Loom

What is Loom?

Loom is a video messaging tool for work that records your screen, camera or both and turns the result into a shareable link. Colleagues watch when it suits them, so a five-minute clip can replace a status meeting or a long email thread.

Videos upload while you record, which means the link is ready the moment you press stop. Viewers can comment, react and read a transcript beside the player, and the sender sees who has watched. On the AI side, Loom writes titles, summaries and chapters, removes filler words and silences, and can turn a bug walkthrough into a Jira work item with technical details attached.

Loom is owned by Atlassian, which bought the company in 2023, and it now sits alongside Jira and Confluence in the Atlassian product family. Its homepage claims more than 22 million users and over 400,000 companies, and it names customers such as HubSpot, Brex and Goldman Sachs. Plans were on sale through both loom.com and Atlassian in October 2026.

Key Features

Instant share links and AI-written summaries do most of the work in Loom, because they remove the upload wait and the need to watch a whole clip.

• Screen and camera recording: Loom captures a single tab, a window or your full screen, with an optional webcam bubble in the corner. Its 4K product page says recordings run in 1080p or up to 4K resolution, which keeps code and small text readable.
• Instant share links: Each video becomes a link as soon as you stop recording, because footage uploads in the background. You can paste it into Slack, email or a ticket straight away, with no export or upload step.
• Transcripts and captions: Every video gets an automatic transcript and closed captions, and Loom says transcription covers more than 50 languages. Viewers can skim the text or search it, which helps when they cannot play audio at their desk.
• Loom AI writing and editing: The Business + AI plan adds auto titles, summaries, chapters, filler word removal and silence removal. It also lets you edit by transcript, so deleting a sentence of text cuts the matching footage.
• Bug reports for Jira: Loom can turn a screen recording of a bug into a Jira work item. Its homepage says it captures device, browser and operating system details, console errors and network activity, which saves engineers a round of follow-up questions.
• Editing and viewer insights: Paid plans include trimming, stitching clips, custom thumbnails and a drawing tool, plus arrows, boxes and text overlays. Senders also see view counts, comments and emoji reactions, so they know whether a message was actually watched.

Pros

Speed is the strongest argument for Loom: recording and sharing a walkthrough takes a couple of clicks, and the link exists before you have finished talking.

• Very fast to start: Installing the Chrome extension or desktop app and sending a first video takes only a few minutes. New team members rarely need training, which helps adoption across non-technical departments.
• Fewer meetings: Short recorded updates let people across time zones catch up without a call. Managers and engineers can explain context once, then reuse the same link in tickets, docs and onboarding material.
• Works on every common device: Loom runs on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone and Android. A sender can record on a laptop while a viewer watches on a phone, with nothing to install on the viewing side.
• Generous integration list: Slack, Jira, Confluence, GitHub, Gmail, Notion and FigJam integrations are available on every plan, according to the pricing page. Videos therefore unfurl or embed where teams already discuss work.
• Useful free tier: The Starter plan costs nothing and includes transcripts, captions and up to 25 videos per person. That is enough for an individual or a small group to judge Loom before paying.

Cons

Per-seat pricing is the catch with Loom, since the AI features sit on a $24 tier and the bill grows with every recording member added.

• Short free recordings: Starter caps each video at five minutes and each person at 25 videos. Longer demos or training sessions need the Business plan, so free users often hit the wall during real projects.
• AI costs extra: Summaries, meeting recaps, filler removal and transcript editing are all reserved for Business + AI or Enterprise. Teams on the $18 Business plan get recording and editing but none of the AI layer.
• Costs scale with headcount: Every member who records needs a paid seat, and the 17 per cent annual discount only softens this. Large organisations should count recording users carefully before rolling Loom out widely.
• Light editing tools: Trimming, stitching and overlays cover quick fixes, but there is no full timeline editor with layers and effects. Teams producing polished marketing or course videos often export to Descript or Camtasia instead.
• No downloads on Starter: Free users cannot download or upload videos, according to the pricing page. That makes archiving or moving recordings difficult until you pay, which matters if you plan to leave later.

Who is Using Loom?

Software teams, sales reps and support staff make up most of Loom’s audience, each using quick recordings to explain something visual without scheduling a call.

• Engineering teams: Developers record code walkthroughs, pull request context and bug reproductions. The Jira bug report feature turns a recording into a ticket with console and network data attached.
• Sales teams: Reps send personalised video pitches and follow-ups to prospects. Enterprise customers can connect Salesforce, so video activity sits next to the deal record.
• Customer support teams: Agents show customers how to fix a setting or use a feature with a short screen recording. A link often resolves a ticket faster than a long written reply.
• Remote managers and designers: Managers post weekly updates instead of holding calls, while designers walk through mock-ups and FigJam boards. Viewers leave timestamped comments rather than booking a review meeting.

Pricing

Loom is freemium, with a free Starter plan and paid seats from $18 per user a month on monthly billing (official prices, October 2026).

Loom’s pricing page says annual billing saves 17 per cent, which review sites translate to about $15 and $20 per user a month. Business and Business + AI each come with a 14-day free trial, and an Enterprise trial is available on request. Futurepedia still lists an old $12.50 Pro plan, which no longer appears on the official page.

Loom sells through both loom.com and Atlassian, so compare the two checkouts and confirm the live price before committing seats.

What Makes Loom Unique?

One link holds the recording, transcript, comments and view analytics, so there is no separate hosting or export step. Most screen recorders produce a file you still have to upload somewhere, while Loom treats the video as a message from the start.

Atlassian ownership adds a second difference. A Loom recording can become a Jira work item or sit inside a Confluence page, which ties quick explanations directly to the tickets and documentation software teams already maintain.

Compatibilities and Integrations

Loom runs on every major desktop and mobile platform and connects to the chat, ticketing and design tools most software teams use daily.

• Platforms: Desktop apps for Mac and Windows, a Chrome extension, and mobile apps for iPhone and Android.
• Atlassian: Recording inside Jira and Confluence, plus AI-drafted Jira work items from bug recordings.
• Work apps: Slack, GitHub, Gmail, Notion, FigJam and Upwork on all plans, with Salesforce and Zoom import on Enterprise.
• Data and export: Video downloads and uploads on Business and above, plus embeds for any site that accepts them.
• Security: SSO, SCIM, custom data retention and a 99.95 per cent uptime SLA on Enterprise.

Loom Tutorials

A first Loom video takes about ten minutes from sign-up to a shared link, and the routine below covers the basics.

1. Create a free account and install the desktop app or Chrome extension.
2. Choose screen only, camera only, or screen and camera, then pick the window to capture.
3. Record your message and press stop, and the share link is generated straight away.
4. Trim dead air or stitch clips together, and add a custom thumbnail if you are on a paid plan.
5. Paste the link into Slack, email, Jira or Confluence for your audience.
6. Check views, comments and reactions to see who has watched and what needs a reply.

How We Rated It

Loom earns 4.1 out of 5: ease of use and integrations score highly, while cost-efficiency drags the average down because the AI tier is expensive per seat.

Summary

Loom suits remote and hybrid teams who explain things on screen several times a week, especially engineering, sales and support groups already using Atlassian tools. The main limitation is cost, since the most useful AI features sit on the $24 per user Business + AI tier. Free users also face a five-minute cap and cannot download their videos. We recommend running the 14-day Business + AI trial on a real project and counting how many people actually record before you buy seats.