10 Best Video Thumbnail Makers to Make Your Videos More Clickable

November 18, 2022
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One of the simplest ways to increase the number of views on your YouTube videos is to use fantastic custom YouTube thumbnails.

There are probably hundreds of videos on the same topic. Therefore, a powerful video thumbnail is essential. Whenever someone is searching or browsing on YouTube, your videos should capture the viewers’ interest by providing eye-catching thumbnails that best describe your content.

This article will discuss the best YouTube thumbnail makers and how you can utilize them to create stunning thumbnails.

Why Do You Need Great YouTube Thumbnails?

Your video's thumbnail should be a high-quality image that sums up the content of the video. It's the first thing people see and can determine whether or not they click on your video.

A good thumbnail will increase your video's credibility and attract more viewers. Explaining the context of your video in this way will make it easier to understand and more engaging to watch.

Even if your content is the most informative on a specific topic, your competitor has a higher chance of getting more views if they have a more eye-catching thumbnail. 

Your video's success or failure depends on the quality of your YouTube thumbnails

If you don't add your custom thumbnail, YouTube will create custom thumbnails for your videos.

When watching a movie, do you ever pause it just to giggle at the actor's terrible reaction? If you let YouTube choose an image randomly from your video, you'll likely end up looking like that. Neither you nor the audience will find it appealing.

YouTube claims that 90% of its highest-performing videos have unique thumbnails. Thus, it's crucial to use an awesome YouTube thumbnail creator.

What is the right size for Video Thumbnails?

The YouTube support center emphasizes five critical aspects of the size of thumbnails. If you stick to these rules, you'll get a higher chance of becoming famous on YouTube.

  1. Use a thumbnail size of 1280 x 720 pixels for optimal viewing on YouTube. 
  2. The aspect ratio used for these YouTube thumbnail dimensions is 16:9
  3. Your thumbnail width is at least 640 pixels.
  4. The minimal file size for thumbnails is 2MB. 
  5. Save your thumbnails in JPG, GIF, or PNG format.

What Features Should I Look for in a YouTube Thumbnail Maker?

The thumbnail for your YouTube video is as, if not more, essential than the video title in terms of attracting people to click on it. 

They aren't a replacement for making excellent videos for YouTube, but they can help you attract more viewers to the content you've already made.

To help you make the most of your thumbnails, we've outlined the essential features of a great YouTube video thumbnail maker.

Premade Thumbnail Templates

Premade YouTube thumbnail templates help beginners make YouTube video thumbnails. It is also an advantage if you want to create video thumbnails quickly.

Free YouTube thumbnail makers usually have free thumbnail templates and pre-made thumbnail layouts.

Hundreds of Thousands of Stock Photos and Design Elements

An eye-catching YouTube thumbnail can have a good graphic design, clip art, and stock images. The best YouTube thumbnail maker should have a wide collection of design elements to be creative with and produce great YouTube thumbnails. 

Branded Fonts and Colors

The best YouTube thumbnail maker allows you to create and use branded fonts and colors to promote your business. Branded fonts and colors, such as text and design elements with your own images, allow you to personalize your YouTube thumbnails.

Easy Drag-and-Drop Design Tools

The easy drag-and-drop interface makes creating thumbnails easier, especially for beginners and those who want to save time doing YouTube thumbnails.

Graphic Design for Call-to-actions

Graphic design is integral to creating your YouTube thumbnail. It helps you convey your call-to-action and allows your audience to visualize the statement of your brand.

Quick and Easy File Download

Choose a thumbnail maker that allows you to upload your thumbnail to different platforms, including social media posts, after creating YouTube thumbnails.

As much as possible, choose a thumbnail maker that allows you to download a high-quality thumbnail quickly and easily.

10 Best Video Thumbnail Makers in 2022

No. Thumbnail Maker Pros Cons Best Suited For
1 Offeo Offeo has many design templates and image editing tools. The thumbnail maker is not free. Beginners, YouTubers, Content Creators, Creative Directors, Business Owners, Digital Marketing Experts
2 PhotoDirector Essential Has tutorials and guides and extensive editing tools. Stock photos are only available for paid subscriptions. Video Editors, YouTubers
3 Canva It has a free version that is accessible to all users. The Free Version only includes limited number of elements, such as photos and fonts. Beginner YouTubers, Simple Video Editors
4 Adobe Spark Fundamental editing tools are available on the free plan. Free videos have Adobe Spark watermark. Simple Video Editors, Content Creators, Video Ad Creators, YouTubers
5 Snappa Online thumbnail maker that has high resolution photos and graphics. The free version only allows 3 downloads every month. Occasional Content Creators, Video Ad Creators, YouTubers
6 Vista Create Free Starter plan with 50 GB of storage. The edit history of the projects are only available in the free plan. Creative Video Creators, Video Ad Creators, YouTubers
7 Creatopy You can export files in different formats with the free trials. No free plans, just free trials. Content Creators, YouTubers, Simple Video Editors
8 Fotor Offers active email support priority for the subscribers of the pro and pro+ plans. The interface is hard to navigate for beginners. YouTubers, Professional Video Editors, Content Creators, Video Ad Creators
9 Pxlr I has a web-based and software application versions. The free version lacks the branding features. Vdeo Ad Creators, Content Creators
10 GIMP You can download the software for free. A license is required to have full access to the siftware features. Big Business Owners, Video Ad Creators

1. OFFEO

Offeo is a desktop and online video production tool for companies, advertising agencies, freelancers, and business owners. 

You can use OFFEO's extensive toolkit to design the ideal YouTube thumbnail. You can use the drag-and-drop interface to create a custom Youtube thumbnail. Additionally, you will have access to more than 3 million assets from Shutterstock to aid you in creating YouTube thumbnails.

Pricing

A monthly subscription to Offeo Premium will set you back $19. This plan includes 20 GB of space and unlimited high-definition downloads of videos up to three minutes in length.

Meanwhile, the annual plan costs $149, a 26% savings, and renews each year automatically.

Pros

  • Offeo offers design templates for various occasions and marketing campaigns.
  • It has a simple interface that makes it easy to create YouTube thumbnails.
  • Offeo has advanced photo editing features, such as background remover, in just one click.

Cons

  • The YouTube thumbnail templates are limited only to 6 designs.
  • You will need to start from scratch if you want other themes not included in the available templates.
  • Offeo has no free plan for its YouTube thumbnail maker.

2. PhotoDirector Essential

With over 1,900 unique effects and templates, including those specifically designed for creating YouTube thumbnails, PhotoDirector Essential is a time-saving, high-powered photo editor worth every penny. 

Despite its extensive feature set, it is easy for beginners to use, making it the best YouTube thumbnail maker. 

No prior experience with editing software is required to use the guided editing modules for quickly and easily adding visual effects and touching up photos. 

With the right tools, even a first-time editor can produce professional-looking preview images.

Pricing

PhotoDirector 13 Ultra, the standalone version of the app, costs $99.99 but is typically discounted online to $89.99. 

Furthermore, you can also get PowerDirector and, PhotoDirector in various subscription tiers.

An annual subscription to PhotoDirector 365 costs $54.99 and grants access to the program's full software and regular updates and content packs.

Director Suite 365 is yet another subscription service you can use. In addition to all of CyberLink's media software, plugins, content packs, and 100GB of cloud storage, this plan costs $29.99 per month ($129.99 per year).

Pros

  • PhotoDirector Essential has extensive layer support.
  • It has advanced editing tools, such as body shaper.
  • It has tutorials and guided edits.

Cons

  • It has weak noise correction and chromatic aberration.
  • Stock photos are only available in the paid subscription.
  • It has no geotag.

3. Canva

You can create thumbnails for free by visiting Canva.com. The excellent capabilities of this Video Thumbnail Maker make it a valuable tool for graphic designers. 

You can add all of the effects for your Thumbnail Creation with simple design tools, and you can use free stock photos, illustrations, lines, shapes, frames, grids, backgrounds, text, and more.

It's great that there's a fast way to contact customer service. Please note that you must register to access the thumbnail templates.

Pricing

Canva is available in three different plans: the free tier or Canva Basic, the $12.99 per month Canva Pro plan for one user, and the $14.99 per month Canva for Teams plan for up to five users. 

You can save16% on all Canva plans annually if you pay for them in full.

Pros

  • Canva offers unlimited use of their Free Plan. 
  • The Canva Pro version allows you to download files in jpeg or png without the background.
  • You can collaborate with your Creatives Team in Canva Teams.

Cons

  • The Free Plan only has limited features.
  • Most of the icons in the elements have a Canva watermark.
  • The accounts for Teams are only for teams with five members or lesser.

4. Adobe Spark

Consider Adobe Spark if you need to create a thumbnail for a video on YouTube. 

Like Canva, it serves multiple purposes and has a dedicated thumbnail section. Hundreds of thousands of fonts, templates, royalty-free stock photos, and countless aesthetically pleasing design filters will be accessible. 

It does not have many features but has all the fundamentals and an orderly interface, so it's easy to utilize.

Pricing

It's easy to get started with Adobe Spark because there's a free plan that gives you access to all the fundamental tools. 

Use it for as long as you like without paying anything extra. However, the Premium plan costs $9.99 monthly. If you pay annually, the price drops to $99.99, a 16% savings.

Pros

  • The fundamental tools are available even in Free Plan.
  • You can try the 30-day free trial before subscribing to the Premium version.
  • The editing tools are easy to navigate and utilize.

Cons

  • The Free Plan leaves a watermark on the YouTube thumbnail.
  • Adobe Spark can be inaccessible to some browsers.
  • You need to download Adobe Express to get Adobe Spark.

5. Snappa

Snappa is an all-around graphic design suite ideal for any social media post because of its user-friendliness. 

You can also utilize and use this software to create YouTube thumbnails.  It has a wide variety of expertly crafted templates. 

You can personalize them to your heart's content by adding countless images and design elements.

Pricing

Snappa is available in the Free plan. You can use your free time in no limited time. The premium plan costs $10 per month if you want to upgrade. 

If you're going to collaborate with your team, you can choose the Team plan for $20 per month. The Pro and Team plans are billed yearly.

Pros

  • Snappa allows you to utilize the Free version.
  • It has high res-photos and graphics.
  • It is an Online thumbnail maker, so you do not need much space to run the program.

Cons

  • The Free version of Snappa allows only 3 downloads per month.
  • The Team plan is accessible only to 5 members.
  • You need the internet to run the program because it is an online thumbnail maker.

6. VistaCreate

VistaCreate offers a full suite of graphic design tools, including over 20,000 premade layouts, 250 different fonts, and an extensive image library. 

Your fonts and images can be uploaded and used. You can make YouTube thumbnails, channel art, and an introduction with this program. 

In addition to Latin and Greek, VistaCreate works with Cyrillic and Hebrew.

Pricing

VistaCreate offers the Starter plan, free for all users who sign up for an account. However, if you want access to more features, you can upgrade to the Pro plan, which costs $10 per month. 

If you want to get the Pro plan and pay annually, you can get a 26% discount on your annual bill.

Pro

  • VistaCreate allows users to edit content for free through the Starter plan.
  • The free plan comes with 10 GB of storage for projects and relevant files.
  • You can directly post your content on social media platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram.

Cons

  • The Starter plan has minimal branding kits.
  • Only the Pro plan has the version history of the projects.
  • You cannot edit a project you did on the Pro plan when you return to the Starter plan.

7. Creatopy

Creatopy provides the tools necessary to create YouTube thumbnails that make readers stop in their tracks. Professional designers crafted these templates to look great out of the box, and you can make further adjustments to make them fit your company's brand aesthetic.

Pricing

Creatopy offers a free plan for up to 3 designs. You can upgrade to the paid plans for individuals, for which the Create plan starts at $32 per month and the Automate plan costs $45 per month. These two plans are billed monthly. 

On the other hand, if you want to save 47%, you can choose to pay for each plan annually. Create plan costs $17, and Automate plan costs $45 when billed annually.

Pros

  • Creatopy allows you to try each plan for free, and you can cancel your Free plan anytime.
  • All plans allow you to export files in all formats.
  • When you cancel your current plan, you can still access your account until the end of your billing cycle.

Cons

  • Creatopy does not have a Free plan. It only has free trials.
  • All paid plans have limited features, and if you want an all-access account, you must contact them and upgrade to the custom plan.
  • There is a big difference between the monthly and annual bills.

8. Fotor

Fotor's excellent thumbnail-creating tools provide appealing foundations in the form of premade, fully-customizable YouTube thumbnail layouts. It has a clean, intuitive user interface that allows you to make changes to your thumbnails and access all the tools you'll need to make them look professional. If you want your YouTube thumbnails to stand out, Fotor has you covered with modern-looking text and design elements, stickers, and emojis.

Pricing

There is Fotor Basic, which has all the basic editing tools and features for free. 

Fotor Pro costs $8.99 per month and is billed annually for $39.99. Fotor Pro + costs $19.99 per month and is billed annually for $89.99.

Pros

  • Even the Fotor Basic has a high dynamic range or HDR Tech.
  • Fotor offers priority email support for Pro and Pro+ plan users.
  • It uses Fotor cloud storage, so you do not need big computer storage to keep your projects.

Cons

  • Fotor has many features that could be difficult to navigate for beginners.
  • The Free Trial for the paid plans immediately requires your card details.
  • Fotor is not efficient in photo editing. Hence, users need secondary software to edit photo elements.

9. Pixlr

Pixlr is a free web and app-based photo editor for iOS and Android. You can use it to edit pictures for inclusion in graphic design, like making posters, thumbnails, or greeting cards. 

It has a wide selection of stock photos and premade layouts to get you started quickly.

It's a suite of online image-editing programs you can access from any internet-connected device. 

Furthermore, it features several photo-editing programs and a gallery-sharing website. The suite is designed for users with varying degrees of photo editing experience.

Pricing

Pixlr offers a free plan with access to Pixlr X and Pixlr E. It also has a Premium plan that costs $4.90 per month with access to Pixlr X, Pixlr E, and all other Pixlr applications. 

If you want to work with a creative team, you can upgrade to Pixlr Team for $9.91 for 5 members, and if you would like  to add members, you just need to pay $3.99 for each additional.

Pros

  • Pixlr is available on the website and as an application.
  • It has a gallery-sharing site where you can post and share projects.
  • You can do team management and add members to your design team.

Cons

  • The Free plan only contains an easy editor for quick design without branding features.
  • It takes longer to navigate the app and learn its graphic design features.
  • The software application requires a large computer capacity to run.

10. GIMP

The GIMP, a GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a cross-platform (Linux, other Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X) image editor for free download and use. 

GIMP is one of the many extra programs you can find in a comprehensive Linux distribution. It is also directly downloadable if you prefer. 

Users compare GIMP favorably to Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator because of its image editing and design features.

Pricing

Gimp Graphic is free software. You can download the application and use it without paying anything. 

On the other hand, GIMP is raising funds for its Core Team Developers. They are not raising funds for their organization. Users may donate directly to the developers.

Pros

  • GIMP is free software you can download on your computer.
  • You can customize the interface of the app.
  • It is an extensive and flexible app in different device models, such as iOS, Windows, and Linux.

Cons

  • There are license requirements to maximize the use of GIMP software.
  • Although customizable, it has a complicated design interface.
  • It is hard to navigate for beginners and non-graphic designers.

How to Make a Thumbnail for YouTube on Windows and Mac Using OFFEO

1. Choose a YouTube thumbnail Template.

Choose among the available templates and visualize the video content you want to display in your thumbnail. Ensure that the template you choose is relevant to the content of your YouTube video.

2. Create YouTube Thumbnails

Upload your images and fonts to customize the template according to your branding. You are free to be creative with your YouTube thumbnail and add a background image. 

You can add text and elements, such as emojis, stickers, and shapes, to your YouTube thumbnail to make it more appealing and click-worthy.

3. Download Your YouTube Thumbnail.

After creating your customized YouTube thumbnail, download the image in JPG or PNG format. Download as many high-quality YouTube thumbnails as you want with Offeo YouTube thumbnail maker.

Best Practices for YouTube Thumbnails

1. Add Bold Titles

There are many advantages to including text headings or bold titles on your video thumbnail. Still, the most important is that it provides viewers with more information about what they're about to watch.

Even the most stunning image won't be enough to convince viewers that your video is a step-by-step guide to fixing one of their most significant issues.

Don't miss your chance to hook the people who will end up enjoying your video by failing to capture the essence of your video's message in its title.

2. Be Accurate

It's easy to go overboard when making thumbnails and titles to optimize views on your YouTube channel. 

However, you should rein in your imagination to avoid accidentally producing inaccurate visuals or titles.

Your image must be clear and concise if you want more people to watch your video.

If you don't want to scare away your audience, avoid using extreme or inappropriate visuals and be accurate with your YouTube thumbnail.

3. Be Consistent

Consistency is key. Maintaining consistency from one thumbnail to another is crucial. 

It helps people who watch your videos grasp the ideas presented in them. Thumbnails must look the same in layout, font, and color scheme.

Including your logo in each thumbnail demonstrates your brand's cohesion on YouTube. When designing a series of video thumbnails, it's best to stick to a consistent aesthetic across all videos.

4. Use the Right Thumbnail Size

You should start with the correct dimensions and sizes if you want your thumbnail to look professional.

YouTube suggests using a thumbnail image that is 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels high but requires at least 640 pixels in width. 

Since 16:9 is the standard for YouTube previews and players, it's the ratio you should shoot for.

Furthermore, images must also be less than 2MB and saved in either JPG or PNG formats.

FAQs: Best Video Thumbnail Makers

What Is a YouTube Thumbnail?

Thin preview images of videos on YouTube called "thumbnails" catch the eye of potential viewers and entice them to click through to the full-length version.

How Do You Upload a Thumbnail to YouTube?

You must enable the custom thumbnail for your videos and upload the thumbnail together with your YouTube video. An option to choose a thumbnail will appear on the upload.

How Do I Change a Thumbnail on YouTube?

Ensure that the custom thumbnail is enabled for your YouTube videos. Browse on the video you want to change the thumbnail, choose “edit thumbnail” on the video settings, and upload the new thumbnail.

What Are Other Uses for Thumbnails?

Editors and graphic artists use thumbnails to arrange smaller versions of creative projects or photos. It serves as a representation of larger images or a preview of a collection of creative products.

What program do Youtubers use for thumbnails?

YouTubers use different programs for their YouTube thumbnails, such as an advanced thumbnail creator tool. 

Some YouTubers create their personalized thumbnails alongside video editing, some use  thumbnail templates, and others rely on the custom thumbnails that YouTube assigns for videos.

Conclusion: Best Video Thumbnail Makers

Images are processed much more quickly and accurately than text by the average human brain. The more appealing your YouTube thumbnails are, the more people will be attracted to your channel, increasing the number of views and subscribers you receive.

Creating eye-catching thumbnails for your YouTube videos is a surefire way to set yourself apart from the competition. It is a simple method of making a solid first impression and capturing the interest of your audience in what you have to offer.

And if you need to create stunning YouTube thumbnails to get your videos noticed, you can always use OFFEO’s thumbnail maker.

You can do it within minutes by choosing the many templates we offer; no prior editing skills are required!

Sign up today and get your videos the attention and views they deserve!

Written By
Kim Pañares

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