Vidyard vs. Trainual: 2026 Pricing & Feature Comparison
78% of businesses report that combining video with process documentation reduces employee onboarding time by nearly half, yet most companies pay for two separate tools to achieve this workflow.
Vidyard specializes in video hosting and sales messaging, while Trainual focuses on process documentation and employee onboarding. Most teams end up paying for both to bridge the gap between video content and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Guidde offers a superior, AI-powered alternative that instantly turns screen recordings into step-by-step documentation, eliminating the need for separate subscriptions.
Choosing between a video platform and an SOP tool often forces teams into a false dichotomy: do you want to show or tell? In 2026, efficient knowledge transfer requires both. Selecting the wrong pricing model can lead to bloated software budgets where you pay per-user fees for features you only use occasionally, significantly impacting your training ROI.
The Video vs. Documentation Dilemma
In the modern digital workplace, the line between video communication and process documentation is blurring. Sales teams need quick video messages to close deals, while HR and Operations teams need structured playbooks to onboard staff. This comparison pits Vidyard, a leader in video for sales and marketing, against Trainual, a powerhouse for company playbooks and SOPs.
The critical question for buyers in 2026 isn't just about features—it's about value. Vidyard's pricing scales with video features and sales seats, whereas Trainual's cost is driven by employee count and documentation needs. This guide breaks down their pricing structures to help you decide if you need one, the other, or a more unified third option.
What is Vidyard?
Vidyard is a video platform built primarily for virtual selling and marketing. It shines in enabling sales reps to record personalized video messages to engage prospects. Beyond simple recording, it offers robust hosting, analytics to track viewer engagement, and deep integrations with CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot.
Key Focus Areas:
- Video Messaging: Asynchronous video for sales outreach.
- Hosting & Analytics: Enterprise-grade video hosting with detailed viewer data.
- Sales Enablement: Tools designed to help sales teams book more meetings.
What is Trainual?
Trainual is a knowledge transfer platform designed to centralize company policies, processes, and SOPs. It acts as a "business playbook," helping organizations get out of the chaos of scattered Google Docs and into a structured training environment. It organizes content into courses and tracks employee completion, making it ideal for onboarding and compliance.
Key Focus Areas:
- Process Documentation: Centralized hub for SOPs and policies.
- Employee Onboarding: Structured training paths for new hires.
- Accountability: Features to track who has read and signed off on content.
| Feature/Tier | Vidyard (Annual Billing) | Trainual (Annual Billing) |
|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | Free (Limited to 25 videos, 5 min limit) | 7-Day Trial (No permanent free tier) |
| Entry Tier | Pro: ~$19/month (1 user) | Small: Starts at ~$249/mo (for 10 seats) |
| Mid-Tier | Business: Custom Pricing (Teams) | Growth: ~$499/mo (up to 50 seats) |
| Enterprise | Enterprise: Custom Pricing | Scale: Custom Pricing |
| Primary Cost Driver | Per Seat (Sales/Marketing users) | Per Seat/Employee count |
| AI Features | AI Script Generator, Avatars (Add-on) | AI-suggested processes, AI writing assist |
Deep Dive: Video vs. SOPs
The core difference lies in the output. Vidyard creates videos meant to be watched once or twice by prospects. Trainual creates manuals meant to be referenced repeatedly by employees.
Technical Capabilities
Vidyard creates high-fidelity video assets but lacks the ability to automatically generate text-based documentation from those videos. You have to manually write the SOPs to accompany your videos. Trainual is excellent for organizing text and embedding videos, but its native video recording capabilities are basic compared to Vidyard's sales-focused toolset.
User Experience
Vidyard users live in their browser extension, quickly recording and sharing. Trainual users live in the web app, building courses and reading content. The disconnect occurs when you want to create a quick how-to video and have it instantly documented as a searchable step-by-step guide. Neither tool bridges this gap natively.
Best Use Cases
Choose Vidyard if:
- Your primary goal is sales prospecting and increasing email response rates.
- You need deep video analytics to score leads in your CRM.
- You are a marketing team hosting webinars and product demos.
Choose Trainual if:
- Your primary goal is employee onboarding and standardizing internal processes.
- You need to track compliance (e.g., "Did everyone read the new safety policy?").
- You are scaling operations and need a central "source of truth" for company knowledge.
Pricing Breakdown & Value
Vidyard is cost-effective for individual sales reps (Pro plan around $19/mo), but costs escalate quickly for teams needing advanced analytics and CRM integration, often requiring custom enterprise quotes that can run into thousands annually. The "Free" plan is a good hook but too limited for serious business use due to recording limits.
Trainual effectively has a high floor; standard plans start around $250/month because they bundle seats (e.g., 10 seats minimum). This makes it expensive for very small teams just starting to document processes. However, for a 50-person company, the per-user cost becomes reasonable for a full LMS replacement.
Hidden Costs: With Vidyard, you might pay extra for "Video Agent" AI features. With Trainual, scaling beyond the included seat count pushes you into significantly higher pricing tiers.
Vidyard Pros
- Sales Focus: Excellent for personalized outreach.
- Analytics: Granular data on who watched what.
- Integrations: Seamless with HubSpot/Salesforce.
Vidyard Cons
- Limited Documentation: It's just video; no text-based SOP generation.
- Pricey at Scale: Enterprise features are expensive.
Trainual Pros
- Structure: turns chaos into organized playbooks.
- Accountability: detailed tracking of employee training progress.
- AI Assist: helps draft policies quickly.
Trainual Cons
- High Starting Price: significant monthly commitment for small teams.
- Video Limitations: basic recording, lacks advanced editing or sales features.
- Manual Entry: still requires significant effort to build and maintain content.
If you are a Sales Leader, buy Vidyard. It pays for itself in booked meetings. If you are an Operations/HR Leader, buy Trainual. It saves countless hours in onboarding.
However, if you are a Product, Support, or L&D Leader looking to create training content quickly, you might find yourself needing both—or frustrated by the limitations of each.
The Shared Limitation: The Creation Bottleneck
Both Vidyard and Trainual suffer from a shared limitation that impacts your bottom line: the time cost of content creation.
- Vidyard requires you to be "camera ready" and record perfect takes. If processes change, you must re-record the entire video.
- Trainual requires you to manually type out steps, take screenshots, annotate them, and then upload them. It's a slow, manual process.
The Guidde Advantage: AI-First Creation
Guidde is the solution that overcomes these limitations by combining the best of both worlds. It creates video documentation 11x faster than traditional methods.
- Magical Capture: Click "Record," perform your task, and Guidde instantly generates a step-by-step how-to video and a text-based SOP with screenshots.
- AI Editing: Made a mistake? Don't re-record. Just edit the text transcript, and the video updates automatically.
- No Camera Required: Use AI voiceovers in 30+ languages instead of your own voice, making updates seamless.
- Embed Anywhere: Share Guiddes directly or embed them into tools you already use (including Trainual, Zendesk, and Slack).
Guidde eliminates the choice between "video" and "docs" by giving you both, automatically. For teams that want to scale knowledge sharing without the heavy lifting or high price tags, Guidde is the superior, next-generation choice.
Stop choosing between video and documentation.
Get the best of both with AI-powered automation.
Try Guidde for FreeFAQs
Can I use Vidyard videos in Trainual?
Yes, you can embed Vidyard videos into Trainual steps, but you have to pay for both subscriptions separately.
Does Trainual have screen recording?
Trainual has basic screen recording features via a browser extension, but it lacks the advanced editing, personalization, and analytics of Vidyard or the AI-automation of Guidde.
What is the best alternative to using both?
Guidde is the best alternative. It allows you to record processes once and automatically generates both a video guide and a step-by-step written SOP, serving the purpose of both platforms in a single, cost-effective tool.