Adobe has confirmed it will shut down Adobe Animate, its 2D animation software, as part of a strategic shift towards artificial intelligence-centred products.
The company updated its support site and emailed customers to say Adobe Animate will be discontinued on 1 March 2026. Enterprise customers will receive technical support until 1 March 2029, while all other customers will retain support through March 2027.
Users reacted with frustration and disbelief. Many said they rely on Animate for professional workflows and see few direct replacements. One customer on X wrote, “this is legit gonna ruin my life,” while another asked Adobe to at least open source the software rather than abandon it.
In its FAQ, Adobe framed the decision in terms of evolving technology: “Animate has been a product that has existed for over 25 years and has served its purpose well for creating, nurturing, and developing the animation ecosystem. As technologies evolve, new platforms and paradigms emerge that better serve the needs of the users. Acknowledging this change, we are planning to discontinue supporting Animate.” The statement suggests Animate no longer aligns with Adobe’s AI-centric roadmap.
Adobe did not point customers to a single tool that fully replaces Animate. Instead, it recommended that Creative Cloud subscribers use combinations of other apps to replicate parts of its functionality. For instance, After Effects supports complex keyframe animation with the Puppet tool, and Adobe Express can be used for simpler animation effects across photos, text and design elements.
In the UK, Adobe’s single-app Creative Cloud plans — which included Animate — have typically been priced at about £19.97 per month with an annual commitment or around £30.34 per month without a commitment. This plan also included 100GB of cloud storage and access to Adobe Portfolio and Express as part of the Creative Cloud ecosystem.
Adobe’s full “All Apps” Creative Cloud plan — which bundles more than 20 desktop and mobile apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Animate — has been offered at around £51.98 per month on an annual billing commitment in the UK.
Animate will continue to run on machines where it’s already installed, but Brussels-bound creatives now face hard choices. The UK price context underscores what professionals are losing: reliable, predictable access to a tool they have budgeted for, without a direct substitute.
The broader question looms: what happens when companies phase out legacy specialist products in favour of AI platforms that don’t yet cover the same depth of professional needs? For many animators, the gap left by Animate’s discontinuation isn’t just inconvenience — it’s a potential disruption to careers built on a tool that’s now being sunsetted in the name of a strategic pivot.
Author: George Nathan Dulnuan