9 Best Software for Explainer Videos in 2024 | Explain Ninja
When a business is looking for a new point to start their communication with users, give a try to video marketing. With the help of explainer video software, they create different types of videos and post them on websites, social media, YouTube, presentations, and even emails.
Explainer video company can help you to create a great tool to attract new customers, build loyalty within existing clients, and ensure loyalty and trust between the business and the users.
Besides, 74% of companies have noticed that videos have a better ROI than static imagery. 94% of businesses noticed that videos help to increase understanding of the products or services. Phenomenal 78% confessed that videos directly influence sales and help to increase them. The numbers speak for themselves: video content is no longer just entertainment; it is another marketing area that helps work with users more effectively.
To develop a video marketing strategy, you need to have enough content. One video will be enough to start, but you will need to produce more videos of different types later. Therefore, your main task now is to understand how to create videos quickly and avoid extra payments for production.
In this article, we will share the secrets of creating videos: what elements a good explainer video should contain, a step-by-step guide on planning the creation, and a list of useful tools and software for explainer videos.
What Makes a Good Explainer Video?
A good explainer video is one of the greatest ways to communicate with the users and deliver your ideas with the help of video content. However, there won’t be any effect if you upload any video on the platform. Today, users have some expectations from the content they consume, and these expectations are pretty high.
Thus, when you decide to make an explainer video, you need to make sure that you create a higher quality product.
A good explainer video is original
If you think you have no sense in creating your own plot, idea, and characters, you make a mistake. Explainer video must be original, otherwise, it will not transmit your idea.
It may seem that re-designing your competitor’s video will work great for you, but the results will be disappointing. Users want to see original content. They also want this content to solve their problems.
Spend some time on research, create a script that speaks for your business and idea, develop characters that remind your target audience, and the results will be phenomenal!
A good explainer video is simple
Even if you use the best explainer video software, the result will be disappointing if you ignore the main principle: the simpler it is, the easier it will be for the users to catch the main idea.
Therefore, before you start to work on the video, you need to decide on the key message and the best ways to transmit it in a simple way.
A good explainer video must evoke emotions
Videos are not static images. They last for 30-seconds, a minute, 3 minutes, or even 10 — and till they last, they must keep viewers engaged and interested in the plot. The easier way to reach this effect is to evoke emotions.
Moreover, you create a better connection with your audience by evoking emotions, and they feel more loyal to you.
How to Make an Explainer Video?
Animated explainer video software is the first thing that comes to mind when trying to understand how to make an explainer video. However, even the best software won’t help you if you don’t understand the processes behind creating certain content types.
We have already mentioned that choosing the key message is important. When you get a clear idea of what you are going to tell in the video, you can move to the next steps.
- Start with the video script
The video script is the storyline of the whole video: what exactly will happen, when it will happen, and what message it should deliver.
- Use software for production
Here’s the point where we need explainer animation software to create the visual part of the video. The designers work according to the storyboard and create illustrations that fully correspond to the main idea.
- Remember about voiceover
Voiceover is one of the most important aspects of the video. The sounds, the music, or the voice of actors must be perfect to create the right atmosphere and support the high quality of the video.
The Useful Features For Explainer Video
Before you choose an explainer video toolkit, you need to understand features that will help your videos stand out among all the rest.
Add some live-action
Adding live-action in explainer videos is perhaps the best way to create proper emotions. For example, if you ask your CEO to appear in the video and say at least a couple of words, it will help you reach the effect of being close to your audience.
Use animation
Animation helps to create more memorable images and explain complex ideas in simple images.
With the help of a 3d explainer video toolkit, images will be even better, and the least complicated explainer video will look like a cartoon.
Try whiteboard videos
This is another popular type of explainer video that comes in handy when presenting many numbers to your readers.
Whiteboard videos look like doodles: they are funny and interesting to watch.
Add stop motion
If you want to focus users on the main idea, use stop motion. This is one of the features used rarely, and users haven’t got used to it.
You can combine stop motion with animation or live-action to make the scenes even more interesting and attractive to users.
You can use any explainer video maker software to create this effect in your video.
Moving typography is great
In some videos, texts are important. But how to make users read them? By using explainer video features, of course!
To draw the attention of your users to some text elements, use moving typography. But be careful: don’t use this feature for all texts as it will be difficult to read them.
Tools and Software to Make Explainer Videos
When it comes to choosing the best video explainer software, the choice is huge. As a rule, designers and artists use tools depending on their preferences. Almost all tools have the same options and can be used for different goals. However, some of them have peculiarities that make them special, and artists use them added to the main software.
Adobe Premiere Pro
This is perhaps the most popular software to make explainer videos. It has everything you may need for a good video: it’s more than just editing, it’s about creating something completely new. This tool also allows working with audio and colors.
Among the most popular features that artists love are:
- option to work on several projects simultaneously
- huge variety of motion graphics templates
- option to share projects with the team
- VR: editing, rotating, work with audio
- various effects for your videos
- direct publishing to any platform
- multiple formats
- intuitive Lumetri Color tools that help to create a cinematic look
Adobe Premiere Pro is professional software that requires knowledge of the tools.
No matter what plan you use, you have access to all features and tools of Adobe Premiere Pro:
- Annual plan paid monthly — $27.62 per month
- Annual plan prepaid — $315.61 per year
- Monthly plan — $41.43 per month
Free trial is available.
Animaker
Animaker is another explainer video maker software used by companies worldwide: Bosch, Unilever, Amazon, Nokia, HP, Phillips, etc. Animaker allows you to create animation and live-action videos just in a few minutes.
This 2d explainer video software has a simple and intuitive drag and drop builder, character builder, 100+ mln stock videos and photos, more than 1000 templates. With this app, you can work with 4K videos and instantly resize videos for different platforms.
Animaker can be used by professionals and by users who have no experience in video making.
Animaker pricing is rather flexible, but each of them has some limits and restrictions:
- Basic — $10 per month (5 premium downloads per month, 5 custom characters per month, 10 premium asset credits)
- Starter — $19 per month (10 premium downloads per month, 15 custom characters per month, 20 premium asset credits)
- Pro — $49 per month (20 premium downloads per month, 30 custom characters per month, 45 premium asset credits)
Enterprise plan has custom pricing.
InVideo
InVideo helps to create professional videos quickly and without extra effort. You will need 5 minutes and access to the software to create an explainer video. It has a huge number of templates — photos, videos, music, and tools to mix them.
With InVideo you can create a masterpiece in 3 steps: choose a template, customize it and upload! The templates presented in the library cover different industries, so you will certainly find yours.
One of the most intriguing features is text-to-video. You upload an article, and InVideo automatically converts it into video.
InVideo is free to use, although there are paid plans that offer a bigger selection of features.
- Free — InVideo Watermark, 5000+ video templates, 3 mln+ standard media library, automated text to speech
- Business — free plan + no watermark on videos, 10 iStock media per month, 1 mln+ Premium Media, 60 video exports per month
- Unlimited — business plan, 120 iStock media per month, unlimited video exports/month
VideoScribe
VideoScribe is surely one of the best whiteboard video makers. If you have been planning to create a whiteboard video, with VideoScribe you can easily do that.
This software for explainer videos is simple to use even for inexperienced users: with in-built drag and drop, you can easily move and add elements to create a perfect animation.
VideoScribe has a free trial, so you can try out this explainer video software before you buy the subscription.
Free plan offers: video templates, library with 7,300 images, usage of your own assets, 190 royalty-free music tracks, recording a voiceover. However, with a free plan, you won’t be able to remove the watermark from the video, resell videos, download videos to multiple devices, create PNG & JPEG sequences, create unlimited MP4 & AVI video files (more restrictions and limits apply).
If you want to enjoy all benefits of VideoScribe, we recommend you to buy one of the plans:
- Monthly — €29 per month
- Yearly — €13 per month, €156 paid yearly
- One-off — €695 per 1 user
iSpring Suite
Probably you have heard that iSpring Suite is a software used to create any kind of eLearning. However, it has an in-built video editor which helps to create various videos for different purposes.
iSpring Suite video editor is suitable for:
- recording videos
- creating watch-and-repeat tutorials
- shooting software simulations
If you want to create an explainer video to demonstrate how to use your software or app, iSpring Suite will be the best choice.
You can use iSpring Suite for free (some restrictions and limits apply), or buy full access to iSpring Suite per year. It will cost you $770 per one user.
Soapbox
Soapbox by Wistia is used to record, edit and share videos. It’s perfect for live-action videos. You add an extension to Chrome, turn it on whenever you want to record a video, edit it, and enjoy the results.
Soapbox is not the best explainer video maker if you want to create a whiteboard and animated explainer video, as it does not have the necessary templates and tools.
Soapbox has a free plan, solo plan (starting from $300 per year), and team plans (starting from $420 per year). The price will depend on the features you want to add to your package).
PowToon
PowToon is software for explainer videos that will cover all your business needs. It has multiple integrations with many popular apps and tools: Canva, Facebook, Youtube, PowerPoint, Adobe, Hubspot.
An extensive video library allows you to create practically any video in a few minutes. PowToon has a screen and cam recording used to create live-action videos. It is also used as 3d explainer video software, as it helps to create characters for explainer videos (with the help of customizable templates).
It has complete brand control, so you can ensure that all your videos will have one style.
You can start trying PowToon with $19 per Pro month plan that allows you to try all software options. If you’re happy with the result, you can switch to Pro+ plan that has more features and costs $59 per month. For agencies, the recommended plan costs $99 per month.
Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark is an easy-to-use software helping to create beautiful videos for social media. With the help of Adobe Spark, you will create any video in a minute, and you won’t need to be an artist or designer.
Adobe Spark is a basic app for video marketing. You won’t even need a laptop to work with it because it is available for iOS and Android devices.
Adobe Spark has a free starter pack, an individual monthly plan for only $9.99 per month, and a team plan for $19.99 per month.
Wideo
Wideo is another tool that helps to create basic animated videos. It offers an impressive number of templates to choose from. In addition to animations, you can also upload live-action videos to create more personalized videos.
With the help of Wideo, you can animate objects, create personal brand colors, edit texts in various ways, enjoy the benefits of libraries full of templates.
Wideo offers:
- free plan with 10 video templates and 1-minute videos (perfect for trying the software)
- a basic plan with 10 downloads per month, 1.5-minute videos, and 33 video templates for $19 per month
- pro plan with unlimited downloads, 10-minute videos, full templates gallery for $39 per month
- pro+ plan with unlimited downloads, 30-minute videos, and 1 additional account for $79 per month
What’s Better: Professionals or Self-Publishing?
The choice of software for explainer videos is huge. There are tools for artists and designers, as well as tools for inexperienced users. With professional tools, it’s possible to create any video you want and also use templates.
For personal usage, templates are absolutely fine, but they won’t be enough when it comes to business marketing strategy. We at Explain.Ninja believe: if you want to stand out among your competitors, demonstrate the power of your brand and communicate with your users in one language, you need to create unique videos.
We will help to create characters that will become a part of your brand. We will help you with creating a voiceover that will sound as your brand should sound. We won’t use templates: we will use our skill and talent to empower your business with great videos.
Feel free to call us. We’re ready to create a video for you anytime!
