I'm a wedding photographer, animated moments are part of every gallery I deliver, and I went through this exact search. Here's what I found, sorted by what you actually make GIFs from - because that distinction matters more than any feature list.

The quick answer

1. Burst2GIF - if your GIFs start as photos

Full disclosure up front: I built this one. My source material isn't video - it's burst photos sitting in Lightroom with edits applied, and GIF Brewery never solved that. Burst2GIF is a Lightroom Classic plugin: select the burst in your Library, preview the animation with FPS control (it reads real frame timing from EXIF), and export MP4 or GIF without leaving Lightroom. Your color grade and crop carry over because it renders from Lightroom itself.

Free version has 10 exports, the paid license is a one-time $29. And if you don't use Lightroom, skip to the next one - this tool is not for you.

2. GIPHY Capture and Kap - for screen recordings

GIPHY Capture is free, simple, and records a portion of your screen straight to GIF. Kap is the open-source pick with more export formats (GIF, MP4, WebM, APNG). If GIF Brewery was your app-demo tool, either replaces it.

3. Gifski - if quality is the whole point

Gifski converts video to GIF with noticeably better color handling than most converters - full palette per frame instead of one global palette. Free, open source, and the closest direct replacement for the video-to-GIF use case. It's a converter, not an editor.

4. ezgif.com - the everything web tool

Trim, resize, reverse, captions, video-to-GIF, all free in the browser. Two caveats: you're uploading files to someone else's server (fine for memes, questionable for client work), and everything is manual every time. I wrote a detailed comparison of the workflow tradeoffs on my blog.

How to choose

Ask one question: what's your source material? Burst photos in Lightroom point to Burst2GIF, screen goes to GIPHY Capture or Kap, video files go to Gifski or ezgif, and designed compositions still belong to Photoshop. GIF Brewery tried to be several of these at once, which is exactly why no single app replaced it - but for each individual job, the replacement is better than GIF Brewery ever was.

The full breakdown with all six tools and a comparison table lives on my blog: GIF Brewery Alternatives for Mac in 2026