How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- TruScribe is the specialist benchmark: hand-drawn videos from about $3,000 to $4,000 to start, delivered in roughly 20 working days.
- Ydraw publishes per-minute pricing from about $1,800 a minute and is one of the original whiteboard studios.
- Yum Yum Videos is the enterprise explainer pick, whiteboard among wider styles, with projects from $8,000.
- For training libraries and volume work, negotiate series pricing; per-minute rates fall sharply across multiple videos.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 TruScribe | Hand-drawn specialist production | From $3,000 | No |
 Ydraw | Published per-minute pricing | From $1,800/minute | No |
 Next Day Animations | US team, causes and education | See website | No |
 Yum Yum Videos | Enterprise explainers incl. whiteboard | From $8,000 | No |
 Wyzowl | Fixed-price explainer packages | See website | No |
 IdeaRocket | Brand-level whiteboard and 2D craft | See website | No |
 Cognitive | RSA-style intellectual explainers | See website | No |
 Breadnbeyond | Budget-conscious explainer production | See website | No |
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The best whiteboard animation company in 2026
Starting priceFrom $3,000
Free planNo
TruScribe is the name this category is judged by. It has made hand-drawn whiteboard videos since 2011, for training, marketing and internal communication, and it publishes the two facts buyers most need and rivals most hide: what it costs to start and how long it takes. Twenty working days from brief to finished video is a realistic, checkable promise.
Its method talk (Scribology, neuroscience) is marketing, but the underlying craft claim is verifiable in the portfolio: images drawn for the script, revealed in sync with the narration, with movement used to hold the eye. If whiteboard is the format you have decided on, TruScribe is the quote to get first and the standard to hold others against.
What we like- Whiteboard is the whole business: hand-drawn videos under its Scribology method, built around attention and retention research, its own FAQ states typical starting prices between $3,000 and $4,000, with cost per minute falling as length grows, standard delivery in about 20 working days, with expedited options, more than 1,000 organisational clients since 2011
Watch out for- Specialist pricing: not the cheapest way to get a doodle video, B2B focus
- Consumer and entertainment work is not its ground, shorter timelines cost extra, volume buyers must negotiate series terms rather than assume them
Starting priceFrom $1,800/minute
Free planNo
Ydraw's appeal is transparency of structure. Per-minute pricing lets a buyer budget a library (ten two-minute training videos is a number you can compute before the first call), which suits education, legal and wellness clients making series rather than one hero video.
Do the multiplication honestly, including the package elements your per-minute figure may exclude, and compare the total against TruScribe's project pricing for the same runtime. Ydraw also produces other animation styles, so write "hand-drawn whiteboard" into the brief and the contract if that is the product you are buying.
What we like- One of the original whiteboard video studios, operating since the format's early years, third-party checks of its pricing put whiteboard from about $1,800 per minute, with custom packages from $7,500, also offers 2D and 3D animation for clients whose next video needs a different style, client list includes legal, wellness and B2B brands such as LexisNexis
Watch out for- Per-minute pricing makes longer training videos expensive quickly, published figures come from third-party comparisons, so confirm the current rate card in the quote, package upsells (scriptwriting, voice talent tiers) move the final price, style range means you must specify genuine hand-drawn work if that is what you want
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Next Day Animations sells approachability. Its portfolio leans toward organisations explaining something decent to the public (health programmes, education initiatives, nonprofits), and its process is built around clients who do not make videos often and need the studio to carry the project management.
Set the timeline expectation early: the name is a brand, not a delivery promise, and proper whiteboard production (script, storyboard, illustration, voice, edit) runs in weeks everywhere. Within that reality, its US in-house team and hand-holding process make it a comfortable first studio for organisations new to commissioning animation.
What we like- US-based team of animators, illustrators, voice actors and designers working in-house, strong record with nonprofits, education and public sector clients, whiteboard and 2D styles with an emphasis on clarity for lay audiences, client reviews on reference platforms average 4.8, citing communication and process
Watch out for- Despite the name, production is a normal multi-week studio process, not next day, pricing is by quote, smaller scale than the enterprise studios, capacity for large simultaneous series should be confirmed, style is friendly and accessible, which suits causes and classrooms more than premium brand work
Starting priceFrom $8,000
Free planNo
Yum Yum is the enterprise explainer house on this list. Companies standardising a video programme (product explainers, onboarding series, campaign assets) buy a studio relationship, and Yum Yum's client list and process maturity reflect that market. Whiteboard is in its repertoire for the projects where a hand-drawn explainer is the right tool.
The floor price tells you the segment plainly. If your budget is $3,000, start at the top of this list. If your organisation will commission ten videos this year and needs them consistent, Yum Yum's per-project price buys the consistency that freelancers and budget studios cannot hold across a programme.
What we like- Established explainer studio whose projects start around $8,000, with enterprise clients including McKesson, Walmart and American Express on its published list, whiteboard offered alongside 2D, motion graphics and live formats, so a video programme stays in one studio, full-service production: script, storyboard, illustration, animation, voice and sound, documented process with set revision stages
Watch out for- The $8,000 floor prices out small businesses and single training videos, whiteboard is one style among many, not the studio's sole specialism, enterprise process means enterprise timelines, premium positioning: you pay for account management and process as much as drawing
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Wyzowl's proposition is certainty: a defined package, a known process and a studio that has made explainer videos at industrial scale. For a marketing manager who needs a whiteboard video that looks professional, arrives on schedule and survives a procurement review, that reliability is often worth more than artisanal flair.
Ask to see whiteboard work specifically, not the general showreel, and confirm which elements are hand-drawn versus library-based in its current process. The studio's scale means the answer is a process question, and a straight answer at proposal stage predicts a straight delivery.
What we like- One of the most prolific explainer studios in the market, with thousands of videos produced across styles including whiteboard, known for packaged, fixed-price engagements with unlimited revisions positioning, broad sector experience from SaaS to healthcare, predictable process aimed at marketing teams that commission regularly
Watch out for- Current pricing requires a quote, packaged production trades some bespoke craft for consistency and speed, high volume means your project is one of many in the pipeline
- Account care varies, whiteboard is an offered style rather than the studio's founding specialism
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
IdeaRocket is the craft pick. Where most whiteboard is deliberately plain, IdeaRocket treats the format as design work, and its videos show it: better composition, better characters, a hand that draws like an illustrator rather than a tracer. Brands whose video will sit in campaigns and press coverage buy that difference.
Price and fit discipline apply. This is not where a training department buys forty compliance modules; it is where a marketing team buys the one video that has to be good. Brief it like creative work, with audience and tone defined, and its strengths come forward.
What we like- New York studio known for craft quality across whiteboard, 2D and 3D, with brand and entertainment clients, strong design sensibility: its whiteboard work carries more visual character than template-driven rivals, full creative development from concept and script, suited to campaigns and flagship content where the video itself reflects on the brand
Watch out for- Premium, quote-only pricing, smaller studio, so capacity and timelines need early booking, brand-level craft is wasted on routine internal training content, style-forward approach may need reining in for conservative corporate audiences
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Cognitive holds a unique place in this format's history: the RSA Animates, which turned recorded lectures into drawn films watched by tens of millions, were its work, and they effectively created the whiteboard explainer as a cultural form. For talks, ideas and education content, no studio's claim on the style is stronger.
That heritage defines its limits as much as its strengths. Cognitive makes films of ideas. A SaaS company needing a 90-second product explainer will find better-matched, faster and cheaper production above; a university, publisher or foundation with a lecture worth drawing should start here.
What we like- The studio behind the original RSA Animate style that popularised whiteboard explanation worldwide, unmatched fit for talks, lectures and ideas-led content: long-form thinking drawn live in sync with speech, works with authors, institutions and broadcasters on complex subjects, the genuine hand-drawn article, with artists whose drawing is the programme
Watch out for- Niche by design: intellectual and institutional content, not product marketing, pricing and availability are project-based and the studio is selective, timelines follow artistic production, not marketing calendars, long-form style does not compress into 30-second performance ads
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Breadnbeyond closes the list for the buyer whose alternative is not a pricier studio but no video at all. Its explainers, whiteboard included, give startups and small companies a professionally produced asset at offshore-studio prices, which for a first explainer on a landing page is often the rational purchase.
Protect the outcome with process: approve the script in writing, approve the storyboard frame by frame, and confirm voiceover accent and revision rounds before production starts. Budget studios deliver well against a tight brief; the disappointments in this segment almost always trace to a loose one.
What we like- Explainer studio with whiteboard in its range at prices aimed below the US and European studios, portfolio across startups and mid-size companies, with many short marketing videos delivered, full production service (script, storyboard, voice) rather than software self-serve, a workable route for a first professional video on a limited budget
Watch out for- Quote-based pricing, and the final figure depends on the package assembled, craft ceiling sits below TruScribe or IdeaRocket
- Manage expectations to the price, offshore production means time zones and communication rhythms to plan around, revision and rights terms need care in the contract, as with all budget studios
How we chose
Companies were included if they produce genuine whiteboard animation as a service today, drawn for the client's script rather than assembled by self-serve software. Pricing shown uses vendor-published figures where they exist: TruScribe publishes $3,000 to $4,000 starting prices and roughly 20 working day delivery on its own site; Ydraw's per-minute figure and Yum Yum's $8,000 floor come from August 2026 checks of company websites reported by an industry comparison, and should be confirmed in quotes. Delivery claims and client counts are the companies' own and are described as such.
How to brief a whiteboard video that works
Write the script first, or pay the studio to. A minute of narration is about 130 spoken words, so a two-minute video is a 260-word argument. Most failed explainers fail here: five messages in two minutes. Pick the one idea the viewer must keep, and let the drawing serve it.
Approve in stages and in writing: script, then storyboard, then a drawn sample frame, then voice. Changes are cheap at script stage and expensive after illustration. Every studio above works in stages; clients who skip approvals to save a week pay for redraws instead.
Finally, own the assets. Contract for the source illustration files, the voiceover rights and the music licence in writing. You will want a frame for the sales deck and a cut-down for social within a month, and studios differ sharply on what the original fee included.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a whiteboard animation cost?
Real studio production starts around $3,000 to $4,000 for a short custom video at TruScribe, runs from about $1,800 per finished minute at Ydraw, and from about $8,000 per project at enterprise studios such as Yum Yum Videos. Software-assembled doodle videos cost far less and look it. Per-minute prices fall as length and series volume rise.
How long does production take?
TruScribe quotes about 20 working days for a finished video, and four to six weeks is a normal planning figure across the studios here, covering script, storyboard, illustration, voiceover and edit. Rush timelines exist at a premium. The biggest variable is your own approval speed at each stage.
What is the difference between a whiteboard company and whiteboard software?
A company writes, draws and produces the video for you: the illustrations are created for your script. Software such as VideoScribe or Doodly lets you assemble videos yourself from pre-drawn asset libraries dragged by a stock hand. Software is cheaper and faster for volume internal content; companies produce the matched, hand-drawn quality that public-facing work needs.
How long should a whiteboard explainer be?
One to three minutes for marketing and sales use: long enough for one idea, short enough to be finished. Training and lecture content runs longer by design, the RSA-style films Cognitive makes run ten minutes and more, because the audience arrived for the talk. Length should follow the setting, and every extra minute costs drawing time, so script tightly.
Who owns the finished video?
You should, under a proper contract: full usage rights to the finished film are standard in this industry. What varies is the extras: source illustration files, unmixed voiceover recordings and music licences. Confirm all four in the agreement before production, because renegotiating them afterwards costs more and sometimes is not possible.
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Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.