35 comments

  • Tony GinesTony Gines, 5 years ago

    This looks like a pretty great tool, but I really wish that all of these standalone apps didn't come with a subscription tied to it. I can see using Spirit every now and then for projects, but having a constant bill of $15/mo when I'm working on something else besides animation would just make me feel negatively towards it every time I use it. I could see this easily being a $30 or $50 one-time app purchase. Compare this to the complexity of some of the $50 Affinity apps and I start to devalue it quickly. $144/yr for this very specific tool? I'm not too sure.

    37 points
    • Nick NobleNick Noble, 5 years ago

      Yes. That's very pricey, more expensive than Sketch.

      Also, it's not clear what happens if you stop paying – if the animations on your site are tied to that app, do they stop working when your subscription ends?

      8 points
      • Joshua TurnerJoshua Turner, 5 years ago

        It doesn't look like the animations on your site are tied to the app.

        There's a demo here: https://codepen.io/tutsplus/pen/OzMOLw

        It looks like it exports a .json file you can host anywhere and include the required dependencies.

        0 points
      • Dave Janes, 5 years ago

        Essentially Spirit is just a GUI for the GreenSock Animation Platform. I'm sure all code output is just GSAP code which is fairly open and relatively easy to read.

        3 points
    • Davey HollerDavey Holler, 5 years ago

      And they've employed the same sneaky, deceptive pricing technique. Its not $15/mo... its $45 every 3 months, or $144 per year. I've posted about this same thing before. Being tricky in an effort to make your product look less expensive is just a turn off when potential customers are surprised by the actual cost. If you don't feel comfortable telling your potential customer the actual cost of your product then its not worth what you're asking.

      16 points
    • Account deleted 5 years ago

      15 bucks a month can't be 30-50 one-time. It would be 200-300 bucks one-time.

      0 points
      • Tony GinesTony Gines, 5 years ago

        Right, I think that's my point. Affinity Designer is currently $50 one-time fee and look at the abundance of features it has. This would be at least $144 for a year.

        3 points
        • Account deleted 5 years ago

          Yeah well, Affinity is exceptionally low-cost, thought about it but then thought about Adobe and Corel : / I guess this is the new, startup culture, that makes prices like 10 bucks a month or 50 bucks overall. Nice.

          0 points
    • Philip A, 5 years ago

      Mate no-one is forcing you to use it. Also indie-developers have to eat.

      0 points
  • Ryan Slama, 5 years ago

    Is anyone else concerned with the lack of screenshots, demo, or really any concrete information on the homepage?

    It's 50% more expensive then Sketch, and just seems like a visual CSS editor.

    19 points
  • Andrew Richardson, 5 years ago

    No way I'm going to sub for $12/month without being able to try it out.

    Haiku is doing a good job in this area, don't really see how this would be substantially better especially without a free trial.

    10 points
  • Josh Sanders, 5 years ago

    Wants me to spend $144/yr... doesn't offer any visuals of the actual product. Don't tell me about the timeline... show me!

    9 points
  • Martin BavioMartin Bavio, 5 years ago

    $144/year and not a single screenshot LMAO

    8 points
  • Tyson KingsburyTyson Kingsbury, 5 years ago

    I've been using SVGator for free for the past few weeks..how is Spirit better?

    5 points
  • Oleg SerediucOleg Serediuc, 5 years ago

    Wow, how about a 7 trial period at least, or Spirit expects people to jump on $15/month subscription right away?

    4 points
  • Joe TurnerJoe Turner, 5 years ago

    No demo and monthly pricing for something that just should not be a monthly service. Amend these and I'll try, then probably buy.

    4 points
    • Derek Rudd, 5 years ago

      Agreed. There are so many alternatives that show the interface and how you animate. The landing page makes it look like vaporware.

      1 point
  • Norm Sheeran, 5 years ago

    I’m confused as to why the dev went subscription on this type of app. It screams one off payment to me.

    4 points
  • Josiah TullisJosiah Tullis, 5 years ago

    I'd love to check this out, but as others have mentioned the subscription model and pricing are a complete turn off.

    3 points
  • Ivan FrantarIvan Frantar, 5 years ago

    When you hear "x tool designed for the web" and then "download only for mac" there's something there fundamentally wrong.

    2 points
  • Jrtorrents Dorman , 5 years ago

    how does it work, how does it look like ? How does it compare to ae+lottie/bodymovin ? Perhaps the developer should answer these questions before asking for money!

    2 points
    • Thomas Lowry, 5 years ago

      I was on the beta, so hopefully can shed a bit of light.

      You have elements on your page which could include SVG code, that you want to animate. You launch the app, and turn on the browser plugin. Spirit requires a JS library, so if you don't have that included on the page, it can insert it into the DOM for you.

      Through the app, you can create a new animation by creating a group. A group is a collection of elements on the page. Spirit includes a method to select elements from your page by clicking on them. Once added, you can create timeline animations for each of the elements with easing, key framing etc through the Spirit GUI.

      In the end you can export the JS (JSON) for your animation and add the animation to your page.

      So essentially it is an animation experience that involves animating directly in the browser on your page.

      There is an API so you can programatically control when animations start/stop etc.

      2 points
  • milan seitler, 5 years ago

    What a terrible landing page. No information.

    1 point
  • Michael FMichael F, 5 years ago

    It's like they know people might sign up for one month at $15 and then cancel, so they immediately lock you in for 3 months to make sure they'll get money out of us... The yearly plan is £130.85, that's a lot of to ask for a product that I don't know I'll need. I love their site but it doesn't sell anything, I had to go digging in their docs to see it in action, and admittedly it looks great... but it's not something I'd pay monthly for, not at that price anyway, it's more expensive than apps far more powerful that I use daily.

    1 point
  • John PJohn P, 5 years ago

    a screenshot would go a long way, flat design animations tell me nothing.

    1 point
  • John S.John S., 5 years ago

    Looked interesting, right up until the price

    1 point
  • GOOD LUCKGOOD LUCK, over 4 years ago

    This is funny to see the $15 subscription, especially for something like that.

    $5 USD per month (or $49 max/year) this would be "maybe" acceptable. I can't find a good reason behind $15/m, heavy usage of servers (nope!), a limited number of end users (maybe), but this is just ridiculous.

    Another thing is the marketing website, no videos, no examples, nothing. The message I get from there is something like "Pay us, we like it ... what? no, we will not show it to you" just mind-blowing! A 7-day trial is not enough time to learn this thing (not everyone is a teenager with an unlimited time, people are busy these days).

    TIP: Put a heavy focus on making sure users understand the value of your product, at the moment there is a big "F...Y.." on the website ;) TIP2: Go down with pricing and introduce free version as well. TIP3: Trial min. 30 days. TIP4: Make a ton of videos and show how your product work (look at framer, inVision, figma, flinto etc.).

    Good luck anyway!

    0 points
  • Joey BrennanJoey Brennan, 5 years ago

    Site animations are messed up in Safari on desktop... makes me concerned with cross browser functionality. I do love the animations on working browsers though.

    0 points
  • Orcun IlbeyliOrcun Ilbeyli, 5 years ago

    Don't hijack my scroll please.

    0 points
  • Bart S, 5 years ago

    There used to be a time where I had no clue on what to use for micro animations because there barely was anything on the market. Now I still have no clue because there's so many (small) tools. I don't see myself paying 15$/mo for a new and unknown tool that fills such a small part of my total workflow.

    0 points
  • Mike StevensonMike Stevenson, 5 years ago

    So does this spit out actual code or do you have to use a vendor specific player like Haiku? Thats the main reason I'm not interested in that app. There's software for Sketch that exports animated SVG's.

    0 points
  • Jamie Diamond, 5 years ago

    Cute. With that model and pricing, maybe you'll find someone to buy it someday. Doubt it's really anyone here.

    0 points