Brush Ninja vs LICEcap
Brush Ninja
brush.ninjaLICEcap
cockos.comSide by side
| Figure | Brush Ninja | LICEcap |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $4/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · GIF Maker Software | 9.4 (#1) | 7.8 (#17) |
| Spec score · GIF makers | 9.1 (#5) | 7.7 (#31) |
| Founded | Gillbanks says he began building the first version of Brush Ninja in 2013 and released the first public version five years later. | 2004 |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | The teacher guide describes developer Ben Gillbanks as based in the United Kingdom. | Rosendale, New York, United States |
| Supported platforms | web,Windows,macOS,Linux,iOS,Android | Windows,macOS |
| Support | Free users can use the contact form; premium users receive priority support, with stated email targets of three business days generally and one business day for premium users, and no phone support. | The maker directs users to discuss LICEcap in the Cockos Forums. |
Plans
In their own words
Brush Ninja
Brush Ninja is a 2D animation tool for creating animated work and exporting it in several formats. It runs on the web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. The free plan includes core animation tools and does not require an account. Exports include GIF, WebM, PNG, JPG, PDF, a ZIP image sequence, and the.brushninja format. Premium adds the ability to upload and animate users’ own images, premium stickers, sound effects, advert removal, and priority email communication. Premium monthly costs $7 a month, and Premium annual costs $48 a year; both listings say cancellation is possible any time. The free plan is free. Brush Ninja is listed as founded in 2013 and headquartered in the United Kingdom. The listed capabilities focus on 2D animation: 3D modeling, character rigging, motion graphics, and cloud collaboration are all absent. This distinction matters for people choosing between a focused animation tool and software that covers those other production needs.
LICEcap
LICEcap captures a selected area of a Windows or macOS desktop and saves animated recordings as GIF or LCF files. During recording, the frame can be moved, recording can be paused and restarted, and an optional text message can be inserted when pausing. Shift+Space provides a global pause toggle. Capture settings include a maximum frame rate, a basic title frame, mouse-button recording and elapsed-time display. LCF is the native format; the maker says it offers higher compression than GIF, more than 256 colors per frame and more accurate timestamps. LCF recordings can play in REAPER, where they can be converted to GIF or another video format. LICEcap is GPL free software, and download packages include source code. Version 1.32 downloads for Windows and macOS are dated June 8, 2022. Listed Windows support spans XP through 11, while macOS requirements cover 10.7–12.x on Intel 64-bit or M1. The maker recommends a reasonably fast CPU and at least 1GB of RAM, especially for LCF encoding. Discussion is directed to Cockos Forums.