Shotstack alternative
If you're looking to dynamically render After Effects projects through a robust API in the cloud then Plainly's API is the best Shotstack alternative. Connect your template and let our native After Effects cloud-based rendering infrastructure create your video variations without any limits.
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A comparison table
Feature
Plainly
Shotstack
Use After Effects for templates
API
Cloud rendering
Web-based template creator
Time-based trimming rules
Team management
Pricing
Starts at $59/month
Starts at $39/month
Get more done with Plainly
99.9% render success rate since switching to Plainly
91% users replaced 2+ tools with Plainly
42% users finish projects faster
Shotstack vs Plainly: Which is right for you?
Your team or your customers don’t use After Effects and need to create templates in a web-based editor.
Your team or your customers are After Effects users who want to create advanced dynamic videos.
You and your users want to create basic video templates.
You need a no-code solution with a comprehensive Web App and native integrations that anyone can use.
You need an out-of-the-box white-label video editor that offers both API and SDK.
You need an API with enterprise-grade security to create custom workflows.
An honest comparison of Plainly as a Shotstack alternative
After Effects capabilities
Shotstack allows you to create basic video templates only with their web-based template builder, meaning After Effects templates cannot be imported and automated.
As a result, you're limited by the capabilities of Shotstacks's editor which is inferior to After Effects and also breaks your team’s creative process.
In contrast, Plainly's After Effects rendering infrastructure lets you directly upload After Effects templates and easily set up placeholders for layers like images, text, video, and more.
Basic vs Advanced customization
Shotstack’s API provides basic customization options such as replacing text, media and similar. It cannot automatically adjust the output based on the length of input assets, meaning you’ll have to adjust the template or the input footage before rendering.
Fortunately, at Plainly, we solved this issue with our Scripting feature that allows you to apply various rules to your videos - perfect for advanced video versioning - such as crop, extend, shift, and much more.
Team & project management
Shotstack does not offer a team management feature, meaning you cannot invite your colleagues to work together within the web app. This makes it challenging for teams to manage multiple users and streamline the workflow.
Plainly provides robust team management capabilities, allowing you to invite and collaborate with anyone directly within the platform with no extra costs. This way you can keep all of your projects, team members, and renders in one centralized place which makes management a piece of cake.
Unlock more with a powerful API
Shotstack's API is quite extensive and offers many capabilities but it lacks features around project creation and setup. You have to set up templates in their Web App and then you can automate rendering via API.
Plainly is an API-first solution, and has a full feature parity between API and web app. You can set up projects, render and distribute videos all through a simple but powerful API.
Trusted by leading brands
Plainly is trusted by Fortune 100 companies to automate video versioning for them.
With enterprise-grade security and robust rendering infrastructure, you can rest assured that your videos will be rendered reliably and safely.
Some of our happy clients
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Shotstack Alternative - that’s Plainly
Switching from Shotstack to Plainly can be scary, that’s why we are giving you a 60-day money-back guarantee along with 2 free consultancy calls to help you move your infrastructure.
We literally had team members saying "It's like magic".
Plainly team was amazing helping us bring everything to production, it's obvious that customer satisfaction is super important to them. To anyone who wants to automate video production, we recommend Plainly over any other alternative on the market!
Lead Technical Artist / Eterlast