In this article you will learn everything you need to know to create an animated GIF online for free.
Whatever your mood, somewhere in the online world there’s probably a GIF to show how you really feel.
But what if you can’t find the exact GIF you want?
Why not create your own personalized animated GIF?
You don’t need to be an expert to do it and no technical skills are required to create one.
Here we have compiled a list of sites that allow you to create an animated GIF online, easily and for free.
You just need to prepare your images (or photos), upload them, customize them a little (if you want), hit the generate button and off you go. Take a look and have fun creating your own animated GIFs.
Summary
- What is a GIF?
- 9 Best Tools to Create a GIF Online
- How to create a GIF for free?
- How to create a GIF on phone?
- What is the difference between an animated GIF and a video?
What is a GIF?
GIF is short for Graphics Interchange Format, and first appeared in 1987.
GIFs work by compressing a set of images into a sequence of images that then loops for a set amount of time and forever.
Each image can contain up to 8 bits per pixel, allowing a limit of 256 colors. GIFs are compressed, reducing file size without degrading visual quality.
Additionally, the quality of GIFs is usually not very good due to the color limitation.
A GIF is considered an image.
You don’t have to do any special storage or processing for GIFs, you just add them to your site, they count as an image.
GIFs are often used online, to share jokes such as memes or others.
9 Best Tools to Create a GIF Online
Can go
Canva is a very powerful design software and is honestly one of the best GIF creation tools on the market.
Canva allows you to create hundreds of different designs whether for social media or other uses.
With Canva, you can create your GIFs in just a few clicks and export them to use wherever you want.
The tool is very versatile and is available in French.
You also won’t have to download any software to use Canva.
On top of that, this GIF tool is free.
Giphy GIF Maker
Giphy GIF maker is certainly one of the best solutions to create an animated GIF easily.
Giphy is a site known worldwide for these GIFs of all kinds. Now you can create your own GIFs on the platform.
The principle is simple, you choose the files to use in the GIF, either via drag and drop or via URL (Youtube for example), then the magic of Giphy happens.
The tool is completely free and does the job very well.
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Vism
Visme is a tool for create GIFs online easily.
It works under the same principle as Canva, it is SaaS software allowing you to create a whole bunch of visuals for social or professional networks for businesses.
The best thing about Visme is the GIFS templates it offers, which allows you to be creative and save time in the process of creating GIFs online.
The platform has a free version sufficient for create your GIFs online favourites.
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GIFs.com
GIFs.com is software specialized in creating animated GIFs online.
GIFs.com only offers the creation of GIFs unlike competitors Canva or Visme for example. However, GIFs.com offers different features such as an API to mass create GIFs for example.
Thanks to the tool, you can create GIFs from a Youtube, Instagram or other video and download your GIFs simply and for free.
You can also add effects to your GIFs.
However, in the free version GIFs.com has a watermark. You will have to pay to be able to download your GIFs without a brand.
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Gifmaker.me
Gifmaker.me is a much simpler solution than the others in terms of functionality, but the purpose is correct.
The interface is very easy to use and you can easily create your GIFs. However, the export quality is a little below other sites mentioned in this list.
You can test the GIF creation solution online for free.
Ezgif
Ezgif is a tool for easily creating GIFs online. In addition to creating GIFs from several images, you can edit your GIFs by cropping them directly on this site or using a video to create them.
The tool is versatile but the design is a little less ergonomic than Canva for example.
With Ezgif, you can easily create your GIFs for free.
ImgPlay
ImgPlay is the only mobile application in our ranking but is nevertheless very useful, ergonomic and powerful.
ImgPlay is available on the Play store and Apple store, allowing everyone to easily edit GIFs online directly from your smartphone.
This tool also allows you to add many effects to your GIFs during creation.
The online GIF maker tool is versatile and allows you to create your GIFs from both images or videos.
The result is very clean and can be downloaded directly to your smartphone. Ideal if you don’t have a computer.
Gickr
Gickr is a tool for creating GIFs that is a bit old school but very functional and still up to date.
With this tool, you just have to drop your few images, choose the GIF’s scrolling speed and the size and that’s it.
A really basic tool to use but which does the job very well.
Imgflip
Imgflip is the last in our ranking but just as powerful as the other tools for creating GIFs online.
Using it is simple, you have 2 options:
- Convert video to GIF
- Convert a collection of images to GIF
Once you have made your choice, insert the URL of your video or drop your photo collection and the GIF will be created quickly.
The platform is really easy to use and free. A good alternative on the market.
In this article, we have listed many tools to create GIFs easily.
Some of them are paid but most offer a free option which makes it easy to download and create your GIF online.
Among the best free tools for creating a GIF we find:
- Can go
- GIFs.com
- Vism
- ImgPlay
You will inevitably find what you are looking for in this list and all for free of course.
The operation of all websites is simple:
- You upload your images/videos to the website of the chosen tool
- You choose the settings in terms of formats
- Upload your animated GIF!
It’s overall very simple.
Some of you don’t have a computer and that’s normal. Don’t panic, today you can do everything from your smartphone, including creating superb GIFs online from an application.
Luckily, we have listed a very powerful application available for IOS and Android, ImgPlay which allows you to create GIFs and personalize them directly from your smartphone.
What is the difference between an animated GIF and a video?
GIFs are very close to videos in terms of rendering, so one might wonder what the real difference is between an animated GIF and a video.
These two formats have a lot in common. GIFs are graphic file formats that combine multiple images to create a looping animation.
As this is a series of static images, there is no audio component.
In general, GIFs do not only last a few seconds, but they can be much longer. Because they’re usually short and funny, GIFs are often turned into memes.