A Loom alternative that doesn't hold your videos hostage
Loom is genuinely good at what it does: fire-and-forget async messages with instant share links. But its free plan is a trial in disguise — 25 videos, lifetime, 5 minutes each, 720p, and you can't download your own recordings or trim them. When you hit video number 26, your choice is $15+ per user per month or losing the workflow. If what you actually need is good screen recordings — not a cloud library — there's a simpler deal: record unlimited, keep everything on your machine, and export real files.
The free tiers, side by side
| Loom Free | ScreenCastKit Free | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of videos | 25, lifetime | Unlimited |
| Recording length | 5 minutes | Unlimited (exports gated at 5 min each) |
| Resolution | 720p | 1080p (4K/60 on Pro) |
| Download your file | No | That's the whole product — it's your file |
| Editing | No trim on free | Full editor: trim, split, speed, zooms, frames, webcam bubble |
| Where footage lives | Loom's cloud (Atlassian) | Your device only |
| Paid | $15–18/user/mo Business; $20–24 with AI | $9/mo · $69/yr · $119 once — no per-seat math |
Sources: loom.com/pricing and vyds.io/blog/loom-pricing, collected in our market research, July 2026.
No upload also means no upload anxiety
Every Loom recording is an upload to servers now owned by Atlassian. For plenty of teams that's fine. But it's a real purchase objection — when a competing recorder launched on Hacker News, the founder's pitch opened with exactly this: "If I don't upload my video to your servers, I cost you $0/mo" (HN thread). Client demos, unreleased features, internal dashboards, screens with tokens and customer data on them — some footage simply shouldn't transit anyone's cloud.
ScreenCastKit's answer is architectural, not a policy promise: recording, editing, and export run in your browser, and the app has no server that could receive your pixels. The only network traffic is static assets, an optional license check, and a cookieless analytics beacon. You can watch the Network tab yourself — we wrote the walkthrough. A side benefit: no upload wait. Stop recording and the editor opens instantly, because the footage never went anywhere.
And the output actually looks better
Loom captures your screen; ScreenCastKit stages it. Recordings open in an editor with a wallpaper frame, padding, rounded corners, and a shadow already applied. Add spring-animated zooms in seconds, toggle click ripples, position the webcam bubble — it shrinks automatically during zooms — then reframe the same recording to 9:16 or 1:1 for social. Free exports go to 1080p with a small watermark; Pro unlocks 4K/60, unlimited length, and GIF. For a support reply, Loom is fine. For anything a customer sees twice, the difference is obvious.
Your 26th video is free here. So is your 260th.
No account, no upload, no video counter ticking down.
Keep comparing
- Screen recorder in your browser — the full local-first pitch, with the broader comparison table.
- How to record a product demo — where the cinematic editing earns its keep.
- Watermark policy — exactly what free includes, no surprises.
FAQ
- How is your free tier different from Loom's?
- Loom free: 25 videos lifetime, 5 minutes, 720p, no downloads. ScreenCastKit free: unlimited recordings of any length, every effect, full editor — with exports gated at 1080p, 5 minutes each, and a small watermark. The gate is on polish, not on how much you record.
- Do you have share links?
- No — hosting means uploading, which would break both the privacy model and the cost model that keeps recording unlimited. You export an MP4 and share it wherever you already share files.
- Is it good for quick async messages?
- Yes — the editor opens instantly, no upload wait. If your team lives on fire-and-forget Loom links and already pays for it, keep Loom for those; use ScreenCastKit when the recording needs to look deliberate.
- Do I need an account?
- No. Record, edit, and export free without one. Pro is a license key — no login, up to 3 devices.