ScreenArt Pro vs Komodo (Kommodo): the browser recorder that keeps your videos, and the Windows app that does not

Why this comparison exists

Komodo Decks arrived as a Loom alternative with a twist: record once, and get both a video and a step-by-step deck of screenshots with text under each one. It has since rebranded to Kommodo and leaned into AI: a notetaker that records your calendar meetings and writes summaries, an assistant that answers questions across your video library, and SOPs generated from recordings. It is a browser-first, hosted product.

The hosting is the part to look at closely. On the free plan, each video you record is accessible for 60 days and then it is not. On the paid plan, $15 a month or $9 a month billed yearly, access is permanent, which is to say permanent for as long as you pay and the company exists. Everything you record, including meetings, sits on Kommodo’s servers.

ScreenArt Pro is the other design. It records on your Windows PC, polishes the take automatically, covers anything sensitive, and writes a file that is yours for as long as you keep it. This article compares the two honestly: what Kommodo does that ScreenArt Pro does not, what ScreenArt Pro does that Kommodo cannot, and what a recording that expires is actually worth.

The short version in one table

	ScreenArt Pro	Kommodo
What it is	Screen recorder and screenshot editor for Windows; output is a file	Hosted AI screen recorder with a notetaker, library and SOP generation; output is a page in its library
Platform	Windows 10 and 11 (x64). Mac planned.	Browser, Chrome extension, Mac and Windows desktop apps, iOS, Android
Price	€1.99 a month, or €24.99 once with two years of updates	Free with 60-day access per video; $15 a month or $9 a month billed yearly ($108)
Two years	€24.99	$216 (yearly billing)
Where recordings live	Your disk, forever	Kommodo’s servers; 60 days on free, while you pay on paid
Account required	No	Yes
Editing	Timeline: auto-zoom on clicks, smoothed cursor, captions, keystroke badges, intros, transitions, 3D card, GPU effects	Trim, re-record and overdub sections
Subtitles and transcript	Generated on your PC; burn in or export SRT and VTT; transcript edit ripple-cuts the video	Automatic transcripts on the service
Step guides	Numbered, cropped, annotated screenshot sets from an agent over MCP, or from a rehearsed walkthrough	Step guide built as you record; SOPs generated from recordings
Meeting notes	No	AI notetaker with calendar sync, summaries, action items to Slack and Jira
Hiding secrets	Smart Redact: automatic, colour-matched, every frame a secret is visible; also in screenshots	Not listed
Screenshots	Full editor with physical-pixel capture, annotations, Beautify, brand kits	Guide steps only
Webcam	Shaped overlay	Yes
AI agent control	MCP server, 25 tools	An assistant inside its own library; no agent interface
Export	MP4 (H.264), WebM with alpha, GIF; 16:9, 1:1, 4:5, 9:16 from one project	Download from the library
Offline	Everything on the PC, including transcription	Needs the service

Kommodo’s plans were read from its site and a dated 2026 comparison listing in October 2026; its pricing page did not load at the time and the figures will be re-checked.

What Kommodo does well

• Video and guide from one recording. Record a task once and get a clip and a step-by-step deck, which is a genuinely good idea for support teams.
• The notetaker. Calendar sync, meeting recording, summaries, action items pushed to Slack or Jira. That is a different product category and it is useful.
• The library. Transcripts make every recording searchable, and the assistant answers questions across them.
• It runs everywhere, including phones, and the viewer needs only a browser.
• The free plan records without limits, for 60 days of access.

If your recordings are meetings and the value is the summary, Kommodo is doing something ScreenArt Pro does not try to do. The rest of this article is about recordings that are products: demos, tutorials, help-centre clips, things you publish and keep.

The privacy case, made plainly

Every Kommodo recording, and every meeting its notetaker joins, goes to Kommodo’s servers before you see it. That creates a list that does not exist when the video is a file on your disk:

• A 60-day clock on the free plan. A demo you recorded in March is gone by June unless you paid or downloaded it. The product is designed so that the recording’s lifespan is tied to the subscription.
• Who can open the link. A library page shared once beyond the people you meant is out.
• What is in the frame. Kommodo lists no blur or redaction. A customer’s email, an API key or a card number that scrolled past is now hosted, transcribed and searchable.
• Meetings are the most sensitive recordings you own. Internal calls, customer calls and hiring calls, stored and summarised on a third party’s servers, with a transcript.
• Retention, residency and vendor terms are theirs. Deletion is a request to a vendor’s system.

ScreenArt Pro removes the list. Capture, editing, text recognition, redaction, transcription and export run on your PC. Nothing is uploaded, no account is needed to run the app, nothing expires, and the output is a file you share with the tools and permissions your organisation already trusts. Smart Redact finds email addresses, API keys, bearer tokens and JWTs, card numbers and IBANs, phone numbers, IP addresses and connection strings with a password in them, and covers each in the colour sampled from around it, for every frame it is visible, before the file exists. The headache is not smaller; it is not there.

Where ScreenArt Pro goes further

The take becomes a demo

Kommodo trims and lets you re-record a section. ScreenArt Pro records the screen and opens the take in an editor where the polish is already on the timeline: a zoom that follows your clicks and bursts of typing, each zoom a clip you can move or delete; a smoothed cursor you can scale up or give a glass look; captions and keystroke badges placed where they happened; a magnetic timeline; sixteen intro styles, twelve transitions, a framed card on a backdrop with a 3D tilt and motion blur, grain and colour looks, rendered on the GPU; MP4, WebM with transparency and GIF in 16:9, 1:1, 4:5 or 9:16 from one project. The recording page walks through each piece.

Subtitles and voice cleanup without a service

Kommodo transcribes on its servers. ScreenArt Pro generates subtitles from your voice with a speech model that runs on your machine, lets you fix the words, and burns them in or exports SRT and VTT. Editing the transcript ripple-cuts the video. Clean up voice removes room noise. None of it leaves the PC, and none of it is metered.

Step guides from an agent, with the secrets covered

Kommodo builds a guide as you record. ScreenArt Pro’s MCP server lets an AI agent build one without you performing the task: Claude, Codex or any MCP client lists your windows, reads the labels, plans one shot per step, and ScreenArt Pro clicks ahead of each one, crops to the panel that matters, draws the arrow, writes the caption, applies your brand kit, redacts anything sensitive, and saves a numbered set with a manifest. When the UI changes, rerun the plan. Or rehearse the task once yourself and replay it as a clean recording at the pace you choose. The screenshots are at the physical pixels of your display, written as sRGB-tagged lossless PNGs. The automation page lists all 25 tools.

A screenshot editor in the same app

Beyond guide steps, ScreenArt Pro’s screenshot editor keeps counters, arrows, boxes and captions as editable layers, runs the same Smart Redact, and puts the capture on a backdrop with corners, shadow, lighting and a 3D tilt with one Beautify click. A brand kit carries one look across stills and video.

Where Kommodo is still the right choice

• You want an AI notetaker for meetings with summaries and action items. ScreenArt Pro does not record meetings.
• You want a searchable hosted library that a team browses and an assistant answers from.
• You work on a Mac or a phone. ScreenArt Pro is Windows-only until the Mac app ships.
• You want the guide page built as you click, with no agent and no assembly.

Price, in full

Kommodo’s free plan records without limits and keeps each video for 60 days. The paid plan is $15 a month, or $9 a month billed yearly ($108), with permanent access and unlimited AI assistant use.

ScreenArt Pro has two plans, and the whole app is in both:

• €1.99 a month. Every update for as long as you subscribe. Cancel from your account.
• €24.99 once. Two years of updates, then keep the last version you installed for as long as you like.

Two years of Kommodo on yearly billing is $216, and your recordings stay accessible only while you keep paying. Two years of ScreenArt Pro is €24.99, and the recordings are files that never expire. Polar is the merchant of record, so there is a VAT-compliant invoice at checkout, and both plans have a 14-day refund.

It is cheaper for the same reason it is private: there is no cloud behind it.

Who should pick which

• A product team making demos, tutorials and release-note videos: ScreenArt Pro. Auto-zoom, captions, a 3D card, secrets covered, a file you keep.
• A developer recording anything with real data on screen: ScreenArt Pro. Smart Redact covers it, and nothing is uploaded.
• A documentation team that wants guides on demand: ScreenArt Pro, for the MCP server and walkthrough replay.
• A team that wants meeting summaries and a searchable video library: Kommodo.

The bottom line

Kommodo is a hosted AI recorder whose strongest features are the notetaker and the library, with a 60-day clock on free recordings and no redaction. ScreenArt Pro is a Windows recorder and screenshot editor that keeps every file on your PC forever, makes the take look like a launch video, covers secrets on its own, and lets an AI agent record for you. €1.99 a month or €24.99 once, nothing hosted, nothing expiring.

Record a window, open it in the editor, and watch the zooms land where you clicked. If it is not the one, the refund takes 14 days.