Roundup

The best After Effects transition packs and plugins

Updated 2026-11-03 · by the mouzeclick team

For plugin transitions you can shape, the best picks are Boris FX Sapphire and Red Giant Universe. For packs you buy once, pick AEJuice or Motion Bro; for free ones, Mixkit or Animation Composer. We checked eight options on 3 November 2026. We make mouzeclick: its mouzeflow extension adds 15 transitions, and the packs here ship far more designs.

Boris FX lists more than 270 effects and transitions and 3,000+ presets in Sapphire. No price is shown on its page.
Red Giant Universe is included in a Red Giant subscription. The Maxon App starts a 14-day trial.
Mixkit has 43 free After Effects transition templates, with no sign-up and no attribution.
On 3 Nov 2026, AEJuice showed its two transition packs at $59 each and its 133-pack bundle at $149, paid once.
mouzeflow (ours) adds 15 layer transitions. It runs on Windows and Mac.

How did we pick the best After Effects transitions?

We picked tools that put a transition between two shots or layers inside After Effects. We checked each maker's own page on 3 November 2026 for price, platforms, host apps and what ships. Where a maker shows no number, the table says "Not published". We have not guessed.

We make mouzeclick. Its mouzeflow extension is in this list, in its own section labelled as ours, and it is not ranked first. It is a small set of 15 transitions, and the packs and libraries here ship far more designs.

Three kinds of tool turn up:

Plugins add transition effects you apply and keyframe: Sapphire and Universe.
Packs and preset panels drop ready-made transitions into your comp: AEJuice, Motion Bro and Animation Composer.
Template libraries give you project files to download: Envato Elements and Mixkit.

If the line between a plugin, a script and a panel is fuzzy, read our guide to plugins, scripts and extensions in After Effects. For the no-plugin route, see how to do transitions in After Effects.

How do the After Effects transition tools compare side by side?

This table shows prices as each maker's page showed them on 3 November 2026. "Not published" means the page we checked did not say.

Product	Price as shown (3 Nov 2026)	Platforms	Host apps	Best for
Boris FX Sapphire	Not published; free trial offered	Not published	After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve (OFX), Nuke, Flame, VEGAS Pro, Fusion Studio, other OFX hosts	Tweakable dissolves, wipes and swish pans across many hosts
Red Giant Universe	Not published; 14-day trial via the Maxon App	Windows, macOS	Red Giant tools: After Effects, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Autograph, Cinema 4D (varies by tool and host version)	Transitions inside a full Red Giant subscription
AEJuice	Transition packs $59 each; 133-pack bundle $149, paid once; free tier	Windows 10/11, macOS 10.14+ (Pack Manager)	After Effects (CC 2015 to current) and Premiere Pro; standalone assets in other editors	Buying transition packs once
Animation Composer	Free plug-in; subscription and pack prices not published	Windows, Mac (Apple Silicon too)	After Effects 2025+, Premiere 2025+	A free one-click library to start with
Motion Bro	Free presets for personal use, $17 commercial; transitions bundle price not published	Not published	After Effects 2022+, Premiere Pro 2024+ (Ultimate Transitions Bundle)	Preset packs reused in unlimited projects
Envato Elements	From $16.50 / month	Not published	Templates for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve	Volume: 160,000+ video templates
Mixkit	Free, no sign-up	Not published	Templates for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve	Free transition project files
mouzeflow (ours, in mouzeclick)	$25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys	Windows, Mac	After Effects	15 layer transitions in a panel, beside other tools

Is Sapphire the best transition plugin for After Effects?

Sapphire is the pick here if you want transitions you can shape rather than drop in. Boris FX says the suite holds more than 270 effects and transitions and more than 3,000 presets.

Its Transition & Time category covers auto-animating transitions from classic to modern, including:

custom dissolves and wipes
film rolls and hyper pulls
swish pans and feedback effects
time averaging and trails

Two details matter for transition work. First, Sapphire Builder stacks several effects so they apply as one, or builds new effects and transitions of your own, and the stacks are cross-platform. Second, the suite includes Mocha planar tracking and masking. Its glows, lens flares, blurs and distortions pair well with a cut. The current version shown is Sapphire 2026.5.

The host list is long: After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve through OFX, Nuke, Flame, VEGAS Pro, Fusion Studio and other OFX apps. That matters if you finish shots in more than one program.

The catch is price. The product and store pages we checked show none, and the trial's length isn't published. Ask Boris FX before you plan a budget around it.

Best for: editors and compositors who move between After Effects, Resolve, Avid or Nuke and want the same transitions everywhere.

What does Red Giant Universe offer for After Effects transitions?

Universe is Maxon's library of post-production plugins, included in a Red Giant subscription. Maxon describes customizable transitions, effects, stylization and finishing tools, and says Universe covers transitions, stylization and text effects. Maxon's Red Giant Transitions page lists 3D transitions, bokeh, camera shake, radial wipes, colour mosaics and glitches.

The subscription is the real product. The same plan includes:

Trapcode Particular and Form
Magic Bullet Looks
Real Lens Flares
the Maxon Studio template library
Capsules assets

The latest release shown is Red Giant 2027.0, which adds Maxon Noise to Universe. Universe also runs natively in a Premiere Pro timeline.

Maxon says its products work on macOS and Windows. Red Giant tools run in After Effects, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Autograph and Cinema 4D, and support varies by tool and host version. You install and manage everything through the Maxon App.

The Maxon App also starts a 14-day trial that includes Red Giant, Cinema 4D, Redshift and the rest of Maxon One. Only the latest releases are offered as trials. No price appears on the pages we checked.

Best for: motion designers who also want Trapcode particles and Magic Bullet colour, so the transitions come along with the rest.

Which After Effects transition pack should I buy from AEJuice?

If you want transitions you own, start with AEJuice's two numbered transition packs. On 3 November 2026 its bundle page showed:

Seamless Transitions 2 and Seamless Transitions 3: $59 each (listed down from $119)
Light Leaks: $49
Flash FX: $99
VHS: $64
the full bundle: one payment of $149 for 133 packs and 20,000+ assets, with updates for the packs in it

Read the small print before you buy:

Packs released after you buy are not added automatically. AEJuice offers a discounted Lifetime Upgrade once a year.
The bundle price drifts up as AEJuice adds 5 to 10 packs each quarter.
One licence covers two computers, floating, for one user.
There is a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Everything installs through Pack Manager, a free plugin that installs, organises and previews the packs inside After Effects and Premiere Pro. It installs packs on demand, and the average install is 8 to 20 GB. It also puts every template font into your system fonts folder.

Pack Manager runs on Windows 10/11 and on macOS 10.14+, native on Apple Silicon and Intel. After Effects support runs from CC 2015 to current. Other editors can use the standalone assets, but plugin-bound presets run only in After Effects and Premiere Pro.

The free tier gives 35 products, 10 courses and 2,000+ assets. You need a free account but no card.

We compare it in detail in AEJuice against a tool panel, and we summarise user threads in what Reddit says about AEJuice.

Best for: editors who want a large set of ready transitions, paid once, and have the disk space for it.

Are Animation Composer's transitions free in After Effects?

Yes, the plug-in itself is free. Mister Horse describes Animation Composer as a free plug-in for After Effects and Premiere, with text animations, transitions and effects you apply in one click.

A recent update added:

VHS tape, film and light-leak transitions
a Film category
CRT, VHS, Betacam and Digital glitches
organic light leaks

The free version caps your user library at 500 items, and a subscription removes the limit. The pages we checked show neither the subscription price nor the paid pack prices.

The After Effects version also has four free tools: Transition Shifter, Keyframe Wingman, Keyframe Actions and Anchor Point Mover.

It needs After Effects 2025 or newer, and Premiere 2025 or newer on the Premiere side. There are Mac and Windows downloads, and it works on Apple Silicon Macs. Mister Horse announced on 10 June 2026 that Premiere Composer is now called Animation Composer. Updates arrive through the Mister Horse Product Manager app.

For how it stacks up against a plan of tools, see Animation Composer compared.

Best for: anyone on After Effects 2025 or newer who wants free one-click transitions before spending anything.

Is Motion Bro a good After Effects transition pack?

Motion Bro is a good fit if you like preset packs run from one plugin, but it only works in After Effects and Premiere Pro. Its Ultimate Transitions Bundle needs After Effects 2022 or higher and Premiere Pro 2024 or higher. The bundle's price was not shown in the text we checked.

The free Motion Bro Presets are 8 packages with 1,400 presets. They are free for personal use (or a $4 donation) and cost $17 for commercial use.

The licence terms are generous:

A pack bought once works in unlimited projects, with free updates.
One purchase code covers one end user on two devices.
You can build your own packages, even to sell, with no commission, as long as they don't infringe copyright.

Install it through Creative Cloud or by hand. The Help Center has video tutorials for installing both the plugin and preset packs. Operating-system support isn't stated on the pages we read.

For other options, see Motion Bro alternatives.

Best for: editors who want reusable transition presets in After Effects and Premiere, with clear commercial terms.

Are Envato Elements transitions worth a subscription?

Envato Elements is worth it only if you need volume. On 3 November 2026 the subscription showed as from $16.50 a month, though the page doesn't say which plan that is or whether the price is localised. It gives unlimited downloads from 30+ million assets, 160,000+ of them video templates. No count is published for transitions alone.

After Effects templates arrive as .aep projects with labelled comps, text and media placeholders and colour controllers. They usually run from HD to 4K. Version support varies by template: some open in CS5.5 or CS6, others only in CC or later, so check each item. Templates downloaded under a valid subscription keep a lifetime commercial licence.

Motion Array works the same way. Its Video Templates plan covers templates, presets and motion graphics for one user, and its Everything plan adds footage, music, plugins and LUTs. Its pricing page showed no amounts on 3 November 2026.

Watch Motion Array's cancel rule. After you cancel, downloaded assets can't go into new projects, though videos published during the subscription stay covered.

More detail: Motion Array against tools and the best After Effects template sites.

Best for: studios that cut many projects a month and want fresh designs every time.

Where can I get After Effects transitions free?

Mixkit, run by Envato, is the simplest free source we found. It lists 43 free After Effects transition templates in zoom, glitch, split and slide styles, as After Effects project files. Downloads are unlimited, with no sign-up and no attribution.

The Mixkit Free License allows commercial and non-commercial use. Licences are set per item type, so read the one for templates.

Premiere Pro users get more: 140 free transition templates, either as projects or as .mogrt files. Mixkit gives no supported version numbers, so open a template before you build an edit around it.

The other free routes are covered above: Animation Composer's free plug-in, AEJuice's free tier and Motion Bro's personal-use presets.

Best for: students, side projects and anyone who wants a few good transition projects at no cost.

Where mouzeclick fits (we make it)

This is our own section. mouzeflow is one of mouzeclick's 22 extensions. It puts 15 transitions between layers in After Effects:

Push, Zoom through, Whip, Spin and Circle reveal
Shape wipe, Split, Blinds, Pixelate and Blur dissolve
Light flash, Glitch, Ink reveal, Iris and Swipe card

The mouzeflow page in our feature library lists 32 items.

Be clear about scale. Fifteen transitions is a small set. AEJuice's bundle counts 20,000+ assets, Sapphire lists 270+ effects and transitions, and Mixkit alone has 43 free transition templates. If you want light leaks, film looks or a different glitch for every cut, a pack gives you far more designs.

What mouzeflow gives you instead is a panel that comes in the same plan as the rest of mouzeclick. That plan includes mouzecam's whip pans and rack focus, and mouzetrans, with 11 transitions on cuts in Premiere Pro. Every panel is on the extensions page.

It is not an effect plug-in. It is a panel that opens under Window › Extensions, and the app installs it.

Platforms. mouzeflow and the other extensions run on Windows and Mac. The After Effects workspace is Windows-only, and the Mac app does not include it. That workspace holds Motion lab's 14 camera shakes and the Easing lab.

Setup.

In the app, press Install After Effects bridge on the Tool wheel page.
Restart After Effects.
Open the panel from Window › Extensions.

Keep mouzeclick running while you work. It needs an internet connection while it runs. Mac users can follow installing mouzeclick on a Mac.

Price and trial. mouzeclick publishes no minimum After Effects version, so check yours with the 3-day trial (no card). After that it is $25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys. See mouzeclick pricing.

Where the others are the better pick:

Variety: AEJuice, Envato Elements and Sapphire ship far more transition designs.
Other hosts: Sapphire runs in Resolve, Avid, Nuke and Flame, and Red Giant tools run in Final Cut Pro, Resolve and Cinema 4D. mouzeflow runs only in After Effects.
Cost: Mixkit and Animation Composer are free, while mouzeclick is a paid plan after the trial.

How do I choose the best After Effects transitions for my work?

Start with where you finish the edit, then budget, then licence.

Count your host apps. If you also work in Resolve, Avid or Nuke, Sapphire's OFX support or Red Giant's host list matters more than anything else.
Decide between owning and renting. AEJuice and Motion Bro packs are paid once. Envato Elements and Motion Array are subscriptions. Envato says templates downloaded under a valid subscription keep a lifetime commercial licence. Motion Array's downloads can't go into new projects after you cancel.
Check your After Effects version.
- Animation Composer needs 2025 or newer.
- Motion Bro's transitions bundle needs 2022 or newer.
- AEJuice covers CC 2015 to current.
- Envato varies by template.
Check the licence for client work. Motion Bro's free presets are for personal use only; commercial use is $17. Mixkit and Envato allow commercial use under their own terms.
Check disk space. AEJuice's average install is 8 to 20 GB.
Try before you pay. Red Giant gives 14 days, Sapphire offers a trial and mouzeclick gives 3 days.

New to installing these? Read how to install After Effects plugins. If you cut in Premiere too, see the best Premiere Pro transitions.

Try mouzeflow and the other After Effects panels free for 3 days, no card. One plan with everything included, $25 a month, or $249 for a year.

See the price

Questions people ask

Are there free After Effects transitions worth using?

Yes. Mixkit has 43 free After Effects transition templates with no sign-up, and its licence allows commercial use. Animation Composer is a free plug-in with transitions, capped at 500 items in your library until you subscribe. AEJuice's free tier gives 35 products and 2,000+ assets with a free account. Motion Bro's 1,400 free presets are free for personal use only; commercial use is $17.

What is the difference between a transition plugin and a transition pack?

A plugin, such as Sapphire or Universe, adds effects you apply and adjust in After Effects and often in other hosts. A pack is a set of ready-made presets or project files that a panel, such as AEJuice's Pack Manager or Motion Bro, drops into your comp. Template libraries give you .aep projects to open and edit. Plugins give more control, and packs give more ready looks.

Do After Effects transition packs also work in Premiere Pro?

Many do. Animation Composer, Motion Bro and AEJuice all work in After Effects and Premiere Pro. Universe runs natively in a Premiere timeline, and Sapphire lists Premiere Pro as a host. Mixkit has 140 free Premiere transition templates as projects or .mogrt files. mouzeflow works in After Effects only; mouzeclick's mouzetrans adds 11 transitions on cuts in Premiere, on Windows and Mac.

Can I use Envato, Mixkit or Motion Array transitions in client work?

Generally yes, under each site's terms. Envato gives templates downloaded under a valid subscription a lifetime commercial licence. The Mixkit Free License allows commercial and non-commercial use, set per item type. Motion Array's licence runs from social videos to feature films, but after you cancel, you can't use downloaded assets in new projects. A few of its images and videos are marked editorial use only.

Which After Effects transition tools run on a Mac?

On the pages we checked, Red Giant runs on Windows and macOS. Animation Composer has Mac downloads and works on Apple Silicon. AEJuice's Pack Manager supports macOS 10.14+ on Apple Silicon and Intel. mouzeflow runs on Mac too, but mouzeclick's After Effects workspace is Windows-only. Sapphire and Motion Bro didn't state operating systems on the pages we read.

Is there a free trial for Sapphire or Red Giant Universe?

Both offer one. Red Giant's trial lasts 14 days, starts from the Maxon App and includes the full Maxon One suite, though only the latest releases are offered as trials. Boris FX offers a free Sapphire trial download but doesn't publish its length. Neither page we checked on 3 November 2026 showed a price, so confirm the cost with the maker.

How many transitions does mouzeflow include compared with a pack?

mouzeflow has 15 transitions, including Push, Zoom through, Whip, Glitch, Ink reveal and Swipe card, and the feature library lists 32 items. That is far fewer than the packs: AEJuice's bundle counts 20,000+ assets and Sapphire lists 270+ effects and transitions. mouzeflow makes sense when you already want mouzeclick's other tools. It is not the pick for variety.

What After Effects version do I need for transition packs?

It depends on the product. Animation Composer needs After Effects 2025 or newer. Motion Bro's Ultimate Transitions Bundle needs After Effects 2022+ and Premiere Pro 2024+. AEJuice supports After Effects CC 2015 through current. Envato templates vary, from CS5.5 to CC-only. Red Giant says support varies by tool. mouzeclick publishes no minimum, so check your version during the 3-day trial.