Open Source Product Tour Libraries vs Hosted Demo Tools
August 18, 2026
Written by a competitor to the hosted tools, which makes this a slightly odd article: for a real set of cases, the free library is the correct answer and nobody should be paying anyone.
The confusion is that these libraries and hosted demo tools sound identical and do different things.
What the libraries actually do
Intro.js, Shepherd.js and Driver.js highlight elements in your own running application and step a user through them. They are in-app tour libraries: they need your product loaded, and they attach to your real DOM.
They are free, small, and entirely under your control. If you want a first-run tour inside your app and you have a developer, this is often the right call and it costs nothing.
What they cannot do
- Run anywhere but inside your product. No homepage demo, no emailed link, no ad landing page.
- Be edited by a non-developer. Every change is a code change and a deploy.
- Show a product the viewer does not have access to. The whole point of a sales demo.
- Tell you anything. No analytics unless you build them.
The real cost of free
Developer time, and it recurs. Tours defined in code drift from the UI they point at, and updating them competes with shipping features -- which means in practice they rot, because a tour is never the most urgent thing.
This is the same trap as any build-versus-buy: the build is cheap and the maintenance is not, and the maintenance is invisible when you decide.
A clear split
- First-run tour inside your app, dev available → use the library. Free is the right price.
- Anything a non-customer sees → hosted demo tool. The library cannot reach them at all.
- Marketing owns the content → hosted, or every copy tweak becomes a pull request.
- You need to know who watched what → hosted, unless you enjoy building analytics.
Where Demorta fits
The outside-your-product half: capture a flow, publish a page or an embed, edit it without a deploy. Five demos free, paid from $15.99/month.
It does not replace an in-app tour library and does not try to. Plenty of products should have both, and the library half should stay free.
Frequently asked questions
- Should I use an open source product tour library or a hosted demo tool?
- Use the library for tours inside your own product when you have a developer -- it is free and appropriate. Use a hosted demo tool for anything shown to people who do not have an account, which the libraries cannot do at all since they need your app loaded.
- What is the difference between Intro.js and an interactive demo?
- Intro.js highlights elements in your live application for a logged-in user. An interactive demo is a standalone recorded walkthrough on a public page, viewable by anyone with the link and no account. Inside versus outside the product.
- Are free product tour libraries really free?
- The code is. The maintenance is not -- tours defined in code drift as the UI changes, and updating them competes with shipping features, so in practice they rot. That recurring developer time is the actual price.
Keep reading
This is what Demorta does
Click through it — the same kind of demo you can record of your own product.
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Five demos on the free plan, forever. No credit card, no trial countdown, no sales call. Install the Chrome extension, click through your product once, and you have a shareable link in about ten minutes.
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