COMPARISON
Nuclino vs Whale: Which Is the Best Fit for Your Business?
- 4.8/5 on G2
- SOC 2 certified
Comparing Nuclino vs Whale
Nuclino is a lightweight, collaborative knowledge management tool. It is built for writing things down together quickly: documents that several people can edit at once, whiteboard canvases beside them, and the same content viewable as a list, board, table or graph. It is fast, clean, and deliberately simple.
Whale is a SOP, training and knowledge platform. It also stores documented processes, but its job continues after the document exists: assigning it to the right roles, checking people understood it, tracking who has completed it, and giving every process an owner and a review date.
They overlap on writing and storing knowledge, and they separate on what happens after. This page sets out where each one is stronger, using both vendors’ own published information.
Side by side
In a seashell
| Feature |  | Nuclino |
|---|---|---|
| G2 rating | 4.8 out of 5 | 4.7 out of 5 |
| Primary purpose | SOP, training and knowledge platform: written SOPs, checklists and video in one place | Lightweight, collaborative knowledge management: real-time documents, whiteboard canvases, and list, board, table and graph views. |
| Customer Support | Live chat, 1-on-1 coaching, full migration service | Help centre for all, basic email support on Starter, priority support on Business |
| Single source of truth | Central, searchable knowledge base for text and video | Central, searchable wiki, with a graph view of how pages link together |
| Screen recording | Built-in Step Recorder, up to 10 min per video | Not available, Nuclino is written documents rather than screen capture |
| AI voiceover and translation | Not available | Not available |
| Written SOP and checklist templates | Template libraries included | Templates for new items, but not SOP or checklist specific |
| Training flows and onboarding paths | Available | Not available |
| Assign reading and track completion | Read Assignments with completion tracking | Not available |
| Check understanding | AI-generated quizzes | Not available |
| Approval and review cycles | Approval flows and expert review cycles | Version history, 30 days on Free and Starter, unlimited on Business |
| Org chart and role-based process mapping | Available | Admin, member and guest roles, no org chart |
| Delivery in the flow of work | Browser extension, Slack, native mobile app | Publish a workspace as a website, on a custom domain on Business |
| Integrations | 23 native integrations, plus MCP and API | Integrations with tools such as Slack and Google Drive, plus an API on Starter and above |
| Write SOPs with an external AI tool | Yes, via Whale’s MCP | Not available |
| Security and compliance | SOC 2 certified, HIPAA ready, GDPR compliant | 2FA, access and editing restrictions on all plans; SAML SSO, audit log and advanced security controls on Business |
| Pricing | Free Plan, free forever for up to 10 members Scale Plan: $249/month billed annually with 3 creators and unlimited members Advance Plan: $499/month billed annually with 5 creators and unlimited members Enterprise Plan: Starting at Custom Find more info on Whale’s pricing here Find more info on Whale’s pricing here | Free: €0/user/month, up to 50 items, 3 canvases, 2GB storage Starter: €6/user/month billed yearly, unlimited items, 10GB/user Business: €10/user/month billed yearly, Sidekick AI, SAML SSO, audit log, 20GB/user Yearly billing saves up to 25%. Every user is billed, including guests and read-only members. |
| Book a Demo |
Alice AI
Meet Alice, the AI that knows
how your company works
Alice is the AI assistant inside Whale. It works from your own SOPs and org chart, and builds content as well as finding it.
Answers with sources
Ask in plain language and follow up. Answers come from your workspace, with a link to the source.
Knows your org chart
Ask who owns a process, who reports to whom or which team handles what.
Creates for you
SOPs, checklists, step-by-step guides and quizzes, plus whole boards, libraries and playbooks when your permissions allow.
Brings in what you have
Turns PDF and Word files into SOPs, and videos into step-by-step guides.
Remembers how you work
Keeps your preferences and context, and you can see or delete every memory.
Whale MCP
Connect Claude, OpenAI or Gemini to search and build your SOPs, within your Whale permissions. Alice also works with Microsoft Teams, Slack and Notion.
Diving deeper
Features
Whale is built around the whole life of a procedure, not just its creation. Every SOP has an owner, a version history and a review cycle. You can assign it, confirm it has been read, and test understanding with AI-generated quizzes. Approval flows and expert review cycles keep content trustworthy as it changes, an org chart maps processes to roles, and template libraries mean you are not starting from a blank page. Whale records screen walkthroughs too, with a built-in Step Recorder and Video to SOP, and through Whale’s MCP external AI tools can read and write your documentation directly.
Nuclino is a lightweight, collaborative knowledge management tool, and it is genuinely good at that job. Documents are editable by several people in real time, canvases put whiteboards and diagrams in the same place as the writing, and the same content can be browsed as a list, board, table or graph, which suits teams that think in connections rather than folders. Canvases are something Whale does not offer.
On the Business plan, Sidekick adds AI that answers questions from your own content, drafts and edits text and generates images, alongside SAML single sign-on, an audit log and unlimited version history.
Where it stops is structure. There are no approval or review workflows, no process owners and no review dates, so nothing prompts anyone to confirm a procedure is still correct. Permissions exist as admin, member and guest roles with access and editing restrictions, but there is no governance layer above them and no org chart tying processes to the people who own them. Integrations cover tools such as Slack and Google Drive plus an API, rather than deep connections into systems like Salesforce or Zendesk. And there is no training delivery at all: no courses, quizzes, assignments or completion tracking, so Nuclino can tell you a procedure exists but never that anyone read it.
Ease of use
Whale is rated 9.6 out of 10 for ease of use on G2 and is built so a non-technical team member can document, find and train on a process without help. The setup that matters is structural: where procedures live, who owns them, and who has to read them.
Nuclino is very quick to start and needs almost no training. The editor is minimal, there is little to configure, and a small team can be writing together within minutes. For a startup or a small team that wants documentation live this week with minimal overhead, that simplicity is the whole point and a fair reason to choose it.
Two limits are worth knowing before you commit. The free plan stops at 50 items and 3 canvases with 2GB of storage, which a real documentation project reaches quickly. And version history is capped at 30 days on Free and Starter, so restoring an older version of a procedure needs the Business plan.
The same simplicity is what limits it later. Larger teams that want advanced features, deeper customization and structured control over how knowledge is approved tend to outgrow it, which is the trade-off you are making when you pick it for the speed.
Customer Support
Whale provides a responsive team on live chat and email, plus Coaching & Training services and a Migration service that will take the documentation you already have, wherever it lives today, including exports from other tools, and get it in properly.
Nuclino offers a help centre for everyone, basic email support on Starter and priority support on Business. Admin and security controls follow the same pattern: two-factor authentication, access and editing restrictions, groups and private workspaces are available on the lower tiers, while SAML single sign-on, the audit log and advanced security controls are Business only.
Whale provides live chat and email, plus coaching on how to document well rather than only how to use the software, and a full migration service if you are moving existing content across.
Pricing
Free Plan: $0/month with 1 creator and up to 10 members
Scale Plan: $249/month billed annually with 3 creators and unlimited members
Advance Plan: $499/month billed annually with 5 creators and unlimited members
Enterprise Plan: Starting at Custom
Find more info on Whale’s pricing here
Free: €0/user/month, up to 50 items, 3 canvases, 2GB total storage
Starter: €6/user/month billed yearly, unlimited items, 10GB/user, 14-day free trial
Business: €10/user/month billed yearly, Sidekick AI, SAML SSO, audit log, 20GB/user
Nuclino prices in euros and states that yearly billing saves up to 25%. Every user counts, including guests and read-only members.
Why teams choose Whale to run their SOPs and training
More secure
Rated ‘Easiest to Use’
Company knowledge sits in one permissioned system, with granular access per document, and Whale is SOC 2 certified, HIPAA ready and GDPR compliant.
Related to your business
Rated ‘High Performer’
Whale holds the written procedure as well as the walkthrough, so the answer your team gets is your process, with your tools, your thresholds and your exceptions, not a generic guide.
More support
Rated ‘Best Support’
Coaching on how to document well, not just how to click buttons, plus a full migration service to bring your existing guides and documents in.
What clients say about us on
Dedicated to Customer Success & Support
We make sure that each customer is onboarded exceptionally so that they can use the magic of Whale to it’s fullest. Our team will give you feedback on the best way to get started and best practices for documentation.
We offer a full migration service and will teach you our proven framework on how to create impactful documentation with no effort. Or you can simply enlist the help of one of our Certified partners to help you get it done. Book a demo and tell our team what you need!
Whale's Award Winning Customer Care
At Whale, we’re dedicated to ensuring your success as you build documentation your team can actually rely on. Discover our tailored resources and personalised support, designed to help you bring your existing guides and procedures, wherever they live today, into one system with owners, versions and training built in.
Knowledge Base
For Answers When You Need Them
Need answers on Whale? Our comprehensive Knowledge Base is at your fingertips, offering detailed articles, step-by-step guides, and in-depth videos. Whether you prefer to read or watch our videos, our award-winning* content is always available to you, completely free, forever.
Whale Universe
Your Gateway to Whale
Kickstart your Whale journey with the Whale Universe. It’s accessible directly from your dashboard. From the Whale Universe, you’ll be able to access ready-to-go templates, ask Alice (your personal AI assistant anything) and download the Mobile App, Step Recorder, and Extension in seconds.
Process University
Get Rewarded for Learning
Process University is like no other university. It’s a win-win for businesses and teams with process training that raises the value of your business and team members. Because we believe your teams don’t need training on our product, they should be awarded for being skilled in process.
1-on-1 Coaching
Invested in Your Success
For personalized guidance, our Customer Success team is ready to assist with 1-on-1 coaching. We don’t just teach you how to use Whale; we dive deep into best practices and use cases, ensuring you master the art of knowledge documentation. Let us help you navigate the platform with confidence.
Weekly Q&A Sessions
Learn As You Grow
Join our weekly training and Q&A to get personalized answers to your questions. Our regular webinars introduce new features and show you how to maximize your potential on the Whale platform. Whenever a new feature is introduced, we invite you to join us to ensure you get the most out of the platform.
Migration Services
Let Us Help You Make the Change
Already have your processes documented? We’re here to ensure a seamless transition to Whale. Our Migration Services don’t just transfer your content: they elevate it. We’ll refine and optimize your knowledge base to align with your goals, making it faster and easier for your team to find what they need.
Security
Security your IT team
can sign off on
What IT asks about before a rollout, answered.
SOC 2 certified
How your procedures and records are stored and protected is independently audited.
Granular permissions and enforced SSO
Available from the Advance plan, so access control matches how your organisation is already set up.
GDPR aligned
EU and UK data rights documented in the Whale Trust Center.
Your data, your region
Hosted in the US or the EU, whichever you choose.
Enterprise agreements
A BAA is signed on request on the Enterprise plan.
Plans that grow with your team
Scale
Most popularFor a team putting every process in one place.
$249/mobilled yearly- 3 creators includedEach extra creator: $29/mo billed yearly, $39/mo billed monthly.
Advance
For growing teams that onboard and train at scale.
$499/mobilled yearly- 5 creators includedEach extra creator: $39/mo billed yearly, $49/mo billed monthly.
Enterprise
For larger organizations that need security and control.
Custombilled yearly- Unlimited members
Frequently Asked Questions About Nuclino vs Whale
01What is Nuclino?
Nuclino is a lightweight, collaborative knowledge management tool. It stores documents that several people can edit in real time, adds whiteboard canvases alongside them, and lets you browse the same content as a list, board, table or graph. It is designed to be fast and simple, and it is often used as a lightweight internal knowledge base or documentation space.
02How much does Nuclino cost?
Nuclino prices in euros, per user per month, and states that yearly billing saves up to 25%. The free plan is €0 and covers up to 50 items, 3 canvases and 2GB of total storage. Starter is €6 per user per month billed yearly, with unlimited items, admin tools, publishing, integrations, API access and 10GB of storage per user. Business is €10 per user per month billed yearly, adding Sidekick AI, SAML single sign-on, an audit log, team insights, unlimited version history and 20GB per user.
One detail matters when you budget. Nuclino’s own pricing FAQ states that a user is anyone who joins your team, including guests and read-only members, and that upgrading upgrades your entire team. Everyone who needs to read your documentation is a paid seat.
03What is the difference between Nuclino and Whale?
Nuclino stores knowledge. Whale runs it. With Nuclino you get a fast, pleasant wiki where a team can write things down together, with canvases and flexible views. With Whale you get that documentation plus the layer around it: assigning procedures to the right roles, checking understanding with quizzes, tracking completion, and an org chart that maps processes to the people who own them.
04Is Whale expensive compared to Nuclino?
Whale and Nuclino are priced differently.
Nuclino charges per user, and by its own definition that means every person on the team, including guests and read-only members. Whale is priced per plan, with unlimited members on paid plans and a set number of creators included, because it is carrying training delivery, assignments, completion tracking and an org chart as well as the documents. If you only need a small team writing and reading a wiki, Nuclino is the cheaper tool and the right one. If most of your people only ever need to read a procedure and prove they did, compare the per-head cost against a plan with unlimited members.
05What is the best alternative to Nuclino?
Whale. Nuclino is a fast, lightweight wiki and deliberately stays that way. Whale keeps that searchable simplicity and adds what Nuclino has no equivalent for: assigning a procedure to roles, quizzes to check understanding, completion tracking, process owners with review dates, and an org chart. Paid plans include unlimited members, so read-only people do not each cost a seat.
06👉 Choose Whale as an alternative to Nuclino if
- You need written SOPs, checklists and policies as your source of truth, not a lightweight collaborative wiki.
- You want every procedure to have an owner, a version history and a review date.
- You need to prove who has read and understood which version.
- You’re looking for AI SOP Software with employee onboarding and training features.
- You want structured onboarding and training paths inside the tool rather than exported to an LMS.
- You want processes mapped to roles with an org chart.
- You want one searchable place for text, checklists and video together.
- You want AI tools to read and write your documentation through an MCP server.
07Key Terms & Further Reading on SOPs and Knowledge Management
Key Definitions
Additional resources
30-60-90 Onboarding Plan Template
Customer Service Process Template
Mission and Vision Statement Template
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