Apps Like TikTok: The 6 Best Alternatives in 2023

Best for Original Content: Snapchat

Snapchat is another platform that was doing the video thing long before TikTok had its moment. The app lets you create short videos, though they're designed to disappear after a short time, so they don't have the same staying power or impact as a TikTok video, but it does offer significantly more privacy. Snapchat allows you to add text, doodles, and gifs to your video creations.

In addition to making your own Snaps, the app has a Discover page for watching other people's videos and Snap Originals, which are premium videos created expressly for Snapchat users. While not exactly TikTok fare, they include unscripted shows, docuseries, and even serialized dramas and comedies.

Download For:

Most Powerful Video Editor: Funimate

Funimate would be a little more fun if it didn't lean so hard into trying to monetize you. When you install the app you get the option to customize the ad experience, and many of the app's core features are behind a paywall. In fact, you're offered the opportunity to upgrade to the Pro version frequently, and you need to watch ads to use certain features.

If you can put all that aside, Funimate is a great short-form video creator, as evidenced by many of the sophisticated-looking creator-community videos you can browse within the app.

Indeed, when you try to create a video, you find that you can just start recording, or choose from a slew of templates to make your video distinctive. Yes, many of them look like effects from a video yearbook, but they add a splash of excitement to what might otherwise be an ordinary lip-synch video. You can select from Funimate's music library or your own songs, and it's one of the few apps that has its own surprisingly powerful video editor, if you choose to use it. 

Download For:

Alternative with the Largest User Base: Instagram Reels

Instagram is no newcomer to the social media world, and users have been able to post videos for years. You have the option to post live videos, add video to an Instagram Story, and now there's a new feature called Instagram Reels.

Reels lets you record and edit video montages up to 60 seconds long made from a single video or a series of clips. You can add a soundtrack from a library of options and add a suite of visual effects.

Finding Instagram Reels in the first place is a challenge, and unless you use it all the time, you'll probably forget it's there. Once you find it, though, it works roughly the same as TikTok and it's a good alternative since it shares the same effects and editing tools as Instagram Stories. In addition, you can explore Reel's augmented reality tools that combine graphics with video. 

Download For:

Best for Celebrity Content: Triller

Triller is popular and growing fast, thanks in part to a number of celebrities, both musicians and comedians, who call it home. There's an enormous number of celebs here, including Justin Bieber, Kevin Hart, Cardi B, and a boxing match featuring Mike Tyson. Between the big names and enormous community of creators, there's no shortage of content.

That might be because the app is so easy to use. It distinguishes between music videos and social videos, and you choose which kind you're making right at the outset.

From there, social videos can include video clips from your camera roll and filters, but no other effects, text or stickers. To make a music video, you select a track from Triller's generous library or a song from your phone. It's fast, easy, and fun. 

Download For:

From the Creators of Vine: Huddles

Remember Byte? Huddles is brought to you by the folks behind that once-popular video app that made six-second videos, and it has a simple almost-TikTok-like interface for creating short looping videos.

You can import videos you've already made or record within the app, which has a super-helpful fuel gauge at the top of the screen that fills in spurts as you record your clips. You can add text and music, but you can't edit a clip once it's recorded, nor does it offer anything in the way of filters.

Huddles has what appears to be a thriving community, and you can subscribe to a huge variety of video channels with themes like comedy, Minecraft, K-pop, and, well, many more.  

Download For: