This is a roundup of the 20 best explainer video software solutions that can help you create compelling explainer videos and improve your marketing. For your convenience, we’ve divided them into five groups:
Live-action explainer videos are real-life situations with live people. They can simply be talking-head videos with annotations or short movies with a plot.
To create a live-action video, you’ll need a camera and video editing software. Some of the holistic tools we’ve compiled use three options at once: they allow you to record, edit, and share videos. Check out our shortlist and find a solution that meets your requirements.
OS: Windows
iSpring Suite is PowerPoint-based authoring software that includes tools for creating online courses, quizzes, and conversation simulations. It also includes a professional video studio that makes the video production process a breeze. Though the toolkit is more focused on producing eLearning content, with the iSpring video studio, you can also make explainer videos. You can create a screencast, record a webcam video right in the tool, or take a ready-made live-action video and enhance it with images, infographics, PowerPoint slides, and captions. The studio also makes it easy to mix videos and support them with music or a voice-over.
As an option, you can create a presentation explaining your product or service in PowerPoint and turn it into an explainer video with iSpring Suite. This tool preserves all PowerPoint effects and transitions.
$770/year. Free 14-day trial →
OS: Windows and Mac
Camtasia can be helpful both for screen capturing and webcam recording. It also provides basic editing options for polishing videos. As with iSpring, you can use a webcam or a ready-made recording for your explainer video and make it more engaging by adding eye-catching titles, annotations, effects, and more. To support a video with music, you can choose a track from Camtasia’s library of royalty-free music or upload your own audio.
$299.99. Free 30-day trial.
OS: Windows and Mac
Soapbox is a Google Chrome extension that enables you to quickly and easily record, edit, and share videos. To create an explainer video, you can make a talking-head style recording with your webcam and complement it with text, images, slides, and other videos.
There’s a free limited plan. The paid version starts at $19/month (annual billing).
OS: Windows and Mac
Adobe Premiere Pro is a leading video editing toolkit used by professionals for creating films, video clips, and documentaries. You can also use it to make explainer videos. To do that, you need to upload a previously recorded video and do some editing. The tool kit enables you to do more than just basic editing, including compositing, layering, tilting, motion graphics, and sound design. You can also edit the footage in any modern format – from 8K to virtual reality.
$239.88/year. Free 30-day trial.
Animated explainer videos illustrate a product, service, or concept using moving graphics. With graphic elements, you can create a memorable story and explain abstract or complex concepts.
The best tool for creating animated explainer videos with characters
OS: Web-based
Vyond is a fast online tool for creating animated explainer videos with professional output. It has everything you need to tell a compelling story beautifully and visually with an explainer video. The software offers an extremely rich library of pre-made scenes, characters, objects, and audio tracks. To make your video even more engaging, you can use dialogue, lip-syncs, and realistic movements.
Key features:
Pricing: From $49/month or $299/year per seat. Free 14-day trial.
A video creation tool for corporate use with many animation styles
OS: Web-based
Powtoon is a comprehensive online platform for visual communication that allows you to create various types of video content. It has a strong animation tool and hundreds of templates and characters for creating animated explainer videos without specific skills, external help, or overspending. Among the animation styles that Powtoon offers are cartoons, infographics, sketches, and whiteboard doodles.
There’s a free plan. The paid version starts at $15/month (annual billing).
Animated presentations for enterprises
OS: Web-based
Animaker is online animation video-making software with drag-and-drop functionality. With 6 different video styles, including infographics, 2.5D, and typography, and 120 different types of animations, it lets you create beautiful explanatory videos. The app is home to a big collection of characters, charts, and icons, as well as sound and visual effects, which can help you spice things up. With Animaker, you can create vertically optimized videos that fit right on a mobile screen.
There’s a free plan. The paid version starts at $12.5/month (annual billing).
A platform for creating animated marketing videos
OS: Web-based
Wideo is another web-based app for creating, editing, and sharing animated explainer videos in an intuitive manner. It offers 100+ templates that are fully customizable, over 1,300 images, and 50+ music tracks. If you don’t want to use the standard objects provided in the library, you can use your own.
From $19/month (annual billing). Free 7-day trial.
Specially designed for explainer video animation
OS: Windows and Mac
Explaindio is a robust tool that allows you to bring together 2D and 3D animations, sketch elements, and full-motion videos. You can easily create explainer videos by combining pre-made text animations, animated scenes, fonts, characters, and audio tracks to get the look and story you want.
From $37/month (5 users included).
Animation software for professional use
OS: Windows, Mac, Linux
Although Cinema 4D is widely regarded as a professional software for 3D animation, it also allows you to create 2D animations with more control. The Sketch and Toon tool applies flat shading with a single click and helps your graphics appear in 2D. Cinema 4D has a gentle learning curve and provides an extensive library of preset scenes, materials, and objects.
$59.91/month (annual billing).
Whiteboard explainer videos are a particular type of animated video in which pictures appear to be hand drawn on a whiteboard. The script is presented as a third-person narration or a use-case that supports the story that is told through the drawing.
We’ve compiled the most popular tools that can help you get started making your whiteboard animation explainer videos quickly. See which one meets your needs!
Best whiteboard explainer video software with professional-looking sketches for beginners
OS: Windows and Mac
Sparkol VideoScribe lets you create hand-drawn, whiteboard explainer videos with no design or technical know-how. With the large built-in library of images and an easy-to-use timeline with drag-and-drop functionality, you can make videos in a snap. VideoScribe also has a great audio library, with around 200 tracks to choose from.
From $15 per user/month (annual billing). Free 7-day trial.
Automated creation of whiteboard doodles
OS: Web-based
A hand dragging different elements across the screen and swiping them away, supported by a voice-over, is exactly what you’ll see in videos created with MySimpleShow. This is a simple online tool with a unique explainer engine. Just choose a storyline template for your topic, write a story, and the software will offer you a selection of characters, objects, and animations that you can use to build your video.
From $79/month (annual billing).Free trial.
Intuitive animation software for creating video sketches for free
OS: Web-based, Mac
Raw Shorts is an online whiteboard animation software with a drag-and-drop interface. You can create an explainer video even if you have no animation skills simply by choosing ready-made templates, graphics, and characters, and adding media and text. Raw Shorts stands out from other tools for its specific transitions and animations that can be applied to each element beyond just the “drawn by hand” classic whiteboard style.
There’s a free pricing plan. The paid version starts at $20/month (annual billing). 7-day free trial.
Automated customizable doodles for every niche
OS: Windows and Mac
If you want a cool explainer video with marker or pen drawing sketches, you can create it yourself with Doodly. To make a video, you can use doodle images drawn by Doodly’s professional graphic artists, or upload your own images. The tool will automatically draw the image for you. You can also record your voice-over audio directly within Doodly and sync it to your sketch with ease.
from $490/year.
Video slideshow software is typically easy-to-use apps that allow you to create a video by combining photos and ready-made clips. They usually come with basic video and photo editing tools so you can enhance your slideshows.
This review covers quite a few programs that can help you make an explainer video in a snap.
OS: Cloud-based
Animoto is a tool for creating slideshows with music for video marketing purposes. You can create explainer videos simply by dragging and dropping your own images and video clips into pre-built templates. The tool allows you to quickly adjust colors, fonts, music, and more to customize your video.
From $8/month (annual billing). Free 14-day trial.
OS: Cloud-based
Wave.video is a simple but robust video-making solution with the largest stock video and image library – around 300-million videos. You can use a ready-made template or upload your own video clip and customize it by adding text and logo, setting custom colors and fonts, and applying branded video filters. To make your explainer video even more engaging, you can also add stickers and GIFs.
There’s a free plan. The paid version starts at $24/month (billed as $281/year).
OS: Web-based
With Biteable, you can turn your photos and videos into a beautiful explainer video. This online tool offers hundreds of ready-to-use templates. Depending on your audience and brand, you can choose between tech, professional, humorous, and a host of other styles. To personalize your video, you can add pictures, text, and music, and integrate your brand colors.
Has a free version. The paid plan starts at $49/month (yearly billing).
Interactive videos give the viewer the ability to interact with the content itself and even control it as if playing a video game. They can click on-screen objects, answer questions, and even buy products, all within the video. This totally transforms the viewer’s experience by making it more fun and engaging.
See how Maybelline New York uses interactive videos to show how its products can help women look more attractive. This is more than just an explainer video, since it not only explains how the product works, but also teaches customers how to use it properly.
Here are three software tools that will help you create a fully immersive experience for your customers.
Vimeo provides accessible online video editing tools for creators looking to efficiently make adjustments to their videos. Through Vimeo Create, users have the option to choose from a variety of templates or start from scratch, allowing for customization with graphics, stock footage, and more. Additionally, the one-take video creation and editing feature streamlines the process, allowing users to refine videos by editing the transcript and removing filler words and pauses with a single click.
A single-use plan – $12 per month (annual billing).
OS: Cloud-based
Kaltura Video Portal is a cloud-based tool that allows turnkey video creation and management for corporate and commercial use. It enables you to easily create, edit, and enhance videos with various interactive content and activities. With Kaltura, you can add clickable elements, hotspots, and branching structures to your videos to put the user at the center of the experience and let them choose the path of their content.
Upon request. A free trial is available.
Brightcove focuses on video marketing resources to improve viewership. This platform offers consulting, strategy, and design services. Targeting medium to large-sized companies, Brightcove provides various features to support marketing, analytics, viewership, advertising, and other aspects of video content delivery.
upon request.
An explainer videos is a short videos that focuses on explaining a product, service, or concept. It’s typically used in online marketing to demonstrate how something works or what a company does. It can be made as a live-action video, a cartoon with animated characters, or an illustrated whiteboard story. Companies often place them on their websites or social media channels.
No matter what type of explainer videos you want to create, a well-made, high-quality explainer videos can help promote your business, entice customers to try your product or service, and boost conversions.
A good explainer videos should communicate your message to the customer clearly and give them an understanding of your mission, product, or service. It will let them learn what you offer and how this can be of value to them. To be effective for your business, an explainer video should:
The best part is that you don’t need to hire a video production studio to make an explainer videos that will work. When armed with special tools and with your audience in mind, you can create effective explainer videos on your own. Let’s dive into the types of software that will help you with that.
If you’re looking for an explainer video maker, chances are you’re going to create videos yourself, without hiring a professional videographer. If that’s the case and you don’t have any experience in video production, opt for an easy-to-use tool that has a low learning curve and allows you to make professional videos with a minimum of effort.
Another important thing you need to consider is the type of explainer video you’re planning to create. So, consider if it will be a talking-head video with annotations, an animated video with fun characters and graphic elements, an interactive video with hotspots and quizzes, or a simple slideshow.
After you decide on the type of the explainer video, make a list of easy-to-use solutions you find appropriate and see what features they offer. This will help you reduce your list to several tools. Then check out their user reviews and see the software in action with a free trial. Choose the one you love most.
These 8 tips apply to both live-action and animated explainer videos, and can be helpful for you.
All the tools covered in this article are great for creating explainer videos. Pick any of these tools and experiment with the trial version, or start out on the free plan to get a feel for the app.
Have you used software to create explainer videos? Let us know in the comment section below.
