What makes the perfect attention-getting, hyper-shareable online video? Your topic matters — but equally important is how your video is produced!

Short, punchy, Buzzfeed-style videos are made to go viral. By pumping up video footage with colorful animated elements, they drive home your message and create an experience that’s entertaining, memorable, and fun.

Animated text is an especially important part of creating this type of video, and luckily, it’s now easily accessible. There are a plethora of online tools that make creating animated text a breeze, so you won’t need to watch a million tutorials, or have experience with programs like Photoshop, Powerpoint or Premiere Pro, to make it part of your video strategy. However, as there are many to choose from, it can be tricky to choose the right one for you.

Here’s a guide to the best online text animators and video makers, along with an explanation of why animated text, whether they’re GIFs, PNGs, or another format, are such a powerful addition to your videos.

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Why your videos need animated text

Internet users are constantly inundated with video content. Especially on social media, there’s just so many videos vying for their attention that it can be a real challenge to stand out.

That’s why animated text is an easy, effective way to elevate your videos. Even if they were just shot on an iPhone or inexpensive camera by your in-house marketing team, animated text gives you a leg up over the dozens or hundreds of other videos your audience will see that day.

Animated text has many benefits. Not only does it emphasize your key messages, it also makes your videos more visually appealing and engaging to watch.

Restating your points visually, through animated text, will make it much easier for viewers to actually remember what your video taught them — long after they click ‘like’ or ‘share.’

There are lots of ways to bring your text to life — choose from many different motions, transitions, beautiful colors and patterns, and even flourishes like glitter or sparkle.

Animating your text can also help you keep your video cohesive and on-brand. Instead of going for basic, boring subtitles, why not choose text that matches your company’s visual identity?

💡 PlayPlay Pro Tip

It’s a common misconception that the terms captions, closed captions, and subtitles can be used interchangeably, because there is in fact a difference in definitions. You need an explanation for this statement and are looking for a detailed tutorial on how to add subtitles to a video? Go check out the linked blog post!

Best Animated Text Generators to try out for your videos

So, how can you get started with creating animated gifs from your text? Here are some online animated text generators to try out so you can figure out which is the right option for you!

Loadin.io

The 8 Best Animated Text Generators For Video

Loadin.io is a basic, yet powerful animated text generator. You’ll simply enter your desired text, then have the option to customize it in many different ways including resizing and adjusting font style, type and speed of animation, and more.

The tool even comes with advanced customization, such as the ability to adjust frame rate and the order in which your text is affected by the animation.

Unlike other tools in this last, Loadin.io doesn’t offer any video editing capabilities — it’s strictly an animated text generator. Additionally, under the free plan you can only generate 10 animated assets per month. However, it’s still a great option if you’re looking for a well-rounded text-generating tool.

Snackthis

 Text For Videos

SnackThis is probably one of the easiest text-generating tools on the market! You just type in your text, and it will automatically generate a bunch of animations for you to choose from, all of them stylish and trendy — there are no dated, 90s-style animations here!

However, SnackThis does sacrifice a great deal of functionality to offer this ease of use. You’ll be able to choose from a few different color schemes for each animation, and adjust the size of the file, but that’s it.

You also can’t download the assets without a subscription — but at only $7 a month, it might be worth it if you’re looking for a foolproof way to generate animations quickly and easily.

Renderforest

templates for animation effects

Renderforest uses sophisticated templates to offer some pretty cool animation effects — think outer space, minimal glitch, and 80s neon styles. These animations are part of video editing templates that you can load original or stock footage into. It’s not rocket science, but you still might want to have a little more experience with video creation before you try this one out.

Renderforest offers limited functionality under their free plan, as well as a watermark on every video. However, they have several subscriptions depending on your needs, so it may be worth it to choose the one that works best for you.

Makermoon

simple video templates

Makermoon is a bare-bones text animating tool that also offers simple video templates. However, the designs here aren’t the most modern or up-to-date, and the website design and interface is a little bit clunky and counterintuitive.

Although Makermoon offers less customization than other tools on this list, if you happen to enjoy one of their designs, especially a free option, there’s no reason not to try it out. It might also be a good fit for real estate agents, since they have a whole package of templates intended to show off homes and properties.

Kapwing

tool for video editing

Kapwing is a fairly powerful, user-friendly tool for video editing that includes some text animation capabilities. When it comes to animating text, there’s not as much customization as you’ll find in other tools, and similarly to other options on this list, the free version does come with limitations.

But because it has other features, too, Kapwing might be a good choice if you’re looking for a general video editor, and animating text is just one feature that you’re on the lookout for.

Textanim

tools for video

This tool is great if you just want to give your text a little pizzazz. While it won’t make your letters move around on the screen, you can cover them in fun effects like moving sparkles, textures, and patterns.

Textanim doesn’t offer a very modern interface, but it is free and easy to use. So, it could be a good option if you just want a cute GIF maker so you can create animations to upload into your video. Plus, the animations have a fun, retro early-Internet kind of feel!

Bloggif

animations for videos

Bloggif creates very similar animations to Textanim — your words in a chosen font, spiced up with a fun, moving pattern. This tool does offer slightly more customization than Textanim, such as options for alignment, letter outlining, and shadows.

If you like this particular style of animation (think early 2000s Myspace) but need a little more functionality, this could be the right option for you.

PlayPlay

Of course, this is a biased opinion — but PlayPlay is an easy and accessible video maker, far beyond just animating text. PlayPlay’s library of templates were designed for busy marketers and comms professionals who need to quickly produce high-quality videos.

PlayPlay offers many templates that make the most of animated text — and you can customize all of them so that they’re perfectly on-point with your existing branding.

What sets PlayPlay apart is that it’s really the simplest tool on the market for creating videos, animating text, and more. It is designed for busy marketing teams with high standards and not enough time!

Discover how PlayPlay empowers you to effortlessly create stunning videos with captivating text animations to your content. Elevate your videos to a professional level and engage your audience like never before!

Bring your words to life

Adding animated text to your videos adds visual interest, pulls in your audience, and drives your message home. With all the amazing tools available today, you’re equipped with everything you need to know about how to create animated text.

Experiment with a few different tools, and start using animated text to add fun, dynamic energy to every video you create. When it’s this quick and easy to bring your words to life, there’s no reason not to try it out for yourself.