The Best User Onboarding Software – Ultimate Comparison 2023

I tested Top In-app User Onboarding Software:
Appcues vs Userpilot vs Pendo vs Stonly vs Userflow vs Chameleon vs Product Fruits vs Userguiding vs Usetiful

What is the best tool for your needs See pros, cons, and suggestions Appcues, Userpilot, Pendo, Userflow, Userguiding, Stonly, Chameleon, Product Fruits, Usetiful.

Choosing the best user onboarding software (a.k.a. product adoption software) is not an easy task. At first glance, they all seem to offer the same features. And if you don’t want to rely on comparisons created by the onboarding software companies themselves, you might have hard time deciding which product adoption platform to choose. Recently, I faced this problem myself.

That’s why I tested all of the main product onboarding tools available on the market. Oh boy, wasn’t I surprised with the findings!

But wait, I’m not about to reveal the winners just yet. Let’s start from the beginning.

How to choose In-app Onboarding Software?

Carefully.
I’m fed up with Appcues. At Sencloud, Europe’s #1 shipping software, we’ve been using it for as long as I remember. And while it’s one of the most well-known product adoption tools, there are times it drives me crazy.

I could get over very limited checklist customization possibilities or the lack of the resource center feature. But with Sendcloud’s localization strategy, our frustration with Appcues’ translation module (which makes it impossible to edit a guide/flow after adding translations), exceeded any limits of decency. We’re in the hitman mode now. Target: Appcues.

This example clearly shows how crucial for your team’s performance is to choose your product adoption software carefully. After making the decision, you’re going to be stuck with it probably for a few years. Integrating, setting it up, transferring content, and getting all the team members up to speed takes time. In other words, transition costs are too high to do it every now and then.

But what if you don’t want to spend days on research and testing the best user onboarding tools? Fortunately, you have a psycho like me who did it for you, haha!

So promise to read this guide carefully. Or don’t. I don’t really care. But if you do, you’ll thank me later.

Notice: I’m not associated with any of the reviewed software companies. Everything you read is based on research and testing. Any recommendations are my honest opinion.

What to expect from this guide?
First, I’m going to share my general feelings about each of the best user onboarding software — this will give you a bird’s eye view on the market.
Then, we’re going to break it down and look at the availability of different features: Engagement features, Guide setup options, and Additional features
At the end, you’ll find a table summing up pros and cons. You’ll also find there a comparison of their prices.

What is the best user onboarding tool?
As you can expect, it’s impossible to say which one is going to be the best user onboarding software for everybody. But if money is not a problem and you’re willing to explore all the advanced options, you can’t go wrong with Userflow.

Most robust: Userflow:

Userflow is the most robust user onboarding software currently available. There’s not a single feature that wouldn’t make it to the top 3 compared to its competitors.

In my opinion, it’s close to a perfect solution, especially for the most advanced users who need maximum flexibility. Add to it great targeting/flow triggering options, powerful resource center/checklist, good design, and you’ll know why it finished ahead of the rest of the market.

However, premium features come at a price. As you’ll see in the table below, Userflow is more expensive than most of its counterparts. So if your use of product adoption software will be limited, go for a simpler solution like Userguiding, Stonly, or Userpilot.

Best UX: Userflow and Stonly:

Userflow and Stonly share the first place in terms of general user experience. Using both tools is a pleasure and most of their functionalities work just as they should. They also offer interesting features that other apps don’t, e.g., versioning or a tree view of guides’ structures (Stonly). Interestingly, both of them have guide builders in their app panels (instead of using browser extensions).

And while Stonly is easier to use, it’s because you won’t find there some extra functionalities. It’s generally less powerful (not only compared to Userflow) and lacks features like flow prioritization and account-wide frequency capping (more on that in the last table). Also, its builder doesn’t allow changes to the message structure (image on top, text in the middle, buttons on the bottom).

Will get the job done: Userpilot, Userguiding

Userpilot is like a friend that doesn’t stand out from the crowd, but you can always rely on them. It’s altogether a quality tool that should satisfy the needs of a vast majority of user onboarding managers.

All the features needed to do your job are in place. But compared to Userflow and Stonly, it lacks an element of a positive surprise. It doesn’t shine.

Userguiding:

A runner-up, UserGuiding, is a decent alternative if your budget is limited and you don’t need more advanced functionalities. You won’t find the localization feature, event builder, or flexible audience targeting. Also, its flow builder is pretty basic.

However, the value-for-money ratio is still high, considering it’s the second cheapest user onboarding software I reviewed.

Mixed feelings: Appcues, Chameleon, Pendo, Product Fruits Appcues:

What struck me most is that Appcues looks like Userpilot’s clone. Their app panel layouts and flow builders are very similar, with only cosmetic changes.

Nonetheless, Appcues is less “polished” and doesn’t offer the resource center feature, what I treat as a major inconvenience. Also, even though the localization feature is there, I wouldn’t wish using it my worst enemy.

If you think about going for Appcues, check out Userpilot first. In my opinion, it’s better and half as cheap!

Pendo:
I can’t say Pendo isn’t a decent tool. In the end, it has all the main features and many of the more advanced options. But it’s expensive, not pleasant to use, and takes time to get used to.

If its flow builder went through an overhaul, I’d be curious to test it again. But for now, I wouldn’t want to use it on a daily basis.

Chameleon:
While Chameleon would be far from my first choice, it does offer some interesting features, e.g., the possibility to dynamically show/hide checklist elements or small things like “delight animations” (throwing confetti all over the screen).

Nonetheless, a rather average UX of their builder (which during my limited use happened to occasionally revert the changes I made), the lack of a few rather significant features, and the steeply rising price based on MTUs would discourage me from considering it myself.

Product Fruits:
I’m unsure how to describe Product Fruits — this is the weirdest one, haha! Without any knowledge of Product Fruit’s team, I’d say that it’s a typical case of software built by developers without much consideration for UX and design.

And while you can do quite a lot with the tool, I’m far from recommending it.

But if all you care about are functionalities, Userguiding is not enough, and Userpilot or Userflow are too pricey, go check out Product Fruits. Just promise me you won’t be scared.

The cheapest: Usetiful
Unless you’re on a super tight budget, I’d steer clear of Usetiful due to its limited possibilities and not-the-most-user-friendly guide builder.

Final Ranking: Pros, cons, prices

How is “My rating” calculated?
Each tool can receive max. 5 points.

The score is calculated as a sum of the factors listed below (max. 25 points), divided by 5.

Main feature availability – max. 7 points
Secondary feature availability – max. 3 points
Options inside features – max. 4 points
Ease of use/UX – max. 3 points
Out-of-the-box end user experience (look and feel) – max. 2 points
Bonus point (my subjective preference) – max. 1 points

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