Screencastify vs Snagit Comparison 2026
Screencastify records from a Chrome extension for a classroom, questions inside the video, collected replies, group assignments, free for ten videos total before Starter at $7 a user a month billed annually, $84 a year. Snagit is built around the screenshot rather than the video, scrolling captures, numbered callouts, templates, for $39 a year with no monthly option, under half Screencastify's annual rate, and it hands video editing off to Camtasia rather than doing it itself. Screencastify is a teaching tool that happens to be cheap. Snagit is a documentation tool that happens to also record.
At a glance
- Screencastify starts cheaper, at $7.
- Only Screencastify has a free tier.
- Snagit bills annually only, so there is no month to try it for.
Side by side
Screencastify | Snagit | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $7 | 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 | None | Not stated |
| API |
Screencastify
Screen recording built for classrooms
Screencastify records the screen from a Chrome extension and adds what a teacher needs and a marketer does not: questions inside the video, collected replies, and a way to ask thirty people to record something back. It works for a plain product demo too. The free plan stops at ten videos of thirty minutes each.
Our note
The ten-video free allowance is a lifetime cap rather than a monthly one, so the free plan is a trial with no clock on it. Anybody recording weekly should price Starter from the start.
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 Screencastify
- Snagit started as a screenshot tool and grew a recording editor on top, $39 with no free plan, aimed at a desktop editor rather than Screencastify's classroom features like in-video questions.
- Screencastify instead of Snagit
- Screencastify is built for classrooms specifically, with a free tier before a $7 plan, simpler than Snagit's documentation-focused templates for a teacher recording a lesson.
Which one should you pick
Choose Screencastify if teaching is the actual job: embedded questions, collected student replies and assignments for a group of thirty have no equivalent in Snagit. The ten-video free plan is a lifetime cap rather than monthly, so treat it as an extended trial and budget $7 a month billed annually, $19 paid monthly, once recording becomes routine.
Choose Snagit if most of the output is actually screenshots with video as an occasional extra: $39 a year, under four dollars a month, buys scrolling capture, numbered annotations and templates that turn six images into a document. It is deliberately not a video editor, handing a clip that becomes a real project off to Camtasia, sold separately, so anybody whose deliverable is finished video should stay with Screencastify or a dedicated editor.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper, Screencastify or Snagit?
- Snagit, clearly: $39 a year against Screencastify's Starter at $7 a month billed annually, which is $84 a year. Snagit costs under half as much for a full year even before counting Screencastify's steeper $19-a-month rate if paid monthly instead.
- Does Snagit have classroom features like embedded questions?
- No, nothing in its feature list covers that. Snagit is built for documentation, screenshots and short captures with step-numbered annotations. Screencastify's embedded questions, collected replies and group assignments are built specifically for teaching.
- Which one is better for taking a lot of screenshots?
- Snagit, by design: scrolling capture of a whole page, numbered callouts and templates that turn several screenshots into one document are its core reason to exist. Screencastify is a video recorder first, with no comparable screenshot tooling.
- Can I edit a video into a real project with either one?
- Screencastify includes trim, crop and merge tools plus captions and transcripts on its paid tiers. Snagit deliberately does not go that far: a clip that turns into a real editing project hands off to Camtasia, a separate TechSmith product sold alongside it.
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.