Adobe Animate
Ranked 5 of 8 animation software by recommenders
Recommended for 2D frame-by-frame animation, its pen tool and HTML5 export. Main caveat: subscription-only pricing and a shaky future after discontinuation plans.
Recommended for 2D frame-by-frame animation, its pen tool and HTML5 export. Main caveat: subscription-only pricing and a shaky future after discontinuation plans.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 23
- approval share
- 28%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Still strong for 2D animation
“Animate is still one of the better tools for 2D frame-by-frame animation.”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Adobe Won't Discontinue Animate” “It's just as good or better than it ever was, with the same workflow.”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “When stick figures fought”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Discontinuation plans and uncertain future
“I'm really sad to see it go, and that Adobe has so little love to this important piece of the web”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Adobe Animate will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026” “They literally told major animation studios that the product is going to be dead in just a month”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Adobe Animate will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026” “People who rely on Animate shouldn't rest easy just because Adobe backed off this time.”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Adobe Animate will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026” - Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma”
- Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “A sane but bull case on Clawdbot / OpenClaw”
Few updates in years
“Animate has had hardly any updates in 13yrs, yet other animation tools offer a lot of innovative features.”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “once a complex application is no longer updated for new OS versions, its death knell has sounded”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Adobe Animate will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026” “Adobe let Animate rot after 2 yrs from the Apple/Jobs decision”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Updates on the Status of Adobe Animate” - Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Adobe Won't Discontinue Animate”
Subscription only, no perpetual license
“I would really, really like it if they would let me buy it outright instead of subscribing.”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Adobe Animate will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026” “I think it's stupid that Adobe won't sell a perpetual license.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices” Buggy, missing Flash tools
“basically Flash stripped of all its useful tools and riddled with bugs”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “The Browser Is the Sandbox” “Basically it does not work for me and I abandoned Adobe Animate”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Adobe Animate will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026” “something went wrong in the translation to modern web tech”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Building a New Flash”
Other animation software people recommend
The four most recommended other animation software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Motion | 17 | 1 | 94% | 7 | — | Approved |
| CorridorKey 2.0 | 17 | 5 | 77% | 2 | — | — |
| Adobe After Effects | 14 | 12 | 54% | 10 | — | — |
| ntsc-rs | 14 | 1 | 93% | 2 | — | — |
| Adobe AnimateThis page | 9 | 23 | 28% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 37 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they'll end up with some even more convoluted upconversion chain to get it into Toonboom”
“didn't have the same appeal”
“something went wrong in the translation to modern web tech”
“having the only tool that can read their mountains of FLA files”
“People who rely on Animate shouldn't rest easy just because Adobe backed off this time.”
“£32.98/month for Animate is just too expensive”
“Absolutely abhorrent communication.”
“once a complex application is no longer updated for new OS versions, its death knell has sounded”
“the egregious part is not open sourcing it”
“They literally told major animation studios that the product is going to be dead in just a month”
“Basically it does not work for me and I abandoned Adobe Animate”
“Adobe will rethink it in next couple of months again”
“I would really, really like it if they would let me buy it outright instead of subscribing.”
“in a year we'll quietly stop any work on it anyway”
“Adobe decided, out of nowhere, to kill their 2D animation product”
“They haven’t done any real updates to it in several years.”
“Animate is still one of the better tools for 2D frame-by-frame animation.”
“Adobe let Animate rot after 2 yrs from the Apple/Jobs decision”
“what adobe did to Animate today”
“another winning move by adobe lol”
“Adobe Animate’s cancellation and lockout plans have created a serious problem for my game.”
“Adobe's pen tool across all titles is second to none.”
“They could have at least offered some legacy version for file access”
“I'm really sad to see it go, and that Adobe has so little love to this important piece of the web”
“These are supposedly professional tools, surely they can still make it available”
“I gave up on Adobe Animate.”
“basically Flash stripped of all its useful tools and riddled with bugs”
“Also Animates pricing model is bullshit.”
“Just keep using Flash? It's called Animate now.”
“I think it's stupid that Adobe won't sell a perpetual license.”
“As a pro user of Flash (pre-Adobe) I don't even surprised Animate is dead.”
“Animate has had hardly any updates in 13yrs, yet other animation tools offer a lot of innovative features.”
“exports HTML5-ready MP4s now”
“other than Adobe Animate itself”
“switched to a monthly subscription fee for the Adobe suite”
“It's just as good or better than it ever was, with the same workflow.”
“Zero AI-features, simply because you can't LLM frame by frame animations”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.