crabbypatty,
Hi, I too would not pay full License for this fun, but limited online Program. Far too expensive! For a fraction of that price (yearly fee, but some free features too) I use http://www.jibjab.com/ecards with tons of templates for all occasions including 'role play' where you supply own face (head) and get hilarious animated results to share..

krypteller,

"It seems strange for a web based service to use such a restriction. The essence of web based computing is that you are free to use any device, any place, anytime, that is available."

I think there are 2 approaches that companies take -- either always free, making their money from their ecosystem, e.g. Google Photos, or give away a basic amount as marketing, charging for more capacity or storage, e.g. Microsoft's OneDrive [& this GOTD].

krypteller,

"You should be able to use this giveaway from your chromebook. "

You should be able to access the service from any device with a web browser & online access. In fact, clicking the link to "Create New" on their home page leads to a cell phone based template.

"That is my ultimate dream: locally only input and output, all data and all application software elsewhere, in the cloud or wherever."

You might be interested in:
petri[.]com/pro-learning-dev-stuff

In the case of AmoLink [& similar] it only makes sense to have everything on their servers, since most of the photos its customers will use in their projects are going to be taken with their cell phones. While [at least higher-end] cell phones are more powerful every year, they still can't do this stuff on their own.

mike,
Why the link? It seems pretty useless and off-topic.

krypteller,

There is no cloud. There are only servers owned by multi-national corporations whose interests are not synonymous with the interests of individual citizens.