Comparison
Airclou Playbook vs Trainual
Trainual is the established training platform — templates, courses, org charts, mobile apps. Playbook is the AI-native alternative: the same SOPs that train your people ground your customer-facing AI, at published prices you don't need a demo to see.
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The honest verdict
Two different jobs for the same manual
Both products turn your procedures into structured, trainable knowledge. They disagree about who reads it — and that difference decides which one fits.
Trainual trains your team. Playbook also runs your AI.
Trainual's AI assistant answers your employees inside Trainual. Playbook's published SOPs additionally ground the AI that answers your customers — cited by name and version in every Airclou Helpdesk draft.
Published pricing, start today
Trainual's plans are quote-based — you book a demo to learn the price. Playbook's prices are on the pricing page, the trial is self-serve, and there's a free plan to write your first SOP tonight.
Where Trainual is ahead
Mobile apps, a large template library with pre-built courses, org and role charts, and an ops layer of meetings, scorecards, and goals. If those carry your operation today, Trainual is the safer pick — honestly.
Side by side
Feature by feature
| Feature | Airclou Playbook | Trainual |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge & SOPs | ||
| Structured SOP editor (topics & steps) | Included | Included |
| AI-assisted writing | Smart Outline + inline suggestions | AI content generation |
| Version history & restore | Full history on every playbook | 30 days (all-time on the top plan) |
| Template library & pre-built courses | — | Included |
| Mobile apps | — | iOS & Android |
| Training | ||
| Assign to people & groups | Included | Included |
| Quizzes / tests | Included | Included |
| E-signatures | Included | Included |
| Completion & score tracking | Per person and per group | Included |
| Org chart & role chart | — | Included |
| Meetings, scorecards & goals | — | Included |
| AI beyond training | ||
| Internal AI assistant for employee questions | — | Included |
| Grounds a customer-facing support AI | Every Airclou Helpdesk AI answer | — |
| AI answers cite the exact playbook & version | Included | — |
| Publication state is the AI retrieval boundary | Drafts never answer customers | — |
| Pricing | ||
| Published pricing | $8–29 per member / month | Quote-only — book a demo |
| Free trial | 14 days, no credit card | — |
| Free plan | 1 member, core authoring | — |
Trainual details are from their public pages at the time of writing and can change — check trainual.com for current details. Trainual does not publish plan prices; their plans are quoted after a demo.
The difference, shown
What AI-native looks like on a real SOP
Your SOPs answer customers, not just new hires
The refund-handling playbook that onboards your support team is the same document that grounds the AI reply your customer receives — with a sources card naming the exact playbooks and versions behind every draft.
- Published playbooks ground every Helpdesk AI answer
- Citations name the exact playbook and version
- One correction updates people and AI together
Publishing is a decision, with a paper trail
Edits stay private until you publish — now or on a schedule — and every published version is kept. Because only published versions reach the AI, rolling back a doc rolls back what future answers say, too.
- Full version history: save, compare, restore
- Unpublished changes flagged until you ship or discard them
- Drafts never train people or answer customers
Switching
Questions teams ask before leaving Trainual
Can we bring our Trainual content over?
Export your content from Trainual — you own it — and import the documents into Playbook. Smart Outline helps restructure long prose into topics and steps, and you review everything before it publishes.
What happens to our training records and signatures?
Export them from Trainual before you leave; historical records stay yours. Completions and signatures start fresh in Playbook — for compliance-sensitive procedures, re-collecting acknowledgment on the new system is one assignment, and many teams treat it as a scheduled re-certification anyway.
Trainual has mobile apps. Playbook doesn’t?
Correct — today Playbook is a web app (it works in a mobile browser, but there is no native app). If offline, on-the-floor mobile training is core to your operation right now, Trainual is the safer choice until we ship one.
We use Trainual’s org chart, meetings, and scorecards. Does Playbook replace those?
No. Playbook deliberately stays focused on SOPs, training, and the knowledge that grounds your AI. If the ops-suite layer — org charts, meeting agendas, KPI scorecards — is a big part of your Trainual usage, factor that into the comparison honestly.
What does “grounds your AI” get us if we don’t use Airclou Helpdesk?
Playbook is a complete product without it: structured SOPs, versioning, assignments, quizzes, and signatures. The AI grounding is what you unlock later — the same playbooks start answering your customers through Airclou Helpdesk, cited by name and version, with no second knowledgebase to maintain.
Are we locked into a contract?
No. Playbook bills monthly per member and you can cancel anytime. Annual billing exists for the discount, not as a lock-in — and your content is exportable either way.
Make the switch
Bring one real procedure and see
Import an SOP from Trainual, restructure it with Smart Outline, and assign it to your team — all inside the free trial, while Trainual keeps running.
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