What is an interactive demo?
An interactive demo (also called a click-through demo or product tour) lets someone try a flow in your product without signing up. They see a real screen, a pulsing spot shows where to click, and a short tooltip explains what happens. Each click moves them to the next step.
Behind the scenes there is no live product. Depending on the tool, each step is a screenshot, a short video, or a saved copy of the web page’s HTML. Navattic, for example, describes its web captures as "interactive HTML-based copies of any application accessed in a browser", which keep scrolling and hover states (Navattic docs).
Interactive demo vs video: what’s the difference?
| Interactive demo | Demo video | |
|---|---|---|
| Pace | The viewer clicks when ready | Plays at your pace |
| Feels like | Using the product | Watching someone use it |
| Sound | Works on mute, text in tooltips | Usually needs audio |
| Editing a step | Change one tooltip or screen | Re-record or cut the video |
| Explaining why | Short text only | Your voice can add context and tone |
| Best for | Showing how a flow works | Telling a story, giving feedback, explaining decisions |
They work well together. A video explains why a feature matters; a demo lets the viewer try it. For recorded walkthroughs, see our guide to async video.
Where teams use interactive demos
- Website and landing pages: let visitors try the main flow before they sign up.
- Sales: send a demo after a call so the buyer can show it to their team.
- Help docs: replace a wall of screenshots with steps people click through.
- Onboarding: add a demo next to each step of a getting-started checklist (see onboarding videos).
- Release notes: show a new feature in a few clicks instead of a paragraph.
How to make an interactive demo
Most tools follow the same process. Supademo’s Chrome extension docs describe it this way: "Every click, scroll, and keystroke is automatically captured and stitched into a step-by-step demo" (Supademo docs).
- Pick one goal
Decide the single thing the viewer should see or do, like "create an invoice". Write down the clicks it takes.
- Prepare a clean account
Use sample data, close extra tabs, and remove anything private. Blurring in some tools only changes how text looks, so it is safer not to capture sensitive data at all.
- Capture the flow
Start the tool’s browser extension and click through the flow at a steady pace. Each click becomes a step. Leave a second or two between clicks so every screen is saved.
- Edit the steps
Delete wrong clicks, fix the hotspot positions, and write a tooltip for each step: one short sentence on what this click does.
- Add an intro and a call to action
Open with one line on what the viewer will see. End with one clear button, like "Start free" or "Book a call".
- Share or embed
Send the link or embed the demo on your site, then check how many people reach the last step.
Interactive demo best practices
- Keep it short. Aim for roughly 5 to 12 steps. If it needs more, split it into two demos.
- Follow one goal per demo. A demo that tours every menu is hard to follow.
- Write tooltips for the viewer, not for your team: "Pick a client" beats "Select entity from dropdown".
- Show the result. The last screen should be the finished invoice, report or page.
- End with one call to action, and make it match where the demo lives.
- Re-capture when the UI changes. An outdated demo makes the product look broken.
- Check where viewers stop. If most people leave at the same step, rewrite that tooltip or cut the step.
- Test it on a phone. Many visitors will open your demo link on a small screen, so make sure the hotspots are easy to tap.
Interactive demo software compared
Prices below are from each vendor’s own pricing page, checked in Oct 2026. Where a page shows two prices behind a monthly and yearly toggle, we list both.
| Tool | Free plan | First paid plan | Capture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arcade | 1 user, 1 published demo and 1 published video | Growth: $50 per seat/month, $42.50 with yearly billing | Chrome extension, desktop app (Mac, Windows), Figma plugin |
| Supademo | 1 creator, 5 interactive demos | Scale: $50 or $38 per creator/month depending on billing | Chrome extension |
| Storylane | 1 seat, 1 published demo live at a time | Starter: $50/month, $40/month billed yearly, 1 seat (+$40 per extra seat) | Screenshot and video demos; HTML demos from Growth ($500/month billed yearly) |
| Navattic | 1 seat, 1 demo | Base: billed annually, price not listed on the pricing page | Chrome extension (HTML web captures) |
| Guidde | Free plan for how-to videos | Pro: $29 per creator/month, $19 billed yearly | Click-through demos with hotspots alongside video guides |
Most of these tools price per seat or per creator, so cost grows as more people on your team make demos. Arcade’s free plan includes hotspots and callouts; MP4 and GIF export starts on its Growth plan (Arcade pricing). For a wider look at recorders, see Loom alternatives.
Make a clickable demo from a screen recording
We are building Clipfold so you only record once. You record your screen with the Chrome extension, which captures your clicks along with the video, and the same recording can become a share link, a clickable demo with hotspots and tooltips, or an onboarding page. The website recorder can’t see clicks in other tabs, so clickable demos need the extension. A demo costs 50 credits to create, and plans are per workspace with unlimited members and viewers, not per seat. Clipfold is launching soon: join the waitlist to lock in a founding price.