You’ve heard the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But when it comes to judging a YouTube video by its thumbnail, you should absolutely do so!
A thumbnail is the still image that describes a video in YouTube search results, on the YouTube homepage, or in users’ Recommended list. It’s the first thing a user sees on a video, and so its quality (or lack thereof) can influence their decision to click on it.
For that reason, your video thumbnails should look unique, attractive, and professional. If they’re generic, dull, or amateurish, they could put potential viewers off instead of drawing them in, which will tank your channel’s engagement rate.
But what if you don’t have the time or the graphic design skills to create your own YouTube thumbnails? You use a YouTube thumbnail maker – a website that comes with templates, fonts, colors, and all the other design elements you need to make a thumbnail with a few clicks of your mouse.
Ready to get started? Then keep reading because we’re about to share 13 of the best YouTube thumbnail makers to help you get lots of views & improve your channel.
But before we do that, let’s cover a few important things you need to know before choosing a YouTube thumbnail maker and beginning the creation process.
Things to Consider When Choosing a YouTube Thumbnail Maker
While most YouTube thumbnail makers share the same basic features, there is still an art to choosing the one that will work best for your needs. That’s why before you make one specific thumbnail maker your go-to, you should consider these two factors.
Your Budget
The best YouTube thumbnail makers we list below have both free and paid options.
The free option is the most basic and may limit you to a certain number of templates, downloads, or customization options. But if you upgrade – sometimes for less than $10 a month – you can access the full scope of the thumbnail maker’s features.
This is where you need to consider your budget carefully, as it will help dictate which tier you get.
If, for example, you’re just starting out as an influencer and haven’t made much money on YouTube yet, you may want to direct your money to social media marketing strategies, like YouTube Ads or buying growth services. If you’re doing pretty well and have money to spare, then you may want to pay for the beefier plan.
Your Graphic Design or Editing Skill Level
Let’s be real, we’re not all graphic design wizards. Some of us can barely use Microsoft Paint, let alone Adobe Photoshop.
If that sounds like you, then you want a YouTube thumbnail maker that does all the hard work for you. You need a small number of templates to choose from that you can just fill out with your text, perhaps change the background color or the font size, and be done with it.
Of course, if your graphic design and editing skills are nothing to be ashamed of, then you may want as many thumbnail customization options as possible. There are YouTube thumbnail makers for that, too.
Know what your graphic design skill level is and how complex – or simple – you need your YouTube thumbnail maker to be. This knowledge will help you choose software that is tailored to you.
What Are the YouTube Thumbnail Size Requirements?
Something else to keep in mind before making your own YouTube thumbnails in a thumbnail maker is the correct size for your image.
Google suggests that all YouTube thumbnails have a resolution of 1280×720 pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio. They also require you to upload the image as a JPG, GIF (no animations), or PNG file.
The good news is most of the time, you don’t have to worry about things like resolution or aspect ratio when you use a YouTube thumbnail maker. That type of tool is already optimized to automatically meet the typical thumbnail size requirements.
But it’s still a good idea to know those requirements in case you ever need to adjust or customize the size of a thumbnail on your own.
13 Best YouTube Thumbnail Makers
Finally, the part you’ve been waiting for! Let’s get into the 13 best YouTube makers on the internet in 2023.
1. Canva
You may have heard of Canva because it’s one of the most popular free graphic design websites out there. And for good reason! It’s a great website – attractive as well as easy to use.
The free version of Canva is pretty impressive. It comes with over 250,000 free templates for various graphic design projects, more than 1 million free images and graphics, and AI-powered tools that make creating a thumbnail even quicker and easier.
The Pro version of Canva gives you access to premium features, including a full terabyte of storage, 100 million stock photos and other design elements, a social media scheduling tool, and 24/7 customer support.
Price:
- Canva Free: $0
- Canva Pro: $12.99 per month
Free Plan Key Features:
- Drag-and-drop editor
- Over 250,000 templates (some are 100% customizable)
- AI-powered tools like Magic Write, Magic Design, and Magic Edit
- Over 1 million free photos and graphic designs to use in your thumbnail design
- 5 GB cloud storage
Pro Plan Key Features:
- All free plan features
- Over 100 million premium stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics
- More AI-powered tools
- Scheduling tool for 8 social media platforms
- 1TB of cloud storage
- 24/7 customer support
2. VistaCreate
Like Canva, VistaCreate offers a free version and a paid version. Both come with a YouTube thumbnail maker you can use to customize your own thumbnails.
When you sign up for VistaCreate’s free “Starter” membership, you get access to over 100,000 templates, 1 million photos, designs, and vectors, and 10GB of storage. Plus, (and we think this is the free plan’s most unique feature), they allow you to schedule and post the social media promotional materials you create on their website to Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
If you go with the Pro plan for $10 a month, you’ll gain access to even more templates and design materials, plus unlimited storage and version history.
Price:
- Starter Plan: $0
- Pro Plan: $10 per month
Starter Plan Key Features:
- Over 100,000 free templates
- Over 1 million photos, designs, and vectors
- Brand kit
- 10 GB of storage
- Social media scheduling and posting tool (for Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest only)
Pro Plan Key Features:
- Thousands of premium templates
- Over 70 million photos, videos, and vectors
- Background remover
- Infinite brand kits
- Unlimited storage
- Resize feature
3. FotoJet
FotoJet is a decent online graphic designer for the influencer on a budget. We say “decent” because their free plan doesn’t come with a lot of bells and whistles. But if you don’t care about having many YouTube thumbnail templates to choose from or editing your thumbnails much, then this may not be a problem for you.
When you upgrade to FotoJet’s Plus plan, you’ll get access to hundreds more templates and clip art images, plus 500MB of storage space. Best of all, you’ll be able to use all their advanced editing tools.
Price:
- Free Plan: $0
- Plus Plan: $6.99 per month
Free Plan Key Features:
- Access to basic (and limited) editing tools, templates, photos, and other design materials
Plus Plan Key Features:
- Advanced editing tools
- 500MB of storage space
- Over 800 premium templates
- Free of ads
- Priority customer support
4. Placeit
Placeit is a free graphic design tool that does a great job of simplifying YouTube thumbnail creation. They have hundreds of thumbnail templates to choose from, and you can change basic elements like the background image or color and the text font. Then all that’s left to do is download your creation, and boom, you’re done!
However, you can’t do much more than that – which is a good thing if you don’t have time to put much creativity or effort into this process.
Placeit’s subscription plan is mostly beneficial for brands that want to create mockups or logos for their brands. But if all you’re using Placeit for is to create YouTube thumbnails for your personal use, then the subscription may be overkill.
Price:
- Free Plan: $0
- Subscription: $7.47 per month
Free Plan Key Features:
- Access to thousands of free design templates and hundreds of YouTube thumbnail templates
- Basic editing features
Subscription Plan Key Features:
- Unlimited downloads
- Over 100,000 design, music, and photo assets
- Commercial usage
5. Fotor
Fotor is an impressive drag-and-drop style photo editor with templates for customizing your own YouTube thumbnails. It isn’t as robust as Canva is in terms of the number of features it offers in its free plan. But it is more budget-friendly, which makes it just as viable an option.
Price:
- Free Plan: $0
- Pro Plan: $3.33 per month
- Pro+ Plan: $7.49 per month
Free Plan Key Features:
- Basic editing, design, and collage features
- Over 50,000 templates
- 473 fonts
- 500MB of cloud storage
Pro Plan Key Features:
- AI-powered tools
- Advanced editing features
- Over 100,000 templates
- 523 fonts
- 2GB of cloud storage
Pro+ Plan Key Features:
- Same features as free and Pro plans
- Ability to upload fonts
- 10GB of cloud storage
6. Visme
Visme’s YouTube thumbnail maker feature is straightforward, with no fuss or frills. You can choose from over 90 different thumbnail templates, but your access to these and Visme’s library of design assets is limited unless you upgrade from the Basic plan and subscribe to the Starter or Pro plan.
Still, with the Basic plan, you get 100MB of storage and regular support, which is nothing to sneeze at. Meanwhile, the Starter and Pro plans give you 250MB and 3GB of storage, respectively, plus full access to all their templates and design assets. You also get 24/7 email and chat support and other features you can use to market your brand.
Price:
- Basic Plan: $0
- Starter Plan: $12.25 per month
- Pro Plan: $24.75 per month
Free Plan Key Features:
- 100MB of storage
- Limited access to templates and design assets
Starter Plan Key Features:
- 250MB of storage
- Full access to templates and design assets
- JPG, PNG, and PDF downloads
- 24/7 email and chat support
Pro Plan Key Features:
- 3GB of storage
- Full downloading options
- Brand kit
- Analytics
7. Snappa
Snappa gives you the tools you need to customize YouTube thumbnails in seconds, using professionally designed templates as your base.
What’s most impressive about this affordable online graphic designer is that even with the free version, you still get to use over 5,000,000 royalty-free HD stock photos and graphics. The only downside is you’re limited to three downloads per month.
With the Pro plan, you get unlimited downloads per month, plus social media integrations and the ability to remove backgrounds from images.
Price:
- Free Plan: $0
- Pro Plan: $10 per month
Free Plan Key Features:
- Over 6,000 templates
- Over 5,000,000 HD photos and graphics
- 3 downloads per month
Pro Plan Key Features:
- Same features as free plan
- Unlimited downloads per month
- Social media integrations
- Custom font uploads
- Background image remover
8. Adobe Express
While Adobe Express definitely isn’t Photoshop, it still comes with enough editing and photo effect tools for you to customize your YouTube thumbnails to your heart’s content – without the steep learning curve of the latter software.
Adobe Express’s free plan is definitely worth your while. They offer thousands of templates, design assets, and fonts, plus (limited) access to their royalty-free stock image library. The Premium plan expands on all those features and adds a few more, like a tool to schedule and publish social media posts.
Price:
- Free Plan: $0
- Premium Plan: $9.99 per month
Free Plan Key Features:
- Thousands of templates and design assets
- Over 2,000 fonts
- 2GB of storage
Premium Plan Key Features:
- Full access to all templates and design assets
- Over 20,000 licensed fonts
- Over 160 million stock photos
- Social media post planning, scheduling, and publishing tool
- 100GB of storage
9. PixTeller
With PixTeller, you can customize up to five YouTube video thumbnails per month for free. Using one of their thousands of templates as your foundation, you can change colors, fonts, image sizes, and even upload your own personal image files.
One potential downside of the free plan is you can’t download your thumbnail as a PNG or JPG file. But the Pro plan does come with some other perks, like unlimited graphic images and custom fonts. Plus, the subscription is super affordable.
Price:
- Free Plan: $0
- Pro Plan: $7 per month
Free Plan Key Features:
- Thousands of free graphic design templates
- Basic editing tools
- 5 downloads per month
Pro Plan Key Features:
- Over 100,000 graphic design templates
- Over 1,500,000 stock photos
- Over 100,000 shapes
- Custom fonts
- JPG, PNG, and PDF downloads
10. BeFunky
BeFunky is a solid web-based graphic designer. While it doesn’t have very many free YouTube thumbnail templates, the ones they do offer are customizable. So, in a pinch, BeFunky will help you make your thumbnails your own.
If you want access to more templates, plus advanced editing features like an AI one-click background remover, texture layers, and vector graphics, then you may consider signing up for the BeFunky Plus plan.
Price:
- Free Plan: $0
- Plus Plan: $5.99 per month (billed annually)
Free Plan Key Features:
- Basic photo editing tools
- Basic touch-up tools
- Extended font library
Plus Plan Features:
- Access to all free plan features
- Premium design templates
- AI-powered editing tools
- Priority support
11. PicMonkey
PicMonkey is the brainchild of Shutterstock, the stock photo resource. It allows you to customize YouTube thumbnails from their template collection for free, but only on a trial basis. This means that at some point, you’ll have to upgrade to either their Basic or Pro plan.
Both the paid plans come with cloud storage, fonts, templates, effects, touch-up tools, and a video trimming feature. With the Pro tier, you’ll also get priority email support, one brand kit, and access to PicMonkey’s premium stock photo library.
Price:
- Basic Plan: $7.99 per month
- Pro Plan: $12.99 per month
Basic Plan Key Features:
- JPG or PNG downloads
- Video trimmer
- Primo effects, templates, and touch-up tools
- 1GB of storage
Pro Plan Key Features:
- Same features as Basic plan
- JPG, PNG, or PDF downloads
- Smart Resize tool
- One-click background remover
- Priority email support
- Premium stock photo library
- Unlimited storage
12. Pixelixe
Pixelixe is a neat online graphic design studio that’s completely free. It’s easy to use, and, best of all, you get all basic editing features and access to royalty-free background without having to take out a subscription.
If you do decide to subscribe, we recommend the Pixelixe Create plan. It’s only $9 a month and it allows you to create and store an unlimited number of thumbnails (and other graphic design projects).
Price:
- Free Pixelixe Studio: $0
- Pixelixe Create Plan: $9 per month
Free Pixelixe Studio Key Features:
- Access to a limited number of templates, backgrounds, fonts, shapes, and graphics
- Basic editing features
- Downloads in JPG or PNG
Pixelixe Create Plan Key Features:
- Access to template library
- Unlimited document creation
- Unlimited storage and hosting
13. PicMaker
PicMaker uses the power of AI to provide amazing editing tools that will take your YouTube thumbnail creation game to the next level.
Just their free editing studio alone gives you access to an AI-enhanced design suggestion tool and an AI background remover, plus fully customizable thumbnail templates. All this enables you to create a unique thumbnail in record time.
If you really want to make the most of your experience with PicMaker, you can subscribe to their Starter or Pro plans. Both of these are a bit pricier than any of the other YouTube thumbnail makers we’ve featured so far, but they also come with tons of different features. You will definitely get your money’s worth out of either tier.
Price:
- Free PicMaker Design Studio: $0
- Starter Plan: $18 per month
- Pro Plan: $38 per month
Free PicMaker Design Studio Key Features:
- Access to 100 million images, fonts, and graphics
- Hundreds of YouTube thumbnail templates
- Over 60 resize options
- AI-enhanced design suggestion tool
- AI-powered background remover
- Downloads in JPG, PNG, and PDF
Starter Plan Key Features:
- Premium design templates, fonts, images, and editing features
- Social media scheduling and publishing tool
- Basic social analytics
- 20GB of storage
- Chat support
Pro Plan Key Features:
- All Starter plan features
- Advanced social analytics
- Support for multi-post scheduling
- Smart inbox
- 50GB of storage
- All download formats
Tips to Make an Attractive YouTube Thumbnail
Whether you’re creating your own YouTube thumbnail from scratch or starting from a template, use these three tips to make it more attractive to viewers.
- Don’t overcrowd it with too many design elements
A thumbnail can get overcrowded and confusing to look at when there are too many design elements at play. Choose just two or three elements to highlight, so that the title or the theme of the video doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
- Add a human component
Consider adding an image of yourself or a stock photo of a person on top of your thumbnail to establish a more human connection with your audience.
- Create a fun or poignant interplay between the thumbnail and the title
Add a touch of cleverness and fun to your thumbnail by creating an interplay with the title of your video. For example, instead of putting the full title of the video on the thumbnail, add a tagline or a short, pithy statement that complements the title.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, PicMaker is an example of a YouTube thumbnail maker that generates YouTube thumbnail design suggestions using AI. A good YouTube thumbnail is not overcrowded, catches the eye with colors, text, or graphics, and is sufficiently descriptive of the video itself. You don’t have to, but putting your photo on your thumbnail does make your thumbnail look more custom and human. Yes, most YouTube thumbnail makers are free to use. However, you may be limited to a certain number of features and downloads, as well as small storage capacity. Yes, That’s why it’s important that any images, logos, or graphics you use are not copyrighted and are approved for commercial use. They use a YouTube thumbnail maker or professional graphic design or photo editing software. Yes, Canva and Adobe Express are two examples of YouTube photo makers that you can download as apps to your mobile device.Is it possible to generate a YouTube thumbnail with AI?
What makes a good YouTube thumbnail?
Do I need to put my photo on my thumbnail?
Are YouTube thumbnail makers free to use?
Is it possible for YouTube thumbnails to get copyrighted?
How do professional YouTube creators make video thumbnails?
Is it possible to create a YouTube thumbnail on a mobile device?
Conclusion
A unique, professional-looking YouTube thumbnail can go a long way to making your video more attractive to more viewers. It can also improve the overall aesthetic and uniformity of your channel, which will boost your brand reputation. To start reaping those benefits, use any of the 13 best YouTube thumbnail makers we mentioned and get your creative juices flowing – even if you don’t have previous graphic design experience.
