Screenshot demo, HTML capture, sandbox or the real app: what’s the difference?

The four kinds of interactive demo, what a viewer can do in each, what it takes to keep each up to date, and which tools make which.

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By Kaz Kato · Published 20 October 2026 · Updated 20 October 2026

An interactive demo is a version of a product someone can click through on their own. A screenshot demo strings captured images into a guided tour. An HTML capture copies the product’s pages so they behave more like the real thing. A sandbox is a working copy with sample data. A live demo is the product itself, running.

This guide takes the four kinds one at a time: what each is, what a viewer can do in it, and which tools make it. Then it sets them side by side, with no ranking. We make Roomi, which hosts the fourth kind, so weigh that. The demo tools comparison goes tool by tool, and the Storylane and Navattic alternatives are ranked for someone who already has the real app.

What is an interactive demo?

An interactive demo lets a buyer try a product without you on a call. They click through it at their own pace, usually along a guided path called a product tour. What sits behind the clicks varies: captured screens, captured pages, a working copy, or the product itself. That difference decides what the buyer can actually do.

You will also see it called a product tour, a guided demo or a click-through demo. The tour is the path; the demo is what it walks through. Whatever kind you choose, the tour is worth writing well: the demo tour script template has one to copy.

What is a screenshot demo?

A screenshot demo is a set of captured screens, joined by hotspots a viewer clicks to move on, with notes along the way. It is quick to make, and simple to put on a web page. It shows the product as it was on the day it was captured, so it changes only when you capture it again.

Several demo tools make this kind on their first plans, or capture the screens with tools of their own:

  • Storylane. Storylane’s Free plan has one seat and one published demo, with unlimited views, lead capture and basic analytics. Free and Starter demos are made from screenshots and video; HTML demos start on Growth.
  • Supademo. Supademo’s guided demos are made from screenshots and video. HTML demos start on its Business plan, and clickable sandbox demos on Growth.
  • Arcade. Arcade captures a demo with its Chrome extension, its desktop app for Mac and Windows, its Figma plugin or uploaded media, on every plan.
  • Guideflow. Guideflow makes screenshot and mobile demos on every plan. HTML capture starts on its middle plan, named Startup on the monthly toggle and Growth on the yearly one, and sandbox demos on Advanced.

Some also turn a demo into a file to send. Arcade exports a demo as an MP4 video or a GIF from its Growth plan; its Free plan does not. Supademo’s Free plan shares a demo as a link, an embed, a video or a PDF.

What is an HTML capture?

An HTML capture saves copies of the product’s own pages, with their text, layout and styles, and joins them into a tour. A viewer can click around more freely than in a set of screenshots, and the pages look like the product. It is still a copy of the pages, not the product behind them.

Where each tool offers it:

  • Navattic. Navattic’s free Starter plan has one seat and one demo, captured as HTML or made from media, with unlimited views and basic analytics.
  • HowdyGo. HowdyGo’s Starter plan is $199 a month, billed monthly, or $159 a month, billed annually, with unlimited users and HTML demos. It offers a 14-day trial, and its pricing page lists no free plan.
  • Arcade. Arcade captures a product as HTML, and offers custom share links, on its Enterprise plan only.
  • Storylane, Supademo and Guideflow keep it for a higher plan, as their lines above say.

When the product changes, the captured pages do not. The pages that changed have to be captured again.

What is a sandbox demo?

A sandbox demo is a working copy of the product, filled with sample data and kept apart from the real thing. A buyer can try changes in it, and nothing they do touches a real customer. It takes more setting up than a capture, and demo tools tend to keep it for their higher plans.

  • Navattic. Navattic’s Growth plan adds sandbox demos, demo translation, email and Slack alerts, and sales integrations including Gong, Salesloft and Outreach.
  • Walnut. Walnut’s Accelerate plan, $1,550 a month billed yearly, adds sandbox demos, prospect personalisation and Walnut Uncover. Uncover identifies anonymous viewers through ZoomInfo, Demandbase, 6sense or Clearbit.
  • Storylane. Storylane lists private demo links, and sandbox demos, on its Enterprise plan, priced on request.
  • Demostack. Demostack clones a product’s front end and simulates its back end. It publishes no prices, and says it costs more than many other demo tools.
  • Supademo and Guideflow list sandbox demos on higher plans, in their lines above.

Reprise can clone an application too; its line is in the next section. Demo environments compared sets Reprise, Saleo, Demostack and Consensus side by side.

What is a live demo of the real product?

A live demo is the product itself, running, rather than a copy of it. It comes in two forms. Some tools lay demo data into a product the vendor already runs. Others host a build for each buyer to use on their own, which is what Roomi does. Either way, the buyer uses the real screens and logic.

Laid over a product already in production:

  • Reprise. Reprise can lay a prospect’s own data over a vendor’s live application, or clone the application. It quotes prices on request: a yearly platform fee with licences for each user.
  • Saleo. Saleo runs live demos inside the vendor’s own product, with demo data it generates laid into it.

If your product is already live and you show it on calls, look at these two first. We are not the only tool that shows a real product.

Hosted for each buyer: Roomi hosts the build you made, on mock data, in a room with your tour and your pages beside it. A static build, with no server behind it, runs on every plan, Free included. An app with a server of its own runs on Pro and up, and each private link gets its own copy of it. Static demos and container demos explain both.

This kind suits something that exists nowhere else yet: a prototype, a new product, or an app you built with AI for one client. There is nothing in production to capture or to lay data over.

The four kinds side by side

Kind What the viewer can do When the product changes Who it suits Tools that make it
Screenshot or video Click hotspots along a set path Capture it again Marketing pages and help centres Storylane, Supademo, Arcade, Guideflow
HTML capture Click around captured pages that look like the product Capture the changed pages again Self-serve tours of a product already in production Navattic, HowdyGo; Arcade, Storylane, Supademo and Guideflow on higher plans
Sandbox Use a working copy with sample data Depends on the tool Larger sales teams, and trials of complex products Navattic, Walnut, Storylane, Demostack, Supademo, Guideflow
The real app Use the product itself: its screens and logic Overlay: nothing to redo. Hosted: deploy the new build Overlay: calls on a product in production. Hosted: a build that exists nowhere else, sent to named people Overlay: Reprise, Saleo. Hosted: Roomi (ours)

Each tool is placed by its own pricing or product page, as quoted in the sections above. The sources are listed at the foot of this page.

Which kind do you need?

To show how a product looks, a screenshot demo is enough. To let them explore a product that is already live, an HTML capture or an overlay. To let them try changes, a sandbox or the real app. For something you built that exists nowhere else, host the build itself, on mock data.

  • A tour on your website or in a help centre. A screenshot demo. It is quick to make and easy to embed.
  • A product in production, with many states to show without a call. An HTML capture, or a sandbox if buyers must change things.
  • A buyer who must try it with their own hands. A sandbox, or the real app.
  • A prototype or an app you built, often with AI. The real app, hosted. How to use mock data in an AI-built demo covers swapping live data for invented records first.

The best interactive demo software for a small team ranks the tools that make each kind, and the Arcade and Supademo alternatives start from those two.

What does each kind tell you about who looked?

That depends on the tool, not the kind. Several demo tools name the company behind a visit on their paid plans. A link made for one person is what names the person. In a Roomi room, each private link carries a name, and you see that person’s visits and time on each app and page.

  • Storylane. Storylane’s Account Reveal names the company behind demo visits, for 250 visitors a month on Starter, 2,500 on Growth and 10,000 on Premium.
  • Navattic. Navattic’s Base plan adds account identification, A/B testing, AI voiceovers and avatars, an MCP server, and integrations including Salesforce and Marketo.
  • Arcade. Arcade’s Free plan is for one user and publishes one demo, with unlimited views and no viewer insights. Insights and Audience Reveal start on its Growth plan.

In a room you also see how far each person took the tour, the comments they pinned to a screen, and the next step they chose. Roomi counts no clicks or screens inside your demo. How to see if a client opened your demo explains what each measure means.

If what you have is the working product, send it. Deploy it on Free and open it as a viewer would, then send each person their own link on Pro.

Questions people ask

What is an interactive demo?

A version of your product someone clicks through on their own, without you on a call. It might be captured screens, captured pages, a working copy with sample data, or the product itself.

Is an interactive demo the same as a product tour?

Mostly, yes. A product tour is the guided path through a demo: the steps, the words and where it ends. Most interactive demos are built around one.

Can a buyer break a live demo?

Only the copy behind their own link. Every Roomi demo runs on mock data. A static demo keeps what each viewer does in their own browser. Each private link to an app with a server gets its own copy, shared only with whoever that link is forwarded to.

Sources

About the author

Kaz Kato, Co-founder & CTO, Roomi. Kaz co-founded Roomi with Tesh, whom he has built with since 2017: two startups that failed, one venture studio that didn’t, and an exit. More at katosan.co.uk.

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