BeforePixel vs Pixelorama
Pixelorama does more than BeforePixel and all of it is free, animation included. BeforePixel is a smaller pixel editor on the Galactrex website: still art is free with an account, and animation needs the Creative plan.Pixelorama has more features
Pixelorama is free and MIT open source. It runs in a browser and on Windows, macOS and Linux. It has layers with clipping masks and effects, a timeline with onion skin and frame tags, tilemaps (square, isometric and hex), and exports PNG, animated PNG, sprite sheets, GIF and video. It also opens Aseprite, Photoshop and Krita files.BeforePixel's website edition has a smaller set: layers, palettes, mirror drawing, a blur brush, a text tool, tile preview and PNG import and export. Canvases go up to 512 by 512 pixels. It has no tilemaps, no video export and no desktop app.What is free
Every Pixelorama feature is free. On itch.io you can pay what you want, including nothing.BeforePixel's still-art tools are free with a Galactrex account, with unlimited project saves and 3 PNG exports a day. The frame timeline, onion skin, GIF and sprite sheets are part of the Creative plan.Side by side
| Workflow | BeforePixel | Pixelorama |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Free. MIT open source. Pay what you want on itch.io. |
| Where it runs | Website edition, in your browser. Nothing to install. | Browser, Windows, macOS and Linux. Itch.io also lists Android. |
| Account | A Galactrex account. | None. |
| Drawing | Pencil, eraser, blur, text, fill, line, rectangle, ellipse, eyedropper and selection. Palettes, mirror drawing and tile preview. | Pixel-perfect lines, shading tools, palettes, indexed mode and scaling and rotation methods for pixel art. |
| Layers | Up to 512 by 512 pixels and 32 layers. | Layers with clipping masks, group blending, effects such as outline and drop shadow, and 3D layers. |
| Animation | Creative plan: frame timeline, onion skin and a duration for each frame. | Free: timeline, onion skin, frame tags and audio sync. |
| Tilemaps | Not included. Tile preview checks the edges of a repeating tile. | Square, isometric and hex tilemap layers. |
| Export | PNG. Creative adds GIF and sprite sheets. Saves a .beforepixel project. | PNG, animated PNG, sprite sheets, GIF and video. |