6 Best Product Demo Video Production Tools

For product demo video production, you can choose between finding a video production company or making your own. 

Production companies will give you a finished video explaining your product. But, they usually cost a few thousand dollars to get a high-quality demo video, and you won’t have the flexibility to update your video when your product changes. 

So, if you’d prefer to make your own, we’ve found 6 great tools for creating and updating a professional product demo video.

You can use different production tools to create interactive demo videos, tutorials, product walkthroughs, etc. Regardless of the demo you’re creating as part of your demand generation strategy, you’ll want these features: 

1. Multiple format options: Export high-quality videos for your website and social media (e.g., LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok) in various formats for different video projects.
2. Editing options: The editing process should let you add and remove steps to update your demo videos without having to remake them from scratch when your app changes.
3. Collaboration options: During editing, you should be able to collaborate with your peers, sales team, or founders.
4. Share and embed options: Let you share and embed interactive product demos so prospective customers can experience your app at their own pace, rather than watching a demo video.

Top 6 product demo video production tools in 2024

HowdyGo - Best demo video tool for software products

HowdyGo is an ideal choice for marketing teams who are looking for a tool to create product demo videos and interactive demos of their software.

How to create your interactive product demo? You can do it with a Chrome extension that lets you record any web application. You click "Start Recording" and each click automatically becomes a step in your product demo.

Once you've finished recording, you'll be launched into the editor, where you can adjust annotations and structure your demo however you need. 

After you’ve captured your app, you can use a point-and-click edit HTML tool to blur or edit your app; adjust statistics or metrics in a dashboard, or automatically personalize your demos based on a prospect's email domain.

It's much easier to add or update steps in your demos than a normal timeline video editor because you can "insert new steps" from the editor, and it ensures you capture the right resolution.

If your app changes, keeping your demos up to date is as easy as swapping the outdated steps on your existing demo takes a few minutes.

Do colleagues or founders want to participate? 

Anyone on your team can help write annotations, explain your product's unique selling points or introduce chapters to your product demo.

They can also make copies of the demo and export their own product demo video for a specific prospect.

When exporting your product videos for social media platforms, HowdyGo comes bundled with optimized formats for email campaigns, LinkedIn, and YouTube. You can also export them as an MP4 for a longer video using a different video editor like Premiere Pro or Camtasia.

Pro-tip: Create a perfectly looped video in your LinkedIn posts to boost engagement by exporting your demo video in webm format and keeping it under 1 minute. HowdyGo does this automatically for you.

HowdyGo’s standout feature is the ability to embed an interactive product demo on your website or product release. This allows users to take everything in at their own pace and understand your product's capabilities.

Did you know interactive product demos have a 40% engagement rate when embedded on websites, compared to embedded product demo videos, which only get about 1% engagement?

Features

Some of HowdyGo's key features include:

• Unlimited product demos: Create dozens of product demo videos with your colleagues for the same monthly price.
• Editing options: Add, edit and delete steps from your product demo videos to create a compelling narrative with a consistent video style.
• Updates: When something changes, update your product video without starting from scratch. Change text, images and graphs during the editing process after you've recorded it.
• Export options: Export and share interactive videos or demo videos from one platform for your video marketing.
• Support: Get support throughout the entire process from the founding team.

Use cases

• Demonstrating your product to potential customers on your website.
• Nurturing prospective customers with personalized interactive demos.
• Creating demo videos for a specific target audience.
• Sharing high-quality videos to attract potential customers on social media platforms.
• Capturing Figma prototypes and turning them into quick demo videos.

Pros

• Hands-on support from a dedicated team when making your demos.
• High-quality video exports in full-HD are specifically suited to making looped videos on LinkedIn or as GIFs in your email campaigns.
• The ability to embed an interactive version of your demo into your website can increase engagement, create an experience that stands out to prospects and provide detailed demo viewing analytics.

Pricing

You can test HowdyGo with a 2-week free trial. Prices start at $79 per month for unlimited demos and unlimited users.

User rating

Users pointed out:

• The excellent customer service they received.
• The intuitive editing experience.
• The responsiveness of the product team to feedback.

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ScreenStudio - Best for tutorial videos

ScreenStudio is video editing software that's only available for MacOS (Check out HowdyGo if you use Windows)

ScreenStudio is suited to people who are used to a tool like Loom but want to create more professional-looking demo videos. It's a good choice if you:

• Want to make a product demo video and export it, but you're not worried about keeping it up to date as your app changes.
• Have experience using video editing software, clipping sequences, adding transitions, etc.
• Don't need the tool to be cloud-based or allow collaboration.
• Own a Mac.

You can capture any application on your Mac as a screen recording. These screen recordings are stored as videos, so you can't edit text or images after you're finished.

>> Learn more about inbound marketing software here<<

You can manually create and adjust zooms for your video, while it does do some automated zooming, it can be a hit-and-miss, so you will need to make edits for the final product.

You can include voice-over or picture-in-picture recordings, similar to Loom.

ScreenStudio automatically smooths your cursor movements to make it more visually appealing, and can also make your cursor larger so that it’s easier to see and watch.

Features

• Traditional video editor: Video clips can be trimmed, clipped and edited on a timeline.
• Video backgrounds: Allows you to select a preset background for your demo video or set brand colors.
• Cursor options: Can automatically switch your cursor based on the type of action you’re performing in your demo.

Use cases

• Video tutorials, software product comparison videos or an explainer video.
• Short product demo videos for YouTube and LinkedIn.

Pros

• Lets you add zoom effects to your demos with ease.
• Has a single purchase price for one year of updates.

Pricing

One-off purchase of the native MacOS app, which comes with one year of updates.

User rating

Users on ProductHunt love the ease of use, but wish it was available for PC.

Adobe Creative Cloud - Best for animated product demos

If you want an animated product demo video, the most popular tool is Adobe’s Creative Cloud, specifically a combination of Illustrator and After Effects. This is professional editing software, so if it’s your first time working with an Adobe product, you should be prepared for a big time investment. 

When it comes to animated product demo videos, this is one category where you might find it easier to use a video production company, as the process is quite time-consuming and complex.

After Effects can import vector files from Illustrator and place them on a video timeline.

You have complete control over keyframes, transition curves and more. Each animation is created by manually adjusting the position, scale, and styles of the objects on a timeline. This is also often how people created logo animations.

You can add background music using Adobe Stock or import your own.

Export in various formats including lossless, broadcast quality formats using Adobe Media Encoder.

Features

• Vector images: Import vector image files from Illustrator into After Effects and animate them using keyframes and adjusting position, scale and styles on a timeline.
• Professional Software Suite: Adobe Creative Cloud allows you to combine compositions created in After Effects with a tool like Premiere Pro to perform normal video editing.
• Complete Control: You can control anything and everything in Creative Cloud which is powerful if you have the time and skill to make use of it – though that control can make the process more complicated.

Use cases

• Creating professional product demo videos.
• Exporting great videos in multiple formats with extensive rendering options.

Pros

• An industry standard for video production - this is the software people use for TV commercials.
• Supports vector-based imports to create cool animated product demos.

Pricing

If you want to make your own product demo video, Creative Cloud costs $59.99 per month for one license.

User rating

Users noted that the suite can be expensive beyond the free trial, but its integration options and ability to save creative assets in the cloud were helpful.

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) - Best for live streaming

OBS is a popular tool for streamers (yes, like gaming streamers) because it lets you capture your screen while overlaying different video feeds, like your webcam.

Because OBS is designed for broadcasting it's a good choice for explainer videos or event videos, where exporting a finished video isn't required or you're demonstrating your product on a live platform.

OBS has an active community, but it isn't the easiest tool to get started with if you want a great product demo video, as it doesn't have a built-in editor.

However, it's free, so if you've got time to edit in a different tool then it’s worth giving a try.

Capture your computer screen and overlay multiple audio and video feeds on top of it.

Broadcast combined video feeds on any platform using a "virtual camera" or directly to some platforms.

Create a product demo video template that you can reuse for future live streams or recordings.

Configure for recording a product video, but you'll need a separate editor to make your video more concise.

You can add as many video layers as you want, which can be helpful if you want to capture a few different feeds like your webcam, screen or even an attached iPad for making live notes during a tutorial video.

>>Learn why your book a demo button is losing conversions<<

Features

• Live Stream: You can live stream directly from OBS to various platforms or use it as a virtual webcam for platforms without direct support.
• Multiple video feeds: Overlay multiple video feeds, including screen capture, webcam, and static layers (e.g. Watermarks or text).
• Record and stream options: You can record your stream directly to an MP4 file and use the output in a different video editor. 

Use cases

• To do live-streaming video content on any social media platform.
• To create custom explainer videos with webcam overlays and multiple video feeds.
• To record multiple video feeds simultaneously, so you can edit them manually using Camtasia or Adobe Premier Pro to create your finished video.

Pros

• Completely free to use and has an active community.
• A variety of configuration options if you have the time and interest to get them working.
• The only tool which is purpose-built for live-streaming video content.

Pricing

Free to use with a variety of plugins that can be added.

Camtasia - Good for broad use cases

Camtasia is a traditional video editing tool that's been around for a long time and is used for video marketing.

It's not exclusively for product demo videos, but marketers say it's useful for producing product demo videos, explainer videos and more. The video quality is high, but you will need to be comfortable working with a video timeline and multiple video or audio layers.

You can record your screen, create a product demo video template and reuse it when you need to update your demo videos.

Features

• Templates: You can create branded themes and templates for your videos and reuse them across videos.
• Desktop app: Camtasia is a native video editing app available for Mac and Windows.
• Limited animation support: You can import some animation files (Lottie is supported) into Camtasia and tweak some settings on them.
• Audio editing: Built-in audio editing.

Use cases

As a traditional video editing tool, Camtasia covers more use cases beyond creating a video demo. Marketers use Camtasia to make video content for their entire marketing strategy, like:

• Brand video
• Testimonial videos
• Onboarding videos
• Product video
• Explainer video

Pros

• Has a desktop app for both Windows and Mac.
• Has been around for a long time, and you'll find plenty of YouTube tutorials on how to use it.

Pricing

The pricing starts at $179.88/year.

User rating

Users said Camtasia was easy to use for how-to and training videos and made the editing experience intuitive.

Demostack - Best for live presentation mode

Demostack is an interactive product demo tool that creates a live demo environment of your software for sales calls. It's for enterprise users who have significant budgets and large sales teams.

While it's similar to HowdyGo as it captures your app in an interactive format, the tool is suited to live calls because of its presentation mode.

One limitation is that you can't create product demo videos using Demostack. However, it does give you a way to demonstrate your product if you're on live calls or want to let potential customers explore a demo environment.

If you want to export videos, consider one of the other options.

Features

• Demo recording: Capture your app and change data in it, similar to HowdyGo, but with the ability to edit the data sent to your app by your server.
• Demo environment: Create a stable demo environment with full interactivity.
• Navigation: Let people navigate your application while viewing curated product features.
• Additional features: An extensive demo editing platform with many features like generating demo data with AI.

Use cases

• Create "live" demo environments and generate fake data to fill those environments.
• Scale up demo environments for live sales calls.
• Demonstrate Android mobile applications.

Pros

• Unlike a demo video, viewers can navigate the interactive demo environment without having to sign up for your product first, which removes a layer of friction.
• Available for Android apps and web apps.

Pricing

Demostack starts at $50,000 per annum.

User rating

Users pointed out their reliance on Demostack to run live product demos and called out the customization of demos.

Comparison Table

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Top 3 Product Demo Video Examples 

Here are three of our favorite interactive product demo video examples, each includes an interactive product demo as well as the demo video that was exported from HowdyGo.

Archistar

Archistar's product demo video shows off one of the product's features that stands out. The ability to generate potential building site plans with AI based on the size of a property.

This demo video was exported from HowdyGo, or you can view the interactive version.

Ansarada

Ansarada shows off its integration with Microsoft Office with this great video. You can also view the click-through interactive version which offers even more detail.

Ansarada uses HowdyGo across its product suite with multiple product demo videos.

Flagsmith

Flagsmith uses HowdyGo as a product demo on their home page. With this demo, they walk potential customers through their product offering.

This demo resulted in a 1.9x increase in sign-ups compared to visitors who hadn't viewed the product demo. It has over 4,000 views and a 52% completion rate.

>> Learn how to increase conversions for your “Book a demo” page”<<

6 tips for making a great product demo video

We've pulled together 6 tips for making your product demonstration video stand out to prospects and customers. Or if you'd rather watch a video, this video on 5 mistakes to avoid in your product demo will give you the details.

These are our top tips for making a great demo video, which will help you create a product demo that potential customers will love.

1. Plan your demo before you start creating it

Write down the top 1 to 3 features your sales team (or you) often demonstrate to prospects on sales calls. These are generally the features you should put into a product demo video.

By writing down these features, you will avoid creating lengthy demo videos - see tips #4 and #5.

2. Treat your product demo video as an iterative piece of content

Keeping your product demo video up to date can be tricky if your product is updated regularly, so you must choose a tool that makes it easy to update.

But product updates aside, your product demo video needs iteration to make it awesome for viewers. Think about a product demo video like any other marketing content, and treat it with the same kind of attention and eye for detail you would for a top-performing article.

Remember, this is one of the only ways prospects see your product's features before they speak to a sales rep or sign up. Make it count!

3. Use analytics to help you iterate

Product demo analytics will help you make decisions as you iterate and improve your demo videos. Once about 100 people have viewed your demo, you will start to see some trends in the way people view the demo. 

We break our analytics down into a process explained in detail in our demo analytics documentation.

4. Slow down to let concepts sink in

When making a product demo, you should remember that this is potentially the first time someone has seen your product. Slow your cursor movements down, and pause on screens for long enough for the viewer to take everything in.

If you move too quickly, people must pause your video or keep scrolling past.
An interactive product demo lets the viewer take everything in at their own pace and easily revisit portions of your product demo.

5. Speed up by removing pauses to keep people's attention

People's attention spans are shorter than ever, during editing, you should remove any unnecessary pauses or steps to keep the video moving. This will keep the viewer's attention and they'll be more likely to reach the end of the video.

6. Include a CTA so that people can easily take the next step

If someone has watched the entirety of a product demonstration video, it's usually a great sign that they're interested in what you're selling. Capitalize on this interest by giving them a clear call to action at the end of the demo.

HowdyGo does this by letting you set a call to action button. We increased a customer's click-through rate by over 20% by swapping a button from "Contact Us" to "Sign up for free". 

This decision was easy to make because we had analytics available to show the result of the change. >>Learn how to increase landing page conversion rates in this article.<<

Conclusion

To be successful, you should aim to create an informative video for the viewer. Find a tool that is easy to use so that you can focus on explaining your product's features with a compelling narrative. 

HowdyGo is an excellent choice for most marketing teams who want to demonstrate their software. You can start a free 2 week trial today.

Consider which type of demo will suit your target audience and video marketing strategy best.

• If you're adding a product demonstration video to your website and want to share short video demos on social media, you should use a tool like HowdyGo.
• If you want to create explainer videos or tutorials that are more professional than Loom, you could use ScreenStudio. Or combine a video editor with a screen recorder and do it yourself.
• If you want to create animated product demonstration videos, look at finding a video production company. Or use Illustrator and After Effects to make your animations.
• If you're looking for a way to do live product demos and you have a large marketing budget, DemoStack lets you create live interactive demo environments and lets you demonstrate your mobile Android applications as well. But it won’t give you a video export.

FAQs

How to do a product demo video?

Start by writing down 1 to 3 features you would normally demonstrate to a prospect or customer. This will keep your product demo video concise. Then, capture your demo using a tool like HowdyGo and edit the steps to keep the video as concise as possible while describing your product's unique selling points.

How do you shoot a product demo video?

If it's a software product, use a tool that lets you capture your computer screen and then make edits like adding or deleting steps, annotations and chapter markers—a tool like HowdyGo is great for this. For physical products, you will want to find a video production company.

How much does a product demo video cost?

Product demo videos usually cost between a few hundred dollars to a few thousand depending on whether you make a product demo video or use a demo video production company. If you're using product demo video services, they limit how many edits you'll get and you won't get updates included with the price.

How long should product demo videos be?

Our data shows that the completion rate of a product demo increases from 40% to 80% when a demo has fewer than 10 steps. The best product demo videos are usually under 3 minutes, ideally less. Consider your target audience and how much detail they are looking for in a demo. No one will watch a 15-minute screen recording of your app.

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