In the competitive SaaS industry, selecting the right interactive demo platform can significantly impact the success of your marketing, sales, and customer success teams. This article provides a thorough comparison of three top platforms—Storylane, Tourial, and Fable—enabling you to make an informed choice by evaluating their features, pricing, and overall value.
What you'll learn:
How Storylane, Tourial, and Fable compare to one another.
An overview of the key strengths and weaknesses of each platform.
Comparison at a glance
Storylane
Storylane is a platform focused on simplifying the creation of interactive product demos, allowing teams to quickly set up and deploy custom demos. Its user-friendly interface and cost-effective pricing have made it a favorite among emerging SaaS companies.
Storylane Pros
Ease of use: Storylane's intuitive interface enables users to start creating demos with minimal training or technical expertise.
Customer support: The Storylane team is recognized for its responsive and helpful customer support, providing comprehensive guidance and assistance through multiple channels.
Demo options: Users can choose between screenshot-based demos and HTML capture demos, offering flexibility to meet different use cases.
Storylane Cons
Minimum of 5 users: For HTML capture demos, Storylane requires purchasing at least five licenses, even if only one user needs to access the platform.
Device segmentation limitations: Storylane does not offer the ability to segment demo viewers based on the device they are using.
Limited user seats: The platform does not offer the option for unlimited user seats, which could restrict larger teams.
Exploring alternatives to Storylane
Although Storylane is effective for quick and straightforward demo creation, its basic analytics and limited customization capabilities might lead some users to explore other platforms that provide more advanced features and greater flexibility.
Tourial
Tourial is a platform designed for marketing teams to create interactive product tours, enabling prospects to explore a product's features before initiating a sales conversation. The platform also offers a Demo Center, allowing marketers to present multiple product tours on a single landing page, which helps highlight different aspects of their products in one convenient location.
Tourial Pros
Create demo centers: Marketing teams can let website visitors customize their experience by choosing their own journey based on use case, industry, or persona.
Integration with marketing tools: Tourial seamlessly integrates with popular marketing platforms like HubSpot and Marketo, making it easy for teams to manage and push demo data to their preferred tools.
Customization: The platform offers various branding and customization options, ensuring that product tours can be tailored to align with the company’s visual identity and style.
Tourial Cons
No fixed pricing: Tourial’s pricing is flexible and can vary depending on factors such as required features and team size, making it less predictable for budgeting.
Mobile experience: The mobile experience of Tourial is not as refined as the desktop experience, which can be a limitation for users accessing product tours on mobile devices.
Learning curve: New users might face a steep learning curve, especially when attempting to create more intricate or complex tours.
Exploring alternatives to Tourial
The absence of a free trial, combined with slow implementation and higher pricing, may lead some to look for alternative platforms. With prices starting at $600 per month and an additional fee for demo centers, Tourial might be a tough choice, especially without the option to try the product beforehand.
Fable
Fable is designed for marketing and sales teams of all sizes, providing a platform to create highly customizable interactive demos that enhance engagement and streamline the sales process. With advanced analytics and seamless integrations, Fable proves to be a powerful tool for driving sales success.
Fable Pros
Free to start: Fable provides a free plan, allowing users to create their first interactive demo in as little as five minutes.
Mobile responsive demos: Fable’s approach ensures that demos are mobile-friendly, making them accessible and optimized across various devices.
Deep customizations: With Fable's on-screen HTML customization capabilities, teams can modify, hide, blur, or remove any element within their demos, offering a versatile solution for various go-to-market strategies.
Fable Cons
Limited user seats: The number of user seats is restricted, which could be a drawback for larger teams needing broader access.
Product replication: Fable works by creating a replica of your product, which limits the ability to directly edit or customize the live version, potentially restricting some use cases.
Feature Comparison
Free trial
Fable: Offers a 14-day free trial across all plans and includes a free plan to create one demo.
Storylane: Provides a free trial only for screenshot-based demos; no free trial is available for HTML demos.
Tourial: Does not offer any free trial options.
Responsive design
Fable: Ensures that demos are optimized for all devices with its mobile responsiveness strategy.
Storylane: Does not support the creation of responsive demos.
Tourial: Lacks features for creating responsive demos.
Demo coaching
Fable: Offers guidance from demo experts to help you create demos that align with best practices.
Storylane: Provides demo coaching only at their highest subscription tier.
Tourial: Demo coaching is not included in standard pricing plans and requires purchasing additional packages.
AI demos
Fable: The latest version includes AI capabilities that assist in creating end-to-end demos.
Storylane: Utilizes AI to simplify the creation of voiceovers for demos.
Tourial: Does not currently offer AI-powered demo features.
Why choose Fable
Fable is the go-to platform for creating interactive demos, offering a free plan that lets you start quickly and easily. With Fable, you can create your first demo in just five minutes, making it accessible for teams of all sizes. The platform’s mobile responsiveness ensures that your demos look great and function smoothly on any device, catering to a mobile-first audience.
Fable stands out with its deep customization capabilities, allowing teams to modify, hide, blur, or delete any element directly within the demo. This flexibility provides a personalized and engaging experience for your audience, helping you meet specific business needs without the constraints found in other platforms.
Whether you're looking for a cost-effective, user-friendly solution or need a platform that offers advanced customization and mobile optimization, Fable delivers a robust and versatile demo creation experience.
Start for free and create your first interactive demo in just minutes!
Conclusion
When choosing an interactive demo platform, it's essential to align your selection with your specific needs and goals. While Storylane and Tourial each have their distinct advantages, Fable's advanced features and extensive customization capabilities make it an attractive option for businesses looking to develop impactful and personalized demos.
Choosing the right interactive demo platform
Choose Fable if you're seeking a highly customizable solution for creating interactive product demos, complete with advanced analytics and seamless integration options, ideal for capturing prospect interest and boosting your sales and marketing performance.
Choose Storylane if you prefer a straightforward, user-friendly platform with robust features that enable quick creation of interactive product demos. It's well-suited for marketing and sales teams focused on engaging prospects and tracking their interactions.
Choose Tourial if you're interested in a platform that allows you to develop and display multiple product tours on a single landing page, offering prospects a rich, self-guided exploration of your product’s features and benefits.