Loom alternatives for Mac, from free to one-time purchase.
Loom’s free plan ends at 25 videos, 5 minutes each, at 720p with no download, and every paid seat is $18 or $24 a month. If you record on a Mac and mostly need a finished video, here are five alternatives with list prices and the limitation each one comes with.
7-day trial · $49 once · no subscription · Apple Silicon · macOS 14+The short answer
The best Loom alternative for recording on a Mac without uploading to a cloud is Qreata: $49 once for 3 Macs, local recording and editing, no account. Screen Studio ($108 a year) suits polished demos with cursor smoothing and included share links, CleanShot X ($35 once) suits quick clips plus screenshots, Camtasia ($179.88 a year) suits courses, and OBS Studio is free. If your team needs viewer comments on Windows and Mac, stay with Loom.
Switch from Loom if
You are paying for a cloud workspace when what you need is a recorder. The usual triggers:
- You hit the Starter limits: 25 videos per person (archived ones count), 5 minutes each, 720p, and no MP4 download.
- Per-user billing outgrew the value. Business is $18 and Business + AI is $24 per user per month, and the Creator Lite role was retired, moving those members to paid Creator seats.
- Your recordings should not leave the Mac. Loom uploads every recording while you record and documents no local-only mode.
- You want real editing. Trim, split, and stitch need Business; editing by transcript needs Business + AI.
Stay with Loom if
The conversation around the video matters as much as the video. Loom is the better choice when:
- People reply on the video. Comments and emoji reactions are on every plan, including the free one.
- Your team records on Windows, in Chrome, or on iOS and Android as well as on Macs.
- You need the link the second you stop recording, with no export or upload step.
- You rely on cloud transcripts and closed captions in 50+ languages, with SRT download on paid plans.
- Your videos are short and few enough to live inside the free plan.
Why people look for a Loom alternative
The free plan runs out fast. Starter allows 25 videos per person, 5 minutes each, at up to 720p. Archiving a video does not free a slot, and at 25 you cannot record a new one. Starter accounts cannot download their videos, so the free plan has no exit to MP4 either.
Paid plans are billed per user: $18 a month for Business and $24 for Business + AI on monthly billing, with up to 17% off for annual. Trim, split, and stitch start at Business; editing by transcript needs Business + AI. When Loom billing moved to Atlassian, existing customers were moved to current list prices, and the Creator Lite role was retired, with those members becoming paid Creators unless an admin deactivated them.
Then there is where the video lives. Loom uploads the recording to its cloud while you record, and its documentation describes no local-only mode. For NDA work, customer data on screen, or a slow connection, that settles it. Trouble signing in or cancelling after the Atlassian account migration is a recurring complaint in public reviews.
Loom alternatives compared: price, best use, main limitation
We make Qreata, so read this part with that in mind. Qreata replaces the recording and editing half of Loom, not the conversation half. It records screen, camera, microphone, and system audio as four separate tracks on your Mac, needs no account, and costs $49 once for 3 Macs (Team: $149 once for up to 50 Macs). Nothing is uploaded until you press an upload button.
Where it earns the switch: you record a seven-minute walkthrough and get one sentence wrong at 2:30. In Loom you split the mistake out and stitch in a separately recorded Loom, on a paid plan. In Qreata you select 2:25–2:40, use Replace Take (the Rerecord tool in the editor) to record screen, camera, microphone, and system audio again for those 15 seconds, and export an MP4. The project stays editable after export. Microphone and system audio keep separate volume and mute, so a loud notification can be lowered without touching your voice. Word-level cuts, Remove silences, and Remove filler words for English and Russian speech come with the same $49; in Loom, editing by transcript needs Business + AI.
Where it does not fit: Windows or Intel Macs, viewer comments and reactions, SRT or VTT caption files (captions can only be burned into the video), courses with SCORM, and screenshots. Export is MP4 (H.264) at 720p, 1080p, or 4K, always 30 fps. A share link is not part of the $49. Uploads happen only when you press the button: to your Google Drive, or to Qreata Cloud, a separate paid plan that needs an account and takes MP4 files up to 1 GB.
| Option | Price | Best for | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qreata | $49 once, 3 Macs | Local Mac recordings you edit and re-record | No comments; hosted links cost extra |
| Screen Studio | $29/mo or $108/yr | Polished demos with zoom and cursor smoothing | Subscription only; Mac only |
| CleanShot X | $35 once, then $19/yr for updates (optional) | Quick clips plus annotated screenshots | No free trial; Mac only |
| Camtasia | $179.88/yr Essentials | Training videos, SRT captions, SCORM | Annual subscription; $39 Starter keeps the watermark |
| OBS Studio | Free | Free local capture and streaming | No editor and no hosting |
Loom vs its alternatives: cost over three years
Loom is priced per person, so the bill grows with the team. One Business seat on monthly billing is $216 a year and $648 over three years. Five seats are $1,080 a year and $3,240 over three years. Annual billing takes up to 17% off; the table uses the published monthly prices.
This is not a like-for-like comparison: Loom’s price includes hosting, links, and comments, and the desktop tools below do not. If your team only needs finished MP4 files, Qreata’s Team license is $149 once for up to 50 Macs.
| Option | List price | 3-year cost | How it adds up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loom Business (1 user) | $18 per user per month | $648 | $18 × 36 |
| Loom Business + AI (1 user) | $24 per user per month | $864 | $24 × 36 |
| Loom Business (5 users) | $90 per month | $3,240 | $18 × 5 × 36 |
| Qreata | $49 once | $49 | One payment, updates included |
| Screen Studio | $108 per year | $324 | $108 × 3 |
| CleanShot X Basic | $35 once + $19/yr updates | $73 | $35 + $19 × 2; $35 if you skip updates |
| Camtasia Essentials | $179.88 per year | $539.64 | $179.88 × 3 |
| OBS Studio | Free | $0 | No license fee |
Which Loom alternative fits which job
Loom does two jobs at once: it records, and it hosts a conversation around the recording. Decide which half you are replacing.
- A product walkthrough or tutorial you will edit and reuse: Qreata.
- A launch demo with automatic zoom, captions, and a share link in one subscription: Screen Studio.
- A 30-second clip or an annotated screenshot dropped into a ticket: CleanShot X.
- Onboarding or compliance training that ends up in an LMS: Camtasia.
- Recording under NDA with no budget: OBS Studio or the built-in macOS recorder.
- Daily async updates that Windows and Mac teammates comment on: keep Loom.
Free Loom alternatives on Mac: Shift-Command-5 and OBS Studio
You can replace the recording half of Loom for free. Press Shift-Command-5, choose Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion, select a microphone under Options, and click Record. The recording saves to your desktop as a .mov, outside any plan’s video count.
Two limits matter. System audio: Apple’s support article lists the Include System Audio option only for macOS 27 or later, so on older versions the built-in recorder captures your microphone but not app sound. Sharing: you get a file, not a link, so you upload it to Drive, Slack, or wherever your team reads.
OBS Studio is the other free route. It is open source, runs on macOS 13 or later, Windows, and Linux, captures system or per-app audio on the Mac, and records up to six audio tracks. It has no editor and no hosting, so a mistake means a second app or a second take.
How to switch from Loom and keep your existing links
Move the recording workflow first and the library second. No tool in this list, Qreata included, imports a Loom library or its comments.
- List every Loom link embedded in help articles, onboarding docs, and customer emails. Those URLs live in Loom, so keep the workspace until each one is replaced.
- Download the videos you want to keep as MP4. Downloading needs a paid plan and a creator or admin role; Starter accounts cannot download.
- Expect a plain file. Trims are kept, but closed captions, chapters, and calls to action are not in the downloaded MP4, and comments stay in Loom. Download the SRT separately if you need the captions.
- Record one new video in the replacement, send it to one recipient, and confirm they can open it the way they expect.
- Then downgrade or cancel. Monthly subscriptions are refundable only within the first paid month, annual ones within 30 days of payment.
Questions worth asking
Is there a completely free alternative to Loom?
Yes. The built-in macOS recorder (Shift-Command-5) and OBS Studio are free and are not tied to a plan with a video count or a 5-minute cap. Neither gives you a share link or comments, so you upload the file yourself.
Is there a one-time purchase alternative to Loom?
Yes. Qreata is $49 once for 3 Macs, and CleanShot X is $35 once with a year of updates. Both are Mac apps that save files locally; neither includes Loom-style comments.
Is there a Loom alternative that does not upload to the cloud?
Yes. Qreata, OBS Studio, and the built-in macOS recorder all save to your Mac. Qreata uploads only when you press a button, to Google Drive or the paid Qreata Cloud, and its transcription also runs on the Mac.
Which Loom alternatives work on Windows?
Camtasia and OBS Studio run on Windows. Qreata, Screen Studio, and CleanShot X are Mac-only, so a mixed team that wants one tool with comments should stay on Loom.
Can I move my Loom videos and comments to Qreata?
No. Qreata has no Loom importer. On a paid Loom plan you can download MP4 files and keep them, but comments, reactions, and the original links stay in Loom.