Scrolltide sells 145 templates, and most of them still ship the source alongside the prompt. The archive is a real project, mostly React and Vite with some on the Next.js App Router, and it is what separates those templates from most prompt libraries worth comparing.
Since September the library has grown around the templates: components, sections, UI screens, animated shaders and an MCP server, most of them on the upper plans. The decision underneath has not moved. You are choosing between text you paste and a repository you open, and the two suit different weeks.
In short, take Scrolltide when you need a working repository on a deadline, the free component libraries when you need parts, and Thanor when you want the art direction itself, written as values you can carry to the next page. If you came looking for a free Scrolltide alternative, the first card is one: Vesperion's full prompt is free with a Thanor account.
Free with an account. The creature's eyes follow your cursor while it stands in front of the word.
Open the prompt →A SaaS hero whose alpaca mascot follows your cursor with a slow side-eye.
Open the prompt →What they sell, counted#
| Line | Items | Plans | Delivered as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Templates | 145 | 7 free; core library on every plan, 3D templates on Yearly and Lifetime | prompt, plus source on most |
| Components | 93 | Yearly and Lifetime | prompt |
| Sections | 24 | every plan | prompt |
| UI screens | 14 | Yearly and Lifetime | prompt |
| Shaders | 55 | Yearly and Lifetime | MP4, still and a React component |
The counts are from their homepage and free templates page at the time of writing. Template prompts are stated at roughly 12,000 characters each, which sits at the deep end of this category if it holds across the library. Previews are recordings of the real build rather than mockups, so what you watch before buying is the real motion at the real timing.
The homepage now talks about production-ready Next.js output. The stack underneath is mostly Vite: their own FAQ says most templates build on Vite with Tailwind and Framer Motion and several target the Next.js App Router, and the stack tags on the template pages agree.
What it costs, plan by plan#
At the time of writing the ladder on the pricing page is:
- Monthly,
$39a month, shown as a sale from$59. It covers the core library with a fair-use cap of 10 new premium templates a week; free templates and ones you have already opened never count. - Yearly,
$144billed once a year. No cap, and it adds the 3D collection, the components, the UI screens, the shaders and the MCP. - Lifetime,
$299once, shown as a sale from$449. Everything in Yearly, with nothing that renews.
The Monthly card lists those extras too, but the note under the plans and each line's own page say they are Yearly and Lifetime only, so read Monthly as the core library and the sections. The ebook, Prompt to Motion, is a separate $49 purchase that does not unlock the library. Checkout runs through PayPal, with a card or a PayPal account.
In September the ladder was $29, $129 and $239, and every plan opened the whole library without a cap. The 3D tier and the weekly limit both arrived since, which is why the terms now carry a grandfathering line, covered below.
Source included, and what that changes#
On a deadline this is worth more than anything else on this page. A working repository removes the entire class of problem where a model produces something almost right and you spend the afternoon arguing with it. You open the project, you change the copy, you ship.
What it costs is the other half of the same sentence. Source you did not write is source you now maintain: its dependency tree, its build config, its upgrade path and, eventually, its bug at eleven at night. A prompt leaves you with code your own tooling produced, in the shape your own project already uses.
Read the scope before you count on it. The pricing page lists full source code on every plan, and the terms describe an item as a prompt with its source code "where noted". The components, sections and UI screens are described as prompts, and each shader comes as an MP4, a still and a React component.
The license draws the line where you would expect. You may build with it, for yourself or for paying clients. You may not resell the prompts, and you may not reuse their preview videos to promote your own work.
The MCP, and which plans get it#
Scrolltide now runs an MCP server for Claude, Cursor, Codex and VS Code. Your assistant searches the library and pulls the full rebuild prompt without the clipboard, up to 40 different items a day, read-only. It is Yearly and Lifetime only; Monthly accounts are refused at sign-in.
That is the same job the Thanor MCP does for Thanor's designs: Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor searches the catalog and pulls a design's full art direction, and it is included in every paid plan. If you are choosing which servers to run next to either one, the best MCP servers for web design covers Figma, components, docs and browser testing.
The free part you have probably never opened#
Their Academy is still the most substantial free thing anybody in this category publishes: eleven build-along tutorials, each filmed and written up at around a thousand words. The lessons name their tools in order, from Claude Code, ChatGPT and Gemini to Google Antigravity and Next.js. It is free, it is good, and there is still no navigation item pointing at it anywhere on the site.
Their why page still carries real motion values in public, inside an excerpt of one build prompt: one site-wide curve, cubic-bezier(0.22, 1, 0.36, 1), a 750ms entry rising 16px, a 60ms stagger, transform-only animation, a prefers-reduced-motion gate and a 4.5:1 contrast floor for body text. Those are reveal-once values, and these scroll animation examples show where they sit next to scrubbed film and pinned tracks.
Read both before you spend anything, and open a few of the seven free templates. They will tell you whether this house style is one you want in your own work, which is a better test than any feature list.
Before you buy, three things in the terms#
Two of them are unusually good and one is the reason to decide carefully.
- No refunds, at all. "All sales are final" appears on the pricing page, in the FAQ and on the refunds page, and it includes a renewal you forgot to cancel. The only exception is an error on their side, such as a double charge. On a
$299lifetime purchase that is a real commitment, and the free Academy plus the seven free templates are how you de-risk it. - Grandfathering, in writing, for the changes so far. The terms say that anyone who bought before the 3D tier or the weekly limit keeps unrestricted access to the whole library on any plan. The same terms also say they may change as the product evolves, so the written promise covers those two changes rather than every future one.
- Upgrade credit that carries remaining days across. Move from Monthly to Yearly or Lifetime and the days left on your current period are added to the new one, as the refunds page and the FAQ both put it. Also rare, also written down.
What a repository does not come with#
A finished template solves one page. What it cannot solve is the next one, and this is where every catalog in this category runs out.
- The template's decisions are not transferable. The type scale that works in that hero is tuned to that hero. Your client's word count is different.
- Motion is a system, not an effect. One curve at one duration across every structural move is what makes a site feel deliberate. Copying one entrance animation out of one project does not give you that.
- Section order is the argument. Which section carries the weight and which one gets out of the way is decided per project, by somebody, and a repository decides it once for the project it was built for.
The reusable thing is the specification, not the artifact. A brief that names the curve, the duration, the scale and the order builds the next page too, and the one after that.
Two specifications in the territory Scrolltide covers, scroll-scrubbed film and an interactive 3D shop, each opening with its prompt in the library:
The dust sheet comes off as you scroll: one film, scrubbed by the scroll position.
Open the prompt →A bubblegum 3D skate shop: walk the racks and turn any deck round to face you.
Open the prompt →The rest of the field, briefly#
Most things sold as a Scrolltide alternative solve a different half of the job, and knowing which half you are missing is the whole search.
- Component libraries. 21st.dev, Aceternity UI, Magic UI and React Bits all have free tiers and are genuinely good; at the time of writing 21st.dev's free plan allows two copies a day, and 21st.dev alternatives compares the paid tiers. They give you a card that flips and a border that animates, and they take no position on whether either belongs on your page, which is what a free component leaves for you to decide.
- Free prompt collections. Several sites publish more than a hundred website prompts at no cost. Depth varies from a paragraph to a page.
- The builders themselves. Lovable puts design systems on every paid plan, Bolt builds from a design system you upload on its Teams plan, and v0 includes a visual Design Mode on its free plan. Each one applies the standard you bring to it.
None of those three authors a decision. They apply one, install one, or police one, which is exactly right for what they are and exactly why the choosing still lands on you.
If you are choosing today#
| If you want | Take |
|---|---|
| A repository you can open this afternoon | Scrolltide, which ships source with most templates |
| A free walkthrough of one effect with one tool | The Scrolltide Academy, eleven lessons |
| Parts to install with no opinion attached | The free tiers of the component libraries |
| An assistant that pulls designs while you build | Scrolltide's MCP on Yearly or Lifetime, or the Thanor MCP on any paid plan |
| A free design with its full prompt, to test the approach | Vesperion, free with a Thanor account |
| The direction itself, reusable across projects | Thanor |
So which one#
- Buying one site, this week, with a deadline? A source archive is the fastest route, and Scrolltide is one of the few places that sells one with most of its templates. If the site needs their 3D work, price in Yearly or Lifetime.
- Buying an education? Their Academy is free and better than most paid courses in this area.
- Buying a way of working, so every page you build carries a type scale with a ratio, a named curve at a real duration, a chosen section order and a list of the defaults the model must not reach for? That is what a Thanor brief is, and it goes into the builder you already use.
Open Vesperion, which is free, and see how much of the deciding arrives already done.
Questions this raises
Does Scrolltide include the code?
For most templates, yes. Every plan lists full source code, while the terms describe an item as a prompt with its source code where noted. The template projects are mostly React and Vite, with some on the Next.js App Router. Components, sections and UI screens are described as prompts, and each shader comes as an MP4, a still and a React component. That is still unusual in this category, where the normal deliverable is text.
Can I get a refund from Scrolltide?
No. All sales are final, as the pricing page, the FAQ and the refunds page all state, and that includes a renewal you forgot to cancel. The only exception is an error on their side, such as a double charge. At the time of writing it applies to the $299 lifetime plan as much as to the subscriptions, so decide before you buy rather than after.
What does Scrolltide cost?
At the time of writing, $39 a month, $144 a year or $299 once for lifetime access. Monthly covers the core library with a cap of 10 new premium templates a week. Yearly and Lifetime remove the cap and add the 3D collection, components, UI screens, shaders and the MCP. The ebook is a separate $49 purchase, and checkout runs through PayPal.
Is there a free way to learn what Scrolltide teaches?
Yes. Their Academy is free and substantial: eleven build-along tutorials, each filmed and written up at around a thousand words, from a free Google Antigravity landing page to a scroll-scrubbed frame sequence. It lives at scrolltide.co/academy and is still not in the site navigation, which is why most people who know the brand have never opened it.
What is the downside of buying source code with a prompt?
Source you did not write is source you now maintain. A repository you can open this afternoon is worth a great deal on a deadline, and it becomes your dependency tree, your upgrade path and your bug the day after.
Part of
Alternatives, measured
Every library in this category, taken apart one at a time. What each one contains, what it costs, what it leaves out, and what you still have to decide yourself.