8 Amazing SaaS Onboarding Emails (With Examples)

Sometimes, first impressions can mean a make or break for your product. This is where your onboarding welcome email makes you shine.
But before we get to some of my favorite (and not so favorite) onboarding welcome email examples, I wanted to touch on some of the important aspects to consider when creating welcome emails.
Key Takeaways
If youโre short on time and canโt read the entire blog post, here are some key takeaways for you!
- Regardless of whether or not you have a self-sufficient UI/UX, donโt discard how helpful onboarding welcome emails can be.
- A solid sequence of onboarding emails can assist with the continuation of the adoption phase, and constantly remind the user that theyโve started a relationship with you and your team.
- Consider how your brand speaks. Develop your own unique style of writing and tone of voice. This is your chance to shine.
- Remind the user you are there! This is your opportunity to get them to log back in and not let them drop down the funnel.
- Be human, and be ready to help. Nobody likes to get an email if they canโt reply to it.
- For everything you need to know on SaaS onboarding, see our guide here.
- Don’t forget to consider: what happens once the user clicks on any of your CTAs? How will you guide your users in-app? This is where Userpilot comes in. Complete building your SaaS onboarding experience with us. Book a demo and we’ll show you how!ย
The Anatomy of a SaaS Onboarding Welcome Email
Creating a solid onboarding welcome email requires a bit of thought. Itโs not just about saying โHey, welcome, thanks for starting an account!โ – there are also some technical aspects to consider.
Copywriting and Tone of Voice
Is your brand witty or playful? Is it quirky, informative, or are you portraying a more serious style? Your tone of voice will define not just how others perceive you, but even how they interact with you.
Lucky for you, weโve already written an entire blog post on user onboarding email copywriting and how to best express yourself in a way that grabs your customersโ attention.
๐กTop Tip: Everything down to the subject line may define whether someone even opens your email!
HTML vs Plain-Text Onboarding Welcome Emails
Thereโs been a lot of debate around this, but Iโll try and give you the TLDR.
While people say the prefer HTML emails (because theyโre prettier) – in the long run, plain-text emails result in more clicks and interactions.
While I will agree I prefer HTML emails as well (they’re sometimes easier to digest) – the reality is you do run the risk of over-designing an email sometimes. Not only can this mean users can lose track of important CTAs, but it can result in your email landing in Gmailโs โPromotionsโ tab.
Even worse, if it has too much HTML, some email service providers may think itโs spam, giving you the risk of the reader skipping it entirely.

Reply vs NoReply Onboarding Welcome Emails
Thankfully in all the great examples I gathered for you below, I didnโt run into the any noreply@ emails, but this can certainly be a cause of friction.
If youโre making your emails personable and want to set up your user for success, make sure someone can actually reply!
Otherwise youโre forcing the user to try and find out some other form of communication. For some, this may be too much of a hassle and theyโll just entirely give up.
๐ค Fun Fact: The harder you make it for someone to contact you, the more likely they are to churn. In my own studies, 65% of people who had contact with someone were more likely to activate their accounts.
Human vs Automated Onboarding Emails
Ok so, letโs be clear about something.
We *know* all welcome emails are automated. There clearly isnโt someone looking at every sign up, writing up a quick email and sending it our way.

However, you can make your emails more human.
This is part of our copywriting guide, as having an email from someone real at your company sets the tone that youโre there to support your customerโs journey from the very beginning and are willing and ready to help.
The Best Onboarding Welcome Emails
And now for the moment youโve been waiting for – the teardown.
I picked 8 really solid onboarding welcome emails I really liked, and a few others that didnโt make the cut at all.
Drum roll please! ๐ฅ
Miro
Miro has taken the SaaS world by storm with their easy-to-use and interactive whiteboards.

Source: Miro Welcome Email
The team at Miro chose to go down the route of HTML and automated sender.
Overall Iโd give them a score of 6/10.
Itโs pretty solid overall, but has quite a few improvements they can work on.
What I like
- It has one clear CTA. No wondering what to do there!
- Itโs got a fun gif that gives me an insight into how diverse Miro is. I want to do all those things.
- It set the benefit of using Miro from the very start.
- Despite it being very HTML-heavy, it actually went directly to my inbox. Iโm not sure what kind of black magic this is. ๐ฎ
What I didnโt like
- It came from notification@ – does this mean I can reply? I hope so! While this is clearly automated, the sender email and the reply to email both seem to go to notification@ so itโs not quite clear what to expect.
- Welcome FULL NAME is a bit much. I signed in with SSO, and for some reason they decided to use both first and last names. Not sure we need that level of formality, Miro.
- While I loved that they had a clear CTA at the top, I didnโt realize there was more underneath. This is where they took a hit for me and lost points.

This felt a bit like – but wait, thereโs more!
While I really liked the top half of the email, the second half falls short. Combined with the quasi-bullet points and the busy gif from the top of the email (which was a delighter at first) and the CTA added on, it feels like thereโs too much going on.
However, itโs not all bad news. The CTAs clearly tell me where to find help and get inspiration. Theyโre actually great guidance, and for a self-starter like myself, I know exactly where to go and how to get help if I were to need it. The overall design needs to be reviewed though.
Hugo
Hugo is a meeting note-taking app that allows you to follow up with actionable steps, so you donโt wonder why you were in that meeting in the first place. Itโs a great way of making sure that you can get the most out of your time with your team.

The Hugo Team gets a 7/10 on this.
Itโs solid, friendly, and from a real human person (yes!) There are a few too many CTAs scattered all over the place for my liking though, and itโs causing me to want to focus on the CTAs rather than the content (perhaps not a particularly bad idea, though.)
What I like
- Itโs super easy to read.
- It went straight into my inbox as itโs plain text.
- It came from a real person who I can get back to if I have any questions.
- It included a helpful video.
- It gave me a helpful CTA to let me know thereโs a mobile app.
What I didnโt like
- This might just be me, but I did feel like the video placeholder couldโve included a more helpful image. At first I didnโt realize why I was looking at a screenshot of two red circles in the middle of the app.
- Perhaps just listing the CTAs into bullet points mightโve made things easier. Itโs almost causing me to scan the page for the CTAs rather than have them listed together.
- This one is a pet peeve more than anything: please add full stops to your sentences.
Descript
Descript is a video editing app that has quickly become part of my personal tool stack. Not only is it a delight to use through and through, but itโs genuinely made my life easier.

Talk about beautiful.
The Descript Team gets a 8/10 on this one. It straight away lists top tips and reminds me of why I signed up for Descript in the first place.
What I like
- Itโs beautiful. Look at it. Such a delight to read through.
- Gave me top tips right away.
- Gave me a CTA to watch a helpful assistance video.
- While itโs not coming from a person, itโs still clear I can reply and get help.
What I didnโt like
- It doesnโt tell me if they have a help center. That said, I looked back at an earlier email that asked me to verify my email. I wouldnโt count this as an โonboarding welcome emailโ – rather a transactional security email, so I completely missed that on that email they point me towards the help center.
- It went to the Promotions tab, but I expected that to happen anyway.
Shopify
Shopify is the leading e-commerce service available, allowing millions of people to take their business online quickly.

No surprise here at all, of course they get a 10/10 for their welcome onboarding email.
Everything Shopify does is through and through catered to providing the best experience for their users.
What I like
- It immediately reminds me Iโm on a trial period.
- It reminds me of what my login details are (thank you for this, Shopify!)
- It provides me with two very clear CTAs that will set me up for success: a checklist and setting up my own domain.
- It has secondary CTAs focused on allowing me to get help.
- Another case of black magic, this went straight to my inbox and not the promotions tab, despite it not being plain text.
What I didnโt like
Nothing. Everything about this is on point. ๐
Airfocus
Airfocus is a product management tool geared towards helping teams make sure theyโre building the right thing and collaborating on strategy.

Source: Airfocus Welcome Email
This email was delightful. Another 10/10 for the Airfocus team!
What I like
- Itโs easy to read.
- It gives me three clear action points to get started for success.
- Much like Shopify, it also reminded me of my login details.
- It came from a real person, and I know that if I were to reply Iโd be able to get help.
What I didnโt like
This isnโt so much about not liking, but the email went to the Promotions tab. Just something to be aware of.
Calendly
I donโt think Calendly needs an introduction, but if you are still struggling to book meetings, this is the app youโve been looking for.

Another 10/10 here for the Calendly team!
What I like
- Very quickly established why theyโre the right choice. Ainโt nobody got time for… well, wasting time!
- It immediately gave me the option to install Zoom, which means booking calls just got that much easier.
- I donโt have to wonder what my calendar URL is.
- It gave me some super helpful tips.
What I didnโt like
Thereโs very little I donโt like here, but I am wondering what happens if I reply to their welcome@ email. Hopefully Iโll get a person on the other end!
Storychief
I was introduced to Storychief upon starting at Userpilot. Storychief allows teams to create content easily and push to their various platforms as needed.

I chose to include this onboarding welcome email on this list as it is a wonderful example of catering for different user journeys. In this case, I am not the account creator or admin, but I was invited in as a team member. The team at Storychief gets a 10/10 on this.
What I like
- Itโs very easy to read. Not cluttered by images or lots of links, just a really solid email from one person to another.
- I can very clearly reply to Carmen if I need help.
- It has one clear CTA to get help if I need it.
- Bonus: Once I was in, Carmen also messaged me via Intercom to make sure I was getting along with the app. Consistency!
What I didnโt like
Everything about this email is perfect. Itโs a great example of how plain text emails go a long way.
Browserstack
Whenever I start a new role, I always install Browserstack as one of my first tools of choice. This app allows for quick and rapid testing so you can make sure that your designs are looking as expected on a variety of browsers, both web and mobile.

While Browserstack is directed towards a dev audience, the onboarding welcome email does not fall short. Well done, team! You get a 10/10 on this one.
What I like
- CTA at the top!
- Establishes their benefits and why theyโre number 1.
- Quick CTAs for testing both web and mobile.
- Provided secondary CTAs for help.
- It came from a real team member at Browserstack.
What I didnโt like
Nothing to see here. Solid email, helpful, and I donโt have to guess how to log back in. CTA at the top was just what I needed.
The Onboarding Welcome Emails That Didnโt Make the Cut
I tested a few apps when running research for this, and unfortunately, some of my favorite apps didnโt even make the cut.
Why?
Because there were no onboarding welcome emails at all.
Pipedrive, Notion, Marvel, and Buffer didnโt send me a single email.
Notion and Marvel are pretty easy to figure out, but does that mean I donโt deserve an email? Probably not. I was actually really disappointed. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and gave it 24 hrs to see if anything would come through.
Surprisingly, Marvel did come through – but with a webinar invite. This still isnโt an onboarding email though, and it feels like all theyโre really doing is spamming me.
I have absolutely no idea why Pipedrive and Buffer wouldnโt send one either. Missed opportunity there, guys.
And the worst of them all? Invision.
Remember when I said donโt use noreply@. Well guess what happened…

Source: Invision Onboarding Welcome Email
First, this isnโt even a welcome email. Itโs a transactional email reminding me of how to log in. It couldnโt even get right that I am Andrea, not Andreaโs Team.
Invision has chosen to rely on their UI being excellent enough to not need any email help. While Iโll give them the benefit of the doubt they do in fact have a pretty easy to use UI, unfortunately theyโve already established they donโt really want to hear from me.
How Userpilot Helps
Once you have established the first key steps to get your users to find value in your product, you need to consider what happens once the user clicks on any of those CTAs.
- What will your app show?
- How will you guide them?
- Whatโs the correlation between what theyโve just read and what they will experience?
This is where Userpilot jumps in to save the day.
Once you have established those valuable key actions for your users, Userpilot can support the experience by guiding them once you get to your app.

Source: Userpilot. Get a free demo now!
Whether you are looking to extend the experience from your onboarding welcome email using checklists or creating delightful product experiences, Userpilot can help ensure you set up your customers for success.
Want to learn more? See a walkthrough from an expert today.