Which of the currently available digital adoption platforms is the best choice for product, marketing, and customer success teams in 2024? Userpilot? Pendo? Appcues? Chameleon? Maybe something completely else?

If you’re looking for a new adoption tool or thinking of switching, there are plenty of great choices out there. However, figuring out which of them satisfies your needs and offers the best value for money is no easy feat.

To make the job a little bit easier, we’ve compiled a list of the 12 best adoption platforms, along with their use cases, features, and pricing.

Let’s get right into it.

What is a digital adoption platform?

A digital adoption platform (DAP) is software that helps users get familiar with a digital product like a website or app so that they can use it competently to achieve their goals.

A little bit like a navigation device, it guides users through the relevant features of the product to help them reach their destination as quickly and as efficiently as possible. When the user diverges from the original course, the tool analyzes their behavior and adjusts the route.

What are the different types of digital adoption platforms?

There are two types of DAPs, depending on their purpose:

• User adoption: used by digital products to create onboarding experiences and provide in-app guidance and support for new users to help them reach the Aha! moment and adopt the product.
• Employee adoption: used within organizations to help onboard and train employees to use new software and support their digital transformation efforts.

What are the key features of a digital adoption platform?

To provide users with relevant and timely advice on how to best use the product, digital adoption platforms require a number of features.

In-app guidance

In-app guidance shows the user where to go and what to do. The most common types are:

• Modals – pop-up screens with product information or announcements.
• Tooltips – text boxes with information about a feature to drive engagement.
• Interactive walkthroughs – step-by-step guides on how to complete various tasks, usually made up of tooltips.
• Product tours – like interactive walkthroughs, but less interactive and more linear.
• Onboarding checklists – lists made up of simple tasks the users need to complete to activate. They are usually used at the beginning of the user onboarding process.

Segmentation

Segmentation allows you to group users with similar needs or preferences together so that you can personalize their product experiences to make them more relevant.

For example, if you have a fitness app, your users may have different reasons to use it, like weight loss or muscle gain. What’s more, each of them may prefer different kinds of physical activity to achieve their goals.

By segmenting them, you’d be able to customize their dashboards and give them workout recommendations matching their preferences.

Product analytics

Product analytics are necessary to analyze product usage and user behavior to evaluate the effectiveness of your adoption strategy.

Features to look out for include:

• Feature usage tracking
• Event tracking (including custom events)
• Goal tracking
• Funnel analysis
• Path/Flow analysis
• Ability to act on data in real-time, for example, trigger in-app guidance in response to an event

In-app surveys

In-app surveys are necessary to collect user feedback.

Thanks to them, you can track user satisfaction levels over time and identify ways to improve the onboarding process or the product itself.

It’s great if your adoption platform allows you to create both quantitative and qualitative surveys, trigger them contextually and collect feedback passively.

Self-help support

The majority of users expect on-demand access to support and guidance so resource center functionality is a must.

Your software adoption platform should give you the option to create and customize self-help modules that users can access in-app whenever they need.

Ideally, you want your tool to also support resource center analytics.

Integrations with your stack

Integrations with other products in your stack enables you to streamline your workflows and improve efficiency. They’re also essential to make sure you don’t miss any crucial data.

What integrations are particularly important?

• Analytics products to supplement the analytics functionality of the platform (e.g., Amplitude)
• Communication tools (e.g., Slack)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems (e.g., Hubspot)

12 Best digital adoption tools to explore in 2024

Now that we know what to look for in digital adoption platforms, let’s look at our top 12 picks.

Userpilot

Userpilot is a versatile user onboarding and digital adoption platform with well-developed analytics features, feedback collection functionality, and an engagement layer.

G2 rating: 4.6

Best for: medium-size product-led companies aiming to quickly and easily boost user adoption in their web-based products.

Userpilot features:

• Advanced user segmentation for detailed analytics and personalized in-app messaging
• Feature usage analytics
• Heatmaps
• (Custom) event and goal tracking
• Funnel analysis and paths (coming soon)
• Real-time product usage data

• In-app surveys, including NPS tools and qualitative response analytics

• UX patterns for in-app communication (tooltips, banners, modals, slideouts, driven actions, and hotspots)
• Interactive walkthroughs
• Onboarding checklists
• Self-help resource center
• A/B testing for in-app guidance

• Integrations (Amplitude, Mixpanel, Heap, Intercom, Kissmetrics, Segment, Google Analytics, and Tag Manager) and webhooks

Userpilot pricing:

There are 3 pricing plans starting from $249/month for up to 2,500 MAUs. There are also custom plans and MAU limits depending on a company’s needs.

Pendo

Pendo is one of the most established product adoption platforms, which works on both web and mobile apps. Organizations can use it for both user and employee onboarding. It’s best known for its state-of-the-art analytics.

G2 rating: 4.4

Best for: enterprise-level clients that require advanced analytics functionality to inform their digital adoption process.

Pendo features:

• Segmentation
• Event and feature usage tracking
• Funnel analysis to see how users progress toward activation
• Retention analysis
• Paths to map out all the routes users take
• UX patterns (lightbox, banner, tooltip, walkthroughs)
• In-app guides for web and mobile apps
• Checklists
• Resource center
• Guide experimentation
• Pendo Polls for feedback collection
• Pendo Feedback (a separate subscription)
• NPS analytics

Pendo pricing:

Pendo offers 4 pricing plans, including a free plan. The paid Pendo plans are:

• Starter – from $7,000/year for up to 2,000 MAUs
• Growth – custom pricing and MAU limit
• Enterprise – custom pricing and MAU limit

Appcues

Appcues is a mid-range adoption platform that allows product teams to design onboarding experiences and track their performance. It also offers basic analytics and feedback features.

G2 rating: 4.7

Best for: mid-size and large companies who want to improve user onboarding for their multiple products, including mobile apps.

Appcues features:

• UX patterns (tooltips, modals, slideouts, hotspots, pins)
• Onboarding flows
• Checklists
• Launchpads for on-demand access to flows
• A/B testing for flows
• Segmentation
• Click-to-track events (code-free event tagging and tracking)
• Goal tracking
• Flow analytics
• A wide range of integrations with analytics tools, including Amplitude, Mixpanel, Heap, Kissmetrics, and Fullstory
• Surveys, including NPS surveys and analytics

Appcues pricing:

Appcues offers 3 plans:

• Essentials – from $249/month for up to 2,500 MAUs
• Growth – from $879/month for up to 2,500 MAUs
• Enterprise – custom pricing and MAU limit

WalkMe

WalkMe is a cloud-based digital adoption platform, aimed at enterprise companies, who can use it for both customer and employee onboarding.

G2 rating: 4.5

Best for: employee training and new digital tools adoption.

WalkMe features:

• Segmentation
• Engagement analytics
• Digital experience analytics
• Event tracking
• User recordings
• NPS surveys and analytics
• TeachMe – a learning platform, mostly for employee onboarding
• In-app guidance and product tours

WalkMe pricing:

WalkMe offers only custom pricing. However, reportedly, its prices range from $9,000 to $50,000 a year, which is not affordable for small or even mid-size SaaS businesses.

Chameleon

Chameleon is another robust digital adoption platform. Just like the others, it offers analytics features, feedback functionality, and an engagement layer. It’s the last two that are its greatest strengths thanks to the high levels of customization offered.

G2 rating: 4.4

Best for: product teams that prioritize good UX design and high levels of customization to give content a native-like look.

Chameleon features:

• Tooltips (info, help, hotspots, labels, beacon)
• Onboarding flows, product tours, and guides
• Launchers – in-app widgets for checklists, self-help widgets, and notification centers
• Experience analytics
• A/B testing
• User segmentation and environments
• In-app surveys
• Real-time data event triggering
• NPS surveys and analytics
• Webhooks and integrations (including Segment, Amplitude, Intercom, Slack, HubSpot, and Salesforce)
• Conversion/Goal tracking

Chameleon pricing:

Chameleon offers 3 plans:

• Startup – from $279/month for up to 2,000 MAUs
• Growth – from $999/month for up to 2,000 MAUs
• Enterprise – custom pricing and MAU limit

It’s worth noting that the price of each plan will go up if you exceed the MAU number, which could make Chameleon pretty expensive.

UserGuiding

UserGuiding is a code-free digital growth platform. It enables product teams to design and deliver user onboarding experiences to drive product adoption and user retention.

G2 rating: 4.7

Best for: small and mid-size companies that need an affordable digital adoption tool.

UserGuiding features:

• UX patterns (tooltips, modals, slideouts, and hotspots)
• Personalized onboarding flows and interactive product tours
• Onboarding checklists
• Self-support resource center
• User segmentation and user-specific analytics
• Custom events
• Integrations with analytics and collaboration tools

UserGuiding offers limited analytics features so users have to rely on its third-party integrations with analytics tools like Amplitude.

UserGuiding pricing:

UserGuiding offers the most competitive pricing plans of all the tools listed here. It has three plans, which are:

• Basic – from $69/month for up to 2,500 MAUs
• Professional – from $299/month for up to 20,000 MAUs
• Corporate – from $499/month with custom usage limits

Userflow

Userflow is a digital adoption platform that allows product and customer success teams to design onboarding flows and launch in-app surveys to collect user feedback. It’s aimed at small and medium-sized SaaS companies.

G2 rating: 4.8

Best for: teams that aspire to build frictionless and user-focused experiences.

Userflow features:

• Contextually-triggered onboarding flows and UX patterns (hotspots, tooltips, modals)
• Interactive guides
• Checklists
• In-app experience analytics
• Surveys, including NPS surveys and analytics
• Self-help resource center
• Event tracking
• Custom events
• User segmentation and environments
• Real-time data recording
• Webhooks and integrations (Zapier, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Segment, HubSpot, and Salesforce)

Userflow pricing:

Userflow’s pricing strategy is based on 3 plans. These are:

• Startup – from $200/month for up to 3,000 MAUs
• Pro – from $600/month for up to 10,000 MAUs
• Enterprise – custom pricing and MAU limits

Whatfix

Whatfix is a digital adoption platform for enterprise clients. It’s used for both employee onboarding as well as new user onboarding for SaaS products.

G2 rating: 4.6

Best for: enterprise companies looking for an efficient method to communicate with and train employees and external stakeholders.

Whatfix features:

• UX patterns (tooltips, beacons, modals)
• Onboarding flows
• Checklists
• Resource center
• Guidance analytics
• In-app surveys and analytics, including NPS and CSAT analytics
• Event and user property segmentation and event triggering
• User action tagging
• Funnel analysis
• User journey analytics
• Cohort analysis

Whatfix pricing:

The pricing structure is fairly complex. Whatfix offers separate plans for web, desktop, mobile, and enterprise applications. They don’t reveal how much their plans cost but users report prices start at $2,000 a month.

Apty

Apty is a digital adoption platform aimed at enterprise clients. It can be used for user and employee onboarding and it’s the latter that is its main use case.

G2 rating: 4.7

Best for: enterprise clients looking for an employee adoption tool.

Apty features:

• In-app guidance and messaging
• Interactive walkthroughs and guides
• Onboarding checklists
• Self-support resources
• In-app flow analytics
• User segmentation for targeting with personalized content
• In-app user behavior tracking
• Event tracking
• In-app surveys (and analytics)

Apty’s pricing plans:

• Free evaluation: Up to 45 days, includes 2-3 flows
• Custom pricing: intelligent analytics, complex flow creation, etc.

Spekit

Spekit is a ‘just-in-time’ learning platform that focuses on employee training rather than user onboarding.

G2 rating: 4.6

Best for: small and medium-sized companies looking for a training and change management solution.

Spekit features:

• Free training content on key tools
• Centralized knowledge base for easy sharing of up-to-date practices
• In-app spotlights
• Onboarding flows/walkthroughs
• Knowledge checks
• Content usage and analytics
• Spotlight, flow, and knowledge check analytics and engagement

Spekit pricing:

Spekit has changed its per-user/per-month pricing (used to be $20) to custom pricing. The company doesn’t offer a free trial or a freemium plan.

Userlane

Userlane is a DAP that you can use to drive product adoption with interactive in-app guidance and onboarding flows.

G2 rating: 4.7

Best for: SaaS businesses that want to onboard new users, offer personalized in-app guidance and drive new feature discovery.

Userlane features:

• Fully customizable tooltips, modals, and checklists
• Interactive in-app guides and flows
• Guidance analytics
• Resource center (enterprise search)
• Support channel integration
• User segmentation for targeted delivery of in-app guidance and surveys
• HEART analytics (Happiness, Engagement and Productivity, Adoption measurement, Retention, Task success)
• NPS surveys and analytics

Userlane pricing:

Userlane offers only custom pricing plans based on usage and use cases. To get a quote, you need to contact their sales team.

HelpHero

HelpHero is the final digital adoption platform in our line-up and the second most affordable after UserGuiding.

G2 Rating: 4.9!

Best for: organizations with small products with up to 20,000 MAUs looking for an affordable onboarding solution.

HelpHero features:

• Hotspots
• Customizable product tours
• Product tour analytics
• Onboarding checklists
• User segmentation for personalization and targeted messaging
• A/B testing (requires coding)

Helphero pricing:

HelpHero pricing is based on the number of MAUs. You will pay $55 for up to 1,000 MAUs and $299 for up to 20,000 MAUs.

How to choose a digital adoption solution for your SaaS?

Which of the above digital adoption solutions is best for your SaaS depends on a number of factors. Here are a few questions that can help you choose one.

• Is your product web or mobile based?
• Do you need a user or employee onboarding tool?
• What is your budget?
• What other tools do you have in your tool stack?
• Do you use a dedicated analytics tool or do you need a DAP with robust analytics?
• What is your digital adoption strategy?

There’s a big chance that most of the tools we’ve introduced tick a lot of your boxes. As always, the devil is in the details – usually, the details in the pricing plans. So, study these carefully before you make the call.

Conclusion

A solid digital adoption platform will help your business drive user engagement, increase activation rates, reduce churn, and turn new users into loyal customers.

If you want to see how Userpilot can help you achieve your product adoption goals, book the demo!