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.
If you’re using Appcues or thinking about it, you might be asking: are there any good alternatives? The short answer is ‘yes’. There are many other options out there. But which one is right for you depends on what you need.
Instead of wading through tons of choices, we’ve put together a list of great alternatives to Appcues, each for different reasons you might want to explore other tools.
By the end of this article, you should have a clear idea of which user onboarding platform fits your needs best. Let’s get started!
TL;DR
- Appcues is a platform that helps businesses create, implement, and test personalized in-app experiences to improve user onboarding and product adoption without needing technical expertise.
- While Appcues offers powerful onboarding features, alternatives may provide better value, more advanced analytics, enhanced customization, or integration capabilities depending on your specific needs, budget, or technical constraints.
- If you're exploring alternatives to Appcues for user onboarding and engagement, several options cater to different needs:
- Pendo: Known for advanced analytics and feedback collection, it's ideal if you need in-depth product insights and robust reporting.
- Userpilot: Offers strong analytics and no-code event tracking, suitable for detailed user behavior analysis with a user-friendly interface.
- Intercom: Combines CRM and support features with product tours, making it a cost-effective choice if you already use Intercom for support.
- Userflow: Provides easy setup and AI-assisted onboarding, a good fit for teams needing a straightforward solution with automated personalization.
- Chameleon: Delivers customizable in-app guides with a user-friendly interface but can be expensive; great for advanced feature implementation.
What is Appcues?
Appcues is a powerful platform for product adoption and user onboarding on web and mobile apps. It lets teams create, implement, and test personalized in-app experiences, announce new features, and gather customer feedback.
What’s great about Appcues is that it’s designed for non-technical teams with its no-code features, making it easy to use.
Appcues Pricing
- Essentials: $8249/month for up to 2,500 MAUs
- Growth: $879/month for up to 2,500 MAUs
A 14-day free trial includes full access to features, with the trial extending if fewer than 50 flows are used. Enterprise pricing is not publicly available, and additional services like customized onboarding and dedicated support come at extra cost.
Why You Might Need an Appcues Alternative
Considering whether Appcues is the right fit for your user onboarding needs? Here are a few reasons to explore alternatives:
- Limited Customization
While Appcues provides basic customization options, such as adjusting text height, color, padding, or element position. For more advanced customizations, you’ll need to work with CSS code, which can be frustrating and challenging if you purchased the tool to avoid coding..
- Technical Complexity
Despite being marketed as a no-code solution, Appcues can be difficult for non-technical teams to fully utilize. Setting up complex flows, customizing experiences, or integrating with other tools often requires engineering support. This dependency can slow down your onboarding processes and create bottlenecks, especially in teams without dedicated technical resources.
- Budget Concerns
Appcues can become expensive, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses or startups operating on limited budgets. The platform’s pricing escalates when you need advanced features like custom CSS, localization, or support for larger user bases. These additional costs can strain your budget, leading you to seek more affordable alternatives that offer similar or even superior features at a better value.
- Feedback Collection
Appcues focuses primarily on NPS (Net Promoter Score) surveys for gathering user feedback. However, if your product strategy requires more diverse forms of feedback—such as detailed user reviews, multi-question surveys, or real-time feedback widgets—you might find Appcues lacking. An alternative tool that supports a broader range of feedback formats can provide richer insights into user experiences, enabling you to make more informed decisions.
- Internal Use Cases
Appcues is primarily designed for customer-facing onboarding. However, if your organization also needs a digital adoption platform for internal purposes—such as supporting digital transformation initiatives, boosting employee productivity, or managing the adoption of new software within your team—Appcues may not provide the necessary features. In such cases, you may benefit from exploring tools specifically designed for internal training and onboarding.
- No Desktop Support
Appcues is optimized for web and mobile apps, which can be limiting for product managers who oversee desktop applications. If your product portfolio includes desktop software, the lack of integration with these environments may hinder your ability to deliver consistent onboarding experiences across all platforms. Choosing an alternative that supports desktop applications can help you achieve a more cohesive user experience.
Best Appcues Alternatives
1. Pendo
Pendo as an Alternative to Appcues
- Price: Pricing details are not publicly available, but reviews suggest that lower-tier plans start at approximately $12,000 per year.
- Capterra: ⭐ 4.5/5 (215 reviews)
At its core, Pendo is a product analytics platform with robust capabilities. Its in-app engagement suite enhances user segmentation and feedback collection, enabling you to craft targeted in-app campaigns.
Pendo Features
- Product Analytics and User Behavior
Pendo excels in analytics and reporting, allowing you to monitor product usage, generate reports, and create dashboards that guide your product team's decisions on experience and design.
- Feedback Collection
Collect real-time feedback through Pendo's in-app surveys. Use this data to segment users and refine your product development strategies.
- User Engagement
While Pendo’s in-app engagement features might seem secondary to its analytics, it still provides effective onboarding, education, and user engagement through guides, tooltips, and checklists.
Pendo vs. Appcues
Pendo surpasses Appcues in analytics, offering slightly more advanced guides. However, Appcues outperforms in product adoption with better customization, diverse in-app elements, and mobile app support. Pendo's setup is also more time-consuming and resource-intensive compared to Appcues.
2. Userpilot
Userpilot as an Alternative to Appcues
- Price:
- Traction: Starts at $249/month
- Growth: Starts at $499/month
- Enterprise: Starts at $1,000/month
- G2: ⭐ 4.6/5 (382 reviews)
Userpilot is a comprehensive product adoption platform that closely matches Appcues in features and technical demands. Its pricing and user-friendliness, however, can be challenging for some.
Userpilot Features
- Analytics and Reporting
Userpilot shines with its analytics and reporting capabilities. Its detailed dashboard lets you create in-depth reports and monitor user interactions comprehensively.
- No-Code Event Tracking
Like Appcues, Userpilot offers no-code event tracking, making it easy for non-technical teams to set up and monitor user events.
- User Engagement and Onboarding
With robust tools for user engagement, including product tours, checklists, and tooltips, Userpilot effectively guides users through your product. It competes well with other in-app engagement solutions.
Userpilot vs. Appcues
Userpilot’s core analytics features are strong, but Appcues excels with its product analytics and user behavior analysis. Pricing is comparable, but Userpilot's technical setup is less burdensome. However, its customer support has been reported as slow and less effective, which might be a drawback for those valuing ease of use and reliable support.
3. Intercom
Intercom as an Alternative to Appcues
- Price:
- Essential: $29per seat/mo
- Advanced: $85per seat/mo
- Expert: $132per seat/mo
- G2: ⭐ 4.5/5 (2,988 reviews)
Intercom is renowned for its customer support and CRM features but also provides a robust product tours add-on, making it a viable alternative to Appcues, particularly for companies already using its support tools.
Intercom Features
- Product Tours Add-on
Create guided tours within your application with Intercom's product tours. Customize these tours to help users navigate and understand key features of your product.
- In-App Messaging and Engagement
Intercom excels in in-app messaging, allowing direct user engagement within your product. Send targeted messages, provide support, and gather feedback seamlessly.
- Customer Support
Intercom’s core is its customer support platform, offering everything from AI chatbots to knowledge bases.
Intercom vs. Appcues
Intercom can be more affordable if consolidates support, CRM, and user engagement into one platform. However, for advanced customization and standalone product analytics, Appcues might be the better choice.
4. Userflow
Userflow as an Alternative to Appcues
- Price: starts around $240 per month for the basic plan
- G2: ⭐ 4.8/5 (103 reviews)
Userflow is an effective tool for product adoption and user onboarding, offering a straightforward solution with basic analytics. It may lack Appcues' advanced analytics but excels in ease of use and implementation.
Userflow Features
- In-App Engagement and Onboarding
Userflow provides robust tools for creating in-app experiences, including product tours, checklists, and tooltips to guide users through your product.
- AI Assistant
A standout feature of Userflow is its AI assistant, which automates and personalizes the onboarding experience based on user behavior and needs.
Userflow vs. Appcues
Userflow is slightly cheaper than Appcues but lacks many functionalities. It offers key in-app engagement features with limited analytics. Its no-code setup and AI assistant make it a viable option for teams with limited technical expertise.
5. Chameleon
Chameleon as an Alternative to Appcues
- Price:
- Startup plan costs $279 per month
- Advanced plan costs $1250 per month
- G2: ⭐ 4.4/5 (216 reviews)
Chameleon is designed to help product teams create personalized in-app experiences with advanced features and a user-friendly interface, offering core engagement features similar to Appcues.
Chameleon Features
- In-App Engagement
Create interactive guides, tours, and tooltips to onboard users and highlight key features, customizable to fit your brand.
- AI Assistant
Chameleon's AI assistant helps automate and personalize user interactions.
Chameleon vs. Appcues
Chameleon provides powerful in-app engagement tools and a user-friendly interface. However, Appcues offers more advanced analytics and mobile app support. Chameleon is more expensive to start with, and prices increase for higher plans.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while Appcues is a powerful platform for user onboarding and product adoption, there are several noteworthy alternatives that might better suit your specific needs.
Each tool offers unique features and benefits, whether you’re looking for advanced analytics, enhanced customization, or more cost-effective solutions.
By evaluating these alternatives, you can find the best fit for your onboarding strategy, whether your focus is on detailed user behavior analysis, ease of implementation, or integration capabilities.
Exploring these options will help you make an informed decision and ensure that your user onboarding process is as effective and streamlined as possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who is Appcues best for? Appcues is ideal for product managers, marketers, and customer success teams looking to boost product adoption and gain insights into user behavior.
- What is the pricing for Appcues? The Appcues Essentials Plan starts at $249 per month, while the Growth Plan is priced at $879 monthly.
- What are some top alternatives to Appcues? Top alternatives to Appcues include Pendo, Userpilot, Intercom, Userflow, Chameleon, and Whatfix.
- Does Appcues offer a free trial? Yes, Appcues offers a free trial, allowing you to explore its features before committing to a paid plan.
- Can Appcues be integrated with other tools? Yes, Appcues integrates with various tools such as CRM systems, analytics platforms, and marketing software to streamline your workflows and enhance user onboarding.
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