What are SaaS onboarding experiences?<\/strong><\/h2>\nUser onboarding<\/a> experiences are all the interactions that a user has with your SaaS product onboarding at the beginning of their user journey.<\/p>\nStarting from the signup flow, you\u2019ll generally have a welcome screen<\/a> and some initial experiences\/interactions, including a SaaS onboarding checklist.<\/p>\nIn the first few seconds, your user may have a positive onboarding or mobile onboarding experience<\/a> that will lead them to the Aha! moment <\/a>(the moment when they realize the value of your product). They\u2019ll likely activate and maybe convert from the free trial to the paid plan<\/a>.<\/p>\nOr, they might have a terrible and confusing experience (think empty states<\/a>, irrelevant flows) and decide to end their adventure with your product.<\/p>\nBest practices for building the best SaaS user onboarding experience<\/strong><\/h2>\nThere are some tweaks you need to make to your SaaS onboarding process to create a positive experience and increase customer satisfaction. Let’s look at some best practices in detail below.<\/p>\n
1. Reduce friction in the signup process<\/strong><\/h3>\nAs a rule of thumb, the less friction<\/a> your user encounters in their onboarding process, the better.\u00a0 For example, remove any unnecessary steps or fields from your signup flow.<\/p>\nTake the example of Miro’s sign-up page below – it only asks for the work email address and enables prospects to sign up using Google, Microsoft, and Slack<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Miro](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/cc4aff24-9e64-4bd8-8c74-54467e76476e-scaled.png\")
Miro sign-up page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDisclaimer: sometimes<\/strong> friction-based signup flow<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0may be beneficial <\/strong>(e.g., highly complex enterprise platforms<\/a> that require a lot of technical setups and human help in the initial stages of the customer journey).<\/p>\n2. Start with a welcome screen, ideally with a microsurvey\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\nOnce your user signs up for your tool, welcome them!<\/p>\n
But make it worthwhile by asking them 1-2 questions about what they want to accomplish (their goals, jobs to be done<\/a>), or by adding buttons that would allow them to \u201cchoose their own journey\u201d \u2013 select the course of action they want to accomplish first.<\/p>\nUsing the welcome screen to segment your new users by the goals they want to achieve can be game-changing.<\/p>\n
You will get them to accomplish their jobs to be done faster, reduce their time-to-value<\/a>, and generally help them activate<\/a> much sooner than if you drag them on a one-size-fits-all 20-step-long product tour.<\/p>\n![\"Welcome](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a1428f3-0b46-4f28-9b9d-751c249da48e-scaled.png\")
Welcome survey created in Userpilot<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n3. Segment your users to personalize the onboarding process<\/strong><\/h3>\nPersonalization in SaaS onboarding is another tactic that helps your users get to their goals faster. But few SaaS companies personalize their onboarding flows<\/a> really well. It\u2019s not so much about adding \u201cpersonal touches\u201d to the flow (e.g., the \u201c{first name}\u201d tags) as understanding the user needs<\/a> and customizing the flows respectively to reflect that.<\/p>\nUsing that initial microsurvey<\/a> from the welcome screen, you can personalize your SaaS user onboarding to the user\u2019s specific persona, role, goals, and use case.<\/p>\nSay, you have an email marketing<\/a> tool and two new users: one is a brand-new freelance online store owner who has never used an email marketing tool and doesn\u2019t have an email list.<\/p>\nAnother is a seasoned e-commerce business owner who is switching from another email marketing tool with a list of 20,000. Obviously, their needs will be quite different and will need different onboarding!<\/p>\n
\n- User one (\u201cthe beginner\u201d)<\/strong> may want to watch a short onboarding video<\/a> on the best practices of using an onboarding tool, and then learn how to set up a signup form to collect their first subscribers.<\/li>\n
- User two (\u201cthe seasoned user\u201d)<\/strong> may just want to quickly find out where to upload their email list and set up the first email campaign\/automation workflow<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This is what real SaaS onboarding personalization is about \u2013 it helps your users achieve their goals (rather than just showcasing your product) and makes your onboarding more relevant, engaging, and effective.<\/p>\n
This kind of personalization makes onboarding more efficient and effective. <\/span>Cledara <\/span><\/a>is a great example of this in action. They moved away from high-touch onboarding and generic email campaigns and started using Userpilot to segment users based on in-app behavior and specific use cases. That allowed them to trigger personalized in-app messages\u2014like flows for due diligence prep or feature announcements\u2014at exactly the right moment for each user.<\/span><\/p>\nAs a result, Cledara saw a significant increase in customer engagement within just one week, with in-app messages generating far more responses than emails ever did. The key? Granular segmentation and in-app targeting.<\/span><\/p>\nThe first step to personalizing your SaaS onboarding is segmenting your audience<\/a> by the relevant user attributes and events. The answers to the microsurvey in the welcome screen are one factor to consider, but there may be many other important factors to consider (depending on your product, plans, and how many user personas you have), especially at the later stages of the onboarding flow.<\/p>\nAttributes like the plan, the time when the user signed up, and how many web sessions they had in the last e.g. 7 days \u2013 may all be important for triggering the right content<\/a> at the right time.<\/p>\nSaaS onboarding software like Userpilot<\/a> allows you to build sophisticated user segments for onboarding personalization.<\/p>\n![\"Segmentation](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/34b329f2-19e5-47f8-aa7c-7b0607a867fc-scaled.png\")
Segmentation in Userpilot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAnd with Userpilot’s mobile features<\/a>, you can also onboard and engage mobile app users by creating personalized messaging, push notifications, and surveys.<\/span><\/p>\n4. Create an onboarding checklist with a progress bar<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe purpose of good user onboarding in SaaS is to take the user on\u00a0the shortest path to value<\/a>. You need to know what the user wants to achieve and then show them the fastest route to achieving this goal\/result.<\/p>\nLuckily, checklists are proven to naturally trigger our need to \u201cclose the open loop\u201d and push the users to complete the activation points. If you\u2019ve heard of the psychological phenomena of the Zeigarnik effect<\/a> (the urge to complete unfinished task lists) and the endowed progress effect \u2013 you will instantly get why user onboarding checklists<\/a>\u00a0are so effective in pushing new users to activation.<\/p>\nA successful checklist build means that users get to the Aha! moment and activate quickly. Sked Social<\/span><\/a> saw this firsthand: users who completed their four-step onboarding checklist were 3x more likely to convert into paying customers. They kept it simple\u2014just four tasks\u2014and used psychological nudges like a progress bar and pre-checked items (endowed progress) to motivate users. Each task is linked directly to an in-app action or flow, guiding users step by step until completion, and closing with a celebratory message.<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/skedsocial-checklist.png\")
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But be careful, don\u2019t overload your checklist! Remember to throw in an incentive at the end to reward your new users for completing the tasks \u2013 for example, a discount voucher, or additional credits for their account.<\/p>\n![\"Checklist](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/241cacc3-f369-443e-ae0f-458cb2e132f2-scaled.png\")
Checklist made in Userpilot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUserpilot checklists<\/a> come with their own set of analytics, so you\u2019ll be able to see engagement stats and where people are dropping off so you can keep improving:<\/p>\n![\"Userpilot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/96cd65fc-b804-4223-b5a6-9118bc136359-scaled.png\")
Userpilot checklist analytics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n5. Build interactive walkthroughs, not linear product tours<\/strong><\/h3>\nInstead of a lengthy multistep product tour showing your users features that they may not immediately need (and likely won\u2019t remember when\u00a0<\/em>they need them) consider creating interactive walkthroughs <\/a>instead.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s the difference between an interactive walkthrough and a classic product tour?<\/p>\n
Interactive walkthroughs teach the users by doing \u2013 they push the users to complete certain actions before continuing the tour. Each step in their onboarding flow<\/a> (or walkthrough) should be triggered only when the user has actually completed<\/em> the required action from the previous step.<\/p>\n![\"interactive-walkthrough-example-product-walkthrough\"](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/interactive-walkthrough-example-product-walkthrough_484df0e2782557c2d08d98646fba9275.gif\")
Interactive walkthrough made in Userpilot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThis approach has proven highly effective in practice. When <\/span>Attention Insight<\/span><\/a> implemented interactive walkthroughs with Userpilot, they saw their activation rate increase by 10% and time spent in the app grow by 24%. Their Head of Product, Miroslav Vargan, had identified a significant challenge with feature discovery that was resolved through guided experiences requiring users to complete each action before moving forward. The transformation from passive viewing to active participation made a remarkable difference in how users learned and adopted their platform’s capabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/attention-insight-walkthrough-1.gif\")
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Compare it to a linear product tour:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nIt consists of a number of tooltips<\/a> showing the user all the different features one by one, and requiring them to just press the \u201cnext button\u201d before proceeding. This obviously means a lot of users will just\u2026be hitting all the next buttons to get rid of the product tour, without learning anything.<\/p>\nNot sure how to build interactive walkthroughs to improve the new user onboarding in your SaaS? Book a demo with Userpilot<\/a>, we\u2019ll show you!<\/p>\n6. Make your onboarding contextual<\/strong><\/h3>\nAs you gather more user behavior or user attribute data<\/a>, you should work to keep onboarding experiences as relevant as possible to what your user is doing in your app.<\/p>\nImagine you\u2019re a user of a social media scheduling tool. You are supposed to schedule some posts for next week, but inspiration eludes you. You are typing a few words into the editor, deleting them, typing again\u2026 You don\u2019t have any posts in your queue.<\/p>\n
Wouldn\u2019t a helping hand pointing you to the ready-made post calendar with content templates be great?<\/p>\n
This isn’t just theoretical – <\/span>Groupize<\/span><\/a> saw remarkable results when they implemented contextual onboarding with Userpilot. Justin Peticolas, Manager of Implementation and Onboarding at Groupize, described G.G. as “like having a professional event planner that spent years on the job inside the app, that our users can ask for advice anytime.” By implementing contextual guidance through interactive elements, resource centers, and guided tours, Groupize noticed their support tickets became more focused and directed. Users began using G.G. as their first line of defense, resulting in fewer basic questions and more specific queries that truly required human intervention. <\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/groupize2.png\")
<\/p>\n
Contextual user onboarding<\/a>\u00a0in SaaS outperforms traditional linear onboarding any day of the week.<\/p>\nContextual onboarding relies on two things: subtle in-app experiences such as native tooltips, hotspots, and banners, and triggers based on user behavior and custom events<\/a>. You can trigger these experiences in real-time in response to the in-app events the users are performing in your product with only a few onboarding tools (and yes, Userpilot<\/a> happens to be one of them \ud83d\ude0e).<\/p>\n![\"Hotspots](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/31c2915f-12d8-4103-876c-4707c2e5821d-scaled.png\")
Hotspots in Userpilot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn sum \u2013 contextual onboarding reduces the time to value as well as allows you to create personalized flows<\/a>\u00a0and provide a great user onboarding experience.<\/p>\n\u00a07. Use native tooltips<\/strong><\/h3>\nA good practice for your new user onboarding in SaaS is to use the more subtle native tooltips<\/a>, especially at later stages in the user journey.<\/p>\nNative tooltips are tooltips appended to your native UI that only unfurl when the user hovers over them. They are less disruptive than onboarding walkthroughs and can help especially with secondary feature adoption<\/a> that the users can discover on their own.<\/p>\n![\"Tooltips](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/47480a3c-e58e-4d01-b2f6-30aa4fd2a142-scaled.png\")
Tooltips in Userpilot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThis strategy has been effective in real-world use cases. <\/span>Talana<\/span><\/a>, an HR tech platform with dynamic URLs and multiple user roles, implemented native tooltips using Userpilot and saw impressive results. Despite facing onboarding challenges with their previous tool (Intercom), switching to Userpilot allowed them to create dynamic, context-sensitive tooltips tailored to each user. As a result, <\/span>31% of Talana\u2019s users actively engaged with tooltips<\/b>\u2014a significant boost in self-guided learning and product adoption.<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/talana-tooltip.png\")
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8. Make sure your SaaS onboarding flow is self-serve<\/strong><\/h3>\nIdeally, your users should be able to go through your user onboarding process without having to wait for a customer success manager<\/a> to find time for them. Self-serve, product-led SaaS should be accessible to its users 24\/7.<\/p>\nAdding a resource center <\/a>to your SaaS app allows the user to search all your help resources, video tutorials, onboarding flows, and knowledge base<\/a> help documents on-demand, by keyword. This can improve the user onboarding experience immensely by providing your users with instant answers to frequently asked questions.<\/p>\n![\"Userpilot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/e95cdffe-5727-4816-99da-79b75e2f5a9d-scaled.png\")
Userpilot resource center editor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJust like with checklists \u2013 our resource center<\/a> comes complete with analytics \u2013 to help both your product managers and customer support team understand what your new users struggle with:<\/p>\n![\"Userpilot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/5f409f98-f1f0-45f5-99e5-26659134af90-scaled.png\")
Userpilot resource center analytics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe Room<\/span><\/a>, a platform connecting elite African tech talent with global employers, experienced this firsthand when tackling their activation challenge. Their Senior Product Manager, Arjoon Talukdar, identified a critical problem: new members weren’t uploading their CVs after signup, which prevented them from being discovered by potential employers. Instead of deploying customer success managers to guide each user, they implemented a self-serve onboarding flow with Userpilot that featured a “driven action” – a UI pattern that guided users to click the “upload CV” button. The results were remarkable: CV uploads increased by 75% (from 200-210 to 300-350 per week) within just 10 days. What made this approach particularly effective was that Arjoon could build these flows without engineering resources, allowing for quick implementation and iteration based on user engagement data.<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/the-room-driven-action.png\")
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9. A\/B test your onboarding process and continuously improve it<\/strong><\/h3>\nProduct managers\/marketers responsible for onboarding often see it as a one-off \u2018set it and forget it\u2019 activity. This mindset can be really disastrous. Your product evolves all the time, your positioning<\/a>, market, and user personas change, and so should your user onboarding.<\/p>\nYou should also keep introducing more advanced features at the later stages of your customer onboarding journey to push for upgrades and expansion revenue.<\/p>\n
You should also constantly iterate and experiment with your onboarding. To help you understand which versions of your user onboarding flows are most impactful in terms of helping your users, you may also run A\/B tests<\/a> to test different versions of your flows:<\/p>\nOf course, we offer you this option in Userpilot too.<\/p>\n![\"A\/B](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/c84c747b-9e2d-454b-9e76-414749b3708f.png\")
A\/B testing in Userpilot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe <\/span>Smoobu<\/span><\/a> team conducted an A\/B test to evaluate the impact of triggering a channel connection tutorial on new users after creating an account.<\/span><\/p>\nUsing Userpilot, they tested two variations: one group was shown the channel walkthrough immediately after sign-up, while the other group received no guidance. Both groups were part of their French market.<\/span><\/p>\nWant to implement the best practices you\u2019ve just learned about into your SaaS onboarding?\u00a0 Book a demo with Userpilot and we\u2019ll show you how!<\/a> On top of user onboarding flows, Userpilot offers behavior analytics, microsurveys, and surveys, all 100% customizable to your branding.<\/p>\nBut wait, how do you improve your existing user onboarding experience?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\nIf you\u2019ve already built your SaaS user onboarding and just want to improve it, here are a few ways to troubleshoot and improve:<\/p>\n
\n- Look at your user behavior analytics<\/a> tools and see where users are dropping out or getting stuck. Funnel analysis will help here. You can also pair it with session recordings for granular insights.<\/li>\n
- Come up with some hypotheses on how to improve your onboarding experiences.<\/li>\n
- Implement the improvements to your onboarding flows.<\/li>\n
- A\/B test<\/a> your new onboarding flows.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Funnel](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1c678658-bc94-44fa-b068-1d4dfaeab269-scaled.png\")
Funnel analysis in Userpilot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe 8 best SaaS onboarding examples to inspire you<\/strong><\/h2>\nNow that we know all about SaaS onboarding best practices let\u2019s look at some real-life examples of great onboarding experiences in SaaS. These user onboarding specialists<\/a> and customer success teams did a great job \u2013 so take a leaf out of their book!<\/p>\nBest user onboarding experience #1: Box<\/strong><\/h3>\nBox offers a secure platform for content management, workflows, and collaboration.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how it onboards new users\u2026<\/p>\n![\"Box's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/box_onboarding_1-1.png\")
Box’s home page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBox has a fairly simple home page layout, with a prominent CTA, enabling new users to get up and running as soon as possible.<\/p>\n![\"Box's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/box_onboarding_2.png\")
Box’s pricing plans.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nClicking the CTA takes users to the pricing page, where they can see a breakdown of each price plan. This means users can immediately choose the most relevant plan for them. It also highlights the value proposition of Box.<\/p>\n![\"Box's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/box_onboarding_3.png\")
Box’s sign-up form.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBox then provides a fairly simple sign-up form, only asking for a few key details. It also repeats the main benefits of the product so that they\u2019re fresh in the user\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n![\"Box's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/box_onboarding_5.png\")
Box’s product tour.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOnce users access Box, they\u2019re shown a brief tour of the product<\/a>, with tooltips explaining how the product works. Note that the tooltips also explain the benefits of the feature, not simply how it works.<\/p>\nBox also makes use of empty states, by providing sample content in the form of a welcome pdf. This shows users how the product will work for them.<\/p>\n![\"Box's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/box_onboarding_6.png\")
Box’s onboarding checklist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHere\u2019s where Box\u2019s onboarding gets really clever. When a user starts their free trial with Box, they\u2019re given 14 days to use the product.<\/p>\n
However, Box provides a checklist of onboarding tasks. Completing these tasks will extend the trial. It\u2019s a great way of rewarding positive interactions with the product<\/a>, and means new users are likely to reach the eventual Aha! Moment.<\/p>\n![\"Box's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/box_onboarding_7.png\")
Box’s in-app gamification.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBox\u2019s checklist also provides a progress line<\/a>\u00a0so users can see how close they are to completion.<\/p>\n![\"Tooltips](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/box_onboarding_8.png\")
Tooltips in Box.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nEvery time a user starts one of the checklist tasks, Box ensures they know exactly what to do with useful and clear tooltips.<\/p>\n
What we love about Box\u2019s onboarding experience:<\/p>\n
\n- Guides new users through every aspect from sign-up to first using the product.<\/li>\n
- Gamifies the checklist by offering an extension to the free trial.<\/li>\n
- Clear and compelling tooltips that not only show users how to do something, but why it\u2019s so great.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Best onboarding experience #2: Productboard<\/strong><\/h3>\nProductboard is a product management tool<\/a>, designed to help you gather feedback and then act on it.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s what Productboard\u2019s onboarding flow looks like\u2026<\/p>\n![\"Productboard's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/productboard_onboarding_1-1-1.png\")
Productboard’s home page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe home page features a large \u201cTry now\u201d CTA that stands out thanks to the vivid color.<\/p>\n![\"Productboard's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/productboard_onboarding_2-1.png\")
Productboard’s email verification.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOnce you enter your email address, Productboard asks you to validate it. Note how they provide links to the most popular email clients, reducing the friction as much as possible.<\/p>\n![\"Productboard's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/productboard_onboarding_3-1.png\")
Productboard’s welcome survey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAfter clicking the link in the email, you\u2019re presented with this screen. It uses a clever fill-in-the-blanks method of finding out more about you and your specific use case.<\/p>\n![\"Productboard's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/productboard_onboarding_4-1.png\")
Productboard’s onboarding checklist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFinally, you\u2019re taken inside the app and are immediately presented with a checklist. The items are designed to show you the key features that Productboard provides, enabling you to reach the Aha! Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhat we love about Productboard\u2019s onboarding flow:<\/p>\n
\n- Tries to reduce friction<\/a> as much as possible, especially when validating your email address.<\/li>\n
- An interesting and unique way of understanding your use case.<\/li>\n
- It uses a checklist to drive user action.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Best SaaS onboarding example #3: FullStory<\/strong><\/h3>\nFullStory<\/a> records and reproduces real user experiences on your site, helping you support customers, boost conversions, and debug faster.<\/p>\nHere are a few things we\u2019d like you to take note of from Fullstory\u2019s user onboarding experience:<\/p>\n![\"FullStory's](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Step1_UserOnboardingExperience_bc3334338f1d38c067180b8b9a9aac50_800.png\")
FullStory’s home page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe landing page<\/a> has a strong value proposition, with a clear CTA to sign up for free. The highlighted \u2018sign up free\u2019 CTA pushes users in a subtle way to dive quickly into FullStory and initiate that first contact with the product.<\/p>\n![\"User](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Step3_UserOnboardingExperience_3c60f6d8ed58fa489bc1c1b567e6537e_800.png\")
FullStory’s onboarding survey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAs it waits for you to validate your email, FullStory takes a chance to gather feedback<\/a> with a beautiful \u2018How did you hear about us\u2019 modal.<\/p>\n![\"User](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Step4_1_UserOboardingExperience_34336244811c99b37dc0d71a834a9280_800.png\")
FullStory log-in page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFullStory welcomes you back once you finish validating your email. It\u2019s a friendly, personal touch that helps develop your relationship with your product.<\/p>\n
Starting from the signup flow, you\u2019ll generally have a welcome screen<\/a> and some initial experiences\/interactions, including a SaaS onboarding checklist.<\/p>\n In the first few seconds, your user may have a positive onboarding or mobile onboarding experience<\/a> that will lead them to the Aha! moment <\/a>(the moment when they realize the value of your product). They\u2019ll likely activate and maybe convert from the free trial to the paid plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n Or, they might have a terrible and confusing experience (think empty states<\/a>, irrelevant flows) and decide to end their adventure with your product.<\/p>\n There are some tweaks you need to make to your SaaS onboarding process to create a positive experience and increase customer satisfaction. Let’s look at some best practices in detail below.<\/p>\n As a rule of thumb, the less friction<\/a> your user encounters in their onboarding process, the better.\u00a0 For example, remove any unnecessary steps or fields from your signup flow.<\/p>\n Take the example of Miro’s sign-up page below – it only asks for the work email address and enables prospects to sign up using Google, Microsoft, and Slack<\/a>.<\/p>\n Disclaimer: sometimes<\/strong> friction-based signup flow<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0may be beneficial <\/strong>(e.g., highly complex enterprise platforms<\/a> that require a lot of technical setups and human help in the initial stages of the customer journey).<\/p>\n Once your user signs up for your tool, welcome them!<\/p>\n But make it worthwhile by asking them 1-2 questions about what they want to accomplish (their goals, jobs to be done<\/a>), or by adding buttons that would allow them to \u201cchoose their own journey\u201d \u2013 select the course of action they want to accomplish first.<\/p>\n Using the welcome screen to segment your new users by the goals they want to achieve can be game-changing.<\/p>\n You will get them to accomplish their jobs to be done faster, reduce their time-to-value<\/a>, and generally help them activate<\/a> much sooner than if you drag them on a one-size-fits-all 20-step-long product tour.<\/p>\n Personalization in SaaS onboarding is another tactic that helps your users get to their goals faster. But few SaaS companies personalize their onboarding flows<\/a> really well. It\u2019s not so much about adding \u201cpersonal touches\u201d to the flow (e.g., the \u201c{first name}\u201d tags) as understanding the user needs<\/a> and customizing the flows respectively to reflect that.<\/p>\n Using that initial microsurvey<\/a> from the welcome screen, you can personalize your SaaS user onboarding to the user\u2019s specific persona, role, goals, and use case.<\/p>\n Say, you have an email marketing<\/a> tool and two new users: one is a brand-new freelance online store owner who has never used an email marketing tool and doesn\u2019t have an email list.<\/p>\n Another is a seasoned e-commerce business owner who is switching from another email marketing tool with a list of 20,000. Obviously, their needs will be quite different and will need different onboarding!<\/p>\n This is what real SaaS onboarding personalization is about \u2013 it helps your users achieve their goals (rather than just showcasing your product) and makes your onboarding more relevant, engaging, and effective.<\/p>\n This kind of personalization makes onboarding more efficient and effective. <\/span>Cledara <\/span><\/a>is a great example of this in action. They moved away from high-touch onboarding and generic email campaigns and started using Userpilot to segment users based on in-app behavior and specific use cases. That allowed them to trigger personalized in-app messages\u2014like flows for due diligence prep or feature announcements\u2014at exactly the right moment for each user.<\/span><\/p>\n As a result, Cledara saw a significant increase in customer engagement within just one week, with in-app messages generating far more responses than emails ever did. The key? Granular segmentation and in-app targeting.<\/span><\/p>\n The first step to personalizing your SaaS onboarding is segmenting your audience<\/a> by the relevant user attributes and events. The answers to the microsurvey in the welcome screen are one factor to consider, but there may be many other important factors to consider (depending on your product, plans, and how many user personas you have), especially at the later stages of the onboarding flow.<\/p>\n Attributes like the plan, the time when the user signed up, and how many web sessions they had in the last e.g. 7 days \u2013 may all be important for triggering the right content<\/a> at the right time.<\/p>\n SaaS onboarding software like Userpilot<\/a> allows you to build sophisticated user segments for onboarding personalization.<\/p>\n And with Userpilot’s mobile features<\/a>, you can also onboard and engage mobile app users by creating personalized messaging, push notifications, and surveys.<\/span><\/p>\n The purpose of good user onboarding in SaaS is to take the user on\u00a0the shortest path to value<\/a>. You need to know what the user wants to achieve and then show them the fastest route to achieving this goal\/result.<\/p>\n Luckily, checklists are proven to naturally trigger our need to \u201cclose the open loop\u201d and push the users to complete the activation points. If you\u2019ve heard of the psychological phenomena of the Zeigarnik effect<\/a> (the urge to complete unfinished task lists) and the endowed progress effect \u2013 you will instantly get why user onboarding checklists<\/a>\u00a0are so effective in pushing new users to activation.<\/p>\n A successful checklist build means that users get to the Aha! moment and activate quickly. Sked Social<\/span><\/a> saw this firsthand: users who completed their four-step onboarding checklist were 3x more likely to convert into paying customers. They kept it simple\u2014just four tasks\u2014and used psychological nudges like a progress bar and pre-checked items (endowed progress) to motivate users. Each task is linked directly to an in-app action or flow, guiding users step by step until completion, and closing with a celebratory message.<\/span><\/p>\n But be careful, don\u2019t overload your checklist! Remember to throw in an incentive at the end to reward your new users for completing the tasks \u2013 for example, a discount voucher, or additional credits for their account.<\/p>\n Userpilot checklists<\/a> come with their own set of analytics, so you\u2019ll be able to see engagement stats and where people are dropping off so you can keep improving:<\/p>\n Instead of a lengthy multistep product tour showing your users features that they may not immediately need (and likely won\u2019t remember when\u00a0<\/em>they need them) consider creating interactive walkthroughs <\/a>instead.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the difference between an interactive walkthrough and a classic product tour?<\/p>\n Interactive walkthroughs teach the users by doing \u2013 they push the users to complete certain actions before continuing the tour. Each step in their onboarding flow<\/a> (or walkthrough) should be triggered only when the user has actually completed<\/em> the required action from the previous step.<\/p>\n This approach has proven highly effective in practice. When <\/span>Attention Insight<\/span><\/a> implemented interactive walkthroughs with Userpilot, they saw their activation rate increase by 10% and time spent in the app grow by 24%. Their Head of Product, Miroslav Vargan, had identified a significant challenge with feature discovery that was resolved through guided experiences requiring users to complete each action before moving forward. The transformation from passive viewing to active participation made a remarkable difference in how users learned and adopted their platform’s capabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n Compare it to a linear product tour:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It consists of a number of tooltips<\/a> showing the user all the different features one by one, and requiring them to just press the \u201cnext button\u201d before proceeding. This obviously means a lot of users will just\u2026be hitting all the next buttons to get rid of the product tour, without learning anything.<\/p>\n Not sure how to build interactive walkthroughs to improve the new user onboarding in your SaaS? Book a demo with Userpilot<\/a>, we\u2019ll show you!<\/p>\n As you gather more user behavior or user attribute data<\/a>, you should work to keep onboarding experiences as relevant as possible to what your user is doing in your app.<\/p>\n Imagine you\u2019re a user of a social media scheduling tool. You are supposed to schedule some posts for next week, but inspiration eludes you. You are typing a few words into the editor, deleting them, typing again\u2026 You don\u2019t have any posts in your queue.<\/p>\n Wouldn\u2019t a helping hand pointing you to the ready-made post calendar with content templates be great?<\/p>\n This isn’t just theoretical – <\/span>Groupize<\/span><\/a> saw remarkable results when they implemented contextual onboarding with Userpilot. Justin Peticolas, Manager of Implementation and Onboarding at Groupize, described G.G. as “like having a professional event planner that spent years on the job inside the app, that our users can ask for advice anytime.” By implementing contextual guidance through interactive elements, resource centers, and guided tours, Groupize noticed their support tickets became more focused and directed. Users began using G.G. as their first line of defense, resulting in fewer basic questions and more specific queries that truly required human intervention. <\/span><\/p>\n Contextual user onboarding<\/a>\u00a0in SaaS outperforms traditional linear onboarding any day of the week.<\/p>\n Contextual onboarding relies on two things: subtle in-app experiences such as native tooltips, hotspots, and banners, and triggers based on user behavior and custom events<\/a>. You can trigger these experiences in real-time in response to the in-app events the users are performing in your product with only a few onboarding tools (and yes, Userpilot<\/a> happens to be one of them \ud83d\ude0e).<\/p>\n In sum \u2013 contextual onboarding reduces the time to value as well as allows you to create personalized flows<\/a>\u00a0and provide a great user onboarding experience.<\/p>\n A good practice for your new user onboarding in SaaS is to use the more subtle native tooltips<\/a>, especially at later stages in the user journey.<\/p>\n Native tooltips are tooltips appended to your native UI that only unfurl when the user hovers over them. They are less disruptive than onboarding walkthroughs and can help especially with secondary feature adoption<\/a> that the users can discover on their own.<\/p>\n This strategy has been effective in real-world use cases. <\/span>Talana<\/span><\/a>, an HR tech platform with dynamic URLs and multiple user roles, implemented native tooltips using Userpilot and saw impressive results. Despite facing onboarding challenges with their previous tool (Intercom), switching to Userpilot allowed them to create dynamic, context-sensitive tooltips tailored to each user. As a result, <\/span>31% of Talana\u2019s users actively engaged with tooltips<\/b>\u2014a significant boost in self-guided learning and product adoption.<\/span><\/p>\n Ideally, your users should be able to go through your user onboarding process without having to wait for a customer success manager<\/a> to find time for them. Self-serve, product-led SaaS should be accessible to its users 24\/7.<\/p>\n Adding a resource center <\/a>to your SaaS app allows the user to search all your help resources, video tutorials, onboarding flows, and knowledge base<\/a> help documents on-demand, by keyword. This can improve the user onboarding experience immensely by providing your users with instant answers to frequently asked questions.<\/p>\n Just like with checklists \u2013 our resource center<\/a> comes complete with analytics \u2013 to help both your product managers and customer support team understand what your new users struggle with:<\/p>\n The Room<\/span><\/a>, a platform connecting elite African tech talent with global employers, experienced this firsthand when tackling their activation challenge. Their Senior Product Manager, Arjoon Talukdar, identified a critical problem: new members weren’t uploading their CVs after signup, which prevented them from being discovered by potential employers. Instead of deploying customer success managers to guide each user, they implemented a self-serve onboarding flow with Userpilot that featured a “driven action” – a UI pattern that guided users to click the “upload CV” button. The results were remarkable: CV uploads increased by 75% (from 200-210 to 300-350 per week) within just 10 days. What made this approach particularly effective was that Arjoon could build these flows without engineering resources, allowing for quick implementation and iteration based on user engagement data.<\/span><\/p>\n Product managers\/marketers responsible for onboarding often see it as a one-off \u2018set it and forget it\u2019 activity. This mindset can be really disastrous. Your product evolves all the time, your positioning<\/a>, market, and user personas change, and so should your user onboarding.<\/p>\n You should also keep introducing more advanced features at the later stages of your customer onboarding journey to push for upgrades and expansion revenue.<\/p>\n You should also constantly iterate and experiment with your onboarding. To help you understand which versions of your user onboarding flows are most impactful in terms of helping your users, you may also run A\/B tests<\/a> to test different versions of your flows:<\/p>\n Of course, we offer you this option in Userpilot too.<\/p>\n The <\/span>Smoobu<\/span><\/a> team conducted an A\/B test to evaluate the impact of triggering a channel connection tutorial on new users after creating an account.<\/span><\/p>\n Using Userpilot, they tested two variations: one group was shown the channel walkthrough immediately after sign-up, while the other group received no guidance. Both groups were part of their French market.<\/span><\/p>\n Want to implement the best practices you\u2019ve just learned about into your SaaS onboarding?\u00a0 Book a demo with Userpilot and we\u2019ll show you how!<\/a> On top of user onboarding flows, Userpilot offers behavior analytics, microsurveys, and surveys, all 100% customizable to your branding.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve already built your SaaS user onboarding and just want to improve it, here are a few ways to troubleshoot and improve:<\/p>\n Now that we know all about SaaS onboarding best practices let\u2019s look at some real-life examples of great onboarding experiences in SaaS. These user onboarding specialists<\/a> and customer success teams did a great job \u2013 so take a leaf out of their book!<\/p>\n Box offers a secure platform for content management, workflows, and collaboration.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how it onboards new users\u2026<\/p>\n Box has a fairly simple home page layout, with a prominent CTA, enabling new users to get up and running as soon as possible.<\/p>\n Clicking the CTA takes users to the pricing page, where they can see a breakdown of each price plan. This means users can immediately choose the most relevant plan for them. It also highlights the value proposition of Box.<\/p>\n Box then provides a fairly simple sign-up form, only asking for a few key details. It also repeats the main benefits of the product so that they\u2019re fresh in the user\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n Once users access Box, they\u2019re shown a brief tour of the product<\/a>, with tooltips explaining how the product works. Note that the tooltips also explain the benefits of the feature, not simply how it works.<\/p>\n Box also makes use of empty states, by providing sample content in the form of a welcome pdf. This shows users how the product will work for them.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s where Box\u2019s onboarding gets really clever. When a user starts their free trial with Box, they\u2019re given 14 days to use the product.<\/p>\n However, Box provides a checklist of onboarding tasks. Completing these tasks will extend the trial. It\u2019s a great way of rewarding positive interactions with the product<\/a>, and means new users are likely to reach the eventual Aha! Moment.<\/p>\n Box\u2019s checklist also provides a progress line<\/a>\u00a0so users can see how close they are to completion.<\/p>\n Every time a user starts one of the checklist tasks, Box ensures they know exactly what to do with useful and clear tooltips.<\/p>\n What we love about Box\u2019s onboarding experience:<\/p>\n Productboard is a product management tool<\/a>, designed to help you gather feedback and then act on it.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what Productboard\u2019s onboarding flow looks like\u2026<\/p>\n The home page features a large \u201cTry now\u201d CTA that stands out thanks to the vivid color.<\/p>\n Once you enter your email address, Productboard asks you to validate it. Note how they provide links to the most popular email clients, reducing the friction as much as possible.<\/p>\n After clicking the link in the email, you\u2019re presented with this screen. It uses a clever fill-in-the-blanks method of finding out more about you and your specific use case.<\/p>\n Finally, you\u2019re taken inside the app and are immediately presented with a checklist. The items are designed to show you the key features that Productboard provides, enabling you to reach the Aha! Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n What we love about Productboard\u2019s onboarding flow:<\/p>\n FullStory<\/a> records and reproduces real user experiences on your site, helping you support customers, boost conversions, and debug faster.<\/p>\n Here are a few things we\u2019d like you to take note of from Fullstory\u2019s user onboarding experience:<\/p>\n The landing page<\/a> has a strong value proposition, with a clear CTA to sign up for free. The highlighted \u2018sign up free\u2019 CTA pushes users in a subtle way to dive quickly into FullStory and initiate that first contact with the product.<\/p>\n As it waits for you to validate your email, FullStory takes a chance to gather feedback<\/a> with a beautiful \u2018How did you hear about us\u2019 modal.<\/p>\n FullStory welcomes you back once you finish validating your email. It\u2019s a friendly, personal touch that helps develop your relationship with your product.<\/p>\nBest practices for building the best SaaS user onboarding experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Reduce friction in the signup process<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Start with a welcome screen, ideally with a microsurvey\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Segment your users to personalize the onboarding process<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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4. Create an onboarding checklist with a progress bar<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n5. Build interactive walkthroughs, not linear product tours<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n6. Make your onboarding contextual<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n\u00a07. Use native tooltips<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n8. Make sure your SaaS onboarding flow is self-serve<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n9. A\/B test your onboarding process and continuously improve it<\/strong><\/h3>\n
But wait, how do you improve your existing user onboarding experience?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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The 8 best SaaS onboarding examples to inspire you<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Best user onboarding experience #1: Box<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Best onboarding experience #2: Productboard<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Best SaaS onboarding example #3: FullStory<\/strong><\/h3>\n