Loom vs Tella: Why I Switched to Tella for Course Videos
When I started creating my first online course, I shopped around for a screen recording platform that could host my videos, provide closed captions, and had robust editing capabilities. I initially chose Loom, and it was going fine, but about a month into creating my course, I discovered Tella! I loved Tella SO much, I cancelled my Loom subscription, moved to Tella, and have not looked back.
Tella has all of the features I was using in Loom (and more) and costs less than Loom’s comparable Business + AI Plan (even LESS with my discount code below which gives you 30% off your first year of Tella). Both tools are great for quick videos to communicate with colleagues and clients. Loom also has many features that support internal, corporate collaboration. (If that is your use case, Loom might be the better tool for you.) But if your main use case is content creation to be shared with an external audience, Tella is the way to go!
I have been using Tella for about a year and recently revisited Loom to see what had changed. This post covers new features added to both tools since I made the switch and I can confirm that Tella is still my favorite screen recording platform for online course videos (and now, YouTube videos, too!)
Keep reading to learn about the Tella features that won me over and how they compare to Loom, or watch my deep dive demo that compares the two tools.
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, when you are recording yourself and sharing your screen, you can be a small circle or a big circle - two options. You can move your circle around the screen, but wherever it is when you are recording is where it stays and that is your video layout.
Tella records your screen and your camera separately so when you edit your video you can choose from over thirty different layouts for your video. You can use different layouts for different parts of your video (very cool!), AND Tella recently released an AI tool that will automatically take a stab at applying layouts to your video for you!
Here is a horrible screen shot from one of my videos with the layout I saw in an online summit that let me to Tella.
I am on the left in a cool, TikTok-shaped video frame, and on the right is a slide presentation I was sharing on my screen. I made the video background the same as my slide background for a floating image effect. (FYI - My laptop camera is HORRIBLE. It’s not Tella.)
You ALSO have lots of options for editing the style and layout of 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 do this during editing, you don’t have to think about format while you are recording!
Video Clips
Tella allows you to record your video in clips. For example, you could record an intro in one clip, then a demo clip, then a closing clip. You can do this directly in the video recording app so all of your clips are together in one video from the start.
Each of these clips is like a mini video within your master video. You can easily delete clips, re-record just one clip, or move clips around! You can even copy a clip from one video to another video.
In Loom, you can’t record multiple clips in the same video but you can combine separate videos into one video. Each video is then it’s own “clip” that you can re-arrange within the larger video. This means you have the extra step of consolidating clips and then deleting the original videos once you combine them together.
AI Features
Loom and Tella both have AI editing features to speed up the editing process, but Tella has a few additional features and continues to invest in a speedy editing process. (FYI - You need the Loom Business + AI plan to use AI features.)
The following AI supported features are available in BOTH Tella and Loom:
Automatically generate video titles (with fun emojis at the end 🤩)
Remove filler words
Remove silences
Video chapters - Tella added video chapters in August 2025 (yay!) so now both tools have the option to auto generate chapters or manually add them yourself. Video chapters in Tella are only visible in the Tella player, not on embedded videos. Loom will display chapters on embedded videos.
Tella has quite a few AI editing features that Loom does not have:
Silence Removal Options – apply Natural, Fast, or Faster options when removing silences for a more conversational or concise video style (Loom has one option)
Remove Buffers – automatically removes silent parts from the beginning and end of your video
Find Mistakes – a new feature that will analyze mistakes in your video (e.g. repeated phrases) and highlight them for you to review (like spell check) so you can and accept or decline them
Auto-Layouts – Tella can automatically apply layouts to your video based on activity in the camera and screen share
Studio Voice - use AI to enhance your audio (remove background noise, boost volume)
Loom has one AI feature that Tella does not currently have:
AI generated Video Summary - as of August 2025, you can manually add a video description in Tella, but Loom will auto-generate one for you. I often have to manually edit the description that Loom proposes, so I don’t think this is a huge value add for Loom, but it does give you a starting point
Manual Video Editing
Both Tella and Loom (Business + AI Plan) allow you to edit your video using your transcript or a waveform editor (an image of the video sound that helps you trim parts of your video). Both tools auto generate transcripts for you that can be edited to fix any mistakes and you can search the transcripts to jump to a specific part of the video.
I found Tella’s transcripts to be more accurate, and I LOVE that you can add missing words in Tella’s transcript editing. In Loom you can only edit an existing word or remove words, and sometimes a whole sentence was missing in Loom that I couldn’t add back, so this is a BIG plus for Tella.
One feature I like about Loom’s transcript editor is that silences are noted in the transcript so you can easily find them, decide which ones to remove, and delete them with a click. Tella does not currently have this feature (but I have requested it!)
You can copy the transcript out of either tool if you want to share it or for any other purpose.
Zoom Effects
During video editing, Tella allows you to Zoom into a part of your screen and control how long and how deep the Zoom is for each Zoom. This is very helpful for web design tutorial videos to focus on one part of the screen!
Loom allows you to add boxes, arrows, and text to your screen during editing, and has a feature to use a pen to highlight parts of your screen when you are recording, but it does not have a Zoom effect. I find Tella’s Zoom effect a bit more modern and professional.
Video Cropping
Another extremely helpful feature in Tella (not available in Loom), is the ability to crop your screen share during the editing process. 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 (or don’t want to bother) 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.
Tella recently added a feature that will auto crop your video for you and remove that taskbar and your browser tabs in one click!
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. (Not available in Loom!)
Video Embedding
When I embed a video on Squarespace, I don’t want the title, view count, or a link to “view in Loom/Tella” to display on my video. I just want a clean video with a play button displayed. This is doable in Loom but requires manual manipulation of HTML code that it generates. (And I had to contact support to figure it out because the instructions are not clear!)
This is what an embedded Loom video looks like if you don’t manually manipulate the embed code.
In Tella, when you select the Embed option, you can toggle options off to hide the things you don’t want to show on your embedded video. Then Tella automatically generates the code you need to copy/paste into your website. (So much easier!)
The Tella embed code screen.
This is a nice, clean video embed created with Tella.
Pricing
Loom and Tella both offer multiple plans. Loom’s Business + AI plan is the most comparable plan to Tella’s Pro plan and these are the plans that most solopreneurs, small businesses and independent creators would need.
Here is how the pricing compares between Loom Business + AI and Tella Pro:
Tella Pro
Loom Business + AI
Annually
$8/month ($96/year)*
$20/month ($240/year)
Monthly
$13/month*
$24/month
*Price reflects the 30% discount using my referral link below
Loom has a Business plan without AI that costs less than the AI plan, but it does not include the ability to edit with a transcript, which is a dealbreaker for me.
Tella has a more expensive Premium Plan that includes custom branding, custom domains, video analytics, higher quality exports and more features for secure sharing. If your business needs these premium features, you can also get 30% off your first year of a Premium plan using my link above.
Loom vs Tella Summary
The table below summarizes the key features I covered in this post and how they compare between Loom and Tella. Visit the Loom and Tella websites for a comprehensive list of features in each tool.
Tella Pro
Loom Business + AI
Screen & Camera Recording
✔️
✔️
Video Hosting
✔️
✔️
Video Layouts
✔️
❌
Record in Clips
✔️
❌
AI Generated Titles
✔️
✔️
AI Generated Summary
❌(Can manually add)
✔️
AI Generated Chapters
✔️(only in the Tella player)
✔️(in the Loom player and embedded videos)
Remove Filler Words
✔️
✔️
Remove Silences
✔️ (Multiple options 👍)
✔️
Remove Buffers
✔️
❌
Find Mistakes
✔️
❌
Auto-Layouts
✔️
❌
Studio Voice (Enhanced Audio)
✔️
❌
Edit by Transcript
✔️
✔️(Silences noted in transcript 👍)
Transcript Editing
✔️ (Can add missing words 👍)
✔️
Zoom Effects
✔️
❌
Add text, box, and arrow overlays
❌
✔️
Video Cropping
✔️
❌
Adjust Camera Framing
✔️
❌
Video Embed Code
✔️ (😊Easy toggle interface)
✔️(😫Manual code manipulation)
Pricing - Paid Annually
$8/month ($96/year)*
$20/month ($240/year)
Pricing - Paid Monthly
$13/month*
$24/month
*Price reflects the 30% discount using my referral link
The Net Net
Loom has great features for collaboration and messaging and it CAN be used for content creation, but Tella has better functionality to support that use case. In April 2025, Tella raised $2.1 million in seed funding and is continuing to invest in AI capabilities that make it easy to quickly edit and produce professional, polished videos. With over thirty video layout options that are easy to apply, flexible recording with video clips, and a growing number AI of tools to speed up the editing process, Tella is the tool I recommend for recording course videos, YouTube videos, and any other video content you need for your business.
If I haven’t convinced you yet, take Tella for a spin for FREE for 7 days*. I am pretty sure you will love it!
