Soma Somorjai

OnboardJS - Open-Source React Onboarding & Analytics Library for Developers OnboardJS helps you build and optimize user onboarding. Translate your flow code into powerful analytics to find & fix leaks and boost adoption with AI-driven insights.

3/ So I built OnboardJS.

MIT license.
Code-first.
Native analytics.
Built by a dev, for devs.

And I am just getting started.

onboardjs.com

2/ I looked at UserGuiding, Pendo, WalkMe.
$50K/year and locked into their UI.

Yeah I don't have that kinda money. I also wanted control. I am a dev after all. I wanted my components.

1/ I tried templates.

Sure building was faster but managing transitions and step state was still a nightmare.
Still didn't answer the right questions on convertions.

Then I realized, maybe there are pre-built solutions for this already lol?

Why am I builing OnboardJS (thread)

Many times for pet-projects or SaaS applications I had to create an onboarding flows from scratch

Always the same pain points came up while building
- Takes a long ass time
- State management is pain
- No clue if it actually converts

5 Best React Onboarding Libraries in 2025 (Compared) - OnboardJS You need to onboard users in your React app. You could build it from scratch, but you'd spend days handling edge cases, step sequencing, state persistence, event tracking, conditional logic. Or you c...

Wrote a full comparison with code examples:

5 Best React Onboarding Libraries in 2025
onboardjs.com/blog/5-best-...

Which approach are you using? Reply below 👇

TL;DR:

- Tour library? Intro.js
- Minimal bundle? Driver.js
- Zero code? Appcues (but $$)
- Custom flow + analytics? OnboardJS
- Time to spare? Build it

Most teams pick #2 or #4, then realize they need #5.

Save time. Start with OnboardJS.

OnboardJS - Open-Source React Onboarding & Analytics Library for Developers OnboardJS helps you build and optimize user onboarding. Translate your flow code into powerful analytics to find & fix leaks and boost adoption with AI-driven insights.

STATE MACHINE LIBRARY (OnboardJS)

Pros:
- Build custom flows, not just tours
- Analytics built-in
- Persistent state
- Plugin ecosystem

Cons:
- You bring the UI
- Newer library

Best for: Teams who want control + visibility, don't want the DIY pain. onboardjs.com

CUSTOM CODE + ANALYTICS TOOL
Build your flow in React, instrument events with PostHog.

Pros:
- Full control
- Real data on drop-off
- No lock-in

Cons:
- Takes 2-3 weeks
- Manual event tracking
- Config overhead
- You maintain the dashboard

Best for: Teams with time to build.

LIGHTWEIGHT HIGHLIGHTS (Driver.js)

Pros:
- Tiny (~5kb)
- Framework agnostic
- Smooth animations

Cons:
- Just highlights elements
- No state management
- You build everything else

Best for: Performance-critical apps where bundle size matters.

TOUR LIBRARIES (Intro.js, React Joyride)

Pros:
- Quick setup (30 mins)
- Attach tooltips to existing UI
- Battle-tested code

Cons:
- Only guides tours, not flows
- No analytics
- Can't handle complex logic
- DOM-dependent

Best for: Simple product tours showing off features.

NO-CODE TOOLS (Appcues, Userpilot)
Pros:
- Fastest to launch
- No code needed
- Analytics built-in

Cons:
- Lock-in
- Limited customization
- $500+/month
- Clunky to iterate

Best for: Marketing teams who need fast results, don't care about code.

You need to build onboarding in React.

5 approaches, ranked by complexity vs control.

Which one are you using?

Tomorrow I am writing up a blog post about how to refactor your existing React onboarding to use #OnboardJS.

Is it worth creating a video tutorial too?

#UserOnboarding #OpenSource #ProductGrowth

Fun analytics coming to #OnboardJS!

Know when your users reached critical points in your app.

Haha a Vue 2 (EOL) to React full frontend migration. Months. Before AI

Instead of cold calling today, I just have a cold. 🤧

I think it's very productive...
Will come back with the results

#Growth #Productivity #ProductivityHacks

I am building OnboardJS and I am trying to make tracking user flows really easy through visual maps. Not perfect yet, but it’s a massive upgrade over manual review.

Spot on! Have you tried any approaches that made this shift easier, or is it still a challenge in your projects?

Sitting through long screen recordings to understand user behavior? 🧑‍💻

Painful.

A visual journey of user progress through your product? Game-changing. Imagine spotting friction points in seconds.

#SaaS #DeveloperExperience #ProductDesign

I took #LinearApp 's fantastic onboarding as inspiration to build an example using #OnboardJS, complete with Vite, React Router, and @shadcn.com.

Check out the demo and code 🧑‍💻
vite.onboardjs.com

#UserOnboarding #FrontendDevelopment #ReactJS #TypeScript #DevTools #ProductAnalytics #OpenSource

Linear – Plan and build products Linear streamlines issues, projects, and roadmaps. Purpose-built for modern product development.

Don't know about you but I love linear.app 's onboarding! 😍

#UserOnboarding #OnboardJS ?:)

Would you give a new dev user the exact same product tour as a new analyst? 🤔

Of course not.

This is precisely why #OnboardJS has conditional nodes. They are the simple if/then logic that lets you segment users in real-time.

#UserOnboarding #SaaS #ProductLedGrowth #UserSegmentation

From Whiteboard to Code! Introducing the #OnboardJS Visualizer preview.

✅ Drag & drop to build your entire onboarding flow.
🧠 Add conditional branches with a simple rule builder
🚀 Export your entire flow into OnboardJS code

onboardjs.com/visualizer

#SaaS #BuildInPublic #OpenSource #UserOnboarding

Made great progess todat on #OnboardJS 's Visualizer 🫡

Not only can it display your own code's visual flow but you can build one in the visual editor and then export it to code!

Cannot wait to release all these new features!

#OpenSource #UserOnboarding #BuildInPublic

Huge day tomorrow! 🚀

Two discovery calls with early adopters for #OnboardJS.
Conversations are insanely important for building the right tool.
Got ideas on user onboarding? My DMs are open! Let's shape this together! #UserOnboarding #ProductAnalytics #OpenSource #BuildingInPublic

WIP:
Analyze the onboarding you built with #OnboardJS.

onboardjs.com

#OpenSource #UserOnboarding #Analytics #AI

Trying to make DX genuinely easy for #OnboardJS!

Just released a change so now you can specify the Onboarding step React component right in the steps config!

#OpenSource #Webdev #React #UserOnboarding

Following up on the #OnboardJS Visualizer, you can now run a VERY Beta version of it without any hassle!

Run in the terminal: `npx onboardjs-visualizer`

Let me know if you find any 🪲!
I will soon add a hosted version on onboardjs.com 👀

#OpenSource #SaaS

Excited cause I'm building a flow visualizer/builder for #OnboardJS this week!

Will be much easier to understand and build out your onboarding flow! And it will include export/import to/from JSON and Typescript!

#UserOnboarding #SaaS #GrowthHacking #DX #OpenSource

Tailor your #UserOnboarding for your user personas and get them to their "aha!" moment faster! 💨

I added another copy-n-paste UI example for #OnboardJS for user persona selection!

onboardjs.com/docs/ui/pers...

#OpenSource #Webdev #GrowthHacking #SaaS #UX