Ordering explainer videos on Fiverr vs making your own
Read the gig card properly first. The running time and revision limit decide everything.
A Fiverr gig buys you a person and their art, delivered in a few days. The thing to read before you buy is the small print on the card: most whiteboard gigs price by running time in short blocks — fifteen, thirty or sixty seconds — and set a revision limit that ranges from two rounds to unlimited. Making the film yourself costs 100 credits a minute, arrives in minutes, and lets you remake it as often as you like. Which is right depends on whether you want someone else to make the decisions.
The short answer
Buy the gig when you want original artwork, a human handling the voice and the timing, and you can wait a few days. Make it yourself when you want it now, expect to change your mind, or need more than one video.
The cost trap on marketplaces is not the headline price — it is the extras. Longer running time, faster delivery, a second aspect ratio, commercial use and extra revision rounds are usually separate line items, and a cheap-looking gig becomes a normal-looking price once the video is actually as long as you need.
Who each option suits
- A Fiverr gig — a one-off video where you want custom illustration or characters, and a few days to spare.
- Making it yourself — anyone who needs several videos, needs one today, or wants to rewrite the script after seeing it.
- Both — commission the signature piece, generate the everyday ones.
What the gig cards actually say
We opened five whiteboard explainer gigs on Fiverr on 13 September 2026 and read what each listing includes. Prices vary by seller and package, so we have quoted the terms the cards state plainly rather than a single figure.
| Listing (as shown on Fiverr, 13 Sep 2026) | Running time included | Revisions | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom whiteboard animation, Pro seller | 30 seconds | Unlimited | 4 days |
| Whiteboard explainer video, Level 1 seller | 30 seconds | Unlimited | 5 days |
| Fully custom whiteboard explainer, Vetted Pro | 15 seconds | 5 | 5 days |
| Whiteboard animation explainer, Top Rated seller | 60 seconds | 2 | 14 days |
| Whiteboard explainer in 12 hours | Varies by package | Varies | From 12 hours |
A typical gig against doing it yourself
This is the original element of this page: the same sixty-second brief, priced and scoped both ways, with the extras that catch people out.
- Running time is the number that moves the price on a marketplace. A gig quoting a great price for fifteen seconds is not quoting a great price for your sixty-second script.
- Revision limits are the second thing to read. Two rounds is common, and the third round is billed.
- Here, a remake is a new version at the normal per-minute price, and you see the cost before you confirm.
BRIEF: 60 seconds, one narrator, explain the service, logo at the end, portrait for social plus a landscape cut, two rounds of changes expected. ON A MARKETPLACE GIG Base package often covers 15 or 30 seconds — check the card Reaching 60 seconds usually a higher package or a per-second extra Voice over included on some gigs, an extra on others Second aspect ratio commonly an extra Faster delivery an extra Revisions 2 to unlimited depending entirely on the seller Commercial use check the card; on some gigs it is a separate right Elapsed time 4 to 14 days on the listings we read What is genuinely better: original illustration, and a person who interprets your brief MAKING IT YOURSELF 60 seconds 100 credits = £9 / US$12 Portrait and landscape 100 credits each Two rewrites after watching it 100 credits each All four of the above 400 credits = £35 / US$45 as a pack Revisions as many as you want; cost shown before each remake Commercial use yours, from the first film Elapsed time the same afternoon First minute free — 100 welcome credits that never expire THE ONE THING TO CHECK BEFORE ORDERING ANYWHERE: how long is the video, in seconds, at the price shown?
When the marketplace gig is the better choice
Order the gig when you want illustration nobody else has, characters, or a specific hand-drawn style you have seen in a seller's portfolio and fallen for. Order it when you would rather hand over the whole job — script, voice, timing — and get a file back. And order it when the video is a one-off with no follow-up: for a single film, a few days and a fixed fee is a perfectly sensible trade.
If you find a seller whose work you love, keep them. That relationship is worth more than any per-minute price.
What you get here
Write or paste a script — typed, pasted, or uploaded as a plain-text or markdown file — then choose four things: orientation (portrait 9:16 by default, landscape or square), narration voice from two female and two male options, length of 30, 60 or 120 seconds, and an optional logo.
- Length is a hard constraint on the script, and a film that comes in shorter than ordered is billed on the actual seconds with the difference refunded.
- Films are private to your account unless you opt into the public gallery, credited to the public username you choose.
- One-click MP4, expiring private share links, email sharing with saved recipients, and caption-ready hand-offs to X, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Your next step
Paste the brief you were about to send a seller and watch the sixty-second version first. It is free the first time, and it tells you exactly what to ask for if you do go and order one. See also explainer video agency or AI and credits explained.
Before you commission anything, price every route side by side in what an explainer video really costs.
Try it on your own script
Free to write and rewrite. Credits are only used when you generate.
Common questions
- How much is a Fiverr explainer video?
- It depends almost entirely on running time and extras. The gigs we read on 13 September 2026 priced base packages around 15 to 60 seconds, with longer running time, extra formats and faster delivery as separate options. Read the seconds included before you compare prices.
- How many revisions do you get?
- On the listings we read, anywhere from two rounds to unlimited, set by the seller. It is stated on the gig card.
- How fast is each route?
- Those gigs advertised delivery from 12 hours to 14 days. Generating it yourself takes minutes, with a progress timer while it renders.
- What does a minute cost here?
- 100 credits — £9 or US$12 as a one-off pack, or about £4.90 a minute on the Pro plan, and the 100 welcome credits cover your first minute.