Bandicam vs Loom Comparison 2026
Bandicam records to a local file you own, either free with a watermark or under a $33.26 annual licence, and stops there: no sharing layer, no editor beyond a bundled add-on. Loom records your screen and your face together and hands back a shareable link the moment you stop, free for short clips or $18 a member a month for longer ones with viewer insights. Bandicam suits a game or a long session kept as a file. Loom suits a quick explanation that needs to reach somebody today.
At a glance
- Loom starts cheaper, at $18.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Bandicam | Loom | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $33.26 | From $18 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
Bandicam
A recorder sold as a licence
Bandicam records the screen, a game at high frame rates or an external capture device, and it is one of the few recorders still sold outright rather than rented. The free download records with a watermark and a time limit on each clip. A licence removes both, and the perpetual one keeps working on the version it was bought for.
Our note
OBS Studio does most of this for nothing and is the better default. Bandicam earns its money on the game-capture path, and for anybody who would rather buy software once than subscribe to it.
Loom
Screen recordings that go out as a link
Loom records your screen and your face together and hands you a link the moment you stop, so the thing you would have written three paragraphs about arrives as a two minute video instead. Viewers can reply on a timestamp rather than describing where they got confused. Editing is trimming and little else, so a cut that needs more than that belongs somewhere else.
Our note
Loom is for the video nobody would otherwise have made. Buy it for correspondence rather than publishing, and check the free plan's length limit against the way you actually explain things before paying for anything.
Why people weigh these two
- Loom instead of Bandicam
- Recordings that go out as a link, free tier then $18 on subscription; the cloud-sharing opposite of Bandicam's local files and owned licence.
- Bandicam instead of Loom
- Bandicam is sold as a one-time licence rather than a subscription, letting the free tier prove it works before roughly $33 buys the recorder outright.
Which one should you pick
Pick Bandicam for game capture at a high frame rate, or any long recording you want saved locally rather than hosted somewhere. A licence is $33.26 a year for one PC, owned outright if you choose the $53.90 perpetual version instead. There is no link to share and no viewer analytics. The file is yours, and that is the whole feature set.
Pick Loom for the explanation you would otherwise have typed three paragraphs about: a client walkthrough, feedback on a draft, an update the team watches on its own time. Starter is free but caps video length and how many you keep, and Business at $18 a member a month lifts both and adds viewer insights. Editing is trimming and little else, so anything that needs to look produced belongs on a different tool entirely.
Common questions
- Is Bandicam or Loom free?
- Both have a free tier, differently shaped. Bandicam's free download records with a watermark and a time limit on each clip. Loom's free Starter plan removes the watermark but caps how long a video can run and how many you keep, without charging anything.
- Does Bandicam share a link the way Loom does?
- No. Bandicam saves to a local file with no sharing feature attached, so getting it to somebody means uploading it yourself. Loom copies a shareable link the moment recording stops, which is the entire reason people reach for it over a plain screen recorder.
- Can I record my webcam alongside the screen on both?
- Loom is built around that combination, recording your face and the screen together by default. Bandicam is built for the screen and games, and device recording covers a camera or capture card, but it is not aimed at the talking-head format Loom is known for.
- Which is better for a finished demo video rather than a quick message?
- Neither, on its own. Bandicam only records, and Loom's editing is trimming and little else, so a demo meant to look produced needs an editor beyond either tool. Loom is meant for correspondence, and Bandicam is meant for a raw capture kept as a file.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.