Whether you are creating an onboarding guide for a new hire or explaining how a customer can log into your platform, how-to guides are a literal lifesaver.
This is where Scribe shines. Scribe ‘follows you along’ as you work and churns out step-by-step process documentation you can share with colleagues or customers.
Creating visual guides and walkthroughs can save time, avoid repetitive queries, and scale processes for remote teams.
However, there are other Scribe alternatives that can just as easily help you capture, edit, and share how-to guides with relative ease.
In this guide, we will look at other Scribe alternatives you can consider to create quick guides for the win!
What Should You Look for in a Scribe Alternative?Â
While assessing Scribe alternatives, look for the following capabilities:
- Using it on diverse platforms—from Chrome and Microsoft Edge to desktop apps for Mac and Windows
- Adding videos and images within the guide
- Accessing extensions that can be added to your browser of choice to create guides with fewer clicks
- Creating step-by-step guides automatically
- Editing and customizing documents using personalized branding such as company logo, custom colors, and so on
- Sharing process documents on the fly via an email or embedded within your wiki or LMS
- Exporting the document as a PDF
- Leveraging AI to create useful SOPs, training manuals, etc., for any process
Scribe has its limitations too—some users claim that Scribe’s reporting features are error-prone. And, when you export the guides in PDF format, the size of the radio button isn’t always consistent.
So, while you evaluate the above features, keep Scribe’s limitations in mind and select a software that better fits your custom requirements.
The 10 Best Scribe Alternatives to Use in 2024
Let’s look at the top 10 Scribe alternatives to create step-by-step guides quickly and effectively: Â
1. ClickUp
ClickUp is considered a project management software, but there’s more power and value packed in it to customize it for multiple use cases. For example, you can use it to create various Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).Â
ClickUp is a viable SOP software alternative to Scribe with two main capabilities.
1. ClickUp Clips
Clickup’s Clip feature allows you to create training and SOP videos quickly:
Share screen recordings (which include your screen, app window, or browser tab) to capture all the necessary information so that no context is lost.
Plus, you can save these recordings and share them with others using a public link that plays directly from the browser. You can also create a task from your recording, add a description, and assign it to the right team members for immediate action.
2. ClickUp Docs
You can also create value-driven training or SOP materials for new hires with the ClickUp Docs feature:
ClickUp Doc helps you build full-fledged documentation with media, formatting, and structure to support your needs.
Doc templates come with all the essential components you need without starting from scratch. Some examples of components include custom statuses, custom fields, custom views, project management, etc.
You can tag or mention POCs and create nested sub-pages to detail your training processes and guidelines. You can also exercise version control for static and dynamic documents.
ClickUp Docs feature offers a ready repository of SOP templates and onboarding templates:
Here’s an example of an HR SOP template by ClickUp:
Use this template to define new-hire processes and share the information across departments with one click. ClickUp’s virtual whiteboard helps organize your HR duties—from recruiting to onboarding.
ClickUp best features:
- One-click access to a comprehensive library of SOP templates for process mapping, statement of work, etc
- Organize each process into a logical sequence of steps with the Board view in ClickUp
- Simplify the process of creating step-by-step guides, checklists, and detailed process descriptions
- Doubles up as a collaborative hub where team members can work together to develop, refine, and update SOPs
- Prioritize tasks and assign deadlines with the Gantt chart in ClickUpÂ
- Segment and define user roles within the SOP software
- Organize the SOP document and associated components with the Table view in ClickUp
ClickUp limitations:
- The free plan can be restrictive for storage and accessing advanced SOP software features
- The platform’s wide-ranging features can be overwhelming for new users
ClickUp pricing:
- Free Forever
- Unlimited: $7/month per user, billed annually
- Business: $12/month per user, billed annually
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
ClickUp ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.7/5 (8,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (3,000+ reviews)
2. UserGuiding
UserGuiding is a user onboarding platform that allows you to create easy, quick, and versatile product walkthroughs with zero coding.
The primary difference between UserGuiding and Scribe is that the former helps create immersive product walkthroughs, whereas Scribe is more suited for how-to, step-wise product guides.
UserGuiding best features:
- No learning curve
- Helpful resources, checklists, and step-by-step instructions on how to use the tool
- Best value for priceÂ
UserGuiding limitations:
- Expensive if you’re on a budget
- The analytics can be more detailed and might need better app integration
UserGuiding pricing:Â
- Basic Plan: $89/mo, billed annually
- Professional Plan: $389/mo, billed annually
- Corporate Plan: $689+/mo, billed annually
UserGuiding ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.7/5 (150+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (50+ reviews)
3. Loom
Loom is an AI-powered video messaging app that helps you to record your screen, like Scribe. You can record your screen using the web interface and/or record your face with the front-facing camera.
Loom has the option to record only the screen or your face, and the option to record both simultaneously.
Loom facilitates faster communication. You don’t need to have meetings for everything.
Have a quick 2-minute feedback to share? Record your video message and share it with your stakeholders without any loss of context. This makes it a great addition to remote teams.
The tool is easy to use, particularly for async work. Add CTAs, comments, tasks, and emojis to your video for more context.
Loom best features:
- Available as a Chrome extension and desktop/mobile app
- Offers one-click integration with Google Workspace, Slack, etc.
- Provides transcripts and captions in 50+ languages
- Offers video messaging templates for diverse use cases such as sales, engineering, customer support, design, and more
- AI capabilities include auto titles, summaries, tasks, chapters, and silence removal to eliminate awkward gaps within the video
Loom limitations:
- Users suggest that the user interface is cluttered, meaning there’s a steeper learning curve than Scribe
Loom pricing:Â
- Starter (For individuals): Free plan
- Business (For teams): $12.5/creator/mo, billed annually
- Enterprise (For scaling teams): Custom pricing
Loom ratings and reviews:
- G2:Â 4.7/5 (1,500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (300+ reviews)
4. Trainual
Trainual can write your content for you. How? With AI, of course. Plus, Trainual offers hundreds of industry-specific templates to quickly create workflow processes, SOPs, Wiki, etc., with ease.
Trainual is a complete software allowing you to access training and onboarding documents, SOPs, knowledge base, and more from a centralized place. You can record your screen and embed content (including the video file upload option, PDFs, GIFs, and more) from over 700 places!
Trainual best features:
- Integrate your HR and payroll system and favorite apps like Slack, Dropbox, etc.
- Access to a community of 1000+ process writers and SOP experts
- Offers smart Time Estimates for every process so that the team can prioritize training over To-dos
Trainual limitations:
- Cannot create how-to guides automatically as Scribe does
- Higher end of the price scale
Trainual pricing:Â
- Small Business: $250/month (1-50 employees)
- Growth Business: $417/month (51-100 employees)
- Unlimited: Custom pricing
Trainual ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.7/5 (500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (400+ reviews)
5. InVision
InVision is a digital product design platform that helps you create interactive prototypes. Its digital whiteboard, Freehand, is a standout feature offering power-packed templates from AWS, Atlassian, Xbox, etc.
Create immersive mockups and showcase what you’re building. You can also use InVision for user testing, client presentations, and design validation.
InVision best features:
- Free trial to test creating a digital product workflow
- Hundreds of templates for different categories and roles
- Categories include brainstorming, strategy and planning, wireframing and flowcharts, and more
- Clickable and interactive designs make it easy to use
InVision limitations:
- Embedding assets into other software is a challenge
- When clicking through a flow, there’s no easy way to navigate to other screens without backtracking to the main menu
- Need a separate software to design, such as Figma or Sketch
InVision pricing:
- Custom pricing
InVision ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.7/5 (500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (700+ reviews)
6. Shepherd.js
Shepherd.js is an open-source tool that comes in handy when making product tours. This tool is tailored for people with technical knowledge (developers, analysts, etc.). You can use Shepherd.js’s extensive library to create AI-driven onboarding procedures.
Shepherd.js best features:
- Create site tours to guide users through your app/website
- 11.5k stars on GitHub and 620 forks
- Integrates with Vue.js, Ember.js, JavaScript, React, and AngularJS
Shepherd.js limitations:
- As per users, sometimes, Shepherd’s elements don’t function properly, including buttons
- Users claim that the navigation is challenging, particularly when it comes to scrolling
- Lack of multi-browser support
Shepherd.js pricing:
- Available free of charge on GitHub
Shepherd.js ratings and reviews:
- G2: 5/5 (2 reviews)
- Capterra: 5/5 (20+ reviews)
7. UiPath
UiPath is an intelligent document processing platform that allows you to delegate documents, tasks, etc., to AI, including:
- Understanding the document
- Extracting, interpreting, and processing data
- Browsing through images, PDFs, handwriting, signatures, and scans and processing them
UiPath best features:
- Drag-and-drop document understanding activities and a user-friendly interface
- Provides a tutorial creation add-on for instant workflow automation
- Coding or scripting knowledge is not required
UiPath limitations:
- Users report the new version is slow
- The licensing cost per user is higher in comparison to its competitors
UiPath pricing:Â
- Free: $0
- Pro: Starting at $420/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
UiPath ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.6/5 (6,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (700+ reviews)
8. Folge
Any list of Scribe alternatives is incomplete without mentioning Folge. The platform allows you to create, share, and manage your process knowledge within a few clicks.
Everyone wants to create professional and visually appealing step-by-step guides as well as tutorials at one-fourth the time and effort. And this is where an overly simple and intuitive tool like Folge can help.Â
Create annotations, personalize screenshots, and navigate through a maze of apps, training, products, tasks, etc., with this tool.
Folge best features:
- Blur sensitive data to prevent data leaks within guides/documentation
- Edit and customize every step, such as adding a description, removing steps, adding arrows, and more
- Export options in seven formats with access to customized layouts
Folge limitations:
- Sometimes, the screenshot can capture the tab as well
- Users experience minor lags when clicking
- Backup/restore from a cloud solution within the software is unavailable
Folge pricing:Â
- Free: $0 (5 users)
- Personal license: $75 with academic discount
- Business license: $140
Folge ratings and reviews:
- G2: Not enough reviews
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (50+ reviews)
9. Zight (Formerly CloudApp)
Another powerful Scribe alternative you shouldn’t ignore is Zight (formerly called CloudApp).Â
Zight is an all-in-one visual-sharing platform that shares, records, and hosts visuals such as videos, GIFs, screenshots, and more. You can edit, blur, crop your videos, add voiceovers, text, etc. Use this platform to take screenshots and GIFs to the next level.
Zight best features:
- Available for Mac, Windows, Chrome and iOS
- Drag and drop items into emails as well as chat apps
- Integrates with Microsoft Teams, Zendesk, Lucidchart, JIRA, and more
- Ability to create and save GIFs of anything on the screen
Zight limitations:
- While Zight helps you share screen recordings, its ability to create step-by-step guides like Scribe can be improved
- The interface has a learning curve
- The free plan restricts recordings to 90 seconds
- No support forum where users can seek help
Zight pricing:Â
- Free: $0 (up to 25)
- Pro: Starting at $9.95
- Team: Starting at $8 per user (minimum two users)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Zight ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.6/5 (1,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (100+ reviews)
10. FlowShare
FlowShare is an end-to-end process documentation tool that you can run in the background. The tool takes over to document your workflow and tasks and creates a step-by-step guide for you in the process.
Irrespective of the software you’re using, FlowShare can document each step and deliver a branded process manual that you can share with your team.
FlowShare best features:
- Ensures consistent branding as it offers brand templates that will format your guides to fit your brand the moment you hit the export button
- Blur sensitive data and save hours of valuable time
- Automated short descriptions to speed up the process of creating SOPs, etc.
- Multiple export options (PDF, PPTX, Interactive Demo, PNG, DOCX, HTML, and so on)
FlowShare limitations:
- Currently available only on Windows
- Creating a guide is slower when compared to Scribe
FlowShare pricing:Â
- Express: $21/month per workspace, billed annually
- Professional: $40/month per workspace (Single), $32/month per workspace (Teams 3+), custom pricing for 10+ team members
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
FlowShare ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.8/5 (2 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (33 reviews)
Quality SOPs Are Now Within Your Reach with ClickUpÂ
Creating SOPs and extensive documentation is a lifeline for remote teams.
However, creating how-to process documentation can be challenging for already time-pressed team members. You want a tool that is easy to integrate with your daily workflow or, ideally, something your team already uses.
This is where ClickUp emerges as a multi-faceted tool. ClickUp is not just a project management software. It offers wide-ranging features, such as ClickUp Docs, ClickUp Clips, etc., to help you speed up your process documentation workflow.
If you want to work faster and build quality SOPs, ClickUp is your jam. Ready to get started? Sign up now!