Why your GIFs usually look bad
Most one-click MP4-to-GIF tools take the easy path: pick a 256-color palette once, then map every frame to it. The result is the muddy, banded look you have seen in 80% of GIFs on the web. This tool runs FFmpeg's two-pass pipeline — generate a per-clip palette first, then apply it with Bayer dithering. The output is sharper, the colors are closer to the source, and the file is usually smaller too. The trade-off is that it takes a few seconds longer, which is fine because the conversion is local.
How to keep the GIF small
GIFs are uniquely terrible at compression — every frame stores its own pixel data. Two knobs matter most: frame rate and width. Drop frame rate to 12–15 fps if the source is a screen recording (it will look identical to the eye). Cap width at 640 px for Slack and Twitter — almost no one views in HD. The defaults on this page are tuned for that case. For a 10-second screen recording, expect roughly a 2–4 MB GIF.
When you should not use a GIF at all
For anything over 10 seconds, an MP4 is smaller, sharper, and now plays inline in every major chat app and CMS. The classic "GIF in Slack" reflex is a habit from when video did not auto-play. If your goal is to share a quick demo, Clipy gives you a hosted MP4 link with an inline preview that beats any GIF you can make from it.
Common workflow
Record a short bug-repro or product walkthrough → if you only need a static-looking illustration for a doc, run it through this tool → drop the GIF into Notion, Linear, or a README. For everything else (Slack, email, customer support), keep it as MP4 and share the link.