Screen recording has become central to how teams communicate, whether you're walking a colleague through a bug or sending a personalized pitch to a prospect. Loom and Vidyard both let you capture your screen and face, but they solve different problems. Loom is built for quick internal communication and collaboration, while Vidyard is a sales and marketing platform disguised as a screen recorder. If you've been treating them as interchangeable, you're likely paying for features you don't use or missing the ones you need. This review compares how they actually work in 2026 and who should pick which.
At a glance
What it is: Two screen recorders with opposing design philosophies - Loom for team async updates, Vidyard for sales outreach. Best for: Loom suits internal teams and customer support; Vidyard fits sales and demand-gen teams tracking every click. Pricing: Loom Business starts at $15 per user per month; Vidyard Starter costs significantly more. Strength: Loom records in seconds with zero setup; Vidyard identifies individual viewers and sends watch data to your CRM. Limitation: Loom's free plan caps videos at 5 minutes and 720p; Vidyard's interface prioritizes metrics over simplicity.
What each tool actually does
Loom treats screen recording as a replacement for meetings and Slack threads. You hit record, talk through your point, and share a link. The entire workflow assumes you're explaining something to a teammate or documenting a process. The interface is stripped down - screen, camera, mic, done. You get basic trimming, light drawing tools, and the ability to add a password or restrict access by email. Loom is generally preferred for quick, internal asynchronous communication, like explaining a design decision or showing someone how a feature broke.
Vidyard is a sales video platform that happens to include screen recording. It exists to help you send personalized videos to prospects, track who watched what, and push that data into Salesforce or HubSpot. When you record in Vidyard, you're not just making a video - you're creating an engagement event. The platform shows you watch time, re-watches, drop-off points, and viewer identity if they arrived via email or a trackable link. Vidyard also offers AI-generated avatar videos, custom CTAs embedded in the player, and integrations that log every view as a CRM activity.
The free tiers tell the story. Loom's free plan gives you 25 videos, each capped at 5 minutes and 720p resolution. Vidyard's free plan allows 4K recording and includes 15 AI-generated videos per month, but the real value is in the analytics and CRM sync you unlock on paid tiers.
How they work in real use
Recording in Loom is instant. Install the browser extension or desktop app, click the icon, choose screen-only or screen-plus-camera, and hit start. You get a three-second countdown, then you're recording. When you finish, Loom uploads in the background and copies a shareable link to your clipboard. The entire flow takes about ten seconds after you stop talking. I used Loom to record onboarding walkthroughs for a client project, and the speed mattered - I could record a fix, paste the link in Slack, and move on without switching contexts.
Vidyard adds steps. After recording, you name the video, choose a thumbnail, decide whether to add a CTA button, and pick which library or campaign to file it under. If you're sending it via email, Vidyard generates a GIF thumbnail that plays inline. The platform tracks when the recipient opens the email, when they click play, and how much they watch. For a sales rep sending 20 videos a week, this data is the point. For someone just trying to show a teammate where a button is, it's overhead.
The viewing experience differs too. A Loom link opens a clean player with optional comments threaded by timestamp. Viewers can react with emoji, leave text feedback, or skip to specific moments. It feels collaborative. A Vidyard link opens a player that may include a lead-capture form, a CTA button, and tracking pixels. It feels transactional, because it is.
Who each tool fits
Loom makes sense if your team works asynchronously across time zones, if you're in customer support and need to show users how to solve their own problems, or if you're a product manager documenting bugs and feature requests. The Business plan costs around $15 per user per month when billed monthly, which is reasonable for tools replacing Zoom calls. Loom also works for onboarding, training, and design review - any scenario where the goal is clarity, not conversion.
Vidyard is purpose-built for revenue teams. If you're an account executive doing cold outreach, a customer success manager nurturing enterprise accounts, or a marketer running video campaigns, Vidyard gives you the data to know what's working. The platform integrates deeply with Salesforce and HubSpot, logging every view and engagement metric as a contact activity. You can see which prospects watched your demo, which accounts are re-watching pricing videos, and which leads dropped off after 12 seconds. That intelligence changes how you follow up.
Vidyard also suits demand-gen teams embedding video in email campaigns, on landing pages, or in automated sequences. The AI avatar feature lets you create dozens of personalized videos without recording each one manually - you type a script, pick a voice, and Vidyard generates a video with your likeness. It's uncanny-valley territory, but for high-volume outreach, it scales in a way Loom never could.
Where it falls short
Loom's free plan is more constrained than it looks
The 5-minute cap per video on Loom's free tier sounds fine until you try to record a walkthrough that takes six minutes. You either split it into two parts or upgrade. The 720p resolution limit also shows up in product demos - text on screen looks fuzzy, especially on Retina displays. If you're recording for external use or anything that needs to look polished, the free plan doesn't cut it. The 25-video total library cap means you have to delete old videos to make room for new ones, which defeats the point if you're building a knowledge base.
Vidyard's interface prioritizes data over speed
Vidyard makes you think about distribution and tracking before you've even finished recording. The post-record workflow - naming, tagging, choosing thumbnails, adding CTAs - slows you down if all you wanted was a quick screen share. The dashboard is organized around campaigns, libraries, and analytics reports, which makes sense for a sales ops manager but feels heavy if you just need to record and send. The learning curve is real, and if your team doesn't care about heatmaps or viewer identification, you're navigating a tool built for someone else.
Neither tool handles large file collaboration well
Both platforms upload videos to their own cloud and give you a link. If you need to download the raw file and edit it in Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, you're stuck with whatever export quality they offer. Loom lets you download in 720p or 1080p depending on your plan, but the file is compressed. Vidyard allows 4K download on paid plans, but the file structure isn't ideal for professional post-production. If your workflow involves handing off recordings to a video editor, you'll want a local recording tool like OBS instead.
FAQs
Can you use Loom or Vidyard for webinars?
Neither tool is designed for live webinars. They record asynchronous videos you share after the fact. If you need live streaming, participant interaction, or registration management, look at Zoom Webinars or Demio instead. You can record a Loom or Vidyard video and embed it in an on-demand webinar page, but that's a different use case.
Does Vidyard work without a CRM?
Yes, but you lose much of the value. Vidyard's analytics dashboard shows watch data even if you're not syncing to a CRM, but the real workflow advantage comes from seeing video engagement alongside deal stage, email opens, and contact history inside Salesforce or HubSpot. Without that integration, Vidyard is an expensive screen recorder.
Can you edit videos after uploading in Loom?
Loom offers basic trimming - you can cut the start and end of a video, but you can't splice sections in the middle or reorder clips. There's no timeline editor. If you need real editing, download the file and use a dedicated tool, or re-record the section. Vidyard has similar limitations, though it does allow you to add interactive CTAs and chapters after upload.
Which tool has better mobile recording?
Loom has iOS and Android apps that let you record your phone screen or front camera. Vidyard also offers mobile apps, but they're oriented toward quick video messages rather than full screen recordings. If you're doing a mobile app demo, Loom's mobile capture is more straightforward. For face-to-camera sales videos on the go, Vidyard works fine.
Can you white-label the video player?
Vidyard allows custom branding on higher-tier plans - you can remove Vidyard logos, add your own colors and logo, and host the player on your domain. Loom does not offer white-labeling. If you're embedding videos on a client-facing site and need them to look fully branded, Vidyard is the only option here.
Bottom line: Use Loom if you're recording for your own team, need speed over tracking, and want to spend less. Choose Vidyard if you're in sales or marketing, your CRM is central to your workflow, and viewer analytics directly affect your numbers. If you just want to show someone how something works, Loom is the answer.
