diff --git a/code/lib/cli/package.json b/code/lib/cli/package.json
index 6cb280042f93..dda9d8e4b15e 100644
--- a/code/lib/cli/package.json
+++ b/code/lib/cli/package.json
@@ -89,7 +89,6 @@
     "prompts": "^2.4.0",
     "read-pkg-up": "^7.0.1",
     "semver": "^7.3.7",
-    "simple-update-notifier": "^2.0.0",
     "strip-json-comments": "^3.0.1",
     "tempy": "^1.0.1",
     "tiny-invariant": "^1.3.1",
diff --git a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/NEXTJS/index.ts b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/NEXTJS/index.ts
index 40f91b3e8c66..fe6672b669a7 100644
--- a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/NEXTJS/index.ts
+++ b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/NEXTJS/index.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ const generator: Generator = async (packageManager, npmOptions, options) => {
     'react',
     {
       staticDir,
-      extraAddons: ['@storybook/addon-onboarding'],
+      extraAddons: ['@storybook/addon-onboarding@^1.0.0'],
       webpackCompiler: ({ builder }) => undefined,
     },
     'nextjs'
diff --git a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/REACT/index.ts b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/REACT/index.ts
index e19a55ce1adc..967ed7b5531b 100644
--- a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/REACT/index.ts
+++ b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/REACT/index.ts
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ const generator: Generator = async (packageManager, npmOptions, options) => {
   await baseGenerator(packageManager, npmOptions, options, 'react', {
     extraPackages,
     webpackCompiler: ({ builder }) => (builder === CoreBuilder.Webpack5 ? 'swc' : undefined),
-    extraAddons: ['@storybook/addon-onboarding'],
+    extraAddons: ['@storybook/addon-onboarding@^1.0.0'],
   });
 };
 
diff --git a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/REACT_NATIVE/index.ts b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/REACT_NATIVE/index.ts
index e3b8dcfa50c0..d87cd187e55b 100644
--- a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/REACT_NATIVE/index.ts
+++ b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/REACT_NATIVE/index.ts
@@ -30,14 +30,14 @@ const generator = async (
     '@storybook/addon-controls@^6.5.16',
   ];
 
-  const resolvedPackages = await packageManager.getVersionedPackages(packagesToResolve);
+  const versionedPackages = await packageManager.getVersionedPackages(packagesToResolve);
 
   const babelDependencies = await getBabelDependencies(packageManager, packageJson);
 
   const packages: string[] = [];
   packages.push(...babelDependencies);
   packages.push(...packagesWithFixedVersion);
-  packages.push(...resolvedPackages);
+  packages.push(...versionedPackages);
   if (missingReactDom && reactVersion) {
     packages.push(`react-dom@${reactVersion}`);
   }
diff --git a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/WEBPACK_REACT/index.ts b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/WEBPACK_REACT/index.ts
index d894be17b34e..a6f0293248f4 100644
--- a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/WEBPACK_REACT/index.ts
+++ b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/WEBPACK_REACT/index.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import type { Generator } from '../types';
 
 const generator: Generator = async (packageManager, npmOptions, options) => {
   await baseGenerator(packageManager, npmOptions, options, 'react', {
-    extraAddons: ['@storybook/addon-onboarding'],
+    extraAddons: ['@storybook/addon-onboarding@^1.0.0'],
     webpackCompiler: ({ builder }) => (builder === CoreBuilder.Webpack5 ? 'swc' : undefined),
   });
 };
diff --git a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/baseGenerator.ts b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/baseGenerator.ts
index 2cf1b8c75687..a0bedbf55975 100644
--- a/code/lib/cli/src/generators/baseGenerator.ts
+++ b/code/lib/cli/src/generators/baseGenerator.ts
@@ -298,8 +298,6 @@ export async function baseGenerator(
   const versionedPackages = await packageManager.getVersionedPackages(packages as string[]);
   versionedPackagesSpinner.succeed();
 
-  const depsToInstall = [...versionedPackages];
-
   try {
     if (process.env.CI !== 'true') {
       const { hasEslint, isStorybookPluginInstalled, eslintConfigFile } = await extractEslintInfo(
@@ -307,7 +305,7 @@ export async function baseGenerator(
       );
 
       if (hasEslint && !isStorybookPluginInstalled) {
-        depsToInstall.push('eslint-plugin-storybook');
+        versionedPackages.push('eslint-plugin-storybook');
         await configureEslintPlugin(eslintConfigFile ?? undefined, packageManager);
       }
     }
@@ -315,12 +313,13 @@ export async function baseGenerator(
     // any failure regarding configuring the eslint plugin should not fail the whole generator
   }
 
-  if (depsToInstall.length > 0) {
+  if (versionedPackages.length > 0) {
     const addDependenciesSpinner = ora({
       indent: 2,
       text: 'Installing Storybook dependencies',
     }).start();
-    await packageManager.addDependencies({ ...npmOptions, packageJson }, depsToInstall);
+
+    await packageManager.addDependencies({ ...npmOptions, packageJson }, versionedPackages);
     addDependenciesSpinner.succeed();
   }
 
diff --git a/code/lib/cli/src/initiate.ts b/code/lib/cli/src/initiate.ts
index c0dbf5a3c7b3..f32b824ab97b 100644
--- a/code/lib/cli/src/initiate.ts
+++ b/code/lib/cli/src/initiate.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import { NxProjectDetectedError } from '@storybook/core-events/server-errors';
 
 import dedent from 'ts-dedent';
 import boxen from 'boxen';
+import { lt, prerelease } from 'semver';
 import type { Builder } from './project_types';
 import { installableProjectTypes, ProjectType } from './project_types';
 import { detect, isStorybookInstantiated, detectLanguage, detectPnp } from './detect';
@@ -241,15 +242,33 @@ async function doInitiate(
     force: pkgMgr,
   });
 
-  const welcomeMessage = 'storybook init - the simplest way to add a Storybook to your project.';
-  logger.log(chalk.inverse(`\n ${welcomeMessage} \n`));
+  const latestVersion = await packageManager.latestVersion('@storybook/cli');
+  const currentVersion = versions['@storybook/cli'];
+  const isPrerelease = prerelease(currentVersion);
+  const isOutdated = lt(currentVersion, latestVersion);
+  const borderColor = isOutdated ? '#FC521F' : '#F1618C';
+
+  const messages = {
+    welcome: `Adding Storybook version ${chalk.bold(currentVersion)} to your project..`,
+    notLatest: chalk.red(dedent`
+      This version is behind the latest release, which is: ${chalk.bold(latestVersion)}!
+      You likely ran the init command through npx, which can use a locally cached version, to get the latest please run:
+      ${chalk.bold('npx storybook@latest init')}
+      
+      You may want to CTRL+C to stop, and run with the latest version instead.
+    `),
+    prelease: chalk.yellow('This is a pre-release version.'),
+  };
 
-  // Update notify code.
-  const { default: updateNotifier } = await import('simple-update-notifier');
-  await updateNotifier({
-    pkg: pkg as any,
-    updateCheckInterval: 1000 * 60 * 60, // every hour (we could increase this later on.)
-  });
+  logger.log(
+    boxen(
+      [messages.welcome]
+        .concat(isOutdated && !isPrerelease ? [messages.notLatest] : [])
+        .concat(isPrerelease ? [messages.prelease] : [])
+        .join('\n'),
+      { borderStyle: 'round', padding: 1, borderColor }
+    )
+  );
 
   // Check if the current directory is empty.
   if (options.force !== true && currentDirectoryIsEmpty(packageManager.type)) {
diff --git a/code/lib/cli/src/js-package-manager/JsPackageManager.ts b/code/lib/cli/src/js-package-manager/JsPackageManager.ts
index 5a3e82be3c43..17ec76ad34a3 100644
--- a/code/lib/cli/src/js-package-manager/JsPackageManager.ts
+++ b/code/lib/cli/src/js-package-manager/JsPackageManager.ts
@@ -330,13 +330,29 @@ export abstract class JsPackageManager {
   /**
    * Return an array of strings matching following format: `<package_name>@<package_latest_version>`
    *
+   * For packages in the storybook monorepo, when the latest version is equal to the version of the current CLI
+   * the version is not added to the string.
+   *
+   * When a package is in the monorepo, and the version is not equal to the CLI version, the version is taken from the versions.ts file and added to the string.
+   *
    * @param packages
    */
   public getVersionedPackages(packages: string[]): Promise<string[]> {
     return Promise.all(
       packages.map(async (pkg) => {
         const [packageName, packageVersion] = getPackageDetails(pkg);
-        return `${packageName}@${await this.getVersion(packageName, packageVersion)}`;
+        const latestInRange = await this.latestVersion(packageName, packageVersion);
+
+        const k = packageName as keyof typeof storybookPackagesVersions;
+        const currentVersion = storybookPackagesVersions[k];
+
+        if (currentVersion === latestInRange) {
+          return `${packageName}`;
+        }
+        if (currentVersion) {
+          return `${packageName}@${currentVersion}`;
+        }
+        return `${packageName}@^${latestInRange}`;
       })
     );
   }
diff --git a/code/yarn.lock b/code/yarn.lock
index e035a0f0eb42..e4e15dc7df5c 100644
--- a/code/yarn.lock
+++ b/code/yarn.lock
@@ -5313,7 +5313,6 @@ __metadata:
     prompts: "npm:^2.4.0"
     read-pkg-up: "npm:^7.0.1"
     semver: "npm:^7.3.7"
-    simple-update-notifier: "npm:^2.0.0"
     slash: "npm:^5.0.0"
     strip-json-comments: "npm:^3.1.1"
     tempy: "npm:^1.0.1"
@@ -25995,15 +25994,6 @@ __metadata:
   languageName: node
   linkType: hard
 
-"simple-update-notifier@npm:^2.0.0":
-  version: 2.0.0
-  resolution: "simple-update-notifier@npm:2.0.0"
-  dependencies:
-    semver: "npm:^7.5.3"
-  checksum: 2a00bd03bfbcbf8a737c47ab230d7920f8bfb92d1159d421bdd194479f6d01ebc995d13fbe13d45dace23066a78a3dc6642999b4e3b38b847e6664191575b20c
-  languageName: node
-  linkType: hard
-
 "sisteransi@npm:^1.0.5":
   version: 1.0.5
   resolution: "sisteransi@npm:1.0.5"