EZGIF vs Brush Ninja

EZGIF and Brush Ninja side by side, as of September 2026: what each one costs, what it's made for, and when smooth.video, a free animation tool that runs in your browser with no account, does the job instead.

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EZGIF vs Brush Ninja at a glance

Price
EZGIFFree, with ads
Brush NinjaFree with ads, membership at US$7 a month or US$48 a year
smooth.videoFree
Account
EZGIFNot needed
Brush NinjaOnly for membership
smooth.videoNot needed

As of September 2026. Plans change, so check those of EZGIF and Brush Ninja before you decide.

EZGIF

Watermark
Never
Makes a GIF from
An uploaded video or a set of images
Moving text
Text shown on a range of frames, without motion
Where your files go
Uploaded to its servers, kept up to an hour after last use
Compression and optimization
Yes: lossy, fewer colors, fewer frames, target file size
Format conversion
GIF, WebP, APNG, AVIF, MP4, WebM and more

When EZGIF fits better

You already have the GIF or the clip and need to do something to it: cut it, change its speed, reverse it, shrink it under a size limit, or convert it to WebP, APNG or AVIF. smooth.video makes GIFs; it doesn't edit, compress or convert them.

EZGIF vs smooth.video

Brush Ninja

How you animate
Frame-by-frame drawing, with onion skin
Layers
None
Video with sound
WebM, for members
Formats
GIF, image sequence, and WebM for members
Lesson plans for teachers
Yes

When Brush Ninja fits better

You want to draw every frame, like a flipbook, in a tool made for children and classrooms, with stickers, sound effects and lesson plans ready to go.

Brush Ninja vs smooth.video

When smooth.video fits better

The GIF doesn't exist yet: an animated headline for an email, a badge for a website, a demo for a README. You want to build it from text and images, make things move, and keep your files on your computer.

The animation is made of things that move: a title, a photo, a logo, a sticker, a chart. You want sound in the video, more than one layer, and no ads, without a membership.

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Free, full stop
No plan, no trial, no credits, no export limit.
No account
Open the page and the editor is already there.
Nothing is uploaded
Your files are read and rendered by your own browser.
No watermark
Every export is clean, at any size, 4K included.

Start from a template

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Open one, change the words, export. Every element stays editable.

Questions

Can I compress a GIF in smooth.video?

No. A short GIF with a modest size and few colors stays light; to shrink it further, run the exported file through a GIF optimizer such as EZGIF's.

Can I turn a video into a GIF?

Yes. Add the video to the scene, put text or stickers on top if you like, and export the whole thing as a GIF.

Are my files uploaded?

No. Everything, the GIF export included, runs in your browser, so your images and videos never leave your computer.

Can I draw in smooth.video?

Yes, with a simple brush: the drawing becomes an image you can move, scale, rotate and fade on the timeline. It isn't made for drawing each frame.

Can I add sound?

Yes. Add an audio file and it's included in the MP4 or WebM. A GIF can't carry sound.

Are there ads?

No, and there's nothing to join.

Or skip the decision.

smooth.video is free, opens in a tab and exports without a watermark. Try it while you compare.

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