Toon Boom Harmony vs Adobe Animate

Toon Boom Harmony9.3Visit Adobe Animate8.6Visit

Higher score Toon Boom Harmony #1 in Animation Software 9.3/10 14-day trial Free trial✓ 2 of 5 features Visit Toon Boom

vs

Adobe Animate #8 in Animation Software 8.6/10 7-day trial Free trial✓ 3 of 5 features Visit Adobe Animate

• Toon Boom Harmony fits best

  Professional hand-drawn and rigged 2D animation

• Adobe Animate fits best

  2D web and interactive content animation

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Side by side

Feature	Toon Boom Harmony 9.3/10 Visit ↗	Adobe Animate 8.6/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.3	8.6
Ranking	#1 in Animation Software	#8 in Animation Software
Best for	Professional hand-drawn and rigged 2D animation	2D web and interactive content animation
Pricing model	Paid	Paid
Starting price	$55.50/user/yr	—
Free plan	—	—
Free trial	14 days	7 days
Free trial length	14 days	7 days
Deployment	Desktop	Cloud, Desktop
Platforms	Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows, macOS
Support	Community, Docs, Tickets · 24/7	Community, Docs
Integrations	4 integrations	4 integrations
Built for	Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Toon Boom Harmony 2/5 · Adobe Animate 3/5
2D animation tools	✓	✓
3D modeling	—	Not checked yet
Character rigging	✓	✓
Motion graphics	Not checked yet	✓ (best)
Cloud collaboration	—	Not checked yet
Specs
Supported platforms	Windows, macOS, Linux	windows, macos
Export formats	MOV, WMV, BMP, DPX, DTEX, JPG, EXR, PAL, PSD, PDF, PNG, SGI, SVG, TIFF, OPT, SCAN, VAR, TGA, YUV, GIF, SWF, JSX, WAV, XML, JSON, ATOM, USDA, USDZ	HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash/Adobe AIR, SVG, GIF, BMP, SWF, JPG, PICT, PNG, MOV, WAV, AVI
Our review
Pros	Supports hand-drawn, paperless, and cut-out 2D animation workflows Includes character rigging, compositing, painting, and effects tools Runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux with multiple export formats	Frame-by-frame animation, motion tweens, and shape tweens HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, SVG, and other publishing formats Creative Cloud integration with Photoshop and Illustrator
Cons	No free plan is available The three editions offer different capability levels More specialized than tools aimed at general-purpose animation	No free plan Available only on Windows and macOS Maintenance mode means no new feature development
Our verdict	Toon Boom Harmony is a desktop animation suite for professional studios, freelancers, students, and enthusiasts. Its focus is hand-drawn and paperless 2D animation, with character rigging, cut-out animation, drawing, painting, compositing,… Read the review →	Adobe Animate is a desktop application for creating vector animations, cartoons, banner ads, games, interactive web content, educational material, and multimedia experiences. Its timeline-based workflow combines vector drawing and… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Toon Boom Harmony — where it wins

  • Supports hand-drawn, paperless, and cut-out 2D animation workflows
  • Includes character rigging, compositing, painting, and effects tools
  • Runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux with multiple export formats

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan is available
  • The three editions offer different capability levels
  • More specialized than tools aimed at general-purpose animation

• Adobe Animate — where it wins

  • Frame-by-frame animation, motion tweens, and shape tweens
  • HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, SVG, and other publishing formats
  • Creative Cloud integration with Photoshop and Illustrator

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan
  • Available only on Windows and macOS
  • Maintenance mode means no new feature development

• Toon Boom Harmony9.3/10 · 14-day trial

  A focused 2D suite for hand-drawn, rigged, composited, and effects-driven animation.

  Visit Toon BoomFull verdict →
• Adobe Animate8.6/10 · 7-day trial

  A capable 2D desktop animator for web and interactive content, now in maintenance mode.

  Visit Adobe AnimateFull verdict →