The best video makers in 2024: build your brand with video using these tools

Finding the best video maker important for promoting your brand or sharing important memories with families and friends. 

In today's digital age, video content is king, with a clear preference for video over text among audiences. This shift underscores the importance for companies and content creators to master the production of professional-looking videos to captivate the digital populace.

Our exploration includes an array of tools, from the best video editing software to the most user-friendly video editors designed for beginners, and the best video editing apps. However, the cream of the crop in video makers simplifies the process even further, facilitating the creation of everything from business promotions and explainer videos to social media advertisements and YouTube content.

Unlike traditional video editing that might require powerful hardware, most video maker apps are web-based, eliminating the need for the best video editing PC or one of the best laptops for video editing. These platforms allow you to dive into video creation directly from your web browser, crafting compelling content for your audience without the need for high-end equipment.

We've conducted thorough testing and reviews, evaluating each tool's user experience, array of features, range of tools and effects, overall performance, and cost-effectiveness. This comprehensive approach ensures you get the insights needed to choose the best video maker for your skill level and creative aspirations.

The best video maker in 2024

Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the best video maker picks on our list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.

The best video maker overall

FlexClip is one of the best videos for creating short projects quickly. The online platform offers numerous tools to make it look nice and professional. There’s a free tier, although you might be disappointed by the low quality of the output (480p), and the more you pay, the more functionality you’ll get - mostly in terms of online storage and access to a vast media library. 

You’ll find many interesting tools, all of which are well implemented, and easy to add to your project. Editing is also a breeze, as you’re able to trim your footage, reorder your clips, insert transitions and animated text boxes. It’s all very straightforward, and the results can indeed look nice with little effort.

FlexClip’s interface is well laid out, with categories on the left, next to an expandable contextual inspector, followed by the preview of your project. Beneath these is your timeline. It’s all very easy to understand and use.

For instance objects added to your project can be manipulated straight from the main preview section, you can resize clips by dragging their edges in the timeline, and everything is pretty much drag and drop.

FlexClip boasts an impressive Text to Speech tool (although still in beta), lets you connect to your webcam and also allows you to record your screen. Add some nicely designed transitions, and it’s clear you can create some moderately advanced short projects with this service.

Read our full FlexClip review 

The best video maker for Chrome

InVideo’s online offering is ideal - so long as you use the right browser. It won’t work from just any browser, and Google Chrome is recommended for optimum performance (we tried it with others, and it does lag more on those than with Chrome). 

You’ll find the interface very similar to many other competing services, although InVideo does appear to offer more advanced tools. For instance, you’re able to edit with multiple layers, even have multiple clips appear on the screen at the same time. It also comes with interesting collaborative tools.

InVideo does offer its service for free, but the major limitation is an inability to export your project once you’re done - so as it stands, the free tier is more of a test drive. The other two options are ‘Business’ and ‘Unlimited’ which grant you access to more stock footage and bigger online storage the more you pay, and also the ability to export your work. 

Read our full InVideo review 

The best video maker with graphic design tools

Visme is a video maker app that’s primarily accessible via your browser, to help you create documents, presentations, videos, and so on. The interface lets you retain a consistent look and feel throughout - especially important when you need to hit brand guidelines.

You’ll find a wealth of templates to use, with a large choice of categories, even if you opt not to pay for one of Visme’s subscription packages, and the available customisation features are very extensive. Should you feel overwhelmed by what you can do, you’ll find guides, tutorials and documents ready to help you understand how everything works, and email support is a click away.

The free option is very limited when it comes to exporting your work (you can only publish it publicly on Visme’s website), but as you’d expect, subscribers get more features, like making those publications private, and being able to export your work in a wide variety of formats. 

Read our full Visme review 

The best video maker for character animation

Animaker is an online video maker with a difference: although it will offer you most of the editing features you’d expect from a simple video editor, it also comes with an ace up its sleeve: 2D characters, which you can add to your project and animate. Even better, add a voice over, and it will automatically lip sync to it, giving it that little touch of class.

The interface is well organized, with the vast majority of the space devoted to the preview of the scene you’re working on. You’ll find all the tools you need in a sidebar on the left, the scenes you’ve added to your project on the right, and the timeline of your project or scene (depending on your selection) at the bottom.

You can try out the service for free, and can even create custom characters and use the auto subtitling tool, but the best features are, as you’d expect, reserved for paying customers.

Read our full Animaker review 

The best video maker for stock video

Vimeo is an online video hosting service which also happens to offer a simple editing solution. Even though you are strongly encouraged to pay for a subscription in order to access it, Vimeo Create is actually free to use; your work will be watermarked, and you won’t have access to all of Vimeo’s stock footage, but at least you can try it out without paying for it and see if it’s right for you.

The editing options are simple in some ways, like a very basic and laggy trimming tool, but also interesting, like the Layout feature, and elegant, like the many text animation possibilities. You can create a short video quickly and easily, and share it within minutes of saving it, but let’s face it, it doesn’t hold a candle to dedicated video editors. Still if you don’t have a patience for those, and need something done fast, it’s definitely worth a look.

Read our full Vimeo Create review 

The best video maker with screen record

Veed doesn’t break the mold when it comes to online video maker apps. It looks similar to much of the competition and offers a good range of tools and templates to help you build a good looking project in little time.

You can try out the service thanks to an available free account (with some limitations such as a watermarked video capped at 720p), but if you want to access all the features, you’ll need to subscribe. Using Veed works very well: the interface is very responsive, and the various tools are quite capable. It’s great to see webcam and screen recording are available for free, and even the green screen option is surprisingly good. 

However, uploading your media is not only a pain, the whole interface becomes sluggish and unresponsive afterwards, making us think that if you want to use Veed, stick to its extensive library of stock footage instead.

Read our full Veed review 

The best video maker for unique assets

Biteable is designed to help you create short projects, either by yourself, or through collaboration with multiple team members. 

There’s an emphasis on commercial and enterprise use here. This is not a cheap service, and it will set you back $588 for a yearly subscription on your own, or $1,188 every year for up to three users (additional members can be added at a cost of $33 per month each). What you get for your money is an easy-to-use video editing suite, offering simple tools, an efficient way to keep your style consistent throughout, direct access to Shutterstock’s media library, as well as a host of unique and fun animated elements which you can pepper throughout your project.

You have a good amount of customization control, but the service was marred by constant delays due to buffering when we tried it out, which ended up being very frustrating. Still it has a 7-day free trial which would be worth checking out, especially if that buffering was only a temporary with the service.

Read our full Biteable review 

The best video maker for organizations

Moovly’s video maker works from your favorite browser. Based on the cost of its subscriptions, it’s aimed more at businesses than individual users, with subscriptions hitting a higher price than some other tools - so what do you get for your money?

For one thing, you get a very nice, and professional looking interface, allowing you to create multi-layered, frame accurate, pixel-perfect creations, with a good selection of tools to help you achieve your goal.

On top of that, it has some advanced features, such as subtitling, and translation, as well as the ability to record from your webcam, or grab a video of your computer screen. There’s also a fancy AI feature whose aim is to create a project for you from start to finish. But although it shows promise, it still needs a lot of work.

Read our full Moovly review 

The best video maker for Wix

Wix Video Maker’s name says it all really: it’s made by Wix, and it’s an online service that makes videos.It’s free, so there’s no need to worry about subscription charges, or even a one-off fee. You can use it as often as you want.

But there’s a catch here. And the clue’s in the name: you’re not the Video Maker. Wix is. This is a totally automated process. Yes you get to upload your clips, choose a couple of colors, a style, a soundtrack, give Wix your business info, but that’s the extent of your contribution. Wix Video Maker does the rest - it chooses which clip goes where, which transition to apply, which animation to use, all in time to the music you chose. You can’t alter that video, or mute a clip because you forgot that someone was talking in the background, and that’s now part of your promotional video.

The result looks ok, but how useful can a service truly be if you can’t make even basic simple changes to the output?

Read our full Wix Video Maker review 

The best basic video maker

Clideo is a video maker app that works from any browser. On the plus side, that means you don’t need to download any software, worry about updates, and can access your work from any computer. But a major downside is the length of time it takes to upload your media, and to download the finished product. To be fair, that’s a problem every online video editor faces.

You can try the service out for free (barring a handful of limitations). And if you like what you see, you can opt for a monthly or annual subscription. The tools available are simple to use, but the interface is somewhat cumbersome, except if you select ‘Online Video Editor’ which allows you to build a small project and apply many different effects in one go.

Overall, it’s a basic, easy-to-use, and affordable service.

Read our full Clideo review 

The best video maker: How to choose

When deciding which video maker is best for you, first consider what type of videos you’re creating, and your overall experience making videos. You’ll find most online video editors offer customizable templates that can be refined to fit your brand and your vision. Similar to many of the best logo makers and best free logo makers, others automate the creation process based on details you feed them, such as business name and industry. These are great if you need to make a lot of videos fast, but can lack the ability to tweak key elements, like brand colors. 

You’ll want to factor in how you’ll access the tool. Most tools let you use the platform regardless of which web browser you use - although some will run better in Chrome over other options. However, this does mean you’ll need a reliable internet connection to make videos online. 

Budget is a key consideration. The best video maker apps have free versions available  but these typically come with limitations, such as lower resolutions, fewer stock video options, and watermarked videos. As such, subscription tiers include extra features, and in some cases, you’ll need to pay to add more users, too. 

If you need precision and control over your output, you may need to opt for a dedicated video editor vs. a video maker. 

The best video maker: How we test

We’ve tested a range of video makers and video editors ideal for a range of users and industries. 

When testing the best video makers, we explore each platform’s user interface and experience. With their focus on streamlining video production, each app needs to be simple to use, intuitive to navigate, and straightforward to edit videos even if the user has no previous experience making video content. 

As part of this review process, we assess the overall performance of each platform - top video maker apps let users build projects without lagging and stuttering. Outputs should be of the highest quality, relative to any subscription-based restrictions. Extra features and tools are also part of our scope. This includes the likes of stock video, titles, transitions and effects. 

Pricing is a primary area, and we’re looking for platforms that offer good value for money, and any limitations placed on users when opting for the free version of any video maker apps. 

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