GIF animation in emails boosts click-through rate, holds attention, and makes a specific block stand out among static content. There are plenty of tools for creating one, but each has its own purpose.
If you need an animation for a messaging app or a social media post, pretty much any service will do. If you need one for an email newsletter, though, the choice becomes clearer: what matters is file size, compatibility with email clients, and how the animation gets embedded in the email. Let's break down three popular options — Giphy, Ezgif, and Letteros.
Giphy
A catalog of ready-made animations. Go in, find something suitable, download it or copy the link. No sign-up, no settings.
Giphy is built for messaging apps and social media. Ready-made animations from the catalog rarely fit an email's brand style. You can upload your own image, but editing is minimal: cropping, speed, size — and that's it.
What it can do | What it can't do |
|---|---|
Quickly search ready-made animations | Create animation matching your brand style |
Download a file without signing up | Add text, a logo, or brand colors |
Basic cropping | Control file size for an email |
Best for: quickly finding a ready-made animation for a messaging app or social post. Not suitable for email.
Ezgif
An online editor and converter. Upload a set of images and get an animation out. There are more tools: frame order, speed, file-size optimization, adding text, stitching multiple animations together.
For those who understand how animation works at the frame level, Ezgif is a solid working tool. But two drawbacks remain for email tasks.
First: the interface takes some figuring out. A beginner will spend time on settings instead of getting results.
Second: Ezgif knows nothing about email. It won't tell you the acceptable file size for an email, won't check whether the first frame reads clearly in email clients, and won't warn you about Outlook's limitations.
What it can do | What it can't do |
|---|---|
Build an animation from a set of images | Optimize for email clients |
Edit frame order, speed, size | Show how the animation looks inside an email |
Optimize file size manually | Fit into the email-building workflow |
Add text over the frames | Account for Outlook's limitations |
Best for: one-off tasks — you have a set of images and need to build an animation. Not convenient for regular newsletters.
Letteros
Letteros has an animation editor built right into the email builder. It's simple: upload a few images, set the order and speed of the frames, and you get a finished animation — all within the same interface where you're building the email.
No third-party services, no switching between tabs. Make the animation, drop it into an image block, check it in preview.
A few practical rules for working with the editor:
— Use 3–5 frames. More than that, and the email will take longer to load.— Keep an eye on file size: ideally under 1 MB.— Check the first frame separately. Outlook doesn't play animation, so the reader will only see that one. The first frame needs to make sense on its own.
What it can do | Limitations |
|---|---|
Build animation from images inside the builder | Builds from images, not video |
Adjust frame order and speed | Requires a Letteros account |
Insert the result straight into the email | — |
Check the result in preview | — |
Best for those who send newsletters regularly and don't want to build animations in a separate service every time.
Final comparison
Parameter | Giphy | Ezgif | Letteros |
|---|---|---|---|
Building animation from images | No | Yes | Yes |
Optimization for email | No | No | Yes |
File size control | No | Manual | Automatic |
Built-in export into an email | No | No | Yes |
Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Support for email standards | No | No | Yes |
Accounting for Outlook's limitations | No | No | Yes |
Brand style | No | Partial | Yes |
Barrier to entry | Low | Medium | Low |
Giphy and Ezgif are standalone tools, disconnected from the newsletter-building process. After creating an animation, you have to separately check it for compatibility with email clients and manually insert it into the email. In Letteros, the whole cycle — from uploading frames to the final email — happens in one interface.
If you already use GIFs in your newsletters, check out The Complete Guide to GIFs for Email: 2026 Edition — it covers file-size optimization, the first frame, and how animation behaves across different email clients.