The fully-featured Onborda alternative
Flows is the Onborda alternative for teams who have outgrown hard-coded product tours and want flexible, scalable workflows inside their product.
No credit card required. No commitment. Quick setup.
TL;DR comparison summary
Onborda is an open-source onboarding library focused on building product tours and simple onboarding flows. It provides a modern developer experience but leaves state management, targeting, analytics, and scalability up to your application.
Flows is a modern product adoption platform that replaces hard-coded tours with workflows. You build UI using your own components, while Flows handles orchestration, state, branching logic, and delivery inside your product.
Flows vs Onborda: Key differences
Key features | Onborda | Flows |
|---|---|---|
Product toursBoth Onborda and Flows can guide users through step-by-step onboarding experiences. | ||
Modern developer experienceOnborda focuses on clean APIs for developers. Flows provides SDKs plus higher-level abstractions. | ||
Floating componentsOnborda supports tooltip-based overlays. Flows supports tooltips, modals, banners, and checklists. | ||
Embeddable componentsFlows supports inline components rendered directly inside your app layout, not just overlays. | ||
CustomizationOnborda customization happens entirely in code. Flows lets you reuse your design system components while centralizing logic. | ||
Workflow logicFlows supports branching workflows and conditional logic. Onborda tours are linear unless you build custom logic. | ||
State managementFlows manages user progress, persistence, and completion automatically. Onborda requires manual state handling. | ||
LocalizationFlows supports localization out of the box. Onborda requires custom translation handling. | ||
AnalyticsFlows provides built-in analytics and tracking. Onborda requires custom analytics integration. | ||
TargetingFlows offers advanced user targeting and segmentation features. Onborda requires custom implementation for targeting specific user groups. | ||
Free planOnborda is free and open source. Flows offers a free plan with 250 monthly active users. |
Other differences
Library vs platform
Onborda is a lightweight library you embed and manage inside your codebase.
Flows is a platform that orchestrates workflows while staying deeply integrated with your product.
Beyond onboarding
Onborda focuses primarily on onboarding use cases.
Flows supports onboarding, feature discovery, education, re-engagement, and upsell workflows.
Part of your product
Onborda overlays tooltips on top of your UI, which can feel bolted on as your product evolves.
Flows workflows live inside your product and can be built using your own components and design system.
Maintenance and ownership
Every UI change or new requirement means updating custom Onborda code and re-testing tours.
Flows adapts naturally as your product changes, reducing maintenance overhead and long-term technical debt.
Team collaboration
Onborda changes require developer involvement for every update.
Flows enables collaboration between developers, product managers, and designers.
Time to value
Onborda is fast to start but becomes harder to extend over time.
Flows is designed for fast iteration without accumulating onboarding debt.
Switch from Onborda to Flows today
Stop hard-coding product tours. Build flexible, product-native workflows with Flows.
No credit card required. Free forever.