Best User Activation Tools to Increase Retention
Discover the top user activation tools to boost retention and turn new users into loyal customers with our expert guide.
Looking for Pendo alternatives?
Whether you're considering your first product growth platform or thinking about switching, you're in the right place!
If you’re unsure if Pendo’s features and price are right for you, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. In this guide, we’ll look at 5 top Pendo competitors, comparing their features, strengths, and prices to help you find the best option for your needs.
Let’s get started!
TL;DR:
- Pendo Overview: A product adoption platform offering user insights, in-app surveys, guidance, and a roadmap tool, with pricing starting around $99/month.
- Limitations: Limited UI patterns, delayed analytics, complex pricing, steep learning curve, and not suitable for desktop apps.
- Top Alternatives:
- Userlane: No-code onboarding with customizable flows; excels in performance tracking but lacks advanced features
- Appcues: Offers extensive UI options and customizable onboarding but has weaker analytics and may require third-party integrations.
- Chameleon: Known for user segmentation and dynamic personalization, requires coding for advanced customization, and has usage-based pricing.
- UserGuiding: Affordable and easy-to-use with basic onboarding tools and limited analytics, ideal for startups.
- Evaluate alternatives based on your needs for features, pricing, and ease of use to find the best fit for your product adoption strategy.
What Is Pendo?
Pendo is a product adoption platform that helps users learn your product and shows you how they’re using it. It lets you gather customer feedback during app use and provides insights into their engagement. This information helps you prioritize updates and features based on customer needs.
Pendo is all about giving you a clear picture of how customers interact with your product through analytics and feedback. Plus, it offers in-app training and guidance to help users get the hang of your product
Key Features of Pendo:
- Product Usage Insights: Track how customers interact with your product, including which features they use or ignore, using Pendo’s no-code analytics and event tracking tools.
- In-App Surveys: Collect feedback directly from users through in-app surveys to understand their feelings about your product or specific features.
- In-App Guidance and Messaging: Create interactive walkthroughs and pop-up messages to guide users and highlight new features, with no coding required.
- Product Roadmap: Organize customer feedback and prioritize key features with Pendo’s shareable roadmap tool.
Pendo Pricing
According to vendr.com, prices start between $25,800 to $132,400 per year, and for Pendo Feedback, the range falls between $12,500 and $86,800 per year.
Pendo’s Limitations:
Pendo is a well-established adoption tool known for its robust functionality due to its long presence in the market. However, it has several limitations that affect its overall utility.
- Limited UI Patterns for Onboarding
Pendo provides only four UI patterns for user onboarding: Lightbox, Banner, Tooltip, and Polls. Compared to other digital adoption platforms, this selection is fairly limited. Although Pendo’s Visual Designer Studio reduces reliance on developers, it still requires some coding to make in-app guides blend seamlessly with the UI.
- Product Analytics Features
Pendo's lack of real-time data updates, with analytics displayed with a 1-hour delay, restricts its ability to respond instantly to user behavior. This means you cannot immediately trigger surveys or in-app guides based on real-time actions.
Additionally, Pendo’s analytics lack actionable insights, as users cannot target specific groups with tailored guidance or trigger experiences based on in-app events.
- Limited In-App Guidance and Onboarding
Although Pendo started as a product analytics platform and later added in-app guidance features, it falls short in comparison to other digital adoption platforms. It offers fewer onboarding UX elements and guidance tools.
- Pricing and Complexity
Pendo's pricing is complex and expensive. Both its Growth and Portfolio plans come with custom pricing, requiring direct contact for a quote.
The free plan, suitable only for small businesses, has limited features and usage caps. For features like experiments, Pendo charges extra, and others like Pendo Feedback and Session Replay are not included in any plan and incur additional costs.
- Learning Curve
Pendo's complexity results in a steep learning curve. Reviewers on G2 frequently mention that its setup is challenging and the interface is not very intuitive, which can easily lead to confusion for users unfamiliar with the system.
- Incompatibility with Desktop Applications
Pendo was designed primarily for SaaS (web) and mobile applications, making it unsuitable for industries that rely on desktop applications for compliance and security reasons.
5 Best Pendo Alternatives
To help you make an informed decision, we’ve highlighted the top five Pendo alternatives. Compare their features to quickly find the best fit for your business.
1. Userlane
Userlane offers a no-code solution for creating interactive in-app onboarding experiences for both customers and employees. It features customizable flows with modals, tooltips, checklists, hints, and announcements.
Reviews: G2 - ⭐ 4.7/5 (81 reviews)
Pricing: Custom pricing based on user count, features, and support.
Why Choose Userlane?
Userlane excels in creating and localizing in-app flows and recording tutorials. It provides detailed performance tracking for user segments, interaction rates, and behavior trends. Its intuitive UI makes it accessible for non-technical teams.
Userlane vs. Pendo:
Userlane offers a no-code solution with a user-friendly interface, making it accessible for teams without technical expertise. While its features may not be as advanced as Pendo’s, it provides a more straightforward setup and performance tracking.
2. Appcues
Appcues is a versatile digital adoption platform, ideal for creating customizable in-app onboarding experiences across both mobile and web applications. If you're looking for a platform that outperforms Pendo in UI variety and offers a comprehensive toolkit for enhancing user engagement and adoption, Appcues is a strong contender.
Reviews: G2 - ⭐ 4.6/5 (311 reviews)
Pricing:
- Essentials: $249/month
- Growth: $879/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Why Choose Appcues?
Appcues stands out for its wide range of UI patterns, including tooltips, modals, hotspots, slideouts, pins, and banners. This allow teams to build product tours and launch them directly from a checklist, making it a highly adaptable platform for improving user engagement.
In addition to that, Appcues supports in-app surveys, including NPS surveys, to capture user sentiment and feedback. However, when it comes to analytics, Appcues falls short compared to Pendo. While it offers basic tracking for events, flow performance monitoring, and custom goals, it lacks advanced analytics capabilities. You can supplement this with third-party integrations, but it does add an extra layer of complexity.
Appcues vs. Pendo:
Appcues provides more competitive pricing than Pendo, and its extensive UI options make it an attractive choice. However, Appcues' analytics are less robust, and additional features may require third-party tools, which could increase setup complexity.
4. Chameleon
Chameleon is a highly customizable product growth tool, offering an alternative to Pendo with a focus on user segmentation and dynamic personalization. It provides a unique approach to creating tailored in-app experiences, although it requires some coding for more advanced customization.
Reviews: G2 - ⭐ 4.4/5 (251 reviews)
Pricing:
- Startup: $279/month
- Growth: $1,250/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- Helpbar: Free
Why Choose Chameleon?
Chameleon excels in user segmentation, allowing for precise targeting and analysis based on a wide range of data sources. It offers UI patterns such as hotspots, beacons, and labels, which can be sequenced into tours. Additionally, Chameleon's Helpbar feature acts as a search bar for resources, and its launchers serve as in-app widgets for support and onboarding.
While Chameleon’s analytics are basic, they offer real-time data tracking, enabling you to respond to events as they happen. However, the platform's pricing is usage-based, meaning that exceeding the number of Monthly Tracked Users (MTUs) will incur additional charges.
Chameleon vs. Pendo:
Chameleon stands out for its advanced segmentation and personalization features, making it ideal for businesses that require granular user targeting. However, it requires coding for deeper customization, which might be a drawback for some users.
5. UserGuiding
UserGuiding is an affordable digital adoption platform, making it an ideal Pendo alternative for startups and early-stage companies. It enables users to create interactive product tours and onboarding experiences without coding, all at a budget-friendly price point.
Reviews: G2 - ⭐ 4.7/5 (344 reviews)
Pricing:
- Basic: $89/month
- Professional: $389/month
- Corporate: $689+/month
Why Choose UserGuiding?
UserGuiding offers a straightforward, cost-effective solution for creating in-app experiences such as product tours, tooltips, hotspots, and onboarding checklists. The platform also includes a resource center feature, making it easy to design comprehensive onboarding flows. Additionally, UserGuiding supports in-app surveys for gathering user feedback, though its analytics capabilities are limited to tracking the performance of in-app content.
UserGuiding vs. Pendo:
UserGuiding is the most affordable option among Pendo alternatives, making it perfect for startups. While it lacks advanced analytics features like funnels, trends, or heatmaps, its ease of use and lower cost make it a compelling choice for small businesses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, finding the right product growth platform for your needs involves careful consideration of features, pricing, and suitability.
While Pendo offers robust tools for tracking user interactions and collecting feedback, it has its limitations, including complex pricing and a steep learning curve.
By exploring the alternatives highlighted in this guide, you can find a solution that aligns better with your goals, whether you need advanced onboarding features, real-time analytics, or a more budget-friendly option.
Each competitor brings unique strengths to the table, so assess your priorities—whether it’s ease of use, customization, or cost—to choose the platform that best fits your organization’s needs and helps drive your product’s success.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the alternative to Pendo?
Alternatives to Pendo include Appcues, Userlane, Chameleon, and UserGuiding, each offering different strengths in user onboarding and product engagement.
- What are Pendo’s drawbacks?
Pendo’s drawbacks include complex pricing, limited real-time analytics, a steep learning curve, and a lack of advanced UI patterns for onboarding.
- Are there any free/open-source Pendo alternatives?
Yes, Chameleon offers a free Helpbar plan, and there are several open-source tools available, though they may require more customization and technical setup.
- What tools have Pendo integrations?
Pendo comes with 40+ integration of various tools like Salesforce, Zendesk, Segment, Intercom, and Slack, enhancing its functionality with these platforms.
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