With a ton of Adobe alternatives dotted around the internet, it can be a shock to discover a new one that I've not heard of before. I stumbled upon Pikimov as an After Effects alternative, and to say I'm impressed is a huge understatement. With a similar interface to After Effects and a similar mentality to Photopea, as an ad-based creative software alternative, I'm glad Pikimov is now on my radar. It's an exciting animation and motion design tool that has a lot of promise for its future as a free browser-based motion and video design software.
Mix Photopea with After Effects and you'll get Pikimov
The perfect hybrid motion design tool
There is a wave of creative hobby designers moving away from Adobe tools. We've seen people moving to other proprietary tools like Canva, Affinity, or DaVinci Resolve, and there has also been a large spike in creative open-source tools like Inkscape, Krita, or Synfig for open-source animation.
Photopea has been one of the most successful free, non-open-source Photoshop alternatives. It's a browser-based ad-funded Photoshop clone and is free for anyone to use with a browser and internet access. It's obviously inspired enough people because Pikimov's one-person developer used Photopea as inspiration to make Pikimov.
Pikimov is set as an exciting free alternative to Adobe After Effects, with the accessibility features of Photopea or Vectorpea. It's the perfect hybrid of Adobe and Photopea together.
Pikimov is forever free
Design motion graphics without spending a dime
Released in beta only in January 2024, Pikimov is a browser-based video and motion design editing tool. It is currently on stable release 3 (R3) from Spring 2025. It's seen great improvements in its updates, based partially on feedback from users on Reddit.
Unlike After Effects, which can only be accessed as part of a sole-app $23-per month or an all-apps $70-per month Adobe subscription, Pikimov is entirely free for anyone to access and use. Its developer has labeled it as forever free (although I've been burned by other tools labeled this way only to change later in the development process).
Like Photopea, which is an ad-based Photoshop clone, Pikimov generates its revenue mostly from ads. You can also sign up for the one-man developer's Patreon page to contribute financially to the project, but to use the tool itself, you'll never need to pay.
Although Pikimov works in the browser, it isn't as universal as some other browser-based creative tools. The developer has stated that it isn't compatible with Safari or Firefox at present. This typically means you also cannot access it from an iPad, but there's some success with Android tablets. It works best on Chrome, Edge, and Opera browsers on any system, including Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Easy-to-navigate interface for quick learning
UX/UI you can easily understand
Although inspired by After Effects, Pikimov's interface differs slightly. It hasn't gone the same route as Photopea, which almost entirely emulates Photoshop's interface, but Pikimov feels familiar enough to After Effects that it won't throw you for a loop when you open it for the first time.
With a simple and easy-to-navigate interface, Pikimov feels inviting to use. Most of its features are in the same or similar places as found in After Effects and in most animation or motion graphics software: your file library is on the top left; the timeline runs along the bottom; and the main workspace is central to everything else. The effects and transitions panel is in a different place rather than being found within the layers.
Pikimov differs slightly from After Effects since it is ad-based, so there's a space for ads or crowdfunding requests on the top right, although it doesn't feel too impeding on the program.
My main gripe with Pikimov is that there's a lack of tool names or hovering tooltips over the tools found in the interface. Other than the dropdown menu at the top of Pikimov -- featuring options like File, Preferences, Tools, Demo Projects, Tutorials, etc. -- the other features aren't as obviously labeled, and, unlike After Effects, there's a severe lack of tool icons within Pikimov.
Local storage and no AI training guaranteed
Your privacy matters
A crucial consideration when searching for creative tools is how your data and content are stored and utilized. With Pikimov, all your content is stored locally on your system, with nothing saved or held in any Pikimov databases. The browser-based tool lets all processes happen on your own machine, and there's no cloud-based data storage.
None of your content or data is used to train AI models, which is often a concern that deters creative users from using Adobe tools or other creative tools. This seems to be something important to the morals of the developer, so I hope it remains in place for Pikimov's future. It'll garner a positive response, I'm sure.
Promising features for Pikimov
Sign up and don't look back
In less than two years since the developer started working on Pikimov, it has already received many features found in top-tier paid motion design software. I love that opening Pikimov as a beginner offers a small library of demo projects, which can all be edited to learn how better to use the tool.
Some of the recent features added to Pikimov R3 in April 2025 include:
* Video background removal
* Motion tracking
* Subtitles generation
* Multiple FX features
Although Pikimov is still a young tool, I'm incredibly impressed by its features. You can create and animate 2D or 3D motion graphics, similarly to using Blender for 3D motion design. With video footage editing, there's a lot of crossover with other tools. The developer listens well to Pikimov users, implementing helpful and popular features as well as quickly resolving issues.
The roadmap of Pikimov looks promising for the near future, too. There are upcoming features such as a shape editor, rotoscope tools, and keyframe curves editors. There are many more features in the pipeline, but with such a small development team, there's no way to tell how long until they're implemented. Donating to the Patreon page will encourage faster feature pushing, as well as greater awareness of the tool to improve its popularity and use.
Pikimov
See at Pikimov
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Pikimov could change the game for motion design
Pikimov is easy to access by anyone with a computer, a modern browser, and an internet connection. It doesn't require much else from you, so it has a very low learning curve. There aren't many good-quality free motion design tools, so it's a breath of fresh air to find and use Pikimov and create successful motion design results. I'm really excited to see the future of Pikimov come into reality, and I hope to see it as successful as Photopea has been as a free, browser-based Adobe alternative.
