Product adoption is a multi-stage process that encompasses user onboarding, feature adoption, and eventually habitual use through reinforcing user behavior. Of course, getting new users (or even existing users) to adopt your product can be difficult without the right user adoption software in your tool stack.

This detailed comparison will go over the 12 best user adoption tools for driving product growth!

Overview of user adoption software and tools for SaaS

• A user adoption platform is software that lets you increase user adoption rates by adding a layer on top of another product. This makes it possible to create in-app guidance flows for customers/employees while writing little-to-no code.
• Userpilot is a product adoption and analytics tool for mid-market SaaS companies. Get your free Userpilot demo today!
• Product Fruits is a product adoption platform for web-based applications.
• WalkMe is a cloud-hosted digital adoption platform built for onboarding employees.
• Userlane is a digital adoption platform for onboarding both customers and employees.
• Whatfix is a digital adoption platform for omnichannel user onboarding.
• Pendo is a product experience platform for improving user adoption.
• Appcues is a product adoption platform for building in-app experiences on web/mobile applications.
• Chameleon is a no-code user onboarding tool for building no-code tours and surveys.
• UserGuiding is a user adoption solution for small businesses.
• Userflow is a low-code onboarding/adoption platform for bootstrapped startups.
• Gainsight PX is an adoption insights solution for analytics and cohort analysis.
• Spekit is a sales enablement and digital adoption platform for onboarding employees to revenue teams.

What is a user adoption platform?

A user adoption platform (also known as a user adoption solution) is software that lets you build in-app guidance within your product, application, or website to drive user adoption and ensure customer success.

User adoption software works by educating customers throughout critical points of the user journey to increase long-term product usage.

Must have features of a user adoption software

While feature sets will vary from one provider of user adoption software to the next, there are a few features that are simply a must-have for any product team:

• Personalized experiences. Tools to build personalized customer experiences — such as Userpilot’s UI patterns — help you create tailored user flows that highlight key features and guide monthly active users toward their activation point.
• In-app support. Offering in-app support through resource centers/knowledge bases, message popups, and other forms of in-app communication will minimize the need for hands-on support from your representatives.
• Feedback mechanisms. Customer feedback collection is crucial to gathering insights from new users, NPS detractors, power users, etc. Feedback widgets and surveys are the most common mediums that user adoption software might utilize to collect customer feedback.
• User analytics. In addition to the qualitative feedback that surveys provide, looking at quantitative data such as user analytics will give you a more holistic view of the user adoption process (while helping you identify any friction points that need to be eliminated).
• Integrations. Choosing a product adoption tool with a wide array of third-party integrations will help you tie it into the rest of your tech stack. Integrations with your existing CRM, analytics, or customer service solutions will be invaluable when attempting to sync data between platforms.

#1 Userpilot for SaaS product adoption and analytics

Userpilot is a product adoption and no-code growth platform for mid-market SaaS companies.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Userpilot’s SaaS product adoption features:

• No-code builder. The Userpilot Chrome extension has a visual editor that lets you add various UI patterns to your product without writing a single line of code. This helps you streamline the onboarding process without using up any development resources.

• User segmentation. Userpilot’s segmentation capabilities let you target different user groups to offer tailored guidance and an overall more personalized experience. You’ll also be able to sort by company to ensure that all members of an organization have a consistent product experience.

• Engagement analytics. Userpilot lets you track feature and product engagement rates through no-code (or low-code) event tracking. This helps you see which features different segments use and promote features that aren’t being utilized by the majority of your user base.

• Feedback collection. The no-code survey builder within Userpilot comes with 14 unique templates that were built for different use cases. You can use these templates for customer satisfaction benchmarking feedback collection or to gather qualitative product feedback.

• Product analytics. The analytics options within Userpilot are quite varied, as you can create trend reports to see how metrics are changing over time or use its funnel analysis features to see which steps your users are getting stuck on. You can even run cohort analysis on your customers.

Pricing

Here’s an overview of Userpilot’s pricing tiers:

• Starter. Starts at $249/month and supports up to 250 survey responses per month, 10 user segments, 15 feature tags, a built-in NPS dashboard, and access to third-party integrations (except HubSpot/Salesforce).
• Growth. Starts at $499/month and includes everything in Starter plus unlimited feature tagging, an in-app resource center, A/B testing options, AI-powered content localization, event-based content triggers, a dedicated customer success manager, and extra integrations like HubSpot/Salesforce.
• Enterprise. Uses quote-based pricing and includes enterprise features such as custom roles, permission management, premium integrations, priority support, activity logs, security audits, SOC 2/GDPR compliance, and more.

#2 Product Fruits for web-based product adoption

Product Fruits is a product adoption platform for web-based applications.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Product Fruit’s web-based product adoption features:

• Welcome tours. Building welcome tours with Product Fruits will help you introduce your product to new users, show them its unique benefits, and help them experience the full value of your product. These tours can include both tooltips and checklists to help new users learn through interactions.
• Feature tours. Product Fruit’s step-by-step tours will highlight the most valuable features your product has to offer and show customers exactly how to use them. These feature walkthroughs can increase product stickiness and customer lifetime value (LTV).
• UI patterns. Product Fruits lets you embed hints, tooltips, and beacons into your product’s interface. These UI patterns bring a user’s attention toward any newly-released or long-neglected features to drive feature discovery.

Pricing

ProductFruit has three paid plans (ranging from $89/month to $149/month). Product Fruits also offers a 14-day free trial. Because of its usage-based pricing, the price of your subscription will increase as the number of MAUs grows (which means you could eventually be paying $599/month for 50k users).

#3 WalkMe for cloud-based digital adoption platform

WalkMe is a cloud-hosted digital adoption platform for employee onboarding.

Main features

Here’s an overview of WalkMe’s digital adoption features:

• Analytics. WalkMe’s data reporting helps you monitor usage patterns and identify friction points throughout your entire tool stack. You’ll be able to generate instant reports to see if the changes you make are reducing friction and increasing adoption amongst your employees.
• Workflows. WalkMe lets you build, edit, and deploy changes that streamline the workflow for every department in your company (from sales and marketing to HR and support). WalkMe also has automation capabilities that can help you automate repetitive workflows.
• Experiences. Creating personalized guidance or automation for your employees can increase their productivity when using internal company software. There are contextual popups that help them learn about tools and AI chatbots that are able to execute actions through text commands.

Pricing

WalkMe uses a quote-based pricing model and offers numerous subscription add-ons. This means that the monthly cost of using the platform will depend on how many team members you have and which add-ons you need.

#4 Userlane for both customer and employee adoption

Userlane is a digital adoption platform that can be used for both customers and employees.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Userlane’s customer and employee adoption features:

• Guides. Userlane’s in-app interactive user guides help customers and employees learn about tools or processes without having to switch tabs. You’ll be able to record steps, add custom media, and adjust the settings to make the guides as relevant as possible for your customers or employees.
• Analytics. The Userlane analytics dashboard helps you track the progress of your organization in real-time. You’ll be able to monitor user behavior throughout multiple software solutions and improve the user experience using this data.
• Engagement. Userlane makes engagement easy by letting you announce upcoming product updates, share training resources, and survey employees without interrupting workflows. You’ll be able to do all this within the same web-based applications that your team members already use.

Pricing

Userlane uses a quote-based pricing system, which means you’ll need to request a quote to find out how much the solution will cost you. However, Userlane does offer a guided trial for interested users so that they can learn more about the product before signing up for a paid subscription.

#5 Whatfix for omnichannel digital adoption

Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that helps organizations onboard, train, and support users.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Whatfix’s omnichannel digital adoption features:

• In-app guidance. Whatfix lets you create product walkthroughs for users that take them through each workflow step by step. You can also add a checklist (or task list, as it’s called in Whatfix) to show new users what the next step in their software adoption journey is.
• In-app messaging. Whatfix’s in-app messaging features help you announce new updates, gather user feedback, and highlight released features using beacons. You’ll also be able to offer tips and remind users to try to test out specific processes through the Smart Tips function.
• In-app support. Whatfix helps you provide contextual support to your users whenever they need it most through AI chatbots. You can also create an in-app resource center and then segment its content based on the location and role of each user.

Pricing

Whatfix has a very complex pricing model with different pricing tiers for web, desktop, mobile, and enterprise deployments. Its digital adoption platform and analytics features are also priced separately. You’ll need to request a quote (but each quotation is structured as a flat fee plus per-user license fees).

#6 Pendo to improve user adoption and product experiences

Pendo is a product experience and digital adoption platform.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Pendo’s user adoption and product experience features:

• In-app guidance. Pendo’s in-app guidance can help you onboard new users or steer existing customers toward high-value features that they haven’t tried yet. This will increase your retention rates and drive feature adoption.
• Content segmentation. Pendo’s user segmentation settings help you personalize your training resources to the needs of each customer. You can set segmentation rules based on how much revenue the user generates, what they responded to recent polls, and which features they’ve used.
• Mobile adoption. The Pendo for Mobile codeless solution helps you provide a more seamless cross-platform experience for your users. This will also help you extract insights into which versions, platforms, or operating systems get the most engagement from users.

Pricing

Pendo has one free plan and three paid plans. Pendo’s paid plans are priced on a quote-based system with no publicly listed prices. However, you’ll be entitled to a 14-day free trial on Pendo’s paid plans before upgrading your subscription.

#7 Appcues for both web application and mobile adoption

Appcues is a product adoption for buying personalized product experiences on web or mobile apps.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Appcues’ adoption features for web-based and mobile applications:

• No-code builder. The Appcues visual editor helps you reposition buttons, edit text, and drag and drop images to improve the user experience without needing to write any code. You’ll also be able to add progress bars, microvideos, and text input fields.
• Template gallery. Appcues has various templates that you can use to guide users, educate customers, and announce features. You can use tooltips, modals, and slideouts depending on which UI pattern is the best fit for the job.
• Targeting settings. Appcues’ targeting capabilities using segments, conditions, and logic rules. Deliver the right experience to the right user at the right time with a powerful targeting engine. This helps you target enterprise customers, power users, or fresh signups.

Pricing

Appcues has three paid plans (ranging from $249/month to $879/month). Appcues also offers a 14-day free trial.

#8 Chameleon for increasing feature adoption

Chameleon is a user onboarding tool that lets you build no-code guides for your user adoption strategy.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Chameleon’s feature adoption features:

• Interactive tours. Chameleon’s product tour templates help you get started while letting you customize the colors, fonts, and media to ensure everything aligns with your brand. You’ll be able to include images, videos, and even GIFs.
• UI patterns. Chameleon has multiple UI patterns to choose from, including modals, banners, slideouts, lightboxes, and more. You can also use CSS settings to edit individual popups or set global rules. Lastly, buttons can be used to either trigger the next step or execute other actions.
• Product surveys. Chameleon helps you build no-code product surveys that you can launch and edit without any engineering assistance from the development team. You can then target surveys based on which URL a persona is on, what their use case is, or which in-app behaviors they exhibit.

Pricing

Chameleon has one free plan and three paid plans (ranging from $279/month to $1,250/month). Chameleon also offers a 14-day free trial (or you can book a demo to see the tool in action).

#9 UserGuiding for user adoption for small business

UserGuiding is a product walkthrough and user onboarding platform.

Main features

Here’s an overview of UserGuiding’s user adoption features for small businesses:

• No-code builder. UserGuiding’s codeless Chrome extension provides a visual editor that you can use to build walkthroughs, publish in-app messages, embed onboarding checklists, and highlight specific features to drive adoption.
• Theme customization. The combination of UserGuiding’s theme builder and CSS customization helps you make every product adoption flow feel like a native part of the product UI. You’ll also be able to add, edit, and delete every flow element through the Chrome extension itself.
• In-app surveys. UserGuiding offers multiple types of in-app surveys. You can collect quantitative data through thumbs-up/down surveys, offer multiple choices, request NPS ratings, and ask open-ended questions to get qualitative feedback.

Pricing

UserGuiding has three paid plans (ranging from $129/month to $999+/month). UserGuiding also offers a 14-day free trial.

#10 Userflow for low-code user adoption

Userflow is a low-code user onboarding and adoption platform for bootstrapped companies.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Userflow’s low-code user adoption features:

• No-code editor. Userflow’s visual flow builder lets you drag and drop elements to create walkthroughs. In addition to being able to create tailored user flows without any code, you’ll also be able to preview these changes within the app itself before publishing drafts.
• Customizable steps. Every step you add to a Userflow walkthrough can include images, videos, links, and buttons that only appear when an input field has text in it. You’ll also be able to trigger actions whenever users type in a field or click on an element.
• Resource centers. Userflow’s resource center is one of the best product adoption assets out there since you can integrate it with third-party live chat solutions or use one of its knowledge base integrations to pull existing resources into your app.

Pricing

Userflow has three paid plans (ranging from $300/month to $850/month). Userflow also offers a 14-day free trial. You’ll also be able to apply for a discounted rate if you’re a bootstrapped company or save 20% on your existing plan by switching to annual billing.

#11 Gainsight PX for software adoption insights

Gainsight PX is a product experience software for gathering adoption insights.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Gainsight PX’s software adoption insight features:

• Cohort analysis. While cohort analysis is usually applied for user retention, Gainsight PX lets you use CRM data to measure product adoption trends of different segments and cohorts. This will help you see how feature discovery and overall adoption change across the customer lifecycle.
• Adoption analytics. Gainsight PX automatically calculates the adoption rate for each feature or module to let you know which areas of your product have the most potential. It calculates adoption rates by dividing the total # of accounts by WAUs plus the # of users in that segment.
• Granular metrics. With Gainsight PX, you’ll be able to zoom in on insights to get a deeper view of product adoption. Clicking on any module in the adoption report will show you all the features within it, along with the number of events, users, and accounts related to them.

Pricing

Gainsight PX uses a quote-based pricing system, which means you’ll need to request a quote to find out how much the software will cost you. Gainsight PX does offer a 15-day free trial so you can test out the product before signing up for a paid subscription.

#12 Spekit for sales enablement and digital adoption

Spekit is a sales enablement and digital adoption platform for revenue teams.

Main features

Here’s an overview of Spekit’s sales enablement and digital adoption features:

• Tool adoption. Spekit lets you introduce employees to all the solutions within your tool stack through walkthroughs that go over various walkthroughs or processes. You’ll even be able to look at engagement analytics to see if tool adoption rates are increasing due to your changes.
• Change management. Spekit helps you with change management through its enablement experiences that can be embedded directly into the software that your team members are already using. These include Chrome, Slack, Salesforce, and more.
• Onboarding/everboarding. Spekit’s main purpose is to help new employees learn how to do their jobs without taking weeks of manual onboarding to do so. It helps them easily access product documentation, best practice SOPs, and other in-app guidance that increases employee retention.

Pricing

Spekit uses a quote-based pricing system, which means you’ll need to request a quote to find out how much the software will cost you. Furthermore, Spekit doesn’t offer a free trial (only paid proof-of-concepts), so you won’t be able to test the product out for yourself before committing to a paid plan.

Conclusion

Whether it’s streamlining the onboarding process, collecting user feedback, or driving feature discovery, there’s no question that a reliable user adoption solution will be invaluable to customer success. If you’re ready to increase your user adoption rates then it’s time to get your free Userpilot demo today!