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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Adobe AIR

    Score6 out of 10
    N/AN/AN/A

    Adobe Animate

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AAdobe Animate (or Animate CC) supports but replaces the former Adobe Flash, and allows users to design interactive animations for games, TV shows, and the web. With it, the vendor states users can bring cartoons and banner ads to life, create animated doodles and avatars, and add action to eLearning content and infographics. With Animate, users can publish to multiple platforms in many formats, and reach viewers on any screen.

    $20.99

    per month

    Pricing
    Adobe AIRAdobe Animate
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Annual Plan, Paid Monthly
    $20.99
    per month
    Monthly Plan
    $31.49
    per month
    Annual Plan, Prepaid
    $239.88
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Adobe AIRAdobe Animate
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Adobe AIRAdobe Animate
    Considered Both Products
    Adobe
    Chose Adobe AIR
    Adobe AIR does not support Windows phones but works well on both Android and Apple iOS. It enables developers to build and deploy good quality applications to mobile platforms for a majority of mobile users and allows developers to build working prototypes in a relatively …
    Incentivized
    Chose Adobe AIR
    Generally stacks up fairly negatively, program definitely has its place, I appreciate what it can allow but now most desktop apps are fine enough as browser based experiences or for personal use mobile is the way to go. Air isn't the best environment for that.
    Incentivized
    Chose Adobe AIR
    Originally, Adobe Air was a great choice for us to build mobile titles from prior web titles when compared to tools such as native iOS with cocos2d. We were able to get games stood up much faster than our competition and out to market to make money. That said, as Unity improved …
    Incentivized
    Chose Adobe AIR
    Since Adobe AIR can be used with the Flash IDE, there are not many other solutions with such a robust toolset. The ability to import layered photoshop files directly onto the stage, and then ability to animate and create movieclips within that IDE is an extremely valuable …
    Incentivized
    Adobe
    Chose Adobe Animate
    Adobe Illustrator has a lot more drawing capabilities and features than Flash, but for most tasks, I prefer to use Flash.

    For cross-platform development, Xamarin offers a true full, native development environment, but Flash is good for prototyping. The big diadvantage here is …
    Incentivized
    Chose Adobe Animate
    ToonBoom Harmony has a lot of the compositing stuff from AfterEffects built in and it has much stronger rigging tools than Flash. It's great because it lets you do a mix between both puppeted and animation that is tweaked by hand. However documentation on how to use the program …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Adobe AIRAdobe Animate
    Small Businesses
    ASP.NET
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Adobe After Effects
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    ASP.NET
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Adobe After Effects
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ASP.NET
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Adobe After Effects
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Adobe AIRAdobe Animate
    Likelihood to Recommend
    5.7
    (9 ratings)
    8.0
    (28 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Adobe AIRAdobe Animate
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Adobe
    I would recommend [Adobe AIR] because it works very well, I just wish there were more resources out there on it to help the onboarding.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    Scenarios where Adobe Animate is well suited:2D animation for web, mobile, and video games: Adobe Animate is well suited for creating 2D animations for web, mobile, and video games. With its vector-based drawing tools, bone rigging, and inverse kinematics features, it's easy to create smooth, scalable graphics and realistic movement.Scenarios where Adobe Animate is less appropriate:Complex 3D animation: Adobe Animate is primarily a 2D animation software, and while it does have some basic 3D features, it is not as robust as specialized 3D animation software like Autodesk Maya or Blender.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Adobe
    • Adobe AIR supports a lot of commonly needed features for mobile app development.
    • It is fairly stable and consistent once you learn how to use it.
    • It is cross-platform and is supported by some useful third-party plugins.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    • The adaptability of what Adobe Animate can do makes it so helpful. You can accomplish something basic like make a ball bob on-screen over certain letters prior to showing your logo, or something more mind-boggling like building up a vivified short to show.
    • Utilizing Adobe Animate recordings on sites is typical, so individuals are accustomed to seeing it and have the essential modules introduced as of now.
    • The records are little, and the pressure is extremely smooth. This aids in the event that you are attempting to send substance to cell phones or essentially keep your site impression little to guarantee quick stacking times.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Adobe
    • Over the course of months/years, various security exploits and other issues are discovered and patched in AIR, often requiring you to rebuild and resubmit mobile apps to the various storefronts. This happens often enough that it's worth mentioning as a major con.
    • While development on Adobe AIR seems to be fairly constant, there is very little communication between the community and Adobe regarding the future and general support of AIR. The track record of Flash (and particularly Flash Mobile) does not inspire much confidence that Adobe intends to support Flash/AIR for years to come.
    • Adobe AIR does not seem to perform as well (in terms of raw performance, memory usage, framerates, responsiveness, etc.) as other hybrid solutions for certain tasks. For example using shaders tends to be experimental still, and graphic/animation intensive projects often require the use of third party frameworks such as Starling.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    • There are too many updates and they are constantly popping up - especially during the middle of a projects, which causes me to shut down the application and restart the program. Wastes time.
    • There is no mobile browser or device support. Limits a lot of projects - especially apps.
    • Flash player can require a lot of RAM and battery
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Adobe
    Although Adobe AIR is just an SDK without an actual "UI" it's commonly used within Flash, Flash Builder, or FlashDevelop. Considering the integration with Flash IDE, there are very few tools that can compete with its features.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    Adobe Animate is difficult to learn because its totally different from the other animation tools but one thing for sure if you want to build a quality on industry standards then Adobe Animate is your knight in shining armour. so using Adobe Animate is easy but you have to spend a lot of time learning it and practicing it. their ui is more like a design software with added keyframes. but if you know your way to work it will be a legend to work with.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Adobe
    Originally, Adobe AIR was the only game in town, and its blend of flexibility in platforms it could publish to (PC, Mac, iOS, Android), ease of use, and familiarity made it the clear choice. Now Adobe no longer supports it, and we’ve found the transition to Harmon unworkable for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    Adobe Animate was always the preferred software as the support was much better than the competition. And the ease of rendering was also a deciding factor. Results with character animations are much more crisp with Adobe Animate than in any other 2d based animation software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Adobe
    • Allows easy porting of functionality and look and feel to many diverse platforms.
    • Shorten development and deployment time.
    • Reduced training and support costs by re-using common widgets.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    • Negative, anyone who spent time learning the program now feels sad that it's going away.
    • Animation that was done on Flash but can now be made with Toon Boom or even Adobe After Effects.
    • On the plus side, since it's an Adobe product, you can rent it instead of buying the full license. That means potentially people could use it for a little longer without having to shell out as much money.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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