In the relatively new world of interactive product demo software, there aren't that many serious competitors in the market.
Walnut is arguably the market leader, with rapid growth, $50M+ funding (according to Crunchbase), and some pretty cool ad campaigns fueling their brand awareness.
Depending on your exact use case, it might not be right for you. If you want to see what else is out there, with advice on which tool makes sense for you, you're in the right place.
3 reasons to look for an alternative to Walnut
Missing integrations
Walnut currently have integrations with Salesforce & HubSpot. Those are great, but others are missing. There's no integration with Zapier/Make, Intercom, Slack, no API, and no integration with customer data platforms like Segment.
Some tools have a quicker implementation time
Naturally, implementation time is going to vary. That said, anecdotally (and based on user reviews), Walnut is in the middle of the pack for how long it takes to get a demo out into the wild. Not the slowest by any means, but not the fastest.
Their focus is more sales enablement than marketing
Walnut has great features for sales teams. That said, some alternative tools are focusing more on marketing use cases & website embeds. For example, Walnut doesn't support mobile-optimized demos, and you can't build forms into the demo experience.
Here are the 6 best alternatives to Walnut
- Navattic
- Saleo
- Storylane
- Reprise
- Arcade
- Demostack
Let's take a look at the differences.
1. Navattic
Best suited for: embedding an interactive demo on a website, or for sharing with prospects
Free trial: No, request a demo here.
Starting price: Unknown.
Key features
Navattic isn't the biggest brand on this list, but they're gaining traction, with some notable customers like Mixpanel & Dooly.
Like Walnut, it lets you build an interactive demo without engineering resources. It can be embedded onto a website, or used for any other purpose (e.g. to send directly to prospects async without needing a call).
It lets you create guided product tours, or a ‘choose your own adventure' style of demo with checklists & options for users to explore.
You can play around with their live interactive demo to get a feel for how it works.
There are integrations with Hubspot, Salesforce, Marketo, Segment, and Google Analytics — making it easier to see how demo interactions impact metrics further down the funnel.
It's intuitive to use & fast to get a demo set up, even for non-technical people.
Lastly, Navattic have a SOC 2 Type II compliance certification, which checks the box for any security & privacy requirements.
Navattic vs Walnut
See a full comparison: Navattic vs Walnut.
- Navattic caters better for marketing use cases, whereas Walnut caters better for sales
- Navattic customers report a quicker average time to implementation
- Walnut makes it easier to quickly personalize demos for each prospect with templates
- Walnut have better collaboration features for teams working together on demos
- Both tools are capable of serving SMBs, mid-market, and enterprise customers
Pricing
Navattic's pricing isn't publicly available, but there is a lower cost startup plan. Contact them directly to learn more about pricing.
2. Saleo
Best suited for: sales teams to create personalized demos using your live demo environment
Free trial: No, request a demo here.
Starting price: Unknown.
Key features
Saleo works differently compared to Walnut & the other tools in this list. Instead of using annotated screenshots, videos, or other methods — it allows you to edit your production environment directly in the browser.
The idea is to promote authenticity. To give prospects a realistic look into how everything works. Not only which features are available, but also the performance — load times, usability, and so on.
You can change metrics, graphs, text — whatever you need to tailor a demo, and help prospects understand how the tool would really look & feel in practice.
To use it, you download a Chrome extension.
Note: Saleo is built for sales teams, not for embedding onto a marketing site.
Saleo vs Walnut
- Saleo is used to edit a live production environment, instead of making an interactive tour with screenshots
- Saleo is only for sales teams, whereas Walnut can cater for marketing use cases too
- Neither tool are offering publicly available pricing
- Walnut has more insights & analytics features
Pricing
Saleo's pricing isn't publicly available. Contact them directly to learn more about pricing.
3. Storylane
Best suited for: those looking for a free version, or a tool with more CRM/automation integrations
Free trial: Yes, one week. Sign up here.
Starting price: Free
Key features
Storylane is a YC-backed tool that can cater for marketing, sales, and success/support use cases with interactive demos. They're also one of very few options that offer a free version.
You can build & embed a product tour on a website, send it via email, build live demo experiences for sales, and leave-behinds for after sales calls. All using no-code tools.
You can see an example of Storylane's product tour on their own product page.
There are one-click integrations available with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pardot, Marketo, Intercom, and Segment. Plus, a Zapier integration for other custom automations.
Storylane vs Walnut
- Storylane offers a one week free trial, whereas other platforms don't
- Storylane has more one-click CRM integrations (e.g. Walnut is missing Marketo)
- Both tools let you embed a demo onto a website
- Walnut has more insights & analytics features
Pricing
Storylane has a free plan available, and a one-week trial. Otherwise, you need to contact their team to get pricing for the Growth or Enterprise plans.
4. Reprise
Best suited for: enterprise teams looking for customization, security, and data integrations
Free trial: You can try their Starter plan for free
Starting price: Limited free version + paid plans start from $1,000/month
Key features
Reprise covers two main use cases:
- Creating demo environments for sales & presales
- Creating embedded product tours for a marketing website
You can see Reprise's product tour features in action on their own product page.
Although there's a free plan, it's typically pricier than others in this list — with paid plans starting at $1k/month, and scaling up with more demo views.
That said, the tool is a good fit for enterprise customers. It has the best enterprise-grade security in this space, being one of a small handful of platforms that is certified SOC 2 type 2 (basically — they safeguard customer data very well).
Integrations are available for Salesforce, HubSpot, and Google Analytics. Other than that, there's a data API to connect to a data warehouse/lake.
Reprise can also give you alerts when prospects watch your demo, and insights about their session.
Reprise vs Walnut
- Both tools cover sales & marketing use cases
- Reprise has a Google Analytics integration & data API that Walnut is missing
- Users typically report that Walnut is easier to use
- Reprise has more customization capacity with custom coding if you have a technical team
- Reprise give enterprise security a higher priority
Pricing
A limited free version is available. Paid plans start from $1,000/month, and scale up with demo views.
5. Arcade
Best suited for: website embeds for marketing teams in product-led companies
Free trial: You can try their free plan
Starting price: Limited free version + paid plans start from $32/month
Key features
Arcade is built by PLG marketers, and focuses on marketing use cases. Their demos are built using video recordings in a Loom-like experience that automatically captures your clicks, scrolling, and other actions like typing.
Although marketing is the focus, you can see other use cases (sales, success, onboarding etc.) and lots of great real-world examples in their showcase.
You can use Arcade's to create an interactive experience even inside an email or a Tweet (very cool), or they can be exported as a gif too.
Like other tools in this list, Arcade offers analytics & insights. You can see how many people are engaging with your demos, clicking on CTA buttons, and more.
Arcade vs Walnut
- Arcade caters better for marketing use cases, while Walnut caters better to sales teams
- Arcade has a much lower entry price
- Arcade only works with screenshots & videos, while Walnut can make a full HTML replica
- Walnut caters better for enterprise customers, while Arcade is accessible for SMBs
Pricing
A limited free version is available. Paid plans start from $32/month. To get pricing for advanced features including team collaboration & custom branding, you need to contact their team.
6. Demostack
Best suited for: sales teams looking for easy personalized demo environments
Free trial: No, you can request a demo here.
Starting price: Unknown.
Key features
Demostack is built primarily for sales & presales teams. It clones your product to get an authentic, editable demo environment without needing engineering resources.
It does allow for embedded demos on websites, too.
Demostack has a product overview video available which is accessible without speaking to sales. To save you a few clicks, you can find it here.
Demostack caters well to enterprise security & privacy concerns, which you can read about in the trust center.
I couldn't find any information about integrations, so I'd assume that integrations like Salesforce, HubSpot & others are currently unavailable for Demostack.
Demostack vs Walnut
- Both tools primarily focus on serving sales & presales teams for personalized demos
- G2 reviews indicate that Demostack have better support & product direction
- Walnut is quicker to get started with, without giving access to your backend
- Demostack has dedicated tools to give partners & affiliates on-rails demo tools
- Walnut offers better analytics & insights about engagement with demos
Pricing
Demostack's pricing uses a per-seat model, with unlimited demo views, but the exact details aren't publicly available. Contact them directly to learn more about pricing.
