GIF Brewery was the default answer to “how do I make GIFs on a Mac” for the better part of a decade. Then Gfycat bought it, Gfycat shut down in 2023, and the app has been sitting abandoned ever since. No updates, no support, and every new macOS release is another roll of the dice on whether it still launches.
If you’re here, you probably just discovered that the hard way. I went through the same search — I’m a wedding photographer, and animated moments are part of every gallery I deliver — so here’s what I actually found, sorted by what you’re making GIFs from. That distinction matters more than any feature list.
What happened to GIF Brewery?
Short version: GIF Brewery 3 was acquired by Gfycat, went free, and development effectively stopped. When Gfycat closed down in September 2023, the app lost its home for good. You can still find old copies floating around, but there’s no official download, no fixes, and no one to email when it breaks.
Abandoned software isn’t neutral — it decays. Every macOS update moves the ground underneath it. So even if your old copy still runs today, you’re one system update away from needing a replacement anyway.
The quick answer
| If you make GIFs from… | Use | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Burst photos in Lightroom | Burst2GIF | Free / $29 once |
| Screen recordings | GIPHY Capture or Kap | Free |
| Video files (quality matters) | Gifski | Free |
| Video files (quick and dirty) | ezgif.com | Free (web) |
| Layered compositions | Photoshop | Subscription |
Now the honest detail on each.
1. Burst2GIF — if your GIFs start as photos
Full disclosure up front: I built this one. I’m a wedding photographer, making 15-20 GIFs per wedding gallery used to cost me two hours in Photoshop, and GIF Brewery never solved my actual problem — my source material isn’t video, it’s burst photos sitting in Lightroom with edits applied.
Burst2GIF is a Lightroom Classic plugin. You select the burst in your Library, get a live preview with FPS control (it reads the real frame timing from EXIF data), and export MP4 or GIF without leaving Lightroom. Your color grade, crop, and every develop edit carries over, because it renders from Lightroom itself — no JPEG export roundtrip.
- Best for: photographers with burst sequences — weddings, family sessions, sports, pets
- Doesn’t do: video-to-GIF conversion or screen recording. Photos only.
- Price: free version (10 exports), $29 one-time for unlimited. macOS, Lightroom Classic 10+. Windows version is on the roadmap.
If you don’t use Lightroom, skip to the next one — this tool isn’t for you, and I’d rather tell you that here than have you find out after downloading it.
2. GIPHY Capture — if your GIFs start as screen recordings
Free, simple, from the GIPHY team, and it does one thing: record a portion of your screen and save it as a GIF. If GIF Brewery was your tool for capturing app demos or short clips of your screen, this is the closest free replacement with a company still behind it.
- Best for: screen recordings, quick demos, tutorials
- Watch out for: it’s built to funnel content toward GIPHY’s platform, and export options are basic
- Price: free, Mac App Store
3. Kap — the open-source screen recorder
Same use case as GIPHY Capture, but open source, with more export formats (GIF, MP4, WebM, APNG) and a plugin system. It’s the one I’d recommend to anyone technical.
- Best for: screen recordings when you want format control
- Price: free, open source
4. Gifski — if quality is the whole point
Gifski converts video files to GIFs with noticeably better color handling than most converters — it uses the full color palette per frame instead of one global palette. Drag a video in, set size and FPS, done. It’s also open source and free.
This is the closest thing to a direct GIF Brewery replacement for the video-to-GIF use case, minus the trimming and captioning tools.
- Best for: video clips where the GIF needs to look good, not just exist
- Doesn’t do: editing, text overlays, effects — it’s a converter, not an editor
- Price: free, Mac App Store
5. ezgif.com — the everything-web-tool
Not a Mac app, but it deserves a spot because it replaced GIF Brewery’s “misc” duties for a lot of people: trim, resize, reverse, add text, convert video to GIF, optimize file size. Runs in the browser, free, no install.
Two real caveats. First, you’re uploading your files to someone else’s server — fine for a meme, questionable for client work. Second, everything is manual: export files, upload, configure, download, repeat. It’s fine once, it’s painful weekly. I wrote a full comparison of ezgif vs Burst2GIF if your source material is photos.
- Best for: occasional one-off GIF jobs of any kind
- Price: free
6. Photoshop — if you already live in it
The Timeline panel in Photoshop can build frame animations from layers, and it’s still the most controllable way to make a GIF — masks, text, effects, per-frame timing. It’s also 12 steps and 15-20 minutes per GIF, which is why entire tools exist to avoid it. I documented the whole workflow in my Photoshop GIF export guide.
- Best for: composited or heavily designed GIFs
- Price: part of Adobe Creative Cloud
How to choose
Ask one question: what’s your source material?
- Burst photos in Lightroom → Burst2GIF
- Screen → GIPHY Capture (simple) or Kap (control)
- Video file → Gifski (quality) or ezgif (speed)
- A design → Photoshop
GIF Brewery tried to be several of these at once, which is exactly why no single app replaced it. The good news: for each individual job, the replacement is better than GIF Brewery ever was.
Ready to Turn Your Burst Photos Into GIFs?
Burst2GIF works directly inside Lightroom Classic. Select your burst photos, click export, and get a smooth GIF or MP4 in seconds.
