Loom Review | What It Does, Pricing, Alternatives, My Verdict
VIDEO · TOOL REVIEW

Loom

★★★★

The tool I use most in this category. Record, share a link, save a meeting.

CATEGORY
Screen recording
PRICE
Free / Paid
MY RATING
4.5 / 5
LINK TYPE
Affiliate
BEST FOR
Replacing meetings and long emails with a two-minute video

What it is

Loom records your screen and camera and gives you a shareable link immediately, with no export, upload or file handling.

Its value is not video production, it is communication. A two-minute recording explaining something replaces a long email or a scheduled call.

It is one of the few tools in this list I use most working days, usually to show a client something rather than describe it.

What it does

Screen and camera recording from a browser extension or desktop app, with the link ready the moment you stop.

Automatic transcription and summaries, so the recipient can read it rather than watch if they prefer.

Viewer analytics show who watched and how far, which is useful when you have sent something important.

Comments and reactions on specific timestamps, which turns a recording into a conversation rather than a broadcast.

Who it's for

01Anyone explaining something visual to a client or colleague.
02Agencies giving feedback on work.
03Teams working across time zones.
04Businesses recording internal training and processes.
05Consultants sending walkthroughs instead of holding calls.

Features

Instant share link
Ready the moment you stop recording.
Screen and camera
Both, with camera bubble positioning.
Transcription and summaries
Read instead of watching.
Viewer analytics
Who watched and how far.
Timestamped comments
Conversation on the recording.
Light editing
Trim, stitch and remove filler words.

Pros and cons

PROS
Fastest route from thought to shared explanation.
No files, exports or uploads to manage.
Replaces a meaningful number of meetings.
Transcription makes it accessible to skim-readers.
Free tier is genuinely useful.
CONS
Not a video production tool.
Free tier limits recording length and video count.
Recordings live on Loom's servers, which needs a privacy note.
Editing is minimal.
Easy to ramble, which wastes the recipient's time.

Pricing

PLAN WHAT YOU GET WORTH IT FOR
Starter Limited videos and five-minute recordings. Occasional use. Genuinely usable.
Business Unlimited recording length and videos, editing, analytics. Regular users. The tier to buy.
Business plus AI Summaries, chapters and automatic titles. Heavy users.
Enterprise SSO, admin controls and retention policies. Larger organisations.

Priced per user. The free Starter tier's five-minute limit is often enough, and the length limit is what pushes people to upgrade.

MY RECOMMENDED PLAN

Free until the five-minute limit becomes annoying, then Business. Skip the AI add-on unless you send many long recordings.

Alternatives

Zoom recording
Free if you already have it, clumsier to share.
Screen Studio
Better production quality for polished demos, Mac only.
VEED or Descript
Better if the recording needs real editing.
A written email with screenshots
Sometimes genuinely faster for the recipient.

My verdict

Loom is the tool from this category I use most, and it is not really a video tool. It is a communication tool: showing somebody a problem on their website takes ninety seconds and replaces a paragraph nobody would read carefully.

The free tier's five-minute limit is a feature disguised as a restriction. It forces brevity, and the recordings people abandon are always the long ones.

One discipline worth keeping: script the first sentence. Recordings that begin with somebody working out what to say are the reason people distrust the format.

Try Loom →

Who should use it

01Anyone explaining something visual remotely.
02Agencies giving feedback on work.
03Distributed teams across time zones.
04Businesses recording internal training.

Who should avoid it

01Anyone needing polished video production.
02Teams with policies against third-party video hosting.
03People who will ramble for fifteen minutes.
04Situations where a written summary genuinely serves better.

Affiliate disclosure

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it never changes the price you pay. It also does not decide what appears on this page: I recommend tools with no affiliate programme just as readily, and leave off tools with generous ones when they do not deserve the space.

All recommended tools Last reviewed September 2026