Roundup

The best After Effects plugins, picked by job

Updated 2026-11-03 · by the mouzeclick team

The best After Effects plugins by job are Trapcode Particular for particles, Deep Glow or Sapphire for glow, Mocha Pro for planar tracking, Magic Bullet Looks for colour, and Twixtor or ReelSmart Motion Blur for speed edits. The free picks we could confirm are Animation Composer and FX Console. Most makers publish no price in their page text. Checked on 3 November 2026.

Checked on 3 November 2026 on each maker's own page. Most show no price in their page text.
Free: FX Console (After Effects CC or later) and Animation Composer (up to 500 library items on the free version).
Trials: 14 days for Maxon's Red Giant tools. Sapphire, Mocha Pro and Deep Glow offer free trial downloads.
Sapphire 2026.5: more than 270 effects and transitions and more than 3,000 presets.
We make mouzeclick. It is not an effect plug-in, so it has its own labelled section.

How did we pick the best After Effects plugins?

We picked one or two plug-ins for each job: particles, glow, tracking, colour, transitions, retiming and motion blur. We also added the free tools that help you find effects. Every price, platform and host app below comes from the maker's own page, checked on 3 November 2026. Where a page did not show a fact, we write Not published.

We make mouzeclick. It is a mouse app plus extensions, not an effect plug-in, so it is not ranked here. It has its own section near the end, labelled as ours.

Two names people expect are missing on purpose:

Duik. The RxLaboratory page we checked did not describe it, so we had nothing to verify.
Topaz Video. Topaz Labs lists it as a desktop app, and the pages we read mention no After Effects plug-in. The FAQ below covers it.

Not sure what counts as a plug-in? Our explainer on plugins, scripts and extensions in After Effects covers .aex, .jsx and .zxp files. For a crowd view, we summarised what Reddit recommends for After Effects plugins on a separate page.

How do the top After Effects plugins compare?

The table below lists price, platforms, host apps and the job each plug-in is best at. Prices and platforms are as shown on each maker's page on 3 November 2026.

Plug-in	Price as shown	Platforms	Host apps	Best for
Trapcode Particular and Form	Not published; part of the Red Giant subscription	Windows and macOS	After Effects	Particles, organic forms, 3D effects
Magic Bullet Looks	Not published; part of Red Giant, also in Maxon One	Windows and macOS	After Effects, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, Unreal Engine, Autograph, Cinema 4D	Colour grading in several hosts
Universe	Not published; in the Red Giant subscription	Windows and macOS	Premiere Pro and Autograph named; Red Giant support varies by tool	Transitions, stylisation, text effects
Sapphire 2026.5	Not published; free trial	Not published	After Effects, Premiere Pro, Media Composer, Resolve (OFX), Nuke, Flame, VEGAS Pro, Fusion Studio, Photoshop	Glows, flares, film looks, transitions
Mocha Pro 2026.5	Not published; free trial	Windows ARM named; full list not published	After Effects, Premiere Pro, Media Composer, OFX hosts	Planar tracking and masking
Deep Glow	Not published; free trial	GPU required; Macs with Nvidia cards may not be supported	After Effects	Physically based glow
Twixtor 8	Not published	Windows 11 named in a fix; full list not published	After Effects, Premiere Pro; also stand-alone	Retiming and slow motion
ReelSmart Motion Blur	Not published	Not published	Not published	Motion blur on footage
Element 3D V2.2	Not published	Not published for Element 3D	Not published	3D object particles
FX Console V1.0.7	Free	Windows and Mac	After Effects CC and later (no CS6)	Finding effects and presets fast
Animation Composer	Free; a subscription removes the 500-item limit (price not published)	Windows and Mac; Apple Silicon named for the After Effects version	After Effects 2025+, Premiere 2025+	One-click text, transitions, effects

Which After Effects plugins fit TikTok edits and music videos?

For short-form edits and music videos, the matching plug-ins in this list are:

Speed ramps and slow motion: Twixtor 8.
Motion blur on footage: ReelSmart Motion Blur.
Glow on titles and highlights: Deep Glow, or Sapphire's S_UltraGlow and S_Glare.
Camera shake: Sapphire's Blur & Distort category, or Red Giant Transitions.
Glitch and film transitions: Animation Composer (VHS tape and film transitions; CRT, VHS, Betacam and Digital glitches), Red Giant Transitions, or Sapphire's film rolls.
One colour look across the edit: Magic Bullet Looks.
Particles and energy: Trapcode Particular, or Video Copilot's Saber.

On a budget, start with Animation Composer, which is free. Then add one paid plug-in for the job you hit most, after its trial.

Which plugin is best for particles in After Effects?

Trapcode Particular is the pick for particles, with Trapcode Form beside it for organic forms and 3D effects. Maxon says the two build particle systems directly in After Effects, with physics, flocking and fluid behaviours. It describes Particular as GPU particle physics.

Both come in the Red Giant subscription. That subscription also includes:

Magic Bullet Looks
keying and VFX tools such as Real Lens Flares
motion graphics and text tools, and transitions
the Maxon Studio template library and Capsules assets

Red Giant tools run on Windows and macOS inside supported hosts. Maxon notes that support can vary by tool and host version.

The latest release on Maxon's page on 3 November 2026 is Red Giant 2027.0. It adds:

Scene Light, which Maxon describes as AI-powered true 3D lighting
custom Schmutz textures and new light source types in Real Lens Flares
Maxon Noise in Universe

Price: Not published. Trial: 14 days through the Maxon App. Best for: motion designers who build particle systems and abstract 3D forms inside After Effects.

Should you use Deep Glow or Sapphire for glow?

Use Deep Glow if glow is the only thing you need. Use Sapphire if you also want flares, film looks and transitions in the same suite. Deep Glow is one focused effect, while Sapphire's glows sit among more than 270 effects and transitions.

Deep Glow's page lists physically accurate inverse-square falloff, HDR thresholding, and 8, 16 and 32 bpc support. Before you buy, check these limits:

It runs most operations on the GPU. A GPU is required for rendering, so it is not compatible with CPU-only render nodes.
It works on integrated hardware such as iMacs and laptops.
Macs with Nvidia cards may not be supported, and the page asks you to try the free trial first.

Previous-version downloads go back from After Effects 2025 to CS6. The page text names it Deep Glow, with no Deep Glow 2 label.

Sapphire has two glow effects worth knowing:

S_UltraGlow (new in Sapphire 2021) emulates an optical glow. It has a primary glow and a secondary afterglow, plus Atmosphere and Highlights controls.
S_Glare was redesigned in Sapphire 2026.5. It makes light blooms, streaks and rainbow halos.

Price: Not published for either. Best for: Deep Glow for glow-heavy titles and edits on a machine with a GPU. Sapphire for anyone who wants glow inside a wider effects set.

What do you get with Boris FX Sapphire?

Sapphire is a visual effects and compositing suite with more than 270 effects and transitions and more than 3,000 presets, according to Boris FX. The version shown on 3 November 2026 is Sapphire 2026.5.

Lens flares, glows, light effects, blurs, film looks, stylize effects, distortions and texture generators.
A Transition & Time category: custom dissolves and wipes, film rolls, hyper pulls, swish pans, feedback effects, time averaging and trails.
Camera shakes and rack defocus under Blur & Distort.
Sapphire Builder, which stacks effects into one effect or makes new effects and transitions.
Integrated Mocha planar tracking and masking.

Hosts: After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve (OFX), Foundry Nuke, Autodesk Flame, VEGAS Pro, Blackmagic Fusion Studio, Photoshop and other OFX hosts. Boris FX points to a separate list for exact host versions.

Price: Not published. Trial: free download; length not published. Best for: editors who move between hosts and want one effects set in all of them.

What is Mocha Pro used for in After Effects?

Mocha is Boris FX's planar tracking and masking tool. Boris FX's Sapphire page describes it that way, as the integrated Mocha tracking inside Sapphire. Mocha Pro 2026.5 comes both as a plug-in and as a standalone app.

The plug-in runs in:

After Effects CC, Premiere Pro CC and Avid Media Composer
through OFX: Autodesk Flame, Boris FX Silhouette, Foundry Nuke, Blackmagic Fusion, Vegas Pro and SGO Mistika

Version 2026.5 adds Windows ARM support to both the Adobe plug-in and the standalone app.

Price: Not published on the store pages we checked. Trial: free download. Best for: compositors who want a dedicated planar tracker that runs in several hosts.

Which colour grading plugin works in After Effects and your editor?

Magic Bullet Looks is the colour pick here. It runs in After Effects and six other hosts: Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, Unreal Engine, Autograph and Cinema 4D.

Maxon files Magic Bullet under colour grading and film emulation. Magic Bullet, Universe and Primatte Keyer run natively in a Premiere Pro timeline.

The colour tools are part of the Red Giant subscription, which is also included in Maxon One. The same 14-day trial covers them.

Price: Not published. Best for: editors who grade in Premiere Pro or Resolve, finish in After Effects and want the same tool in both.

Which After Effects plugins handle transitions and stylised looks?

Three in this list do: Red Giant Universe, Sapphire's Transition & Time category and Animation Composer. Pick by what else you need from the package.

Universe is a library of post-production plug-ins in the Red Giant subscription. It covers transitions, effects, stylisation, text effects and finishing tools. The subscription also lists transitions, and Maxon's separate Red Giant Transitions page names 3D transitions, bokeh, camera shake, radial wipes, colour mosaics and glitches. Best for: Red Giant subscribers who want transitions from the same vendor.
Sapphire has auto-animating transitions, from custom dissolves and wipes to film rolls and swish pans. Best for: a finished look that carries across several hosts.
Animation Composer applies transitions, text animations and effects in one click. The update in the 10 June 2026 announcement added:
- VHS tape, film and light-leak transitions, and a Film category
- CRT, VHS, Betacam and Digital glitches
- organic light leaks
Best for: quick social edits on a free plug-in.

Our roundup of After Effects transitions goes deeper on this one job.

Which plugins do slow motion and motion blur for edits?

Use Twixtor for slow motion and retiming, and ReelSmart Motion Blur (RSMB) to add motion blur to footage. Both come from RE:Vision Effects.

RE:Vision says Twixtor 8 retimes footage, supports 360 video and now uses machine learning. It is also sold as a stand-alone app. Twixtor 8.1.1A came out on 22 October 2026 for After Effects and Premiere Pro. It fixes an installer initialization issue on Windows 11.

RE:Vision describes RSMB in one line: it adds motion blur to your footage.

Price: Not published for either on the homepage we checked. RSMB's host list is not published there either. Best for: slow-motion and speed-ramp edits (Twixtor), and footage that needs more motion blur (RSMB).

Topaz Video is not in the table because the pages we read mention no After Effects plug-in. The FAQ below has what Topaz does publish.

Which Video Copilot plug-ins are still listed?

Video Copilot lists Element 3D V2.2, a 3D-object-based particle plug-in, and FX Console, a free effect search. Saber appears on its site as a tutorial.

Element 3D V2.2. Video Copilot's support page has V2.2 documentation and V1.6 help and tutorials. Price, hosts and supported versions are not published on the pages we checked. Best for: 3D objects and object-based particles.
Saber. It appears as tutorial 159, Saber Plug-in, for high-quality energy and light beams. Price, hosts and versions are not published there. Best for: energy and light beams.
FX Console V1.0.7. Free, for After Effects CC and later (CC 2014 included, CS6 not), with Windows and Mac downloads. It finds effects and presets quickly, makes effect shortcuts and overrides, and saves snapshots as PNG with a gallery. Version 1.0.1 added a custom shortcut key, settings import and export, and Tab to presets in search results. The V1.0.7 notes add UTF language support for AE2026 and macOS Catalina support. Setup is on our FX Console install and shortcut page. Best for: anyone who applies effects by name and wants it free.

Video Copilot says its plug-ins run natively on Apple M1 Macs. Its support page lists a 14 Day Guarantee.

Is Animation Composer really free?

Yes. Mister Horse calls Animation Composer a free plug-in for After Effects and Premiere, and the free version lets you add up to 500 items to your library. A subscription removes that limit. Its price is not published on the pages we checked.

The After Effects version has four free tools:

Keyframe Wingman
Keyframe Actions
Anchor Point Mover
Transition Shifter

Host and platform requirements:

After Effects 2025 or newer for the After Effects version
Premiere 2025 or newer for the Premiere version
downloads for Mac and Windows; the After Effects version also works on Apple Silicon Macs

Premiere Composer was renamed Animation Composer in an announcement dated 10 June 2026: the same plug-in, with new features. Updates come through the Mister Horse Product Manager app.

Install steps are in our guide to installing Animation Composer and Premiere Composer. We compare it with our own tools on the Animation Composer alternative page.

Best for: editors on a current After Effects who want ready animations at no cost.

Where mouzeclick fits (we make it)

mouzeclick does not render glows, particles or tracks, so it is not a pick for any job above. What it does is keep the plug-ins you already own one flick away. This is our own description, not a ranking.

After Effects Tool wheel. 114 tools in 13 groups. Open it with F10, any key or mouse button, or by holding the right button, with a hold delay you set from 80 to 600 ms. A quick right click still opens After Effects' own menu. It starts from four layouts: Default, Motion Design, Animate and Finishing. Each action is one undo step. An effect picked with nothing selected makes its own adjustment layer. More on the After Effects radial menu page.
Search effects. It searches every installed effect and transition, audio included, so installed third-party plug-ins show up too. Your 12 most recent picks come first, then exact and word-start matches. Enter applies the effect. Shift+Enter applies it and pins it to the Tool wheel. See the Search effects feature list.
Extensions. 15 After Effects extensions, such as mouzeflow's 15 layer transitions and mouzecam's camera rig. They open under Window › Extensions and are not effect plug-ins. The full set is on the extensions page.

Platforms: the Tool wheel, Search effects and the extensions run on Windows and Mac (macOS 12+). The After Effects workspace, with 800+ tools, presets and templates, is Windows only. The Mac app does not include it.

Setup:

Both Tool wheels need the bridge. Install it once from the app's Tool wheel page, restart After Effects and keep mouzeclick running.
The app needs an internet connection while it runs.
On a Mac, Apple has not notarized the app yet, so macOS asks you to allow it the first time. The Mac install guide has four steps.

Where FX Console is the better pick: if all you want is a free effect search inside After Effects, FX Console does that at no cost. mouzeclick makes sense if you also want the wheels, per-app mouse buttons and the extensions.

Price: $25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys. The free trial is 3 days, with no card, and every Premiere Pro and After Effects tool works fully. Details are on mouzeclick pricing and the free trial.

How do you choose the right After Effects plugin?

Start from the job. Then check your host version, your GPU and the trial before you pay.

Name the job: particles, glow, tracking, colour, transitions or retiming. One plug-in per job is easier to learn than several that overlap.
Check your host version. Animation Composer needs After Effects 2025 or newer, and FX Console needs CC or later. Sapphire and Mocha Pro point to separate version lists, so read those first.
Check your GPU. Deep Glow needs a GPU to render, and its page warns about Macs with Nvidia cards.
Run the trial on a real project. Maxon's trial runs 14 days. Sapphire, Mocha Pro and Deep Glow offer free trials, but their length is not published.
Count the bundle. Trapcode, Magic Bullet and Universe all come in the Red Giant subscription. If you need two of them, that changes the sum.
Install it correctly. Our guide to installing After Effects plugins walks through it.
Keep it within reach. Use FX Console or a wheel, so a plug-in you paid for gets used instead of being forgotten in a long effects list.

Keep your most-used After Effects effects on a mouse wheel, free for 3 days. One plan with everything included, $25 a month, or $249 for a year.

See the price

Questions people ask

Which After Effects plugins are free?

Two in this list are free. Video Copilot's FX Console needs After Effects CC or later. Mister Horse's Animation Composer is free for up to 500 items in your library. Its After Effects version also has four free tools: Keyframe Wingman, Keyframe Actions, Anchor Point Mover and Transition Shifter. Sapphire, Mocha Pro and Deep Glow offer free trials, and Maxon's trial runs 14 days. For more free picks, see our summary of free After Effects plugins on Reddit.

Do I need Twixtor for smooth slow-motion edits?

Twixtor is the plug-in in this list built for retiming. RE:Vision says Twixtor 8 retimes footage, supports 360 video and now uses machine learning. Version 8.1.1A came out on 22 October 2026 for After Effects and Premiere Pro, and it is also sold as a stand-alone app. Its price was not published on the homepage we checked on 3 November 2026. For extra motion blur on fast moves, RE:Vision's ReelSmart Motion Blur covers that job.

Is there a free trial of Red Giant and Trapcode?

Yes. Maxon offers a 14-day free trial through the Maxon App. Every trial includes Red Giant, Cinema 4D, Redshift and the full Maxon One suite, and only the latest releases are available as trials. Trapcode Particular and Form are part of the Red Giant subscription, so the same trial covers them. Maxon's pages we checked on 3 November 2026 showed no plan price in their text.

Does Deep Glow work on a Mac?

It can, with a caveat. Deep Glow needs a GPU for rendering, and its page warns that Macs with Nvidia cards may not be supported. The same page says it also works on integrated hardware such as iMacs and laptops. It is not compatible with CPU-only render nodes. The maker asks you to download the free trial and check compatibility before you buy.

Is Topaz Video an After Effects plugin?

Not on the pages we checked. Topaz Labs lists Topaz Video as a desktop app for Mac and Windows, starting at $59/mo as shown on 3 November 2026. None of the pages we read mention an After Effects plug-in. Topaz lists an Adobe Premiere Panel under its cloud apps, but does not tie it to Topaz Video. The desktop app supports codecs and containers such as ProRes and MKV.

Does FX Console work in Premiere Pro?

Video Copilot lists FX Console as a plug-in for After Effects only. We found no Premiere Pro version on the page we checked. It needs After Effects CC or later and does not run in CS6. For effect search in Premiere, see what to use instead of FX Console in Premiere Pro. mouzeclick's Search effects is one option there, and we make it.

Do After Effects plugins also work in Premiere Pro?

Some do, and the maker's host list tells you which. Magic Bullet Looks, Sapphire and Mocha Pro list Premiere Pro alongside After Effects. Twixtor 8.1.1A is released for both. Animation Composer runs in After Effects 2025 or newer and Premiere 2025 or newer. Maxon describes Trapcode Particular and Form as working directly in After Effects, and its page doesn't say whether they run in other hosts.

Is mouzeclick an After Effects plugin?

No. mouzeclick is a mouse app for Windows and Mac plus extensions: panels that open under Window › Extensions, installed by the app. They are not effect plug-ins, and they add no glow, particle or tracking effect. The After Effects Tool wheel and Search effects help you apply the plug-ins you already have. We make mouzeclick, which is why it sits in its own labelled section.

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.