landscape
TL;DR: There are several good physics tools for After Effects, and that is a feature of the market, not a bug. MatterAE sits at the cheap, panel-native, bake-first end, with a free tier. The others are each strong in their own league. ;)
When MatterAE got turned away from the dominant marketplace for "duplicate functionality," the implication was that the space was already full. I would argue the opposite. A category with this many maintained tools is a category with real, steady demand. Here is how the field looks from where I am sitting.
Newton is the reference point. Deep, realistic, signed and marketplace-backed, in the region of $250 with a feature set that reaches into buoyancy, complex joints and advanced interactions. When people picture "physics in After Effects," they usually picture Newton, and for good reason. Full comparison here.
Physics Now keeps things inside AE with a tag-and-simulate workflow, sold direct, around $89 in its current version, with a solid following. It shares a lot of spirit with MatterAE. Full comparison here.
Beyond the two big names there are smaller and newer tools that come up in motion design circles, the kind people mention by names like physim or PhysicsDeck. I will not put words in their mouths on exact pricing or features, those change and they deserve to be judged on their own current pages, but their existence is the point: people keep building physics tools for AE because people keep wanting them.
Deliberately at one end of the spectrum. It is the cheapest of the bunch at $35, the only one with a free Lite tier that runs the full engine, it lives in a dockable real-time panel, and it is built bake-first so you always walk away with plain keyframes. It is tuned for the everyday 90%: the falling, bouncing, tumbling, scattering work that fills most timelines.
If the marketplace's "duplicate functionality" line tells you anything, it is that this is a healthy category, not a saturated one. Pick the tool that matches the job in front of you. Sometimes that is the rocket. Often, honestly, it is the bicycle.
The easiest way to place MatterAE in your own workflow is to run the free Lite tier on a real shot.
Free Lite tier to try it for real, or the full thing for $35, one time, no subscription.