Userflow for Onboarding Automation: Features, Pricing, and Review

Looking for an effective onboarding automation tool and wondering if Userflow is the best option for your SaaS company?

With numerous Userflow alternatives, it can be challenging to make a final decision.

In this article, we’ll delve into precisely that – helping you determine whether Userflow is the ideal choice for your onboarding automation needs. We’ll explore its features, pricing, and offer a comprehensive review to aid in your decision-making process.

Let’s get started!

TL;DR

• Userflow is a good choice for onboarding automation and it comes with features such as user segmentation, onboarding checklist, self service support, and user journey mapping.
• There are a few instances where you’ll most likely need to look for an alternate solution instead of choosing Userflow as your user onboarding software:
  • Analytics: If your product team or data analysts require advanced analytics that can be viewed on a single dashboard, then you’ll need to look elsewhere. Userflow’s analytics capabilities are limited and can only be viewed by diving into the settings of each flow/checklist/survey.
  • Support: If your company favors live chat support over AI chatbots, then Userflow might not be the best choice. Userflow does have live chat integrations with tools like Intercom, Zendesk, and Freshchat, but it doesn’t have any native live chat capabilities.
  • Bootstrap: If you’re bootstrapping a SaaS company, then it could be difficult to scale with Userflow as your onboarding solution. The limitations on the Startup plan mean that you’ll quickly need to upgrade to the Pro subscription which costs almost 3x as much at $680/month.
• If you’re looking for a better option for onboarding automation, Userpilot exceeds both functionality and value for money compared to Userflow. Ready to see Userpilot in action? Schedule a demo today to explore its powerful onboarding automation capabilities firsthand.

What is Userflow?

Userflow is a user onboarding solution centered around building in-app flows and guides quickly and seamlessly. It helps product teams onboard new users, creates guides/checklists, and surveys customers to gather valuable feedback.

Each flow has its own analytics that shows how many views each step of a funnel gets and what percentage of users end up seeing a particular stage. Lastly, the flow builder (Userflow’s main feature) also has versioning capabilities so you can restore your flows to a previous variant.

Must have features of onboarding automation tools

There are many onboarding automation tools available, so you may be confused about which one to choose.

Though the right tool will depend on your business goals and needs, here are the must-have features for any onboarding automation tool.

• Make sure the tool you choose isn’t limited to just product tours. Pick a tool that provides various UI patterns (modals, slideouts, banners, checklists, hotspots) to create beautiful welcome screens, and interactive walkthroughs to guide new customers and delight them from the very beginning.
• Look into getting decent segmentation capabilities based on in-app behavior and in-app experience engagement so you can trigger onboarding flows properly.
• An in-app help center is another feature that you should be looking for in an onboarding automation tool. With this, you can collect all your documentation files, tutorials, and videos in one place and offer on-demand support.
• Integration with 3rd party apps and tools so you can gain more insights and collect them in one place.

There you have it. These are the basic features that any solid onboarding automation tool should cover. Do your own research before buying a tool and make sure it’s aligned with your business goals.

Userflow features for onboarding automation

Userflow positions itself as a user onboarding tool, so most of its features are targeted towards that use case. Here are the Userflow features and functionalities that you can use to onboard new users to your product:

• Flows: In-app flows are the primary user onboarding feature that Userflow offers. You’ll be able to add steps like speech bubbles, tooltips, modals, or hidden steps used as triggers. You can also select whether a step is mandatory for flow completion and change the size or theme if needed.

• Targeting: You can create personalized and contextual onboarding flows with Userflow due to its auto-start settings. You can add trigger conditions like what page users are on, which segment they’re in, when they signed up, which elements they’ve clicked, and which flows they’ve seen.

• Checklists: Userflows lets you create checklists with an unlimited number of tasks, trigger them if certain targeting conditions are met, configure whether tasks need to be completed in a specific order, and prevent users from dismissing the checklist if needed.

Userflow’s user segmentation

User segmentation is essential when building personalized and contextual onboarding flows. Userflow has extensive segmentation features that you can use to set conditional triggers for flows, filter users through common attributes, and hide certain flows from users who don’t need them.

• Flow conditions: Userflow’s segmentation capabilities can be used to set conditions for when certain flows should auto-start. Conditions include user attributes, current page, events/interactions, completed flows/checklists, and which segment the user is in.

• Filter users: The users tab on Userflow’s header navigation can help you sort through your entire user base by adding filters and using and/or rules. You can also export the list of filtered users as a CSV. Unfortunately, you can only filter by user attributes rather than all conditions.

• Hide flows: While segmentation is helpful for triggering personalized flows, it’s even more important to hide irrelevant information from certain users. Userflow’s hide flow feature lets you hide specific flows so you can exclude new users from upsells or spare power users’ basic tutorials.

Userflow’s onboarding checklist

Onboarding checklists help structure the early stages of the customer journey and guide users through each step toward activation. Userflow has both standalone checklists that can be triggered when certain conditions are met and displayed as blocks within resource centers.

Here’s how Userflow helps you create onboarding checklists:

• Checklist builder: Userflow’s no-code checklist builder lets you add an unlimited number of tasks, trigger actions when a task is clicked, or hide certain tasks if specific conditions are met. You’ll also be able to auto-complete tasks when a condition is met or an event occurs.

• Trigger conditions: Not all checklists are relevant for every user, which is why Userflow lets you set the conditions upon which a checklist should appear and the conditions when it should be hidden. Conditions could include a user’s signup date, completion of prior flows, and more.

• Resource centers: Checklists can be embedded within resource centers using the checklist block. Do note that only active checklists will appear within the resource center, but you can add a list of checklists for users to trigger on-demand if needed.

Userflow’s self service support

Self-service support decreases ticket volume and increases satisfaction levels. Userflow can aid self-service support through flows that teach users about a specific feature, checklists that guide them to their next step, and resource centers with documentation.

Here are the Userflow features you can use to build a self-service customer experience:

• In-app guides: Userflow lets you create in-app flows with tooltips, modals, and speech bubbles that guide users. You can even trigger flows whenever certain conditions are met, such as a user opening the resource center in the past hour while on a specific page.

• Onboarding checklists: New users are the segment most likely to need support. Userflow lets you create onboarding checklists with unlimited tasks. You’ll also be able to use the completion of checklists as a condition to trigger in-app flows or show/hide certain resource center blocks.

• Resource centers: Userflow in-app resource centers can include blocks like checklists, help articles, free-form content, checklists, announcements, and flow triggers. You can also style the resource center with custom themes or hide/show blocks when specific conditions are met.

• Live chats: You can leverage Userflow integrations like Crisp, Zendesk, Freshchat, Help Scout, HubSpot, or Intercom to give customers an option to connect to an actual human if self-service resources don’t solve their problem.

Userflow’s user journey mapping

A user journey map encompasses all interactions between customers and your product as they try to accomplish a task or goal. Unfortunately, Userflow doesn’t have any native features for user journey mapping.

You could look at which flows/checklists get the most interactions or sort users by which ones they’ve completed. However, the lack of a home analytics dashboard means you’ll need to look at each flow or checklist separately to find those with the most views and highest completion rates.

What are the pros and cons of Userflow?

Userflow’s pros

Userflow has multiple benefits but the most notable is how easy it is to create and edit flows within the software. Userflow’s ease-of-use makes it an attractive solution for product teams, marketers, and even solopreneurs.

Here are the pros of using Userflow:

• Flow builder: Userflow’s intuitive drag-and-drop flow builder makes it easy to add new steps, create links between steps, and reorder steps by moving them around. Speech bubbles, tooltips, and modals are the three primary UI elements that you can use when creating steps.
• AI assistant: Userflow lets you create in-app AI assistants that can respond to customers in their native language (but will default to English if unsure which language the customer is speaking). Do note that you’ll need to pay an additional $100/month if you exceed 100 monthly messages.
• Integrations: Userflow integrates with tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, Segment, Salesforce, Heap, HubSpot, and more — which makes it easy to integrate Userflow with your existing tech stack so you can sync data between platforms.

Userflow’s cons

Of course, there are some limitations to Userflow since it’s one of the newer onboarding solutions on the market. Let’s take a look at some of the downsides of choosing Userflow as your onboarding tool:

• Analytics: This is undoubtedly Userflow’s biggest weakness. It doesn’t have a home dashboard for analytics which means you’ll need to manually go into every flow, checklist, launcher, or resource center to view the analytics for it.

Note: Competitors like Userpilot and Pendo include native analytics dashboards on their entry-level plans.

• Reordering: While reordering steps in a flow can be done in a drag-and-drop fashion, the links between steps aren’t automatically severed. This means you’ll need to manually remove cross-step links and reconnect the steps whenever you change their order which can be a hassle.
• Limitations: Userflow’s entry-level plan has restrictive limitations like only being able to include two questions in NPS surveys and needing to pay extra if you want to add more than three team members (while competitors on the market like Userpilot usually offer five seats or more).

What do users say about Userflow?

The general consensus from Userflow’s customers seems to be that the user experience and customer support are quite good, but the gradual price increases have made the tool a less attractive option overall.

This is reflected in reviews like this:

• “Great to create onboarding walk-throughs and explaining new features to customers
• Easy to use and manage without technical skills
• Unlimited locale support
• Hubspot integration
• Resource center”

Of course, negative feedback isn’t limited to pricing as there are also customers who are dissatisfied with the product’s feature set and lack of interconnected dashboards:

“I wish that we could better link things by creating projects where I could organize flows, launchers and CSATs that are all interconnected and related to the same thing.”

Userflow’s pricing

Userflow has three paid plans — Startup, Pro, and Enterprise — that start at $240 and increase in price as your MAUs grow. For example, the Startup plan costs over $1,000/month once you reach 50,000 MAUs which could make it difficult for products with thousands of freemium users to scale.

Here’s a closer look at each of Userflow’s plans:

• Startup: Userflow’s entry-level Startup plan starts at $240/month for 3,000 MAUs. Due to the survey and team size limitations of the Starter plan, you’ll likely need to upgrade to Pro at some point or purchase additional seats for $20/month each.
• Pro: Userflow’s Pro plan costs almost three times as much at $680/month for 10,000 MAUs. It contains essential features like localization, advanced integrations, event tracking, and unlimited surveys so you’ll probably need to upgrade to this tier eventually to continue growing.
• Enterprise: Userflow’s Enterprise tier is priced on a quote basis and can accommodate a custom number of MAUs. It comes with benefits like concierge support, security questionnaires, custom contracts, and single sign-on (SSO) features.

3 Reasons why you might need a Userflow alternative

There are a few instances where you’ll most likely need to look for an alternate solution instead of choosing Userflow as your user onboarding software:

• Analytics: If your product team or data analysts require advanced analytics that can be viewed on a single dashboard, then you’ll need to look elsewhere. Userflow’s analytics capabilities are limited and can only be viewed by diving into the settings of each flow/checklist/survey.
• Support: If your company favors live chat support over AI chatbots, then Userflow might not be the best choice. Userflow does have live chat integrations with tools like Intercom, Zendesk, and Freshchat, but it doesn’t have any native live chat capabilities.
• Bootstrap: If you’re bootstrapping a SaaS company, then it could be difficult to scale with Userflow as your onboarding solution. The limitations on the Startup plan mean that you’ll quickly need to upgrade to the Pro subscription which costs almost 3x as much at $680/month.

Userpilot – A better alternative for onboarding automation

User onboarding is a crucial part of the customer journey as it speeds up the adoption process and increases retention rates. Onboarding is one of Userpilot’s core use cases along with product growth analytics and user feedback, so it has plenty of features that you can utilize.

Here are some Userpilot features you can use when onboarding new users:

• No-code builder: Creating flows with Userpilot is as simple as installing the Chrome extension, selecting the UI patterns you’d like to use, and then editing the content/settings to suit your use case. You can also use templates to create modals, slideouts, tooltips, and driven actions.

• Native tooltips: Userpilot lets you create native tooltips that show up when users hover over an element or click on an information badge. Since these native tooltips attach to the element itself, they aren’t page-dependent and will show up on any screen where that element is visible.

• Funnel analytics: Userpilot’s advanced analytics lets you create funnel reports that track the onboarding journey. You can also add filters (like name, user ID, signup date, operating system, country, etc.) and monitor the total conversion rate from the first step of the funnel to the last.

• User segmentation: Userpilot lets you segment users based on the device they’re using, where they’re located, their engagement data, or which NPS rating they selected on the latest survey. You can then filter your analytics dashboards to see which segments struggle with onboarding.

Userpilot’s user segmentation

User segmentation is essential for creating a personalized and contextual onboarding experience. Userpilot can segment users based on demographics, product usage data, NPS scores, and more. You can then trigger flows or filter analytics based on segments.

Here’s an overview of Userpilot’s customer segmentation capabilities:

• Segment conditions: Userpilot lets you form segments by adding different conditions like user data, company data, features and events, etc. You can then use these segments as analytics filters or flow triggers later on.

• Analytics filters: Userpilot’s product analytics and user insights dashboards can be filtered to only display data from specific segments (or companies). This will help you extract insights from certain cohorts and compare how adoption or activation varies from one segment to the next.
• Flow triggers: Userpilot’s audience settings let you trigger flows for specific segments or target users that meet certain conditions. You can combine this with page-specific or event-occurrence triggers to show relevant flows to the right users at the most contextual moments.

• External data: Userpilot integrates with tools like Amplitude, Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Segment using a one-way integration. This means you can use the data inside Userpilot to build advanced segmentation and trigger contextual experiences. For more advanced use cases, the two-way integration with Hubspot lets you send and receive data, unlocking a full set of use cases.

Userpilot’s onboarding checklist

Onboarding checklists help new users learn about a product and reduce their time-to-value (TTV). Userpilot checklists can be created using the no-code builder, used to trigger specific actions, and tracked using the analytics dashboard to gauge overall engagement.

Here’s how you can use Userpilot to create an advanced onboarding checklist:

• No-code builder: Userpilot’s checklist creator lets you edit the content of checklists, add tasks, style icons, and configure the triggers for when your checklist should appear. You’ll also be able to choose from five widget icons (or upload your own) and recolor the widget to match your UI.

• Smart tasks: Checklist tasks can be set to trigger specific actions upon being completed, such as redirecting a user to a different page, launching an in-app flow, or running a custom JavaScript function. You can also set the conditions for when a task and action will be marked as complete.

• Checklist analytics: The Checklists dashboard shows you all relevant metrics. These include the number of live checklists you have, how many views they’ve gotten, and how many have been completed. You can also sort these analytics by segment or time period to identify trends.

Userpilot’s self service support

Self-service support helps users solve problems themselves instead of having to reach out to a representative. Userpilot’s no-code resource center makes onboarding guides and product documentation easily accessible to users from within your product.

Here’s how you can use Userpilot to create a self-service customer experience:

• No-code builder: Userpilot’s no-code resource center lets you add modules without writing a single line of code. Module options include links, videos, flows, custom JavaScript functions, and checklists. You can also group modules into sections to help users navigate the resource center.

• Module segmentation: Userpilot’s segmentation settings let you hide or show specific modules within your resource center based on audience settings. This makes it possible to create modules for different user segments and hide resources that aren’t relevant to other users.

• Analytics dashboard: The dedicated analytics dashboard helps you see how many unique visitors your resource center gets, how many modules have been clicked, and the overall click rate across your user base. This will make it easier to gauge resource center performance.

Userpilot’s user journey mapping

User journey mapping helps you visualize all the interactions between users and your product as they try to achieve a particular goal. Userpilot’s detailed user analytics and funnel/trend reports help you track customers as they progress through different stages of their journey.

Here are the Userpilot features you can use for user journey mapping:

• User analytics: The Users dashboard provides detailed analytics of your entire customer base. You’ll be able to sort by segment, company, or time period and add multiple filters to help you narrow results. You can also perform bulk actions and export user data in a CSV format.

• Funnel reports: These reports help you visualize the user journey map by showing which stage, page, or action most users get stuck on. You’ll also be able to view breakdowns so you can see how the user journey changes depending on which OS, browser, or device type a user is on.

• Trend reports: Userpilot’s trend reports offer behavioral insights such as how often users perform a specific action, the number of unique users who take that action, and where in the user journey these actions occur. You can also create custom metrics and build your own charts.

What are the pros and cons of Userpilot?

Userpilot pros

As a full-suite digital adoption platform, Userpilot has all the features you need to onboard users, track analytics, and gather feedback from customers without writing a single line of code. Here are a few pros of using Userpilot as your product growth solution:

• No-code builder: Userpilot’s Chrome extension lets you build flows, add UI elements, and tag features without writing a single line of code.
• UI patterns: There are plenty of UI patterns to choose from when using Userpilot, such as hotspots, tooltips, banners, slideouts, modals, and more!
• Startup-friendly: Userpilot’s entry-level plan gives you access to all available UI patterns so you can hit the ground running.
• Walkthroughs and flows: Build engaging interactive walkthroughs and personalized onboarding flows that target specific segments of your user base.
• Self-service support: Build an in-app resource center to help users solve problems, customize its appearance to align it with your brand, and insert various types of content (videos, flows, or chatbots) to keep your customers satisfied.
• A/B testing: Userpilot’s built-in A/B testing capabilities will help you split-test flows, iterate on the best-performing variants, and continually optimize based on user behavior.
• Feedback collection: Userpilot has built-in NPS surveys with its own unified analytics dashboard and response tagging to help you retarget users. There are other survey types to choose from and you can even create your own custom survey.
• Survey templates: There are 14 survey templates to choose from so you can gather feedback on specific features or run customer satisfaction benchmarking surveys like CSAT and CES.
• Advanced analytics: Userpilot lets you analyze product usage data, monitor engagement on all in-app flows, and use the data to create user segments that are based on behaviors instead of demographics.
• Event tracking: Userpilot’s no-code event tracking lets you tag UI interactions (hovers, clicks, or form fills) and group them into a custom event that reflects feature usage.
• Third-party integrations: Userpilot has built-in integrations with tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, Kissmetrics, Segment, Heap, HubSpot, Intercom, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager so you can share data between all the solutions in your tech stack.

Userpilot’s cons

Of course, no tool is perfect and there are a few cons to consider before choosing Userpilot as your user onboarding or product growth solution:

• Employee onboarding: Currently, Userpilot only supports in-app customer onboarding.
• Mobile apps: Userpilot doesn’t have any mobile compatibility which could make it difficult for developers with cross-platform applications to create a consistent user experience for both versions of their product.
• Freemium plan: There’s no freemium Userpilot plan so those bootstrapping their startup and need sub-$100 solutions should consider more affordable onboarding platforms like UserGuiding or Product Fruits.

What do users say about Userpilot?

Most users laud Userpilot for its versatile feature set, ease of use, and responsive support team:

I recently had the pleasure of using Userpilot, and I must say it exceeded all my expectations. As a product manager, I’m always on the lookout for tools that can enhance user onboarding and improve overall user experience. Userpilot not only delivered on these fronts but also went above and beyond with its impressive new features, unparalleled ease of use, and truly exceptional customer support.

What truly sets Userpilot apart is its outstanding customer support. Throughout my journey with Userpilot, the support team has been responsive, knowledgeable, and genuinely dedicated to helping me succeed. Whenever I had a question or encountered an issue, their support team was always there to assist promptly, going above and beyond to ensure my concerns were addressed effectively.

Source: G2.

Of course, other users are also kind enough to share constructive criticism regarding specific features like event tracking filters:

“The filtration while analyzing specific events is a little confusing. Understanding of custom properties and data management configuration could have been more organised.”

Source: G2.

Userpilot’s pricing

Userpilot’s transparent pricing ranges from $249/month on the entry-level end to an Enterprise tier for larger companies.

Furthermore, Userpilot’s entry-level plan includes access to all UI patterns and should include everything that most mid-market SaaS businesses need to get started.

Userpilot has three paid plans to choose from:

• Starter: The entry-level Starter plan starts at $249/month and includes features like segmentation, product analytics, reporting, user engagement, user feedback, and customization.
• Growth: The Growth plan starts at $499/month and includes features like resource centers, advanced event-based triggers, unlimited feature tagging, AI-powered content localization, EU hosting options, and a dedicated customer success manager.
• Enterprise: The Enterprise plan uses custom pricing and includes all the features from Starter + Growth plus custom roles/permissions, access to premium integrations, priority support, custom contract, SLA, SAML SSO, activity logs, security audit and compliance (SOC 2/GDPR).

Conclusion

There you have it.

It should be easier now to make an informed decision whether Userflow is your go-to option for onboarding automation. Ultimately, the best choice will depend on your product and current needs.

If you’re looking for a better alternative to Userflow for onboarding automation, book a Userpilot demo today to experience firsthand how it can enhance your user experience and drive product growth!