Top 5 2D Animation Software!

A 2D animation video takes hours of planning and effort. Right from the pre-production stage of character design, scriptwriting, storyboarding, choosing color themes, visualizing backgrounds, and more – 2d animation videos worth a couple of hours takes months to be produced.

But, the efforts taken to produce a 2d animation video is totally worth it because of the attention and appreciation it gets. People enjoy watching 2d animated videos because of their simplicity, visual appeal, and impact.

With a huge potential to attract and convert, 2d animations are a treasure trove for not just the entertainment industry but businesses too.

But, more often than not, creating 2d animation videos is abandoned or postponed because of the fact that it takes a lot of time, effort, resources, and a huge pie of the budget.

The age of DIY 2d Animation Software

With the rise of DIY 2d animation tools, creating videos for marketing, sales, HR, and learning has become easier than ever. Every individual who has no prior knowledge or experience of video making or editing can get their hands dirty with these DIY tools and produce studio-quality videos in no time.

The DIY 2d animation tools have been successfully breaking the barriers and making videos possible for all.

But, there’s one problem with this.

Which software do I choose? That’s the question on everyone’s mind.

Investing in 2D animation software can be overwhelming to decide considering that there are so many players in the market.

We have made it easy for you by filtering out the best players in the market and have highlighted their features, pros, cons, pricing, and differentiating factors so that your choice can be made easier.

Let’s begin.

Top 5 2D animation software 

1. Animaker

Animaker is a DIY video making tool that helps beginners, non-designers, and practically anyone create studio-quality animation videos at ease with its simple drag-and-drop interface.

 Animaker has a forever free plan that gives you access to a lot of assets. You can create 2 custom characters and export up to 5 HD quality videos per month.

Pros:

• Tons of pre-built templates covering a wide range of topics and use cases

• A huge library of 30,000+ in-built animated assets that cover 2d backgrounds, stickers, gifs, properties, animated texts, and more

• Powerful character builder to create custom characters by altering facial features, accessories, and expressions – potential to create a billion character combinations

• Advanced animations like smart move and action plus simplify complex animations with a click of a button

• You can add voiceovers to video through the TTS software, upload voiceovers, or even record one on the app

• It is also possible to humanize text-to-speech by adding breaks, emphasis, and customize it in different languages and voices

• Syncing characters’ lip movement with voiceovers can be automated with a single click

• You get up to 4K quality video exports

• If you are a power user of videos in your content, then, features like Brand kit and real-time collaboration would come in handy

Cons:

• The Brand kit is available only in the Enterprise Plan of Animaker

• 2K quality is available from the Pro Plan onwards

Animaker tops the list of best 2D animation software because of differentiating features like advanced animations and a huge collection of assets.

2. Vyond

Vyond allows you to create professional 2D animation videos at ease with its simple user interface. It has a wide collection of animated assets covering different industries and use cases. There are three visual styles -  contemporary, business-friendly, and whiteboard.

Vyond gives a 14-day free trial.

Pros:

• Vyond has 200+ templates representing hundreds of industries, occupations, and concepts

• In Vyond, you can customize your characters and alter almost anything including complexion, accessories, facial features, and more

• You can animate characters in Vyond with the motion path feature

• Vyond has TTS software, but  you cannot humanize voices

• Vyond has a good system for the support that includes FAQs, community forums, and webinars

Cons:

• Vyond is one of the expensive DIY 2d video making software

• You cannot export your projects during the free trial and have to upgrade to paid plans to do so

• You get up to only 1080p quality exports

• Although the characters on Vyond have wide customization options, their characters do not look as attractive as the other tools offer

 

3. Powtoon

Powtoon helps in creating decent 2D animation videos at ease. The tool is quite simple and easy to use.

Pros:

• You can custom create different characters for your videos. The options to customize is not as vast as Animaker or Vyond

• It has a good collection of properties

• You can create two looks for your animated videos – modern edge and cartoon

• A wide collection of templates for different use cases

• There are options to record voiceovers and use TTS software but you cannot humanize the voice

Cons:

• You can create characters in the free plan, but they come with an agency watermark (upgrade to use characters in your videos)

• There are no advanced animations in Powtoon. You can only animate your characters and properties on a loop or apply transition effects

• Powtoon has a freemium plan, but you cannot download videos in the free plan which really defeats the purpose of a free plan

 

4. Toonly

Toonly is an easy-to-use DIY 2d animation software and one of the most affordable in the market.

Pros:

• Toonly has a good collection of characters, backgrounds, and properties covering a lot of industries and niche. However, the options are not as wide and impressive as the other tools that we just discussed

• You can animate your videos easily with a simple click of a button

• The pricing is affordable as t starts at as low as $20 in the standard plan that is billed annually

• There is a 30-day timeline within which you can get your refund if you are not satisfied with the tool – this makes it risk-free

• There’s a private Facebook group for Toonly users to discuss and bounce off tips and suggestions

Cons:

• Toonly is downloadable software and is not available on the cloud

• The assets available in the standard plan are very limited. Particularly the backgrounds, text animations, and character animations are scarce which make it difficult to create a variety of videos

• There is no free trial available which makes it a bit difficult to try and test the tool before investing

• Though you can record and upload voiceovers on Toonly, there’s no option to humanize the voices

• You cannot customize your characters on Toonly

5. Moovly

Moovly is a decent 2d animation software that allows the creation of animated videos at ease.

Pros:

• There is a TTS software available in Moovly. However, the access is available only on their expensive plans

• The characters can be customized on Toonly. But, you cannot get too creative as the customization options are very limited

• There’s a good collection of templates available

Cons: 

• You cannot export videos in the free plan. Also, you can create videos only with a duration of 2 minutes in the free version.

• Basic actions like adding custom fonts and colors and subtitles are restricted on the free as well as their Pro plan

• There is no support available for the free plan

• The quality of animations is mediocre on Moovly

Conclusion

So, that was the list of our top 5 2d animation software. Animaker is a complete tool that has a lot of features that the other players do not have. Also, the forever free plan allows you to use the tool and also download five videos per month.

There is also an opportunity to create two custom characters per month. Vyond and Powtoon are the next best followed by Animaker.

So, depending on your requirements, you can now make an informed choice! If you have any other suggestions, do drop it in the comments.