Top 5 Demo Automation Software You Should Try

Explore how demo automation software helps you create guided tours that qualify your prospects on auto-pilot.
Umberto Anderle
August 5, 2024

Demo automation software lets your sales team focus on closing qualified leads while early demos run on autopilot. Since 89% of users self-qualify with product demos on landing pages, investing in an interactive demo tool is a no-brainer.

Different demo automation tools offer a range of features, from demo checklists to advanced analytics and integration capabilities. They’ve also been designed with different use cases in mind, from product tours to live demos and vary greatly in the level of support and paid plan options provided.

If you’re ready to find the easiest way to automate your product demos, let’s discover the top five demo automation tools. We’ll list features, use cases, pros, pricing and user ratings to ensure you make the right decision.

Top 5 demo automation software

Let’s focus on interactive product demo automation software that supports recording your product in HTML, making demos look and feel just like the real thing and allowing you to edit & personalize the recorded UI to tell the right story.

Let’s see which platforms might be a good fit for marketing or sales teams.

1. HowdyGo

HowdyGo interface

HowdyGo is an interactive demo recording software that helps you automate demos with ease. With one click, you can record your whole product in pixel-perfect HTML, add annotations to explain or highlight concepts, personalize your captured UI, and add CTAs to ensure your demos convert.

Starting with interactive demos can be daunting, but HowdyGo has made it simple.” Anna R., Head of Marketing, says in her G2 review.

Once you finish recording, you can easily edit, add, or remove steps, embed the demo on your website or share a video so customers can interact with your product on their own terms.

How can you create a great interactive product demo with HowdyGo? With the HowdyGo Chrome Extension, you only need to click “Start Recording.”

HowdyGo recordings

The tool captures a snapshot of the page whenever you click. If you need to record multiple tabs to create the perfect interactive demo, switch to the required tab and click the “Record this tab” button that will appear.

record this tab option

Click “Stop Recording” if you’re done or “Cancel Recording” to start from scratch.

howdygo chrome extension

See how simple it is to save hours on initial sales calls? Marketers and sales reps can create self-serve click-through demos for your website to present tailored pitches in just a few clicks.

Get started for free!

Features

  • Unlimited HTML interactive demos: There’s no limit to the number of product tours you can create with HowdyGo. This great tool caches the HTML, CSS, media and fonts to showcase a pixel-perfect version of the app.
  • Editing options: Creating an interactive demo is just the beginning – you need to edit it to tell the right story. That’s easy with HowdyGo. You can edit anything in your recorded UI and draw attention to certain aspects of your app with annotations. If a step is redundant, delete it by clicking the trash icon. Drag and drop a step thumbnail to reorder your demo.
  • Demo checklists: Break an automated demo into sections so viewers can easily jump between sections.
  • Lead capture forms: Add the forms at any stage of the automated demo to ask your qualified leads to specify their name, email, phone, company or country.
  • Automated updates: Update your interactive demo with each new change without having to capture a new recording. Just go back to the editor to amend text, images, graphs or insert new steps.
  • Personalization: HowdyGo allows you to create a personalized demo tailored to specific buyers. The captured demo UI can display their name, logo, and any other information.
  • User-friendly analytics: HowdyGo collects data on impressions, engagement, completion and actions taken so that you can track and optimize your automated product demos.

Use cases

HowdyGo has four major use cases:

  • Website embed: Embed automated demos on your website or landing pages to improve conversion vs. screenshots and videos.
  • Social media videos: Showcase features with automated demos on social media. You can target specific audiences with each video and show them what your platform can do.
  • Sales cycles: Your sales team can leverage HowdyGo to shorten their sales cycles. Interactive demos save time by better-qualifying prospects.
  • Product demo GIF: With HowdyGo, you can capture GIFs for different marketing channels, including landing pages, social media posts and email campaigns.

Pros

  • Hands-on support from HowdyGo’s founding team. Create high converting automated demos thanks to the support of a team that has analyzed hundreds of product demos and knows what works.
  • Unlimited user seats, no matter the size of your business.
  • Export videos optimized for social media platforms like LinkedIn or GIFs for your newsletters.

Pricing

Explore all of HowdyGo's functionalities with a two-week free trial. Prices start at $79 a month for unlimited HTML demos and users.

howdygo pricing

User ratings

Users pointed out:

  • The helpful team behind HowdyGo.
  • Ease of use while creating interactive demos.
  • The intuitive onboarding process.
HowdyGo reviws

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Edit anything in your UI with HTML demos
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2. Navattic

navattic dashboard

Navattic is a popular option for larger SaaS companies looking for demo automation software because of the number of features, customization and branding options. Its noteworthy feature is real-time alerts which notify your sales team whenever a potential customer interacts with your demo.

If you’re looking for more affordable monthly payment options and hands-on support when creating your demos, check out Navattic alternatives.

Features

  • Drag-and-drop editor: You can add text, videos and images to make your automated demos more engaging.
  • Offline demos: You can download demos to play them offline during conferences.
  • Input triggers: Set custom triggers enabled after a specific user interaction.
  • Version control: You can restore previous demo versions to compare and learn from them.

Use cases

  • Embed options: Embed an interactive demo on your homepage, landing pages or blog posts.
  • SDR outreach: Improve SDR outreach with product demos to attract potential customers.
  • Upselling efforts: Create a demo to upsell existing customers when you launch new features.

Pros

  • Real-time alerts that go off the moment a customer interacts with your demo.
  • The ability to create multiple demos for various target audiences or use cases thanks to personalization variables.

Pricing

The pricing starts at $600 monthly, with quarterly or annual billing only. Although you get unlimited licenses and interactive demos, HowdyGo provides the same for a fraction of the price.

Navattic pricing

User ratings

Users appreciate Navattic's flexibility and the team's proactiveness towards customer feedback. 

3. Reprise

reprise dashboard

Reprise is a demo automation tool for your sales or presales team. It lets you build demo environments, product tours and live demos. It’s a solid choice due to its sandbox environments, simple interface and customization options that allow you to replace images, data and text.

To create a SaaS product demo, install the extension, click “Create New”, “Replicate”, name your demo, click “Create Demo” and then “Get Started.” You will need to capture each screen that you want in your demo and then link them together from their editor.

reprise ui

Features

  • Bulk apply: When you replace images, data or logons, you can bulk apply all changes across your demo environment. This saves your team time and eliminates the need to apply each change manually.
  • Tailored experience: This demo automation tool lets you tailor your product tour to each buyer. You can highlight the product parts they are most interested in, show individual features or create full demo environments.
  • Sales demo environment: You can clone your app’s core functionality to separate it from your live production environment.
  • Analytics: Monitor viewer activity and behavior to optimize your automated demos.

Use cases

  • Website embed: Share self-guided product tours on your website.
  • Sales calls: Sales teams can create a variety of demos, from leave-behinds to product tours which they can use to give live demos on a sales call.
  • Email outreach: Share interactive demos in emails to your subscribers via links.

Pros

  • Reprise allows you to build a sandbox environment that saves your sales team from any potential bugs or delays.
  • You can make highly customizable demos, adding images, texts or logos.

Pricing

The Reprise pricing plans aren’t publicly available. However, your enterprise will probably need to set aside $1,000 a month for its basic plan, available for 5 users only, according to Marketing Arsenal.

Is this above your budget? Discover a more affordable Reprise alternative.

User ratings

Most reviews highlight its responsiveness to customer feedback and wide set of tools, but they stress that mastering the platform takes time.

4. Storylane

storylane dashboard

Storylane is another top demo automation software due to its third-party integrations with apps like Zapier and Marketo, ease of use, analytics that monitor how users engage with your demos and customization options.

It allows you to record demos in just a few clicks.

Install the Storylane Chrome Extension to start recording. For an HTML demo, click “Record New Demo” and “Start Recording,” choose the capturing method and “Stop Recording” when you’re done.

storylane ui ux

Features

  • AI assistant: This feature allows you to translate your guide to over 25 languages or add voiceover automatically.
  • Demo templates: Use templates to embed content directly into your demos. For instance, the tool immediately adds, “Good morning, [Customer Name].”
  • Integrations: This demo automation software integrates with Hubspot, Salesforce, Marketo and Slack, among other apps.

Use cases

  • Personalized demos: Your marketing team can use templates to create interactive product demos for different audiences, and their roles, needs or industry.
  • Email outreach: Share your demo library with the right decision-makers in email campaigns.
  • Embed options: Embed your demos across various platforms, including Notion, WordPress, Miro and Zendesk.

Pros

  • Extensive integration options, especially with Zapier.
  • The option to personalize demos from the lead form or URL parameters.
  • Advanced link security, including password protection.

Pricing

Storylane offers a free plan with one published screenshot demo. For HTML demos, you’ll need to pay $125 per creator per month with a minimum of 5 creators.

If you need HTML demos and don’t want to pay per seat, check out another Storylane alternative.

storylane pricing

User ratings

Most reviews mention that the product is intuitive to use but would like more demo organization options.

storylane reviews

5. Walnut.io

walnutio interface

Walnut.io  is an interactive product demo tool for companies looking to tailor every step of the sales cycle. It allows you to customize every aspect of your demos by adding text, graphs and anonymizing data. It also has features like guided templates and semi-sandbox environments.

Like with some Walnut alternatives, you must install the extension to start capturing your screen. Choose “Continuous capture” to record the full flow, click the film strip to begin recording and stop the capture when you’re done.

walnutio dashboard

Features

  • Capturing methods: Choose between three capturing methods – single, continuous, or timed (when you need time to set up the screen).
  • Screen templates: You can add a screenshot of a desktop app or a mobile phone over which your product will display.
  • Smart objects: Use this feature to apply the same edit across different screens.

Use cases

  • Personalized demos: It’s aimed at sales teams that want to organize all demos and leverage personalization.
  • Template generation: Presales teams can create demo templates that other teams can easily personalize.
  • Follow-ups: Send follow-up emails with demos showcasing your app's top benefits.

Pros

  • It allows you to convert text to speech without uploading an audio file.
  • An option to showcase your product across different screens, including mobile.

Pricing

Walnut doesn’t advertise its pricing online, but Vendr states that it starts at $15,100 annually. 

User ratings

Users praise its support team and extensive AI capabilities, but some say UI needs improvement.

walnution user ratings

Conclusion

Nowadays, your sales, presales and marketing teams need demo automation software to empower prospects with self-service demos. They allow them to explore your products on their own terms, self qualify, and give your teams the time to focus on high-quality leads.

Many tools on the market can help you with this. But you should choose an affordable solution that offers unlimited seats and pixel-perfect HTML demos like HowdyGo. With this platform, you can embed your demos, explore various editing options and show the true value of your product.

Get started for free!

FAQs

What is demo automation?

Demo automation allows prospects to receive self-serve demos they can click through at their own pace.

Which is the best automation software?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. However, HowdyGo is an affordable demo automation solution for smaller marketing and sales teams that lets them create, edit and distribute product demos in just a few clicks.

What is software demoing?

Software demoing is a way for prospects to understand how an app works. Businesses use this technique to walk their customers through relevant aspects of their products.

About the Author
Umberto Anderle
Co-Founder

Umberto is a co-founder of HowdyGo, and is passionate about giving marketing and sales teams an easy way to demo their products at their best. He was VP of Product at a B2B enterprise startup with >$20m ARR where he learnt about the value of building personalised demo environments for prospects.

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