The fastest way to find out who watched your video for free is to record and host it on a tool that gives you view analytics in the free tier. Pullsy does this on every recording — who watched, when, how far through the video they got, and which link or page they came from. Loom only gives you that data on a paid tier (Business, around $18 per user per month). If you’re already in a system where you host the video somewhere else (YouTube, Vimeo, S3), there’s a third option: custom UTM-tagged links + a service like Bitly to track clicks, which is clunky but works. Loom plan details reflect Loom’s public pricing pages as of July 2026.
What “view analytics” actually means
A screen recording that “tracks who watched” can mean three very different things:
- Plays count — the page loaded once and the embedded video started (or didn’t). Almost meaningless on its own.
- Watch time — how much of the video the viewer actually watched. Useful.
- Per-viewer identity — “Jane Smith from Acme opened this on Tuesday at 3:42pm and watched 78%.” Useful for sales follow-up; requires a viewer email or login to tie a view to a person.
Most free tools give you #1. Most paid analytics give you #2 and #3. Pullsy gives all three on the free tier — viewer count, watch time as a percentage of total, and the per-viewer rows broken out by link, geo, referrer, and approximate watch position.
Method 1 — Record and host on Pullsy (free, default-on)
Pullsy turns on view analytics on every hosted video by default. Steps:
- Record at pullsy.online/record. The recording uploads to a shareable link.
- Open the share page (e.g. pullsy.online/v/abc123) to watch.
- Open the dashboard at pullsy.online/v/abc123/analytics to see who watched.
What you see:
- Viewer count — total plays and unique viewers.
- Watch curve — a graph showing where in the video viewers dropped off. Useful for diagnosing “the demo was fine until the 7-minute mark, that’s where everyone leaves.”
- Per-viewer rows — IP-derived location, approximate watch duration, timestamp of the open.
- Referral source — which page or email the viewer clicked from.
What it does NOT do:
- Doesn’t capture viewer email unless the viewer is signed in to a tool that shares it.
- Doesn’t tie back to a CRM record automatically — you’d still need a unique link per prospect.
- Doesn’t include heatmap-by-second overlay — that’s on the roadmap, not shipped.
If you want per-prospect tracking without CRM wiring, the standard pattern is: send each prospect a unique Pullsy link (e.g. /v/abc123-jane, /v/abc123-john), check the dashboard the next morning to see who clicked and who watched to the end. More detail on the see-who-watched page.
Method 2 — Loom’s built-in analytics (paywalled)
Loom’s view analytics — including engagement (per-viewer watch percentage), referrer breakdown, and Loom-to-CRM integrations — sit on the Business tier and above. Loom free gives you only the total play count.
What Loom Business gives you (around $18 per user per month):
- Unique viewer count
- Per-viewer watch percentage
- Watch curve
- IP-derived location
- Comments / reactions tied to time codes
What it doesn’t give you on Business (and which is reserved for higher AI tiers): transcript-based engagement, AI summaries of viewer comments, automatic CRM field updates. The Loom Analytics-only add-on used to be cheaper; in 2026 it’s not — it’s all rolled into Business.
If you’re already on Loom Business, use the analytics tab in Loom’s web app — they’re well-built. If you’re on Loom Starter (free) and you need view data, the only path inside Loom is to upgrade or use Method 1 in parallel.
Method 3 — UTM-tagged shared links + Bitly (clunky but free)
If your recording is hosted somewhere that doesn’t ship analytics (S3, GitHub Pages, your company’s CMS), the workaround is:
- Generate a unique redirect URL per recipient, e.g. via Bitly, Short.io, or Rebrandly.
- Each URL hits your video file with a unique UTM tag (utm_source=jane, utm_medium=email, utm_campaign=q3-pitch).
- Check the link-tracking service the next day for clicks.
- For watch-through percentage, you can’t get that this way — Bitly only knows if they clicked, not what they watched.
What this gives you:
- Clicks per recipient ✅
- Geo of click ✅
- Time of click ✅
What this does NOT give you:
- How much of the video they watched ❌
- Whether they watched to the end ❌
- Whether they re-watched a specific section ❌
- Any signal beyond the click
The UTM workaround is fine for sales emails where all you need is “did they click.” It’s the wrong tool for content analysis.
Method 4 — Host the video on YouTube (unlisted) with analytics on
If your video can be public-ish (unlisted is fine for most use cases), YouTube’s free analytics are richer than any screen-recorder platform:
- Per-viewer count
- Watch time as percentage
- Heatmap of which seconds were replayed
- Audience retention curve
- Traffic source breakdown
- Viewer geographic distribution
YouTube doesn’t tell you who watched by name — it’s anonymized — but for content-drop analysis (course lesson, marketing video, internal training that you’ve embedded in Confluence), it’s the free-iest option.
Trade-off: the video is on YouTube. For internal/external decisions that’s often fine. For client work, brand-sensitive material, or anything contractually not public, it’s not.
Method 5 — Vimeo (paid, but historical control)
Vimeo’s “Record” tier includes analytics (who watched, embed performance, engagement heatmap). It’s a paid product — the cheapest tier is around $12/month when billed annually. It does give more granular privacy options than YouTube and supports password-protected embeds.
If you’re already on Vimeo for hosting and don’t need the source to be free, this is the closest match to Loom’s analytics. We cover it in the free video analytics comparison.
What to actually pick
| What you’re trying to learn | Best free method |
|---|---|
| Sales: “did my prospect watch the demo I sent?” | Pullsy unique link per prospect |
| Async standup: “did the team watch this morning’s update?” | Pullsy shareable analytics page |
| Content marketing: “where in the video do viewers drop off?” | Pullsy watch curve, or YouTube unlisted |
| Course: “did class 4 watch the assignment clip?” | Pullsy analytics page or YouTube unlisted embed |
| Client work where sharing across tools is risky | You’re stuck paying Loom Business, Vidyard, or Vimeo |
The honest answer: if “who watched my video” is something you ask often and you don’t already pay for Loom Business, Pullsy’s free tier is the closest match. If it’s a one-off question, YouTube unlisted is fine.
Frequently asked questions
Try Pullsy’s free analytics
Record a 60-second video, send the link to a colleague, watch the dashboard fill in. Time: under 5 minutes.
Loom is a trademark of Atlassian. Pullsy is not affiliated with or endorsed by Loom. Loom plan details reflect Loom’s public pricing pages as of July 2026.