-->
Home
Tech

TOP 5 Best Online YouTube Thumbnail Makers

6 minute read


A high-quality YouTube thumbnail can make all the difference between a viewer clicking on your video or continuing to scroll. But how do you can create one, especially if you are a beginner you don’t have great graphic design skills? The easiest way, and creative way, of course, is to use an online YouTube thumbnail maker. YouTube thumbnail makers can help you get a high clicking rate on your videos and it will increase your youtube views and subscribers without design skills or spending money on expensive software that makes it harder to learn and make one. 

You may be thinking why thumbnails matter that much? The answer is because it is the reflection of your video, and it is very important to add it to your videos, but before we get to our list of online YouTube thumbnail makers, let’s talk about why they’re so important.

 

Why You Need Good looking YouTube Thumbnails

On YouTube, they matter a lot. Your video’s thumbnail is the first (and sometimes only) chance you have to entice viewers to check on your video instead of your competitor’s. Because of that, it’s important to create thumbnails that are engaging and show potential viewers at a glance what your video is about. YouTube is a visual platform. Sure, you’ll find videos that are essentially voiceovers playing on top of a PowerPoint presentation, but even those need to be visually appealing (or educational) if they hope to get clicks and views. Thumbnails are the visuals your videos need to grab attention, winning your videos more views and your channel more YouTube subscribers.

 

YouTube Video Thumbnail Best Practices

If you want to get more YouTube video views, these video thumbnail best practices will send you on your way. Your YouTube video’s thumbnail is just as, if not more, important as your video title for getting viewers to stop scrolling and click. They aren’t a substitute for creating high-quality YouTube content, but if you already have great content, do that content a favor and get more eyes on it!

Here are four YouTube video thumbnail best practices that will put your thumbnails to work for you.

1. Keep It Simple

YouTube thumbnails are not the place to write a summary of your video. They’re small. When you consider that more than 70% of YouTube’s watch time comes from mobile devices, they get even smaller. To counteract that, your thumbnail shouldn’t include a ton of text.

Instead of adding your full YouTube video title to the thumbnail, try condensing the title down into a few important words over a background or image.

2. Keep It pertinent

YouTube rewards content that answers viewers’ queries. That means your thumbnail should be relevant to what your video is about and should include keywords to communicate important information to potential viewers. The thumbnail is meant to entice viewers to click, but if you don’t follow up with what you’re promising, your bounce rates are going to increase and YouTube is going to rank your video lower.

3. Keep It High Quality

To grab attention, you’ll want to use high-contrast colors in your thumbnail. No blacks, whites, or reds since they tend to blend in with YouTube’s branding. Try sticking with blue, green, orange, and yellow to make your videos pop. You can even search the target keyword for your video and use a color that contrasts with what the majority of your competitors are using.

4. Keep It identified

You’re working with limited real estate, so you may be tempted to leave your logo off of your thumbnails. Don’t do it! Your logo can boost brand awareness. You’ll want to include your logo so that it’s conspicuous, but doesn’t draw too much attention. Try adding your logo to a corner of the thumbnail. Don’t add it to the lower right corner, though, or it will be covered by the video length.

You can measure the impact of these best practices by checking your YouTube analytics

 

TOP 5 Best Online YouTube Thumbnail Makers

Now that you know what to do to create nice-looking, attention-grabbing thumbnails, you need the right tool to help you create them quickly and easily. Here are TOP 5 of the best online YouTube thumbnail makers we’re using right now. 

 

1 • Canva

 
 
Canva is one of the very good graphic design tools for online use. It includes templates that make it delightfully easy to create professional-level YouTube thumbnails, whether you have design experience or not. You can use it for any graphic design work you may have and it comes with more than 1 million graphics, templates, photos, images, and fonts with a drag-and-drop interface that’s super easy to use. While Canva is free to use, it does have paid elements like certain stock photos and clip art. 

All of those elements are marked with dollar signs. Or, you can just buy the Pro version for about $120/year.
 

2 • Bannersnack

 
 
Bannersnack may have the most fun name out of all the online YouTube thumbnail makers on our list. And they also have all the tools you need to design eye-catching thumbnails to stop viewers in their tracks. Their templates are built by professional designers so they’re beautiful right off the bat, but you can also customize them to perfectly match your brand.
 
Bannersnack offers a free plan for up to 10 designs; paid plans for individuals start at $84/year.
 

3 • PicMonkey

 
 
 
PicMonkey has more than 100 professionally designed YouTube thumbnail templates you can customize to match your brand in moments. You can also start with a blank canvas and add your photos, text, graphics, and logo to create your own. They offer an in-depth tutorial for making brilliant YouTube thumbnails, so if even you’ve never done it before, you’re covered with easy instructions. 

Get access to PicMonkey’s basic plan for around $72/year.
 

4 • Adobe Spark

 
 
Adobe Spark offers customizable YouTube thumbnail templates you can use to create amazing thumbnails fast. Adobe Spark doesn’t charge for use of its pre-made thumbnail layouts and even has a category specifically for YouTube thumbnails. While some may find the features a bit basic, Adobe Spark lets you add custom backgrounds, colors, text, and other elements so your thumbnails stand out.

You can opt for a premium plan for about $100/year.

5 • Backgrounder

 
 
Backgrounder from Panzoid is a very basic free tool you can use to create YouTube thumbnails. While it does offer pre-made templates, you’ll want to ensure you use the right YouTube thumbnail size. Once you’re ready to create your thumbnail, Backgrounder offers tools to customize images and add new layers with additional features like images and custom text. Backgrounder is free but does have ads that appear above the workspace.
 
 

What’s the Best Online YouTube Thumbnail Maker?

Our brains are wired to process visuals faster and better than text. Creating visually appealing YouTube thumbnails can draw more traffic to your YouTube channel earning you more video views and more subscribers. Any of the online YouTube thumbnail makers on this list will give you exactly what you need to draw attention to your videos.