Comparing and deciding between Userpilot vs Pendo is no small task—both products are equally robust.

But once you dig deeper, you’ll find some important differences that will shape your buying decision (and hence your product growth).

And despite our obvious bias. Yes, there are clear instances where Pendo can be a better fit for you.

So let’s objectively look at the following:

• The key differences in onboarding, advanced analytics, and surveys between Userpilot and Pendo.
• When to choose Userpilot over Pendo (and vice versa).
• Why cost-effectiveness could be the tipping point in this decision.

What are the differences between Userpilot and Pendo?

At first glance, Userpilot and Pendo seem like similar tools—they’re both in the same category of user onboarding, product analytics, and in-app experiences.

But as I mentioned, the differences become clear when you dig a little deeper. Here’s how they compare across these areas:

• Onboarding functionalities. Userpilot is the simpler, more intuitive choice for non-technical teams since you can build in-app flows without coding. While Pendo is less flexible and doesn’t offer things like action-based guidance or standalone checklists.
• Event tracking for behavior analytics. Both tools offer auto-capture for events, but Userpilot’s setup is far less complicated because it doesn’t require coding. On the other hand, Pendo users often need to manually name events, add scripts, or go through extra steps for proper instrumentation.
• Product analytics. Pendo and Userpilot cover more or less the same analytics features (such as trends, funnels, user retention, user profiles, etc.). But, Userpilot makes analytics easier and more actionable. For example, Userpilot’s user profiles show everything from survey responses to event lists, all in one place. While, with Pendo, you can only view event trends and internal users linked to an account.
• Surveys. While both tools offer in-app surveys, Userpilot surveys are a standalone feature with customizable templates. Pendo, on the other hand, focuses heavily on feature requests and product planning instead of CSAT or CES surveys.
• Pricing. Userpilot is far more cost-effective than Pendo. For teams looking to get the most bang for their buck, Userpilot offers similar (or better) features at a lower price point. On the other hand, Pendo has a habit of changing the pricing and even forcing customers to upgrade to a 5x more expensive plan.

When should you consider Userpilot over Pendo?

Userpilot and Pendo might seem neck-and-neck in some areas, but there are clear scenarios where Userpilot shines.

If you’re still on the fence, here are a few reasons why Userpilot might be a better fit for your team:

• Intuitive onboarding features and simple setup. Userpilot is made for non-technical teams who want to get up and running fast. Its no-code builder means you don’t have to depend on developers to create onboarding flows, checklists, or in-app guidance. Pendo, on the other hand, has complex setups and can be frustrating for non-technical users.
• Actionable insights and credible analytics. With Pendo, you might face report issues with data accuracy or limited functionality (e.g. being unable to trigger events or flows dynamically). Meanwhile, Userpilot analytics are more actionable and accurate. For example, there’s advanced error handling, so any outdated or invalid segments won’t interfere with your analysis.
• More cost-effective. When you compare feature sets, Userpilot delivers everything Pendo does—and sometimes more—at a lower price. For teams watching their budget, this difference can add up quickly.

Even if you’re already using Pendo, Userpilot makes migrating from Pendo painless by offering dedicated support to handle the transition. We even buy out your existing Pendo contract (terms apply), so you don’t have to worry about being stuck with overlapping costs.

A great example of this is Shelterluv, who switched from Pendo to Userpilot to implement improvements in its onboarding processes and reduce its support workload as a result.

When should you consider Pendo over Userpilot?

While Userpilot excels in many areas, there are some scenarios where Pendo is a better fit.

If your team has specific needs beyond user onboarding and analytics, here’s when Pendo could make sense:

• Product planning and roadmaps. Pendo is leaning heavily into product planning with tools like Pendo Feedback and Pendo Listen. So if your team needs to collect feature requests, prioritize feedback, and align it with your product roadmap, Pendo might offer an edge.
• Employee onboarding on third-party apps. Pendo is also a viable choice for employee onboarding, especially when training staff on third-party apps. If this is a big part of your use case, Pendo would be the choice here since Userpilot primarily focuses on customer-facing onboarding experiences.

How does Userpilot stack up against Pendo for user onboarding?

When it comes to onboarding, the verdict is pretty straightforward: Userpilot wins in terms of ease and versatility.

And while Pendo has made some updates to close the gap, Userpilot still delivers a smoother, more intuitive experience.

Let’s break it down:

Userpilot for user onboarding

Userpilot makes building onboarding experiences ridiculously easy. You’ve got a variety of tools to work with—checklists, modals, slideouts, banners, tooltips, and more.

And, basically, you can create any in-app experience without writing a single line of code.

Here’s what you get:

• Codeless flow builder: With multiple UI patterns such as interactive walkthroughs, tooltips, checklists, modals, slideouts, banners, and even spotlights.
• AI-assistant: Which helps you refine the text in your onboarding messages, as well as selecting the right page settings depending on the structure of your URLs (this is to prevent future troubleshooting when executing multi-page flows).
• Conditional triggers: Set up flows based on user behavior, events, or page-specific actions. For example, you can trigger a checklist only for new users on a specific page.
• Staging environments: Test your onboarding flows in a staging environment before pushing them live. This feature is a game-changer for ensuring everything runs smoothly.
• Detailed flow analytics: You’ll get insights on completion rates, user activation rates, most completed steps, and even a list of users who completed or dropped off.

And it doesn’t stop there. Userpilot connects onboarding data with all the features. For example, you can trigger surveys when a user completes a checklist or provide contextual help based on where they are in your product.

Pendo for user onboarding

Pendo has been catching up with its onboarding features, but there are still gaps.

For example:

• No staging environment by default. Testing flows can be tricky without developer support (whereas Userpilot has this available with a click).
• No goal-based triggers. While you can track goals, you can’t use them to trigger onboarding flows, which is a bummer for customer success or product teams trying to guide users through specific milestones.
• Limited resource center: Pendo’s resource center doesn’t have a search feature, making it hard for users to find what they need. There’s also no way to group related content like videos, checklists, or articles for easier navigation.
• No standalone checklists: Checklists are a big part of guided onboarding, and Pendo lacks this feature natively, making it harder to break down tasks for users step by step.

That said, Pendo does offer mobile onboarding (something Userpilot is rolling out very soon). If you’re primarily focused on onboarding users on mobile apps, this could be a factor in Pendo’s favor. However, for desktop and web onboarding, Userpilot still comes out on top.

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How does Userpilot stack up against Pendo for product analytics?

When it comes to product analytics, both Userpilot and Pendo bring a lot to the table. However, their approaches and feature depth set them apart.

Userpilot focuses on delivering actionable insights in a straightforward way, while Pendo offers more complex setups with some notable limitations—making Userpilot better for acting on data.

Let’s break it down.

Userpilot for product analytics

Unlike Pendo (or other tools like Google Analytics for that matter), Userpilot’s product analytics are designed to be simple, powerful, and easy to implement.

Here’s what you can use to collect data:

• Auto-capture for events: Userpilot automatically tracks interactions like clicks, hovers, and text input on your app—no manual setup required.
• Back-end events: You can also track server-side actions (like subscription completions) alongside front-end events for a complete view of user behavior.
• Custom events: Group-related events (like subscription clicks and payments) to analyze multi-step processes.
• Visual labeling: Easily tag elements on your app’s interface for tracking it without writing a single line of code.

As for analyzing data, here are the tools you have available:

• Custom dashboards: You can build a dashboard like Lego with the most important metrics for your business.
• Comprehensive reports: Includes reports for visualizing trends, funnels, retention cohorts, and user paths. These make it easy to see what’s working and where users might drop off.
• Session recordings: Filter session replays by user properties or events to see exactly how users interact with your product. You can even mark bugs, add notes, and share recordings across your team for better collaboration.

Userpilot’s analytics don’t just show you the data; they help you act on it. Whether it’s tweaking an onboarding flow or triggering surveys based on user behavior—everything is connected and actionable.

Pendo for product analytics

Pendo’s analytics have improved over the years, but it’s still less flexible compared to Userpilot. Here’s what you get:

• Limited auto-capture: Pendo can track page loads and feature clicks automatically, but it doesn’t support grouped custom events. For example, you can’t track a subscription journey that includes multiple steps (like a front-end click and a back-end confirmation).
• Rigid event tracking: Pendo automatically assigns names to tracked events, and once an event is deleted, you can’t reuse the same name. This makes managing events unnecessarily tricky.
• No group events: You can’t also track events in groups (like the subscription + payment, for example).
• Basic session recordings: Pendo offers session replays, but the functionality is pretty bare-bones. You can’t mark bugs, add notes, or filter recordings by specific events or user properties.

Pendo’s analytics are geared more toward high-level trends than actionable details. If you need deep dives into user behavior or seamless event tracking, the limitations can be frustrating.

How does Userpilot stack up against Pendo for user analytics?

Understanding your users is key to improving their experience, and both Userpilot and Pendo offer tools to help.

But when it comes to showing detailed and actionable data, Userpilot does more with less.

Let’s compare how these platforms handle user analytics.

Userpilot for user analytics

Userpilot gives you a detailed and holistic view of your users, helping you analyze behaviors, segment audiences, and act on insights.

Here’s what makes it stand out:

• Comprehensive user and account profiles: Userpilot shows detailed user and account profiles that include user behaviors, survey responses, event lists, and more. This means you can see everything related to a user or account in one place.
• NPS and other surveys: Userpilot’s survey features (NPS, CSAT, CES, etc.) are standalone, meaning you can deploy them anytime during the user journey to gather meaningful feedback.
• Advanced segmentation: With Userpilot, you can create segments based on activity trends, top events, and user properties. The platform even lets you click on specific users to view their session recordings, offering deep insights into individual interactions.

What sets Userpilot apart is how it ties analytics to actions. For example, you can use insights from your segments or profiles to trigger contextual onboarding flows, send surveys, or even adjust your in-app messaging—all without jumping through hoops.

Pendo for user analytics

Pendo also provides user analytics features, but it doesn’t match the depth or flexibility of Userpilot.

Here are some limitations you should consider:

• Limited visitor and account profiles: Compared to Userpilot, Pendo’s profiles are just fine. They show activity trends and some details. But you can’t see top events, survey results, or linked session recordings, which limits how actionable the insights are.
• No standalone surveys: While Pendo has tools like Feedback and Listen, these are focused on product roadmaps and feature requests, not user research. There’s no way to launch an NPS or CSAT survey independently like Userpilot.
• Segmentation with limits: Pendo lets you segment users based on certain criteria and shows details like where those segments are being used (dashboards, reports, etc.). However, it lacks data visualization, making it harder to see trends like changes in product activity for a specific segment over time.

Pendo’s user analytics can handle basic use cases, but it often feels more tailored to feature planning than understanding user behaviors in detail.

Which one is more cost-effective?

Pricing can often be the deciding factor when choosing between two tools, and in this case, Userpilot delivers more bang for your buck.

While Pendo is packed with features, it’s significantly more expensive, especially for teams looking to scale.

Let’s compare:

Pricing of Userpilot

Userpilot provides transparent pricing with three main tiers:

• Starter: At $249 per month (billed annually), this plan includes up to 2,000 Monthly Active Users (MAUs), in-app user engagement, user segmentation and tracking, usage data analysis, and NPS surveys.
• Growth: Starting at $799 per month (billed annually). It includes all Starter features plus custom MAUs, product analytics, retroactive events autocapture, session replay, in-app surveys, a resource center, and content throttling and localization.
• Enterprise: Offers everything in Growth, along with premium third-party integrations, bulk data export and import, data warehouse sync, SAML SSO and activity logs, priority support, security audit and compliance (SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR), and custom contracts and SLAs. Pricing is customized based on specific needs.

Pricing of Pendo

Pendo’s custom pricing is less transparent and varies based on factors like MAUs and feature requirements. Their plans include:

• Base: Designed for companies starting their product experience journey, it includes custom MAUs, product analytics, in-app guides, and one integration.
• Core: Offers everything in Base plus session replays.
• Pulse: Includes all Core features, with the addition of Net Promoter Score (NPS) and product discovery tools.
• Ultimate: Comprises all Pulse features along with the Pro edition of in-app guides, journey orchestration, and data synchronization.

Features like session replays, content localization, or AI-writing assistance are available as add-ons. And with the cost of their plans ranging between $25,800 to $132,400, it’s hard to understand the idea behind add-ons if all pricing is custom anyway.

So… Userpilot or Pendo?

This comparison of Userpilot vs Pendo shows that our product is more flexible. However, it doesn’t mean Pendo is objectively “worse”—it’s actually pretty darn good at what it does.

But for most product teams, Userpilot delivers a better balance of features, usability, and value. It’s the go-to choice if you’re focused on user onboarding, actionable analytics, and feedback collection. However, if you need tools geared toward product planning, employee onboarding, or mobile support (and the high price isn’t a problem for you), Pendo is a better fit.

Want to see how Userpilot can do all this without coding? Book a demo today and experience its features for free.

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