Loom alternative

El Ojo vs Loom: free, no watermark, your storage.

Loom is a great recorder until you hit the 5-minute free cap or the "Upgrade to remove watermark" wall. El Ojo's extension stays free forever with unlimited recording time and saves to your own Google Drive. Studio adds AI captions in 100+ languages and smart cursor zoom — features Loom puts behind Business ($15/user/mo) or doesn't offer at all.

Side-by-side comparison

All numbers verified November 2026 from each product's public pricing page.

FeatureEl Ojo (Free)Loom Starter (Free)Loom Business ($15/mo)
Recording time per videoUnlimited5 minutesUnlimited
Total recordings storedUnlimited (your storage)25Unlimited
ResolutionUp to 4K, 32 Mbps720p4K
Watermark on outputNeverNo (but Loom branding in URL)No
Where recordings liveYour machine + your Google DriveLoom's serversLoom's servers
Cursor spotlight toolBuilt in, free
Camera bubble with selfie segmentationFree, with 5 beauty levelsYes (basic)Yes
Layout switch during recordingBubble / Split / Screen / Camera live
Auto-captionsStudio: 100+ languages (Whisper)English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
RTL languages (Urdu, Arabic, Hebrew)Yes — correct direction + font
Roman / Hinglish transliterationYes
Smart auto-zoom on cursorStudio: auto + manual fallback
Text-based editing (delete word = cut)Studio: yesYes (AI Editing add-on)
Audio cleanupDeepFilterNet 3 (Pro)Yes
Embed in Notion / Slack / WordpressStudio ProYesYes
Password-protected videosStudio ProYes
Account required to recordNo — install and recordYesYes
Open sourceExtension source on GitHubNoNo
Price for full feature set$0 extension + $12/mo Studio Pro$0 (limited)$15/user/month

When to choose El Ojo over Loom

If you record long sessions (over 5 minutes), care about your data living in your own Drive, or need captions in non-Western languages — El Ojo is the cleaner choice. The extension is free forever; you only pay if you need Studio's editor.

Long PR walkthroughs

Loom's free 5-minute cap forces you to either compress what you have to say or pay $15/seat. El Ojo records as long as you need on the free extension. Add cursor spotlight and annotations to call out the diff lines that matter.

Help-desk replies in customer language

Loom Business adds captions in 5 languages. El Ojo Studio captions in 100+ via Whisper Large v3 — including Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, and Hebrew with correct RTL direction. Roman/Hinglish output for global audiences.

Personal demos that auto-zoom

Studio replays your cursor trail as a smooth pan-and-zoom in the rendered video — viewers see exactly what you clicked without you having to manually annotate. Loom doesn't offer auto-zoom at any tier.

Your storage, your control

Loom recordings live on Loom's servers. El Ojo's extension saves to your Drive or local disk. Studio is opt-in — you choose what to upload. Open-source extension means you can audit exactly what the recorder does.

When Loom might still be the right choice

Honest answer: Loom has built a deep ecosystem over years that El Ojo hasn't reached yet. If you need any of the following, stay with Loom or evaluate carefully:

For everything else — recording, captioning, sharing, embedding, simple analytics — El Ojo costs less and offers language coverage Loom doesn't.

Try it free in 60 seconds

Install the El Ojo Chrome extension and record your first video. If you like it, Studio adds the editor and hosted sharing for $12/month — or stay on the free tier forever.