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11 Video to GIF Converters A Comprehensive Review

11 Video to GIF Converters: A Comprehensive Review

Written by Rishabh Pugalia
Written by Rishabh Pugalia

Rishabh leads the content strategy at Content Beta, a creative video and design agency for Tech & SaaS companies.

Animated GIFs are a quick alternative to videos. They show your product in action in a loop. There’s no need to wait for a user to hit the play or replay button. They work well on landing pages, in emails, and in ad campaigns. As a marketer, do you often have these questions –

  • Can GIFs keep visitors longer on your page?
  • Do GIFs make your website load faster and help your SEO?
  • Will GIFs make it easier for people to understand your product and buy it?

But let’s not just discuss these questions. Let’s also explore the best video-to-GIF converters to make use of GIFs from your existing video content.

Animated GIFs can capture attention and engage users, encouraging them to spend more time on your website. In Google Analytics 4, the traditional ‘bounce rate’ has been replaced by an ‘engagement rate’ metric. This new metric measures whether visitors spend a significant amount of time on the site.

Remember: While GIFs can slow down your site, optimizing them can lead to higher engagement, which can indirectly benefit SEO.

Table of Contents

Why convert video to GIFs?

Here is the simple answer:

  • Repurpose your existing video content to create animated GIF clips for marketing.
  • Use an easy-to-use video-to-gif converter to avoid re-work.

In the world of software marketing, you can use animated GIFs to show multiple layers of your product’s user interface (UI). This increases product awareness and is ideal for TOFU or Top-of-the-Funnel marketing.

Here are a few pros and cons of converting video to GIFs:

Pros Cons
Quick to Consume - They effectively show simple features or tasks in the UI. It helps viewers process the information quickly. Limited Content - They can't explain many detailed and complex features.
Easy to create - All you need is an app to convert video clips into GIFs. No Audio Context - The lack of audio may limit the depth of the message.
High Engagement - Autoplay and Looping nature grabs attention. It often leads to higher interaction rates. Quality Constraints - Compression of video to GIFs can degrade the visual quality.
Easily Shareable - A smaller file size makes it easy to share across platforms. Slower Pagespeed - High-quality GIFs can slow down the loading time of the web page, although they are faster than videos.
Good for Teasers - It is effective for quick product or feature highlights. No Call to Action - Can't embed links or calls to action within the GIF.

Best Practices to use GIFs in B2B marketing

1. Email Campaigns

Remember your audience gets loads of emails daily. It is time to get interactive. Switch from a word-rich format to an attention-grabbing and immersive GIF. It will ensure more click-throughs.

Company: Later

Strategy: Used GIF in email marketing to showcase their new feature of tracking performance with an animation

How to use: For announcing new features, offers, or products. Announce events and countdowns.

2. Storytelling

GIFs offer the best of both images and videos. Converting your video into GIF is a quick way to tell a concise story. Storytelling through a short GIF can simplify complex product ideas and relate to the real-life scenarios of the audience.

Company: Cisco

Strategy: Cisco used a GIF to show tough Alaskan roads with sharp visuals and a clear message of how their system helps keep truckers safe.

How to use: Show the use of your product in solving real-life situations. Use animations and graphics to create visual or data storytelling (data visualization).

3. How-to guides

Break down the steps in your software demo videos and how-to guides into simple GIFs. These looped visuals make it easier for your B2B audience to understand your interface and the key processes. It saves time and improves product adaption for your customers.

Company: Canva

Strategy: Canva uses how-to GIFs to show quick, visual tutorials for their users. It helps in easy onboarding, makes feature adoption smoother, and provides immediate value.

How to use: Use GIFs to offer quick mini-tutorials and tips.

4. Customer Testimonial

Customer testimonials add credibility to your brand and build trust with your audience. Converting video testimonials to GIFs presents customer feedback in a dynamic way that makes an impact. The loop effect amplifies your message in a way that static text or images can’t.

Company: Berk Beans

Strategy: Animations in client reviews

How to use: Add slideshows, text motions, motion plays and animations in client testimonials

5. Memes

GIFs can be used as memes to add a little humor and relatability to your marketing.
They can make your brand feel more human, liven up dry topics, and enhance social media engagement.

Example: We have used a meme GIF in our introduction section reacting to the impact of GIF-centric emails.

Company: Content Beta

Strategy: Used memes to emotionally connect with our readers and add a touch of humor.

How to use: To grab attention, add a touch of humor, emphasize a point, or encourage a call to action.

Things to check before choosing a video to GIF software for conversion:

To get started, here is the checklist to find the app that suits you best:

1. Device and OS Compatibility

Your video to GIF converter should ensure Device compatibility so all team members can access it for easy workflow. Make sure it works on various devices like phones, tablets, and computers. It also makes your content run smoothly on your client’s end.

Check the OS compatibility so your GIFs are not affected on Windows, Mac, or any other OS.

With the evolution of technology, compatibility on various platforms is a considerable option. It can prevent the need to switch tools later and make a cost-effective decision.

2. Editing Features

Easy-to-use editing features allow you to fix or change your content. It helps your team work faster and more effectively.

The ability to trim, crop, add text, or adjust speed is essential for crafting a GIF that conveys your message and brand image. Advanced editing features are required for more customized and creative work.

3. AI Features

Choosing an AI-based video-to-GIF converter helps save time and produce high-quality content.

AI can automate tasks with features that can-

  • add captions automatically,
  • enhance the quality of the video,
  • smart cut objects, remove background, and
  • suggest the most engaging segments of the video.

They produce faster content to attract the attention of your audience.

4. Watermark

Look for an app that generates watermark-free GIFs or allows you to remove them. Watermarks can make your content appear unprofessional and may distract from your main message.

5. Price model

Choosing the right pricing model for your B2B business depends on factors like scale, complexity, and budget. Free models work well for startups with limited needs, but they often lack advanced features and may include watermarks.

Freemium models offer greater flexibility and advanced features for a cost. They are a good middle-ground option. Businesses that require bulk or specialized editing should consider a paid plan

6. Ratings & Reviews

Checking the ratings and reviews ensures that the business standards and needs are met. Ratings and reviews are qualitative and quantitative assessments. They give an insight into the overall usability and performance of the video to GIF converter.

Such information helps choose a platform that minimizes risks, improves workflow, and enhances client satisfaction.

7. File Compatibility

Ensure the tool supports both larger file sizes and a range of video formats. It should also offer conversion to web-optimized formats to ensure quick webpage loading.

So that your GIFs can be embedded in various digital platforms, check if the app supports commonly used formats like JPG, PNG, GIF, MP4, MOV, and WebM.

11 Best Video to GIF Converters

In addition to conveying messages more quickly, GIFs are an effective way to stand out from your competitors and tell your brand’s story. You can easily make a GIF from a pre-existing video.

Here are the 11 best Video to GIF converters:

1. GIPHY

Giphy is a GIF converter with a user-friendly interface and a library of pre-made GIFs. You can create custom GIFs from your own videos as well as YouTube. It has simple editing features to add relevant brand messaging for your B2B.

Compatibility Web, iOS, Android
Features Search, Create, Share GIFs
AI-enabled Yes (AI GIF generator)
Editing tools Basic (Trim, Add Text, Effects)
Input Limit
  • Uploads are limited to 100MB,
  • 8MB or less.
  • Source video resolution should be 720p max, (recommended) 480p.
Price Model Freemium
Rating Play store: 4.1, App store: 4.8

2. Adobe Express

Adobe Express offers a fast and user-friendly platform to create custom GIFs. It has a simple interface and a wide range of editing options. It helps make professional-grade content for any B2B without a steep learning curve.

Compatibility Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, Web
Features Create and edit, real-time collaboration
AI-enabled Yes (Smart cropping, auto-enhancements)
Editing tools Cutting, speed control, reversing, cropping, Text overlay, Filters, Brushes, Eye dropper
Input Limit
  • JPG and PNG formats with a max resolution of 8k x 8k and size of 40MB for general editing.
  • 4k x 4k resolution and 17MB size.
  • You can upload up to 100 images per project page.
Price Model Freemium
Rating Play Store: 4.7, App Store: 4.8, G2: 4.5

3. Canva

Canva is a user-friendly app for creating high-quality GIFs without a steep learning curve. It has a collaborative feature which makes teamwork simple. Its AI-incorporated interface and versatile design options help create high-quality and shareable visual content. You can post and publish directly from Canva.

Compatibility Web, iOS, Android
Features Create, edit, publish
AI-enabled Yes (text to image; magic design)
Editing tools Text, effects, templates, layers, filters
Input Limit
  • MOV, GIF, MP4, MPEG, MKV, or WEBM file format;
  • Less than 1GB in size: free users need to compress file below 250 MB
Price Model Freemium
Rating Play Store: 4.8, App Store: 3.6; G2: 4.7

4. Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is an advanced editing app. It has a timeline tool and a set of editing options to convert and create high-quality GIFs. It is also AI-enabled, making it a faster and more advanced software for increased efficiency.

Compatibility Windows, macOS
Features Advanced creating, editing and sharing
AI-enabled Yes (background remover, generative fill, resizing objects)
Editing features Layers, filters, effects, text, etc
Input Limit
  • 2GB
  • 4EB supported for PSD Big formats
Price Model 30 days free trial + Subscription
Rating Play Store: 4.4, App store: 4.4, G2: 4.6

5. Ezgif

Ezgif is web-based software for creating and editing animated GIFs. It offers a quick, simple solution for B2B businesses at no cost and no downloads required. You can easily turn video into GIF or any other format.

Compatibility Web
Features Editing
AI-enabled No
Editing tools Crop, resize, speed control, text, effects
Input Limit Up to 100MB
Price Model Free
Rating Trust Pilot: 4.1

6. CloudConvert

CloudConvert is a web-based application that can be used for conversions of various file types. It has a video to GIF converter with basic options like trim, resize, and rotate. With no input file limit, it can convert up to 25 files per day for free. The GIF converter can work from cloud storage directly and offers a smooth workflow which makes it a good option for B2B.

Compatibility Web
Features Basic editing and conversion of various files types
AI-enabled No
Editing features Trim, resize, rotate
Input Limit
  • 1 GB
  • Up to 25 conversions per day
Price Model Freemium
Rating G2: 4.7

7. Veed

Veed.io is a web-based video to GIF converter that also converts videos to other formats. It has AI-enabled features and a suite of editing tools for cutting, cropping, and adding text or filters. The sharing and collaboration features make it a very good option for B2B enterprises.

Compatibility Web-based
Features Video recording, creating and advanced editing and sharing
AI-enabled Yes (AI video editor, AI image maker, video background remover)
Editing features Cut, crop, add text, filters, merge, background remover
Input Limit
  • Upload file up to 50 MB
  • 20GB storage
Price Model Freemium
Rating G2: 4.5

8. Kapwing

Kapwing is a web-based platform for converting videos with basic editing features like cropping, trimming, and text additions. Its user-friendly interface makes it a time-saving option for businesses that use a video to GIF converter to create quick GIFs.

Compatibility Web-based
Features Basic editing like cropping, text adding
AI-enabled No
Editing features Text, crop, filters
Input Limit
  • 250 MB for free plan
  • 6 GB for paid
  • Videos less than 2 hours
Price Model Freemium
Rating G2: 4.4

9. Img2Go

For B2B firms, Img2Go is a quick, online platform as a video to GIF converter. It’s SSL-encrypted for secure file transfers, with files auto-deleting protecting user data. It supports multiple video formats and is compatible with various platforms.

Compatibility Web-based, mobile-optimized
Features Basic editing, multiple format support
AI-enabled No
Editing features Optional settings for look and quality
Input Limit 100 MB files for free users
Price Model Freemium
Rating Google workspace: 3.6

10. Video Solo

For B2B companies that require fast and bulk video-to-GIF conversions, VideoSolo is a good choice. It offers GPU-accelerated performance that’s six times faster than usual. It has 4K and H.265 compression standards which ensures high-quality output when you turn video into gif.

Compatibility Windows, MacOS
Features High-quality conversion, detailed editing, screen recorder, 3D / VR converter
AI-enabled No
Editing features Filters, merge, text, effects, trims
Input Limit -
Price Model Paid
Rating Trust pilot: 4.2

11. Wondershare- Filmora

Filmora is a platform that simplifies video editing features like keyframing and masking. Its AI-driven capabilities like Smart Cutout and Audio Stretch make it a high-efficiency tool for B2B businesses. It is a great choice for editing creative and professional videos.

Compatibility Windows, MacOS
Features AI Smart Cutout, Audio Stretch, Auto Reframe
AI-enabled Yes (AI cutout, audio stretch, denoise)
Editing features Keyframing, masking, text, merge, etc
Input Limit -
Price Model Freemium
Rating G2: 4.4

Why Content Beta?

At Content Beta, we recognize that B2B marketers require more than just a video-to-GIF converter. While such tools are adept at straightforward tasks, like converting a video into a GIF, they aren’t as effective for intricate, tailored content needs.

Our pricing is both transparent and efficient. We respect your investment, ensuring any unused credits roll over to your next service. Moreover, our CaaS (Creative as a Service) package offers you a dedicated design team for a flat monthly fee.

We take pride in having crafted custom GIFs for esteemed clients like NectarHR, SilverFin, and Dubsado. For further details, visit our pricing page to see how Content Beta can elevate your content strategy.

Below is a GIF created by Content Beta for our esteemed client: NectarHR.

Conclusion

In conclusion, using short GIFs in your B2B marketing can boost both your CTRs and overall conversions. If you’re looking to convert videos to GIFs, the right video-to-GIF software can simplify the process.

You have a range of options, from advanced software like Adobe Premiere Pro and Wondershare Filmora to user-friendly online platforms such as Veed.io and Ezgif.

The best video-to-GIF converter for you will depend on your specific needs and the message you wish to convey to your audience.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Use a video to GIF converter tool like Adobe Express, CloudConvert, etc. Check the input file limitations of the software according to your video size and GIF requirements.

Choose a video to GIF converter that supports high-resolution videos like Videosolo or Adobe. They maintain the quality and Adobe also uses AI features to enhance the resolution.

Use a video to GIF converter like CloudConvert. Upload the video, select the output type, and convert.

GIFs have a limitation of only 256 colors per frame. This loses the quality of the video or image when converted to GIF.

Content Beta