Short answer: Scribe and Trainual solve different problems. Scribe records your clicks and turns them into a how-to guide in seconds. It doesn't assign training or track who learned it. Trainual turns your procedures into assigned training with quizzes and progress, but it has no public price and a $1,000 setup fee. If most of your work doesn't happen on a screen and you want guides plus training at a small-team price, Helpable is a third option, from $29 a month.
The two names show up together because both promise to "document your processes". In practice, one answers "how do I click through this?" and the other answers "did my new hire learn it?". Which one you need depends on which question keeps you up at night. Prices below were checked on each vendor's pricing page on October 17, 2026.
Trainual vs Scribe at a glance
| Scribe | Trainual | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Turning screen clicks into step-by-step guides with screenshots | Turning SOPs and policies into role-based training |
| How you create content | Record your screen; the guide writes itself | Write or paste content, use AI help, record your screen |
| Assign training to people | No | Yes, by role or person |
| Quizzes | No | Yes |
| Track who completed what | No | Yes |
| E-signatures on policies | No | Pro and up |
| Free plan | Yes (Basic) | No |
| Free trial | Free plan instead | No, demo only |
| Price | Pro Team $23/seat/mo billed yearly ($29 monthly), 5-seat minimum | Not public; last listed from $249/mo for 10 seats, billed yearly |
| Setup fee | None listed | $1,000 one-time, required |
| Best for | Software-heavy work, quick how-to docs | Companies of 25–1,000 employees (Trainual's own words) |
What Scribe is good at
Scribe watches you do a task in your browser (or on the desktop on paid plans) and turns every click into a numbered step with a screenshot. A process that takes 20 minutes to write by hand takes the time it takes to do it once.
Plans (checked Oct 17, 2026, scribe.com/pricing):
- Basic: free, unlimited guides, browser extension, share by link.
- Pro Personal: $25 a month billed yearly ($35 monthly) for one person. Desktop capture, branding, editing and redaction, export to PDF and HTML.
- Pro Team: $23 a seat billed yearly ($29 monthly), from 5 seats. Adds comments.
- Enterprise: custom price, with SSO and auto-redaction.
Where it stops: Scribe is a documentation tool. There are no assignments, quizzes or completion tracking, so you can't see whether anyone read the guide. It also only captures screen work, so a cleaning, kitchen or field procedure doesn't fit the format. And the 5-seat minimum on Pro Team means a 3-person team pays for 5.
What Trainual is good at
Trainual organizes your company knowledge by role. You write procedures and policies, group them into training for each role, assign it, and track completion with quizzes and e-signatures. It also includes screen recording and AI writing help.
Price (checked Oct 17, 2026): not public. You book a demo. Its last listed plans were Core $249, Pro $319 and Premium $399 a month for 10 seats, billed yearly, plus a required $1,000 implementation fee. Full breakdown: Trainual pricing.
Where it stops: for a small team, the cost of getting started: a 10-seat base, the setup fee, and no way to try it without a sales call. Video upload starts on Pro. Trainual says it suits companies with 25 to 1,000 employees.
Which one do you need?
Pick Scribe if:
- Most of your processes happen in software (CRM, booking system, accounting tool).
- You mainly need guides people can look up when they're stuck.
- You don't need proof that someone read or learned them.
Pick Trainual if:
- You have 25 or more people and onboarding happens often.
- You need training by role, quizzes, e-signatures and completion tracking.
- A demo-led purchase and a $1,000 setup fee are fine for your budget.
You need both if you want fast screen guides and assigned training. Many teams do exactly that: capture in Scribe, then bring the guide into a training tool. For 10 people that's roughly $249 a month for Trainual Core (billed yearly) plus $230 a month for 10 Scribe seats (billed yearly), plus the $1,000 setup fee.
A third option: Helpable
A procedure in Helpable: steps anyone can follow on a phone, and who has acknowledged it.
Helpable sits in the middle. Like Trainual, it turns your procedures into training you can assign and track. Unlike Trainual, it has public prices, no setup fee and a 14-day free trial. It also gives you a knowledge base and a public help center in the same tool.
How you create content: you write procedures as steps with photos, or upload the documents you already have (PDF, Word, text, Markdown or CSV) and let the AI draft articles and trainings from them. You review before anything goes live.
What every plan includes:
- Procedures with steps and photos, read acknowledgements per version
- Training with lessons and quizzes, assigned with due dates and reminders
- Progress per person
- An internal knowledge base, a public help center, and AI search that answers from your own content with a link to the source
Price: Business is $29 a month for 3 people ($92 a month for 10). Business Plus adds video lessons, final tests, certificates and automatic assignment for new hires: $129 a month for 10 people. See all plans.
Be clear about the limit: Helpable doesn't record your screen. If your processes are mostly clicks in software, Scribe makes those guides faster, and you can still paste them into Helpable as steps. If your work happens on the floor, on site or in shifts, procedures with photos fit better than screenshots anyway.
Cost for a team of 10
Monthly prices, checked Oct 17, 2026:
| Setup | What you get | Monthly cost for 10 people |
|---|---|---|
| Scribe Pro Team | Screen guides, no training tracking | $230 billed yearly ($290 monthly) |
| Trainual Core (last listed) | Training and tracking | $249 billed yearly + $1,000 setup |
| Trainual Core + Scribe Pro Team | Both | $479 billed yearly + $1,000 setup |
| Helpable Business | Procedures, knowledge base, training with quizzes and tracking | $92 |
| Helpable Business Plus | Plus video, certificates, auto-assign | $129 |
Who finished their training, who's overdue, and their quiz scores.
FAQ
Is Scribe a Trainual alternative?
Only partly. Scribe replaces the "write the how-to guide" part. It doesn't assign training, run quizzes or track completion, which is most of what Trainual does.
Can Trainual record my screen like Scribe?
Yes. Trainual includes screen recording on every plan. Scribe is faster at turning clicks into a written, screenshot-based guide, which is its main job.
Is Scribe free?
Scribe's Basic plan is free with unlimited guides in the browser. Desktop capture, exports and branding need Pro (checked Oct 17, 2026).
Which is cheaper, Trainual or Scribe?
For a small team, Scribe. Pro Team is $23 a seat per month billed yearly with a 5-seat minimum, so 5 people pay $115 a month. Trainual's last listed price started at $249 a month for 10 seats plus a $1,000 setup fee. At 10 seats the gap narrows ($230 vs $249). They don't do the same job, though.
Does Helpable record screens like Scribe?
No. Helpable builds procedures from steps and photos, or drafts them with AI from your existing documents. It focuses on training people and tracking that they learned it.
What do people use instead of both?
Teams that want guides and training in one tool look at Helpable, SweetProcess, Waybook or Whale. See our list of Trainual alternatives and the best SOP software for small business, both with prices.
Try the middle option
If you want procedures your team actually reads, plus proof that they learned them, try Helpable free for 14 days with three of your own procedures. No credit card needed.
