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Comparison

Adobe Express vs Runway

Side-by-side comparison of Adobe Express and Runway.

Tool
Adobe Express

Quick graphic design for creators without design skills

Runway

AI video generation and editing for visual creators

Starting price
9.99/mo
12/mo
Founded
2018
Pricing model
freemium
freemium
Free option
Free tier
Free tier

What they are

Adobe Express

Adobe Express is a browser and mobile-based design tool for creating social graphics, short videos, PDFs, and branded content. It targets content creators, small business owners, and educators who need polished visuals without opening Photoshop. The free tier covers basic templates and assets, while the paid plan unlocks Adobe Stock access, premium templates, and generative AI features. The brand kit and one-click resize tools are genuinely useful for creators managing multiple platforms.

Runway

Runway is a browser-based AI video platform used by filmmakers, social media creators, and marketing teams to generate, edit, and transform video with text and image prompts. Its Gen-4 Alpha model produces short video clips from text or images, while traditional editing tools sit alongside AI features in one workspace. Output quality impresses at short durations, but longer or complex scenes still require significant iteration.

Choose
Adobe Express

if you need video editing and thumbnails and visuals. It has a usable free tier to start with.

  • +Large library of templates covering social, video, and document formats
  • +Brand kit stores fonts, colors, and logos for consistent output
  • +Generative AI image tools are included in the paid plan
Choose
Runway

if you need video editing and ai video. It has a usable free tier to start with.

  • +Gen-4 Alpha produces some of the most coherent AI video clips currently available
  • +Combines AI generation with practical editing tools in one interface
  • +Text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video modes cover multiple workflows

Which to choose

Adobe Express and Runway both cover video editing, so this is a real either-or for some teams. The right pick depends on which one's wider feature set and pricing fit how you work.

Read the full reviews for Adobe Express and Runway.

Pricing checked 3 Jun 2026.