6 Alternatives to Tango That Will Actually Help You Onboard Users (Free & Paid)

Let's say that you started a new job and didn't understand how to use their internal tool, what would you prefer:

1. Having someone (or at least something) guide you through the whole thing and help you whenever you need,
2. Looking at screenshots and trying to figure out what to do on the go.

Honestly, screenshots are always better than plain text, but it isn't a huge upgrade in terms of usability and help.

Today I'll be helping you find a beautiful step-by-step documentation and guidance tool that is easier to use than what Tango provides and more intuitive than a video recording tool.

• I'll introduce you to Tango in case you haven't used it yet,
• I'll talk about why you might need an alternative,
• And then I'll list the 6 best alternatives to Tango, some being similar in functionality, and some being much more than that.

So let's dive into it:

What is Tango?

Tango is a training and documentation tool that lets you capture workflows as you go on your screen.

If that's all you need, simple documentation, this tool could actually be what you need.

Tango makes it easy to create simple how-to guides or create a visual how-to playbook.

But if you need a fully cooked onboarding for your users, clients, or customers, then Tango will only make things more difficult as it lacks the key features that a complete onboarding software must have, such as actual interactivity, customization options, analytics, and gamification.

Tango Pricing

• Free plan: Free for up to 25 users and 25 workflows per user (625 total)
• Pro plan: $16/month on annual payment with unlimited workflows
• Enterprise plan: Custom quote per user.

Tango Reviews

👍 Pros:

“I love that I can go through my applications easily and have Tango create an automatic step-by-step guide for me that I can send to clients or users.”

👎 Cons:

“Currently, I wish it was supported on more than just Chrome. Most of the applications I use are on the web so chrome works but there are a couple of applications that can't take advantage of Tango.”

Why you need a Tango Alternative

1- Not enough functionality 🔎

Although Tango does provide what it promises, since it doesn't have any advanced features - or at least even simple features other than taking and organizing screenshots - Tango won't be sufficient on its own.

2- Not a complete user onboarding method 🤷‍♀️

Since Tango won't be sufficient on its own as a user onboarding solution, you will have to heavily rely on other 3rd party tools, pay a lot more money, spend a lot of time, and try to connect all the data you gather from those tools in another one. That's a huge burden.

3- No customization options whatsoever 🎨

Tango's screenshots can't be customized, meaning that you can't go beyond what Tango thinks you want to do. You can't also change the format and you can't make it blend it with your own design.

Top Tango Alternatives

Here are the top 6 alternatives to Tango:

1. UserGuiding
2. Scribe
3. Iorad
4. Spekit
5. Bytes Route
6. Shepherd.io

I'll go over each tool, compare it to Tango, and talk about which cases they should be preferred. So, without further ado, let’s start with our first product:

1- UserGuiding – No-code Interactive User Onboarding

UserGuiding is a complete digital adoption platform that will actually help you increase your customer retention rates.

UserGuiding does everything that Tango doesn’t, if not more than that.

You can create customer satisfaction surveys, and segments for different audiences, customize all the content as you wish, and do all these without a single line of coding.

Unlike other similar tools, UserGuiding doesn’t have a complex Chrome extension. You can get going right after downloading the extension and create guides on your website within a matter of minutes.

And if you need more analytic data, you can use the integration with Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, and Webhooks to keep all your rates in the same place.

UserGuiding Pricing

UserGuiding has scalable pricing plans that grow with you, adjusting based on the number of active users you have. When billed annually:

• Basic Plan: Starting from $69/month.
• Professional Plan: Starting from $199/month.
• Corporate Plan: Custom quote.

UserGuiding Reviews

👍 Pros:

“UserGuiding is by far easiest to set up, their demo explains everything clearly, all there is left is to write the guide.”

👎 Cons:

“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 vs Tango

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2- Scribe

Scribe, also known as Scribehow is a cloud-based tool that allows you to create tutorials in minutes by tracking your actions, just like Tango.

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 (and it also has an automatic transcription feature.)

If you don’t know how to use a specific feature, there’s always someone who will help you.

Still, this doesn't 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 only
• Pro Plan: $29/month per user, includes branded guides
• Enterprise Plan: Custom quotation with knowledge base integration

Scribe Reviews

👍 Pros:

“I love how Scribe simplifies the process of transferring knowledge to new employees who are unfamiliar with certain programs.”

👎 Cons:

“I noticed that when recording specific steps, the software does not pick up on every link I click or page I open.”

3- Iorad

Iorad is also a software that allows you to build step-by-step guides as you move through the process.

You can record both video and audio, as well as your screen, using Iorad.

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.

If you just want it for personal use, Iorad is a good tool; otherwise, the prices are too costly for a product with only one use.

Iorad Pricing

For personal use:

• Iorad is free for personal use.

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.
• Company plan: $3200/month with an additional $40 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 Reviews

👍 Pros:

“I use Iorad in the help article for our clients and for internal training. The clients love it, and it is used as an example to the quality of the self-hep part of the software.”

👎 Cons:

“There are some actions that the software has some trouble picking up, like scrolling. Sometimes, too, the static image Iorad picks up shows a button mid-way through its hover state instead of at its final one.”

4- Spekit

Spekit is a Digital Enablement platform that drives adoption and increases employee experience.

The tool helps new employees have a smooth and consistent learning experience. Here’s how:

•  You can create buttons called ”Speks” to act as individual resource centers and integrate them with almost any product.
•  You can also create a sidebar resource center to collect all the guides.
•  You can easily share and create Speks in Slack, Google Chrome, Salesforce, or anywhere you need, without coding, using the chrome extension.

Does this mean that this is the ultimate perfect tool?

Unfortunately no.

Here’s why:

Unlike any other digital adoption platform, Spekit offers only employee-centric learning solutions, therefore, focuses on single users more than general user personas.

It would be a big challenge to use Spekit to increase user adoption or end-user experience.

Spekit Pricing

• Spekit Basics: $10/user/month
• Spekit Premium: $15/user/month

Spekit Reviews

👍 Pros:

“I like the versatility of this product. We were originally implementing this product for a Salesforce instance but had to change paths and the product still works great in the new software.”

👎 Cons:

“Sometimes when you hover, I get stuck looking at the spek and need to refresh the page for it to go away. That can be annoying when that platform is running slowly to begin with and you’re trying to navigate purposefully.”

5- Bytes Route

Bytes Route is a product tour creation tool for sales teams to create app training demos easily.

Even though it places itself as a customer onboarding tool, it’s far from complete.

That’s because the tool has only one feature: creating onboarding product tours.

More precisely, the tool captures your clicks and lets you add descriptions to your steps.

If this is all you need, then Bytes route will be a better alternative to Tango since it's more affordable. But in every other sense, neither tool is enough to train end-users fully.

Bytes Route Pricing

• Free Plan available for one seat and three guides
• Startup Plan: $19/month/team, two months for free if paid annually
• Growth Plan: $59/month/team, two months for free if paid annually

Bytes Route Reviews

 👍 Pros:

“I like the fact that Bytes Routes is easy to set up and use. You can create your first tour and have it running in a matter of minutes.”

 👎 Cons:

“Bytes Route could still use some features that the competitors have, like audio and/or images to add in the tour steps.”

6- Shepherd.io

Shepherd is an open-source library that helps you create linear interactive product walkthroughs.

Unlike other common resources, Shepherd.js can be customized to some extent, and it actually looks good on almost any website.

Although you need to know how to code to benefit from Shepherd, it will lower your development costs and time. So if you have a developer available for the job, you could get the product tour without spending a dime.

Shepherd.io Pricing

Shepherd.io is free of charge open source.