The Five Best Screencastify Alternatives 

Overview of Screencastify for screen recording and video editing

Screencastify is a user-friendly screen recorder and video editor. 

It operates via a Chrome extension with all content stored on Google Drive. Institutions that rely entirely on Google Chromebooks love Screencastify. As a knowledge-sharing recorder, it automatically generates a shareable link upon completing a screen recording.

Critical use cases of Screencastify 

1. Educators: Screencastify is most widely used by K-12 teachers to create video lessons, provide feedback, and deliver online content. Popular features include a live drawing tool to annotate while recording and cursor-click animation.
2. Students: Screencastify has unique features enabling teachers to create class assignments with student-recorded presentations. 
3. Professionals: This includes internal training and customer communication.

Pricing and plans

It offers a free plan with a 5-minute recording time limit. For unlimited recordings, premium plans start at $49/year.

Reasons Users Seek Alternatives to Screencastify

• Lack of a screen capture tool
• Lack of support for higher-quality content. The maximum resolution for a Screencastify video is 1080p.
• Lack of video editing features
• Limitations in workflow related to rigid integration with Google 

All of the alternatives on this list are also quick-share recorders. These reviews focus on Google integration, pricing, and editing tools.

1. Snagit: The best alternative to Screencastify overall

Overview of Snagit: Best for screen capture for Mac or Windows

Snagit is the top alternative to Screencastify. Snagit has more market share than Screencastify in higher education, the Fortune 500, and social media creators. Snagit is ideal for users who need screen capture plus recording.  

Pricing and plans

• Less Expensive Pricing: Snagit costs less than Screencastify, at $39/year. Snagit provides a free trial but no free plan. Snagit v24 is also available as a one-time purchase at $63.

Snagit vs. Screencastify considerations

Snagit’s benefits include:

• More flexible workflows for video creation, including video from images, stitching videos, and GIF creation
• Image capture and image editing: Snagit offers the best image capture and editing, including scrolling capture. 
• Video editing tools include
  • Screen Draw
  • Automatic step numbering
  • Video trimming
  • Video cutting
  • Background noise removal (v.25)
• Higher quality content: HDR image capture, HD images, and 4K Resolution HD video recordings  
• More expandable feature set: Snagit offers optional premium plans, which include
  • Integrated asset libraries
  • Speech-to-text caption generation
  • ADA caption editor
  • AI video summaries
  • Cloud collaboration features
  • Online annotation for images and video
  • Advanced video editing via integration with Camtasia 
• More flexible integrations: Snagit provides quick sharing functionality from your choice of its cloud or your cloud-sharing service. It also includes integration with Slack and MS Teams.  

Additional considerations when comparing Screencastify to Snagit include:

• Strong Google Integration: Snagit fully integrates with Google Drive to store and share all file content. However, Snagit does not run on a Chromebook or offer a Chrome plugin. 

2. Loom is best for video messaging and quick sharing 

Overview of Loom Video

Loom is a substantial alternative and is excellent at providing the automatic link generation needed to share videos instantly.  

Loom is a prevalent choice for:

• Personalized customer communication, including Call-to-Action CTAs
• Providing feedback to coworkers and students and video messaging

Pricing and plans

More expensive pricing: Loom offers a free plan that limits the number of videos (25) and recording time (5 minutes). Use a premium plan for unlimited video recording and higher-resolution video content.  

Unfortunately, they are one of the more expensive options, starting at $150/year.

• Tip: Loom also offers some premium features that are free to K-12 educators. This includes HD video recordings up to 45 minutes in length.  

Loom vs. Screencastify considerations

• Some Google integrations: Loom also provides a Chrome plugin and a desktop installation. Loom limits certain features to the desktop app, such as capturing the entire screen or system audio.
  • Loom tightly integrates with its proprietary cloud hosting service. It does not allow for content storage on cloud-sharing services like Google Drive.
    • Tip: Screencastify’s exclusive use of Google Drive gives it additional security over content. Loom (and Snagit) provide password protection to help address this concern.

• Video editing tools: Like other quick share recorders, you can trim videos. Loom also provides mouse cursor highlighting and custom thumbnails.
• Image capture: When evaluating Screencastify vs. Loom, consider that Loom provides some image capture capabilities. 

3. Nimbus Capture: Best Chrome extension alternative

Overview of Nimbus

Nimbus is a versatile and easy-to-use alternative to Screencastify. Its Chrome extension provides screen capture, video recording, and annotation tools.  

Users value Nimbus as a web-based screen recording tool that integrates well with browsers. Its edit and share features record lectures in schools and document business processes.

Pricing and plans

More Expensive Pricing: Nimbus’ free version limits video length (5 min), adds watermarks, and turns off features. Its premium plan is in the middle of the range on this list at $60/year.

Nimbus vs. Screencastify considerations

• Strong Google integration: Nimbus offers extensions for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Customers report Chrome as their best browser experience. Like Loom, Nimbus requires a desktop app for more functionality, such as recording the entire desktop and editing.
  • With the paid version, unlike Loom but similar to Snagit, Nimbus offers Google Drive integration for sharing content. It also integrates with Nimbus Note, Dropbox, or YouTube.

• Image capture and editing tools: Nimbus provides image capture and editing tools such as annotation and blur.  
• Video editing tools include trimming, gif creation, live drawing, and higher-quality video resolution (up to 4K). However, most of these are available in the desktop app, not the Chrome plugin.

Customers rate Nimbus as lower than Snagit, Loom, or Screencastify despite all these features. 

4. Vidyard: Best for sales prospecting and video analytics

Overview of Vidyard

Vidyard is screen recording and video creation software designed for businesses and marketers needing in-depth analytics. 

Vidyard is best for video messaging in the context of sales and marketing prospecting. Sales teams value personalized video messages that engage potential customers.

Pricing and plans

Most expensive pricing: Vidyard has a free version. It limits the number and length of videos (30 minutes), adds watermarking, and turns off integrations and analytics. Its premium plan, at $229/year, includes advanced analytics, password protection, and unlimited video hosting.

Vidyard vs. Screencastify considerations

• Some Google integrations: Similar to Loom, Vidyard provides a Chrome extension. However, it uses its proprietary cloud platform for hosting and sharing content and does not integrate with Google Drive.

• Image capture and editing tools: Like Screencastify, Vidyard does not provide this capability.
• Video editing tools include trimming, CTA call to action, video chapters, 4K recording, branding tools, and custom thumbnails. It does not provide live drawing or cursor highlighting. Other than trimming, most of these features require the desktop app. 

Vidyard also has many specialized features for sales prospecting, such as integration with CRM tools and Zoom. Its analytic tools track viewer engagement and performance metrics.

5. ScreenPal (Screencast-O-matic): Best for video editing on a budget

Overview of ScreenPal

Screenpal is a popular tool for screen recording and simple video creation. Users value its simplicity, ease of use, and affordable pricing.

Typical use cases resemble Snagit and Loom, including educational content, quick tutorials and how-to videos, and visual feedback.

Pricing and plans

Least expensive pricing: ScreenPal’s free plan limits recording length (15 min), adds watermarking, and turns off features.  Its lowest-paid plan is the least expensive option at $36/year on this list.

ScreenPal vs. Screencastify considerations

• Some Google integration: ScreenPal offers a Chrome extension. However, it does not provide an integration with Google Drive and relies on sharing content through its proprietary cloud.

• Image capture and editing tools: ScreenPal offers screenshot capture and basic editing and annotation tools.
• Video editing tools: ScreenPal offers strong video editing capabilities, including trimming, cutting, and post-production annotations. However, full functionality requires the desktop app. It also provides “Draw and Zoom” and (like Snagit) both mouse cursor highlighting and click animations.

ScreenPal ranks ahead of Screencastify in third-party reviews. 

Conclusion: The best Screencastify alternative for you 

Your best screen recording tool alternative depends on your use case, budget, and platform.   

Loom is an excellent option if you prioritize the speed of sharing. For specialized use cases such as sales prospecting, consider Vidyard or Loom. ScreenPal is the least expensive alternative despite its video editing capabilities (although only $3/year less than Snagit). 

None of the alternatives provide comparable functionality in a Chromebook/Google Drive-exclusive environment. Only two support Google Drive for storing and sharing content – Snagit and Nimbus. Other solutions may have hidden costs as you leverage their cloud storage and bandwidth.

Snagit provides powerful screen recording, video editing, and sharing tools at one of the lowest price points. It also offers additional functionality to help you grow with your needs.  Snagit is the best alternative overall.