Arcade alternative for HTML interactive demos
Arcade is a screenshot demo tool, while HowdyGo is a HTML demo tool. In order to understand the differences between the 2 platforms, it's worth covering the difference between screenshot and HTML demos before diving any deeper.
Difference between screenshot and HTML demos
Screenshot demos are essentially "clickable slideshows" that cycle through screenshots your product. This limits their interactivity, but can be more flexible since each "slide" can be anything, including a screenshot of a product that isn't web based.
HTML demos are perfect clones of your product. Viewers can interact with elements on the page, scroll, hover and click around as if they were in your actual app. On top of that, they allow you to edit the content of the captured app after recording (text, images, etc).
When should you choose Arcade?
Arcade is probably the easiest to use screenshot demo tool in the market. You should consider screenshot demos if your product is not web based. Screenshot demos lack interactivity and customization but allow you to add any screenshot into them, including those not from web based products.
How is HowdyGo different?
HowdyGo is built from the ground up for HTML demos - high quality, pixel-perfect replicas of your product. We provide an easy to use platform and the guidance you need to prove the value of interactive product demos for your business.
HTML demos under all pricing tiers
Experiment friendly pricing
Fast learning curve
Individual guidance from the founding team
Starting with interactive demos can be daunting, but they've made it simple. We've easily integrated tools like Hubspot, we have clear reporting and attribution so we can track impact on things like conversion rates, and setting up/testing demos has been seamless."
HowdyGo vs Arcade features
Searching for a specific feature or simply to see what functionality HTML demos unlock vs screenshot demos? We've got you covered.
Pricing
Recording
Editing
Analytics
FAQs
They replicate a flow in your SaaS and let you easily add onboarding-style callouts to a walkthrough.
This means you can embed your product, loaded with data, into your website and let people self-educate/self-qualify at their own pace.
Unlike an onboarding tool, it shows your product in a state that demonstrates to prospects functionality without making them guess what it’s capable of, when they're still deciding whether they should sign up for an account or book a demo.
If you're comparing different vendors, it's important to understand that interactive demo tools are split into these two categories:
- Full interactive HTML demos like HowdyGo, which let you edit your app after capturing, personalize content and generally offer a more convincing experience to your prospects. They feel high quality, like getting a new iPhone vs. your old Nokia 3310.
- Screenshot capture demos are effectively slideshows of your app. These tools are typically cheaper, and it can be a bit easier to get started. You're also unlikely to run into any weird recording glitches.
Learn more in our article Interactive Product Demos Explained.
If you would normally need your sales/engineering team to help you make a screen recording, the recording process is going to be similar. The difference is that as a marketer you will get complete flexibility to edit the demo after it's been captured.
We'll help you. We've created hundreds of demos of SaaS products, we're technically minded and we want to help you succeed. Things we've done in the past to help new customers get started:
- Deployed products on AWS.
- Interacted with customer APIs.
- Created LinkedIn advertising campaigns to demo an experimentation tool.
- Read through 50-page strategy decks to understand how a product works.
This is hands-on, in-the-weeds, real support like we are part of your team. Is this highly unprofitable support? Sort of. If you churn the next month, yeah, we'll lose money on that level of support. But we know that results are all that matters and we trust you'll get them.
In addition, HowdyGo is accessible to the entire team - We don't charge per user.
You can see, edit, duplicate and share demos across your team easily. This makes it easy to get a sales/engineer involved if you have to.
This is our 5 step simple guide to making an interactive demo:
- Capture a flow of your app that often gets demonstrated by your sales team.
- Add annotations, reuse messaging and convey a simple story that highlights your value proposition.
- Delete or auto-progress through unnecessary steps, your prospects want you to get to the point.
- Publish your demo and copy the embed code
- Paste the embed code into your CMS (whether it's Webflow, Unbounce, Wordpress, Ghost, Wix, etc.)
Your first demo shouldn't be too complicated. Just get started and have a bit of fun. It's really easy to add new steps, change the order around, edit text, etc.
TLDR; You can't. But they are great source material for creating a more engaging demo experience.
HowdyGo is designed to capture interactive, responsive HTML. This allows you to do cool stuff like editing the content of your app after capturing it, personalize what's on screen with templated values, and get analytics that are driven by actual user interactions (not just passive views).
Not to mention the fact it really feels like they are using your app.
Videos serve a purpose, but a 10 minute walkthrough doesn't do your product justice.
The most common use-case we see is an embedded walkthrough of your software on your website.
While there are a whole host of potential use cases (and you can see some of them in our documentation) we recommend starting out by just creating a simple Platform Overview demo of your software, or on a specific, popular portion of your software.
This is a great place to begin because it gives you something practical that can be shared on your website, or directly with prospects and leads.
We've built HowdyGo with integrations in mind, so when one of our customers needs a new one, we jump on it and make it happen.
There's good news though, everything in HowdyGo works without integrating (lead capture and analytics included), and, when we start building an integration it often takes less than a week to have it up and running.
Here's a quote from one of our customers:"Wow you guys are fast!!".
Jump in and get started, then have a chat with us and we'll move heaven and earth to get you up and running the way you want.
