I was digging through Scribe’s website to find if there is anything I missed, and I came across this description:
”How to how to”
It’s funny, it’s genius, but not good enough to explain why it has only one feature.
Yup. The tool has only one single feature.
Yet it costs more than my prepaid plan.
This one feature is honestly a lifesaver for developers that are sick of doing the step-by-step documentation of what they actually did and how their tool works, but, this feature isn’t really worth this price.
That’s why I will be talking about:
- What Scribe is,
- Why you might need an alternative to Scribe,
- And the best 7 alternatives & competitors of Scribe.
So, without further ado, let’s begin with:
TL;DR
- Scribe is a documentation tool for developers who need step-by-step instructions about what their code does.
- It follows your mouse along while you complete actions on your screens as usual and automatically turns it into a guide.
- The idea of Scribe is actually very good, except for the part where it is much more expensive than most other competitors.
- The best alternative to Scribe is UserGuiding because it provides multiple times more features but doesn’t cost as much.
- UserGuiding provides step-by-step instruction guides along with resource centers, checklists, easy language localization, tooltips, hotspots, announcements modals, etc.
- Other alternatives include UiPath’s StepShot, Fleeq, Iorad, Zight, Loom, and Shepherd.
What is Scribe?
Scribe, also known as Scribehow is a cloud-based tool from the United States that allows you to create tutorials in minutes.
Scribe is a simple tool. It follows your mouse movements through a Chrome extension and creates step-by-step instructions for what you did.
But what makes Scribe stand out from other similar tools?
The answer is simple: The tool is so easy to use that anyone can do it, saving time and effort from practice.
The main difference between Scribehow and its competitors is that Scribe doesn’t require any programming knowledge, and the recording process is completely automated.
You just have to fill a file when creating your first guide. Then you’re ready to start adding content, images, a video file, an audio file, or anything else you want.
If you don’t know how to use a core feature, there are several training manuals in Scribe’s help center.
Still, none of these explain why you would want to pay such an amount of money every month for a tool that has only one feature.
Scribe Pricing
- Basic Plan: Free, includes individual projects on web applications only.
- Pro Plan: The Pro Plan is divided into two separate plans, Personal and Team. While the Personal Plan starts at $23/ user per month, the Team Plan requires at least 5 people for $12 per person.
- Enterprise Plan: Custom quotation with knowledge base integration.
Scribe Review
👍 Pros:
👎 Cons:
“I love how Scribe simplifies the process of transferring knowledge to new employees who are unfamiliar with certain programs.”
“I noticed that when recording specific steps, the software does not pick up on every link I click or page I open.”
Why you need a Scribe Alternative
There might be a number of reasons for your search for an alternative to Scribe. Here is what caught my eye first:
1- Pricey for the value 💸
Scribe helps you create screenshot guides. That’s all. For a team of 3, the tool would cost $69/month to use this feature only. There are other options, such as UserGuiding, which do tons more and cost less.
2- It has one job, but… 🤷♀️
The tool is not yet fully developed, and the software does not pick up on every link you click or page you open, causing the recording to have plot holes and be inefficient.
Also, maybe a small one, but I experienced a bug from day 2. My Scribe onboarding checklist froze and stopped working. How am I supposed to trust the tool when they can’t even properly onboard their own users?
3- Zero customizability 🎨
If you are using Scribe for personal purposes, you might not need many customization options. But for commercial uses, customizability and invisibility are key. If you want to look professional to your clients/employees, I wouldn’t recommend Scribehow at all.
Top Scribe Alternatives
Here are the top 7 alternatives to Scribe:
We’ll go over each tool, how it compares to Scribe, and in which cases they should be preferred. Without further ado, let’s start with our first product:
1- UserGuiding’s UG Now vs. Scribe
UserGuiding is the leading online onboarding process provider and customer experience tool, both in terms of features and pricing.
UserGuiding is the most affordable tool on the market that provides flexible solutions due to the variety of features it provides, such as:
- Cloud-based online website walkthroughs,
- Resource and help centers,
- In-app announcements, tooltips, hotspots,
- NPS surveys,
- UG Now (a browser extension for when you don’t have access to a web page’s source code).
May I add that it has an intuitive interface, which accelerates the process of remote teams creating visual guides?
Let me also clarify how UG Now differs from Scribe: UG Now is a Google Chrome extension that enables users to utilize UserGuiding’s onboarding materials on web-based applications when they have limited access (or no access) to the source code of the desired platform.
Ultimately, UG Now comes in extremely handy for employee onboarding and demos.
Yet, no tool is perfect. If you need detailed analytics, UserGuiding might need a couple of integrations to deliver the best.
UserGuiding Pricing
UserGuiding offers a 14-day free trial—no credit card required.
- Basic Plan: $89/month when billed annually for up to 2500 MAU
- Professional Plan: $389/month when billed annually for up to 20000 MAU with unlimited guides
- Corporate Plan: Starting from $689/month when billed annually for custom MAU, custom quotation is available for larger companies.
UserGuiding Review
👍 Pros:
👎 Cons:
“UserGuiding is by far easiest to set up; their demo explains everything clearly, and all there is left is to write the guide.”
“It would be good to have control of the location of some other elements, like where on the screen a tooltip appears and where within a tooltip or modal the quit icon (X) appears. ”
UserGuiding also offers free migration services for your in-app content created using other software to minimize your switching costs.
Schedule a demo with one of our experts or start your free trial now:
Don’t Pay a Fortune for Other Tools!
UserGuiding starts from only $89/month.
Create tours, tooltips, and surveys without coding
2- UiPath vs. Scribe
UiPath is a software application used to automate business processes by building workflows.
UiPath is originally an artificial intelligence-powered real-time automation tool, but the reason UiPath made its way into our list is that it has a tutorial creationas an additional feature.
This tool is on the list because it acquired StepShot, a really similar tool to Scribe, except for the video file upload option, and now can be used for documentation as well.
Apart from the fact that it does nothing but screenshot-taking.
But if you plan to purchase an automation tool, keep in mind that UiPath includes the walkthrough feature that you need.
UiPath Pricing
- Free Plan: Free plan that allows task capture with 25 automations.
- Pro Plan: $420/month without automation support.
- Pro Trial Plan: $1380/month with limited automation support.
- Enterprise Plan: $1930/month with full automation support.
UiPath Review
👍 Pros:
👎 Cons:
“The Workflow Wizard is by far the best feature that I know. Anyone even with zero coding experience can simply select one of the 190 Automation Templates and start creating Automation workflows.”
“There is no AI in version 4 or 5, which most people are still using as far as I know. To be fair, they have AI in version 6. But still, I feel like it’s lagging.”
3- Fleeq vs. Scribe
Fleeq is a relatively newer tool for creating and sharing animated GIFs from video files.
Fleeq allows you to take recordings with your camera, choose the moments you want to share, and have them immediately converted into stylish animated gifs that you can simply upload on your website.
The tool stands out with its ease of use and affordable pricing, but still, it’s not the most comprehensive tool.
Fleeq Pricing
Fleeq has a 14-day free trial available along with a paid plan:
- Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing; please get in touch with Fleeq’s sales team.
Fleeq Review
👍 Pros:
👎 Cons:
“Fleeq is a useful tool when you want to produce quick “how-to” guide type video with narration in different languages and caption in exported videos.”
“Fleeq has added the Course and Wiki, but it’s half-baked, and as a user, we can not use it for the production.”
4- Iorad vs. Scribe
Iorad is a software that allows you to build step-by-step guides as you move through the process.
With Iorad, you can record both audio and video content, as well as your screen.
If necessary, you can also include descriptions and headings for each stage, as well as an introduction and an appendix. Iorad also allows you to highlight or blur parts on the screen to make the instruction more accurate.
For personal use, Iorad is a good tool; otherwise, the prices are too costly for a product with only one use case.
Simply said, Iorad serves as a demo help center, but it is not free of charge.
Iorad Pricing
For personal use:
- Iorad is free for personal use; it only allows users to create public user guides.
For business use:
- Starter Plan: $200/month with an additional $15 for one additional creator.
- Pro Plan: $500/month with an additional $20 for each additional creator.
- Enterprise Plan: Custom quote for personalized needs.
For educational purposes:
- Educators Plan: $10/month for teachers and professors.
- Institution Plan: Up to 80% off for school districts and universities.
For non-profit organizations:
- Non-profit Plan: Up to 50% off for non-profit organizations.
Iorad Review
👍 Pros:
👎 Cons:
“The clients love it, and it is used as an example of the quality of the self-hep part of the software.”
“I’m not sure I’m a fan of the new UI panel. When you accidentally delete a tutorial, there is no recovery.”
5- Zight vs. Scribe
Zight, formerly known as CloudApp, is an easy-to-use, cloud-based video recording tool that allows you to record, edit, and analyze.
Zight is a free web application for managing your videos online.
It’s a simple yet powerful tool for easily creating, editing, sharing, and analyzing your videos.
You can use Zight to:
• Create professional-looking videos quickly,
• Edit videos within the app using advanced features like trimming, cropping, adding effects, and more,
• Analyze videos by viewing them side by side with other clips, comparing different shots, or finding specific parts of a video.
Zight Pricing
Zight has a free plan available for up to 50 screen captures. Here are the paid plans:
- Pro Plan: Starting at $9.95/month with unlimited screen capture.
- Team Plan: Starting at $8/month per user with a minimum of 3 members.
- Enterprise Plan: Custom quote; please get in touch with Zight’s sales team.
Zight Review
👍 Pros:
👎 Cons:
“I commonly need to show my team how to do a certain task, and that’s where I use Zight to tape short tutorials that I can share in seconds.”
“I really dislike that it will randomly crash on me, and it takes forever to load, and then I have to restart it and start from scratch again”
6- Loom vs. Scribe
Loom is a video recording software that lets you record both yourself and your screen.
Loom is a software that allows you to generate animated how-to tutorials so that your audience can easily learn all of the steps they need to get their job done.
It offers several features, including the ability to track user activity and create an automatic transcription.
It also integrates with other programs like Visio and Powerpoint.
The disadvantage of this product is that each team member must pay a one-time fee, making it costlier for bigger organizations.
Loom Pricing
Loom offers a free Starter Pack with a limitation of 5 minutes per video. The rest of the packages are like below:
- Business Pack: $12.50/month per user if paid annually.
- Enterprise Pack: Custom quote; please contact Loom’s sales team.
Loom Review
👍 Pros:
👎 Cons:
“The new transcription feature is useful as well since we work with many individuals for which English is their second language.”
“I had a lot of problems starting and stopping recording. Atl SHIFT L often never worked to start recording.”
7- Shepherd.js vs. Scribe
Shepherd.js is an open-source website walkthrough library for developers to benefit for free.
Shepherd.js lets you create AI-powered chatbots and turn code into a wizard-style interface.
It’s a fantastic library for creating AI-powered onboarding flows. And it comes for free.
If you have a spare developer available, have the budget to afford one, or you yourself know how to code, Shepherd.js can lift the burden of a subscription from your shoulders.
Shepherd.js Pricing
Shepherd.js is an open-source library and is completely free to use!
Conclusion
So, Scribe (or Scribehow) claims to be a strong onboarding program, while user reviews don’t really agree.
Just as it is with this one, a tool might seem affordable and useful, but there is always a better option if you do your research well.
Take UserGuiding as an example, it is cheaper for teams larger than 4 people, and it has a wide range of useful features.
I hope I was able to help you with finding a better onboarding and customer experience tool.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who should use Scribe?
Anyone who want to create a step-by-step guide easily can use Scribe, UserGuiding, and other user onboarding and website walkthrough tools.
How much does Scribe cost?
The tool is free to use for individual projects, and the paid plans start from $23 per month per user.
What are the top alternatives to Scribe?
The best alternative would be UserGuiding, since it does everything that Scribe does, but has a lot more to offer, AND is cheaper. Other options would be Iorad and Zight.
