Demo experience systems allow you to create engaging, customized product/software demos for your prospects. They are the engine of the product-led growth methodology.
This article will pit Reprise against Walnut to see how they compete when facing each other for a share of the ever-expanding demo experience platform market.
Reprise vs. Walnut
Before we get into the details, let’s start with a rundown of features.
| FEATURES | WALNUT | REPRISE |
| Supported platforms | SaaS, cloud, web-based. | SaaS, cloud, web-based. |
| Customer support | 24/7 Live, blog, online | FAQs/Forum, a Knowledge Base and 24/7 Live Rep |
| Free version | None | None |
| Free trial | None | Free trial available. |
| Training | In-Person, Documentation, Live Online, Website Blogs. Extensive Knowledge Base Content on Website. | In-Person, Live Online, Documentation, Webinars. |
| Sharing capabilities | Advanced | Shared via link |
| Capture tech | Instant screen capturing with an extension. | Screen capture with an extension. |
| Analytics | Advanced | Available |
| Use cases | Varied and very dynamic. | Customizable for each prospect. |
Demo Capturing Capabilities
Different demo experience platforms offer different levels of quality when it comes to capturing capabilities. Capturing, also known as replication, entails how the demo platform replicates the software in question to showcase it to prospects.
It could range from basic actions like screen video recording (for a video), screenshots with annotations in a slideshow, a replica of the front-end, or a replica of both the front and back end.
Reprise’s Capturing Capabilities
The Screen Capture functionality allows users to capture specific screens in an app or website rather than recording the whole application (similar to screengrabs).
The screens are taken in high resolution and then customized with a set of editing tools that can add annotations, link to other parts of the product tour, or change elements to personalize the tour. The learning curve for understanding all this and utilizing it fully is brutal, though, and it may take more than a few tries to get the hang of it, given the less-than-intuitive UI/UX experience.
Walnut’s Capturing Capabilities
In terms of capturing, Walnut follows a similar concept but does it much better than Reprise. Walnut gives its users absolute control over creating personalized and scalable product demo experiences by capturing and readying the front-end. Walnut users may utilize the personalization options to select only the segments in a sequence that add value to the prospect rather than going through the entire workflow.
Who Does a Better Job?
Both platforms make capturing an easy process to follow, with different detail, control, and access levels.
Reprise and Walnut provide high-resolution captures and the tools to tell a story with them. Both systems are also not bound by a chronological storytelling flow, allowing salespeople and marketing teams to create their own experiences based on the demands of their customers.
Both allow users to collect pages from other websites to provide additional value. They can capture and share such displays, for example, while producing a demo for a product that can be connected with Gmail or has useful social networking pages.
Even though they adopt a strategy that sounds similar, the differences in the UI/UX mean that Walnut edges Reprise out with its intuitiveness, providing more value to users faster, given the forgiving learning curve. Reprise fails to deliver the level of intuitiveness needed to pick up the platform quickly and use it easily.
Editing Options
Editing is how the demo creator delivers a story to the prospect. With editing, you can guide the prospect through the main value points of the software. The more capable and versatile the editing tools, the more expressive and impactful a demo can be.
Reprise Editing Options
Users of Reprise can alter the copy displayed on the screen using in-line text editing. Capabilities for global search and replace are available, as well as the option to replace one word or phrase with another.
Users can also personalize graphics and illustrations like graphs, use directed pop-ups that help prospects through the demo or training flow, among other elements. Once again, Reprise runs into the stumbling block that is its limited UI/UX execution, thwarting any hopes of picking up any of these tools quickly.
Walnut Editing Options
With its significantly broader reach, Walnut manages to put in more editing features and tools. In addition to having all the editing capabilities Reprise has, Walnut also allows users to add annotations to improve an experience and edit HTML (reiterating the freedom Walnut is known for).
Users can edit icons, images, graphs, texts, and everything captured on their screens using a convenient point and click format, which saves time and effort.
Who Does a Better Job?
On this front, Walnut edges out Reprise. Sales teams want total control over the appearance of their narratives, which Walnut provides by offering users greater granular access, including the option to change HTML (when needed to add something extra).
Analytics
The storyteller may use analytics to see what is working and what needs to be changed in their demo. With the data gathered, teams can adapt their product demo to the needs of their consumers and fulfill the sales team’s goals.
Reprise Analytics
Users of Reprise can analyze prospect behavior with its analytics to track and adjust product tour and demo performance depending on viewer engagement. The analytics have limited depth, making it harder for marketing and sales teams to utilize all the tools provided with ease.
Walnut Analytics
Walnut lives off of data. Sales teams may see concrete evidence of a demo’s effectiveness and track the most successful demonstrations.
Having this kind of expertise may assist a sales team in modifying demonstrations and determining which ones are the most effective, as well as performing AB testing and optimizing demos for future prospects.
Who Does a Better Job?
Both platforms provide analytics, allowing users to know what needs changing on their demos. However, Walnut provides a more in-depth analytical approach that provides more information to the users, allowing them to tailor product demos in a way that is guaranteed to appeal to the intended audience.
That’s not to mention the UI/UX, which makes the experience even more powerful for new users.
Embedding
When designing software demos, the embedding feature is frequently useful for funneling prospects into checking it out or realizing its worth. How does Reprise fare in comparison to Walnut?
Reprise Embedding
The user can replicate, save as a draft, or publish the demo when it is done. Reprise creates a link that can be given to prospects or customers, embedded on your website, and shared on social media.
Walnut Embedding
The demo may be embedded into your website or marketing platforms using Walnut. Copying and pasting the URL wherever you want is all it takes. Users can easily share their demos with their prospects across a variety of platforms.
Who Does a Better Job?
The platforms appear to be roughly evenly balanced in terms of how straightforward it is to integrate a demo.
Sales Freedom from R&D
The days of sales departments relying on research and development teams to build demos are long gone. In comparison to demo experience platforms, the procedure was long, near-stagnant, and ineffectual. How simple is it to utilize Reprise or Walnut in sales?
Reprise Sales Freedom
Reprise is a codeless platform, just like many of its peers and competitors. Sales teams can effortlessly copy their software URL and duplicate their product without needing complex procedures or research and development.
Walnut Sales Freedom
On Walnut, demos are a replica of the front end, which includes HTML editing. It also gives a codeless experience like Reprise, allowing you to forgo any detailed fiddling while still delivering a dynamic and powerful product demo flow.
Who Does a Better Job?
Walnut and Reprise are similar in terms of ease of use but not in terms of the level of value provided through a demo. Both Reprise and Walnut appear to provide good editing options, making it simpler to demonstrate value for sales.
On the other hand, Walnut looks to offer a more uncomplicated lightweight strategy while providing a layer of insight into each product presentation via its advanced analytics function. HTML editing is an additional tool available to salespeople and marketing teams on Walnut. Aside from that, the platforms would be on equal footing.
Walkthrough Capabilities
Viewers must be able to navigate through the demo without difficulty recognizing value points or following the storyline’s unifying theme. Do Reprise and Walnut have what it takes to tell a story on your terms?
Reprise Walkthrough Capabilities
Reprise allows users to take screenshots that can then be annotated in a guided tour and linked to each other to tell a story.
Walnut Walkthrough Capabilities
The Walnut platform’s method of capturing the demo assures that one may pick the product’s phases that fit the story and emphasize value for the prospects, sticking with the concept of giving consumers the power to discover value in the demo on their own.
Who Does a Better Job?
Walkthroughs on both platforms have the advantage of accessing annotations, texts, hover effects, editing access to all elements on the page, and more. However, given the intuitiveness of Walnut, Reprise still has some work to do to catch up. The platform is much easier to use, meaning that walking prospects through product demos as intended may take more work.
Deployment
These days, most software platforms are offered in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS). Both Reprise and Walnut are offered via this distribution model.
Reprise Deployment
Customers may join up for a free Reprise Starter demo. The firm gives commercially reasonable technical help to clients during regular business hours by email or phone. According to the company, customers will also receive maintenance releases at no additional cost.
Walnut Deployment
Like Reprise, Walnut uses the Cloud/SaaS/Web-based deployment method. It is compatible with Desktop Mac, Chromebook, Windows, and Linux. You can get technical help via Email/Help Desk, Knowledge Base, Chat, and FAQs.
Use Cases
Since Reprise and Walnut have similar capturing methods and allow the same level of control in terms of editing the product demo (except where Walnut allows for HTML editing), it stands to reason that they are both targeting the same audience.
As such, they are used for the same purposes, which revolve around the creation and sharing of demos. They both allow users to take captures of different elements and pages, which can then be linked to each other to tell a story.
What makes these two different is the ability to edit HTML in Walnut and the collaborative feature that creates a library of the demo for everyone with access to check out and make product demos on the go quickly using the same high-quality original captures.
Which Solution is Easier to Use to Create Customized Demos? (Ease of Use)
The platforms are both codeless, which means they are easy to use from a technical standpoint because you don’t have to touch the code.
Following the capture of the demo, editing on both platforms follows the same best practices that apply to the industry’s leading platforms. Tooltips, hotspots, and annotations, among other features, are used to assist users through the product so that its value is clear.
When it comes to ease of use, both platforms have a bit of a learning curve, something that is felt a little more when using Reprise, since it is much harder to learn how to use than Walnut.
UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience)
Each platform makes every effort to make the operation as simple as possible, to make the user interface straightforward and accessible, and to use the onboarding process to assist users in becoming familiar with the product.
There is an argument to be made that these two have essentially targeted the same market with similar features. However, Walnut takes all these advanced features of a demo experience platform and puts them in an intuitive package. Reprise would be a closer competitor if its UI/UX was more intuitive.
Users can easily pick up on Walnut because it feels natural from the beginning, allowing one to not only explore and discover advanced features but also have an easy time using them.
Onboarding
Reprise and Walnut both use the same approach to onboard new users. The training involves documentation, live online help, a knowledge base, and in-person interaction. Neither does a better job than the other.
However, Walnut provides more information readily on its site and a YouTube channel with useful tutorials that smooth over the learning curve. Reprise has a YouTube channel for the same purposes, showing that these two continue to be neck and neck in many aspects, apart from ease of use and the learning curve, once again putting Walnut on top.
The Learning Curve
Both platforms have a bit of a learning curve when getting started. However, that learning curve is intensely felt when using Reprise, which neglects to make its platform more intuitive and user-friendly.
Walnut is intuitive, simple to use, and focused on making itself as easy and familiar as any well-designed web app, allowing sales teams to pick up on the features and tools provided quickly and make a decent demo the first time they try it out.
It is a big difference that gives Walnut its supremacy in this market and most segments we have examined.
Who Are They For, and How Do They Scale Up?
Because of the product-led growth (PLG) GTM trend, customers expect products to sell themselves more than ever before. Some prospects have claimed that they will not consider the product if a demo is not given.
Demo experience platforms make this PLG methodology easier. Demonstrating a product might possibly save money on customer acquisition costs by letting potential customers check it out beforehand.
These platforms are made to serve sales and marketing departments and firms that use a PLG strategy. They want to be able to immediately engage prospects by displaying a working version of the product that is tailored to their unique needs.
Given the intuitive edge that Walnut has, scaling it up among teams and needs is easier. The UI/UX on Walnut delivers scaling up capabilities in a way that Reprise just doesn’t match.
Our Final Thoughts
This would be a close race if Reprise managed to deliver its features and capabilities in the same way Walnut does. Walnut is ahead by wide margins, delivering both conventional and HTML editing (when needed), and a more straightforward and intuitive structure.
Don’t get us wrong; these platforms are competing at the highest level of the segment, which explains why they go toe to toe on so many aspects, but the rough UI/UX on Reprise makes it a harder choice to go for.
If you need something that will give sales and marketing teams an edge, Walnut stands head and shoulders above the rest.