Frame.io is Adobe now. Here's the independent alternative.

Frame.io has been owned by Adobe since 2021, which means your review tool, your bill, and your roadmap all live inside one company's ecosystem. If you are happy there, stay. If you would rather not route one more part of your workflow through Adobe, chimping.io is the independent alternative: client review plus master delivery on one flat subscription, built by a working DP.

What "Adobe now" actually changes

For a lot of filmmakers, nothing. If you live in Premiere and use Creative Cloud every day, Frame.io being part of Adobe is a feature, not a problem. The integration is genuinely deep.

But if you are a freelancer or a small shop, it is worth noticing what you are signing up for: pricing set by Adobe, a roadmap aimed at Adobe's biggest customers, and yet another seat in an ecosystem you may already feel locked into. Independent tools answer to the people who use them. That is the whole pitch.

What independent buys you

• One flat subscription, not per-seat. Recipients never pay and never make an account.
• Review and delivery in the same place instead of Frame.io for notes plus a separate transfer service for the actual files.
• A roadmap shaped by working filmmakers, because that is who built it and who it is for.
• No Creative Cloud required. It works the same whether you cut in Resolve, Premiere, or Final Cut.

Where Frame.io still wins

I am not going to pretend otherwise. For multi-editor teams deep in Adobe, for Camera to Cloud, for shops that need the enterprise pieces, Frame.io is the deeper tool and the Adobe backing is an advantage. Be honest about which filmmaker you are before you switch.

The fuller, feature-by-feature breakdown lives on the chimping.io vs Frame.io page, including the spots where Frame.io is the right call.

Independent does not mean smaller for the sake of it. It means the tool stays pointed at the person doing the work, not the platform that bought it.