Most used
Everything else
Nine tools, one table, and a plain recommendation for each kind of user.
Updated: 2026-09-10
Ask two questions. Do you want to place every element by hand, or describe the video and get it drawn? And do you make one video a quarter or several a week? Hand placement suits rare, high-control projects. Generation suits volume and speed. Everything else, price, platform, styles, follows from that.
StrokeVideo generates the illustration for every board of your script and times the drawing to the narration automatically. Twenty styles, fourteen narration languages, a free video every day. The trade-off is that you do not drag individual elements around; you edit the script and the storyboard as text.
Doodly and VideoScribe are the established library tools. Doodly is a desktop app with a large doodle library, now sold inside the Voomly Cloud bundle and with no AI features. VideoScribe has the more mature timeline and camera moves, and has added metered AI tools for images, scripts and voiceovers. Either way you assemble the video by hand and an afternoon per video is normal, and both have a recognisable look because the libraries are shared.
Canva, Vyond, Animaker and Powtoon all offer a whiteboard mode inside a broader template tool, and InVideo AI turns a script into a stock-footage video rather than a drawing. They are the right choice when the whiteboard clip is a small part of a larger design or animation workflow, and the wrong choice if the hand-drawn look is the point. All of their free plans export with a watermark.
Screen-recording tools that add a hand cursor, and AI video generators that produce live-action-style footage. Neither makes a drawing appear line by line, which is what a whiteboard video is.
By the StrokeVideo team, so read the StrokeVideo row with that in mind. The Doodly, VideoScribe, Vyond, Animaker, Powtoon and InVideo rows were checked against their public pricing and feature pages in September 2026; the Canva row is described in general terms because its plans change often. Prices move, so tell us if something here is out of date.
| Tool | Best for | How the pictures are made | Price | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StrokeVideo | Fast explainers from a script or a topic; teachers, faceless channels | AI-generated per board, drawn stroke by stroke | Free daily video; minute packs | This site. No manual placement of elements |
| Doodly | Hand-assembled doodle videos with full control | Stock doodle library placed by hand | $49-79 a month, inside the Voomly Cloud suite | Desktop app with no AI features; videos share the same library look |
| VideoScribe | Polished whiteboard scribing with camera moves | Image library, your uploads, or AI images; assembled by hand | Subscription, per licence | Mature timeline and the recognisable hand cursor; AI images, script and voiceover are metered by plan |
| Vyond | Corporate character animation, not strictly whiteboard | Character and scene templates, plus AI script, text, PowerPoint and PDF to video | Subscription, business tiers | Strong for HR and training, weak for the hand-drawn look |
| Canva | Quick social clips inside a design tool you already use | Templates with a whiteboard-style effect | Free tier; Pro subscription | Not a true drawing engine; fine for short clips |
| Animaker | Template animation in many styles, whiteboard included | Template scenes, character library, AI fills templates | Free with watermark; from about $15 a month | Good all-rounder; whiteboard is one mode among many, and the free export carries a watermark |
| Powtoon | Business explainers and presentations from templates | Template scenes plus generated images, clips, voices and avatars; you edit the project | Free plan with watermark; watermark removed from about $15 a month | Strong template catalogue; you still edit scene by scene |
| InVideo AI | Fast generated video: AI clips, avatars and stock, from a prompt | Video models generate the footage, plus a stock library; nothing is drawn | Free with watermark; about $17 to $170 a month billed yearly | Credit-metered by model; produces filmed-looking video, not a drawing that appears line by line |
| SpeedSketch | Turning a single image into a short whiteboard-style clip | Animates an image you upload as if drawn; script-to-video is a paid feature | Free 720p clips up to 15 seconds without watermark; script-to-video paid | Free tier is per clip, not a finished narrated video; you assemble scenes yourself |
For a finished, narrated video from a pasted script with no watermark: StrokeVideo's free daily video. SpeedSketch is watermark-free too, but its free tier animates single images into 15-second clips that you assemble yourself; its script-to-video is paid. Canva's free tier exports short template clips.
One that starts from a script you already have and narrates in your students' language. See the guide on whiteboard videos for teachers.
VideoScribe for timeline control, camera moves and its metered AI image, script and voiceover tools; Doodly for a bigger doodle set, though it has no AI and now ships inside the Voomly Cloud bundle. Both still assemble the video by hand.
Yes. StrokeVideo writes the script, illustrates each board, narrates it and draws it; a three-minute video takes about five minutes.