Apple Motion
Hacker ApprovedTied for most recommended of 8 animation software
Long-used Apple motion graphics app with a low one-time price; people find it serviceable. Critics dislike the 3-PC activation limit and say it trails After Effects.
Long-used Apple motion graphics app with a low one-time price; people find it serviceable. Critics dislike the 3-PC activation limit and say it trails After Effects.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 94%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 17 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Strong value for money
“Final Cut, Logic, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage are offered in a bundle for education”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Apple Creator Studio” “Pricing seems incredibly reasonable as well (30$ for a lifetime license).”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “PortalVR Motion – use any VR content in 2D with 3D tracked Joy-Cons”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
3-PC activation limit concerns
“I don't like the 3 PC activation thing.”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “PortalVR Motion – use any VR content in 2D with 3D tracked Joy-Cons” “I don't like the 3 PC activation thing. It implies that the software needs to call home and will stop working if the company goes under.”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “PortalVR Motion – use any VR content in 2D with 3D tracked Joy-Cons” Less capable than After Effects
“not as capable as After Effects, it's pretty serviceable and with some love could be excellent”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Apple has decided to compete for creativity app users”
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 MotionThis page | 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 Animate | 9 | 23 | 28% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Motion is a great software and it overlaps with CheapSecurity.”
“software other things are based on”
“it can connect to tapos over SDP and then you can run Yolo or any other solution on the output”
“not as capable as After Effects, it's pretty serviceable and with some love could be excellent”
“Most take one prompt and around 10 minutes.”
“Motion is a blank canvas which is genuinely exciting for anyone in the GTM/growth space”
“Pricing seems incredibly reasonable as well (30$ for a lifetime license).”
“I don't like the 3 PC activation thing. It implies that the software needs to call home and will stop working if the company goes under.”
“I don't like the 3 PC activation thing.”
“Motion page looks much better”
“Motion is an excellent library so I gave this a go on a prod site.”
“No streaks that punish you for missing a day, no arbitrary targets.”
“The default effect is already so nice.”
“With the subscription I think I'll give it a shot. Awesome!”
“I bought all of these apps back in like ~2013 and have been using them for literally 13 years”
“Final Cut, Logic, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage are offered in a bundle for education”
“Our goal is to make it so that you don't have to ask the question”
“It really does have its niche - one off complex scrapes where it’s kind of questionable if it’s worth writing a scraper.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.