Veed's video creation platform has some great functionality and a lot of personality. But is it right for your business?
In this blog, we’ll compare the four leading Veed alternatives, to help you decide if Veed.io fits your video (get it?😜) needs.
Veed Top Alternatives - and what they're best at:
- Veed.io is great for creating and editing videos fast, especially for social media sharing
- Sendspark is ideal for video messaging in sales and marketing, and quick off-the-cuff recordings
- Camtasia provides more video editing capabilities but is trickier to use for it
- Bonjoro combines video with mass messaging and CRM features - but it takes time to get set up
- Screencastify is best for teachers and other educators wanting to bring video into the curriculum
What’s good about Veed?
Veed.io is a product that stands out in its space, for these reasons.
Strong editing features
Veed gives you more options for editing and customizing your recordings than virtually any other browser-based video tool.
You can:
- Splice multiple files or split one into many
- Overlay text, images (from a huge preset selection), progress bars, and drawings - all of which can be timed to appear or disappear on cue
- Apply filters to the footage or transitions between backgrounds
- Add sound effects
- Edit out bits of the recording to a very granular level
Best of all, these potentially complex functions are delivered via a simple drag and drop interface.
Great for social media video creation
The features that Veed supplies are very clearly geared towards the kind of video you’ll see on TikTok, Instagram, and - in longer form - YouTube. The preset imagery is bright and eye-catching and perfect for these channels.
In addition, Veed has a great feature for automatically adding subtitles. That’s not just important for accessibility: 85% of Facebook videos, for example, are watched with the sound turned off.
OK, the automated transcriptions are not always perfect, but you can edit them manually or upload text in a variety of formats (SRT, VTT, etc).
Loads of guides, blogs, and support to help you make the most of it
Veed has also made it easy for users to get to grips with the wide range of functionality on offer with an amazing range of help topics, explainer videos, and preconfigured video templates.
What’s not so good about Veed?
However, Veed isn’t perfect - what is?🤷 - and these are the areas where it could stand to be improved.
Sharing and messaging
Veed is first and foremost an editing tool. While it does offer sharing and messaging capabilities, these are just not up to the standard of some of the Veed alternatives we’ll look at, and not up to the quality of the rest of the interface.
Things have improved since we last reviewed Veed. The sharing modal is much better looking and has a consistent workflow for each channel.
Thankfully, they seem to have removed the pointless option to turn your whole video into a silent, very slow-moving GIF.
But there is still no way to create animated GIF video previews for emailing or sharing on social media. If you want to use them - say, in an email - you need to create it in a third-party application and insert it directly into the message.
When you share to email directly from the panel above, Veed simply sticks a URL into a blank message.
When a viewer clicks through, they see a Veed-branded page, with a big advert for Veed but no call-to-action. Veed’s Brand Kit doesn’t let you customize landing pages - only the videos themselves.
Many reviews cite technical gripes
For what it’s worth, quite a few reviewers have cited glitches, bugs, and other technical problems when using Veed.
That’s not something we’ve experienced ourselves but with just a 3.9 out of 5 rating on Capterra Veed is not working as it should for all users.
How much does Veed cost?
For £18 or $24 per month (paid annually) users can get Veed’s Pro package, which includes all of the tool’s best features - 4k video quality, 2-hour maximum length for exports, full brand customization, 6 hours of auto subtitling, and subtitle translation.
So, that price of £216 or $288 per user per year will be our comparison point for the rest of this article. In what follows, we’ll compare the packages from the four Veed alternatives that have the closest feature match on an annual price per user basis.
Veed Alternatives #1 - Sendspark: for video messaging
If you’re interested in Veed for its editing capabilities… well, Sendspark may not be the tool for you, as it doesn’t offer any!
But when it comes to video messaging, Sendspark is in a class of its own.
Where does Sendspark outperform Veed?
Sendspark has been designed for sending marketing and sales video messages that grab the attention and drive engagement.
Video messaging capabilities
On top of the standard features you expect from a recording platform (download, share URL, social share buttons, clip embed code - which Veed also has), Sendspark has the following messaging-focused functionalities:
- Auto-generate animated GIF or still video preview, to copy or download
- Customize your preview with text captions and logos
- Embed the video in marketing automation platform message templates (including MailChimp, HubSpot, Intercom, etc)
- Request videos from your contacts - with one click, email a contact a link that will open the Sendspark recorder (no installation required). You get a notification when they’ve saved it!
Video landing page customization
But Sendspark isn’t content with just putting your videos into contacts’ hands and getting them to click through to view it.
It also gives you plenty of scope to customize the landing page that viewers are sent to:
You can add:
- Your logo
- A personalized welcome header
- A message below the video
- A custom call-to-action button that will take visitors to a URL of your choice (eg your Calendly page to book a meeting)
- Your custom domain via CNAME for full white labeling
This gives you full control over the user experience, outside as well as inside the video player.
And with advanced insights available, showing where viewers are based, how much of your recordings they watched, clicks on the call-to-action, etc, you can really dig into how effectively your video message campaigns are performing.
Ease of use
Even though Veed’s UI is straightforward, the sheer number of options it makes available can be overwhelming - hence the need for all those guides!
Sendspark, on the other hand, has some of the simplest, best-designed workflows around. It’s made very clear how to do everything, as you use the app.
When should I choose Veed or Sendspark?
OK, we’re talking apples and oranges really when we compare Veed and Sendspark on features. But if we compare the closest packages to one another, Veed Pro costs $288 to Sendspark Pro’s $144 - literally double.
So if video messaging is something you plan on doing and adding in visual and sound effects, subtitles, and other “social” tweaks aren’t, then Sendspark is a better and less expensive option than Veed.
Veed Alternatives #2 - Camtasia: for a wider range of video editing options
Camtasia is a downloadable desktop video recorder and editor from Techsmith.
It’s been around for years, and it certainly doesn’t feel like a SaaS app. So how does it compare to Veed?
Where does Camtasia outperform Veed?
Video editing tools
While Veed has a lot of editing functionality, Camtasia is next-level by comparison.
Above and beyond what Veed has, Camtasia offers:
- Zoom and pan
- Animation overlays
- Video canvas and format options
- A variety of frame rates
It’s not on the same level as Adobe Premiere Pro, but it’s correspondingly simpler to use.
Offline functionality
As a browser extension, Veed can only be used when you’re online. Camtasia can be used offline, so you can edit and record anywhere and at any time.
Of course, that can be a double-edged sword. Videos are stored locally (goodbye memory!) and have to be uploaded to a hosting platform if you want to share them without sending gigantic files.
Interactivity
The 2021 version of Camtasia has added some awesome new tools - most notably, the ability to add interactive features to your videos. So you can add a quiz, for example, in post-production for viewers to take part in during playback!
When should I choose Veed or Camtasia?
$299.99 or £200.60 buys you access to Camtasia as a download for a year. There’s no option to pay monthly, although Techsmith does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
That makes Camtasia and Veed very similar in price on the one user/one year standard - Camtasia is slightly more expensive in the US, Veed in the UK.
The use case question boils down to this:
- Do you want more powerful editing and more freedom? In which case, go for Camtasia
- Do you want more preset options with an emphasis on social? Then pick Veed.
Veed Alternatives #3 - Bonjoro: for video messaging CRM
Bonjoro doesn’t have Veed’s flash, but it does have some great video messaging functionality.
Where Bonjoro excels is as a tool for account managers, because of the CRM functionality that comes baked in.
Where does Bonjoro outperform Veed?
Messaging
OK, before we start - one word of warning. Getting set up to take advantage of Bonjoro’s best features takes quite a lot of work:
- You can’t send a video message until you’ve added a contact (a 6 step process)
- Unless you connect and validate your own email address (which can’t be a Gmail or other public domain address), messages get sent from a Bonjoro address
- You also have to create a message template before you can send anything. However, Bonjoro gives you lots of options for customizing your messages (especially with “next gen” templates) and making them look really impressive
What all this means is that new users will spend a lot of time puzzling over this dashboard screen.
But once you’ve got it set up, Bonjoro lets you share and track video messages - individually and in a group, using “Roll-Ups”:
Sendspark doesn’t let you do this in-app - although it does have SalesForce, HubSpot, Intercom, and Zendesk integrations, along with the capacity to embed video in your marketing automation platform templates).
CRM functionality
As well as mass sending, Bonjoro can store all your conversations with contacts - plus a range of other data and even lead scores. In this way, it can function as a basic CRM system.
When you have this capability within a team, it can be very effective for coordinating campaigns and tricky transitions from one team to another (sales to marketing, for example).
When should I choose Veed or Bonjoro?
As with Sendspark, it’s hard to compare Bonjoro to Veed when their features are so different.
On a like-for-like basis, where Bonjoro maps most closely to Veed, we should look at the Starter package. That will cost you $180 per year per user, which is a lot cheaper than Veed.
But the two don’t really bear (excuse the pun…😜) comparison. Bonjoro doesn’t do editing, and Veed doesn’t do organized messaging. Plus, Bonjoro’s best features (team collaboration, multiple video templates, next gen templates) only become available at Pro level ($396 per year).
Veed Alternatives #4 - Screencastify: for bringing video into education
Screencastify is an extremely straightforward tool for video and webcam recording, which has some nice touches and a focus on the needs of educators.
Where does Screencastify outperform Veed?
Screencastify excels in recordings of lessons, seminars, and presentations.
In-recording effects
Screencastify has one of the best palettes of in-recording effects around.
These are easy to use and intuitive. People who struggle to navigate their way around other tools’ menus while talking and recording won’t have that problem here.
And the selection is great. Our favorite effect is the mouse pointer that releases fireworks when you click!
Sure, you can do a lot of these things and more in Veed - but the focus there is on post-production.
Educational applications
Screencastify has three big benefits when it comes to educational use:
- A massive discount for teachers and schools (see below)
- The “Submit” feature lets teachers send a “magic link” to students for them to record and submit their assignments as videos. This is very similar to Sendspark’s Request Video feature, but it comes with the capability to manage access and privacy in a complete package
- The ability to add “Interactive Questions” at certain points in a recording
And while sharing options are limited and a bit clunky (no social media shares, URL only for email), it does give you access to share via several educational platforms.
Should I choose Veed or Screencastify?
Are you a teacher or a social media influencer…? That’s really the question when choosing between these apps!
Screencastify is charged annually. The closest comparator to Veed would be the Record plus the Edit packages, for a cost of $98. That’s much cheaper than Veed, and if you’re a teacher, you can get them for just $48.
If you want to send “Magic Links”, you’ll need to buy the Submit package for an extra $99. The comparable Request Video feature comes as standard with Sendspark.
The bottom line
Veed.io packs some serious video creation and editing functionality into a fast SaaS product for a very reasonable price.
But when it comes to video messaging, it’s not up there with the best-in-class solutions.
Let’s just finally recap who each of these Veed alternatives is best suited for and why:
- Sendspark: Best for sales and marketing video messaging
- Camtasia: A step up in terms of editing capabilities - the entry-level for pro editors
- Bonjoro: Combines video messaging with CRM elements for managing outreach campaigns
- Screencastify: Aimed primarily at educators, with some great education-focused features
Sendspark makes it easy to create or import videos and distribute them across email, social, and the web. Sign up now and start recording and sharing videos for free.
