Comparison

Scribe vs Howpaper: the same guides, without the subscription

Scribe is the best-known tool for turning a task into a step-by-step guide with screenshots (about 1,000,000 users of its Chrome extension, 4.8 stars). The free plan records web apps and shares a guide as a Scribe-hosted link. Everything you need to own the guide — PDF, HTML or Markdown export, blurring sensitive fields, your own branding — is in Pro Personal at $35 a month, or $25 a month paid yearly.

Howpaper does the recording part the same way and the ownership part differently: the guide stays in your browser, HTML and PDF export are free, and the Pro features cost €24 once. If you use Scribe and like it, here is what changes if you switch, and what doesn’t.

Side by side

	Scribe	Howpaper
Price	Free (Basic) · Pro Personal $35/month, $25/month yearly	Free · Pro €24 once, forever
Account	Required	None
Where your guides and screenshots live	Scribe’s cloud	Your browser only
Record clicks and typing into numbered steps with screenshots	Yes	Yes
Export to PDF and HTML	Pro only	Free (small “Made with Howpaper” line; removed in Pro)
Export to Markdown and Word	Markdown in Pro; Word not listed	Pro (Markdown + images as zip, .docx)
Blur passwords and card numbers	Pro (manual/assisted); automatic redaction is Enterprise	Free, automatic for password and card fields, plus manual blur
Your logo and colours	Pro	Pro
Share a guide as a hosted link	Yes	No — you send the file or publish it yourself
Desktop apps (outside the browser)	Pro	No, browser only
AI-written titles and descriptions	Yes	No — steps are named from what you clicked
Team workspace, analytics, SSO	Team and Enterprise	No

Scribe figures as shown on the Chrome Web Store (via chrome-stats) and on scribe.com/pricing on 11 October 2026. They change. Scribe is a trademark of its owner; we are not affiliated.

When Scribe is the better choice

If your team shares guides as links inside a workspace, needs analytics on who read them, documents desktop applications, or wants AI to write the prose, Scribe does all of that and Howpaper doesn’t. If someone else pays the subscription, the comparison is easy.

When Howpaper is the better choice

If you write procedures for yourself, a small team, a client or a wiki, and what you need at the end is a file — a PDF to attach, an HTML page for the intranet, Markdown for a docs repo, a Word document for the compliance folder — Howpaper gives you that for free or for €24 once, and nothing you record ever leaves your computer. Passwords and card numbers are blurred before the screenshot is saved, which matters when the guide shows a real account.

Trying it takes two minutes

Install Howpaper, press Record, do the task as you normally would, press Stop. The editor opens with every click as a numbered step; rename, reorder, blur, then export. You can keep Scribe installed.

Add Howpaper to Chrome — free See Howpaper pricing