Boris FX Suite vs Red Giant — effects, tracking and licensing compared

Boris FX Suite is Boris FX's all-in-one bundle. The current edition, which Boris FX labels the 2026 Release, lists 11 products: Sapphire and Continuum for effects and transitions, Mocha Pro for planar tracking, Silhouette for roto, paint and compositing, SynthEyes for 3D camera tracking, Optics for still images, Particle Illusion Pro for particles, CrumplePop for audio repair, and three audio workstations, Sequoia, Samplitude and Music Studio, which run on Windows only. Each tool is explained in plain words in What is Boris FX Suite?

Red Giant is Maxon's line of effects plug-ins. Maxon sells it as its own subscription, and the plan page also lists a Capsules asset library and access to Cineversity training. Red Giant is also one of the six applications in Maxon One, next to Cinema 4D, ZBrush, Redshift, Universe and Autograph. Current Red Giant pages group the tools by category rather than by suite name: Particles and 3D, Blurs and Glows, Color, Distortions, Stylize, Generators, Motion Graphics, Text, Utilities, VFX and Transitions.

The two are not built the same way. Maxon's compatibility article lists Red Giant's tools in the same effect groups you see in your host application's effects menu. Boris FX Suite has plug-ins too, but several of its products also run as standalone applications: Mocha Pro, Silhouette, SynthEyes, Optics and Particle Illusion, as well as the three audio workstations. One is a set of effects plug-ins. The other adds several standalone applications on top.

A summary of what the two vendors list on their own pages. The sections below give the detail and the exceptions.

This is where the two are closest, and where Red Giant makes its strongest case. Both give you light and flare effects, blurs and distortions, transitions and film looks. The difference is in emphasis and in where the tools run.

Sapphire is a GPU-accelerated collection that Boris FX puts at more than 270 effects and transitions and more than 3,000 presets, grouped as Light & Flares, Blur & Distort, Render & Composite, Stylize, and Transition & Time. It comes with a node-based Effect and Transition Builder for making your own effects, and Flare Designer for custom lens flares. Mocha planar tracking and masking is integrated into Sapphire's effects.

Continuum mixes effects with workflow tools. Its product page lists more than 300 effects, 40 transitions and more than 5,000 presets, with Title Studio for 2D and 3D vector titles, Primatte Studio for green-screen keying, Particle Illusion built in, and Mocha tracking inside every effect. It also carries machine-learning tools such as DeNoise ML, UpRes ML, Face ML, Witness Protection ML and Retimer ML, and other tools such as Film Stocks, Beauty Studio and Cinematographer Toolkit.

Red Giant's effects sit in Maxon's categories:

• Particles and 3D. Trapcode Particular builds organic 3D particle effects such as fire and smoke, as well as complex motion-graphics elements. Form builds grids of particles that persist, and Maxon's guide recommends it for audio-reactive animation. All seven tools in this group, including Geo, Horizon, Lux, Mir and Tao, are listed for After Effects only.
• Color. Maxon describes this group as a kit for colour grading, look development, film emulation and finishing. Magic Bullet Looks gives preset-based cinematic looks and colour correction with more than 300 presets, and is listed for a wide range of hosts. The same group holds Colorista V for wheel, curve and HSL correction, Mojo for a one-step cinematic palette, Film for film-stock emulation with grain, Cosmo II for skin smoothing and Denoiser III for noise removal.
• Glows, flares and compositing. Shine and Starglow sit in Blurs and Glows. Real Lens Flares is a ray-traced flare tool that models real lens optics, and Supercomp adds light-aware compositing to After Effects, with lights, fog and edge blends that react to the layers.
• Universe. Maxon's library of effects, transitions and motion graphics, with customisable presets, in categories that run from Blurs and Glows to Text and Transitions. Maxon calls Universe part of the Red Giant toolkit, but it also sells Universe as its own subscription and lists it separately in Maxon One, so check which plan includes it before you pay.

So which is better for looks? For particle-driven motion graphics inside After Effects, Trapcode Particular and Form are built for exactly that work, and the Color group is Maxon's kit for grading and looks. Boris FX Suite answers with Particle Illusion Pro, which runs as a standalone app and inside Continuum, and with two large effects collections that also reach hosts Red Giant's lists do not name: Sapphire runs in Nuke, Flame and VEGAS Pro. If effects and looks are all you need, either one can do the job, so test both on your own footage.

Red Giant does include tracking tools, and one of them is a planar tracker. The difference lies in what comes after the track: roto, larger clean-up and camera solving.

On the Red Giant side, these tools sit in the VFX group:

• King Pin Tracker. Maxon's planar-tracking and corner-pin plug-in, running inside After Effects only. Maxon lists sign and screen replacement, digital makeup and prop replacement among its uses. For putting a new image on a phone screen or a shop sign in After Effects, it is designed for the job.
• Spot Clone Tracker. A clone tool with a built-in tracker that removes small objects or blemishes by cloning nearby pixels, in After Effects only. Maxon's own guide describes it as a tool for spot fixes and small removals, not full-frame paint-outs.
• Primatte Keyer and Lens Distortion Matcher. Primatte Keyer is a chroma keyer for After Effects and Premiere Pro. Lens Distortion Matcher is listed for After Effects only.

What Maxon's full Red Giant compatibility list does not contain is a rotoscoping or paint tool, or a 3D camera solver. Maxon's 2026 plug-in guide also says King Pin is not built for roto or 3D solves. In the same guide, Maxon suggests Mocha Pro for heavier tracking work that needs roto, removal or a camera solve, and King Pin for everyday sign or screen replacement in After Effects. That is one vendor commenting on another's product, so test both on your own shots.

On the Boris FX Suite side, three products are built for this work:

• Mocha Pro. Planar tracking software for rotoscoping, object removal, stabilisation and VFX compositing, as a plug-in or a standalone app. On top of GPU-accelerated planar tracking it adds PowerMesh for warped and organic surfaces, and the Track, AdjustTrack, Remove, Insert, Stabilize, Lens and 3D Camera Solver modules. Remove takes out objects and wires with clean-plate generation, Insert handles screen inserts and match moves with mesh warping, Lens calibrates and corrects lens distortion, and the camera solver uses SynthEyes' core 3D tracking algorithms.
• Silhouette. A rotoscoping, paint and node-based compositing application for film and TV finishing. It offers B-Spline, Bézier, X-Spline and Magnetic Freehand roto shapes, a raster paint system with clone tools, more than 400 compositing nodes, the Primatte, zMatte and Power Matte keyers, and machine-learning tools such as Mask ML and Matte Refine ML.
• SynthEyes. A standalone 3D camera tracking and matchmoving application that solves camera motion and tracks objects so CG can be combined with live footage. It exports to Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya, Houdini, Nuke, After Effects and other apps.

One fact changes the maths for After Effects users. Mocha AE, a free and lighter version of Mocha Pro's planar tracking and masking tools, comes with After Effects. So if you work in After Effects, you already have a planar tracker, whichever of the two you buy. Boris FX's comparison page lists what only Mocha Pro has, including the Remove, Insert, Stabilization and Lens modules, the 3D Camera Solver and a standalone application. The full breakdown is in Mocha Pro vs the After Effects tracker.

Both vendors publish host lists, and both lists have exceptions. Read them tool by tool, not product by product.

Boris FX Suite. Sapphire runs in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop and Avid Media Composer, and as an OFX plug-in in Flame, Nuke, DaVinci Resolve, Fusion Studio and VEGAS Pro. Continuum runs in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve, Nuke and VEGAS Pro. Mocha Pro plugs into After Effects, Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer, and into OFX hosts including Flame, Silhouette, Nuke, Fusion, VEGAS Pro and SGO Mistika. DaVinci Resolve is listed on Boris FX's Mocha specs page but not on the Mocha Pro product page, so confirm it for your version first. Silhouette also works as a plug-in in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Nuke, Resolve, Fusion and Flame; Optics works in photo apps such as Photoshop and Lightroom; and CrumplePop works in audio and video apps from Pro Tools and Audition to Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.

Red Giant. Maxon's Red Giant FAQ names After Effects, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Autograph and Cinema 4D. That list describes the line, not every tool. The Particles and 3D group, King Pin Tracker, Spot Clone Tracker and Supercomp are listed for After Effects only. Colorista V and Denoiser III are listed for After Effects, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro/Motion only. Magic Bullet Looks is listed for many more, including Resolve, Avid, Cinema 4D and Unreal. Maxon's requirements article lists DaVinci Resolve 19 and 20 but not 21, so if you edit in Resolve 21, check Maxon's current list before you subscribe.

Operating systems. Both run on macOS and Windows. Boris FX says some Suite products also run on Linux. Sapphire, Mocha Pro, Silhouette and SynthEyes are among them, Continuum and Optics are not, and Sequoia, Samplitude and Music Studio are Windows-only. Maxon's requirements article lists no Linux support for Red Giant. Requirements change from one release to the next, so check the current system requirements on borisfx.com and on Maxon's site before you buy.

Red Giant is subscription-only, according to Maxon's own 2026 guide. You install and trial it through the Maxon App, you need a MyMaxon account, and Maxon offers monthly and annual terms. You accept auto-renewal when you subscribe, and you can cancel later without losing the time already paid for. Maxon says a licence can be installed on any number of machines but used on only one at a time, and that licensing needs an internet connection.

Boris FX Suite is sold by Boris FX as a monthly or annual subscription on its Suite page. Boris FX products are installed, licensed and trialled through the free Boris FX Hub on macOS and Windows, with the Boris FX License Tool on Linux. Boris FX's documentation describes activation with a key, which needs an internet connection, and an offline route that uses a request file. It also says a standard node-locked licence is active on one computer at a time, and that you move it by deactivating it on the old machine first. Those are Boris FX's documented rules, not a promise about any particular offer.

Buying either subscription directly means paying a foreign company online, and an editor in Tangier or a motion designer in Agadir can get stuck at that step. Paying for a foreign subscription with a Moroccan bank card is often a problem, and a subscription that renews automatically needs the card to keep working at every renewal.

For Boris FX Suite there is a local route. ROSH™ Company Labs sells Boris FX Suite at 999 MAD · 1 Year. You order on WhatsApp, pay with a local method agreed in the chat, and receive the licence digitally once payment is confirmed. ROSH™ Company Labs helps with installation and activation on WhatsApp and replies within 24 hours for the whole year. Renewal is manual: you arrange it on WhatsApp before the year ends. If you do not renew, Boris FX's licence terms require you to stop using the software when the licence ends. What the price covers, and what it does not, is set out in Boris FX Suite price in Morocco.

Red Giant is a different story. ROSH™ Company Labs does not sell Red Giant. If Red Giant is the better fit for your work, get it from Maxon.

Read this before you order. ROSH™ Company Labs is an independent brand, not a registered company. It issues no tax invoice, purchases are at the client's own risk, and it is not affiliated with, authorised by, sponsored by or endorsed by Boris FX or Maxon. If your studio or agency needs an invoice for its accounts, buy from the vendor directly instead.

A straight recommendation, based on the work you deliver.

• You finish, clean up or composite shots. Boris FX Suite. Mocha Pro, Silhouette and SynthEyes cover roto, object removal and camera solves, and Maxon's Red Giant list has no roto, paint or camera-solve tool.
• You build particle-heavy motion graphics in After Effects. Red Giant is a fair choice. Trapcode Particular and Form are made for that work. Boris FX Suite makes more sense if you also need its tracking and clean-up tools, with Particle Illusion Pro for the particles.
• You grade and build looks across several editing apps. Either can work. Magic Bullet Looks is listed for a wide range of hosts. On the Boris FX side, Continuum includes Color and Tone and Film Style units and a Film Stocks tool. Test both on your own footage before you choose.
• You already pay for Maxon One. You already have Red Giant. Add Boris FX Suite only if you need roto, paint or camera-solve tools, which Maxon's Red Giant list does not include.
• You work in Nuke, Flame or VEGAS Pro, or on Linux. Boris FX Suite. Sapphire runs in all three hosts, and Sapphire, Mocha Pro, Silhouette and SynthEyes run on Linux. Maxon's Red Giant host lists name none of those three hosts, and its requirements list no Linux support.
• You also clean up recorded audio. Boris FX Suite, for CrumplePop's plug-ins such as AudioDenoise, EchoRemover and WindRemover, and, on Windows, three audio workstations.
• You want to order and pay locally in Morocco. Boris FX Suite is the one of the two that ROSH™ Company Labs sells, ordered on WhatsApp and paid with a local method, whether you work from Casablanca or Fès.

Before you pay for either, check what you already have. For occasional tracking and clean-up, free or bundled tools may be enough.

• After Effects. Besides Mocha AE, it has a built-in point tracker, the 3D Camera Tracker, Warp Stabilizer, Next-Gen Roto Brush and Content-Aware Fill. Its mask tracker even has a Perspective method, which Adobe describes as a planar tracker that solves corner-pin transformations.
• DaVinci Resolve. Blackmagic's Fusion page describes a 2D tracker, a planar tracker for flat surfaces such as signs and screens, and a 3D camera tracker. Blackmagic's pages do not make clear which of these the free edition includes, and they disagree on 3D camera tracking, so check what your edition has.
• Blender. Free, including for commercial work. Its manual documents camera, object and plane tracking, and tracks that move and deform masks for rotoscoping.

If one of these covers the job, keep your money. A plug-in package earns its cost when paid work needs something those tools cannot do. If you are still unsure, read Is Boris FX Suite worth it?