Loom vs Vidyard vs Wistia (2026)
Three corrections most guides get wrong: Loom AI features require Business+AI ($20/user) — not included free. Vidyard Teams is $99/user/mo (not $300/mo). Wistia launched new plans March 17, 2026 — old Plus/Pro/Advanced tiers are now legacy.
Loom AI features (summaries, chapters, filler removal) require Business+AI at $20/user/mo — NOT included on the free plan. Business is $15/user/mo (no AI). Vidyard Teams is $99/user/mo (not $300/mo — restructured Feb 2025). Wistia new plans March 17, 2026 — old pricing is legacy. All prices verified May 2026.
- Loom (Atlassian) — Best for async internal communication. Free (25 videos, 5-min, no AI). Business $15/user/mo. Business+AI $20/user/mo (AI summaries, chapters). Acquired by Atlassian 2023 — billing changes to watch.
- Vidyard — Best for B2B sales teams with CRM integration. Free (5 videos/mo + 15 AI avatar videos). Starter $59/user/mo. Teams $99/user/mo. Per-recipient analytics tied to HubSpot/Salesforce.
- Wistia — Best for marketing video hosting on your website. Free (10 videos, 200GB). New plans launched March 2026 — verify current pricing at wistia.com. Lead capture, SEO-friendly, ad-free, heatmaps.
| Your Situation | Best Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You want to replace long emails with quick video updates | Loom | Fastest record-to-link workflow — one click, instant shareable URL |
| Your sales team sends 1:1 video to prospects | Vidyard | Per-recipient analytics tied to HubSpot/Salesforce pipeline — unique |
| You host marketing videos on your website | Wistia | Ad-free hosting, lead capture, heatmaps, SEO-friendly player |
| You want AI summaries and auto-chapters on recordings | Loom Business+AI $20/user | AI features require Business+AI — NOT included on free or Business plans |
| You need basic free async video with no AI features | Loom free | 25 videos, 5-min limit, basic transcriptions — free forever |
| You need to track exactly who watched and for how long | Vidyard | Named viewer + watch % + company ID — Loom only shows basic view counts |
| Video SEO matters — you want Google to index your content | Wistia | SEO-friendly structured data player — Loom and Vidyard don’t have this |
| You’re evaluating Vidyard Teams and saw $300/mo elsewhere | Vidyard | Teams is $99/user/mo since Feb 2025 restructure — not $300/mo |
True Cost Calculator
Loom and Vidyard charge per user. Wistia charges per account (not per user). Drag the seat slider to see how costs compare for your team size.
Loom AI features require Business+AI ($20/user) — NOT free or Business. Vidyard Teams=$99/user/mo (not shown — contact sales). Wistia new plans from March 2026 — verify at wistia.com. All annual billing rates.
Key Stats & Corrections (May 2026)
At a Glance
Record screen and camera — share a link instantly. Acquired by Atlassian 2023.
- Fastest record-to-link workflow — one click, instant URL
- Business+AI: auto-summaries, chapters, filler removal, meeting recaps
- Deep Atlassian integration — Jira, Confluence, Slack, Notion
- Cross-platform: Chrome extension, desktop app, iOS, Android
- Viewer can leave emoji reactions and time-stamped comments
- AI features (summaries, chapters) are NOT free — require $20/user Business+AI
- Atlassian acquisition caused billing surprises — Creator Lite being discontinued
- Stability issues reported since Atlassian migration
- No CRM integration or per-recipient sales analytics
Sales video platform — CRM-linked analytics, AI personalisation at scale
- Per-recipient analytics — who watched, watch %, company identification
- Native HubSpot, Salesforce, Salesloft, Marketo integrations
- AI avatar video generation for personalised outreach at scale
- Video Agent — auto-creates and sends videos based on CRM deal events
- 4K recording quality on all plans including free
- Starter at $59/user/mo is 3–4x more expensive than Loom Business
- Free plan limited to 5 videos/month (not unlimited as older guides say)
- Overkill and overpriced for internal async communication
- Chrome extension reliability issues reported by users
Professional video hosting — SEO-friendly, lead capture, ad-free. New plans March 2026.
- Zero ads on all plans — your video, your brand
- SEO-friendly player — Google indexes your video content
- Video heatmaps and engagement analytics per viewer
- Lead capture forms embedded directly in video
- AI dubbing, social clip generation, and captions
- New plans launched March 17, 2026 — old Plus/Pro/Advanced are now legacy
- Free plan limited to 10 videos only
- Storage and bandwidth caps on paid plans — monitor usage
- Not built for 1:1 sales video outreach or internal async communication
At-a-Glance Scorecard
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Loom | Vidyard | Wistia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | ⚡ 25 videos total, 5-min limit, no AI | ⚡ 5 videos/mo + 15 AI avatar vid (not unlimited) | ⚡ 10 hosted videos, 200GB |
| Entry paid (annual) | ✓ Business $15/user/mo | Starter $59/user/mo | Legacy Pro $79/mo (new plans March 2026) |
| AI summaries & chapters | ✗ Business+AI only ($20/user) — NOT free | ✓ AI avatar generation all plans | ✓ AI dubbing, social clips, captions |
| CRM integration | ✗ No native CRM | ✓ Best — HubSpot, Salesforce, Salesloft native | ⚡ Via integrations (HubSpot on higher plans) |
| Per-viewer analytics | ⚡ Basic view counts only | ✓ Best — named viewer + watch % + company | ✓ Heatmaps + engagement per viewer |
| Lead capture forms | ✗ No | ✓ In-video CTAs | ✓ Email gates + in-video CTAs |
| SEO-friendly player | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Google indexes content |
| Pricing model | Per user | Per user | ✓ Per account — team-friendly |
Verified Pricing (May 2026)
Three corrections: (1) Loom AI features (summaries, chapters, filler word removal) require Business+AI at $20/user/month — NOT included on the free plan or the $15 Business plan. (2) Vidyard Teams is $99/user/month since the February 2025 restructure — not $300/month as many older guides show. (3) Wistia launched new storage-based plans on March 17, 2026 — the old Plus/Pro/Advanced pricing is now legacy for existing customers. New customers are on the updated plan structure. Always verify current Wistia pricing at wistia.com/pricing.
| Tier | Loom (Atlassian) | Vidyard | Wistia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 25 videos total · 5-min recording · 720p · basic transcriptions · no AI | 5 videos/month · 15 AI avatar videos · 4K quality · view notifications | 10 hosted videos · 200GB bandwidth · basic analytics · forever |
| Entry paid (annual) | Business $15/user/mo · unlimited video · 4K · custom branding · NO AI features | Starter $59/user/mo · per-recipient analytics · CRM integration · team library | Legacy Pro $79/mo ($99 monthly) · new Business plan available — verify at wistia.com |
| AI add-on tier | ✗ Business+AI $20/user/mo (annual) — auto-summaries, chapters, filler removal, meeting recaps | AI Avatar generation included on all plans including free (up to 15/mo) | AI dubbing and social clips on paid plans — verify current plan structure |
| Teams/Growth tier | Enterprise (custom) | ✓ Teams $99/user/mo (NOT $300/mo — corrected Feb 2025) | Legacy Advanced $319/mo ($399 monthly) · new plans from March 2026 |
| Watch out for | Loom free plan has no AI features — many guides incorrectly claim AI summaries are free. Atlassian acquisition created billing changes: Creator Lite seats being phased out, which can auto-inflate team bills. Check your workspace before adding users. | Free plan is 5 videos/month (not unlimited as older guides say). Starter $59/user is expensive for small teams — compare vs Loom Business+AI ($20/user) if CRM analytics aren’t needed. Teams plan is $99/user, not $300/mo. | New storage-based plans launched March 17, 2026. Old Plus/Pro/Advanced tiers are legacy. New customers get the updated plan structure. Always check wistia.com/pricing before budgeting as pricing changed in April 2026. |
The Full Picture
Loom — Post-Atlassian: Faster Integration, More Billing Complexity
Loom was acquired by Atlassian in October 2023 for $975 million. The acquisition brought deeper integrations with Jira, Confluence, and the broader Atlassian ecosystem — genuinely useful for teams already using those products. New AI features arrived post-acquisition: filler word removal, silence removal, auto-meeting recaps, text-based editing, and auto-chapters. But these AI features are not free — they require the Business + AI plan at $20/user/month (annual). The free Starter plan and the $15/user Business plan include basic transcriptions only. Many comparison guides and even some Loom marketing materials imply AI features come with the free plan; they do not.
The Atlassian migration introduced billing complexity that has caught teams off guard. Creator Lite seats — previously free workspace members who could view but not record — are being phased out. As they’re discontinued, Loom auto-upgrades them to paid Creator seats during the migration grace period. Teams with inactive members who had Creator Lite status have reported surprise bills. Loom’s own documentation states that accounts created after February 2026 are already on the new Atlassian billing system with a 10-user limit on the free plan — a significant reduction from the previous 50-member free workspace cap.
Despite the post-acquisition friction, Loom’s core value proposition remains intact: the fastest record-to-shareable-link workflow in the category. The integration depth with Slack, Notion, Jira, and GitHub makes it the default async video tool for development and product teams. For teams that genuinely use AI summaries and chapters as workflow tools, the $20/user Business + AI plan is competitively priced against Vidyard’s $59/user Starter. For teams that need basic async video without AI features, Business at $15/user is strong value.
Vidyard — Sales Intelligence Platform, Not Just Video Messaging
Vidyard restructured its pricing and plans in February 2025, merging the old Pro and Plus plans into a new Starter tier at $59/user/month. A key correction: the Teams plan is now $99/user/month, not the $300/month figure that still appears in many older comparison articles. The free plan was also restructured — it now includes 5 videos per month plus 15 AI avatar videos, not unlimited recording as some guides still state. The 15 AI avatar videos per month on the free plan is genuinely useful: it lets sales teams test personalised video outreach before committing to a paid plan.
Vidyard’s Video Agent is the most significant product development since the pricing restructure. Video Agent automatically creates and sends personalised AI avatar videos based on CRM deal events — a prospect downloads content, books a demo, or goes cold after a proposal, and Video Agent fires a personalised video without any rep involvement. The custom AI avatar (trained on the rep’s own video) makes each generated video look and sound like the actual sales rep. For outbound SDR teams, this changes the economics of video prospecting from a time-intensive manual activity to an automated workflow. This level of automation is not available in Loom or Wistia.
Vidyard’s per-recipient viewer analytics remain the core differentiator for sales use cases. Knowing that a specific named prospect watched your video for 2 minutes 14 seconds, rewatched the pricing section twice, and forwarded it to someone else in their organisation — and having that data feed directly into a Salesforce deal record — is qualitatively different from Loom’s basic view count metrics. For B2B sales teams with deal sizes where even one additional closed deal justifies the subscription cost, Vidyard is the right tool. For everyone else, Loom or Wistia serve the need at a lower price.
Wistia — New Plans March 2026, Still the Marketing Video Specialist
Wistia launched a new set of storage-based plans on March 17, 2026 — the most significant pricing change since the company introduced the Plus/Pro/Advanced structure. The new plans include more storage by default and are structured around modern video workflows rather than the older per-video-count model. Customers who signed up before March 17, 2026 are on legacy plans that remain active for now, but will eventually be migrated. For anyone evaluating Wistia based on this guide or other comparison articles, verify the current plan structure at wistia.com/pricing — the old Plus $19/month, Pro $79/month, Advanced $319/month structure may not reflect what you’ll be quoted today.
Wistia’s core value proposition remains unchanged regardless of plan structure. It is categorically different from Loom and Vidyard — it’s a video hosting and marketing platform for content that lives on your website, not a recording or outreach tool. The ad-free player with full brand control, SEO-structured data that allows Google to index your video content, in-video lead capture forms, and engagement heatmaps address the needs of marketing teams building video libraries. Hosting a product demo or tutorial on Wistia keeps the SEO value on your own domain; hosting on YouTube sends that traffic to Google’s platform. For companies investing seriously in video SEO, this distinction is financially meaningful.
Wistia shipped over 100 features in 2025–2026, including AI dubbing (translate your video into multiple languages automatically), AI-powered social clip generation, and major improvements to webinar analytics and live event tooling. The free plan’s 10-video limit is restrictive for production use, but the free plan is genuinely functional for evaluation. For marketing teams where video is a serious content channel and on-site analytics matter, Wistia provides capabilities that neither Loom nor Vidyard offer. For teams primarily needing async communication or sales outreach, Wistia is the wrong tool regardless of plan pricing.
Who Should Use Each Tool?
Choose Loom if…
- You want the fastest async video recording and sharing workflow
- Your team uses Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence) — deep integration
- Budget allows Business ($15) or Business+AI ($20) per user
- AI summaries and auto-chapters are needed — budget for Business+AI
- Internal async communication is the primary use case
Choose Vidyard if…
- Your sales team sends personalised video to B2B prospects
- You need to know exactly who watched and for how long
- You use HubSpot or Salesforce and want video analytics in deal records
- AI-powered automated video outreach (Video Agent) is relevant
- Your deal size justifies $59/user Starter or $99/user Teams
Choose Wistia if…
- You host marketing or product videos on your website
- Video SEO matters — you want Google to index your content
- You need lead capture forms built into your videos
- Brand control is important — no third-party ads on your content
- Video heatmaps and per-viewer engagement analytics for marketing
Best Tool by Use Case
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Loom — AI features are NOT on the free plan
Auto-summaries, auto-chapters, filler word removal, and meeting recaps are Business+AI features at $20/user/month. The free plan and the $15/user Business plan include basic transcriptions only. Many guides — and some Loom marketing copy — imply AI features come free. They do not.
Loom — Atlassian billing migration surprises
Creator Lite seats (previously free viewer-only accounts) are being discontinued as Atlassian integrates billing. They auto-upgrade to paid Creator seats during migration. Teams with inactive free members have received surprise bills. Check your workspace member list before the migration hits your account.
Vidyard — Free plan is 5 videos/month, not unlimited
Many older guides still show Vidyard free as “unlimited recording.” After the February 2025 restructure, the free plan includes 5 videos per month plus 15 AI avatar videos. If you need more than 5 videos/month, you need the Starter plan at $59/user.
Vidyard — Starter $59/user scales fast for teams
A 10-person sales team on Vidyard Starter costs $7,080/year. Teams plan at $99/user is better per-seat value for larger teams. Budget carefully and verify that the CRM analytics genuinely improve pipeline before rolling out to a full team.
Wistia — New plans launched March 17, 2026
Wistia introduced new storage-based plans on March 17, 2026. The old Plus ($19/mo), Pro ($79/mo), and Advanced ($319/mo) pricing is now legacy for existing customers. New customers are on the updated plan structure. Always check wistia.com/pricing before budgeting.
All three — Different tools for different jobs
Many teams use two of these simultaneously — Loom for internal async communication and Wistia for marketing video hosting, for example. They don’t fully replace each other. Identify your primary use case before picking just one, and factor in the possibility that you need two.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Loom’s free plan include AI summaries?
Is Loom free?
Is Vidyard worth the money?
What is Wistia best for?
Can Loom replace Zoom?
Does Vidyard integrate with HubSpot and Salesforce?
Ready to Try These Video Tools?
All three offer free plans — try before you commit.