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Loom vs OBS Studio

Loom is for quick shareable video messages with a paid team plan; OBS Studio is free and gives more control but you set it up yourself.

Pick Loom if…

Pick Loom if you want to record, trim and share a video message with transcripts and comments, and a 5 minute free limit or per-user price works for you.

Pick OBS Studio if…

Pick OBS Studio if you want free, open source recording with scenes and an audio mixer, and you don't mind learning the setup.

Price

  • Freemium
  • Free
  • Open source

Starting price

$18 per user / month
—

Free plan

Yes
Yes

Open source

No
Yes

Works on

Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Browser extension
Windows, macOS, Linux
Try Loom (opens the Loom website in a new tab)Try OBS Studio (opens the OBS Studio website in a new tab)

Loom records screen and camera and has an editor for trimming and stitching clips. It adds transcripts and captions in 50+ languages, comments, emojis, tasks and viewer insights. It is made by Atlassian, which announced in October 2023 that it was acquiring Loom.

Loom's Starter plan is free with 25 videos, 5 minute screen recordings and video quality up to 720p. Business is $18 per user / month and Business + AI is $24 per user / month. Business adds unlimited videos and unlimited recording time.

OBS Studio is free and open source under GNU GPL v2 or later. It has unlimited scenes, a per-source audio mixer, Studio Mode, and a plugin API with native plugins and Lua or Python scripts. It records and streams only, and it is not a video editor.

OBS Studio runs on Windows, macOS 13.0 or newer, and Linux, while Loom has Mac and Windows desktop apps plus a Chrome extension and iOS and Android apps. OBS takes time to learn because of its scene and source setup; Loom's own site does not describe any comparable setup.

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Last updated 16 October 2026. How we make money