10 Best YouTube Thumbnail Makers: Features, Pricing, and Tips

Do you want to create an eye-catching YouTube thumbnail within minutes? Creating a thumbnail from scratch would require expert design skills and time. That’s why you need the best YouTube thumbnail makers that give you a launching pad with professionally designed templates and easy-to-use customization features.

We know thumbnails are crucial to inform and intrigue your audience about the video. Think of them as the book’s cover; a well-designed thumbnail effectively communicates the video’s theme, tone, and niche. That’s why you need a design tool to help you create an engaging thumbnail design.

With this blog, you can explore the ten best YouTube thumbnail makers with their exclusive features, suitability, and pricing details. Moreover, get pro tips on choosing the right thumbnail maker for YouTube to create scroll-stopping thumbnails with minimum effort!

Best YouTube Thumbnail Makers

YouTube thumbnails are the only way your viewers can decide whether to watch the video. That’s why creating clean, relevant, and on-brand thumbnails is essential. We have brought you the best YT thumbnail maker tools to achieve these. 

1. DocHipo 

Are you searching for an easy thumbnail-maker tool for YouTube? DocHipo is a simple and intuitive graphic design tool that you can use without any design experience. You can create attention-grabbing designs with hundreds of professional YouTube Thumbnail Templates with ideal thumbnail size. 

Whether you are posting a new recipe, financial tips, a makeup tutorial, or giving a tour of exotic destinations, DocHipo offers diverse templates for various niches like food, business, beauty, education, travel, etc.

You can create a YouTube thumbnail smoothly with drag-and-drop functionality in the DocHipo editor. The rich design widgets library helps you enhance the appeal with high-quality vector icons, stickers, illustrations, animations, stock images, etc. 

Additionally, you can explore various font customization options and even upload your custom fonts to craft a truly unique text style. DocHipo also allows you to upload and edit your photos with the built-in photo editor tool, and you can give your designs a polished look using the background remover. 

Further, you can instantly save and apply your brand assets like brand colors, fonts, images, and logo variants to your designs using DocHipo’s brand kit. With preset color themes, you can instantly apply vibrant, eye-catching color combinations to your entire design with just one click.

To top it all, you can leverage AI-powered tools to generate images and text to create faster content. However, users may note that advanced features are behind the paywall.

Who is it for

DocHipo is a reliable design tool for solopreneurs, marketers, brand managers, creators, and social media managers who want something easy to use without compromising quality.

Watch this video tutorial to get started with DocHipo.

Pricing

You can create any document within DocHipo for free.

However, you can access plenty of advanced features with the paid plan. Here are the plans that you can choose from:

• Pro Plan: $7.5/month per user, suitable for solopreneurs and small teams.
• Pro Unlimited: $225/month for unlimited users, ideal for large teams.

2. Canva

Canva is another graphic design tool with YT thumbnail templates. It offers a wide range of template designs with several design assets within the editor. Because of the ease of design creation experience, Canva has built a benchmark in the design world.

You can find YouTube thumbnail templates from hundreds of layout options for various purposes. However, choosing a suitable template from free and paid options requires a lot of scrolling.

While design assets like stock images, clip art, icons, stickers, etc., are free to use, many are behind a paywall. Furthermore, the tool offers generative AI capabilities, also known as Magic Media, to assist you in designing.

Overall, Canva is an excellent tool for designing thumbnails. Nonetheless, the free version may feel restrictive as some design assets retain watermarks after downloading.

Who is it for

Canva is ideal for creators, influencers, and marketers who are not design professionals.

Pricing

Canva has a free plan with limited templates and assets. 

There are two paid plans for the users to get access to all the templates and features:

• Pro Plan: $120/year for one user, billed annually
• Teams Plan: $300/year for a minimum of three people, billed annually

3. Adobe Express

When you are wondering ‘how do you make a YouTube thumbnail for free,’ look no further than Adobe Express. Get hundreds of free YouTube Thumbnail templates you can categorize based on your style, mood, type, or region.

The tool covers all the basic customization requirements for text and graphics and offers various asset resources. In addition, you can access AI capabilities to generate images and text copies with limited credits. However, as a beginner, you may take some time to get used to all the functionalities within the editor.

Utilizing other Adobe apps like Photoshop, Express can stay connected within the ecosy. The tool can also introduce drag-and-drop functionality to make the design smoother.

Who is it for

Adobe Express is ideal for busy creators, influencers, and brand marketers. It is also suitable for creating trending YouTube video thumbnails for different regions.

Pricing

Adobe Express has a generous free plan offering plenty of templates and design assets.

Further, you can try paid plans with premium features and capabilities:

• Premium Plan: $99.99/year for one user, billed annually
• Teams Pan: $79.99/year per user for a minimum of two people, billed annually

4. Fotor

Fotor is another popular graphic design tool for its advanced photo editing features. Nonetheless, it is versatile, and you can design a thumbnail using preset templates. It offers a vast library of YouTube thumbnail templates for different categories, including business, travel, fashion, tutorials, and more.

Besides the basic customization options, Fotor offers fun stickers, background textures, photo editing tools, and text formats to add your creative touch to the designs. You can also explore generative AI tools to create and enhance images, transform them into avatars, or remove objects from the image.

Although a robust editing tool, Fotor can introduce a brand kit and collaboration capabilities to streamline the design process. Also, many design elements within the templates contain watermarks within the free plan. Users may change the design elements or switch to the paid plan to access everything without a hassle.

Who is it for

Fotor is a good thumbnail-maker tool for content creators, social media users, and designers who want advanced photo editing capabilities within the tool.

Pricing

Fotor offers a free plan to its users to create designs.

Additionally, there are two paid plans for complete access to features:

• Fotor Pro: $3.33/month (billed annually)
• Fotor Pro Plus: $7.49/ month (billed annually)

5. Snappa

Snappa is another software with a YouTube thumbnail generator. It offers diverse design templates, and the app has hundreds of them. However, you may need to scroll through the library to find a design that aligns with your style and purpose.

Furthermore, the app offers many graphic assets, such as shapes, icons, vectors, stock photos, etc. If you are a beginner at designing, Snappa provides a simple and intuitive interface that will help you create anything with a minimum learning curve.

Although a minimalistic tool, Snappa can introduce advanced AI features to enhance the design experience. You can upload your custom fonts to the designs within the paid plan.

Who is it for

Snappa is ideal for beginners who want a minimalistic tool with basic design features for quick designing.

Pricing

You can use Snappa for free and download up to three documents.

For long-term use, you can avail of the paid plans:

• Pro Plan: $10/month per user (billed yearly)
• Team Plan: $20/month per user (billed yearly)

6. VistaCreate

VistaCreate is another graphic design tool that has a free YouTube thumbnail maker. The YouTube thumbnail templates have a bold and vibrant appeal that you can use for various niches, themes, and occasions. 

With an intuitive editor, you can transform any design using elements such as lines, shapes, 3D objects, vectors, icons, mockups, stock photos, etc. The brand kit allows you to save and apply brand fonts, colors, and logos within seconds.

Furthermore, Vistacreate also allows you to effortlessly remove the background of the images and generate AI images with simple text prompts. However, there are many features behind the paywall.

Who is it for

VistaCreate is a suitable design tool for entrepreneurs, marketers, small businesses, and others who want to market their businesses on social media.

Pricing

You can use the software for free, but it has limited templates and design capabilities.

Moreover, you can access all the assets and features with a paid plan of $10/month per person, billed annually.

7. Visme

Visme is one of the best YouTube thumbnail makers with versatile customizing options. Its diverse template library allows you to sort thumbnails by industry or role quickly. Visme stands out from other graphic design tools as an interactive content creation platform.

It’s an all-in-one tool with millions of design assets, including 3D and virtual assets. Further, you can also leverage the AI Designer to create any document with prompts. With the integrated brand kit, you can save all the fonts, logos, and colors essential for faster content creation.

With Visme, you can quickly create data-centric documents with in-built data visualization tools.

Overall, Visme is a powerful tool for creating and managing content. However, considering the significant learning curve, beginners might require some time to learn all the advanced features.

Who is it for

Visme is ideal for businesses, brands, and marketing professionals who often work with complex data-driven designs.

Pricing

The free Visme plan has basic editing features. 

Further, there are two types of paid plans:

• Starter Plan: $12.25/month (billed annually) 
• Pro Plan: $24.75/month (billed annually) 

8. DesignCap

DesignCap is a good YouTube thumbnail maker with simple yet captivating template layouts. As a design tool, it has an organized interface and offers various design assets, such as icons, shapes, images, timelines, statistics, and text styles.

You can also use the well-categorized stock images library to search for pictures related to fashion, business, photography, animals, real estate, and more. You can enhance and adjust the images to align with the layout.

DesignCap fulfills all the basic requirements for graphic design. Nonetheless, it can introduce advanced features, such as a background remover and generative AI capabilities, to help users create content. 

Who is it for

DesignCap is ideal for businesses, events, and social media users without experience in graphic design.

Pricing

With the free plan, you can design with limited assets.

Further, there are two types of paid plans:

• Basic plan: $4.99/month per user (billed annually) 
• Plus Plan: $5.99/month per user(billed annually)

9. PicMonkey

PicMonkey is another design tool that caters to brands with diverse templates and a built-in photo editor.  You can get stunning templates such as logos, banners, thumbnails, and more for various social media platforms.

Advanced editing options make it easy to customize the graphics and text elements. The interface is simple and intuitive, with drag-and-drop capabilities, making it a great YouTube thumbnail creator. Furthermore, you can add touch-ups to the human images.

Overall, PicMonkey is an excellent tool for creating content and regularly uploading it to social media platforms. However, many capabilities, such as background remover, brand kit, and animations, are behind the paywall.

Who is it for

PicMonkey is ideal for personal use, social media managers, creators, and influencers who want advanced editing capabilities without a significant learning curve.

Pricing

You can access the limited capabilities of PicMonkey to get the hang of the tool.

Besides, you need a paid plan to access all the features and download the designs. Here are the paid plans that you can try:

• Basic Plan: $6/month per person, billed yearly.
• Pro Plan: $10/month per person, billed yearly.
• Business Plan: $19/month per user for teams of two or more users, billed yearly.

10. BeFunky

BeFunky is another creative graphic design platform for designing, photo editing, and creating collages. The YouTube thumbnail template library offers dozens of unique designs, but you must upgrade to a paid plan to access most of them.

Within the editor, you can customize any design element on the canvas. You can also explore different outlines and solid and multicolor graphics. However, BeFunky offers limited graphics for free users to incorporate into the thumbnail photo. 

Furthermore, BeFunky’s AI photo editor allows you to enhance images, beautify portraits, and add unique design effects. With an instant collage maker and batch editing options, It saves you time and effort.

The interface is intuitive, and its drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to use even for beginners. However, users can access most of the capabilities only after upgrading to the paid plan.

Who is it for

BeFunky suits social media users, content creators, and influencers who need eye-catching designs and enhanced images.

Pricing

A paid plan of $6.99/month per user, billed annually, allows you to access all of BeFunky’s design templates and capabilities.

Choosing the Right YouTube Thumbnail Maker Tool

After going through many thumbnail makers, you might feel confused about choosing one. To make a stunning thumbnail, you need a robust graphic design tool. Although most of the tools in this blog serve the purpose, choosing the right one is crucial for long-term use. So, here are some tips that can help you.

Understand Your Graphic Design Level and Needs

Are you a newbie in the graphic design world or you are well aware of the design principles? Your level of expertise will determine what type of tool suits you. As a beginner, you might require a straightforward tool with basic design requirements. On the other hand, if you are a seasoned designer, you might look for advanced capabilities.

Check the YouTube Thumbnail Template Designs and Ease of Use

Scroll through various template libraries to clearly understand the themes and styles. Some tools offer industry-specific templates, while others focus on multiple styles. Further, analyze the tool’s look and feel, such as its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality, which make the design journey smooth.

Explore Features and Capabilities for Customizing the Designs

Some basic features like resizing, coloring, and positioning the design assets are the basic requirements for any graphic design editor. Further, to design a YouTube thumbnail effortlessly, you can look for high-quality vectors, icons, stock photos, custom fonts, color themes, etc. You can also look for background removers, brand kits, and AI-powered capabilities within the YouTube thumbnail makers to help you quickly make polished content.

Set the Budget for the YouTube Thumbnail Makers

Setting a budget is one of the most crucial steps before purchasing any tool. Carefully assess all the features available with the thumbnail maker tool’s free and paid plans. Check for the evolving templates library and features that might help you make better designs in the future.

Moreover, assess whether you need the tool for yourself or a team, as the paid plan varies depending on the number of people.

Assess Download and Sharing Options

Finally, check the suitable formats available for downloading your documents. Check the quality and watermarks of the downloaded document. Also, look out for the sharing options if you want your team members to share the documents smoothly.

Wrapping Up

Your search for the best YouTube thumbnail makers ends here. Create stunning thumbnails with the help of any of these tools to bring more traffic to your channel. Remember to follow the tips while choosing the suitable tool for you, and try your hand at designing with the free plan.

If you are unsure where to start, try DocHipo to create YouTube thumbnails with fewer clicks. Give an edge to your designs with niche-specific professionally designed templates. Sign up and kickstart your design journey today!

FAQs

Which is the best YouTube thumbnail maker?

DocHipo is one of the best YouTube thumbnail makers, offering professional templates, rich design assets, and advanced capabilities such as brand kits and generative AI tools.

Which thumbnail gets more views?

Thumbnails with eye-catching designs, clear text, and relevance to the audience get more views.

Which software is best for YouTube thumbnails?

Many software can help you create a catchy thumbnail for YouTube. Some of them are DocHipo, Canva, BeFunky, DesignCap, etc. If you want the best YouTube thumbnail creator out of these, you can rely on DocHipo for all your graphic design needs.

What do most YouTubers use to make thumbnails?

Most YouTubers use graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, or Canva. However, if you do not have experience in designing, you can easily create your thumbnail using templates from DocHipo within minutes.