Every "best explainer video agency" list has the same problem: the prices are made up.
Not maliciously. Most agencies don't publish what they charge, so the people writing these lists fill the gap with estimates, or quote a directory's self-reported "minimum project size" as though it were a rate card. You end up reading a confident-looking comparison where half the numbers came from nowhere.
We took a different approach. Everything below comes from what each agency publishes on its own website, or from a verifiable third-party profile that we've labelled as such. Where an agency doesn't publish something, the entry says not published — because "we couldn't find out" is more useful to you than a guess.
That turns out to be the most revealing thing in the whole comparison. Of the ten agencies here, only five publish pricing and only five publish a turnaround time. If you're trying to budget a launch video this quarter, that's the number you actually need.
How we chose
We looked for agencies that are genuinely active in 2026, work with software and technology clients, and produce explainer, demo or launch video as a core service rather than a sideline.
This list is not ranked. It's grouped by the kind of buyer each agency actually suits, because "best" depends entirely on whether you're a Series C company briefing a brand film or a seed-stage team who needs a launch video in three weeks. Ordering those on a single scale would be dishonest.
Disclosure: Clip Masters is our studio, and we've included ourselves at number 7. We've written our own entry to the same format as everyone else's, including the parts where we come off worse — we have no Clutch reviews yet, and we're the newest team here by seven years. A list you cannot trust is worth nothing, so we'd rather you see the gaps.
The comparison at a glance
1. Thinkmojo — San Francisco & Montreal · Founded 2012 · Price: not published · Turnaround: not published · Clutch: profile with 0 reviews
2. Vidico — Melbourne, Sydney & New York · Founded 2015 · Price: not published · Turnaround: 6–8 weeks · Clutch: 4.9 from 58 reviews
3. Sandwich — Los Angeles · Founded 2009 · Price: not published · Turnaround: not published · Clutch: unclaimed, 0 reviews
4. Demo Duck — Chicago · Founded 2011 · Price: $20k–$25k animated · Turnaround: 8–12 weeks · Clutch: 5.0 from 10 reviews
5. Yum Yum Videos — Miami & Buenos Aires · Founded 2012 · Price: from $8,000 · Turnaround: 7–9 weeks · Clutch: 4.9 from 15 reviews
6. Wyzowl — Southport, UK · Founded 2011 · Price: from $2,500 · Turnaround: about 6 weeks · Clutch: 5.0 from 14 reviews
7. Clip Masters — Wolverhampton, UK · Founded 2024 · Price: from $2,500/month · Turnaround: 1–3 weeks · Clutch: no profile yet
8. Explainify — Fayetteville, Arkansas · Founded 2012 · Price: not published · Turnaround: not published · Clutch: 4.9 from 18 reviews
9. Epipheo — Cincinnati · Founded 2009 · Price: $5k–$150k+, full published matrix · Turnaround: 4–12 weeks by style · Clutch: 4.9 from 28 reviews
10. Pigeon Studio — Kraków & Warsaw · Founded around 2012 · Price: not published · Turnaround: not published · Clutch: 4.9 from 60 reviews
For enterprise and late-stage brand work
1. Thinkmojo
Based San Francisco and Montreal. Founded 2012 by their own account; Clutch says 2011.
Brand launches, product explainers and campaign films for large software companies. Their published client list is the strongest here: Salesforce, Zendesk, Square, MuleSoft, Rubrik, Discord, Cloudera, Bill.com and Calendly. They joined the 2026 Inc. 5000 at number 1,873 on 189% three-year growth, so this is a business in expansion.
Pricing not published. Turnaround not published.
Worth knowing: they have a Clutch profile with zero reviews. That is not a knock on the work — plenty of good agencies never chase reviews — but if you compare star ratings across this list, theirs is not there to compare.
Suits funded B2B software companies who want a blue-chip production partner and are comfortable with a bespoke quote.
2. Vidico
Based Melbourne, Sydney and New York. Founded 2015.
The highest-volume operator on this list — they claim 920+ clients and name TikTok, Square, Spotify, Vimeo, Amazon, Uber and Samsung. Explainers, commercials, motion graphics and short-form, with Australian and US timezone coverage.
Pricing not published; a quiz routes you to a quote. Turnaround 6–8 weeks including feedback, with up to four of those weeks in pre-production.
Worth knowing: Vidico's blog carries a lot of dollar figures about video production costs. Those are industry averages they have compiled, not their own rates — easy to misread.
Suits funded SaaS companies wanting an ongoing multi-format content partner rather than a one-off film.
3. Sandwich
Based Los Angeles. Founded 2009.
The most distinctive voice in tech video — cinematic, funny, director-led. "Your product is complex, but we make it seem simple." They have been making launch films for Silicon Valley since 2009 and the house style is genuinely recognisable, which is rare.
Pricing not published. Turnaround not published. Their Clutch profile exists but is unclaimed with no reviews.
Suits companies commissioning one brand-defining film with real personality, rather than a content pipeline. If you want the video people talk about, this is the shortlist.
For mid-market buyers who want budget clarity
4. Demo Duck
Based Chicago. Founded 2011.
Unusually broad stylistically — 2D, 3D, cel, stop motion, live action, papercraft and screencasting. Clients include Dropbox, GoFundMe, Google, Netflix, Rippling, Northwestern Mutual and FEMA.
Pricing published in prose: higher-end animated explainers "run in the $20,000–$25,000 range", live action "$35,000–50,000+", scripted live action up to "$40,000 to $60,000+". Turnaround 8–10 weeks standard for animation, 10–12 including revisions.
Suits US mid-market and enterprise teams who want stylistic range and a studio that will talk budget honestly before you are on a call.
5. Yum Yum Videos
Based Miami, with production in Buenos Aires. Founded 2012.
Classic 2D animated explainers and product demos, with sector focus in SaaS, healthcare and fintech. Names Google, Amazon, Thermo Fisher, American Express, Red Bull and Bayer, with case studies for Chargebee, DocuSign and BetterUp.
Pricing published: from $8,000. Turnaround published: 7–9 weeks.
Worth knowing: their Clutch profile lists a $10,000+ minimum, which does not match the $8,000 on their own site. Ask which applies to you.
Suits buyers who want both price and timeline stated before the first conversation. Of the larger studios here, they are the most upfront.
6. Wyzowl
Based Southport, UK. Founded 2011.
Over 4,000 videos for 2,000+ companies in 40+ countries, and the publisher of the annual State of Video Marketing report that half this industry cites. Fixed-price model.
Pricing published: from $2,500 for explainers and from $2,000 for demos — the lowest published per-project entry point on this list. Turnaround about 6 weeks.
Worth knowing: the page actually titled "explainer video pricing" contains no prices. The figures live on the homepage and service pages.
Suits budget-conscious B2B teams who want a predictable fixed price and do not need bespoke art direction.
For speed and early-stage launches
7. Clip Masters
Based Wolverhampton, UK. Founded 2024.
That is us. We make explainer, launch and product videos for SaaS and AI companies across the UK and US — 25+ brands since 2024. Our whole operating model is built around turnaround: an operations manager owns delivery across every live project, project managers run the creative team, and a dedicated client success manager exists purely so nobody waits days for a reply while someone is head-down in After Effects.
Pricing from $2,500 per month on a retainer. Turnaround 1–3 weeks for most projects.
Worth knowing: our entry price is a monthly retainer, not a per-video fee, so it is not directly comparable to the per-project figures elsewhere on this page. Depending on how much you ship, that works out cheaper or more expensive than a one-off — ask us and we will tell you honestly which applies to you. We are also the newest studio here by seven years, with no Clutch reviews yet, so you are taking more on trust than you would with Epipheo or Pigeon Studio. Judge us on the work and ask for references.
Suits seed to Series B software companies with a launch date, who need the video before the launch rather than after it.
8. Explainify
Based Fayetteville, Arkansas according to Clutch; they publish no address on their own site. Founded 2012.
Strategy-led animated explainers with a focus on genuinely difficult propositions — B2B tech, fintech, biotech and life sciences. Named clients include American Red Cross, Hotjar, Alteryx and Coder.
Pricing not published; they route you to a consultation. Clutch lists a $5,000+ minimum, which is a self-reported directory field rather than a published price. Turnaround not published — their FAQ says timelines vary by scope.
Suits companies whose product is hard to explain and who want the thinking as much as the animation.
For deep specialism and craft
9. Epipheo
Based Cincinnati. Founded 2009.
The most transparent agency on this list, by a distance. They publish a full cost matrix by style and length, a stated $15k production minimum, payment terms and turnaround per format. They also pioneered the category, and since 2021 they have been 100% employee-owned through an ESOP, which is genuinely unusual in this industry.
Pricing published in detail: 2D animation $15k–$45k, motion graphics $10k–$35k, 3D $35k–$120k, live action $40k–$250k, whiteboard $8k–$25k. Tiers run $5k–$25k, $25k–$75k and $75k+. Turnaround published per style: whiteboard 4–6 weeks, 2D and motion graphics 5–6, 3D 8–10, live action 6–12.
Suits enterprise buyers who want to know the budget and the schedule before booking a call. If transparency is what you are optimising for, start here.
10. Pigeon Studio
Based Kraków and Warsaw, Poland. Founded around 2012; their site says only "over a decade".
The strongest craft offering here — character animation, cel animation, 3D, motion design and game trailers. Clients include Microsoft, IKEA, Vinted, T-Mobile, Philips, McDonald's and Honda, plus agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi and McCann who use them as a white-label production partner. At 60 Clutch reviews they have the deepest independent review record on this list.
Pricing not published — the cost figures on their blog are explicitly industry benchmarks, not their rates. Turnaround not published.
Note: they now brand as "Pigeon Studio" rather than "Studio Pigeon", though the domain has not changed.
Suits buyers who want artistic range beyond standard corporate 2D, and agencies needing a production partner with a European cost base.
What this actually tells you
Most of this industry will not tell you what it costs. Five of the ten publish nothing at all. Epipheo, Demo Duck, Yum Yum, Wyzowl and ourselves publish something; everyone else routes you to a call. That is a legitimate business choice, because scope genuinely varies. But if you are building a budget before you have approval to talk to vendors, those five are where you can actually start.
Turnaround varies by a factor of ten, and almost nobody advertises it. Published times run from 1–3 weeks at the fast end to 12 weeks at the slow end. If you have a launch date, this is the single most important number on this page, and half of these agencies do not state it anywhere.
Review counts are not quality, but absence is worth noticing. Pigeon Studio has 60 Clutch reviews, Vidico 58, Epipheo 28. Thinkmojo and Sandwich have marquee client lists and no reviews at all. Neither fact tells you whether the work is good. It tells you how much independent evidence exists before you commit.
How to actually choose
Start with your deadline, not your budget. It is the harder constraint. If you need a video live in a month, most of this list is out regardless of what you can pay.
Then match the work to the job. A launch film that has to make people feel something is a different brief from an explainer that has to make a feature legible. Sandwich and Thinkmojo are built for the former; Explainify and Yum Yum for the latter.
Watch how they answer the budget question. Not whether the number is low, but whether you get a straight answer quickly. It tells you what the rest of the engagement will feel like.
Ask to speak to a client from the last six months. Portfolios are the highlight reel. A recent reference tells you what the process was actually like, including what went wrong.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an explainer video cost in 2026?
Based on published figures from the agencies here, per-project entry points start around $2,500 (Wyzowl) and $8,000 (Yum Yum Videos), while retainers start around $2,500 a month (Clip Masters). Mid-market animated explainers typically land in the $15,000–$25,000 range (Demo Duck, Epipheo). Cinematic and live-action work runs from $40,000 upward. Anything more precise depends on length, style and revision rounds.
How long does an explainer video take?
Published turnarounds on this list run from 1–3 weeks to 12 weeks. The spread comes down to pre-production: Vidico, for example, states that up to four of its six-to-eight weeks go on pre-production before animation starts.
Should I choose an agency in my own timezone?
It matters more than people expect, but not because of the animation — because of feedback rounds. A revision cycle that takes a day in-timezone can take three across a twelve-hour gap. Several agencies here run multiple offices specifically to solve this.
Is a cheaper explainer video worse?
Not necessarily, but you are usually buying less: fewer revision rounds, less strategic input, more template-driven animation. The honest question is not "is this good" but "what am I not getting at this price" — and that is a fair thing to ask any agency on this list directly.
Do I need an agency at all?
If you need one simple screen-recorded demo, probably not. Agencies earn their fee when the product is hard to explain, when the video has to carry a launch, or when you need a consistent run of content rather than a single asset.
Last updated September 2026. All pricing, turnaround and review figures are taken from each agency's own website or its public Clutch profile at time of writing, and are labelled where they come from a third party. Figures change — check the source before you budget. Clip Masters is our own studio; see the disclosure near the top.
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