Shepherd review
A developer-focused tour library with strong accessibility and framework support.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Shepherd is an open-source JavaScript library for creating guided tours, trainings, announcements, and onboarding journeys in web applications and websites. It is designed for frontend teams that want to define tour steps, tooltips, overlays, navigation, target elements, and event behavior in code. Its feature set includes conditional step display with showOn, page-driven progression with advanceOn, custom buttons, customizable styling, keyboard navigation, focus trapping, and accessibility attributes and controls.
The open-source option is free for open-source, personal, and non-commercial use. Commercial products and closed-source applications require a commercial license. The Business Plan costs $50 as a one-time payment and includes up to 5 projects, 1 month of commercial support, regular product updates, and a lifetime license. The Enterprise Plan costs $300 as a one-time payment and includes unlimited projects, 6 months of support, prioritized GitHub issues, and a lifetime license. Shepherd Consulting adds white-glove services, onboarding and training, advanced analytics, and support through professional services.
Shepherd fits teams comfortable implementing onboarding flows in JavaScript rather than configuring them through a visual editor. It supports web projects through plain JavaScript and framework support for React, Ember, Angular, and Vue.js. The product focuses on guided tours, contextual guidance, overlays, and developer-controlled behavior, while its category profile does not include checklists, a no-code builder, or listed integrations. Choose Shepherd when accessible, code-defined tours are the priority; choose another product when you need broader onboarding formats, visual authoring, analytics in the core product, or platforms beyond the web.
Shepherd pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Open-source option supports tours, overlays, and conditional steps
- Keyboard navigation, focus trapping, and accessibility controls
- Supports React, Ember, Angular, Vue.js, and plain JavaScript
- Where it doesn't
- Web-only; no support for native mobile platforms
- No checklists, no-code builder, analytics, or listed integrations
- Commercial and closed-source use requires a paid license
Shepherd fact sheet, pricing and score →
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