Que and Templater are not rivals. Templater is the After Effects plugin that changes your template and renders it, and Que is the cloud data source that feeds Templater, so the real question is whether your data needs a home of its own or whether a spreadsheet will do.
We make both products, which means we get this question a lot, and we would rather you buy one than buy two you do not need. The short version is simple. Every Que workflow includes Templater, because Que is the data source for videos rigged with Templater. Plenty of Templater workflows never touch Que, because Templater can read a Google Sheet, a tab-separated file or a JSON feed on its own. This article is about the point where the second sentence stops being true for you.
What each product does, in plain terms
Templater lives inside Adobe After Effects as a panel. You take a composition you have already designed, “rig” it so that chosen layers can accept outside content, and then pair it with a data source. Text, images, branding, colors and embedded footage can all change, on one layer or on every layer. One template becomes many videos, and Templater is the thing that does the changing and, depending on edition, the rendering.
Que is a different animal. It is a cloud-based app, built on JSON instead of spreadsheet rows, that holds the dynamic content your videos need. You enter information through a web interface called the Que Dash, and Que keeps it organized behind the scenes. You do not have to know JSON to use it. It also has a built-in API, so another app, a website or a mobile tool can send it data. Templater then reads that data and builds the videos.
Put them side by side and the division of labor is clean. Templater answers “how does this composition change, and how do I turn it into files.” Que answers “where does the content live, who can reach it, and what is the status of every job.” One is a tool at the artist’s desk. The other is a shared system the whole team can look at.
That is why we do not frame this as a choice. You could think of it as a stack. Templater is the layer that touches After Effects. Que is the optional layer underneath that holds the data and tracks the work. The other apps in the suite, Projector for parallel rendering and distribution, sit on top of both.
Where Templater alone is the right answer
Start here, because for a lot of people this is where the story ends. If you are a motion designer or a small studio, and the content for your videos comes from a spreadsheet you already keep, Templater by itself is the better fit. It reads Google Sheets in the cloud. It reads tab-separated files exported from Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. It reads a plain text file holding a JSON object array exported from your own app. It also reads JSON feeds. That is a wide enough set to cover most first projects, and none of it needs Que.
Picture a studio that produces a weekly set of dealer promo videos. A coordinator keeps the week’s offers in a Google Sheet, one row per dealer. The designer rigs one composition, points Templater at the sheet, and renders the rows. If that sheet has a few hundred rows and the same two people touch it every week, adding a second system buys very little. The sheet is the data source, and everyone already knows how to use it. We have written about this path in our guide to automating video editing with Google Sheets, and it is a legitimate, durable way to work.
There is also a cost argument in plain sight. A product you do not buy is a product you do not learn, secure, back up or explain to a colleague. Spreadsheets have a real advantage over almost any other data tool, which is that everyone on earth already understands them. If your team’s hardest problem is not the data, do not go looking for a data product.
A second reason to start small is that the spreadsheet teaches you what your content really looks like. After a few weeks you know which fields are always filled, which ones come in late, and which ones break the layout when a value runs long. Those lessons are exactly what you need before you design a bigger data structure. Teams that skip the small version tend to build a structure around guesses, and then rebuild it. Run the sheet first, watch where it hurts, and let that pain, not a product page, tell you what to add.
So here is our honest line. If one person or a few people prepare the data, the volume is modest, and the content comes from files you control, start with Templater and a spreadsheet. You can always add Que later, and we will get to how that works.
Where Que earns its place
Spreadsheets get hard in specific, recognizable ways, and each one points at something Que was built to do.
The first is variety. A single project often needs different kinds of dynamic content, such as a product catalog, a set of names, a list of localized captions and a feed of scores. With spreadsheets, that tends to mean separate files, each with its own columns, drifting out of sync with each other. Que’s pitch is that one data source can hold all of it, and because it takes data in through exposed API endpoints, content can arrive from a mobile, web or voice app. When there is one source, there is one place to fix a mistake. Updating an existing composition gets easier, and building a new one gets faster, because you are not rebuilding the data plumbing each time.
The second is volume and shape. Que stores data as JSON objects, which you can think of as spreadsheet rows that are allowed to be more flexible. Our page says this lets it handle large data sets with ease and frees you from the scalability constraints of tabular sources. We would add a note of caution, because you should test with your own data rather than take anyone’s word for it, ours included. The trial costs nothing, and Que has a free version you can try before you commit.
The third is access and security. A shared spreadsheet is easy to open and easy to open too widely. Que encrypts data end to end and masks fields where appropriate, and decryption happens only when an authorized client asks for the data. If your video content includes customer details that you would not want sitting in a shared document, that matters. It is the kind of requirement that tends to come from an IT or compliance team rather than from the designer, and it can settle the question on its own.
The fourth is visibility. The Que Dash includes a dashboard that shows the status of each job and how heavily your rendering machines are being used. When one person runs one machine, you do not need a dashboard. When several machines are working through several campaigns and somebody asks “where is the Tuesday batch,” a status screen is worth a lot.
The fifth is automation from outside. Que has a built-in API, and a built-in Zapier integration that connects it to more than 5,000 apps without code. If a form submission, a CRM update or an order should produce a video, that is a data-in, video-out chain, and Que is the front door for it. We have an on-demand example in our Jotform and Que Meter post, and the post on Que’s API covers the API side.
How Que organizes the work
If you do adopt Que, it helps to know its four building blocks, because they are how you will talk about your projects from then on.
An Autograf is a video composition template with layers prepared, or “rigged,” to accept dynamic data from Templater. A Job is the JSON object that holds the data for one video, based on an Autograf. A Campaign is a collection of Jobs, which is how you organize and control an entire customization project. And Satellites are the computers running After Effects and Templater that process the Jobs and make the finished videos.
Notice what that means. Que does not render anything itself. The renders happen on your own machines, the Satellites, using Templater. Que is the coordinator that knows what needs to be made and holds the content to make it. If you have ever kept a to-do list in a spreadsheet and watched it turn into a source of confusion, this is the same idea with a proper structure around it.
This also answers the question of which product runs the show. Templater Bot, the top edition, can check for incoming data on its own and kick off renders, and it can be driven from the command line. Que supplies the data it checks. Many teams who need videos on demand, with nobody pressing a button, end up with both for exactly this reason. Our Templater licensing guide explains how the Rig, Pro and Bot editions divide up the work.
A worked example: when one team outgrows its sheet
Here is a realistic path, described without made-up numbers because yours will differ.
A small marketing team starts out making personalized videos for event attendees. One person owns a Google Sheet. The designer rigs the template and renders with Templater Pro. It works. Everyone is happy.
Then the program grows. A second team wants to send videos to its own list. The registration form wants to trigger a video the moment someone signs up. Legal asks where attendee names are stored and who can see them. A manager asks for a view of what has rendered and what is waiting.
Look at what changed. The designer’s skill did not change, and neither did the template. What changed is that the data now has several owners, comes in through a form and not a person, needs access control, and needs a status view. Those are the five points from the section above, and they all arrived at the same time. That is the moment Que starts to make sense, and the move is not dramatic. Templater keeps reading data, now from Que instead of a sheet, and the template stays as it was.
If you are in this position, read our post on picking a data source for Templater before you decide, because the right answer depends on which of those five pressures is actually yours.
How to choose, in order
Go through these questions in order and stop at the first one that points somewhere.
Does your content come from a person who maintains a file? Then Templater with a spreadsheet or a JSON file is the straightforward choice.
Does content arrive from an app, a form, a website or another system, with nobody opening a file? Then you want an API in front of your data, and Que has one built in.
Do several people or teams contribute data, or do you need to control who sees what? Que’s shared structure and security features are aimed at that.
Do you need a clear view of jobs and machines? The Que Dash covers that.
Do you simply have a very large number of rows, and a single sheet has become slow or fragile? Test Que with a copy of your own data. That is the honest way to find out.
If none of those apply, you do not need Que today. You may never need it, and that is a fine outcome.
A word on what Que does not replace
Que is not where you design anything. All the creative work, the rigging, the layout rules and the previews, happens in After Effects with Templater. If your problem is that a template breaks when a name runs long or a clip is the wrong length, a data tool will not fix that. Templater’s layout rules and Time Sculpting are the answer to those problems, and they are part of the plugin.
Que is also not a renderer or a distribution tool. If you want videos rendered in parallel across the cores of one machine and sent to a streaming platform or storage, that is Projector’s job, and it can use Que as its data source. You can read what it does on the Projector page.
And a practical note on licensing. Templater and Que are sold as separate subscriptions at present, and we do not offer them as a bundle. For prices, see our pricing and licensing pages rather than trusting a number in an article. There is also a credit-based option, Que Meter, which lets any Templater license key draw from a shared pool of credits. It needs a constant internet connection to count them. Read the introduction to Que Meter if you make videos in bursts and a subscription does not match your pattern.
The bottom line
Templater is the product. Que is the system around the product, for when your data stops being one person’s file. If you have a spreadsheet, a modest volume and a small team, use Templater alone and spend the saved effort on the template. If your content arrives from apps, comes from several owners, needs real access control, or needs a status view across machines, add Que and let Templater read from it.
You will not have wasted anything by starting small. The template you rig on day one is the same template you will use when the data moves into Que.
These are the questions we hear most when people are deciding between starting with Templater alone and adding Que.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need Que to use Templater?
No. Templater reads Google Sheets, tab-separated files, JSON files and JSON feeds on its own. Que is an additional data source built to work with Templater, and it is optional. Many projects run entirely on a spreadsheet. You would add Que when your data comes from apps or several teams, when you need access control, or when you want a status view across jobs and machines.
Can I use Que without Templater?
Not in a useful way, because Que exists to feed videos rigged with Templater. It stores the data, organizes Jobs and Campaigns, and tracks status. The After Effects work and the rendering happen through Templater on your Satellite machines. If you want to see how Que behaves before committing, our page says you can try a free version.
Is Que just a nicer spreadsheet?
It stores data as JSON objects, which work like spreadsheet rows but are more flexible, and you enter information through the Que Dash. It also has an API, a Zapier integration, security features and a dashboard for job status. If you only need a table that one person edits, a spreadsheet is simpler. Que matters when the data arrives from other systems or has several owners.
Does Que render the videos?
No. Rendering happens on your own computers running After Effects and Templater, which Que calls Satellites. Que holds the content, tracks the Jobs inside a Campaign and shows a dashboard of job status and machine use. For parallel rendering and automatic distribution to streaming platforms or storage, that is the job of Projector.
Do I have to understand JSON to use Que?
No. Our page says you do not need to know JSON, because you can enter information through the Que Dash and Que handles the structure. Developers who want to push data from their own apps can use the built-in API, and there is a Zapier integration for connecting to other apps without writing code.
Can I start with a spreadsheet and move to Que later?
Yes, and that is the path we would suggest for most people. The rigged template stays the same. What changes is the data source Templater reads from. Starting small lets you learn your real volume and your real pain points before adding a second system.
Where do I see what Que and Templater cost?
Look at our pricing and licensing pages. Prices change, so we keep them out of articles. Templater and Que are sold as separate subscriptions at present, and the Templater trial is fully featured for 30 days.
