Video or animation is one of the most effective and powerful marketing tools. Animated visuals are a lot more engaging than plain, static images. According to research, video marketing generates 66% more qualified leads than any other marketing tool.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t always need expensive animation maker to create creative, engaging, innovative, and interactive animated shorts, clips, or videos.
For example, you can hire one of the best marketing agencies, like Convex Interactive, to create, publish, and distribute various types of animated content for your business growth. Or, you can just do it yourself.
This article will explore the 10 best animation software for beginners and professionals (free & paid). So, if you’re (seriously) interested in animation, you’ll need this guide.
Let’s get started.
Visme
Visme is a cloud-based, online design tool that allows anyone to create animated images, infographics, presentations, ads, banners, and other types of visuals.
Equipped with thousands of premade templates, stock photos and videos, customizable pre-animated characters, illustrations, gestures, and more, Visme is ideal for creating visual content for social media platforms.
Features:
- Friendly drag-and-drop editor.
- Interactive links, call-to-action buttons, and hover effects.
- Embed videos and other online content into your designs.
- Team collaboration features: Share your projects.
- Brand kit: Save your brand colors, fonts, and logos for later use.
- Insightful analytics: Access graphs and statistics for project views.
- Offline animated download formats: GIF, MP4 video, and HTML5.
- Publish and share online: Use a link or generate an embed code.
Pricing:
A free subscription is available with limited features. Paid subscriptions start from $15/month per user, billed annually.
Best for:
Marketers, corporate teams, teachers, trainers, and personal use.
Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate allows you to create engaging and unique vector graphics and 2D animations for videos, ads, games, television, etc.
As the new and improved version of Adobe Flash Professional, you can design characters, avatars, shapes, and other assets using this tool. It is also handy software for redesigning your website per the SEO guidelines to earn more traffic, sales, and revenue.
Features:
- Vector brushes with size, smoothness, pressure, and velocity controls.
- Timeline controls with advanced animation settings.
- Audio integration with synchronization and audio loops feature.
- Export in Flash, HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, SVG, and more.
Pricing:
Paid subscriptions start from $20.99/month.
Best for:
Game designers, YouTubers, and animators.
VistaCreate
With a comprehensive library of templates, pre-animated objects, and characters, VistaCreate is more than just your basic animation software. Even with the minimum design skills, you can easily create animated ads, square videos, and Facebook covers with this tool.
Another unique feature of this tool is its ability to combine videos and GIFs with your images to develop breathtaking visual content.
Features:
- Access over 50 million stock photos and customizable animated templates.
- Media library of videos and animations to use in designs.
- Upload your videos, fonts, graphics, and animations.
- Download in MP4 video format.
- Share your animated video directly on social media.
Pricing:
A free subscription is available with limited features. Premium subscriptions start from $10/month, billed annually.
Best for:
Marketers, small business owners, and freelancers.
PosterMyWall
PosterMyWall is quite straightforward, especially for users who need animation software experience. This tool doesn’t require signing up before editing a template or designing promotional posters, graphics, and videos using a comprehensive media library.
The feature that allows PosterMyWall to stand out among other tools is its ability to let you download your designs as high-quality videos, including HD and 4K quality.
Features:
- Large collection of animated video templates.
- Thousands of stock videos to select for your designs.
- Download your videos in 4K and Full HD quality.
- Save as high-quality MP4 and GIF files.
- Share your designs with a link or embed them online.
Pricing:
The free subscription plan comes with free social media downloads. Premium plans start from $9.95/month.
Best for:
Individuals, businesses.
PixTeller
PixTeller’s animation software is perfect for personal and business use. If you are looking for an alternative to full-featured video animation software that is quite simple, then PixTeller is the right choice for you.
You can create short animated videos in PixTeller by setting frame-by-frame motions and then editing the attributes of each frame, such as colors, rotation, opacity, and more.
Features:
- Thousands of pre-animated templates to choose from.
- Frame-by-frame timeline customization.
- 100,000+ shapes to add to your visual content.
- Share the URL of your video with specific people.
- Download in MP4 video and GIF format.
Pricing:
A basic subscription doesn’t include animation capabilities. The premium subscription with animation features starts from $12/month, billed annually.
Best for:
Marketers, freelancers, bloggers.
Animation Studio
Animation Studio is a popular feature-rich animation software. This tool offers a large gallery of pre-animated elements and templates that can assist beginners and professionals in creating videos, HTML5 banners, ads, and more.
The customizability options are almost endless with Animation Studio. However, if you are looking for a less robust version, you can use Animatron Lite.
Features:
- Thousands of pre-animated objects, characters, and more.
- Import, place and edit your graphics.
- Built-in voiceover features to add narration.
- Real-time collaboration and comments.
- Export to HTML5, MP4, SVG, and GIF formats.
Pricing:
Animatron Lite is available for free with limited features. Paid subscriptions start from $30/month, billed annually.
Best for:
Marketers, corporate teams, educators, and freelancers.
Biteable
Biteable animation software is ideal for creating small or short-sized animated videos such as promos, ads, and social media. It lets you share and download animated videos by editing one of their premade templates.
You will also have access to thousands of stock footage clips and scenes to create an entirely customized video. Biteable also lets you share your project with teammates with its collaboration features.
Features:
- Browse hundreds of professional video templates.
- Add audio tracks using a huge library or upload your own.
- Publish your video on Biteable with privacy controls.
- Download your designs in Full HD MP4 video format.
- Share directly to social media or use a link or embed code.
Pricing:
A free subscription is available with limited features. Premium subscription plans start from $49/month, billed annually.
Best for:
Marketers, trainers, educators.
Animaker
If you are related to the education section, handle a business, and need to create interactive presentations and videos, then Animaker is ideal for you. This animation software has many templates and pre-animated elements, including illustrations, characters, and gestures.
Features:
- An extensive cluster of animated templates and assets.
- Six distinctive video styles to edit and remix.
- Pro-level animation features like Curves, Camera In and Out.
- 200+ music tracks and sound effects.
- Enterprise and team management features.
- Download in MP4 video and GIF formats.
Pricing:
A free subscription is available with limited features. Premium subscriptions start from $10/month, billed annually.
Best for:
Marketers, presenters, freelancers.
Easil
Easil is a web-based design and animation software that supports GIF downloads. However, the only way to make an animated GIF in Easil is by duplicating an image frame several times and making edits to each frame.
Features:
- Thousands of editable templates in various categories.
- Brand kit feature to save your brand colors, colors, and logos.
- Creative text effects like drop shadows and masks.
- Resize templates and designs for social media or print.
- Create color schemes with the color palette generator.
Pricing:
Premium subscription starts from $7.50/month per user, billed annually.
Best for:
Brand managers, marketers, and bloggers.
Powtoon
Powtoon is an online animation software that allows you to create engaging, unique, and interactive videos/animations with premade graphic assets. It’s a great tool for presentations, explainer videos, and whiteboard animations.
Features:
- Premade templates are spread across five categories.
- Thousands of built-in graphics, animated characters, and more.
- Advanced animation controls and character customization.
- Choose from built-in audio, record audio, or upload audio files.
- Import and edit Photoshop and PowerPoint files.
Pricing:
Limited free plan. Paid plans start from $19/month, billed annually.
Best for:
Marketers, presenters, educators, and trainers.