Best Animaker Alternative for Whiteboard Videos
Animaker is a broad template editor you build in by hand. For whiteboard videos specifically, openCanviz drafts the narrated video from your document instead.
By openCanviz • August 14, 2026
8 min read
If you specifically want whiteboard videos, the best Animaker alternative is a tool focused on drawn explainers that drafts the video for you. openCanviz is document-first: paste a script, a lesson plan, or a plain explanation, and it drafts the entire narrated whiteboard video, every scene with narration written to match. You then edit scene by scene. Instead of digging a whiteboard style out of a broad template library and building each scene, you start from a finished draft in the style you actually want.
Animaker is a general animation platform with a large template and asset library covering many styles, including whiteboard. That breadth is useful if you make lots of different video types. But it also means whiteboard is one mode among many, and you still assemble each scene by hand on a timeline. If whiteboard explainers are your main output, a tool built around that workflow removes the assembly step Animaker leaves to you.
Animaker vs openCanviz for whiteboard videos
| Animaker | openCanviz | |
| Focus | Broad, many styles and templates | Drawn explainers, whiteboard-first |
| Starting point | Pick a template, build on a timeline | Paste a document |
| First draft | You assemble each scene | Drafted from your text automatically |
| Narration | Add audio or voice yourself | Written per scene to match, then editable |
| Visual styles | Many, whiteboard is one option | Whiteboard, doodle, painted, cutout, poster |
| Learning curve | Moderate, full editor | Low, you edit a draft |
| Price to start | Paid subscription with free tier limits | Free to start |
The real difference in workflow
Animaker is breadth-first. You choose from many templates and asset types and construct your video on a timeline. When you want whiteboard, you select that style and then build the scenes yourself. The tool is flexible, but the flexibility means more decisions and more manual assembly for any single whiteboard piece.
openCanviz is document-first and drawn-explainer focused. You paste the writing, it drafts a whiteboard video with matching narration, and you refine scene by scene. Because the tool is built around this style rather than offering it as one option, the draft lands close to what you want, and your work is editing rather than assembling. If whiteboard is the format you keep coming back to, that focus pays off on every video.
Who should pick which
Pick Animaker if you produce a wide variety of video styles and value one platform with a big library, where whiteboard is just one of many things you make. The breadth is a real advantage for mixed output.
Pick openCanviz if whiteboard explainers are your main deliverable and your input is written content. The document-first draft plus a whiteboard-first design gets you to a finished explainer faster than building it in a general editor, and it is free to start. You can still switch a scene to doodle, painted, cutout, or poster when you want variety.
What you give up
You give up the sheer breadth of a general platform: the huge template gallery and the many non-whiteboard formats Animaker supports. openCanviz concentrates on drawn explainers drafted from documents. If you need one tool for every possible video style, Animaker's range is the draw. If you want the best path to whiteboard explainers specifically, focus beats breadth here.
Start from the whole explanation
Paste the full written explanation, not a scene list. openCanviz decides the scene breaks for you, and it does that better with complete prose than with fragments.
Common questions
Is openCanviz only whiteboard? Whiteboard is the focus, but you can set scenes to doodle, painted, cutout, or poster too. You get the whiteboard-first path plus style options.
Do I still control the video, or is it automatic? You control it. The draft is a starting point you edit scene by scene: narration, timing, elements, and style.
Is it free to start? Yes, so you can draft a real whiteboard explainer and compare it to what you would build in Animaker at no cost.
Draft one whiteboard explainer
Paste a script you would have built in Animaker and let openCanviz draft the whiteboard video. To see how the manual whiteboard tools stack up, read /explainers/videoscribe-vs-doodly-for-whiteboard-animation.
Keep reading
How to use explainer videos for compliance training that people actually watch and remember, without rushing the steps a regulator will check. Turn your policy docs into clear, drawn lessons.
You already wrote the lesson plan, SOP, or slide deck. Here is how to turn that document into a narrated training video in five steps, starting from the writing instead of a blank timeline.
VideoScribe makes you place every asset by hand. If you want training videos drafted from a document you already have, openCanviz is the alternative to try first.
Doodly builds every scene by hand. For L&D teams that already have SOPs and lesson plans, openCanviz drafts the narrated video from the document instead.