GIFs are wildly popular in chat apps, text messages, social media, blogs, and online forums, too. Why reply with “OMG”, when you can express your reaction better with an animated GIF of Janice from Friends?
Much more effective, right?
The best part about GIFs is that they’re so easy to make. With a GIF maker and a few minutes to spare, you can create GIFs for everything from group chats and friendly emails to marketing, customer support, or social media.
This guide shares the best GIF makers that let you convert videos or images into high-quality animated media for your brand.
What is a GIF maker?
A GIF maker is a program that lets you make a GIF from photos, drawings, animations, and videos, or by looping together video snippets. Modern smartphones and computers offer built-in tools for making GIFs, but it’s easier and faster with a dedicated GIF maker.
Here’s how it works:
- Upload a video or image file to the GIF maker.
- Select the part(s) you want to convert into a GIF.
- Add text, filters, stickers, or other effects.
- Export and share your GIF.
4 benefits of making GIFs
Promote products or events
GIFs make perfect bite-sized teasers for:
- Promoting your brand ethos
- Showcasing products or services
- Building excitement for an upcoming announcement or event
- Providing product, service, or navigation instructions
- Sparking conversations
Many brands also use GIFs to drive brand awareness. Starbucks, for example, makes visually appealing and engaging GIFs to show off new products, like this one, which promotes Starbucks’ vegan whipped topping.
Increase engagement
Your audience is more likely to notice and share GIFs than static images. GIFs can evoke emotional responses and are more fun to use across a wider range of purposes than memes or videos. Plus, they’re smaller and easier to load or share on your website, blog, or social media platforms.
Use GIFs to break up monotonous, text-based content, convey your emotions or reactions, and reply to comments. This makes your brand come across as positive, approachable, and direct.
Wendy’s, for example, uses relevant GIFs to dish out witty comebacks, which elicits audience engagement:
Improve customer service
You can also use GIFs to give visual instruction in customer support documents, like your website’s help center or knowledgebase, Release Notes, and other help resources.
A simple screenshot may work to focus users’ attention on a specific directive on a page or illustrate how a new feature works—especially if it’s difficult to use. If you need more screenshots to articulate a process or clarify simple points of confusion, wrap it up in a GIF. It’s a few seconds long and plays automatically on a loop, so your audience can watch as many times as they need to fully understand how to execute a task.
Descript, for instance, uses a mix of text, videos, and GIFs in its tutorials, making it easy for users to follow along. Here’s one that explains how to add scenes to a video.
Simplify concepts, data, and processes
GIFs are dynamic and offer a simple way to simplify complex concepts. Instead of creating tutorials to instruct your audience, use GIFs to simplify concepts and animate complex data, so they’re visually appealing and more digestible.
10 best GIF makers for brands and creators
- Descript: Best GIF maker
- GIPHY: Best for beginners
- Canva: Best GIF templates
- Adobe Photoshop: Best for making GIFs on the go
- Biteable: Best for converting videos to GIFs
- ImgPlay: Best for merging video clips into GIFs
- GIFs.com: Best for making GIFs from online videos
- ImgFlip: Best for making GIFs with sound
- EzGIF: Best online GIF maker
- GIMP: Best open-source GIF maker
1. Descript: Best GIF maker
Descript is an all-in-one audio and video editor with a free GIF maker and built-in stock library. Plus, it’s connected to the GIPHY library, which contains thousands of unique and viral GIFs to enhance any project.
Making GIFs in Descript is easy to do with a few clicks: open a new video project and upload your video or image files, trim to size, add text and effects, choose your GIF’s dimensions, and export it.
Descript supports popular image formats, like JPG, PNG, WEBP, TIFF, and BMP. You can make a GIF from images and customize the order of the photos, resize, or set the animation speed. For videos, upload an MP4, MPEG, or MOV file, and use the multi-track timeline editor to cut your media layers or edit the auto-generated transcript to set your video’s start and end points.
When you’re happy with the outcome, download your GIF to your device or publish it to YouTube or Wistia.
There’s a lot more you can do in Descript with features like:
- Automatic transcription, to get captions to add to your GIFs, videos, or images.
- Studio Sound, to remove background noise and improve audio quality.
- AI features, like Green Screen, Social Post Writer, Script Generator, YouTube Descriptions, Find Good Clips, and more.
- Stock library of premium videos, images, GIFs, and GIF stickers.
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Powerful GIF editor
- Variety of design elements and effects
- Pocket-friendly premium plans
Cons
- No mobile app
- Free plan offers only one watermark-free export per month
Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $12/month.
2. GIPHY: Best for beginners
GIPHY is a popular GIF-making platform with one of the largest GIF databases and hundreds of millions of users.
Its user-friendly interface makes it super easy to create GIFs from an image, video, or URL from YouTube or other sites. You can decorate your GIF with filters, captions, stickers, freehand drawings, and more. Then, add tags or a source URL to credit the original source.
GIPHY also has a CAM app for making GIFs from footage recorded with a smartphone camera. Plus, you can change your GIF’s visibility from public to private and vice versa. Public GIFs are visible to anyone on the platform and other places, like TikTok, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram Stories, or Facebook Messenger. Switching to private mode ensures no one but you can see and share your GIFs.
When you’re finished, download your GIF to your device or share it directly on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, or Tumblr.
Best features
- Large GIF database
- Mobile and desktop apps
- GIPHY API
Pros
- Free to use
- Cross-platform
- Exports GIFs with no watermarks
- Accepts popular file formats
- Allows brands to promote their GIFs
Cons
- Basic editing options
- Requires an account to use
- No offline support
- Uploads limited to 15 seconds and 100MB
- GIFs appear mostly on small screens and messaging windows
Pricing: Free
3. Canva: Best GIF templates
Canva makes creating GIFs easy for beginners and pro-level users alike. You can make your own GIFs from scratch or use any of its professionally designed templates to make basic or complex GIFs.
Start out with a short loop of slides, altering them gradually until you master the basic GIF. Then, up your GIF game by creating more complex with multiple moving objects and a longer loop of slides, or make video GIFs—provided you own the footage or copyright to it.
Canva also offers a mobile app for creating GIFs on the go from iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android devices. You can import GIFs from your photo library or social media platforms in a few clicks, add text, embellish with stickers, transitions, or filters, and download it within seconds.
Don’t like your GIF’s background? Use Canva’s one-click background remover to erase image backgrounds so your GIF is more aesthetic and easier to share. You can also add a colleague or friend or copy and send them a shareable link, so you can collaborate in the design process.
Best features
- Thousands of free stock videos
- Premium images and music tracks
- Variety of GIF templates
- Collaborative features
Pros
- Free plan available
- Simple, user-friendly interface
- Cross-platform
- Exports GIFs with no watermarks
- Multiple sharing options
Cons
- Useful features locked in paid plans
- Doesn’t work offline
Pricing: Free, Canva Pro: $6.50/month, Canva for Teams: $5 per user, per month.
4. Adobe Photoshop Express: Best for making GIFs on the go
Adobe Photoshop Express brings Photoshop’s popular editing features, like color grading, lighting, sharpness, and even making GIFs in a simple mobile app.
While the app is especially useful for making photo collages, it can also convert videos to GIFs with just a few taps.
It’s easy: upload a video (up to one hour long) from your phone or tablet’s media library, select a file size and aspect ratio, trim it to the exact moment you want to capture, then instantly download or share your new GIF with your online audiences.
You can do a lot more on the go with Photoshop Express, including making endlessly looped video sequences and animated images.
Best features
- Trimming tool
- Multiple sharing options
Pros
- Free to use
- Accepts videos up to one hour long
- Variety of GIF sizing options
- Converts any video type to GIF format
Cons
- No desktop app
- Basic editing tools
- Carries the natural limitations of a mobile app
- Lacks effects and design elements
Pricing: Free
5. Biteable: Best for converting videos to GIFs
Biteable is a free online tool for making and editing videos, but it offers two ways to make GIFs from videos.
You can build your video in Biteable and use the option to create a GIF in the video editor. This will create a 30-second GIF from your video.
Alternatively, you can use Biteable’s free video-to-GIF converter to turn any video into a GIF. Just upload a video, pick your preferred frame rate and aspect ratio, trim to size, then download to your computer.
Best features
- Built-in video-to-GIF tool in Biteable editor
- Online video-to-GIF converter
- Trimming tool
Pros
- Easy to use
- No watermarks
Cons
- No mobile app
- Basic editor with no effects or design elements
Pricing: Free
6. ImgPlay: Best for merging video clips into GIFs
With ImgPlay, you can make and customize GIFs from still, live, or burst photos and videos, then share them directly on platforms like WhatsApp, X, Instagram, iMessage, and more.
The free app has four camera modes, different canvas styles, frame views, overlays, and a merging tool that lets you easily merge multiple video clips into one GIF.
Pick a canvas size based on where you’re posting the GIF, then select design elements to add to your GIF, like static or animated stickers, filters, and more. You can also use Imgplay’s pen drawing feature to sketch on top of a GIF and generate custom designs.
Best features
- Animation speed control
- Sketch with pen drawing
- 30+ filters
- 20+ text animation effects
- Video merging tool
Pros
- Variety of effects and design elements
- Multiple canvas sizes for different platforms
- Can create memes alongside GIFs
Cons
- No desktop apps
- Text animation only in paid plan
- Exports with watermarks
Pricing: Free, Pro: $4.99/month, $1.99/week, premium features: $4.99, Lifetime: $69.99.
7. GIFs.com: Best for making GIFs from online videos
GIFs.com lets you make GIFs from videos hosted on your website or social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Vine, or YouTube.
To get started, copy the URL of the video you want to turn into a GIF, paste the link into the URL field, and the software will automatically find and upload it. You can also drag and drop or upload images, videos, or existing GIFs from your device, add stickers and captions, filters, and tags, then hit the GIF creator button to generate your GIFs.
One unique functionality in GIFs.com is the ability to make animated stickers or GIFs from live stream videos in real time. The online GIF maker also offers an embed player for playing GIFs on your website.
The free version exports GIFs with watermarks, but you can upgrade to a paid monthly plan and get full access to all the GIFs.com features and watermark-free exports.
Best features
- Ready-to-stick sticker packs
- Frame-by-frame editing
- Instant effects
Pros
- Easy to use
- Simple interface
- Web-based app
Cons
- Basic GIF editor
- Free version exports GIFs with watermarks
- Video uploads limited to 150MB
- GIFs limited to 15 seconds
- Dated stickers and effects
Pricing: Free, Premium: from $1.99/month (GIFs) to $59.99/month for unlimited GIFs.
8. ImgFlip: Best for making GIFs with sound
ImgFlip has both image-to-GIF and video-to-GIF capabilities.
You can upload a still image or video from your computer or mobile device or paste in the URL of a video you want to turn into GIFs. Customize the GIF with stickers, captions, animations, or drawings and download to your device or share it via a link or directly to social media platforms.
The downside with using ImgFlip is it puts a watermark on your GIF. Upgrading to a Pro account removes watermarks, disables ads, and unlocks advanced options, like 1600 frames per GIF, sound on GIFs, higher resolution and video segment length, and unlimited dimensions (HD, UHD, and more).
Best features
- Variety of text, images, stickers, font options
- Crop, rotate, resize, or reverse tools
- Sound on GIFs
- Motion of images and text
- Drawing, outlining, or scribbling tools
Pros
- Free and user-friendly
- Cross-platform
- Supports multiple video formats
Cons
- Limited free plan
- Free version has ads and exports with watermarks
Pricing: Free, Pro: $12.95/month.
9. Ezgif: Best online GIF maker
Ezgif goes a notch higher than other tools by offering a wide variety of settings to change the file size, speed, and color of your GIFs. Making GIFs with Ezgif is simple: upload an image or video file you want to convert into a GIF, set the start and end point for your GIF, and hit the convert to GIF button.
Ezgif gives you the option to use images as frames and adjust the animation speed and frame order before making your GIF. A Crossfade frames tool is available to create a smooth, fading transition between images or create photo slideshows.
Best of all, it doesn’t apply a watermark or attributions to your GIF. This makes Ezgif ideal for creating GIFs for social media.
Best features
- Subtitles
- Variety of editing tools
- Speed control tool
- Frame rate control
Pros
- No watermarks
- You can convert up to 2,000 files
- Can convert transparent videos to transparent GIF files
- Supports many image and video formats
Cons
- Limits file size to 200MB
- Lacks effects and design elements
Pricing: Free.
10. GIMP: Best open-source GIF maker
GIMP is a free, open-source image editor that works with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
You can make a GIF or export images or videos you create in GIMP as GIFs. To get started, upload all the pictures you want to use for your GIF, then edit or convert them into a GIF as they currently are. If you're happy with your creation, save it as a GIF image, enable the continual loop and adjust delay time between frames, and then export as a GIF.
Best features
- Graphic design elements
- Color management features
- Add-ons for more functionality
Pros
- Free to use
- Customizable interface
- Powerful image and GIF editor
- Has Photoshop-like capabilities
- Supports popular file formats
Cons
- Slight learning curve
Pricing: Free.
📚 Read more: The best free video editing software with no watermark: Top 10 picks
Best GIF makers FAQs
How do I make a high-quality GIF?
Using Descript’s GIF maker. Here’s how:
- Open a new video project.
- Upload a video file.
- Choose your GIF’s dimensions (square, landscape, portrait, or custom).
- Trim and adjust your video in the timeline editor to form one animated GIF.
- Add text, transitions, and other effects.
- Click Publish > Export to download your GIF.
What is the best free GIF maker app?
GIF-making software like Descript, GIPHY, and Canva offer free, simple, user-friendly interfaces. You can upload an image file to create, resize, and add static text or animated captions in unique styles, fonts, colors, and other cool effects to your GIFs.
Can I turn videos and images into GIFs?
Absolutely. Descript’s intuitive editor lets you turn images and video clips into animated GIFs quickly and easily. Upload an image or video file, customize the quality, frame rate, resolution, and aspect ratio, add text or effects, and export your GIF.
