Whatfix vs Walkme: Which is Best for Your SaaS?
Wondering whether Whatfix or Walkme is the best option for your SaaS company?
This article is going to dive into the Whatfix vs Walkme debate and try to answer a key question: Which is the better tool for user onboarding, as well as other use cases?
In the post below, we’ve covered all the common use cases and done an in-depth analysis of the key features of Whatfix and Walkme – as well as compared it to an alternative solution that may be better in some situations.
Let’s get into it!
TL;DR
- Let’s explore how Whatfix, and Walkme compare when it comes to user onboarding and other common use cases.
- Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that helps enterprise organizations with onboarding, training, and supporting their employees or customers. It accomplishes this through in-app guidance and messaging to provide on-demand support whenever it’s needed.
- WalkMe is a digital adoption platform that can help you create frictionless experiences for your customers. The platform is built keeping the compliance, scalability, and security needs of enterprises in mind.
- If you’re looking for a better option for user onboarding, Userpilot exceeds both functionality and value for money compared to other tools on the list.
- Userpilot is a product growth platform that drives user activation, feature adoption, and expansion revenue. It also helps product teams collect user feedback, streamline onboarding, and gather actionable insights from analytics. Get a Userpilot demo for user onboarding and drive your product growth code-free.
Userpilot – A Better Alternative for your SaaS
What is Whatfix?
Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that helps enterprise organizations with onboarding, training, and supporting their employees or customers. It accomplishes this through in-app guidance and messaging to provide on-demand support whenever it’s needed.
The solution also lets you track analytics on all in-app guidance, collect user feedback, build out self-serve content, and automate certain flows. Whatfix even has integrations with Salesforce, Amplitude, Google Analytics, Slack, Confluence, and other platforms to maximize collaboration.
What is Walkme?
WalkMe is a digital adoption platform that can help you create frictionless experiences for your customers. The platform is built keeping the compliance, scalability, and security needs of enterprises in mind.
Using it, you can onboard customers and keep them engaged throughout their lifetime with your business. With powerful features like workflow automation and analytics, you can use it to grow your enterprise.
Whatfix vs Walkme for user onboarding
In this section of the article, we’re really going to compare Whatfix vs Walkme in terms of user onboarding. That way, we’ll be able to figure out which tool – Whatfix or Walkme – is the best option depending on your use case.
Whatfix for user onboarding
User onboarding is a complex process that only the most flexible tools can pull off. Whatfix has its fair share of bugs and technical quirks but there are a few features that bolster its onboarding capabilities — namely its tours, checklists, and integrations.
Here’s an overview of Whatfix’s onboarding features:
- Whatfix lets you create interactive product tours for both users and employees. This reduces the time to value (TTV), whether it’s for customers using your product or employees learning how to use a solution in the internal tool stack.
- Onboarding checklists (known as task lists on Whatfix) give new users or employees a clear next step on their journey toward product adoption. Whatfix lets you create these checklists as widgets target specific segments, and group tasks under headers.
- Whatfix’s gallery of direct integrations with tools like Salesforce, Amplitude, SurveyMonkey, and more helps you centralize all onboarding data. The onboarding metrics gathered and synced across tools can then help you streamline your in-app flows.
Walkme for user onboarding
Any digital adoption platform that seeks to gain the attention of businesses needs to have a solid lineup of features for user onboarding. It’s crucial because this is the stage where you can make a first impression on your users. Hand-holding them in this phase can help them get up to speed soon.
WalkMe has a bunch of features for user onboarding:
- You can create an onboarding checklist through the Onboarding Tasks feature on WalkMe. It’s possible to set different goals inside your checklist so users can keep checking them as they complete them. The Onboarding Tasks can include Smart Walk-Thrus, videos, and articles to guide your new users.
- You can also use WalkMe’s SmartTips feature to guide your users through the app’s UI. These serve as on-screen guidance and help reduce the learning curve for new users. Clicking on a SmartTip opens a pop-up that gives more information on the element.
- Likewise, you can use ShoutOuts to draw your new user’s attention to specific announcements. They’re essentially banners that you can use to show users what they need to know when getting started. You can also get them to take action through ShoutOuts.
- You could also use Launchers in your onboarding flow for some self-guidance. When users click on Launchers, a new action like a Smart Walk-Thru will get triggered. Users can click on each Launcher you create to learn more about your platform.
Whatfix vs Walkme for product adoption
In this section of the article, we’re really going to compare Whatfix vs Walkme in terms of product adoption. That way, we’ll be able to figure out which tool – Whatfix or Walkme – is the best option depending on your use case.
Whatfix for product adoption
Product adoption is one of the most crucial stages of the customer lifecycle because it will determine whether they start to use the software regularly or churn in the next few weeks/months. Because Whatfix is a digital adoption platform, it has a few features designed to help with this:
- You create product tours for customers and employees to help them adopt software applications — without needing to write any code. These flows can be built on top of either your product or other applications in the company tool stack.
- With task lists (which are just onboarding checklists), you can guide new users through the most important features of a product and streamline the adoption journey. These widgets can also be set up to target different segments with personalized guidance.
- Embed contextual help within various areas of a product to ensure that adoption instructions are always visible wherever they’re needed most. You’ll then be able to check user data to see if the in-app guidance has the desired impact.
Walkme for product adoption
Any digital adoption platform that seeks to gain the attention of businesses needs to have a solid lineup of features for user onboarding. It’s crucial because this is the stage where you can make a first impression on your users. Hand-holding them in this phase can help them get up to speed soon.
WalkMe has a bunch of features for user onboarding:
- You can create an onboarding checklist through the Onboarding Tasks feature on WalkMe. It’s possible to set different goals inside your checklist so users can keep checking them as they complete them. The Onboarding Tasks can include Smart Walk-Thrus, videos, and articles to guide your new users.
- You can also use WalkMe’s SmartTips feature to guide your users through the app’s UI. These serve as on-screen guidance and help reduce the learning curve for new users. Clicking on a SmartTip opens a pop-up that gives more information on the element.
- Likewise, you can use ShoutOuts to draw your new user’s attention to specific announcements. They’re essentially banners that you can use to show users what they need to know when getting started. You can also get them to take action through ShoutOuts.
- You could also use Launchers in your onboarding flow for some self-guidance. When users click on Launchers, a new action like a Smart Walk-Thru will get triggered. Users can click on each Launcher you create to learn more about your platform.
Whatfix vs Walkme for customer experience
In this section of the article, we’re really going to compare Whatfix vs Walkme in terms of customer experience. That way, we’ll be able to figure out which tool – Whatfix or Walkme – is the best option depending on your use case.
Whatfix for customer experience
Customer experience insights are imperative for understanding how people use your product. Whatfix can be used to improve the product experience both for customers as well as your employees using internal software.
Here are the Whatfix features you can use to improve the customer experience:
- You can collect feedback from your customers or employees while they’re actively using a software application. These input fields can be used to collect feedback on the customer experience or specific aspects of the product.
- Ask scalar, multiple choice, and open-ended questions to get an accurate view of net promoter scores (as well as the driving forces behind each rating). Note that you’ll only be able to edit, delete, or reorder questions if you upgrade to Premium.
- Adding tooltips, hotspots, and beacons on top of a piece of software using Whatfix can draw attention toward specific features. Whatfix tooltips are particularly helpful because they expand when hovered over and provide additional information to users.
Walkme for customer experience
The clear path to better user retention and low churn is a frictionless customer experience. When users can use your product well to achieve their goals, they’ll likely stick to it. This can boost product adoption and revenue as well.
Here’s what WalkMe has to offer for elevating your customer experience:
- The Onboarding Tasks feature helps you create a smooth onboarding journey for your customers. It enables them to understand how to use it well through a self-service checklist.
- Similarly, you can use SmartTips, ShoutOuts, and Smart Walk-Thrus to help your users discover new features and make it easy for them to start using them. You can also provide targeted guidance to them by creating segments in your audience.
- The ActionBot can be used to direct users to relevant knowledge base articles to help them overcome any roadblocks.
- WalkMe gives you detailed analytics on your users and how they engage with your in-app engagements. You can use them to improve your product and features further to boost customer experience.
Whatfix vs Walkme for user feedback
In this section of the article, we’re really going to compare Whatfix vs Walkme in terms of user feedback. That way, we’ll be able to figure out which tool – Whatfix or Walkme – is the best option depending on your use case.
Whatfix for user feedback
Product feedback can help you identify friction points, squash bugs, and improve the overall experience for customers or employees using a piece of software. Whatfix lets you collect different types of feedback from users across multiple platforms:
- Whatfix has feedback forms that let users submit their feedback at any point in the product journey. This makes it easy to ask about specific features while a customer or employee is actively using it — leading to higher response rates and more accurate feedback.
- Whatfix’s surveys aren’t limited to PC users, as you’ll also be able to collect feedback from customers and employees who are on mobile devices. Whatfix lets you adjust the design and placement of your mobile surveys (either full screen, centered, or bottom).
- Lastly, Whatfix also lets you build NPS surveys that help with customer satisfaction benchmarking. Sadly, these surveys are quite limited on the Standard plan and you’ll have to upgrade to Premium if you hope to edit, delete, or reorder questions.
Walkme for user feedback
Like user feedback, it’s important to collect feedback on your product as well. This feedback can play an instrumental role in helping you make informed decisions about your product. Here’s how WalkMe makes product feedback collection possible:
- You can use feedback and NPS surveys to collect product feedback from users. Feedback surveys, in particular, are helpful as they can give you insight into what needs changing.
- WalkMe offers different question types for surveys and you can also set them to play automatically at various frequencies.
- You can track the survey analytics through WalkMe Insights to understand what needs to change to boost product experience.
Whatfix vs Walkme: Which one you should choose?
To further simplify this selection process, let’s break down the strengths and limitations of each tool. Understanding the distinct advantages and potential drawbacks of Whatfix and Walkme will provide you with a detailed roadmap for making a well-informed decision!
Pros and cons of Whatfix
Pros of Whatfix
Whatfix may not be as popular or widely adopted as competitors like WalkMe but it does have its fair share of benefits:
- Pricing: While Whatfix does not publish the exact cost of its plans publicly, numerous reports from customers suggest an average entry point of $1,000/month. This is significantly cheaper than its closest competitor, WalkMe, which reportedly starts at closer to $10,000/month.
- Automation: Whatfix Flows helps you automate repetitive tasks to save time. The Whatfix Flows dashboard also lets you analyze your existing flows and then use them to create entirely new automation in a single click.
- Integrations: Whatfix’s third-party integration options make it easy to incorporate the solution into the rest of your tech stack. It integrates with Salesforce, Amplitude, Google Analytics, Slack, and more — providing a good selection of the top CRM, analytics, and communication tools.
Cons of Whatfix
Whatfix offers a more affordable employee onboarding solution than its closest competitors but is limited by its lackluster analytics and support — along with its high-friction trial signup process for prospective customers.
Here are the key drawbacks of using Whatfix:
- Whatfix is quite lacking in the analytics department — both in comparison to direct competitors like WalkMe as well as other onboarding solutions like Userpilot, Appcues, or Pendo. If detailed user data matters to you, you’ll want to consider alternatives.
- Technical assistance (or the lack thereof) is arguably one of Whatfix’s largest weaknesses. While all plans promise to give you a customer success manager, most Whatfix users complain about the subpar support they provide.
- While Whatfix has a trial request page on its website, this form is buggy and inconsistent. You can reach out to support to request a trial directly but resolution times can be upwards of a month — and, in the end, you may even be redirected to a demo call instead of a trial account.
Pros and cons of Walkme
Pros of Walkme
WalkMe is among the most popular platforms out there for digital adoption, especially for enterprises. It’s got a range of useful features that businesses can leverage to create in-app engagements, track user behavior, and retain customers, among other things. Here are the pros of using WalkMe:
- Multiple in-app engagements: Offers a bunch of in-app engagement options, including product tours, tooltips, help widgets, onboarding checklists, and more. Using them well can help you engage your customers.
- User-friendliness: The platform is quite user-friendly in terms of creating in-app engagements. And while it does have a moderate learning curve as a whole, it becomes easy to use once you get the hang of it.
- Lots of analytics: WalkMe provides in-depth analytics on a range of things like in-app engagements and forms to help you understand the impact that they’re creating. This helps you optimize your strategies for better results.
- Workflow automation: Workflow automation features like onboarding automation stand out as they enable you to automate a series of steps and processes like clicking buttons to make your customer experience better.
- Community: WalkMe offers a strong community of experts and partners who can help you whenever you get stuck.
Cons of Walkme
While WalkMe has a bunch of good things to offer that make it one of the leading digital adoption platforms out there, it does have a few drawbacks that prevent you from unlocking its full potential. Let’s take a look at some of the cons of this platform:
- Coding knowledge: Even though WalkMe is no-code/low-code for most of its functions, you’ll need to know HTML or CSS to make the most out of the platform.
- Challenging on complex sites: The process of implementing WalkMe on your website depends on the complexity of your site. You might find it challenging to ensure that your content behaves the way it should if you’ve got a complicated website.
- Focused on employees: WalkMe’s primary use case lies in digital adoption for employees, even though it has a specific plan for customers. However, this makes it slightly weaker compared to other platforms that have been dedicatedly built for customers.
Userpilot – A better alternative for your SaaS
Userpilot is a product growth platform that drives user activation, feature adoption, and expansion revenue. It also helps product teams collect user feedback, streamline onboarding, and gather actionable insights from analytics.
With Userpilot, you’ll be able to track both product usage and user behavior to get a holistic view of how customers use your product — which will guide future development, improve the user experience, and inform your growth efforts.
Pros of Userpilot
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.
Cons of Userpilot
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.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post helped you decide whether Whatfix or Walkme is more appropriate for your company. As you can see – both have many upsides and downsides.
Undeniably, Userpilot provides a better value for money and is a better choice for a mid-market SaaS, especially when it comes to user onboarding and user feedback.
If you’re interested in finding more, book a demo with our team here!
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