TL;DR: It depends what you need. PhysicDesk is the loaded one, with particles, fracture and soft bodies. MatterAE is the lean, cheap panel for the everyday 90%, free with a 3-second bake cap and $35 to lift it. ;)
PhysicDesk landed recently and it is genuinely good. It is also the closest thing to MatterAE in spirit: it runs live inside After Effects, and it bakes to real, editable keyframes. So instead of pretending we are nothing alike, let me just be straight about where each one wins.
What they have in common
Both run live inside After Effects, no separate app. Both bake to native, editable keyframes, with no expressions and no external renderer hanging off your project afterward. Both work on Mac and Windows. Both also let you wire up rope, chain, spring and pin constraints in a few clicks, so tying a scene together is quick in either one. Since MatterAE 1.8.0, both do magnet-style force fields: set a layer to attract or repel and it pulls or pushes everything within range. And since MatterAE 2.0, both can spawn a stream of shapes over time: PhysicDesk with its particle emitters, MatterAE with the Shape Studio's emitter. If you have used one, the other will feel familiar.
Where PhysicDesk pulls ahead
PhysicDesk is a much bigger toolkit. Joints of every flavor (pivot, weld, spring, wheel, rope), force zones that go beyond wind and magnets into portals and explosions, full particle systems, fracture, soft bodies, even sound-driven motion. If your work needs any of that, PhysicDesk does things MatterAE simply does not, and it does them well. It is sold on the big marketplace and now goes for $150, down from its $199.99 launch price since MatterAE showed up. That is competition doing exactly what it should, everyone wins, and for that feature set it is a fair price.
Where MatterAE fits
MatterAE is deliberately smaller. It covers the 90% of daily mograph physics: falling, bouncing, tumbling, stacking, scattering. It does that fast, with live tweaking and a clean bake, and then it gets out of your way. MatterAE is free to use with a 3-second bake cap, and $35 to lift it, one time, direct on Gumroad. If you do not need fracture and soft bodies, you probably do not need to pay studio money for them.
| MatterAE | PhysicDesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs live inside After Effects | Yes | Yes |
| Bakes to native, editable keyframes | Yes | Yes |
| Constraints (ropes, chains, springs, pins) | Yes, in a few clicks | Yes, plus a larger joint set overall |
| Force fields (attract and repel) | Yes | Yes, with portals and explosions on top |
| Scope | Everyday 2D physics | Full studio: joints, particles, fracture, soft bodies, sound-driven motion |
| Price | Free, $35 to unlock unlimited baking | $150, down from $199.99 at launch |
| Where to get it | Direct on matterae.com | The big marketplace |
So which one?
Need a full physics studio with particles, fracture and soft bodies? Get PhysicDesk. It is the rocket, and it is a good one. Need a fast, cheap panel for everyday physical motion that bakes clean keyframes and never gets in your way? That is MatterAE.
One last thing, with a grin: MatterAE was turned away from the big marketplace for "duplicate functionality." A market that comfortably sells several real-time, keyframe-baking physics panels is not a market that is full. It is a market that clearly wants this stuff. So pick the one that fits your work. Both of us are glad you are doing physics.
Try the lean one
The whole plugin is free to try, so you can find out on real work whether the everyday 90% is your 90% before paying anything.