About Screencastify
Screencastify is a screen recorder that grew up in classrooms. You record a tab, your desktop or your webcam, edit the video in the browser, and share it as a link. Its pitch to schools is what comes after: interactive questions added to a video, analytics on who watched, and integrations for Google Classroom, Schoology and Canvas. The company now operates as Castify, and the extension is still called Screencastify.
The free plan is more generous on length than Loom's, at up to 30 minutes per recording, but limited to 10 videos and a Castify watermark, according to its pricing page. The Chrome version runs on Manifest V3 and was updated in October 2026, and there is a listing for Edge. It has about 9 million Chrome users.
Expect a cloud tool. Videos are shared by link, and the Chrome listing discloses handling personal information, though the developer says it does not sell data. The extension requests access to all sites, and its Chrome rating is a middling 3.5. Pick it if you teach or train and your school already uses Google tools. For a free recorder with no watermark or video cap, Screenity is the better fit.
Pros and cons
- Record a tab, desktop and webcam, then edit in the browser
- Longer free recordings than Loom: up to 30 minutes
- Integrations for Google Classroom, Canvas and Schoology
- Interactive questions turn a video into a lesson
- Free plan: 10 videos and a Castify watermark
- Chrome rating is 3.5 from about 11,700 ratings
- Asks for access to all sites
Permissions
It asks for tab and desktop capture, access to all websites, tabs and navigation, notifications and display information, so it can record and show its controls. It also runs scripts on Google Slides and on its own web app.
