Why This 2025 Comparison Hits the Mark

Onboarding isn’t just an introduction; it’s the foundation of user engagement, retention, and long-term loyalty. In today’s AI-driven digital landscape, business leaders must choose onboarding software that not only teaches but also adapts dynamically to users’ needs.

Saltfish.ai embraces this shift. It delivers AI-generated, interactive video flows that guide users through products with personalization baked into every branch and choice. Even small product-led teams can use Saltfish to craft dynamic onboarding wizards without a single line of code.

UserGuiding, a well-established player, empowers companies with a suite of visual tour tools: tooltips, hotspots, checklists, and resource centers. It’s sturdy, reliable, and familiar, but is it enough in a world where users expect video, choice, and AI-driven interaction?

In this extended showdown, we'll compare onboarding flows, analytics, ease of setup, integrations, and customization to help you decide which platform dominates the path to activation in 2025.

Saltfish.ai: AI Onboarding Reimagined for Product Teams

Saltfish.ai positions itself as more than just another onboarding tool, it’s a conversion engine powered by video, AI, and interactivity. You start by generating or selecting an AI avatar, type or paste your script, and Saltfish instantly transforms that into a humanlike video. But unlike typical “welcome” galleries, Saltfish flows are interactive: users can click through options, answer embedded questions, and trigger different follow-up videos depending on what they choose.

That means the onboarding 'tour' isn’t linear; it’s contextual and adaptive. If a user clicks “See pricing,” they go down a different path than a user wanting a product tour. This kind of branching logic has traditionally required developer investment and multiple pages; Saltfish puts it in a visual builder with real-time embed.

Detection and localization are built in: Saltfish recognizes UI changes and retains anchoring to specific elements, and supports multilanguage generation (enterprise tier). Analytics come pre-configured, view metrics, drop-offs, and session replay allow teams to iterate quickly based on what videos are truly watched, where users stall.

In essence, Saltfish is built for product-led teams wanting to delight, engage, and convert in real-time within their app or website.

UserGuiding: Trusted Visual Tour Tool for Diverse Use Cases

UserGuiding occupies that familiar no-code space where marketers and product managers build walkthroughs via a visual editor. You can create tooltips, hotspots, modals, product checklists, and tours with simple drag-and-drop. It supports segmentation (show tours based on behavior, referral source, user role), and has a flexible themes system for branded customization—colors, fonts, styles all centrally managed.

Its core strength: breadth of traditional digital adoption features, including resource centers (mini-documents inside the UI), polls/surveys, NPS feedback modules, and contextual help options. It’s a Swiss Army knife for onboarding and self-serve support.

Analytics track step completion, click-throughs, and drop-offs, giving insights into how tours perform. Integrations include Mixpanel, Google Analytics, Slack, Zapier, and HubSpot—they feed events and track user behavior or survey responses.

In many companies, especially those without immediate access to video tools, UserGuiding delivers predictable, low-friction guidance. But it remains fundamentally limited to static overlays, lacking AI or personalized video engagement out of the box.

Feature Comparison Table

Onboarding Flow Dynamics

Saltfish.ai’s AI-video approach is transformational. Imagine logging into an app and being greeted by a customized avatar who says, “Hi [Name], let me show you feature X that suits your plan.” That’s not a generic tour, it’s personal, responsive, and immersive. Saltfish supports staged paths, hidden/unlocked chapters, and forms embedded directly in the video to capture inputs.

UserGuiding offers great flexibility in how you guide users: tours tied to first-time actions, checklists that users tick off, or an always-available resource center. But no AI, and the communication remains one-size-fits-all unless manually varied.

Analytics That Reflect Engagement

Saltfish’s video flows let you watch how users actually react; where they pause, rewind, or drop off. You learn where your value props resonate. Better onboarding means fewer support tickets and higher retention.

UserGuiding’s analytics let you see which tour steps are completed or abandoned, and you can collect feedback via NPS prompts. These insights inform UI and messaging improvements—but aren’t quite as vivid, because they lack replay-level engagement data or video behavior tracking.

Value for Money

Saltfish.ai positions itself as a long-term investment in conversion and engagement, rather than a tool that only shows users around your product. By bundling analytics, localization, and interactive branching logic into all tiers, Saltfish ensures you’re not penalized for scaling your onboarding efforts. You can start at a low cost and grow into advanced features without sudden leaps in pricing.

UserGuiding, by contrast, is affordable for small teams but becomes expensive as soon as your MAUs increase. The per-user pricing structure also doesn’t necessarily reflect the value you get. For example, even if only a fraction of your 20,000 users actually engage with a guide, you’ll still pay the full Professional rate. For companies looking to maximize ROI, this structure can feel restrictive.

Scalability and Future Growth Potential

Saltfish.ai is built with scalability in mind. Because it runs as a lightweight, embeddable AI video widget, businesses can start small with a free plan and then scale seamlessly to handle tens of thousands of monthly views without a complete overhaul of their onboarding system. This flexibility means startups and mid-sized teams can experiment with video onboarding before moving into enterprise-level growth. Saltfish also focuses on continuous feature development around AI personalization, ensuring its platform evolves with the needs of digital adoption.

UserGuiding, while effective for small and mid-market companies, often requires more manual setup and ongoing management of product tours and checklists. As companies grow, maintaining dozens of guides can become a time-consuming process. Enterprise clients may find this lack of automation limiting compared to Saltfish.ai’s AI-powered flows that dynamically adapt to different user journeys.

Personalization and User Experience

One of the biggest advantages of Saltfish.ai is its ability to personalize onboarding through interactive AI video flows. Unlike static checklists or tooltips, Saltfish videos feel like a real conversation with the user, adjusting paths based on clicks, responses, or behavior. This results in higher engagement and a stronger emotional connection with the product, which is crucial in reducing churn. The AI avatars also provide a face-to-face style experience, which is proven to build trust during onboarding.

UserGuiding primarily relies on guided product tours, hotspots, and announcements. While these are effective, they are one-size-fits-all experiences unless teams manually create variations for different user segments. This approach works, but it lacks the interactive and adaptive depth that Saltfish.ai provides by default. In a market increasingly focused on hyper-personalized onboarding, Saltfish’s AI-first approach stands out as a modern alternative.

Support and Customer Success

Saltfish.ai, as a rising company in the onboarding space, puts a strong emphasis on customer success. Early adopters consistently highlight the responsiveness of the Saltfish team, which treats every client as a partner. From setup assistance to customization tips, Saltfish’s support ensures that customers are never left figuring things out on their own. This level of personalized support is rare in the digital adoption space and adds tremendous value for teams looking to implement onboarding software quickly.

UserGuiding provides standard support resources like documentation, a knowledge base, and email assistance. However, reviews often mention that while support is adequate, it is not as proactive or personalized as teams would like, especially when complex onboarding scenarios arise. Saltfish.ai’s approach feels more hands-on and adaptable, which can make a huge difference for smaller teams without dedicated onboarding specialists.

Final Verdict – Saltfish.ai Takes the Edge in 2025

Choosing the right onboarding solution in 2025 comes down to what you value most: traditional walkthroughs and checklists or AI-powered, interactive video guidance designed to actively engage and convert users.

UserGuiding is a solid digital adoption platform that offers tours, checklists, and tooltips for guiding users inside applications. It’s cost-effective, simple to set up, and works well for small to medium-sized teams who want a straightforward onboarding toolkit. For organizations whose needs are limited to linear product tours and standard analytics, UserGuiding delivers on its promise.

Saltfish.ai, however, takes onboarding to the next level by blending AI video generation with interactive flows. Rather than just showing users around your product, Saltfish creates a face-to-face, personalized experience that feels dynamic and human. Users can interact with embedded video touchpoints, explore different paths based on their choices, and feel more supported during their journey. This interactivity does not just improve the onboarding process, it builds engagement, reduces friction, and accelerates conversions.

Another decisive factor is analytics. While UserGuiding offers basic tracking, Saltfish.ai provides deeper insights into engagement, completion rates, and user behavior within video flows. For teams that prioritize data-driven decision-making, Saltfish offers a clearer picture of what works and what needs refinement. On top of that, Saltfish’s localization and personalization capabilities make it highly adaptable for global businesses and fast-scaling teams.

Ultimately, if your goal is to simply introduce features, UserGuiding might suffice. But if you’re serious about engaging users, keeping them on your site, and turning onboarding into a driver of growth, Saltfish.ai is the clear winner. It is not just another digital adoption platform, it’s an AI-powered onboarding engine built for the next generation of product teams.

In a sense, Saltfish.ai is the future of onboarding alive, while UserGuiding is the polished classic. But in 2025, with AI becoming expected instead of optional, the future-forward solution is clear: Saltfish.ai.

Want to try personalized video flows tomorrow? Sign up for Saltfish.ai’s Free plan, embed your first flow, and watch engagement metrics lift. If you want to stay ahead in onboarding, this is your tool.

FAQs

What is Saltfish.ai?
Saltfish.ai is an AI onboarding tool that generates lifelike avatar videos from text. It helps businesses embed interactive, personalized videos inside their products or websites to guide users, showcase features, and drive conversions.

What makes Saltfish.ai different from UserGuiding?

Saltfish.ai transforms onboarding into video-first, AI-personalized paths embedded directly in your product. It adapts dynamically to each user. UserGuiding offers more traditional tools like tooltips, checklists, and resource centers. Saltfish.ai provides instant personalization and video engagement, making it more effective for conversion-focused onboarding in the current digital landscape.