No one has the time to get through the piles of papers to solve their issues — they want instant solutions (the same goes for your customers).

So, how do you make sure your customers get their queries solved instantly to ensure a frictionless customer experience and speed up product adoption?

The answer — interactive user guides.

And no, you don’t have to create them manually — Scribe and Minerva are two prominent tools to help you with it. 

But the question is, which one is more suitable for you? That’s exactly what this blog is gonna help you with!

‎Let's explore each tool's features, capabilities, and strengths and find out why Scribe takes the lead with its life-saving features.

But before we start…

What is a user guide?

User guides (also known as user manuals, product manuals, or instruction manuals) are technical documentation that provides step-by-step instructions on how to complete a task or process to customers and end-users. 

For example, the assembly instructions that IKEA provides with its products — that's a user guide.

User guides are crucial for: 

• Simplifying complex technology.
• Accelerating learning.
• Optimizing functionality.
• Resolving issues.
• Providing a consistent user experience.
• Promoting accessibility.
• Informing users about updates.

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Scribe vs Minerva: Detailed overview

First, let’s look at Scribe (because, yes, we’re biased, and you’ll know “why” in upcoming sections).

Scribe overview

Scribe is an AI-powered solution that automates process documentation. It allows users to convert any process into a step-by-step guide with text, links, and annotated screenshots — making it ideal for SOPs, user guides, training manuals, and onboarding guides.

Core features of Scribe:

• Automated process documentation: Scribe automates the process of converting tasks into step-by-step guides with screenshots and written instructions.
• Customization and combination: Users can edit and combine Scribes to build Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), training manuals, and interactive, visual process documentation.
• Sharing and embedding: Share guides inside a company's wiki or knowledge base, give links to customers or embed them in a help center for instant access.
• SOC II Type II compliance: Scribe adheres to SOC II Type II compliance standards, ensuring data security.
• Time-saving: Scribe is a time-saving solution and saves a substantial amount of time for diverse teams across multiple organizations.
• Integrations: Scribe helps you enhance your process by providing seamless integrations with 100+ tools such as HubSpot, WordPress, Zendesk, etc.

Pros:

• No need for technical assistance.
• Take exact screenshots of the procedures you want.
• You can customize each step to meet your needs.
• Blur employee or customer data from screenshots for security purposes.
• Saves time by recording and creating guides automatically.
• Choose from various sharing options such as link, embedding, PDF, HTML, and Markdown. 
• Seamless collaboration with team members.
• Shared guides update automatically, eliminating manual work.
• Free version includes all the essential features, to begin with.
• Last but not least, Scribe provides exceptional customer service.

Cons:

• Branding is only available for Pro and Team Pro users.
• Screenshot annotations and redactions are also only available for Pro subscribers.
• Only supports digital processes.

Minerva overview:

Minerva is intended to help organizations create comprehensive knowledge bases and support documentation for their products or services. It includes features like how-to videos, FAQs, and interactive instructions, making it a good option for onboarding, SaaS product adoption, and internal team communication.

Core features of Minerva:

• Embedding knowledge base: With a single line of JavaScript, you can easily embed the knowledge base into your SaaS platform, improving user accessibility.
• Launch centers: Minerva offers a launch center that can be incorporated inside your platform, eliminating the need for users to leave the site to access support material or videos.
• Dynamic instructions: Tailor guides for different users and make material available on certain pages for a more personalized experience.
• Integration: It offers integrations with software such as WordPress, Jira, Asana, etc.

Pros:

• Saves time and helps people without having to walk someone through a specific task or steps for something.
• Easy to use, helps accelerate any digital navigation process.
• Great Customer service.
• Easy to implement, not requiring technical support.

Cons:

• You might encounter a few small bugs.
• The onboarding process is not appealing.
• Very limited features.
• Integrates with only 10 tools.

Pricing Comparison: Let’s see which one is more effective!

Scribe pricing breakdown

Scribe offers three plans with various awesome features.

Basic plan features

• Works with any web app.
• Easily customize, add and merge steps.
• Combine with AI-powered documentation to create training manuals and more.
• Shareable link and easy embed.

Pro plan features

• Everything from Basic, plus...
• Works with any web, desktop & mobile app.
• Branded guides.
• Edit & redact screenshots.
• Export to HTML, Confluence, & Markdown.

Enterprise Custom

Everything from Pro, plus...

• Auto-redaction of PII & PHI.
• Enterprise-grade data governance.
• SSO for provisioning & authentication.
• Central user and document management.
• Creator, Viewer, and Admin license types.

Minerva pricing breakdown

‎Individual plan features

• Interactive guides and videos.
• Custom Outline color.
• Annotate and redact.
• Talking head video (1/guide).
• Multiple viewport formats.
• Export to: PDF/MP4/PNG.

Professional

• Everything in individual plan plus…
• Custom Voice Narration.
• Automated Guide Translation (up to 10/month).
• AI-generated video scripts (50k tokens/month).
• One Additional Workspace.
• Talking head video.

Business

Everything in Professional plus…

• 1 Organization (20 seats included).
• Custom Voices (1/seat).
• Automated Guide Translations.
• AI-generated video scripts (50k tokens/month/seat).
• Use Minerva in your web app with our SDK (up to 3k Monthly Active Users).
• Workspaces.
• Priority email and live support.

Conclusion: Scribe clearly stands out, considering the customization capability and security it provides if you take a closer look at both the brand’s pricing and the features they offer.

Regardless of its features, Minerva doesn’t offer security compliance — which can be a huge security issue, especially for big enterprises.

Recommendations:

For Small Teams or Individuals:

• If you have a small team or are an individual, Minerva's Individual or Professional plans may be more affordable and provide adequate capabilities.

For Larger Teams or Enterprises:

• Scribe's Pro and Enterprise plans offer extensive functionality, especially if data governance and security are important to you.

Considerations:

• Examine specific requirements such as export formats, collaboration features, and security concerns.
• Consider user interface and usability preferences.

Commonalities

What do these tools have in common? Let's dig in.

• Automation: Minerva and Scribe both use artificial intelligence to automate elements of the documentation process.
• Integration: Both solutions support integration, with Scribe effortlessly integrating with 100+ tools and Minerva offering integration with only 10 tools.
• Documentation: Both products strive to make the creation and sharing of user guides and documentation as simple as possible while catering to a variety of purposes, such as onboarding, training, and support. However, Minerva is more inclined towards internal knowledge bases, whereas Scribe helps you create user guides for both your customers and internal teams.
• Visual elements: Both tools use visual components such as screenshots and videos to improve the clarity and efficacy of their respective guides and documentation.

Related Resource: Scribe vs. Appcues

Key features and capabilities of Scribe

Let’s explore what makes Scribe stand out!

AI-powered documentation

• Scribe Pages allows you to incorporate text, descriptions, multiple Scribes, hyperlinks, and even Loom and YouTube videos within one single document. This promotes flexibility — allowing users to produce beautiful and personalized documents for a number of purposes, including new hire onboarding, customer training, technology rollouts, and more.
• Scribe also provides you with versatile templates, customizable designs, and options so you can jumpstart creating user guides and customize them according to your personal needs/company’s branding.

Easy team collaboration

• Scribe facilitates seamless collaboration by streamlining the teamwork process. It provides a single platform for sharing ideas, files, and updates, ensuring everyone is on the same page. This offers a clear overview of team progress and streamlines workflow by reducing the need to switch between different tools.
• The document insights feature provides information about the viewership and completion of your Scribes. It seeks to answer issues such as if certain individuals viewed the sent Scribe if there are any challenges in specific steps, and if the Scribe stays relevant and widely used throughout the firm.
• Scribe viewers and creators can react and give feedback on Scribes you share with them.
• It allows you to easily redact sensitive information.
• Scribe also allows you to modify/update your guides based on feedback or evolving product features. The best part, Scribe automatically updates shared guides when you make changes, saving you from manual edits.

Available wherever you are

• You can integrate Scribes with 100+ tools you and your customers already use, such as knowledge bases, wikis, LMS platforms, and more.
• With the Scribe sidekick, you can view all Scribes for whatever site you're on!
• Scribe offers a user-friendly interface that creates guides for you. In seconds, you can build extensive user guides that you can instantly share internally and externally.

Why does Scribe take the lead? Let’s find out!

Scribe outperforms Minerva in key aspects, including accessibility, scalability, time-saving automated features, cost-efficiency, and long-term value.

Let’s see how.

Accessibility and adaptability for a diverse user base: 

• Scribe has an easy-to-use interface that generates guides in seconds, making it suitable for users of varied levels of experience.
• User guides can be customized to individual needs or company identity using versatile templates and configurable designs, providing adaptability across diverse user bases.

Scalability and adaptability to different industries: 

• Scribe's seamless integration with 100+ tools, including knowledge bases, wikis, and LMS platforms, improves scalability and adaptability to many sectors and niches.
• The platform's ability to generate user guides, SOPs, training manuals, and interactive visual process documentation makes it adaptable to a wide range of applications.

Automation features that save time: 

• Scribe's automated process documentation capability saves time for various teams across multiple organizations.
• The ability of the platform to automatically update shared guides when changes are made reduces the need for human revisions, streamlining workflow and improving overall productivity.

Long-term value and cost-efficiency: 

• Scribe promotes its time-saving capabilities, which directly contribute to cost-efficiency by lowering the time and resources required for manual documentation.
• SOC II Type II compliance and redact sensitive information feature ensures data security, offering enterprises concerned about the security of sensitive information with long-term value and peace of mind.

Collaboration and integration:

• Scribe supports seamless collaboration by providing a single platform for exchanging ideas, files, and updates, as well as a clear overview of team progress.
• Integrations with a variety of tools, like Notion, Confluence, Airtable, etc, improve collaboration and allow users to operate within their preferred ecosystem.
• Scribe is great for teams — give employees and clients access to the info they need via Scribe Sidekick and reduce the amount of "How do I do that again?" questions.

Document insights and feedback mechanism: 

• Scribe's document insights function provides useful information on guide viewership and completion, addressing issues such as user engagement and guide relevance. 
• The ability for viewers and creators to react to and provide feedback on shared guides promotes a collaborative and iterative approach to documentation.

These features all work together to make Scribe the “go-to” choice for businesses looking for a dependable and versatile documentation solution to create instant and evergreen user guides.

Don’t go for our words, here's what our users say:

“Scribe is by far the fastest way to create help documentation that I've found. Literally 10x the speed of manually creating documentation. We love it so much that we recommend it to all of our customers and even embed it in our product. Also, the few times that I've had questions, the Scribe team has responded very quickly. Fantastic product. Oh, and their embed functionality - gold!" — Will S., Founder & COO

One more.

“The thing I like the most is that to create a guide, apart from clicking one button, there isn't any additional overhead. You just have to do the steps you would normally do as part of your regular workflow. In addition to creation being so simple, guides themselves are perfect. And if there are some things you would like to change, tweaking it is, again, as simple as it gets.” — Jasna C., Lawyer, G2 Review

We’re not done yet! Read our case study here to know how Scribe enabled Crexi's customer success managers to update internal training materials and promptly respond to client inquiries, all within three minutes.

Now you know “why” we’re biased towards Scribe because it’s the most prominent solution for creating not only user guides but any kind of documentation both for internal and external needs.

Ready to experience it? Get started for free and boost your team’s productivity by 25 percent!