Loom vs Zight 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. Zight, formerly CloudApp, does the faster version of the same idea for screenshots and short clips: the link lands in your clipboard before the upload even finishes, free on a limited plan and $9.95 a member a month for Pro, close to half of Loom's rate. Loom is built around video with a face on camera; Zight leans on quick screenshots, GIFs and a searchable library. Pick the one that matches what you send more often.
At a glance
- Zight starts cheaper, at $9.95.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Loom | Zight | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $18 | From $9.95 |
| 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
Zight
Screenshots and screen recordings with links
Zight, which spent years as CloudApp, captures a screenshot or a short recording and hands back a link before the file has finished uploading. Annotation, GIF capture and a searchable library are the reasons people keep it in the menu bar. The free plan caps recording length and storage, and the cap arrives sooner than expected.
Why people weigh these two
- Zight instead of Loom
- Zight from $10 with a free tier handles screenshots and recordings with links, the same share-a-link habit across both.
- Loom instead of Zight
- Loom also sends a screen recording out as a link, with a free tier and plans from $18, closer to Zight's own pitch but priced almost double.
Which one should you pick
Pick Loom when the recording is really a video message: a client walkthrough, a piece of feedback, an update the team watches on its own time. The free Starter plan handles the occasional one, and Business at $18 a member a month adds viewer insights once a team needs them.
Pick Zight when most of what you send is a screenshot or a short clip rather than a produced recording. Pro is $9.95 a member a month, close to half of Loom's Business price, and the link lands in the clipboard before the file finishes uploading. Anybody recording long tutorials should skip it: Zight's free plan caps both recording length and how much history it keeps.
Common questions
- Is Zight cheaper than Loom?
- Yes, on the entry paid tier. Zight Pro is $9.95 a member a month, close to half of Loom Business at $18. Both also have free plans, though Zight's caps recording length and storage history more tightly.
- What does Zight do faster than Loom?
- Sharing a screenshot or a short clip. Zight puts the link in the clipboard before the upload finishes, while Loom is built around a full video with a face on camera, which takes longer to prepare and send.
- Does Zight record long tutorials as well as Loom?
- Not on the free plan, which caps recording length and storage history. Loom's free Starter plan also caps video length, but Zight is the one built primarily for quick captures rather than long-form recording.
- Which one has GIF capture?
- Zight does, alongside screenshots and short video, useful for showing a bug or a step as a loop. Loom does not offer GIF export; its output is always a video link.
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.