Doodly Review: Overview, Features, Pricing & Alternatives in 2025

Struggling to create engaging videos fast?

If you’re like most marketers or educators, you’re searching for a tool that lets you make pro-quality whiteboard animations—without battling confusing software or hiring designers.

The real headache? You’re stuck wasting hours tweaking clunky editors instead of focusing on your message or content.

That’s where Doodly stands out, offering a drag-and-drop platform with a huge doodle library, custom image imports, and realistic hand-drawn animation effects—so you can bring your ideas to life even with zero experience.

In this review, I’ll walk you through how Doodly actually makes animation video creation easy—from setup to exporting your finished project.

You’ll find everything here: in this Doodly review, I’ll explain the features, pricing, real limitations, and how Doodly compares to other leading animation tools—giving you the facts you need.

By the end, you’ll know the features you need to confidently pick your best-fit video creation tool.

Let’s dive into the analysis.

Doodly Overview

Doodly, from developer Bryxen, has been around since 2012. Based in Zurich, their mission is making professional doodle video creation genuinely accessible to anyone, regardless of technical skill or design background.

I find they are laser-focused on individuals and small businesses—especially marketers, educators, and content creators. Their core commitment is creating engaging whiteboard animation videos without you needing to be a design expert or learn complicated software.

Their acquisition by ClickFunnels was a major strategic move, pulling them deeper into the marketing automation ecosystem. You’ll see this business influence as we explore through this Doodly review.

Unlike competitors like Vyond that can feel overwhelming, Doodly’s main strength is its straightforward, user-friendly interface. It really feels like it was built by people who just want to make great videos without a steep learning curve.

They work with tons of online marketers, course creators, and small businesses. These are users needing high-quality visual content for sales funnels or social media on a very reasonable budget.

Their entire strategy revolves around simplicity and powerful accessibility. They are not trying to be a complex, all-in-one animation suite, which aligns perfectly with your need for an effective, no-fuss tool.

Now let’s examine their core capabilities.

Doodly Features

Wish you could create engaging videos without design skills?

Doodly features make whiteboard animation accessible to everyone, helping you produce professional-looking videos with ease. Here are the five main Doodly features that simplify video creation.

1. Diverse Canvas Options

Tired of generic, boring video backgrounds?

Sticking to one visual style can limit your creative expression. This often makes your videos blend in rather than stand out.

Doodly lets you choose from whiteboards, blackboards, greenboards, and glassboards, or even import a custom image. I found this flexibility allows for unique visual styles to match your brand or message, which is a great feature. It transforms how your content is perceived, making it more dynamic.

This means you can easily customize the look and feel of your animations, ensuring your videos always capture attention.

2. Extensive Doodle Library

Struggling to find the right visuals for your message?

Limited image options can force you to compromise your creative vision. This often results in less impactful or engaging videos.

Doodly provides a vast library of pre-made doodle images, characters, and props tailored for various industries. From my testing, the sheer volume of custom-drawn assets ensures you’ll almost always find something relevant, which is incredibly helpful. This feature saves hours of searching for appropriate graphics.

So you can quickly drag and drop visuals that perfectly illustrate your points, making your content more compelling.

3. Custom Image Import with Smart Draw Technology

Want to use your own branded images in animations?

Generic stock images might not fully represent your brand or message. This can dilute your visual identity and engagement.

Doodly’s Smart Draw technology lets you upload PNG/JPEG images and control the draw path, making custom visuals animate naturally. Here’s what I found: it’s incredibly intuitive to guide the drawing process, a feature that personalizes your content significantly. For SVGs, it automatically follows preset paths.

This means you can easily incorporate your unique branding or specific product images, giving your videos an authentic, personalized touch.

4. Variety of Hand Styles

Does your animation look unnatural or generic?

A static, repetitive hand can make your drawing animation feel less authentic. This diminishes the immersive quality of your videos.

Doodly offers diverse hand styles—male or female, left or right-handed, various ethnicities, and even 2D/3D cartoon hands. What I love about this approach is how you can truly customize the drawing experience to fit your narrative. This feature adds a remarkable level of realism and personalization.

The result is your audience gets a more engaging and believable viewing experience, enhancing their connection with your content.

5. Voiceover and Audio Tracks

Need to add professional narration and background music?

Finding and syncing external audio can be a tedious process. This often complicates video editing and extends production time.

Doodly lets you record voice-overs directly in the software and includes a library of royalty-free background music. This is where Doodly shines; integrating audio is straightforward and efficient, a key feature for quick production. The Enterprise plan offers 250 tracks, providing ample choices.

This means you can quickly add high-quality narration and engaging soundtracks, making your videos sound as professional as they look.

These Doodly features work together to create a complete whiteboard animation studio that is surprisingly easy to use.

Doodly Pricing

Worried about hidden software costs?

Doodly pricing is refreshingly transparent, with clear monthly and annual rates for its two main plans, making it easy to understand your commitment.

Plan	Price & Features
Standard	$39/month (or $20/month billed annually) • Unlimited video creation • 1,164 character images • 1,620 prop images • 150 royalty-free audio tracks • Standard support
Enterprise	$69/month (or $40/month billed annually) • All Standard plan features • 3,996 character images • 3,000+ prop images • 250 royalty-free audio tracks • Doodly Club access (monthly new assets)

1. Value Assessment

Great pricing transparency here.

From my cost analysis, what impressed me is how the annual billing option significantly cuts down your monthly expense, providing clear savings for long-term commitment. Doodly focuses on offering core animation features across both tiers, ensuring you get substantial value for your investment.

This means your budget gets more predictable, with distinct feature sets catering to different levels of asset needs.

2. Trial/Demo Options

Smart evaluation approach available.

Doodly doesn’t offer a free trial, but they do provide a robust 30-day money-back guarantee. What I found valuable is how this lets you fully test the software without financial risk, allowing you to create actual videos and see if it meets your needs.

This helps you evaluate the software effectively before committing to the full Doodly pricing, ensuring it fits your workflow.

3. Plan Comparison

Choosing the right tier matters.

The Standard plan is perfect for individuals or small businesses needing core doodle animation, offering a solid library of assets. However, what stands out is how the Enterprise plan expands your creative options with thousands more assets and monthly additions via Doodly Club.

This tiered approach helps you match Doodly pricing to actual usage requirements, ensuring you get the right asset volume.

My Take: Doodly’s pricing strategy offers clear tiers with significant savings for annual commitment, making it an attractive option for budget-conscious creators who want predictable costs.

The overall Doodly pricing reflects transparent value without hidden surprises for creators.

Doodly Reviews

What do Doodly users really think?

My analysis of Doodly reviews provides balanced insights into real user feedback and experiences, helping you understand what actual customers think about the software.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Users find Doodly genuinely satisfying.

From my review analysis, Doodly consistently earns high marks for its accessibility and intuitive design. What I found in user feedback is that ease of use often translates to quick results, with many beginners creating their first videos effortlessly.

This means you can expect a smooth, frustration-free start to video creation.

2. Common Praise Points

Users consistently love the ease of use.

Customers frequently praise the drag-and-drop functionality, making video creation feel incredibly straightforward. Review-wise, the extensive asset library also gets high marks, saving users significant time on design and content creation.

This implies you can create professional-looking videos quickly, even without prior experience.

3. Frequent Complaints

Some users mention limitations.

What stands out in customer feedback are occasional reports of performance lag on larger projects and a desire for more advanced animation features. From the Doodly reviews I analyzed, the core images being black and white is a frequent point of discussion.

These issues are generally considered minor, not deal-breakers for most users.

The overall Doodly reviews reflect strong user satisfaction for ease of use, despite a few common feature limitations.

Best Doodly Alternatives

Navigating the best Doodly alternatives?

The best Doodly alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different business situations and priorities.

1. VideoScribe

Prioritizing diverse pre-set hand styles and textures?

VideoScribe offers a significantly wider range of pre-set hand styles and background textures for your animations. What I found comparing options is that VideoScribe provides more visual variety through its extensive library, though Doodly allows custom font uploads.

Choose VideoScribe if extensive pre-made visual assets are crucial, or if a one-time purchase option is preferred.

2. Vyond

Need a broader range of animation styles?

Vyond provides more comprehensive animation capabilities, extending beyond whiteboard to include 2D and 3D animation, plus custom character creation. Alternative-wise, Vyond delivers advanced character customization and diverse styles, but it comes with a steeper learning curve and higher price tag than Doodly.

Consider Vyond when your needs extend beyond simple whiteboard videos to more complex, varied animations.

3. Animaker

Seeking a wider variety of animation styles with advanced features?

Animaker is a robust cloud-based tool offering diverse animation styles, advanced camera effects, and lip-syncing. From my competitive analysis, Animaker offers a broader feature set and free entry compared to Doodly’s dedicated whiteboard focus and paid plans.

Choose Animaker if you need a versatile animation tool with advanced capabilities and a free starting option.

4. Explaindio

Combining whiteboard with 2D and 3D animations?

Explaindio is an all-in-one video creator that integrates whiteboard sketches with 2D and 3D animations from a single platform. What I found comparing options is that Explaindio provides multi-animation type support alongside a competitive pricing model, though Doodly focuses more on user-friendly whiteboard experience.

Consider Explaindio if your project demands a mix of animation styles beyond just whiteboard, like 2D or 3D.

The best Doodly alternatives ultimately depend on your specific project needs and budget flexibility, not just features.

Doodly Setup

Doodly setup worries?

This Doodly review offers practical insights into its deployment, helping you understand the real-world time, resources, and challenges involved in getting it up and running for your business.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Starting with Doodly is quite straightforward.

Its installation involves downloading a desktop application for Mac or Windows, followed by an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that simplifies initial setup. From my implementation analysis, most users find the setup process incredibly easy, often taking less than an hour to get started with basic video creation, rather than days or weeks.

You’ll need to plan for a quick install and immediate creative exploration, rather than a lengthy project timeline.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Your existing setup is likely ready.

Doodly is compatible with standard Mac and PC systems, allowing installation on multiple computers without complex server requirements. What I found about deployment is that it integrates well for various video outputs, supporting different resolutions and file types for easy platform compatibility.

Prepare for basic desktop application installation; you won’t need major IT infrastructure upgrades or complex network configurations.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is remarkably smooth.

The learning curve for Doodly is minimal, thanks to its user-friendly interface that feels intuitive even for beginners. From my analysis, successful change management is largely automatic as users quickly grasp the drag-and-drop functionality and start creating engaging content without extensive training.

Invest time in exploring the provided tutorials and community groups to maximize creative potential, not to overcome system hurdles.

4. Support & Success Factors

Community and vendor support are readily available.

Doodly offers “Premium Support” with its paid plans, and an active Facebook Group provides a vast community resource for sharing creations and seeking advice. From my implementation analysis, vendor support and community engagement are strong success factors for overcoming any minor issues and expanding creative possibilities.

Plan to leverage their official tutorials and join the Facebook group; these resources significantly enhance your Doodly experience and usage.

Overall, Doodly setup is incredibly user-friendly and designed for quick, hassle-free deployment, making it accessible for almost any business or individual user.

Bottom Line

Is Doodly the right whiteboard animation tool for you?

This Doodly review offers a comprehensive look at who benefits most from its features, its strengths, and its limitations, helping you make an informed decision.

1. Who This Works Best For

Creators seeking engaging, simple video animation.

Doodly excels for marketers, educators, and content creators needing to produce engaging whiteboard, blackboard, or glassboard videos without animation expertise. From my user analysis, small to mid-sized businesses focused on explainer content find Doodly exceptionally intuitive and cost-effective for their visual communication needs.

You’ll succeed if your goal is to quickly create visually compelling content that holds attention and clarifies complex topics.

2. Overall Strengths

Unmatched ease of use simplifies video creation.

The software succeeds by offering an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, diverse canvas options, and an extensive library of custom-drawn assets, even for beginners. From my comprehensive analysis, the Smart Draw technology for custom images significantly enhances personalization without added complexity, setting Doodly apart.

These strengths mean you can produce professional-looking videos quickly and affordably, boosting engagement without requiring technical skills.

3. Key Limitations

Animation capabilities are somewhat limited.

While user-friendly, Doodly’s core images are black and white, requiring an additional purchase for color, and it lacks advanced animation features like lip-syncing. Based on this review, users needing complex character animations will find options restrictive compared to more specialized animation software on the market.

I find these limitations manageable trade-offs for its primary purpose, but they could be deal-breakers for broader animation needs.

4. Final Recommendation

Doodly earns a strong recommendation for its niche.

You should choose Doodly if your priority is creating simple, engaging whiteboard animations with minimal effort and budget. From my analysis, it offers excellent value for marketers and educators seeking to enhance engagement with accessible, unique visual content that stands out.

My confidence level is high for its target audience, but it’s important to align its capabilities with your specific animation needs.

Through this Doodly review, I’ve assessed its strong value for specific creators, highlighting its accessibility and engaging output, while noting areas where more advanced users might need alternatives.