
If you’re into 2D creations. FlipaClip is the best animation app for Android and iOS.
The app is remarkably simple, boasts a clean interface and a small number of tools, like a lasso, brush, eraser, etc. But its power lies in its simplicity. You can create animations quickly, duplicate objects, move them around and distort them, while using the onion skinning feature to control their movements exactly. You can record audio, incorporate sound, and have various export options.
On top of that, there’s a thriving community which you can interact with and explore, which also includes templates and tutorials. And all of this comes mostly for free. There are limitations in the number of tools you can use, export options, and watermarking, but if you want to lift those restrictions, you can do so for $6 a month or $30 for the whole year.
Best animation app for iPad
This is a surprise addition for us, as we expected to chat about a different iPad exclusive, but everywhere we turned, Toonsquid was being recommended as a better alternative, so we decided to take this advice to heart, and how glad we were we did.
The tools are pretty familiar if you’re used to any drawing or animating software, including vector shapes, motion paths, customisable presets, the works. The timeline is at the bottom of the screen, and doesn’t take too much real estate, allowing you to focus on your canvas at any given time.
It’s definitely trickier to use than FlipaClip, but it’s the way to go if you’re aiming for a sleeker, more professional-looking output. It's not free, but it only costs a one-off $10 fee. As such, that’s cheaper than a single month for Adobe Animate.
Best animation software: FAQs
What is the best animation software?
This is a highly subjective question, and will depend on your budget, platform of choice and skill level. A professional should probably go for Maya, but Blender or Toonsquid could be ideal for newcomers or those on a budget.
What is the easiest animation software to use?
Out of the seven packages we’ve explored here, we’d have to say that FlipaClip is the easiest one of the bunch, and as the basic option is free, it also fits all budgets. Adobe Animate is also an exceptionally easy to use, and while it does need a subscription, its simplicity makes it our top choice for beginners.
How to choose the best animation software for you
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When deciding which animation software is best for you, there are several considerations to make.
First, what type of animation are you creating? While some tools excel at 2D animation, others are designed to be the best 3D modeling software for professionals. So choose a tool that helps you bring your visions to life - and one that's at the right skill-level for you.
Some easier to use software might even be more expensive than a more complex one (we’re looking at you, full-priced version of FlipaClip). And of course, it will depend on which machine you’ll be working on.
You'll want to check system requirements of your chosen animation software, as some work across all platforms, while others are limited to specific operating systems. Certain software for animation can be resource-intensive and require more power than a standard laptop or computer. To help with this, we reviewed the best laptops for Blender
How we test the best animation software
Our team of expert reviewers have tested hundreds of software packages, including the best digital art and drawing software, best graphic design software, and the best interior design software.
This helps us find our way around an interface quickly, as innovative many of them are, there are aspects of any software that is similar, no matter which app we’re reviewing. Thankfully, there are also many unique and interesting features that come to the fore once we get passed the basics.
Artistic applications are more unique, so we set about creating projects from scratch, experimenting with as many features as we can to get a good feel for how the software works, and how easy it is to perform each task. It helps that as well as reviewing these packages, we also use many professionally, giving us a good idea of what works, how it should work, and efficient it is - or should be.
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