The Free Vidyard Alternative Without the 5-Video Ceiling.
Vidyard is built for sales teams, and its free plan is built to make you upgrade — 5 recordings a month, and deleting one does not give the slot back. Gravity Recorder is free, unlimited, and keeps your recordings on your own machine.
| Feature | Vidyard | Gravity Recorder |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $59–$89 / seat / mo | FREE ($0) |
| Recordings on Free Plan | 5 per month | Unlimited |
| Recording Length | 30 min hard cap | No limit |
| Storage | Vidyard cloud only | Your local folder |
| Browser Extension | Chrome & Edge only | No extension needed |
| Quality (in-browser) | Up to 1080p | Up to 2K (1440p) |
| Editing | Trim, split, stitch | Multi-Segment Cut Editor |
| Viewer Analytics | Yes — core feature | Not available |
| Open Source | No | Yes |
What is Vidyard?
Vidyard is a video platform aimed primarily at sales teams. Reps record a quick screen or webcam message, send it to a prospect, and then watch detailed analytics: who opened it, how much they watched, and where they dropped off. Those view events sync into Salesforce and HubSpot, which is the real reason companies buy it.
If that is your job, Vidyard is a genuinely good tool and its analytics are better than anything Gravity Recorder offers. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
But if you are not a sales rep — if you just want to record your screen, cut out a mistake, and send someone a link — Vidyard's free plan will get in your way fast.
The free plan limits that push you to upgrade
Five recordings per month. Vidyard Free gives you 5 recorded videos in a monthly allotment. The part that catches people out is that deleting a video does not give the slot back. Vidyard's own documentation spells this out: if you recorded 4 videos and deleted 1, you still have only 1 recording left that month. You cannot tidy up your way back to a clean quota.
Thirty minutes, then it stops. Free recordings hit a hard 30-minute cap. Not a warning — the recording ends. For a sales pitch that is plenty. For a workshop, a bug walkthrough, or a long demo, it is not.
Chrome and Edge only, in the browser. There is no Firefox or Safari extension. If you use either, Vidyard's answer is to install the Windows or macOS desktop app.
1080p in the browser. Vidyard markets "up to 4K", but that applies to the desktop app. The browser extension tops out at 1080p.
Getting past any of this means moving to a paid seat, which starts at $59 per seat per month billed annually (or $89 month-to-month).
How Gravity Recorder is different
No quota, no clock. Record as many videos as you want, for as long as you want. There is no monthly allotment to burn through and no 30-minute cutoff. Your disk space is the only limit.
Your recordings stay on your machine. Vidyard is cloud-only — every recording lives on their servers. Gravity uses the File System Access API to write the file straight into a folder you pick. Nothing is uploaded anywhere unless you explicitly choose to sync it to your own Google Drive.
No extension, any modern browser. Gravity is a web app. Open a tab and the studio is there. Nothing to install, nothing to keep updated, and no Chrome-only lock-in.
Real editing. Vidyard gives you trim, split, and stitch. Gravity ships a multi-segment cut editor built on FFmpeg WebAssembly, so you can remove several sections from one recording, preview the result, and export — all locally, with no upload round-trip.
2K quality in the browser. Up to 1440p at a high bitrate, with no desktop app required.
When you should still choose Vidyard
We would rather be straight with you than win on a technicality.
Choose Vidyard if viewer analytics are the point. If you need to know that a specific prospect watched 80% of your video at 4pm on Tuesday, and you need that event to land on their record in Salesforce or HubSpot, Vidyard does that and Gravity does not. That integration is the product, and it is worth paying for if your pipeline depends on it.
Choose Gravity Recorder if you want to record, edit, and share without a subscription, a quota, or handing your video to someone else's cloud. Those are different jobs, and it is worth being honest about which one you actually have.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the catch with Vidyard's free plan?
The main limits are 5 recordings per month and a 30-minute cap on each recording. The detail that surprises people is that deleting a video does not restore your quota — Vidyard's own support documentation confirms that if you record 4 videos and delete 1, you still only have 1 recording remaining for that month.
Is Gravity Recorder really unlimited?
Yes. There is no cap on how many recordings you make or how long they run. Because recordings are written directly to a folder on your own machine, the only real limit is your available disk space.
Does Gravity Recorder have viewer analytics like Vidyard?
No. Vidyard's viewer analytics — seeing exactly who watched, for how long, and syncing that into Salesforce or HubSpot — are its strongest feature and Gravity does not offer an equivalent. If sales attribution is your core use case, Vidyard is the better fit and we will say so plainly.
Do I need a Chrome extension to use Gravity Recorder?
No. Gravity is a normal web application, so there is no extension to install and no Chrome Web Store visit. Vidyard's browser recorder is limited to Chrome and Edge; Gravity works in any browser that supports the MediaRecorder API.
Where are my recordings stored?
On your own computer, in a folder you choose, using the File System Access API. Vidyard stores every recording in its cloud with no local-first option. With Gravity, uploading to Google Drive is opt-in and nothing leaves your device unless you trigger it.