Shotstack Alternatives for Non-Developers (No JSON Required)
Shotstack Alternatives for Non-Developers (No JSON Required)
Here's the thing nobody tells you when you search "Shotstack alternatives": almost every list hands you another developer API. You wanted to get away from writing JSON, and you end up looking at four tools that also want you to POST a JSON payload to a render endpoint.
I went down this rabbit hole myself while testing video automation options for a content team that had exactly zero engineers to spare. The pattern was clear within an hour — the "alternatives" roundups on G2 and Capterra rank by feature parity with Shotstack, which means they rank by how good an API is. That's the wrong axis if you're a marketer, a founder, or an ops person who just needs videos out the door.
So this list ranks by a different question: how much code do you, the non-developer, actually have to touch? Six tools, real 2026 pricing pulled from each vendor's own page, and an honest split between the two jobs people are actually trying to do.
TL;DR — Shotstack alternatives by how much JSON you write
| Tool | Entry price | Free tier | JSON required? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shotstack (baseline) | $39/mo or $0.30/min PAYG | 10 credits, 30 days | Yes (core workflow) | Developers building video into a product |
| Creatomate | from $41/mo | 50 credits | Optional — visual editor | Teams with a designer + Make/Zapier |
| Bannerbear | $49/mo | 30 credits | No — templates + integrations | Marketing asset automation |
| JSON2Video | $16.95/mo (billed yearly, $203.40/yr) | 600 credits | Yes — JSON-first | Devs who want the cheapest API |
| Plainly | $69/mo | 14-day trial | No JSON, but needs After Effects | Teams with an AE designer |
| AutoAE | $9.90/mo or $2.90/video | Invite credits | No — brief in, video out | Creators/marketers who need branded motion, not a pipeline |
First, a reality check on what you're replacing.
What Shotstack actually is (and where non-developers hit the wall)
Shotstack pioneered the JSON-to-video idea: you describe a video edit — tracks, clips, text, transitions — as a JSON object, POST it to the Edit API, and the cloud renders an MP4. It's genuinely good at what it does. The docs are clean, the behavior is predictable, and if you're an engineer wiring video generation into an app, it's a solid pick. Pricing is usage-based: a free tier of 10 credits (1 credit = 1 minute of video) valid for 30 days, pay-as-you-go at $0.30/minute, or a subscription from $39/month that drops the rate to $0.20/minute.
The wall isn't the price. The wall is that "edit a video" in Shotstack means "hand-author or generate a JSON timeline." A non-developer can technically learn the schema, but the moment you want a second template, or a layout tweak, or a brand font swapped, you're back in a code editor counting brackets. Their own template editor and Postman tutorials exist precisely because that gap is real.
So before you pick an alternative, answer one question honestly.
The honest split: automation at scale, or finished branded video?
These are two different jobs, and conflating them is why people end up with the wrong tool.
Job A — Automation at scale. You need to generate hundreds or thousands of videos from a data source: personalized clips, programmatic social variations, listing videos from a spreadsheet. This is a real engineering job even when it's "no-code." The tools below in this bucket (Creatomate, Bannerbear, JSON2Video, Plainly) hide more or less of the code, but you're still building a pipeline.
Job B — Finished branded video, by hand, fast. You don't need 1,000 variations. You need one good hook, title card, or product reel that looks designed, and you need it today. If that's you, an automation API is the wrong category entirely — you want a Motion Agent, the layer that takes a one-line brief and ships branded motion without you assembling a render pipeline at all.
Most people searching "Shotstack alternatives for non-developers" are quietly in Job B but keep getting sold Job A. Keep that in mind as you read.
1. Creatomate — the closest thing to no-code automation
If you genuinely need automation and want to write the least JSON possible, Creatomate is where I'd start. It has a visual template editor, so a non-technical person can design a template by dragging elements instead of typing a schema. Then you wire it to Make, Zapier, or a spreadsheet feed — no API call you write by hand.
The JSON is still there underneath; power users define templates as JSON and render variations at scale. But you can stay in the visual layer for a long time. Pricing starts with a free 50-credit trial, then Essential from $41/month (2,000 credits, roughly 200+ short videos), Growth at $99/month, and a Beyond tier above that.
I cover the head-to-head in more depth in Creatomate vs Shotstack — short version: Creatomate is the more designer-friendly of the two, Shotstack the more developer-pure.
Pick it if: you have a designer who can build templates and an ops person who lives in Zapier/Make, and you need scale. Skip it if: "design a template" still sounds like a project you don't have time for.
2. Bannerbear — marketing asset automation without the API homework
Bannerbear started as a dynamic image API and added video later. Its strength for non-developers is the integration surface: Zapier, Make, Airtable, and form triggers are first-class, so you can auto-generate branded videos from a spreadsheet or a form submission without touching the REST API directly.
Pricing is plan-based, not per-minute: Automate at $49/month (1,000 API credits), Scale at $149/month (10,000), Enterprise at $299/month (50,000), with a 30-credit free trial. It's tuned for repeatable marketing assets — product videos, social cards, listing media — more than for cinematic motion design.
Pick it if: you're auto-generating a steady stream of branded marketing videos from structured data. Skip it if: you want one polished, design-led video rather than a thousand templated ones.
3. JSON2Video — honest pick, but it's still JSON
I'm including JSON2Video because it shows up on every alternatives list and it's the cheapest API of the bunch — but I want to be straight with you: the name is the spec. It's a JSON-first REST API. There are SDKs and it plays nicely with no-code tools like n8n, but the core authoring model is a JSON payload.
Pricing is the friendliest part: a free tier of 600 credits, then Hobby at $16.95/month (billed yearly at $203.40, ~50 minutes), Professional at $49.95/month, and Startup at $99.95/month. Pre-paid credit packs never expire.
Pick it if: you (or a developer-ish teammate) are fine in JSON and want the lowest API bill. Skip it if: "No JSON Required" was the whole reason you're reading this — then this one fails the brief by design.
4. Plainly — no JSON, but you trade it for After Effects
Plainly takes a different escape route from JSON: instead of a browser schema, you render real After Effects projects in the cloud. You get the full creative range of AE — expressions, easing, complex motion — and you never write a JSON timeline.
The catch is in their own docs: "You or someone on your team will need to create the video template in After Effects first." So you've swapped one specialist skill (JSON) for another (AE motion design). Pricing reflects the premium: Starter at $69/month (50 render minutes) or $579/year, scaling up to Pro at $649/month, with a 14-day trial.
Pick it if: you already have an After Effects designer and want to automate variations of their work. Skip it if: "non-developer" for you also means "non-After-Effects" — which, for most people in this search, it does. (This is the same trap I flag in the Remotion alternatives roundup: no-JSON often just means a different specialist tool.)
5. AutoAE — when the real job was branded video, not a pipeline
This is the Job B answer, and full disclosure: I'm the CMO of AutoAE, so weigh this accordingly. I'm including it because most "Shotstack alternatives" lists pretend the only valid job is building an automation pipeline, and that's just not true for the marketer who landed here.
AutoAE is an online motion graphics platform — a Motion Agent. You describe what you want ("a 5-second product hook, dark theme, our logo, punchy text reveal"), it matches a professionally designed template, you fill in your text and brand assets, and you export. No JSON, no After Effects, no render pipeline. Pricing is flat and predictable: Starter at $9.90/month or $99/year, Creator at $24.90/month, up to Scale at $199.90/month, plus a one-time $2.90/video option if you don't want a subscription at all.
The honest boundary: AutoAE is not a bulk-automation API. If you need 1,000 personalized videos from a database, use Creatomate or Bannerbear — that's their job. AutoAE is for when you need one video that looks like a designer made it, fast, without code. In my experience that's what most people in this search actually wanted; they just got routed into the API aisle.
Pick it if: you need finished, branded motion graphics by Friday and you're never going to write code. Skip it if: your actual need is programmatic generation at volume — then it's the wrong category and one of the APIs above is right.
If… Then — pick by your real job
- If you need 1,000 videos from a spreadsheet and have a Zapier/Make person → Creatomate or Bannerbear.
- If you want the cheapest API and don't mind JSON → JSON2Video.
- If you already have an After Effects designer → Plainly (automate their templates).
- If you need one polished branded video, no code, today → AutoAE.
- If you're actually a developer building video into a product → honestly, stay on Shotstack. It's good at that job.
Three questions that pick the tool for you
- How many videos, really? One a week is Job B (AutoAE). Hundreds a day is Job A (an API). Don't buy a pipeline to make one hook.
- Who builds the template? If the answer is "nobody on my team can," cross off Plainly (needs AE) and lean toward AutoAE's ready-made templates or Creatomate's visual editor.
- Is "no JSON" a hard line or a nice-to-have? If it's hard, JSON2Video is out and Shotstack itself stays out — and the question becomes Creatomate/Bannerbear (no-code automation) vs AutoAE (no-code finished video).
FAQ
What is the best no-code Shotstack alternative? For automation, Creatomate is the most no-code-friendly — a visual template editor plus Make/Zapier means you can run it without writing JSON. For finished branded videos without any pipeline, AutoAE skips templates-as-code entirely: you brief it, it builds. The "best" depends on whether you need volume or a single polished clip.
Are there Shotstack alternatives that don't require any coding at all? Yes. Bannerbear runs on no-code integrations (Zapier, Airtable, Make), and AutoAE needs no code or API at all. Plainly needs no JSON but does require After Effects skills, so it's only "no-code" if someone on your team knows AE.
Why are most Shotstack alternatives still developer tools? Because Shotstack is a developer product, so feature-parity lists rank other developer products. JSON2Video, and Shotstack itself, are API-first by design. If you're not a developer, rank by authoring model (visual editor or brief vs. JSON), not by API feature checklists.
How much does Shotstack cost compared to the alternatives? Shotstack is usage-based: free 10 credits for 30 days, then $0.30/minute pay-as-you-go or $0.20/minute on a subscription from $39/month. JSON2Video starts at $16.95/month (billed yearly), Creatomate from $41/month, Bannerbear at $49/month, and Plainly at $69/month. AutoAE is flat at $9.90/month or $2.90 for a single video.
Can I replace Shotstack with a Motion Agent? Only if your job was making finished branded videos, not generating them programmatically at scale. A Motion Agent like AutoAE produces designed motion from a brief; a video API like Shotstack renders whatever JSON you send it across thousands of jobs. Different jobs — match the tool to yours rather than forcing one to cover both.