# Onboarding videos for SaaS products

Show a new user their first task with a narrated video filmed from your live app, captioned, and re-shot with Refresh when the interface changes.

[← All use cases](https://demofy.io/use-cases)

## The problem

An onboarding video has one job: get a new user from sign-up to the first thing that makes the product worth keeping. It is also the video that goes stale first, because onboarding screens are the ones a product team changes most. One renamed button or one new step, and the video shows a path that no longer exists.

Recording it by hand means a demo account, a clean screen, a careful take and an edit — and then all of it again after the next redesign. So it gets re-recorded late or not at all, and new users learn from a video that disagrees with the screen in front of them.

## How Demofy makes it

- It films the screens a new user really sees. Save a signed-in session once — through a live browser you drive yourself, so two-factor and single sign-on work — and every onboarding demo records inside your product. [Recording behind a login](https://demofy.io/docs/recording-behind-a-login)
- One line of intent is the whole brief. Demofy plans the clicks, writes a line of narration for each step, films them in a real browser and adds the zooms, the cursor and the captions. [The URL and the intent line](https://demofy.io/docs/url-and-intent)
- When the flow changes, press Refresh. Demofy explores the app again with the same URL and intent and films a new version beside the old one. If a recorded step stops matching the page, the failed capture is re-shot once without anybody asking. [The kinds of job](https://demofy.io/docs/job-kinds)
- A link already in your welcome email keeps playing the video it pointed at. To send people the new cut, share the new version and revoke the old link — two deliberate actions, so nothing changes under a message you already sent. [Version history](https://demofy.io/docs/version-history)
- Mobile onboarding gets a mobile video. A mobile capture sizes the browser to a phone, so your app serves its phone layout, delivered as a portrait 9:16 file. [Desktop and mobile capture](https://demofy.io/docs/desktop-and-mobile)

## Make one

1. 1

   Paste the URL of the screen where the task starts. A signed-in screen needs a [saved session](https://demofy.io/docs/recording-behind-a-login) first.
2. 2

   Write [one line of intent](https://demofy.io/docs/url-and-intent). For this job, for example: Show a new user creating their first project and inviting a teammate
3. 3

   Follow the [build log](https://demofy.io/docs/the-build-log) while Demofy plans the steps, films them and renders the video, then change any line in the [script editor](https://demofy.io/docs/step-editor).

Try it here: paste the URL and one line of intent below. A guest needs no account and no card.

Filming it yourself instead? [How to make a product demo video](https://demofy.io/how-to-make-a-product-demo-video) walks through the plan, the recording, the finish and what to do when the product changes.

## Where it falls short

- Nothing is re-filmed on a timer. A re-shoot happens when somebody presses Refresh, or when a capture breaks on a step that moved — so after a release, somebody still has to press the button.
- It is a video, not an in-app tour. Checklists and tooltips a user clicks through inside your product are a different kind of tool.
- It films web products only — what a browser can open. A desktop application or a native mobile app needs a screen recorder.

## Questions people ask

### How long should an onboarding video be?

Long enough to reach one result the new user cares about, and no longer. Show one task from start to finish; if the video needs a second task to make sense, make a second video.

### Can Demofy record the screens behind our login?

Yes. Save a connection once — by signing in through a live browser that runs on Demofy’s side, or by exporting a Playwright storage state — and pick it in the composer. Planning and filming both run signed in as that session.

### Does the video update itself when our onboarding changes?

Not on a schedule. Press Refresh after a change and Demofy films a new version; if a step stops matching the page during filming, that capture is re-shot once automatically. Nothing visits your app on a timer.

### Where should an onboarding video go?

Wherever the new user is on day one: a share link in the welcome email, an embed on an empty state or a help page, or the downloaded file anywhere else. A narrated video also ships a caption track (not if you replace its soundtrack) and a written guide to the same steps.

After the first task, new users go looking for how to do the next one. A how-to video beside each help article answers that, with captions and a written guide: [How-to videos for help centers](https://demofy.io/use-cases/help-center-videos).

New to the category? [What an AI product demo video generator is](https://demofy.io/product-demo-video-generator) sets Demofy beside screen recorders and avatar videos, and [the comparisons](https://demofy.io/compare) take the named tools one at a time. What each plan includes is on [the pricing page](https://demofy.io/pricing).

Canonical page: https://demofy.io/use-cases/saas-onboarding-videos