Tella review: a $19 recorder with no free plan
Tella records in clips so you can retake a sentence instead of a whole video, and it charges for the privilege with no free tier behind it. Our check of tella.com on 11 June 2026 recorded Pro at $19 a month, $16 billed annually, and Premium at $49. That evidence is four months old.
The short answer
Buy Tella Buy Tella Pro if you publish tutorials, lessons or product demos often enough that retakes cost you real hours. Pro was $19 a month, or $16 billed annually, when we checked tella.com on 11 June 2026, which is $192 across a year on the annual rate against $228 on the monthly one.
Skip it if you record to send rather than to publish. There is no permanent free plan, only a 7-day trial, and Loom's Starter plan was still $0 a month when we checked it on 1 October 2026, which covers async messages at no cost.
Where Tella fits
Tella is a recorder for video you intend to publish. The clip-based workflow is the whole idea: a recording is a sequence of takes rather than one continuous file, so a fumbled sentence costs you that clip and nothing else. For anyone who has restarted a ten-minute lesson because of a cough in minute nine, that is the feature worth paying for.
The pricing is per seat and the shape is simple. Our 11 June 2026 check of tella.com recorded two published tiers, Pro at $19 a month and Premium at $49 a month, with a Team tier quoted rather than listed. There is no free plan at all, which makes Tella unusual in a category where almost everything has one.
On the annual rates the same check recorded Pro at $16 a month and Premium at $42 a month. Across a year that is $192 against $228 on Pro, a saving of $36, and $504 against $588 on Premium, a saving of $84. Those are our own sums from the two rates on the page, not a published annual total.
The export ceiling is the detail that decides which tier you need. Our check recorded 4K export capped at 5 minutes on Pro, with the cap removed on Premium. If your lessons run ten or twenty minutes and you want them in 4K, the real entry price is $49 a month, or $42 annually, rather than $19.
Premium also carries the things a creator with an audience tends to want: custom branding, a custom domain on share pages and viewer analytics. That is a $30 a month gap between the two tiers on the monthly rates, $49 less $19, and the branding rather than the resolution is what usually justifies it.
Against the category, Tella sits above the cheap recorders and below the team platforms. Zight was $9.95 a month on Pro when we checked it on 11 June 2026, the same day, and does screenshots and GIFs as well. Loom was $18 per user a month on Business, verified 1 October 2026, and is priced per creator seat for teams sending messages. Scribe was $35 a month on Pro Personal, verified 6 October 2026, and writes step-by-step documents instead of video.
Hold on to the date. This pricing was last verified on 11 June 2026, four months before this review, and Tella is a young product that has changed its tiers before. The $19 and $49 figures are what the page said then, not a promise about today. Read the current rate card first, and the screen recording category lists the alternatives with their own check dates.
Tella pricing
Tella prices per seat across two published tiers and quotes the third. Every figure below comes from our check of tella.com on 11 June 2026 and has not been re-verified since, so treat it as the starting point for your own check rather than today's price.
| Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | $19/mo | $16/mo billed annually. Unlimited recording, AI editing, 4K export capped at 5 minutes |
| Premium | $49/mo | $42/mo billed annually. Custom branding, custom domains, unlimited 4K length, viewer analytics |
| Team | Custom | Quoted rather than listed. Aimed at larger groups |
| Free trial | $0 for 7 days | Full Pro access, no credit card required. There is no permanent free plan |
There is no usage meter here, so the cost is set by which tier you need and how many people need it. Four things move it:
- Export length in 4K. Pro capped 4K at 5 minutes on our 11 June 2026 check, so longer lessons in 4K mean Premium at $49 a month, or $42 annually.
- Branding. Custom domains, logos and branded share pages sat on Premium only, which is the usual reason a creator pays the higher rate.
- Seat count, because the plans are per seat. Three people on Pro at the annual rate is $48 a month, which is $16 times three, and $576 across a year.
- Billing period. The annual rate saved $3 a month on Pro and $7 a month on Premium when we checked, which is $36 and $84 across a year.
- Viewer analytics, which also sat on Premium. If you need to know who watched and for how long, that is a tier decision rather than an add-on.
Tella pricing against the other screen recorders
Tella was the mid-priced option for published video at the time of our check. Zight was $9.95 a month on Pro, verified 11 June 2026, and bundles screenshots, GIFs and annotation into the same tool. Loom was $18 per user a month on Business, verified 1 October 2026, priced per creator seat and built around sharing with a team. Scribe was $35 a month on Pro Personal, verified 6 October 2026, and produces written walkthroughs rather than video. Note that the Loom and Scribe dates are more recent than Tella's, so this is not a like-for-like comparison.
Tella billing terms worth knowing
The absence of a free plan is the term that catches people out, because the rest of the category has one.
- Free plan
- None. A 7-day trial with full Pro features and no credit card, as of 11 June 2026.
- Pro
- $19 per month, or $16 billed annually. That is $228 or $192 across a year.
- Premium
- $49 per month, or $42 billed annually. That is $588 or $504 across a year.
- Annual saving
- $36 a year on Pro and $84 a year on Premium, by our own arithmetic on the two rates.
- 4K cap
- 5 minutes on Pro, unlimited on Premium, as recorded on 11 June 2026.
- Team tier
- Quoted, not published. Expect a sales conversation rather than a rate card.
- Check date
- 11 June 2026. Not re-verified since, so confirm before buying.
These figures carry a June 2026 date and that is the most important thing on the page. If the current rate card differs, the rate card is right and this page is stale. Our creator tool cost calculators will total a recording and editing stack once you have today's numbers.
What Tella gives up
There is no free plan to fall back on. A 7-day trial is the whole of it, so the decision is whether to pay $19 a month or to use something else, with no middle position where light use stays free.
The 5-minute 4K cap on Pro is a real limit rather than a technicality. A twelve-minute lesson exports in 1080p on the cheaper tier, and if 4K matters to you the price of the product is $49 a month, or $42 annually, not $19.
There is no mobile app. Recording happens in the browser or on the desktop apps, so a phone recording has to be made elsewhere and brought in, which rules Tella out of the workflows that start with a handheld camera.
The editing is a recorder's editing. Trimming, filler removal and layout switching are all there, and multi-track work, keyframes and sound design are not, so a video that needs real post-production still needs a real editor.
Per-seat pricing punishes an occasional team. Three people who each publish once a quarter pay $576 a year on the Pro annual rate, which is $16 times three times twelve, the same as three people publishing weekly, because nothing meters usage.
Your recordings live on Tella's hosting, and the share links and viewer analytics are part of what you pay for. That is convenient while you subscribe and a migration job if you stop, so download what you need before a cancellation takes effect.
Our pricing evidence is from 11 June 2026, which is the weakest part of this page. Four months is long enough for a tier to be renamed, an export cap to move or a trial length to change, and we would rather say so than present old figures as current.
How Tella compares
The three tools below are the ones weighed against Tella, and the axis is polish against breadth and cost. Prices are each vendor's published rates with the date we checked them, and those dates differ by as much as four months, so read them with that in mind. The wider field sits in the screen recording category.
| Tool | Best for | Price | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tella | Recording tutorials and lessons you intend to publish | $19/mo Pro, $49/mo Premium (June 2026) | No free plan, and 4K is capped at 5 minutes on Pro |
| Loom | Async video messages across a team | Free Starter, $18/user/mo Business | Priced per creator seat, so a team cost grows with headcount |
| Zight | Screenshots, GIFs and short clips in one tool | Free, $9.95/mo Pro | Free plan caps recordings at 15 seconds |
| Scribe | Written step-by-step guides instead of video | Free Basic, $35/mo Pro Personal | Documents, not video, so it answers a different question |
What to test in the Tella 7-day trial
The trial gave full Pro access for 7 days with no credit card on our 11 June 2026 check. Confirm that first, because these are four-month-old figures and the trial terms are the kind of thing that changes quietly.
- Check the current rates and trial length on tella.com/pricing. Our figures are from June 2026 and this is the one step you should not take on trust.
- Record a real lesson in clips rather than a test clip. The retake workflow is the product, and five minutes with it tells you more than any feature list.
- Export something longer than five minutes in 4K. That single test decides whether you need Premium at $49 a month, or $42 annually, rather than Pro.
- Run the AI cut on a take where you stumbled. Filler removal either saves you an edit or produces something you have to fix, and only your own delivery shows which.
- Count the seats you need, because the plans are per seat. Three people on the Pro annual rate is $48 a month, $16 times three, and $576 across a year.
- If the videos are messages rather than publications, price Loom instead, where Starter was $0 and Business was $18 per user a month, verified 1 October 2026.
- If you want screenshots and GIFs in the same tool, price Zight at $9.95 a month on Pro, verified 11 June 2026, and use the cost calculators to total the year.
Tella questions buyers ask
How much does Tella cost per month?
Tella Pro costs $19/month ($16/month if you pay annually). Tella Premium costs $49/month ($42/month annually). There's no free plan. The Pro plan includes unlimited recording, AI editing, and 4K export up to 5 minutes. Premium adds custom branding, custom domains, unlimited 4K length, and viewer analytics.
Does Tella have a free plan or free trial?
Tella does not have a permanent free plan. It offers a 7-day free trial with full Pro features and no credit card required. After the trial, you need a paid subscription to continue. If you need a free screen recorder, Loom has a Starter plan at $0 a month, verified 1 October 2026, and Zight has a free plan at $0 a month that caps recordings at 15 seconds and storage at 50 items, verified 11 June 2026.
Who is Tella best for?
Tella is built for creators who make video content regularly: course creators, tutorial makers, product demo producers, and freelancers recording client deliverables. Its clip-based workflow and AI editing are designed for people who want polished output without a video editor. It's overkill for quick team messages or occasional screen shares.
Tella vs Loom: which is better?
Tella is better for polished, edited content: clip-based recording, AI filler word removal, 4K export, and transcript editing give you more control. Loom is better for quick async communication: it's faster to record and share, has a free plan, and works on mobile. Choose Tella for content you publish. Choose Loom for messages you send.
What does Tella integrate with?
Tella integrates natively with YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, Dropbox, Notion, and Slack. You can upload directly to these platforms without downloading files first. There's also a Chrome extension, desktop apps for Mac and Windows, and an API for custom integrations. Tella does not have a mobile app.
Is Tella good for making online courses?
Tella is one of the best screen recorders for course content. The clip-based workflow lets you re-record individual sections without re-doing the entire lesson. AI Auto Cut cleans up your delivery. Speaker notes keep you on script. The main consideration is video length: 4K export is limited to 5 minutes on the Pro plan, so longer lessons export in 1080p unless you pay for Premium.
What are Tella's export and sharing options?
Tella exports video up to 4K at 60fps as MP4 files. You can also share via a hosted link with built-in video player, embed videos in Notion or websites, or upload directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Premium users get custom-branded sharing pages with their own domain, logo, and call-to-action buttons.
Can teams collaborate in Tella?
Yes. Tella offers shared workspaces with role-based permissions. Members can create, edit, and share videos, while Owners manage billing and users. Viewer analytics show who watched and for how long. The Team plan with custom pricing is available for larger groups. For small teams (2-3 people), the Pro plan's workspace features are usually sufficient.
Is Tella worth the money compared to free alternatives?
If you make video regularly and care about quality, yes. The clip-based workflow, AI editing, and 4K output genuinely save time and produce better results than free tools. If you record a few videos a month for internal use, no: Loom's free plan or ScreenPal's free tier will cover that. Tella's value scales with how much video you produce and how much polish matters to your audience.
Can I cancel Tella anytime?
Yes. Tella subscriptions can be cancelled anytime. Monthly plans stop at the end of the billing cycle. Annual plans continue until the end of the paid year. There's no cancellation fee. After cancelling, you lose access to recordings hosted on Tella's platform, so download anything you need before your subscription ends.