If you want to create amusing videos and GIFs from your photos, use one of these free GIF makers. On this list you will find GIF makers that can be installed on your PC, as well as free online services. All of them are free-of-charge and will create animated files in minutes. Every GIF making program is aimed at beginner designers and photographers taking a basic animation course.
Top 13 Free GIF Makers
- GIF Brewery - Resize or crop videos
- CleverPDF GIF Maker - Cloud converter
- Visme - Chosen by brands large and small
- SSuite Gif Animator - The best GIF maker for Windows
- Photoscape - For easy animation
- Make A GIF - For online animation
- ImgFlip - For quick animation
- GIFPAL - Free online GIF creator
- Gifted Motion - For open-source GIF animation
- GifGear - For multiple GIFs
- Animated GIF Maker - For advanced users
- Giphy - Free GIFs
- GifMaker.Me - For creating high-quality GIFs
There are many programs for making a GIF. Some of them come with a vast array of additional features and extensions, while others offer only basic tools. Make the most of free GIF software and use the tools described below.
1. GIF Brewery - Our Choice
- Convert video files into GIFs
- Add text or images to your GIFs
- Adjust the number of frames manually
- None
Verdict: With the help of GIF Brewery, you can generate awesome files by taking advantage of existing videos on your computer or even using online videos. For instance, you can create GIFs from YouTube videos.
When you start using this GIF maker online, you will have many interesting options for editing videos from your smartphone. It allows editing and cropping files as well as applying to them many well-known Gfycat filters.
2. CleverPDF GIF Maker
- No registration required
- Speedy performance
- Automatic file removal in 30 minutes
- Lacks additional settings and parameters
Verdict: CleverPDF allows creating online GIFs in 3 steps. You need to add several images, adjust output settings and start conversion. It’s possible to additionally adjust the animation speed, the number of repeats and the size in percent. You don’t have to install any software since the conversion is performed on the cloud.
Don’t worry about the privacy issues since files are automatically deleted in 30 minutes. You may also delete them manually right after the conversion.
3. Visme
- Free and straightforward
- Incredible quality
- Comes with pre-made templates
- Image-to-GIF transformation
- Limitations in the free version
- Stable internet connection is required
Verdict: Popular in 133 countries, Visme is an excellent choice for marketing, communications, education, and other industries. This service is extremely easy to use as you can simply select the template you like whether animated or static and customize it to match your brand style. Animation of any image and design elements is available to you to bring all your ideas to life.
In Visme, you can not only make your GIF seamlessly but also share it easily. When you’re done creating, simply export the GIF file and upload it to the social network or site. This is convenient since almost all social networks allow for uploading directly in GIF format. What’s more, here you can also upload your project in JPG or PNG format if you want a static option.
Verdict: SSuite GIF Animator is one of the best photo animation software that allows you to create files from images stored on your hard drive. You can import images in JPG, BMP and PNG formats.
It’s very simple to make short videos with the help of this easy GIF animator. All you need to do is select the photos you want to use and set the image spacing in milliseconds. Very soon, your GIF file will be ready for viewing.
Verdict: Photoscape is a free photo editor with all major editing tools. It allows working with layers, batch processing files, creating collages and animating GIFs.
This best free GIF maker lets you view photos and slideshows, edit graphics, convert RAW files, take screenshots, adjust brightness, saturation, contrast, insert text, draw pictures, crop photos, use filters, retouch pictures.
6. Make a GIF
- Changes the sizes of all images simultaneously
- Adjustable animation speed
- Doesn’t require signing up
- GIF files are easy to generate
- High-quality GIFs for extra charge only
- Useless text tool
Verdict: Make GIF can generate files from several images and videos from a PC, YouTube, Facebook or your webcam.
When creating GIFs from images, it’s easy to set up the order of photos. It is also possible to re-arrange all your images at once and adjust the animation speed by using this GIF editor software.
It’s also easy to create a GIF from a movie. To do it, select the beginning and then set up the duration of your GIF.
7. ImgFlip
- Preview option
- Adjustable features
- You can store GIFs online
- Some tools are paid
- Small watermark
- Less than 4MB of free storage
Verdict: ImgFlip is an interactive online editor that allows you to preview your GIFs. You can create a GIF from an image, URL or any uploaded video.
If you create a GIF from photos, you can set the animation delay, order of the images, width and height. It’s also possible to add captions to your file, as well as crop and rotate it. In this GIF maker you can also change the background color.
When you’re done, you can upload your GIF, share it with via social networking sites or make it private so that it won’t be shared on the web.
8. GIFPAL
- The watermark option can be turned off
- Easy-to-organize images
- Different filters
- No text tools
Verdict: GIFPAL is a great online service. When you make edits, this GIF caption maker plays a file automatically so that you can understand how it will look. Changing the order of the photos is very easy, you can also disable the watermark option.
You can run a GIF backward, improve image quality, apply filters and adjust the animation speed.
9. Gifted Motion
- Easy to handle
- Open-source
- Preview feature
- Allows editing existing pictures
- Needs to be downloaded
Verdict: This best free GIF maker is an open-source program that allows creating files in a breeze. Besides being compact, affordable and user-friendly, it makes it easy to create fun digital animations without learning such programs as Adobe Photoshop. You can use GIFs on your website or as a forum avatar.
10. GifGear
- Upload several pictures simultaneously
- Interesting interface
- Affordable and simple to use
- Creating GIFs in a few clicks
- Needs Flash
- Limited features
Verdict: GifGear is a powerful online tool that helps users to create animated files. The great news about this service is that users don’t need to install any other software.
Not only does GifGear allow you to create animations, but it also lets you apply effects to them, choose the size and timing of the animation.
This software can be used as a GIF resizer to set the size of your file to a certain width and height and add shapes to your pictures, such as bubbles and stars. There are many transition effects to choose from, for instance, fade, shift, overlay, pixelation and others.
11. Animated GIF Maker
- Upload several pictures
- The animation speed is easy to adjust
- You can upload several photos
- Multi-upload feature needs Flash
- No text tools
- Online hosting is not available
Verdict: Animated GIF Maker starts by asking you to set the animation speed and the size of your pictures. You can either decide on a custom size or select a predefined one.
Animated GIF Maker allows you to upload more than one photo at a time, which is definitely faster than some other programs that let you upload only one photo. However, this feature requires Adobe Flash to work.
After all your photos were submitted, you can set their order and decide how long each image should be displayed.
12. Giphy
- Many editing tools
- User-friendly sharing options
- No ads
- Requires signing up
- Allows adding only one text box
- You need to upload every GIF that you create
Verdict: This software allows you to use photos or convert video to GIF. You can either import video files from websites, such as Vimeo and YouTube, or upload them from your PC.
Rearranging files is easy, you can also change the duration of your GIF with the help of a special slider by moving it back and forth to make the video shorter or longer, from 0.1 to 3.7 seconds.
As soon as you’re done, you can transfer the GIF to the Giphy, by making it public or private. Then, you can use share a link, download a file on your PC or post it on your website.
13. GifMaker Me
- Merge several GIF files into one
- Add audio from a YouTube video
- Create top-quality GIF files
- User-friendly controls
- Supports only pictures
- No way to save a GIF online
Verdict: The program allows creating a GIF of up to 300 files in PNG, GIF or JPG format. What’s more, this best free GIF maker has the real-time preview option that shows you how the file will look like.
Besides changing the speed of the animation and the canvas size, you can overlay audio and indicate how many times you want the GIF to loop before it pauses.
