ScreenRec vs Zight
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
The short answer
Both sides assessedScreenRec compared with Zight
Zight is faster in daily use, with better annotation, screenshots and GIFs as first-class modes, custom domains, and a broad integration list at around $9.95 a seat, but its free tier is capped at 25 captures and 90 second recordings. ScreenRec records for as long as you like even on free and runs on Linux. Choose Zight if the daily habit is capture-annotate-paste; choose ScreenRec if you need long recordings, Linux support, or a genuinely free plan.
Zight compared with ScreenRec
ScreenRec is genuinely free for unlimited-length 720p recording with 2GB of storage and runs on Linux as well as Mac and Windows, at $8.32 a month for Pro. Zight costs slightly more, caps its free tier hard, and gives a far better annotation flow, custom domains, and integrations. Choose ScreenRec if free and unlimited recording matters most; choose Zight if the daily workflow is capture, annotate, paste.
Choose ScreenRec if
Budget-constrained teams, educators, and support and engineering staff on Windows, macOS, or Linux who need to record long sessions and share them privately without paying, and who do not need editing, captions, or AI features.
Choose Zight if
Support, engineering, design, and product teams whose async communication is mostly screenshots and short GIFs with occasional video, and who value a sub-five-second capture-to-link workflow over production quality.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | ScreenRec | Zight |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video | Video |
| Starting price | $8.32 per month billed annually (Pro) (free plan available) | Approximately $9.95 per user per month billed annually (Pro), or around $12 billed monthly (free plan available) |
| Pricing model | Freemium with paid tiers priced around storage and bandwidth rather than per seat, billed monthly or annually. Free is licensed for personal use only. | Per-user subscription with a capped free tier, billed monthly or annually, plus a quoted Enterprise plan. |
| Free plan | 2GB of cloud storage and 2GB of bandwidth, up to 720p with unlimited recording length and no watermark, around 100 recordings and 50 screenshots per month, one user, personal use only. | Roughly 25 total captures, recordings capped at 90 seconds, 720p quality, one user, and Zight branding on shared links. |
| Free trial | The free plan is the trial and does not expire | The free plan serves as the trial; no separate fixed-length paid trial is published |
| Best for | Budget-constrained teams, educators, and support and engineering staff on Windows, macOS, or Linux who need to record long sessions and share them privately without paying, and who do not need editing, captions, or AI features. | Support, engineering, design, and product teams whose async communication is mostly screenshots and short GIFs with occasional video, and who value a sub-five-second capture-to-link workflow over production quality. |
| Setup time | Ten minutes. Download the application for Windows, macOS, or Linux, create an account for cloud upload and link sharing, grant screen recording permission, and record. There is no workspace configuration or integration setup because there is very little to configure. | Ten minutes. Install the desktop app or Chrome extension, sign in, grant screen recording permission, and set the keyboard shortcut you will actually remember. Custom domain configuration on paid plans adds a DNS record. |
| Learning curve | Minimal. The product does a small number of things and does not hide them. The only operational habit to build is storage management, because unlimited-length recording plus a 2GB or 50GB cap means the library needs pruning on a schedule rather than when it fills. | Essentially none. The product is one keyboard shortcut and an annotation toolbar. The only habit worth building deliberately is using the blur tool consistently, because a fast capture flow makes it very easy to share a screen with customer data on it. |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Linux | macOS, Windows, iOS, Chrome extension, Web |
| Compliance | No SOC 2 or ISO certification publicly marketed for the ScreenRec product | SOC 2 Type II on Enterprise, HIPAA support on Enterprise, GDPR |
| Founded | 2019 | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Distributed team across three countries | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Ownership | Privately held; built and operated by StreamingVideoProvider | Venture-backed |
Strengths and limitations
ScreenRec
Strengths
- Unlimited recording length on every plan including free, which almost no competitor offers and which alone decides the purchase for anyone recording long sessions.
- No watermark on any plan, including free, so output is usable externally from day one.
- Genuine Linux support alongside Windows and macOS, which makes it viable for engineering teams that most of this category quietly excludes.
- Pro at $8.32 a month covering three licensed computers with commercial rights and 50GB of storage is exceptional value.
Limitations
- No editing to speak of. No automatic zoom, no transcript-based editing, no filler word removal, no trimming beyond the basics, so what you record is what you send.
- No transcription, captions, or translation, which rules it out anywhere accessibility is a requirement rather than a preference.
- No AI features at all, which is either a virtue or a disqualification depending on what you need.
- The free plan is licensed for personal use only, so business use requires Pro and the free tier cannot honestly be a company's plan.
Zight
Strengths
- The capture-to-clipboard-link interaction is still the fastest in the category and is the reason the product has survived fifteen years and a rebrand.
- Three capture modes in one tool: screenshot, GIF, and video, which matches how people actually communicate rather than forcing everything into video.
- GIF capture is a first-class feature, and GIF is the only format that renders inline in issue trackers, chat, and documentation.
- Annotation with blur is built into the capture flow, so redacting sensitive information takes two seconds instead of a detour through another tool.
Limitations
- The free tier is capped at roughly 25 total captures and 90 second recordings, which makes it an expiring trial rather than a plan.
- The video recorder is functional rather than good: no automatic zoom, no transcript-based editing, no filler word removal, and no polish features.
- Transcription and captions are not a core strength, so accessibility and searchability of video content are weak next to Tella, Descript, or Loom.
- Very small team, publicly estimated in the single digits, supporting a product with fifteen years of accumulated surface area.
Pricing compared
ScreenRec
Freemium with paid tiers priced around storage and bandwidth rather than per seat, billed monthly or annually. Free is licensed for personal use only.
- Free Forever$0
- Pro$8.32
- Premium$81.66
On pure recording capability per dollar, ScreenRec is the best value in this category and it is not close: unlimited-length, watermark-free recording on a free plan, and $8.32 a month for 1080p across three computers with commercial rights and 50GB of hosting. What you are not buying is any of the modern layer, and that omission is total. There is no zoom, no editing, no captions, no AI, no polish. Judge it as a utility for getting long recordings out of your head and onto a private link, where it is excellent and cheap. Judge it as a video communication platform and it is a decade behind, because it is essentially a free front end to a hosting business.
Zight
Per-user subscription with a capped free tier, billed monthly or annually, plus a quoted Enterprise plan.
- Free$0
- Pro$9.95
- TeamAround $8 to $11
- EnterpriseCustom
At roughly $10 a seat, Zight is priced fairly against Loom Business and below most polished video recorders, and for a team whose async communication is mostly screenshots and GIFs it delivers more value per dollar than any video-first tool would, because it matches the actual shape of the work. The caveat is that you are paying for speed and breadth of capture, not for video quality. If you compare it feature-for-feature against Tella or Loom on video, it loses. If you compare it on how many times a day someone will actually use it, it wins comfortably.
Editorial verdict on each
ScreenRec
Best ValueScreenRec is the answer to one specific question: how do I record something long, share it privately, and pay nothing or almost nothing. On that question it beats every other tool in this category, because unlimited-length watermark-free recording on a free plan is close to unique, Linux support is genuinely rare, and Pro at $8.32 a month across three computers with commercial rights and 50GB of hosting is exceptional. Everything else about it is a decade behind. There is no editing, no zoom, no captions, no transcription, no AI, and no custom branding, and the interface looks its age. Use it if budget or platform coverage is the binding constraint, if you record long training sessions, or if half your engineers are on Linux. Pay for Loom, Tella, or Zight instead if the video needs to look good, be searchable, or be seen by customers.
Read the full ScreenRec profileZight
Zight earns its place by matching how people actually communicate visually, which is mostly screenshots and short GIFs with the occasional video, rather than by being the best video recorder. The capture-to-clipboard-link interaction remains the fastest in this category after fifteen years, annotation with blur is built into the flow where it belongs, and it runs everywhere including Windows and iOS. At around $10 a seat that is good value for a support, engineering, or design team. Go in with three things clear. The free tier is a 25 capture trial, not a plan. The video recorder is plain, with no zoom, no transcript editing, and no captions worth relying on. And every link you share is hosted by a company with a single-digit headcount, so those links, which are the entire product, depend on a subscription you keep paying. Buy it for speed and breadth of capture, and buy something else if what you need is video that customers will watch.
Read the full Zight profileScreenRec profile last reviewed 2026-08-22; Zight last reviewed 2026-08-22. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.