Finding the perfect explainer video software can be a daunting task with all the brilliant brands out there. Whether you’re new to the explainer video software scene or you’re a pro looking for an upgrade, we guarantee to help you find the perfect software for your needs.
In this article, we compile a list of the best explainer video software with different needs in mind, helping you find the explainer software no matter your situation. From big business needs to amateurs with no experience, you can be sure to find the right explainer software to make your video.
Best Video Explainer Software
Best Overall: Vyond
Vyond (previously GoAnimate) is the most attractive video editing software out there for animated explainer video designs.
With 3 visual styles, the ability to customize characters, and a wide range of templates, Vyond will ensure you make the perfect explainer video.
When you open Vyond to their homepage there is a video tutorial playing as well as informational graphics and other helpful videos instantly making you feel comfortable on their site.
What Do You Get?
With 3 plans ranging between $300 and $1000 a year, Vyond is known for its user-friendly web design and variety of icons.
Vyond’s Essential plan is just under $300 per year. There is a watermark on all your videos and the highest quality video you can export is 720p. Considering the steep price tag on the basic subscription, we expected a bit more.
Watermarks on the videos mean that these videos aren’t good for much outside of personal use, and the limited quality range gives it an unprofessional feel.
You can change colors on props which is useful for making your videos dynamic and interesting.
You get access to Business Friendly and Whiteboard visual styles, allowing you to streamline your aesthetics, resulting in a cleaner and more visually appealing video.
Leveling up, the Premium plan for around $650 a year allows you to export videos in 1080p and convert your video to an 8-second GIF. We had loads of fun playing around with the GIF feature, it’s easy to use and you can export a video in minutes.
Access to live chat support is incredibly helpful when you need immediate and direct assistance on a video. Live support is one of the features that sets Vyond apart from any of its competitors.
Lastly, the Professional plan at just under $1000 a year is ideal for a small business.
The Professional plan gives you all the perks of the Premium plan and more. You can collaborate on videos through a shared library with loads of video assets.
Unique Features
With this plan, you have access to all three visual styles: Contemporary, Business Friendly, and Whiteboard. You can also import your brand’s font for consistency and streamlining. Companies that use these kinds of videos will find this particularly helpful, as it’s easy to maintain a uniform style across all your content.
Suitable For
All of these plans are ideal for start-ups or small businesses looking to create animated explainer videos.
Pros
- Customizable animated characters
- Variety of icons
- Easily adaptable templates
- Exportable mp4 files
- Converts videos to GIFs
Cons
- Cheaper plans are limited
- Can’t import fonts
- Annual discounts are stingy
- No free plan
Alternative: Powtoon
Powtoon is an easy-to-use video editor with both free and paid versions. It has a wide variety of user-friendly templates which means that you can easily create explainer videos.
Known for its simplicity and vibrant graphics, Powtoon is perfect for beginners still getting used to explainer software.
What Do You Get?
There are 5 unique design styles to give your videos distinct flair: Modern Edge, Whiteboard, Cartoon, Infographic, and Real.
They offer 4 different paid plans, ranging from anywhere between $230 to $1200 a year.
PowToon’s Pro Plan costs around $230 per year. This plan limits you to 10 minutes per video. This isn’t a huge limitation as the best explainer videos are short to keep the audience’s attention.
You can export five non-branded videos a month, meaning you can post on social media or your official website and not worry about PowToon’s watermark making your content look unprofessional.
Storage is somewhat limited, as you can only save up to 2GB of videos at a time.
The Pro+ Plan, coming in at just over $700 a year, is the most comprehensive package.
With unlimited non-branded exports, you can make videos up to 20 minutes long. This is particularly useful for making explainer videos for internal use and training.
Character customization is available, but it’s markedly restricted. Outside of changing characters’ outfits, there’s not much else you can fiddle with, which we felt was a letdown.
There’s access to a huge library of music and objects, making this the ideal plan for professionals and entrepreneurs aiming to put eye-grabbing explainer videos out there.
Unique Features
Powtoon offers educational plans aimed at schools and 60-student university classes, as well as business plans.
PowToon is known for its simplistic web design and ease of video making.
Suitable For
Their videos are perfect for content on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. It’s ideal for small content creators and companies who want to use explainer videos for brand promotion.
It’s easy to add and remove graphics at any stage of the process, making it a simple task to put out professional-quality content quickly.
Pros
- User-friendly
- Variety of music and props
- Access to five explainer video templates
- Reasonable yearly plans
Cons
- Limited music and props
- You cannot customize your characters, only their clothes.
- Free plan videos not in HD
Best Value: Wideo
Wideo uses cloud software to help you create professional explainer videos. Everything is stored online, so you’ll need a reliable internet connection to get the most out of it.
There are loads of pre-made templates for you to edit. Or you can make a video from scratch using their comprehensive software.
What Do You Get?
Wideo’s free plan gives you some ability to make explainer videos but there are significant limitations. There’s a 1 minute max video time and no downloads.
There are 10 templates to choose from which cover most needs, but there are a few niches that will be left out.
Their first paid plan is roughly $230 per year and provides unbranded videos up to 90 seconds long. Unbranded videos are a must for anyone wanting to export their videos to social media or video-sharing websites like YouTube or Vimeo.
The paid plan has an impressive 33 video templates and 2GB of storage giving you loads of creative freedom. Their templates are well planned out, giving you the ability to make content in a variety of styles while maintaining a coherent theme among your content.
Coming in at just over $450 per year, the Pro Plan offers animated explainer video software with videos up to 10 minutes long. This time limit is ideal for companies or institutions that need internal informational videos.
Some have even used it to create engaging and unique lessons for their students or teams.
Wideo’s Pro+ Plan costs just under $950 per year. Its video limit is 30 minutes long which should cover even the most intensive needs. It’s unlikely that the average user will get the full benefit of half-hour-long videos, but there are some instances where this could be useful.
You also get access to an extra account, meaning that more than 1 person can work on the video at a time. With this plan, you can massively increase the volume of content you’re able to put out.
Unique Features
All paid plans include unbranded videos meaning that you can use your videos externally.
The Pro+ Plan gives you access to the full media library, letting you have complete creative freedom with graphics and sound assets to flesh out your videos.
Customizable templates are easy to use and time-efficient.
Suitable For
Wideo is best for people already familiar with animation software and creative start-ups wanting to create dynamic videos.
Pros
- Drag and drop interface
- Edit videos scene by scene
- Easily shareable
- Customizable templates
Cons
- Free plans are limited.
- No customizable characters.
Alternative: RawShorts
RawShorts is an AI-based explainer video software service that lets you create whiteboard animation simply by uploading your script. The sophisticated AI reads through your script and will create your video for you.
Artificial intelligence may seem daunting at first, but when used properly it can cut down on the amount of work needed to produce effective and engaging content.
With both free and paid versions, RawShorts offers a unique way of creating animated videos.
RawShorts also has video templates you can use to quickly throw together a video.
What Do You Get?
RawShorts has 3 plans that all use their AI function to help you create the perfect video.
The free plan is RawShorts most basic package. Videos made under the free plan all have a RawShorts watermark and outro bumper. This can make it impractical for people who want to share their videos publicly since the watermark can be quite distracting.
You’re limited to 2 minutes per video which will suit the needs of most creators as the best explainer videos are short.
Their first paid plan comes in at just over $450 per year and sees a major improvement compared to the free trial.
Videos are capped at 5 minutes, meaning that you could now make videos for internal use as well.
The watermark is removed, making this the ideal choice for creators who share their videos online. There’s nothing worse than spending hours crafting the perfect video only to have a translucent watermark distracting your audience.
The Business Plan costs just over $700 a year.
This plan gives you 50 HD exports a year. This is enough to cover the needs of even the most prolific creators, from individual animators to small businesses.
With 100GB of storage and videos up to 10 minutes long, you can make a variety of explainer videos for any needs. The ample storage space means you’re not likely to run out of videos any time soon.
Unique Features
All RawShorts plans give you the ability to upload your videos directly to YouTube, cutting out the need to download them to your device.
The AI video designer is by far the most significant tool in this software’s arsenal. While we appreciate the commitment they’ve shown to this idea, it is unfortunately lacking in many of the other features which make for a good explainer maker.
Many AI tools are still in their infancy. There’s a fair amount of tweaking and fiddling necessary to change the AI-generated video into something watchable. Still, when it gets it right, this software is second to none. For that reason, this software takes second place in our “Best Value” category.
RawShorts pricing plans are affordable for what they offer compared to other video explainer software.
Suitable For
RawShorts is great for teams who need to put out a lot of video content but don’t have the time and expertise to do it. Simply upload a script and let the AI do the hard work for you.
Pros
- AI created video
- Wide range of stock images
- Multiple styles of whiteboard animation.
- Drag and drop interface
Cons
- AI script limited to 200 words.
- Lots of editing necessary
- Voice-over is robotic
Best Budget: RenderForest
Similar to RawShorts, RenderForest uses artificial intelligence to help you create the perfect explainer video.
RenderForest offers a wide variety of templates to choose from with plenty of fun animations. These keep your audience glued to your video so you can advertise, educate, and entertain.
What Do You Get?
The free plan offers unlimited 360p video exports. This will work for small banner videos and GIFs, but anything larger will be noticeably low-quality.
Videos made with the free version are capped at 3 minutes, which is fine for the average explainer video.
The RenderForest watermark will be present on all videos which significantly limits what you can do with them.
The Entrepreneur Plan provides 20GB of storage and videos up to 15 minutes long, all for less than $120 a year. This is significantly cheaper than other software that offers the same levels of service. The time limit is long compared to other sites, giving you the ability to create videos for internal and external use.
You can also export eighteen 720p videos a month, or six 1080p videos a month. This gives you complete creative liberty when choosing the frequency and quality of your uploads, and it’s flexible enough to suit most needs.
The RenderForest watermark is removed and you have access to fully color-customizable graphics.
The Pro Plan is also worth considering as a flexible and affordable option. It costs less than $240 a year and allows you to export either 60 720p or 30 1080p videos a month.
Pro Plan videos can be made up to 30 minutes long which gives you more options when choosing the tone and content of your video.
You can upload up to 5 personalized fonts, ensuring your videos will align with your brand aesthetics.
Unique Features
Once you have chosen your desired style pack, the AI technology will choose scenes to put in the explainer video for you. The AI is self-taught, so it constantly improves itself and becomes more accurate each time you make a video.
RenderForest uses cloud-based software which gives you the freedom to create videos on any device connected to the internet. You can work with remote teams to produce uniform and consistent content for your brand.
Suitable For
Render Forest is best for remote teams who’ll get the most out of its decentralized, cloud computing.
The AI-generated videos are great for people and companies who want to create engaging videos to promote their services or products but don’t have animation or video design experience.
Pros
- Multiple style packs
- Lots of informational tutorials
- Inexpensive pricing plans
Cons
- Cannot change style pack
Alternative: Animaker
Animaker offers users a wide variety of templates to choose from. This is a huge time-saver as you can simply select a good-looking template and adjust it to your needs with a few mouse clicks.
What Do You Get?
The cheapest plan costs about $120 a year. With it, you get 5 premium non-branded videos a month, allowing you to upload a healthy amount of professional-looking videos.
You can customize 5 characters per month, giving you the creative liberty to make someone stand out in your videos.
You can also export your video as a GIF 15 times per month. This is a great tool for your viral marketing campaign, allowing people to share short snippets of your video in the hopes it goes viral.
The Starter plan allows you to upload up to 5GB to their servers. You can use these files to add personalized fonts, images, graphics, and even sounds to help your videos stand out against a sea of similar content.
Animaker’s recommended plan, the Pro plan, comes in at around $590 per year. For that, you get 10GB of space to upload files. This gives you the ability to build a massive library of brand-specific assets to help you tailor your videos.
Unique Features
The drag and drop interface makes Animaker one of the easiest explainer video software sites out there. While many competitors offer a similar feature, Animaker’s is more intuitively designed.
Scalable levels of customization make sure that you can make an explainer video no matter your needs or size.
Suitable For
Animaker is great for designers with a limited budget who still want all the bells and whistles of more expensive competitors.
Their fully scalable pricing means that you can set up a plan that has all the features to suit your needs, and nothing more. You won’t be spending any money covering features you don’t use.
Pros
- Inexpensive
- Fully customizable characters
- Offer tutorials
Cons
- Online access only
- Difficult to create a video without a template
- You cannot autosave
How to Choose the Right Explainer Video Software
What Makes a Good Explainer Video?
A good explainer video should be short, ideally between 1 and 3 minutes long.
Having a longer video will bore viewers and they’ll either click off or lose focus. Longer videos have their function but should be used sparingly. Long-form explainer videos can be used to train staff, educating them on new tools and procedures or company culture.
A good explainer video should have engaging and dynamic animations. This ensures your audience stays focused and entertained throughout the experience.
If you’re using a voice-over, make sure it’s engaging and fun. Nothing makes people switch off faster than a robotic or monotone delivery.
The script for your video should answer three important questions: what, why, and how. What is your product or service, why does the audience need it, and how will it help them?.
Finally, throw in some fun music that doesn’t overpower the audio but creates a light mood.
What Explainer Video Software Should I Choose?
Choosing the right software for you will depend on your budget, ability, and goals. Before you set out trying out several different tools, figure out what you can afford to spend on explainer software and find one that fits your budget with a good list of features.
After that, you need to evaluate the level of animation skill you or your team have. Some software, like Vyond, depends on the user having fundamental animation knowledge. AI software like RenderForest and RawShorts is great for those with limited animation knowledge as they build the video for you.
The goals of your videos will decide whether you need cloud storage, collaborative tools, or watermark removers. If your explainer videos are intended only for internal use within your company, a watermark on your content won’t be the end of the world.
Are Explainer Videos Effective?
Explainer videos are great ways of promoting your product or brand when done right. They give potential customers a rundown of your company and highlight the reasons you’re superior to your competitors.
They’re also highly effective at training staff or onboarding new employees. The great thing about explainer video software is that it gives you the tools to make a video to fit any need, so you’re only limited by your imagination.
Conclusion
All of the software we mentioned are brilliant, but overall we would have to say that the best explainer software is Vyond.
With customizable characters, a wide variety of templates, and reasonable pricing, we think Vyond is the perfect explainer video software for you.
If you’re new to explainer video software, try out one of the AI-assisted programs like RawShorts.
These products are ideal for any business size. They don’t require any previous explainer software experience so you can jump in.