Is Cavalry Really Free, and Do I Need a Canva Account?

Yes on both counts. Cavalry is free for individuals, and the free version is not a stripped-down edition — the official FAQ states it includes professional features like procedural rigs, a real-time viewport, and data-driven sequences, with no restrictions or payment required. You do need a Canva account to use it, because Cavalry is now offered by Canva and that account is your access point to Cavalry and other Canva products.

What "free" actually covers

According to the site's own FAQ, the individual license is free "and not in a watered-down way." The feature list shown on the download page includes:

• Rig control and Rubber Hose
• Connect shapes
• Color Palettes
• Magic Easing
• Text Animation
• Duplicator
• Data Import
• Lottie Export
• Forge Dynamics
• Falloffs
• Quad Tree

These are the same capabilities the page markets as "professional 2D animation software, built for depth," so the free tier is the product, not a demo of it.

Platform requirements

Cavalry runs on macOS and Windows only. The page notes it is "fully optimized" for both and runs natively on Apple silicon and Intel. If you land on the site from a mobile device, you'll see a notice that Cavalry isn't available there — you can still download on that device, but you can't run the software on it.

The Canva account requirement

This is the part that trips people up. Cavalry is brought to you by Canva, and a Canva account is what gives you access to Cavalry. So "free" refers to the software cost, not to skipping account creation.

If you already hold a legacy Cavalry licence

The FAQ addresses this directly: you keep access to your legacy version of Cavalry provided by Scene Group. To receive the latest features, though, you go through the Canva-account path.

If you need it for a team

Enterprise access is separate from the free individual tier. Cavalry with SSO is available through a Canva Enterprise or Canva Education account, and the site routes organizations to a sales contact rather than a self-serve download.

Quick decision guide

Getting started

Download the macOS or Windows build, sign in with your Canva account, and you're in. If you want to learn the tool before committing time to a project, the site offers example files plus several tutorial series: Getting Started, Features, Tips and Tricks, One Minute Wonders, and Community Content, alongside full documentation.