The best Loom alternatives in 2026, honestly ranked

1. Tella - Async video messages, when you want the share link and a better editor than Loom's

Tella is the closest like-for-like replacement, because it is the only option here that takes both halves of Loom's job seriously. You record camera, screen or both in the browser, and you get a hosted page with a share link, view tracking and a custom domain on the higher tier. What it adds on top is an editor that is genuinely better than Loom's: backgrounds, layouts, zooms and a clip-based timeline, so a recording that went wrong in the middle does not have to be redone from the top.

The catch is the one Loom has: it is a hosted service, so your recordings live on someone else's servers and the price is per person per month. If you are leaving Loom because you object to cloud video hosting rather than to Loom specifically, Tella moves the problem rather than removing it.

Pros:

• Does both halves of the job - recording and a hosted share link with analytics
• Editor is substantially better than Loom's, with backgrounds, layouts and zooms
• Annual billing is half the monthly price, a steeper discount than most

Cons:

• Cloud-hosted, so recordings upload and live on Tella's servers
• Priced per user per month, so a small team costs the same shape as Loom does
• Removing Tella branding and using a custom domain need the dearer Premium tier

Pricing: Pro $26 and Premium $39 per user a month billed monthly; the annual toggle is badged 50% off and shows $13 and $19 per user a month. Enterprise on request. (source, checked 24 August 2026).

2. Vidyard - The most usable free plan, if you send a few long videos rather than many short ones

Vidyard is aimed at sales teams, which is why its free plan is shaped so differently from Loom's and why it answers the free-alternative question better for some people. Where Loom gives you 25 videos capped at five minutes, Vidyard gives you five videos a month at up to thirty minutes each. If your videos are walkthroughs rather than quick replies, that is far more usable; if you send several short messages a day, it is far less.

It is a sales tool first, and both the product and the price show it: CRM integrations, branded sharing pages and calls to action are what it leads with, and Starter costs several times what Loom does. If you are an individual sending videos to colleagues, much of what you would be paying for is not aimed at you - which is why it is on this page for its free plan rather than as a paid Loom replacement.

Pros:

• Free plan allows 30 minutes per recording, six times Loom's five-minute cap
• Branded sharing pages, calls to action and CRM integrations on paid tiers
• 14-day trial on the paid Starter plan

Cons:

• Free plan is capped at five videos a month and does not include video hosting
• Starter is $59 to $89 per seat a month, three to five times Loom's $18, because it is priced as a sales platform rather than a recorder
• Built around a sales workflow, which is a poor fit if you are not doing sales

Pricing: Free plan (5 videos a month, up to 30 minutes each, no hosting); Starter $89 per seat a month, or $59 per seat a month billed annually, with a 14-day trial; Teams and Enterprise by quote. (source, checked 24 August 2026).

3. Screen Studio - Product demos and tutorials that need to look polished, recorded on a Mac

Screen Studio is not really a Loom competitor and is better than Loom at the thing it does. It is a native Mac recorder that automatically zooms on the cursor, smooths pointer movement and applies motion to the result, so an ordinary screen capture comes out looking like a produced demo without anyone editing it. If the reason you are leaving Loom is that your recordings look like screen recordings, this is the answer on this page.

Two things to know before you switch. It is macOS only, so it cannot serve a mixed team. And it moved from a one-time licence to a subscription - its own pricing page still answers the question of what happens to people who bought the old perpetual licence - which is worth knowing if buying once rather than renewing was the appeal.

Pros:

• Automatic zoom and cursor smoothing produce a polished result with no editing
• Native macOS app, so recording is local and fast rather than browser-based
• Yearly billing is dramatically cheaper than monthly, at $9 against $29

Cons:

• macOS only - no Windows, no Linux, no web
• Now a subscription rather than the one-time licence it used to sell
• Built around producing a polished file, so the share-and-track half of Loom's job is not its focus

Pricing: $29 a month billed monthly, or $9 a month billed yearly, with all features on both. (source, checked 24 August 2026).

4. The Screenshot toolbar and QuickTime Player - Free screen recording with no limits, when you do not need a share link

The honest answer to the free question, and the one most alternative lists skip because there is no company behind it. Shift-Command-5 opens the Screenshot toolbar on any Mac, records the whole screen or any part of it with microphone audio, and writes a file. QuickTime Player does camera recordings and basic trimming. There are no accounts, no caps, no watermarks and no monthly minutes, because there is no service.

It does the recording half only, and does it plainly. There is no share link, no viewer analytics, no camera bubble over the screen and no editing worth the name. For a great many people sending an occasional walkthrough to one colleague, a file in a shared drive is the whole requirement and this is the end of the search.

Pros:

• Genuinely free and unlimited, with no account and no watermark
• Already installed on every Mac, so nothing to evaluate or trust
• Recording stays on your machine

Cons:

• No share link, no hosting and no view tracking - you send a file
• No camera-over-screen recording, which is the shape most Loom videos take
• Editing is limited to trimming the ends

Pricing: Free, included with macOS. (source, checked 24 August 2026).

5. OBS Studio - Free and open source recording, on any platform, with full control

The answer when the requirement is specifically open source. OBS is free software for recording and live streaming, it runs on all three desktop platforms, and it will do things no hosted tool will: multiple sources composited live, camera over screen at any size, separate audio tracks, and recording at whatever bitrate you choose. Nothing is metered because nothing is hosted.

The cost is entirely in effort. OBS is a broadcast tool with a scene-and-source model that takes an afternoon to understand, and it is built for streaming rather than for sending someone a two-minute walkthrough. It has no editor, no share link and no analytics. People who love it love it; people who wanted Loom-without-the-bill often bounce off it.

Pros:

• Free and open source, on macOS, Windows and Linux
• Composites camera over screen live, which the built-in Mac tools cannot
• No account, no caps, no upload

Cons:

• Steep learning curve - scenes and sources are a broadcast concept, not a recording one
• No editor, no hosting, no share link and no analytics
• Built for live streaming, so the quick-message workflow is something you assemble yourself

Pricing: Free and open source. (source, checked 24 August 2026).

6. Descript - Recording something you then edit properly, by editing its transcript

Descript belongs here for the readers whose Loom videos keep needing a second take. It records screen and camera, transcribes what you said, and lets you cut the video by deleting words from the transcript - so the sentence you fluffed goes by selecting it and pressing delete. It also removes filler words, adds captions and publishes to a share link, which covers the delivery half too.

It is a heavier and dearer tool than Loom, and it meters. Every plan counts media minutes and AI credits, the free tier is 60 minutes a month with a watermark, and running out mid-month is the complaint that fills its review pages. If you want a quick message with a link, this is far more product than you need.

Pros:

• Edit video by editing the transcript, which is much faster than a timeline for talking-head footage
• Filler-word removal, captions and a publishable share link in one tool
• Runs on macOS and Windows as well as the web

Cons:

• Every plan meters media minutes and AI credits, and overage is the recurring complaint
• Free tier is 60 media minutes a month, exports at 720p and carries a watermark
• Cloud-based, so footage uploads before you can work on it

Pricing: Free (60 media minutes a month, 100 one-off AI credits, 720p watermarked export); Hobbyist $16 a month billed annually or $24 monthly; Creator $24 or $35; Business $50 or $65. (source, checked 24 August 2026).

What is the best free alternative to Loom?

It depends on whether you need a share link. If you do, Vidyard's free plan allows five videos a month at up to thirty minutes each, against Loom's 25 videos with screen recordings capped at five minutes - better for long walkthroughs, worse for frequent short messages. If you do not need a link, the Screenshot toolbar built into macOS records without any limit at all, and OBS Studio does the same on macOS, Windows and Linux. Both are genuinely free rather than free-tier.

Is there an open source Loom alternative?

OBS Studio is the established one: free, open source, and available on macOS, Windows and Linux. It records camera over screen, composites multiple sources and has no caps of any kind. What it does not do is the delivery half - there is no hosting, no share link and no view analytics, so you are sending a file. Self-hosted Loom-style services exist but none has the maturity of OBS on the recording side.

Why is Loom's free plan so limited?

Because hosting and streaming video costs Loom money for every minute you record and every view it serves. The free plan is capped at 25 videos with screen recordings limited to five minutes, checked 24 August 2026, and those caps are the unit economics rather than a marketing choice. Any alternative that hosts your video has the same cost structure and will meter something. Tools that record to a file on your own machine do not, which is why the free options on this page are the local ones.

What is the best Loom alternative for Mac?

For polished product demos, Screen Studio - it is macOS only and its automatic zoom makes ordinary recordings look produced. For free and unlimited recording, the Screenshot toolbar already on your Mac. For async messages with a share link, Tella has a macOS app alongside its web version. Mac-only tools cannot serve a mixed team, so if some colleagues are on Windows the answer is Tella, Vidyard, OBS or Descript.

Can I replace Loom with a tool that does not upload my video?

Only if you give up the share link. Loom's value is that a recipient clicks a URL and the video plays, and that requires the video to sit on a server somewhere. Recording locally with the macOS Screenshot toolbar, OBS or a desktop editor keeps the file on your machine, but you then have to deliver it yourself - a shared drive, an attachment, or your own hosting. There is no option that gives you an instant hosted link without uploading the video.