Quick answer
Yes — BloomRecorder is a one-time-purchase alternative to Loom. It costs $29 once, while Loom runs $15/user/mo — about $180 per year, every year. Record screen, camera or both — 100% local, unlimited length, MP4 & GIF export. No cloud, no account, no subscription. It is for people who want the job done on their own hardware without a renewal date — not for teams that live inside Loom's ecosystem.
The verdict
Switch to BloomRecorder if you are an individual or small team paying Loom $15/user/mo for work your own machine can do. Against Loom Business, BloomRecorder pays for itself in under two months — and every recording after that stays on hardware you own.
Stay with Loom if your workflow depends on its integrations, you need enterprise features (SSO, admin controls, SLAs), or your team is large enough that per-seat collaboration tooling is worth the bill. BloomRecorder does not try to replicate those.
Head to head
| BloomRecorder | Loom | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $29 once | $15/user/mo (~$180/yr, forever); Business+AI $24/mo |
| Recording length | Unlimited | Plan-limited |
| Where recordings live | Your own disk | Loom's servers |
| Accounts required | None | Yes |
| Telemetry / network calls | Zero | Yes |
| Screen + camera (PiP) | Yes — split or combined | Yes |
| GIF export | Optimized two-pass | Limited |
| Source code | MIT, on GitHub | Closed |
| 5-year cost | $29 | $900 |
Where Loom still wins
- Ecosystem and integrations. Established tools accumulate years of third-party integrations, templates and add-ons. If your workflow is wired into Loom's ecosystem, switching means rebuilding that plumbing — a real cost.
- Team and enterprise features. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, SSO, audit logs and a vendor to call when something breaks — that is what the higher subscription tiers actually buy, and a pay-once app does not come with it.
- Familiarity and hiring. Loom is the name people already know. Onboarding a team onto a tool nobody has used before takes time the subscription never charges for.
Where BloomRecorder wins
- Price, permanently. $29 once versus $180/yr for as long as you use it. There is no renewal, no seat count and no tier gate.
- Screen, camera, or both. Record either source alone or both together — as split files or picture-in-picture combined.
- Source picker with live thumbnails. See exactly what each screen and window looks like before you hit record.
- Device selection. Pick your camera and microphone; system audio and mic are mixed into every output automatically.
The math
Against Loom Business, BloomRecorder pays for itself in under two months — and every recording after that stays on hardware you own.
- After 1 year: BloomRecorder has cost you $29 total — Loom has cost $180.
- After 3 years: BloomRecorder is still $29 — the subscription is at $540.
- After 5 years: BloomRecorder is still $29 — the subscription is at $900.
Common questions
Is there really no account or cloud?
Really. BloomRecorder makes zero network calls — no telemetry, no login, no upload. Recordings are files in a folder you chose on your own disk.
Is recording length limited?
No. There are no plan tiers, so there is nothing to gate. Record as long as your disk has space.
Can I record my screen and camera at the same time?
Yes — either as separate files or combined picture-in-picture, with system audio and your mic mixed into the output.
Is the source code available?
Yes — BloomRecorder is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/bloomrecorder-mvp. Buying the $29 package gets you the built installer and updates; building from source is free.
Try BloomRecorder — $29, one time
Or get BloomRecorder plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.