Loom vs Scribe Comparison 2026
Loom records a screen and a face and hands back a video link, free on Starter or $18 a member a month on Business. Scribe records a process once and turns it into a written, numbered guide with screenshots, free for the last 25 guides or $25 a month for one seat, cheaper at $13 a seat once a team of five signs up. The deliverable is what decides this. Loom produces something to watch. Scribe produces something to read and follow step by step.
At a glance
- Loom starts cheaper, at $18.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Loom | Scribe | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $18 | From $25 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
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.
Only on this side
- Covers video hosting
Scribe
Step-by-step guides captured as you click
Scribe records a process while somebody does it once and turns it into a written guide with screenshots, numbered and ready to hand over. That is the documentation nobody writes, produced as a side effect of the work. Redaction and branding are paid features, and the free plan is capped at the last 25 guides you edited.
Why people weigh these two
- Scribe instead of Loom
- Scribe turns clicks into a written step-by-step guide instead of a video, the pick when the output needs to be a document someone can skim rather than watch.
- Loom instead of Scribe
- Loom answers the same question with a recording sent as a link, from $18 with a free tier, rather than a written set of steps.
Which one should you pick
Pick Loom if the point is a video someone watches: a walkthrough, feedback on a draft, an update recorded once and sent as a link. Starter is free with limits on length, and Business at $18 a member a month removes them along with viewer insights showing who actually watched.
Pick Scribe if the deliverable is a written process a contractor, client or new hire will follow step by step, with screenshots captured automatically as you work. Pro Personal is $25 a month for one seat, but Pro Team drops to $13 a seat once five people sign up, so a team of five costs $65 while a team of two on the personal plan pays $50 for it twice.
Common questions
- Does Loom produce a written guide like Scribe does?
- No. Loom's output is always a video with a link, and its editing is limited to trimming. Scribe is built specifically to turn a process into a numbered, screenshotted guide as you click through it, which is a different kind of documentation entirely.
- Which is cheaper for one person?
- Loom, at $18 a member a month against Scribe's Pro Personal at $25 for a single seat. Scribe becomes cheaper per person once a team of five signs up for Pro Team at $13 a seat, so the comparison flips with team size.
- Can Scribe capture native desktop apps, not just a browser?
- Yes, but only on its paid plans. The free plan captures browser processes and shares by link, with editing limited to the last 25 guides, while desktop capture, branding and redaction are held for Pro.
- Does either tool redact sensitive information automatically?
- Scribe does, on its paid plans, blurring sensitive fields so a guide can be shared outside the team. Loom has no comparable redaction feature, since it records exactly what happens on screen with only trimming available afterward.
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.