Adobe Premiere Pro vs Adobe After Effects

by Gralio Feb 27, 2025

Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects are both powerful tools from Adobe, but they serve different purposes. Premiere Pro is better for overall video editing, while After Effects excels at motion graphics and visual effects. Choosing the right software depends on your specific needs and project requirements.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 3520 reviews and 60 websites, saving 20 hours, 3 minutes of reading.

Adobe Premiere Pro

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Adobe After Effects

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About

Adobe Premiere Pro is professional-grade video editing software favoured by businesses and individuals worldwide. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools to edit and refine video footage, including options to trim, add special effects, mix audio tracks, and incorporate animated titles. Adobe Premiere Pro leverages AI to streamline workflows and ensure a polished result. It's a powerful solution for creating high-quality videos.

Adobe After Effects is professional software for creating motion graphics and visual effects. You can use it to animate logos, add special effects to videos, and even build 3D animations. It is commonly used by artists and designers to create content for film, TV, and online media. After Effects allows you to enhance your videos with dynamic visuals and bring your creative visions to life.

Summary

Main difference

Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing software focused on the entire video production process, from import to final export. Adobe After Effects specializes in motion graphics and visual effects, allowing users to create animations and add visual enhancements to existing videos.

Relative strengths of Adobe Premiere Pro (compared to Adobe After Effects)

Comprehensive video editing tools for cutting, assembling, and finishing videos.
Strong integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop and Audition.
Wide range of video formats and codecs support, making it suitable for diverse projects and platforms.

Relative weaknesses of Adobe Premiere Pro (compared to Adobe After Effects)

Limited capabilities for creating complex motion graphics and visual effects.
Steeper learning curve for beginners compared to some simpler video editors.
Resource-intensive, requiring a powerful computer for optimal performance, especially with high-resolution footage.

Who should use Adobe Premiere Pro VS. Adobe After Effects

Adobe Premiere Pro is the industry-standard video editing software for professionals. Its powerful tools allow for advanced editing, special effects, and seamless integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud apps. Users praise its robust features and extensive online resources, but some find it challenging to learn. While beginners may find the software daunting, experienced editors appreciate the comprehensive toolset for creating high-quality videos.

Adobe After Effects is the industry-standard motion graphics and visual effects software. Users love its powerful features and integration with other Adobe products, but some find it resource-intensive and complex. Ideal for creative professionals, video editors, and animators seeking to create high-quality visual content.

Best fit for medium to large businesses (100+ employees).
Ideal for Marketing & Advertising, Media & Entertainment, and other creative industries.

Ideal for small to large businesses seeking professional motion graphics and visual effects.
Best for media, entertainment, marketing, advertising, and related industries.

Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Text placement

Supported

Premiere Pro allows dragging, dropping, and precise text positioning via the Effect Controls and Essential Graphics panels.

Supported

After Effects allows precise text placement via drag and drop, typing, and alignment tools.
Collaboration features

Partially supported

Real-time co-editing is not natively supported, but project sharing is.

Partially supported

After Effects supports collaborative editing via Team Projects, but not real-time co-editing.
Color correction

Supported

Adobe Premiere Pro allows adjusting colors of video clips using the Lumetri Color panel and other tools.

Supported

After Effects offers various color correction tools and effects for adjusting video colors.
Special effects

Supported

Adobe Premiere Pro supports green screen and picture-in-picture effects.

Supported

Adobe After Effects supports green screen and picture-in-picture effects through keying and compositing.
Color grading

Supported

Premiere Pro allows applying cinematic color styles using the Lumetri Color panel.

Supported

After Effects supports color grading and applying cinematic color styles using built-in effects, especially the Lumetri Color effect.
Multi-track editing

Supported

Premiere Pro supports multi-track editing for both video and audio.

Not supported

After Effects supports multiple layers, but not multi-track video editing like Premiere Pro.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

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Customer Service

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Ease of Use

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Reliability and Performance

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Ease of Implementation

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Scalability

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Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects Pricing

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See full Pricing page

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See full Pricing page

Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects review insights

Users love

Powerful editing tools and seamless integration with other Adobe apps.
Project Manager feature for collecting and copying files.
Proxy editing for slower machines.
Strong community network and online tutorials.
Recent addition of proxies for easier editing.

Powerful and versatile animation and VFX software.
Wide range of tools and features.
Seamless integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications.
Extensive plugin and template ecosystem.
Large and active user community for support and resources.

Users dislike

Difficult to use for beginners.
Limited motion graphic templates included.
Difficult to organize hundreds of photos and graphics.
Transform object properties are number-based and not intuitive.
Difficult to get best results with multiple file types.

High RAM usage can lead to slowdowns and crashes.
Steep learning curve for beginners.
Complex UI can be overwhelming.
Real-time playback and rendering can be slow.
Dynamic linking issues can occur.

Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects Ratings

G2

4.5/5

(1583)
Capterra

4.7/5

(465)
Glassdoor

4.3/5

(10097)

G2

4.6/5

(1074)
Capterra

4.8/5

(412)
Glassdoor

4.3/5

(10097)

Company health

Employee growth

4% increase in the last year

Web traffic

1% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

June 1984 - $3M

How do Premiere Pro's editing tools compare to After Effects' motion graphics capabilities?

Premiere Pro is focused on video editing, offering tools like trimming, color correction, and multi-track editing. After Effects specializes in motion graphics and visual effects, providing advanced tools for animation, compositing, and creating dynamic visuals. While Premiere Pro has some basic effects capabilities, After Effects is far more robust in creating complex animations and motion graphics.

Which product best integrates with other Adobe software for my workflow?

Both Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects integrate seamlessly with other Adobe software, particularly those within the Creative Cloud suite. However, for a video editing workflow, Premiere Pro more directly benefits from dynamic linking with After Effects, allowing for a more streamlined process of transferring projects between the two for advanced visual effects and motion graphics work. While After Effects integrates well for creating and importing assets into other Adobe applications, Premiere Pro offers tighter integration specifically for video editing workflows.

What are the advantages of Adobe Premiere Pro?

Adobe Premiere Pro's advantages include its comprehensive suite of professional video editing tools, AI-powered features for streamlined workflows, and seamless integration with other Adobe applications. It's particularly well-suited for creating high-quality videos, making it a powerful solution for businesses and creative professionals across various industries. Users praise its powerful editing tools, project management capabilities, and proxy editing feature.

What are the disadvantages of Adobe Premiere Pro?

Adobe Premiere Pro's disadvantages include a steep learning curve for beginners, limited included motion graphic templates, challenges organizing large numbers of assets, number-based transform properties that are not intuitive, and difficulty achieving optimal results with diverse file types.

Alternatives to Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects

VEED

VEED is a cloud-based video editing platform designed for businesses to easily create professional-looking videos. It offers a suite of tools including recording, editing, screen capture, transcription, and AI-powered features like background removal and text-to-speech. VEED emphasizes collaboration, offering shared workspaces, stock media, and customizable templates to streamline video production for teams of all sizes.

Linearity Move

Linearity Move is animation software that lets you animate designs, illustrations, and other graphic elements. It's designed to be user-friendly for both beginners and experienced animators and works on both Mac and iPad. With Linearity Move, you can import static designs or create animations from scratch, making it suitable for various needs, including social media content, online ads, and brand assets. It offers a cost-effective way to produce professional-quality animations in-house.

DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve is a software program for editing videos. It is unique because it combines editing tools with advanced color correction features, allowing users to adjust the color and look of their videos. DaVinci Resolve is used by both individual editors and teams working on film, television, and online video projects.

Animaker

Animaker is a web-based video software that lets you easily create animated and live-action videos. Used by companies like Visa and McDonalds, it helps businesses create marketing videos, explainer videos, and training content. Animaker provides templates, animation tools, and a library of stock assets, allowing users to create professional-looking videos without technical expertise. It also features an AI-powered subtitle generator that can automatically transcribe and translate video content.

Descript

Descript is a software tool that makes editing video and audio as simple as editing a text document. It allows you to make changes to recordings by deleting, inserting, or changing the transcribed text. Descript offers features such as transcription, audio and video editing, screen recording, and collaboration tools. It is suitable for various business uses like creating marketing materials, podcasts, and internal communications. Descript offers a user-friendly interface that is accessible to both beginners and experienced video editors.

Express Animate

Express Animate is a free animation software designed for creating motion graphics and adding animations to videos. The software allows you to animate text, shapes, and imported images. You can apply digital effects, use keyframes for smooth transitions, and export your finished projects in various formats such as video, Flash, or animated GIFs.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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