Plainly
Open Website-
Tool Introduction:Automate data-driven videos from After Effects, render thousands fast.
-
Inclusion Date:Nov 06, 2025
-
Social Media & Email:
Tool Information
What is Plainly
Plainly is a video automation software that turns your After Effects templates into data-driven, auto-rendered video workflows. By connecting templates to spreadsheets, product feeds or APIs, it generates thousands of on-brand variations in a few clicks—ideal for personalized, localized, or dynamic creative. Plainly maps data to text, images and other layers, renders at scale in the cloud, and can route outputs to your storage or pipelines, cutting repetitive editing, reducing errors, and accelerating time-to-market for high-volume video production.
Main Features of Plainly
- After Effects template automation: Connect AE templates and bind dynamic fields (text, images, footage) to data without manual editing.
- Data-driven rendering: Import from CSV, Google Sheets, product feeds, or APIs to generate programmatic video variations.
- Bulk video generation: Queue and render thousands of videos in the cloud with scalable performance and consistent quality.
- Mapping and validation: Map columns to layers, set defaults and fallbacks, and preview samples before full runs.
- Automated distribution: Send outputs to cloud storage or file destinations and plug results into downstream workflows.
- API and webhooks: Integrate Plainly into your stack to trigger renders on data changes and receive status updates.
- Brand control: Keep creative locked to approved templates to maintain consistency across every variant.
- Localization and personalization: Swap copy, assets, prices, and languages to tailor videos for each audience or market.
Who Can Use Plainly
Plainly is built for marketing teams, eCommerce and marketplace operators, performance advertisers, agencies, media publishers, product and growth teams, and any organization that needs data-driven or personalized video at scale. It suits workflows like ad iteration, catalog and feed-based videos, localization, templated announcements, and motion graphics that change with live or frequently updated data.
How to Use Plainly
- Prepare an After Effects template with named layers for text, images, and other dynamic elements.
- Upload the template to Plainly and create a new automated project.
- Connect your data source (CSV, Google Sheets, product feed, or API endpoint).
- Map data fields to template layers and set defaults, formats, and output naming rules.
- Configure render settings (resolution, codec, aspect ratio) and destination folders.
- Run a small test batch to preview and validate results.
- Launch the full render, monitor progress, and receive status notifications or webhooks.
- Distribute automatically to your storage or download and push into your publishing stack.
Plainly Use Cases
- Retail and eCommerce: Turn product feeds into thousands of SKU videos with prices, promos, and localized copy.
- Performance marketing: Generate ad variations for A/B tests across formats and aspect ratios.
- Marketplaces and real estate: Create templated listing videos with photos, specs, and dynamic badges.
- Media and finance: Auto-produce short updates with changing figures, charts, or scores.
- Multi-language campaigns: Localize motion graphics by swapping text, VO placeholders, and subtitles.
Plainly Pricing
Plainly typically offers tiered, usage-aligned plans that scale with render volume, template needs, and advanced features such as API access. Trials or demos are commonly available so teams can evaluate template automation and throughput before committing. For exact plan details and enterprise options, contact the Plainly team.
Pros and Cons of Plainly
Pros:
- Scales After Effects workflows to thousands of videos with consistent branding.
- Automates data mapping from spreadsheets, feeds, and APIs for programmatic video.
- Saves significant editing time and reduces manual errors.
- Offers API/webhook integration for end-to-end automation.
- Supports personalization and localization without rebuilding templates.
Cons:
- Requires a well-structured After Effects template and motion design setup.
- Render-heavy projects may need careful optimization of assets and settings.
- Complex data schemas can add a learning curve during initial mapping.
- High-volume rendering can increase costs depending on throughput and storage.
FAQs about Plainly
-
What data sources does Plainly support?
You can drive renders from CSV or spreadsheets and connect feeds or APIs to populate template fields dynamically.
-
Do I need Adobe After Effects to use Plainly?
You need an After Effects template to start. Plainly then automates the rendering and scaling in the cloud.
-
Can I personalize videos for each customer or market?
Yes. Map personalized fields (names, prices, images, languages) to layers and generate tailored variants at scale.
-
Does Plainly offer an API?
Plainly provides API and webhook capabilities to trigger renders programmatically and receive status updates.
-
How do I distribute finished videos?
Set destinations to automatically route files to your storage or pipeline, or download them for manual publishing.