Holostaff vs. Usertour
Usertour brings something the category needed: an open source, self-hostable tour builder with real data ownership. We respect that. Holostaff plays a different game. Not tours that explain the workflow, but an autopilot that completes it when the user hands it over.
What Usertour does well
- Open source and self-hostable with Docker. Your user data stays on your infrastructure.
- A visual builder for tours, checklists, and surveys, not just a library.
- Real targeting and analytics, unusual for an open source tool.
- Honest, low-priced cloud tiers if you do not want to host.
- A responsive team shipping in the open.
If that list is your problem, Usertour is a fine choice.
Where Holostaff is different
Learns your product from the codebase
One CLI scan draws your real customer journey: routes, workflows, and the exact tasks worth taking over. No event instrumentation, no content to write first.
Does the task, with the user watching
The user hands the task over. The autopilot completes it in their own session, on screen. Every target is highlighted first. Consequential clicks wait for an inline Allow. Sensitive fields stay human-typed.
Certified by synthetic users, on every PR
Synthetic users run your real workflows in real browsers, then hand the task to the autopilot under test. Every run is graded. An autopilot ships only while its workflow passes.
Ships like code, not like a widget
holostaff deploy opens a pull request: SDK init, journey stage markers, the embed. Your engineers review the diff. Merging is going live. Reverting is rollback.
Two meters, nothing else
Simulation runs while you build and certify. Completed handovers when an autopilot finishes a task for a real user. A handover that stops or fails costs nothing. Creation is never metered.
Side by side
| Usertour | Holostaff | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Self-host with Docker or use the cloud, install the snippet, build tours. | One CLI scan. The journey map skeleton is live in about 90 seconds. |
| How it learns your product | It does not. You build each tour. | Reads your codebase: routes, workflows, and the tasks worth taking over. |
| When it acts | On your triggers. Everyone in a segment gets the same tour. | When the user asks. The offer sits on the workflow; handover is always the user’s explicit act. |
| In the session | Tours, checklists, surveys. | The autopilot does the task on screen, step by step. Sensitive fields stay the user’s to type. Consequential clicks wait for their Allow. |
| Pre-launch testing | Preview. | Certification: synthetic users run the workflow and the handover on every PR. A failing suite takes the offer down. |
| How it ships | Snippet plus dashboard publishing, on infrastructure you control if you self-host. | A pull request your engineers review. Merging is going live. |
| Pricing model | Free to self-host. Cloud from free to $249 per month by tier. | Two meters: simulation runs and completed handovers. A handover that stops or fails costs nothing. The scan and your journey map are free. |
| Best for | Teams that want an ownable, self-hosted tour stack. | Teams that want the task done, not toured. |
Pick Usertour if
- Self-hosting and data ownership are hard requirements.
- You want a tour builder you can read the source of.
- Your budget rounds to zero and you have ops capacity.
Pick Holostaff if
- Tours are not solving it: the task is still on the user.
- You want an agent that acts on screen with the user’s permission.
- You want the map of your workflows without instrumenting anything.
See it before you install anything
Want proof first? Explore a live journey map. It is Documenso, the open source document signing platform, scanned by our CLI. No sign-up needed.
Common questions
The CLI is Apache 2.0 and on GitHub, and the scan shows you a trust report of exactly what uploads before anything leaves your machine. Source code, env files, and git history never leave. The hosted service is the paid product.
No. Autopilots run against our hosted runtime. If self-hosting everything is a hard requirement, Usertour is the better fit today, and this page will say so until that changes.
They solve different problems. Usertour publishes tours you build. A Holostaff autopilot completes the workflow when a user hands it over, and synthetic users certify it on every PR. Teams that outgrow tours are our usual starting point.
Usertour is free to self-host, with low-priced cloud tiers. Holostaff meters simulation runs and completed handovers, nothing else. The scan and your journey map are free.
Last verified August 6, 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us: hello@holostaff.ai.