Loom vs Tella: Why I Switched to Tella for Screen Recording
I recently moved from Loom to Tella and am SO excited about Tella I want to tell the world about it! This post covers my favorite Tella features, and how they compare to Loom, and why I made the switch. I spent a lot of time researching and debating which platform to use when I decided to create an online course and start a YouTube channel, and I want to help you make the right decision for you!
Background
Until recently, the only videos I recorded were short, private tutorial videos for my web design clients. For that purpose, I used Vimeo’s FREE screen recorder. If that is your only use case, the Vimeo free plan is a great choice. (Although there is a 1GB lifetime video limit so once you hit that, you need to upgrade.)
This summer I started building an online course, and planning a YouTube channel, and I needed a video platform that would record my screen and also provide closed captions and editing capabilities so I could create more polished, user-friendly videos (which you can’t do with Vimeo’s free plan).
I (obsessively) researched and debated between Vimeo and Loom and ultimately went with Loom because it was cheaper.
I had only been using Loom for a month (and it was going fine) when I saw a presentation at an online summit with a really cool side-by-side camera/slide presentation. I reached out to the presenter to find out what video platform she used and that is when I learned about Tella!
I signed up for a Tella free trial, LOVED it, moved all of my Loom videos to Tella, canceled my Loom subscription, and have not looked back! I also stopped using Vimeo and switched to Tella for private, client videos.
Tella has all of the features I was using in Loom, PLUS more cool stuff (that I will tell you about), and costs less per month than the comparable Loom plan!!! And EVEN less with my discount code! If you use the button below you get 30% off your Tella subscription, for life!)
Here are some of the key features about Tella that won me over and how they compare to Loom.
Video Layouts & Styles
One of the coolest things about Tella is the variety of layouts and styles you can apply to your videos (and I didn’t even know I wanted this until I saw it!)
In Loom if you have your camera on, you can be a small circle or a big circle. You can move that circle around but wherever it is when you are recording is where it stays.
In Tella, you can just record your screen (or slides) and your camera and then choose later from over 30 different layouts when you are editing your video. And, you can use different layouts for different parts of your video (very cool!)
Here is a horrible screen shot from one of my videos with the layout I loved so much that led me to Tella.
I am on the left in a cool, TikTok-shaped video frame, and on the right is an uploaded slide presentation. (FYI - My laptop camera is HORRIBLE. It’s not Tella.)
You ALSO have lots of options for editing the background of your video. In the video above, I used the same video background color as my slide to get the “floating image” effect. You can use a color, gradient, or image for your background, and add borders to the elements in your video.
It took me 5 seconds to change the background of my video, move my face to the other side, and add shadow borders to give my video a different look, below. And since you can do this all during editing, you don’t have to decide when you are recording!
Adjust Camera Framing
In Tella, if you appear off center in your video rectangle or circle, you can very easily adjust the video to put yourself in the middle of the frame. Very cool.
Video Cropping
You can crop your Tella video to remove a section of the screen after recording! I have a PC, and I can’t tell you how many times I had to re-record videos in Loom because I forgot to hide my taskbar. In Tella, if you forget to hide the taskbar you can just crop out the bottom of the video! The same goes for cropping out the browser tabs if you forget to go full-screen recording a demo and want a clean look.
Transcript/Waveform Editing
The other editing capabilities in Loom and Tella are pretty comparable. I did find that Tella’s transcripts are more accurate and I LOVE that you can add missing words in transcript editing! In Loom you can only edit an existing word or remove words, and sometimes a whole sentence is missing, so Tella wins there. Loom gets points for a better waveform editor, but the co-founder mentioned they are aware that the waves get out of sync for some videos and are working on it! What I also liked about Loom transcript editing was that silences are noted in the transcript so you can easily find them and decide which ones to remove. Tella does not currently have this feature (but I requested it!)
Side note: One of Tella’s co-founders reached out to set up a chat to get feedback and get to know his customers better. A very nice, customer-centric touch (and good business and product strategy)!
Upload Slides
You can upload your slide presentation to the Tella web recorder instead of recording the screen as a slide show. In the web recorder, you can also have speaker notes at the top of the screen (above the slides and close to the camera), which I really like. It also means your cursor is not displayed as you are navigating the slides, and you don’t have to worry about hiding recording icons or notifications popping up on your screen (because just the slides are captured). In this screenshot below my slides are in one frame and I am in another frame and I can decide the layout later. You can’t upload slides to Loom. In Loom your video is just a circle displayed somewhere over your slides as you present them.
Record Clips
You have the option to record your video in separate clips. For example, you could record an intro in one clip, then a demo clip, then a closing clip. Each of these clips is like a mini video within your master video. You can easily assign different layouts to each clip, delete clips, re-record just one clip, and move clips around! You can even copy a clip from one video to a new or existing video. This clip feature also allows you to easily add a NEW clip to the middle of a video which you cannot do in Loom, only to the beginning or end.
Easy Embed Codes
When I embed a video on a web page, I don’t want the title, view count, or a link to “view in Loom/Tella” to display on my video. This is doable in Loom but requires manual manipulation of HTML code that it generates. (And for me, an extra message to support because the instructions are not clear!) In Tella, when you select the Embed option, you can toggle options on and off which then automatically generates the code you need to copy/paste into your website. (So much easier!)
AI Features
AI is all the rage, but I don’t leverage it much myself. Both Tella and Loom will auto-generate a video title (that I always change). Tella’s video titles have cute emojis at the end, which I love. Loom Business + AI will auto-generate a video summary and chapters for you (both of which you can edit). These features are not available in Tella and you can’t manually add a video summary or chapters in Tella either. I don’t need a summary but chapters would be nice to have for longer videos.
Other Cool Tella Features
In Tella, you can zoom in to highlight part of your screen (and on the Mac app auto zoom just launched which will auto zoom based on your mouse clicks!). You can also add buttons to your videos with a link to promote a CTA AND change the style of your subtitles/close captions.
Pricing: Loom vs Tella
Loom Business + AI is $24/month if you pay monthly and $20/month if you pay annually. The Loom business plan (without AI) costs the same as Tella (without my discount) but has a lot fewer features! Loom does also have a FREE plan but it is very limited and can’t be used for course videos.
A Tella Pro plan costs $19/month if you pay monthly and $15/month if you pay annually. But if you sign up using the button below, you can get Tella Pro for 30% off – for life! That’s 13.30/month and you can pay monthly with no annual commitment.
Moving from Loom to Tella
I only had about 10 videos on Loom and it was very easy to download them from Loom and upload them to Tella. Everything moved over just fine with closed captions and great quality. When you downgrade your Loom account to a free plan, your videos are still available (and will still work if they are embedded somewhere) but once you reach 25 videos you can’t record more unless you delete some and your new videos have a limit of 5 minutes each. If you pause on your monthly Tella plan, the same applies. Your videos stay but you just can’t record more until you start your subscription again.
The Net Net
I definitely recommend Tella over Loom for creating course videos, YouTube videos, or social media content. Loom is intended to be a collaboration and messaging tool. Loom CAN be used for course videos and other content, but Tella has better functionality to support that use case and is investing in features to support content creators. If I haven’t convinced you yet, check out the Tella website to see the features in action and take Tella for a spin for 7 days*. I am pretty sure you will love it!
