Whiteboard Video or an Animated Slideshow?
The low-effort option most teams reach for first, compared honestly with a drawn explainer.
An animated slideshow is a deck with motion: your slides, transitions and often a recorded voiceover. A whiteboard explainer video is a drawn story with narration, built to hold attention from a stranger. Slideshows are cheaper and faster for internal updates. AutoScribble produces a narrated whiteboard explainer video from a written script, at 100 credits for each finished minute.
The short answer
Use an animated slideshow when the audience already has a reason to watch: an internal update, a training refresher, a webinar recording. Use a whiteboard explainer video when the audience has no reason to watch yet and you have to earn the next thirty seconds. The difference is not polish. It is whether the visuals carry an argument or simply hold your bullet points still.
Who each option suits
Our judgement, based on what each format is built to do:
- Animated slideshow — internal updates, board packs, course modules, conference talks, anything where your audience is already in the room.
- Whiteboard explainer video — homepage videos, sales follow-ups, ads, onboarding, anything a stranger chooses whether to watch.
- Both — a slideshow for the detailed internal version, a 60-second sketch explainer for the public one.
Sourced comparison
Slideshow figures are from each company own pricing page, checked 13 September 2026: Canva lists a Free plan at US$0 and paid Individuals plans on its plans and pricing page, and Google Slides is included with a free Google account. AutoScribble figures come from our live plan and credit-pack records, checked 13 September 2026. The time estimates are our judgement, not measured research.
| Animated slideshow | Whiteboard explainer video | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | US$0 on Canva Free or Google Slides; paid Canva Individuals plans are listed on canva.com/pricing (checked 13 September 2026) | 100 credits per finished minute: GBP 9 / US$12 for 100 credits, or about GBP 4.90 a minute on the Pro plan at GBP 49 / US$65 for 1,000 credits |
| What you hand over | Slides you design, one at a time | A written script or a paragraph of idea |
| What comes back | A deck that plays; narration is yours to record | A finished narrated MP4 in your private library |
| Narration | You record it, or you skip it | Chosen from two female and two male voices |
| Your time per finished minute | Our judgement: one to three hours designing slides, plus recording | Our judgement: minutes of writing, then the film is produced for you |
| Holds a stranger attention | Our judgement: rarely past the second slide | Our judgement: the drawing itself is the reason people stay |
The same content, both ways
Here is one paragraph of real content, written for each format, so you can see exactly what the sketch adds and what it costs you. Copy whichever version fits.
As a slideshow (4 slides, you narrate):
Slide 1 — Title: "Why invoices get paid late" Slide 2 — Bullet list: no clear due date / no reminder / no easy way to pay Slide 3 — Chart: average 41 days to payment Slide 4 — Title: "Fix all three in one step" + logo Your job: design four slides, record about 45 seconds of narration, export. Typical result: correct, calm, and skipped by anyone who is not already a customer.
The same content as a whiteboard explainer
Paste this into AutoScribble, choose 30 seconds, and the same argument arrives drawn and narrated. The cost is 50 credits.
Most invoices are not late because the customer cannot pay. They are late because nobody told them clearly when to pay. Three things go wrong: the due date is buried, no reminder ever arrives, and paying takes more than one click. Fix those three and the average forty-one days becomes a fortnight. That is the whole product. One page, three fixes, paid faster.
When a slideshow is the better choice
A slideshow wins whenever the detail is the point. If your audience needs the table, the caveats and the footnotes, a drawn explainer will frustrate them: it moves at narration speed and cannot be scanned. Slideshows also win when you need to change one number every month, when the content is confidential to a room, and when you already have a deck that does the job.
What you get from AutoScribble
You type or paste an idea or a full script. You choose four things: orientation (portrait, landscape or square), a narration voice, a length of 30, 60 or 120 seconds, and optionally your logo. The finished film lands in your private library to watch, download as an MP4 and share by link. Videos stay private unless you choose to add them to the public gallery. A new account starts with 100 welcome credits that never expire, which is one finished minute.
Next step
Take the four bullet points from your current deck, write them as sentences someone would say out loud, and paste them in. Thirty seconds is usually enough to find out whether the idea holds attention when it is drawn rather than listed.
Try it on your own script
Free to write and rewrite. Credits are only used when you generate.
Common questions
- Is an animated slideshow good enough for a homepage video?
- Our judgement: usually not. A slideshow asks the viewer to read while someone talks, which works when they are already committed and fails when they are deciding whether to stay. A drawn explainer video gives the eye something to follow, which is what earns the next thirty seconds.
- What does a whiteboard explainer video cost compared with a slideshow?
- A slideshow can cost nothing but your time: Canva lists a free plan and Google Slides comes with a free Google account (checked 13 September 2026). A whiteboard explainer video from AutoScribble costs 100 credits per finished minute, which is GBP 9 / US$12 for 100 credits, or about GBP 4.90 a minute on the Pro plan at GBP 49 / US$65 for 1,000 credits.
- Can I turn my existing deck into an explainer video?
- Yes. Take the narrative of the deck, not the slides, and write it as spoken sentences. Paste that in as your script, choose 30, 60 or 120 seconds, and the film is produced from it. Our page on turning a deck into video goes through it step by step.
- How long should the explainer version be?
- Sixty seconds suits most homepage and sales explainers, which is 100 credits. Thirty seconds suits social and ads at 50 credits. Two minutes suits onboarding and training at 200 credits.
- Do I have to record the narration myself?
- No. Narration is generated from your script in one of four voices, two female and two male, chosen before the film is made.