Userlane vs Usetiful vs Userpilot – Which is Best for Your SaaS?

Userlane vs Usetiful vs Userpilot – quick summary

• Usetiful is a cloud-based digital adoption platform focused on both employee and user onboarding that offers advanced onboarding features such as interactive guided tours, checklists, and smart hints that encourage users to engage with the product and drive them toward adoption.
• However, since it’s a fairly new tool you’ll encounter bugs and performance issues, and the lack of integrations might be a no-go for you.
• Userlane is a code-free digital adoption platform that allows you to create in-app interactive content to guide new users and increase product adoption. The downside is that it doesn’t offer a Chrome extension and you can only build interactive walkthroughs using the dashboard.
• Userpilot is a comprehensive digital adoption platform (DAP). It enables product teams to track product usage and user behavior to guide product development and optimize the user experience. In addition, it allows them to gather user feedback with various survey templates and design personalized onboarding experiences to drive product adoption. All of this is possible without coding. Book a demo to learn more.

What is Userlane?

Userlane is a code-free digital adoption platform that allows you to create in-app interactive content to guide new users and increase product adoption.

What is Userlane best for?

Typically, SaaS Product Managers consider Userlane for the following reasons: they want to improve their user onboarding, they need product adoption, and would also be able to measure their user feedback.

How does Userlane perform when it comes to these top-three use cases? Let’s examine it all, and then compare to the other tools we’re discussing in this post.

Userlane for user onboarding

Userlane offers all the basic things you need to create interactive in-app guidance and nail your onboarding.

Here is what you can get with Userlane:

• Create interactive in-app guides with modals, tooltips, and checklists to remove the guesswork and guide new customers step by step.
• Target guides, hints, and announcements to the right people at the right time to maximize engagement.
• You can also add videos, gifs, and links to enrich your in-app content.
• With the code-free editor, you can record the tutorials and share them with your users. With multiple language support, make sure that your customers get the in-app experiences in their languages.)
• However, Userlane allows you to only build logic flows (“lanes”) directly in the tool’s dashboard. It doesn’t work in a Chrome extension by pointing and building UI patterns directly on top of your native UI.

Userlane for product adoption

Userlane brands itself as a digital adoption platform so no surprise that it comes with powerful features to drive product adoption.

Now let’s see how you can benefit from Userlane’s product adoption functionality:

• Create interactive walkthroughs, the so-called “lanes” to provide guidance to both new customers and employees.
• Track user behavior user behavior and make content decisions based on that data.
• Integrate with other tools to make the onboarding process more effective.
• Provide intuitive on-demand assistance, improve customer experience, and ensure long-term retention.

These make Userlane a great option to provide in-app guidance to your customers to shorten the learning curve and adopt your product entirely. However, you’re limited to only interactive walkthroughs with little customization offered.

Userlane for user feedback

Userlane allows you to collect user feedback and improve your product experiences with basic survey functionality. Although they are more focused on interactive tours, you can collect feedback too. It’s just harder to analyze and use the data as this is not their main functionality.

Here is what you can do with Userlane’s user feedback:

• Create and send out NPS surveys to measure customer loyalty.
• Set up reminders for those who didn’t respond to the surveys.
• Configure the date and time of sending surveys and create custom dates.
• Create specific user segments and target the surveys to those segments.

There is a better tool for your SaaS than Userlane!

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What is Usetiful?

Usetiful is a cloud-based digital adoption platform focused on both employee and user onboarding.

The tool offers advanced onboarding features such as interactive guided tours, checklists, and smart hints that encourage users to engage with the product and drive them toward adoption.

Usertiful is especially praised by its customers for having a simplistic, user-friendly design and a helpful customer support team.

What is Usetiful best for?

Similar to Userlane, Usetiful is typically considered for user onboarding, product adoption, and user feedback. Let’s examine Usetiful for these use cases before we compare it to Userpilot.

Usetiful for user onboarding

Here’s how Usetiful can help with user onboarding:

• Create onboarding checklists that drive users toward key actions and accelerate activation.
• Design interactive product tours that embrace the learn-by-doing approach and teach how to use a feature step-by-step. You can incorporate different UI elements into walkthroughs such as tip balloons, pointers, modals, and slideouts. Either customize the available templates or use the WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) visual design studio editor for creating original designs from scratch.
• Segment customers based on attributes like role, language, status, etc, and target them with tailored onboarding experiences that deliver the promised value fast.
• Provide in-app guidance using Smart Tips. Those are similar to tooltips in their anatomy but unlike tooltips, which mainly highlight relevant features and engage users with them, Smart Tips are more geared towards reducing friction and preventing user errors. For instance, you can add Smart Tips to forms and provide additional instructions on how to successfully fill them out.

Usetiful for product adoption

Usetiful describes itself as a tool aiming to bridge the gap between users and digital systems, so it’s no surprise that it comes with powerful product adoption features.

Here’s how Usetiful functionalities can help you drive adoption:

• Create onboarding checklists that list the most important steps users must take in order to experience value. You can even gamify the checklists and add progress bars to motivate users to complete them.
• Design interactive guides that teach customers how to use a feature step-by-step. You can either use a friendly Chrome extension or a visual editor inside Usetiful to build those tours effortlessly.
• Reduce adoption friction with in-app messages called Smart Tips. Those are advanced tooltips that prevent user errors and smoothen the adoption experience by providing additional information and guidance wherever the user needs it.

If you are a small startup looking to build simple in-app flows and experiences, Usetiful is a great fit.
However, if your product is complex and you want to create more sophisticated and customized flows, this might not be for you.

Usetiful for user feedback

Usetiful doesn’t support native in-app surveys, but its integration with Survio makes in-product feedback collection possible. You have to register and create a survey in Survio, then copy the code and paste it into Usetiful’s flow builder. Then you can:

• Trigger survey flows to specific user segments.
• Collect feedback on product tours and continuously improve them.

Based on the above, when it comes to user feedback, Usetiful isn’t a great tool, as it lacks the ability to create surveys directly within the app and segment users based on survey responses to deliver tailored experiences.

Try a better tool for your SaaS than Usetiful!

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What is Userpilot?

Userpilot is a comprehensive digital adoption platform (DAP). It enables product teams to track product usage and user behavior to guide product development and optimize the user experience.

In addition, it allows them to gather user feedback and design personalized onboarding experiences to drive product adoption. All of this is possible without coding.

What is Userpilot best for?

Userpilot is used for similar use cases as Usetiful and Userlane. Let’s see how Userpilot compares to the tools we discussed before it comes to user onboarding, product adoption, and user feedback.

Userpilot for user onboarding

Userpilot was built specifically for SaaS product teams that want to improve their user onboarding experience and boost user activation.

You can build a huge variety of user onboarding experiences and in-app guidance flows without needing to code.

Here’s what you’ll get when you start using Userpilot:

• Forget about coding in-app experiences: Userpilot is a no-code solution and only requires your dev to install a line of javascript inside your app and for you to download a Chrome extension that opens up the visual builder.
• Build in-app flows using the largest range of UI patterns (modals, slideouts, tooltips, hotspots, banners) and in-app onboarding experiences (checklists, micro surveys, NPS surveys, in-app resource center).
• Get access to a built-in NPS tool for collecting and analyzing user sentiment so you can improve your onboarding process based on real data.
• Create and track combinations of in-app events like clicks, hovers, and form fills, and then analyze all these interactions under your own custom events, which can be built without code or API calls.
• Use advanced product analytics and in-app flows analytics to identify where users need help and create granular user segments to trigger in-app experiences contextually (segment based on user identification data, in-app engagement, custom events, clicks, hovers, form fills, user feedback responses, NPS scores and more).
• Enhance the onboarding experience with in-app help by launching a Resource Center directly inside your app. Add in-app guides, and video tutorials, and give users access to search the knowledge base or reach out to support. Self-service has never been easier.

The best user onboarding is contextual and it happens right where the users need it, inside your app. There isn’t a better user onboarding tool out there that offers more value for the money than Userpilot.

Schedule a demo with our team and get ready to build the best onboarding experiences your users have seen.

Userpilot for product adoption

Product adoption describes the process of getting users to the point where they are experiencing value from your product.

Userpilot is a powerful product adoption platform that enables you to quickly build personalized and contextual in-app experiences targeted to different user experiences – all without writing a line of code.

It’s a great option for enterprise users too since it’s SOC 2 Type II certified and offers robust features for large-scale usage.

Here are some of Userpilot’s product adoption features that you may find helpful:

• A broad range of UI patterns to build fully customizable, contextual, and interactive in-app flows: modals, slideouts, tooltips, hotspots, driven actions, banners, and more. And – most importantly – you are not limited by plan when it comes to how many UI patterns or designs you can build.
• Advanced in-app checklists with built-in gamification elements like progress bars or ”automatically marked complete” tasks: checklists also come with analytics so you can track who is interacting with them and how.
• Fully interactive walkthroughs walk users through engaging and adopting specific features of your app.
• The self-service in-app resource center lets users search your knowledge base directly inside the app, access chat, and support but also launch guides and tutorials when they get stuck.
• User feedback tools allow you to collect insights to improve the product and the user experience, thus leading to a higher product adoption rate. You can also collect NPS data and tag responses to uncover patterns into what makes users stick, or build micro surveys for more granular data. Then you can use all the feedback collected to build user segments based on the answers and personalize the path to higher product adoption for each segment.

Want to see Userpilot in action? Get a demo and improve product adoption with contextual and personalized in-app flows that actually help users.

Userpilot for user feedback

There are two types of feedback you should be focusing on collecting to better understand the health of your product and users.

First, you have user sentiment which looks at user satisfaction and effort scores or loyalty (using NPS surveys). Then you may also want to collect feedback on the functionality of the product or specific features.

You can do all these with Userpilot. In short, you can:

• Collect and track (NPS) in-app with a built-in NPS widget that allows you to fully customize the survey look and feel, and set the trigger frequency and specific targeting.
• Analyze NPS scores, tag responses, and use the data to create specific user segments.

• Use prebuilt templates or build your own and trigger in-app micro surveys like the classic PMF survey, or similar ones and mix multi-choice and open-ended types of questions to collect specific insights.
• Be in charge of who gets which survey type and when with advanced segmentation capabilities, and of course, you can use the answers to segment your audience.
• Localize your surveys automatically.

The advantage of using Userpilot for collecting feedback over other survey tools is that you can better control who sees the surveys but also you can instantly use the data collected to segment your user base and trigger the right experience for them.

For instance, if your users give you a low NPS score because they think you’re missing a critical feature (that you actually have already), you can push an interactive walkthrough guiding them to find and explore this feature.

Tired of bad Digital Adoption tools? Try Userpilot for your SaaS for free!

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So Which tool should you choose? Userlane vs Usetiful vs Userpilot – final thoughts

As you can see, both Userlane, Usetiful, and Userpilot cater to most of the use cases Product Managers typically look for in their SaaS companies.

There are some differences between the tools when it comes to how those use cases are executed in each, of course. So if you’re still on the fence – there are two more factors that can make a difference for you – the tools’ pricing, and its reviews. Let’s have a look at both below!

Userlane pricing

Userlane’s pricing is not public and you should reach out to their sales team to get a quote.

But keep in mind that it is based on two things: the number of guided users and the product features you want access to.

Usetiful pricing

Usertiful offers straightforward pricing plans. There are four tiers, each charging a set amount for access to certain features.

• Free: allows you to create one product tour and multiple smart tips across 1 URL.
• Plus – €29/month: includes unlimited product tours, smart tips and checklists, access to usage analytics, and basic segmentation features.
• Premium – €99/month: create designs without the Usetiful watermark, build more sophisticated segments, and access tools for employee onboarding.
• Enterprise: everything in Premium plus run Usetiful on multiple products and environments.

Userpilot 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, NPS feedback, and customization.
• Growth: The Growth plan starts at $749/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).

What do users say about Userlane vs Usetiful vs Userpilot?

Userlane reviews

Usetiful reviews

Userpilot reviews

The final countdown: Pros & Cons of Userlane, Usetiful and Userpilot

Userlane pros

Userlane is a popular digital adoption tool and comes with many benefits. Here are its pros:

• Lanes are easy to set up and implement.
• Easy to add gamification elements to your onboarding.
• Includes real-time analytics so you can identify behavior trends and act on them.
• Doesn’t require technical knowledge as it’s mostly code-free.

Userlane cons

However, this tool has some flaws so it’s better to get an overview of its cons if you’re thinking of buying it:

• Not that many integration options. As of now, it has integrations with Confluence, Zendesk, and KnowledgeOwl.
• Some of the UI patterns, like hotspots and tooltips, aren’t as functional as users might like.
• Offers only interactive walkthroughs, known as lanes.
• Works only in the dashboard and can’t be launched in a Chrome extension as most of its competitors, like Userpilot does.

Usetiful pros

Usetiful is an effective tool for streamlining your onboarding and adoption processes. If you are still weighing your options, here are some benefits to consider:

• The software works with your own and third-party tools alike, meaning it can be used for both customer and employee onboarding.
• Usetiful comes with an easy-to-use Chrome Extension builder that sits on top of your app and enables even non-technical team members design functional onboarding flows within minutes.
• With Usetiful, you can leverage segmentation to deliver personalized onboarding experiences for your customers.
• Free plan and affordable pricing make it an excellent choice for small businesses and startups.

Usetiful cons

Usetiful, like any other app, has its own downsides and flaws. Here are the main cons of Usetiful:

• Since it’s a relatively new tool, you’ll encounter some bugs and performance issues when using it.
• Customization options are limited with colors and fonts. This can be frustrating for established companies that want to have complete control over the look and feel of onboarding UX patterns.
• Web apps only – Usetiful doesn’t work on mobile devices/applications.
• You can’t launch a self-service resource center where users can access multiple types of guides and tutorials
• Usetiful has almost no built-in integrations with other tools, although it does have webhooks.

Userpilot pros

Userpilot has a number of advantages, especially for mid-market SaaS companies looking for a robust but at the same time very easy-to-use, no-code tool for user onboarding, product adoption, and simplified product analytics. Let’s have a look at the pros of using Userpilot:

• No-code builder – Userpilot comes with an easy-to-use Chrome Extension builder.
• Multiple UI patterns – choose from a range of options to build customized flows: modals, slideouts, banners, tooltips, hotspots, and checklists are all at your disposal
• UI patterns are not limited by plan – you get access to all of them on every single plan, meaning you get value even with the Traction plan (this is the entry-level one).
• Engaging walkthroughs and onboarding flows- build interactive walkthroughs targeted to distinct user segments.
• In-app help – build a resource center offering self-service support to your users, customize it with your branding, and select from a range of help options to boost user satisfaction (i.e. videos, in-app flows, chat, and more).
• Experimentation – built-in A/B testing for flows lets you explore and quickly iterate based on direct user behavior.
• Powerful feedback options- integrated NPS surveys with analytics and response tagging unlock insight into how your users feel.
• Advanced analytics and segmentation- analyze product usage and in-app flow engagement and build user segments using the data.
• Event tracking and feature tags- tag UI engagement (clicks, form fills, hovers) and group them into one custom event to track what really matters.
• More value with integrations- unlock value faster with built-in integrations with popular tools like Segment, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Kissmetrics, Intercom, Heap, and more.

Userpilot cons

There are, however, some downsides to Userpilot as well:

• Browser/web app only – Userpilot won’t run on mobile devices/applications.
• Doesn’t support employee onboarding- The tool is better suited for customer onboarding than for employee onboarding as you can’t build in-app guides on third-party tools.
• Missing integrations – doesn’t have built-in integrations with some tools, but it has webhooks, and Hubspot and Zapier are coming soon.
• Not appropriate for small startups on a shoestring budget (<$100)- Userpilot is a powerful, mid-market to enterprise-level tool. So $249 a month might be too expensive for really small startups.

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Conclusion

In this post, we’ve discussed how Userlane, Usetiful, and Userpilot compare when it comes to user onboarding, product adoption, and user feedback. We’ve discussed their features for each use case, pricing, and reviews, as well as the pros and cons.

Hopefully, you’ve found these detailed descriptions helpful. Obviously, we’re a little biased, but we think that Userpilot offers the best value for money, and is unrivaled especially when it comes to user onboarding. Book a Userpilot demo and see for yourself.