Sam McCraw
So, you’ve spent hours crafting an amazing video that you’re sure people are going to love. But if people don’t click to watch your video, no-one is ever going to know what they’re missing!
The main goal of any YouTube thumbnail is to stop people scrolling and make them want to click and watch. So… your thumbnails need to be eye-catching to stand out from other videos on search pages or in suggested videos.
A quick and easy way to create stunning thumbnails is using any of the online thumbnail makers in this list. With no design experience necessary, you can pull from their mix of stock images, shapes, icons and badges to create thumbnails that will tempt any would-be audience. Check them out below.
Why use a Thumbnail maker?
- Reason #1: Great results with no design skills
- Reason #2: Quickly preview multiple designs
- Reason #3: Cheaper than hiring a freelance designer
#1 Snappa
With a vast array of amazing templates to choose from, as well as access to thousands of photos and graphics, Snappa has everything you need from a YouTube thumbnail maker. An easy to use designer lets you simply and easily customise their templates or create your own from scratch.
Best Features:
- Huge array of excellent templates for easy customisation or inspiration.
- Over 3million photos and graphics to choose from.
Pricing:
- FREE up to 3 downloads per month.
- $10 USD per month for a PRO subscription with unlimited downloads plus extra features.
#2 PicMonkey
PicMonky’s photo editing and touchup tools are really powerful and easy to use whether you’re planning on using your own images or the excellent stock images on the site.
With features like airbrush, teeth whiten, eye brighten and red eye remover built in, this thumbnail maker might be the perfect choice for vloggers or anyone who’s putting their face front and centre of their thumbnails.
Best Features:
- A one click background remover makes isolating a subject in an image a breeze.
- Great photo touch-up tools and effects, who needs photoshop!
- Great textures, frames and graphics tabs to give your designs something extra.
Pricing:
- FREE 7 day trial is available for each of their individual plans.
- £9 GBP monthly (or £77.88 yearly) basic plan gives you access to a large selection of images, fonts and effects.
- £14 GBP monthly (or £126 yearly) pro plan adds the background remover, your own fonts and access to their new Getty iStock photos.
#3 Placeit
Placeit is really an excellent tool for building your YouTube thumbnails. Because your starting point is always one of their pre-existing templates, you can easily create a consistent thumbnail style for all your videos, all you need to do is change up the images you use and the text on each thumbnail.
As an added helpful bonus, when you hover over each template it animates through various colour and font options in the same style, which definitely helps get the creative juices flowing and lets you see the number of different ways a template can be customized.
Best Features:
- Literally hundreds of great templates to use as a jumping-off point
- Excellent search and tagging system to quickly jump to templates designed for your niche
Pricing:
- $2.95 for a single design
- $14.95 for a monthly subscription
- $99.95 for a yearly subscription (save 44% buying yearly!)
#4 PosterMyWall
PosterMyWall really knocks it out the park with the amazing array of high quality thumbnail templates available to use as a starting point. When you add in really powerful masking and image effects tools, it’s possible to quickly and easily create some quite stunning designs. Some nice fancy text options help to round out a great option for your thumbnail needs!
Best Features:
- Some unique photo effects like torn paper cuts and scratched edges.
- Powerful masking function lets you easily isolate single elements from an image.
Pricing:
- FREE – Lets you access and customise many templates from their library then download a lower res jpeg
- $2.99 per design – cost per design made by the user
- $29.95 per quarter – Unlimited downloads of templates and designs made by the user
- $99.95 per year – Unlimited downloads of templates and designs made by the user.
#5 Crello
A great collection of templates that can be handily filtered by a good selection of different niche/topics. An uncluttered and easy to navigate interface, with different effects and styling options makes this a great platform for people wanting to simply get to an incredible looking thumbnail with as little fuss as possible.
Best Features:
- Extensive and detailed niche/topic filter
- Simple design and function, no over the top extras and options.
Pricing:
- FREE selection of templates, images and clipart available to download
- $7.99 USD for a monthly subscription
- $95.88 USD for a yearly subscription (save $24 on monthly price)
#6 Desygner
Some simple but high-quality templates are the first step to creating thumbnails on Desygner. Thousands of excellent royalty-free images are at your fingertips or upload your own images and tweak them with their advanced photo filters that allow you to take control of individual elements like saturation and sharpness.
Best Features:
- Handy rulers and guide lines let you line up your designs pixel perfect
- Great selection of icons, banners and shapes, all easily customisable
Pricing:
- FREE – Limited thumbnail templates free to download
- $9.99 per month for all premium templates, brand kit and more.
#7 Bannersnack
Though the choice of templates is slim, Bannersnack is very easy to use and flexible in the different options available to users, letting them create excellent, high quality YouTube thumbnails from scratch.
The layers panel to the side of the page lets you see all the elements of your design with a quick glance which is very useful. Like the templates, stock images are limited; so this YouTube banner maker is better suited to those creators bringing their own pictures.
Best Features:
- The layers panel to the side makes arranging your design a breeze
- Being able to change the names of your layers makes it easy to keep track as your design becomes more complex.
- Up to 10 free downloads without a premium subscription.
Pricing:
- FREE 10 designs – export in jpg/png. Limited access to library.
- $12 per month for the starter plan
- $84 per year for the starter plan
#8 Visme
With a nice selection of base templates, it’s easy to just change the text to your own message and call it job done. But explore a little deeper and you find this banner maker has some nice stock pictures available alongside an excellent array of well designed, customisable text graphics.
Best Features:
- Handy rulers and guide lines let you line up your designs pixel perfect
- Great selection of icons, banners and shapes, all easily customisable
Pricing:
- FREE – Limited thumbnail templates free to download
- $9.99 per month for all premium templates, brand kit and more.
#9 Picmaker
Picmaker’s prebuilt templates are very high quality, so if you’re looking for a quick template to modify, this could be the tool for you. If you are building your YouTube thumbnail from scratch, the tool can be a little slow and a small photo library means you’ll have to come armed with your own images.
It has some interesting, unique features though, with it’s ‘stickerify’ function standing out as being particularly good.
Best Features:
- Sticker effect can really make your images pop
- BG Burning wand works well to isolate a subject in your thumbnail
Pricing:
- FREE – go forth and create!
To conclude…
If you’re looking for an affordable option but still care about the quality of your YouTube Thumbnails, we’re positive you’ll be able to create your perfect Thumbnail on one of the tools.
Enjoy creating! Oh, and if you have any questions, comments or have suggestions for other awesome logo makers, leave a comment below!
