Spline is a browser-based 3D design tool. You model, texture, light and animate a scene, then publish it as an interactive web experience, an embed, an image, a video, or a 3D file such as GLTF, USDZ or STL. Its centre of gravity is 3D that lives on a web page and responds to the visitor.
KinoViz is a browser-based animation studio that renders finished video. It imports GLB and GLTF models rather than building them, and places them on one keyframe timeline beside text, vector shapes, images and video layers, with physics and shader materials.
Both put 3D in a browser tab. They disagree about what happens next.
Choose Spline if 3D is the work. Modelling, materials, lighting, and especially an interactive scene embedded in a page that reacts to a cursor or a scroll. Nothing in KinoViz builds a model or publishes an interactive embed.
Choose KinoViz if 3D is one ingredient in a film. A product model spinning behind animated type, a logo with physics, a scene mixing flat vectors, video footage and a GLB, exported as an MP4 you hand to a marketing channel.
| KinoViz | Spline | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Browser only | Browser only |
| Core discipline | 2D and 3D motion graphics, rendered to video | 3D design, modelling and web interaction |
| 3D modelling | No — imports finished models | Yes — modelling, sculpting, materials, lighting |
| 3D import | GLB / GLTF with DRACO up to 50 MB, on every plan | Yes |
| 3D export | No 3D file export | GLTF, USDZ, STL |
| 2D vector tooling | Pen tool, boolean operations, trim path, path editing, effector arrays | Not a 2D vector animation tool |
| Text animation | 42 text-effect presets plus per-property keyframes | 3D text objects; no 2D motion-typography system |
| Video layers | Yes — MP4, WebM, GIF and WebP on the canvas | Not a video-compositing canvas |
| Physics | Rapier physics on the timeline | Physics and interaction events in the 3D scene |
| Interactive web embed | No — Studio publish links are Coming Soon | Yes — this is the flagship output |
| Video export | MP4 (H.264), WebM (VP9) on every plan | Yes, on the plan feature list |
| Still export | Single PNG frame | Image export, higher resolution on paid tiers |
| AI drafting | Conversational AI assistant (Beta), Creator plan and above | Not the same shape of feature |
| Free plan | 3 projects, 540p / 24 fps, watermark, 3D and physics included | Limited personal files, web export with watermark, unlimited viewers |
| Starting paid price | $8 / month (Creator) | $12 / month (Hobby, billed annually) |
| Best for | Films and social cuts that mix flat design with 3D | Interactive 3D on a web page, and 3D asset authoring |
Spline figures are from spline.design/pricing as of September 2026.
It actually builds the 3D. Modelling, sculpting, materials, lighting, cameras — the whole authoring stack. KinoViz has none of it and does not pretend otherwise: you bring a finished GLB or GLTF and animate it. If your object does not exist yet, Spline is where it gets made.
Interactive scenes on the page. Its headline output is a live 3D scene embedded in a web page that responds to hover, click and scroll. A rendered video cannot do that at any bitrate. KinoViz has publish links and web embeds planned on the Studio plan, which is Coming Soon and not yet purchasable, and even then the output is a rendered animation rather than an interactive 3D scene.
3D file output. GLTF, USDZ and STL mean the asset can leave for another pipeline — AR quick look, a game engine, a 3D print. KinoViz has no 3D export; models go in, video comes out.
Depth of the 3D feature set. Physics and interaction events inside the 3D scene, richer material authoring, code export for developers. On its own ground it goes considerably deeper than a motion-graphics tool that added model import.
2D and 3D on one timeline. This is the actual difference. Animated type with 42 text-effect presets, vector shapes with boolean operations and trim path, imported SVG, images, video layers and a GLB model all sit on the same keyframe timeline with 40 easing curves and per-property control. Assembling a motion-graphics scene around a 3D object is the whole job in KinoViz and a side quest in Spline.
Video as a first-class layer. MP4, WebM, GIF and WebP files go on the canvas as animatable layers with playback keyframes and image filters. A 3D design tool has no reason to build that, and Spline has not.
Materials and treatments aimed at film, not at objects. Liquid glass, reeded and frosted glass, liquid metal, glow and bloom, ASCII and halftone passes, motion trails, 22 procedural gradient backgrounds. These are screen-space treatments applied to a composition, not shaders assigned to a mesh. See the 3D system documentation for how models and 2D layers share a canvas.
3D on the free plan. KinoViz includes GLB and GLTF import with DRACO up to 50 MB per model on every plan including Free, with camera motion keyframes from Creator upward. Spline's free tier is limited personal files with a watermark on web export.
AI that drafts a scene. In Beta from the Creator plan, the assistant builds elements and keyframes from a text description that you then edit by hand, spending a credit balance with the cost shown before you send. See AI generation.
Local rendering. Video is encoded in your browser, so there is no upload and no render queue.
Spline's plan features list web export, web embeds, image export, video export, code export, GLTF, USDZ and STL, with self-hosted export reserved for Enterprise. The free tier includes web export with a watermark and unlimited viewers. Higher-resolution image export sits on paid tiers.
KinoViz exports MP4 (H.264), WebM (VP9) and a single PNG frame on every plan, plus a .kino project file from Creator upward. There is no 3D file export, no Lottie, no GIF and no PNG sequence. Transparent output is the PNG frame only. Resolution rises by plan: 540p at 24 fps with a watermark on Free, 1080p at 30 fps on Creator, up to 1920px on the short edge at 60 fps on Pro. Full matrix: export formats.
Spline lists Free at $0, Hobby at $12 per month billed annually or $15 monthly, Pro at $25 per month annually or $30 monthly, Max at $60 per month annually or $70 monthly, and Enterprise on request billed annually, as of September 2026. Paid tiers are per seat, and multi-team organisations sit on Enterprise.
KinoViz lists Free at $0 for 3 projects at 540p with a watermark, Creator at $8 per month for 50 projects at 1080p with a commercial licence and AI credits, Pro at $19 per month for 500 projects up to 1920px at 60 fps with premium materials and a seven-day free trial, and Studio at $79 per month for teams, currently Coming Soon. Current list: pricing.
Pick Spline if you are designing in 3D, if you need to model the object rather than receive it, if the deliverable is an interactive scene on a web page, or if the asset has to leave as a GLTF or USDZ for another pipeline.
Pick KinoViz if the deliverable is a video, if your 3D model already exists and needs to appear in a composition with type, vectors and footage, or if you want physics and film-grade treatments on one timeline without installing anything.
Related reading: best browser-based animation tools in 2026 surveys the category, KinoViz vs Rive covers the interactive-runtime side, After Effects alternatives online covers the desktop-replacement angle, and all comparisons lists every head-to-head.
Start free — three projects, no credit card, with the 3D editor, physics and keyframe timeline included on the free plan. When you need clean 1080p or 1920px output, premium materials and AI credits, Pro includes a seven-day free trial.
Competitor details are based on public information as of September 2026 and may change; verify on the vendor's site.
