Loom vs Vidyard (2026): What $59 a Seat Actually Buys
Vorec Team · 2026-09-17 · 6 min read
Loom and Vidyard both record your screen and face and produce a shareable link. The prices diverge sharply. On matched annual billing: Loom Business at $15 per user per month ($180/year) against Vidyard Starter at $59 per seat per month. Loom's monthly rates are $18 and $24; Vidyard's Starter is $89 monthly.
The useful question is what that gap buys, and the answer is more specific than most comparisons say: not what sits on the $59 tier.
All figures below come from each vendor's own pricing page — Loom and Vidyard — verified 16 September 2026.
The 30-Second Verdict
- Pick Loom if video is internal communication. Business is $18, Business + AI is $24, and both are self-serve.
- Pick Vidyard if you need AI avatars at volume, or CRM-attributed engagement — but price the right tier, because those are two different tiers.
- Start on Vidyard Free if avatars are what you are evaluating. It includes more than people expect.
Pricing, Exactly
On matched annual billing:
| Free | Entry paid (annual) | Higher (annual) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loom | ✅ Starter | $15/user/mo ($180/yr) Business | $20/user/mo ($240/yr) Business + AI · Enterprise custom |
| Vidyard | ✅ | $59/seat/mo | Teams custom · Enterprise custom |
Loom's monthly rates are $18 and $24; Vidyard's Starter is $89 monthly. Quoting one vendor annually and the other monthly is the most common error in comparisons of these two — including an earlier version of this one.
Vidyard's Video Agent add-on is $24/seat/month annually ($29 monthly) on Starter, custom on Teams and Enterprise.
Both vendors publish their entry pricing and both keep their top tier custom. Neither is hiding the ball.
The Thing Most Comparisons Get Wrong
CRM attribution is the standard reason given for choosing Vidyard — engagement data landing against a deal record so a rep can act on it.
That sits on Teams, not Starter. Vidyard's own feature comparison lists CRM/MAP integrations as "Everything in Starter, plus…" at the Teams tier. And Teams is custom-priced.
So "pay $59 and get CRM attribution" is wrong. The accurate version: $59 buys the video platform; CRM attribution requires a Teams quote. If CRM is your reason for looking, get that number before comparing anything.
Vidyard's Free Tier Is More Capable Than Expected
Worth testing before you price anything:
- 15 AI videos
- Stock avatars and 3 custom AI avatars
- Limited automated video creation and delivery
- Video editing and sharing tools
Custom AI avatars on a free plan is unusual. If avatars are the capability you are evaluating, test them at $0 rather than assuming they are paid-only.
What Loom Includes, By Tier
From Loom's pricing page, since these get misreported:
- Virtual backgrounds, camera frames and Recording Canvas on every tier, Starter included
- Screen-only recording on every tier — nobody is forced on camera
- Closed captions from Starter; transcriptions in 50+ languages
- Auto titles across tiers
- Trim, stitch and basic waveform editing from Business ($18)
- Edit by transcript, summaries, chapters, filler-word removal on Business + AI ($24)
- Up to 4K on Business and above
- SSO/SAML on Enterprise only
The Real Cost Comparison
For a rep doing AI-avatar outbound:
| Monthly per seat, annual billing | |
|---|---|
| Loom Business + AI | $20 |
| Vidyard Starter | $59 |
| Vidyard Starter + Video Agent | $83 |
Those are not the same product — Loom has no avatars — but if you are choosing where a seat budget goes, that is the shape of it.
Feature Matrix
| Loom | Vidyard | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price, annual | $15/user/mo | $59/seat/mo |
| Free tier | ✅ | ✅ incl. 15 AI videos, 3 custom avatars |
| Screen-only recording | ✅ all tiers | ✅ |
| Virtual backgrounds / camera frames | ✅ all tiers | Compare current plan |
| Captions / transcription | ✅ Starter+ | ✅ tier-dependent |
| Trim & stitch | ✅ Business+ | Compare current plan |
| Edit by transcript | ✅ Business + AI | Not verified |
| AI avatars | ❌ | ✅ incl. limited on Free |
| CRM / MAP integrations | Limited | ✅ Teams tier, custom |
| SSO | Enterprise | Compare current plan |
Where Vorec Fits
Vorec handles workflow documentation: record the workflow silently and the AI detects each click, writes narration matched to what happens on screen, and generates the voiceover. Freeze-sync holds the frame when a point needs more time than the recording allows. The same recording also produces a written step-by-step article, and narration regenerates in other languages without re-recording.
Plans start at $9/month with a free trial of 200 credits; trial exports carry a watermark. It includes a multi-track timeline editor with zoom, cursor and caption layers. It does not generate AI avatars or attribute engagement to a CRM.
Who Should Pick What
Choose Loom if: video is internal communication and you want a self-serve price. Budget Business + AI at $24 if you want the AI features.
Choose Vidyard if: AI avatars are central — test them free first — or you need CRM attribution, in which case get a Teams quote rather than assuming $59 covers it.
Choose a narration tool if: the bottleneck is producing documentation at volume rather than distributing messages.
Bottom Line
$59 against $15 on matched annual billing is a real gap, but it does not buy what people assume. It buys Vidyard's video platform and avatar capability. CRM attribution — the differentiator most often cited — is a tier above, at a price you have to ask for.
Two corrections to earlier versions of this article, both worth stating: it once claimed the $59 tier included CRM attribution, and then over-corrected into claiming Vidyard does not publish its pricing at all. Vidyard publishes Starter and the Video Agent add-on; Teams and Enterprise are custom, exactly as Loom's Enterprise tier is.
Related: our Loom alternatives roundup and Vidyard alternative guide.
Documentation rather than messaging? Upload one silent screen recording to Vorec and get a narrated walkthrough plus a written guide. Start free with 200 credits.