If you're serious about growing on YouTube, you need awesome custom thumbnails. It's truly a non-negotiable. 90% of the best-performing videos have custom thumbnails.
While it's true that you can't "judge a book by its cover," it's also true that you won't even give your viewers a chance to "judge" your video if your thumbnail doesn't get them to click.
Here's the problem with YouTube thumbnails though. They take a lot of time to make, and most people aren't very good at making them.
So, hiring someone to create them for you is an amazing growth hack if your budget affords it.
Fortunately for us, there are several providers who create YouTube thumbnails for clients. Here are the top YouTube thumbnail design services currently on the market.
Note: There are countless design services, and many of them can facilitate thumbnail designs. I've included just the services here that seem to specialize in thumbnails. If you want a service that provides a broader selection of design services, I recommend a service like Design Pickle.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion:
Custom Thumbnails is the service that I currently use for outsourcing my Thumbnail design, and I do recommend it to anyone who wants quality thumbnails in a reasonable time frame.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion:
Video Zeus offers a thumbnail specific service, but they don't make it easy to find. It's not directly available from their main page, but you can learn more about it at https://www.videozeus.com/youtube-thumbnail-service.html.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion:
Tasty Edits is a video editing service first, but they also create great thumbnail designs. If you want a solution for both video editing and thumbnails, this might be your best bet. They do videos for some very successful channels like The Anatomy Lab (7.2 million subs) and Film Cooper (956K subs)
Pros
Cons
Conclusion:
Dava Marketing offers several services, including thumbnail design. They boast the most robust collection of high profile clients, but their pricing matches this high value with plans starting at $299/month for just 1 design per week. If you don't have designs ready to request, it might be hard to get as much bang for your buck as possible with this model.
They handle thumbnail design for massive YouTubers like Unspeakable (17 million subs) and StarTalk with Neil Degrasse Tyson (2.88 million subs).
Pros
Cons
Conclusion:
Divine Technology offers a great option for people who want multiple variations of their designs. The drawback is the packaging is a la carte and sold as single bundles with no subscription option.
Overview of Thumbnail Design Service Pricing
Here's a quick summary of the pricing and deliverability timelines for each of the thumbnail design programs I've mentioned.
Enter your text here... | Cost for Single Thumbnail | Lowest AVG Thumbnail Price on Plans | Other Services? | Base Level Turnaround | Highest Level Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Custom Thumbnails | $47 | $17 | Yes. Various design types. | 24-48 hours | 24-48 hours |
Video Zeus | $29 | $13 | No | > 48 hours | > 48 hours |
Tasty Edits | $30 | $24 | Yes. They are a video editing service. | >24 hours | >24 hours |
Dava Marketing | ~$80 | ~$80 | Many custom editing services. | >24 hours | >24 hours |
Divine Technology | ~$25 | ~$25 | Yes. Various design types. | 3 days | 24 hours (costs $30) |
Non-Agency Options for Outsourcing YouTube Thumbnails
Looking for a one off design or someone that isn't a full scale YouTube thumbnail agency? Try these options...
- Fiverr - The gold standard for years for one off projects. They have 100s of thumbnail designers of varying skill and price levels.
- Upwork - A good place to find a long term thumbnail creator.
- Social Media Search - If you want to go off the beaten bath, there are a lot of freelance YouTube thumbnail creators that advertise their services on X and other platforms.
Alright, let me know down in the comments if there are any services I missed!