BeforePixel vs Aseprite
Aseprite is a full desktop app for pixel art and animation, bought once for $10.99 on Steam; its trial cannot save. BeforePixel runs in the browser and its still-art tools are free with a Galactrex account. For animation, Aseprite does more.Price and trial
Aseprite costs $10.99 on Steam, paid once, for Windows, macOS and Linux. You can also buy it from aseprite.org. The free trial cannot save files.BeforePixel's still-art tools are free with a Galactrex account. You can save projects as often as you like and export 3 PNGs a day. Animation, GIF and sprite sheets need the Creative plan.Animation
Aseprite has frames and cels, tags, forward, reverse and ping-pong playback, onion skin, and exports sprite sheets with a .json file, PNG sequences, GIF and texture atlases. It also has a command line for batch export.BeforePixel's Creative plan has a frame timeline, onion skin and a duration for each frame, with GIF and sprite-sheet export. It has no tags, no .json data and no command line.Side by side
| Workflow | BeforePixel | Aseprite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free with a Galactrex account: every still-art tool, unlimited project saves and 3 PNG exports a day. Animation, GIF and sprite sheets need the Creative plan. | $10.99 on Steam, paid once. The trial cannot save. |
| Where it runs | Website edition, in your browser. Nothing to install. | Windows, macOS and Linux desktop app. |
| Drawing | Pencil, eraser, blur, text, fill, line, rectangle, ellipse, eyedropper and selection. Palettes, mirror drawing and tile preview. | A full pixel-art tool set with layers. |
| Canvas | Up to 512 by 512 pixels and 32 layers. | Not compared. See Aseprite's documentation. |
| Animation | Creative plan: frame timeline, onion skin and frame durations. | Frames and cels, tags, playback modes and onion skin. |
| Export | PNG. Creative adds GIF and sprite sheets. | Sprite sheets with .json, PNG sequences, GIF, texture atlases and a command line. |