How to Find the Perfect GIF: 10 Must-Try Websites

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Serving as snackable — and often laughable — bits of visual content, GIFs help us accurately convey our thoughts and feelings when we’re limited to virtual communication.

The trouble is, finding the perfect GIF by hunting through Google Image Search or that desktop folder of your favorites can take way more time than it’s worth.

Finding the right GIF doesn’t have to be a lengthy process, you just have to know where to look. To help, we’ve collected 10 awesome websites below that’ll help you find what you’re looking for quickly, without forcing you to lower your GIF standards.

(Or, want to create your very own GIF? Check out this tutorial to learn how to make an animated GIF in Photoshop.)

Note: Some of these websites might feature GIFs that are NSFW.

1. GIPHY

This is my go-to resource for GIF hunting. Launched by Alex Chung and Jace Cooke, GIPHY started out as a search engine for GIFs. They’ve grown GIPHY significantly by partnering with brands, introducing integrations, creating browser extensions, and much more. (To catch up on all of their expansion efforts, check out GIPHY Labs.)

The best part? Navigating the database of GIFs couldn’t be easier: Users can browse categories — Adjectives, Music, Nature, Science, etc. — or seek out a specific word or phrase using the search functionality.

2. Reddit

Reddit is like the mothership for GIFs: The community boasts not one, but several impressive GIF-related subreddits. Here are a few noteworthy ones:

While all of the different, categorized options make it easy for you to find what you need, many of these subreddits commit to a series of guidelines to refine their entries even further. For example, while “reaction gifs” and “analogy gifs” may sound pretty similar, there’s actually a difference according to the /r/reactiongif’s wiki page. Allow me to demonstrate…

Reaction GIF

I don’t know about you but when I find out payday is coming up I react like:

Image Source

Analogy GIF

When I try answering emails before my coffee, I feel like:

Image Source

As explained on the /r/reactiongif’s wiki page, “A reaction gif is a physical or emotional response that is captured in a .gif which you can link in response to someone or something on the Internet. A gif which is a metaphorical reaction to something does not qualify as a reaction gif. Generally speaking, most posts that use the term “How I Feel When” are analogy gifs.”