Motion Array vs Envato Elements - Which is Better?
Motion Array or Envato Elements? That’s the question. I’ve personally used both of these services and they both offer great assets and tools for video creators. Elements is the cheaper option, but over the past year Motion Array has grown in popularity in the video community since it was acquired by Artlist. You’ve probably seen lots of catchy ads on YouTube for both brands as well.
They are both trying to achieve the same thing, which is to create an all-in-one shop for creators to find and download all the assets they need, such as templates, stock video, photos, music, sfx to use in their video.
In this blog , let’s take a look at the similarities, differences, search-ability, and usability, to answer this question: is it worth it to pay more for Motion Array? Or is Envato still the better option?
Similarities
Both Envato Elements and Motion Array have the same basic all-in-one offering for video creators: Video Templates, Stock Video, Music & SFX, and Photos. In fact, when you browse their templates and stock video, you’ll find the same assets, because both platforms are non-exclusive, so the same authors can upload their assets to either site.
And they both have the same licensing model for unlimited downloads, which is: download whatever you want and use the assets in whatever you want. Plus, as an added bonus, even if you cancel your plan, the previous downloads you have are future proof. They also both have dedicated learn pages where you can watch tutorials and courses to improve your video editing and motion design skills.
Pricing Differences
Both marketplaces offer a free entry. Envato Elements has a 7-day free trial, plus a free monthly assets page and Motion Array has a free plan, which offers access only to the limited free items in the library. The difference here is that you can stay on a Motion Array free plan, and with Elements you can download as much as you want in those 7 days (including premium assets), but after that 7-day trial you have to either cancel or
We will first break down the price different between both services:
Envato Elements (Annual Plan): $16.50/mo = $198/year
Envato Elements (Monthly Plan): $33/mo
Motion Array (Annual Plan): $20.98/mo = $249.99/year
Motion Array (Monthly Plan): $29.99/mo
You will save $51.99 per year by going with the Envato Elements annual plan. It’s not a HUGE difference, but it is something. If you plan to only subscribe for 1-2 months, then Motion Array might be the better option, but again, you won’t get all the extra graphic assets, which brings up to the next difference: design assets.
Design Assets
If you’re an editor or video creator, you probably also need access to graphic templates, creative fonts, icons, illustrations, and textures. I know I certainly use graphics to create designs for the Premiere Gal brand. And I also use a lot of Envato’s texture assets within my videos. A huge benefit of subscribing to Envato Elements is that it comes with thousands of design assets included, such as Photoshop add-ons, Lightroom Presets, Product Mockups, Presentation Templates, 3D objects and much more.
Motion Array, on the other hand, is strictly video assets only, so if you need Design Assets too, Envato is the better choice here.
Library Size
Based on search queries, from a quantitate stand point, Envato Elements has a significantly larger library. I performed the search for “aerial” shots and Elements produced over 465,000 results and Motion Array produced just over 60,000 results. Now, these are both huge amounts and I’m sure you’d be able to find the shot you need in either library. But from a quantitative stand point, Envato has been around a lot longer than Motion Array, so it has more choices.
That said, if you are a Davinci Resolve users, Motion Array does have a larger selection of templates for Resolve. It all depends on your software preference here.
Tools
One benefit of Motion Array is that it also comes with four extra tools: (1) An Adobe Panel Extension, (2) A video review and collaboration tool, (3) A website portfolio builder, and (4) a presets plugin for Premiere Pro. If you’re an Adobe Creative Cloud user, the panel is a huge benefit, because from Ae or Pr you are able to browse all of Motion Array’s assets directly from within the software itself, avoiding the extra steps of going to the browser, downloading, and importing into your project panel. The review and collaboration tool, however, is not necessary if you are a Creative Cloud subscriber because Frame.io now comes built into both Ae and Pr with 100GB free for client feedback/approval.
Search-ability
As for search-ability, both options have pros and cons. When it comes to music, Envato Elements has more filters. For example, it has separate filters for Genre, Mood, Instruments, Vocals vs. No Vocals, Male Vocals vs Female Vocals, Length, BPM, and it has a looped music option. Motion Array, however, only has BPM, duration, and a general list of categories (but they are not separated by genre or mood).
On the other hand, when searching for templates, Motion Array has more. For example, if you’re a big user of Motion Graphics Templates (.mogrt) which can be imported and used in Premiere Pro’s Essential Graphics panel, Motion Array has a category specifically for Motion Graphics or mogrts. Envato Elements only has a category for Premiere Pro, so you won’t know if it’s a Premiere Pro Project Template or a .mogrt until you download. Another huge benefit of Motion Array’s search is that you can search by application version, so if you only have After Effects CS6, you can find templates compatible with that version.
Usability
What happens when you download assets? For templates, Motion Array’s downloads are nicely organized into Project Files, Help Files, and Fonts - it’s very organized and all downloads are consistent. on Envato Elements, depending on the author, you might get a different download without fonts or full instructions.
So what should you choose?
So, there is no right or wrong choice here. But in my opinion, if you are just after the basic offering and the design assets will be useful to you, Envato is the better choice because of the price. But if you really want to be able to download assets inside the Premiere Pro Motion Array Panel, and you never use design assets, then Motion Array might be the better choice for you. If you’re still not sure, you can always sign up for a 7-day free trial for Elements and the Motion Array free plan and explores both until you make your decision.
If you’re #TeamEnvato, you can get 70% off your first monthly subscription using Premiere Gal’s affiliate link here.
If you’re #TeamMotionArray, you can start a free plan and download their free assets first to get a feel.