Premation vs Apple Motion
Motion is Apple's motion graphics application for the Mac, used to design titles, transitions and effects and to publish them to Final Cut Pro. It is sold as a one-time purchase or as part of the Apple Creator Studio subscription.
Across the 9 areas below, Apple Motion is ahead on 5, the two are level on 1, and Premation is ahead on 3. The 5 are listed first: a comparison you can trust is one that says where it loses.
Pick Apple Motion if
- You edit in Final Cut Pro. Motion publishes titles, transitions and effects directly into it, and Premation's template package opens only in Premation.
- You like animating with behaviors such as Gravity, Throw and Vortex instead of keyframes, and want a large library of animation presets, particle presets and 3D text materials.
- You work only on a Mac and want third-party FxPlug effects.
Pick Premation if
- You are on Windows, or your team is mixed. Motion runs on macOS only.
- You want After Effects' model: text animators with selectors, shape operators, expressions, a value-and-speed graph editor, and .aep files opened as a conversion.
- You want what Premation has built in: bones and IK for 2D characters, Lottie in and out, a command-line renderer, and a free, open-source licence.
Feature by feature
- Final Cut Pro integration
- Apple MotionPublishes motion graphics directly to Final Cut Pro
- PremationNone. FCPXML export carries a cut list, and the template package re-imports only into Premation
- Apple Motion
- If Final Cut Pro is where the graphics end up, this decides it.
- Behaviors and presets
- Apple MotionBehaviors such as Gravity, Throw and Vortex; over 100 animation presets
- Premation6 behaviours, 15 animation presets, 18 text presets, Animate In / Out
- Apple Motion
- Particles and replicators
- Apple MotionParticle systems with more than 200 presets; replicators
- PremationA deterministic particle emitter and a shape repeater, without a preset library of that size
- Apple Motion
- 3D text
- Apple Motion2D, 3D and 360° titles with over 90 materials
- PremationExtruded text with bevels, per-face materials and per-character 3D
- Apple Motion
- Both extrude and light type. Motion's material library is the larger one.
- Third-party effects
- Apple MotionFxPlug plugins
- PremationA native C++ effect SDK with four samples; no plugin manager in the editor yet
- Apple Motion
- Built-in effects
- Apple MotionOver 200 filters and effects
- Premation206 effects across ten folders
- Even
- Platforms
- Apple MotionmacOS only
- PremationmacOS and Windows
- Premation
- Coming from After Effects
- Apple MotionIts own model, built around behaviors
- PremationAfter Effects' model and shortcuts; .aep and .aepx open as a conversion with a report
- Premation
- Price and licence
- Apple MotionOne-time purchase, or the Apple Creator Studio subscription
- PremationFree, AGPL-3.0
- Premation
The Premation column is checked against the editor’s source at v0.9.0. The Apple Motion column describes the product as its own site and documentation presented it on 2026-10-05; if something there has changed, tell us and this page changes.