Loom vs Snagit Comparison 2026
Loom records your screen and your face and hands back a shareable link the second you stop: free for short clips, then $18 a member a month for Business, about $216 a year at that rate. Snagit is not a video tool first: it is built for the screenshot that needs six steps numbered, or a scrolling grab of a whole page, with short recording as an extra. It is $39 a year, billed yearly only, under $4 a month. A creator sending a two-minute update wants Loom; somebody documenting software for a living wants Snagit, with Camtasia behind it for anything that needs real editing.
At a glance
- Loom starts cheaper, at $18.
- Only Loom has a free tier.
- Snagit bills annually only, so there is no month to try it for.
Side by side
Loom | Snagit | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $18 | From $39 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | Annual only |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
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
Snagit
The screenshot tool that grew an editor
Snagit is for the thousand small captures that are not worth opening a video editor for: a scrolling grab of a whole page, a numbered set of steps, an arrow pointing at the button somebody keeps missing. It records short video too, and hands off to Camtasia when a clip turns into a project. TechSmith has sold it for decades and it shows in the unglamorous places, like the templates that turn six screenshots into one document.
Why people weigh these two
- Snagit instead of Loom
- Snagit at $39 is a screenshot tool that grew an editor, bought once, for annotating stills more than sending videos.
- Loom instead of Snagit
- Loom sends a recording out as a link to watch rather than a file to insert into a document, with a free tier before an $18 plan, for a quick message instead of a support article.
Which one should you pick
Pick Loom for the quick video that replaces three paragraphs of writing: a client walkthrough, feedback on a draft, an update watched on the viewer's own time. The free Starter plan handles most of that, and Business at $18 a member a month, roughly $216 a year at the monthly rate, adds who-watched insights.
Pick Snagit if the job is documentation more than video: scrolling captures, numbered callouts, six screenshots turned into one document without opening a design tool. At $39 a year it costs a fraction of Loom's paid tier, but there is no free plan and no monthly option, and when a capture really needs to become a finished video, TechSmith expects you to buy Camtasia next.
Common questions
- Is Snagit cheaper than Loom?
- By a wide margin if you were going to pay for Loom anyway. Snagit is $39 a year, billed yearly only, against Loom Business at $18 a month, about $216 a year at that rate. Loom's Starter plan is free, though, which Snagit has no equivalent of.
- Does Snagit record video like Loom does?
- It records short clips, but that is not the point of the tool. Snagit is built for screenshots, scrolling captures and numbered callouts; for a video meant to be watched and shared as the main output, Loom is the more direct tool.
- What happens when a Snagit capture needs to become a real video?
- TechSmith hands it off to Camtasia, sold separately, which is where actual video editing happens. Loom's own editing stops at trimming the ends off a take, so past that point neither tool alone finishes the job.
- Is there a free version of Snagit?
- No, Snagit has no free tier, only the $39-a-year plan. Loom's Starter plan is free indefinitely, with caps on video length and how many recordings are kept.
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.