OnboardJS
The complete OnboardJS alternative
Flows is the OnboardJS alternative for teams who want a full product adoption platform, not just a headless state machine for onboarding flows.
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TL;DR comparison summary
OnboardJS is a headless, open-source onboarding framework JS. It uses a state machine approach rather than DOM-attached tooltips, letting developers bring their own UI. While the developer experience is clean and it integrates well with tools like PostHog and Supabase, it is a low-level primitive: it manages state, but leaves UI, targeting, analytics dashboards, localization, and non-developer collaboration entirely to your team.
Flows is a modern product adoption platform that goes beyond a headless state machine. With Flows, you bring your own UI components and get the full power of a platform: workflow orchestration, user targeting, built-in analytics, localization, and a collaborative dashboard for product managers and designers—so your team stops rebuilding onboarding infrastructure on every project.
Flows vs OnboardJS: Key differences
Key features | OnboardJS | Flows |
|---|---|---|
Onboarding flowsBoth OnboardJS and Flows support building multi-step onboarding experiences with custom UI. | ||
Custom componentsBoth allow you to bring your own UI components. OnboardJS is fully headless; Flows gives you full component control within a structured workflow system. | ||
Framework agnosticBoth OnboardJS and Flows work across React, Vue, Angular, and vanilla JavaScript. | ||
Floating componentsFlows includes tooltip, modal, banner, and checklist component types out of the box. OnboardJS is headless and provides no default UI. | ||
AnalyticsFlows provides built-in analytics and step tracking in its dashboard. OnboardJS integrates with external tools like PostHog and Mixpanel but has no analytics UI of its own. | ||
TargetingFlows offers user targeting and segmentation. OnboardJS requires you to implement targeting logic yourself. | ||
LocalizationFlows supports localization out of the box. OnboardJS requires manual localization handling. | ||
Non-developer accessFlows provides a dashboard for product managers and designers to manage workflows without code. OnboardJS is developer-only. | ||
Free planOnboardJS is free and open source. Flows offers a free plan with 250 monthly tracked users. |
Other differences
State machine vs full platform
OnboardJS gives you a clean state machine for onboarding. Everything else—UI, analytics, targeting, dashboards, localization—is your team's responsibility.
Flows combines a developer-first SDK with a full platform. You own the UI components; Flows handles orchestration, delivery, analytics, and collaboration.
Any framework, not just React
OnboardJS is purpose-built for React and Next.js. Teams using Vue, Angular, or plain JavaScript cannot use it.
Flows works across React, Vue, Angular, and plain JavaScript. Whichever framework your team uses, Flows integrates cleanly.
Built for developers and PMs
OnboardJS is developer-only. Non-technical teammates cannot update onboarding flows without an engineering ticket.
Flows is built for both developers and non-developers. Developers own the components and integration; product managers control workflow logic and content without writing code.
From library to system
OnboardJS is a low-level building block. As your product grows, you end up rebuilding the same infrastructure—analytics, targeting, dashboards—on every new project or feature.
Flows is a system for building, running, and iterating on product adoption workflows. It scales with your product without requiring new infrastructure investment.
Maintenance and ownership
Every new onboarding requirement means more custom code. You own the full stack: UI, state, targeting, analytics, and maintenance.
Flows handles the platform layer. Your team focuses on the product experience, not onboarding infrastructure.
Switch from OnboardJS to Flows today
Get a full product adoption platform without rebuilding infrastructure from scratch. Start for free with Flows.
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