Appcues Alternatives in 2025: Top 7 Competitors (Free & Paid)

What is Appcues?

• G2 Score: 4.6⭐/5 (331 reviews)

Appcues is a multi-channel user engagement platform that also offers various tools and capabilities for product adoption, user onboarding, and retention. 

Its main offerings and use cases include:

• In-app messaging
• User action-triggered emails
• Push notifications and mobile alerts
• User journeys/ workflows
• User engagement tracking

Appcues also supports mobile apps, which can be a distinct use case for some users. Many of Appcues’ competitors support only web apps and, in some cases, desktop apps. This makes Appcues’ native mobile app usability an important and distinctive factor.

Here’s what you can expect from Appcues in terms of product features:

• Flows: Modals, slideouts, and hotspots to create product tours.
• Tooltips: UX elements to draw users’ attention to specific UI elements.
• In-app Surveys and NPS: Forms to capture user feedback and insights. 
• Checklists: Interactive task lists that guide users through key workflows.
• Banners: Messages to highlight updates and announcements. 
• Resource Centers: Centralized in-app hubs for FAQs and support resources.
• Segmentation: Create user groups with similar attributes.
• Event Tracking: Capture user interactions to measure engagement.
• A/B Testing: Compare different versions of UI elements and/or UX experiences.
• Email Messaging: Reach users via email for multi-channel communication.

Appcues Pricing

Appcues has 3 tiers: Start, Grow, and Enterprise. However, the pricing for these tiers varies based on Monthly Tracked Users (MTU). For 1,000 MTU –the minimum option available– the pricing is as follows:

• Start: $250/mo (paid annually)
• Grow: $1,000/mo (paid annually)
• Enterprise: custom pricing

For 2,000 MTU, the price of the Grow plan remains the same, while the Start plan increases to $330/mo. As you can see, the pricing scales differently across the plans.

The Start plan is very limited; certain features, like checklists and resource centers, are not included, while others have strict limits, such as a 20-event cap for event tracking.

Even at its lowest tier, Appcues is expensive yet lacks many essential capabilities or does not offer them at a practical level.

What are the weaknesses of Appcues?

Appcues is an expensive tool, especially if you want to utilize it to its full potential. However, aside from its pricing, it has a few more drawbacks:

• Limited Support: Except for their enterprise customers, Appcues doesn’t offer extensive customer support and/or success to their lower plan customers.
• Technical Implementation: The tool has a bit of a learning curve and requires technical expertise and/or developer teams’ help to use some capabilities. 

7 Best Alternatives to Appcues

#1 Appcues vs. UserGuiding

• G2 Score: 4.7⭐/5 (562 reviews)

UserGuiding is an all-in-one product adoption platform that helps you create engaging user experiences with various features and capabilities. It allows you to offer interactive in-app education and support, centralize your tutorials both within your product and outside of it, communicate with your users, and personalize UX.

The most common use cases of UserGuiding include:

• User onboarding & education
• In-app communication 
• Feedback collection 
• Self-service help
• Feature adoption

Here’s what UserGuiding looks like:

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Here’s what UserGuiding offers you in terms of product features and capabilities:

• AI Assistant: An automated support agent within your product. 
• Product Tours: Step-by-step guides to help users navigate the UI. 
• Onboarding Checklists: Interactive task lists to guide users through setup.
• Hotspots and Tooltips: Small UI elements that highlight features and provide contextual guidance.
• In-app Surveys and NPS: Forms to collect user feedback and measure satisfaction.
• Resource Centers: Centralized in-app hubs for your guides, checklists, and support materials.
• Announcement Modals: Pop-up messages to communicate updates, features, or promotions.
• Analytics: Insights into user behavior, engagement, and feature adoption.
• Knowledge Base: A standalone self-service library of articles and tutorials.
• Product Updates: A standalone library of release notes and product updates.
• Segmentation: Create user groups based on user attributes and behavior

As you can see, Appcues and UserGuiding share some common use cases and offer some similar product features, like checklists, tooltips, and NPS surveys. Nevertheless, these tools still differ in their main functionality: Appcues is mainly an engagement tool, while UserGuiding is an adoption platform. 

This difference in focus is also reflected in their feature sets. 

Appcues prioritizes user engagement through communication tools like push notifications, emails, and in-app announcements. On the other hand, UserGuiding takes a more holistic approach, offering features that support the entire user journey, from onboarding and adoption to feedback collection and self-service support with AI chat and knowledge bases.

See how UserGuiding compares to Appcues for yourself 👈

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the product features & capabilities offered by Appcues and UserGuiding:

But features are only half the story. When choosing a product, factors beyond its capabilities, such as company policies, integrations, customer support, and security transparency, can make or break the deal.

Here’s how Appcues and UserGuiding compare in these key areas:

These differences are also reflected in G2 reviews and scores. 

Based on G2’s quarterly report, we see that UserGuiding is preferred to Appcues in the following topics and receives more positive comments:

Appcues

Read 328 G2 Reviews

UserGuiding

Read 505 G2 Reviews

Ease of Use

87%

91%

Ease of Setup

85%

89%

Quality of Support

91%

95%

Ease of Admin

88%

91%

Good Partner in Doing Business

92%

95%

Meets Requirements

86%

89%

Multi-Language Support

72%

84%

Product Direction

91%

97%

Data Analysis

75%

82%

Survey Implementation

85%

90%

Audio-visual Walkthroughs

83%

87%

Likelihood to Recommend

92%

94%

Text Bubble Walkthroughs

89%

92%

Behavior-responsive Messaging

82%

83%

UserGuiding Pricing

UserGuiding’s pricing changes based on the number of Monthly Active Users (MAU). The Basic plan starts at $69/mo (billed annually) for up to 1,000 MAU. For 1,000 to 2,500 MAU, the price increases to $89/mo (billed annually).

For the Professional and Corporate plans, pricing is custom, requiring contact with the sales team.

Even the Basic plan includes almost all of UserGuiding’s features and capabilities, though with certain limitations. Most integrations are available across all plans, and customer support and troubleshooting are accessible at every tier, not just the higher ones.

When comparing what you get for what you pay, UserGuiding is the clear winner. It offers the best value-for-price solution.

Here’s what UserGuiding’s customers say about UserGuiding:

#2 Appcues vs. Pendo

• G2 Score: 4.4⭐/5 (1484 reviews)

Pendo is an all-in-one product experience and digital adoption platform. It offers several features and capabilities for user onboarding, in-app support, PLG, user experience, product planning, and revenue growth. 

Pendo’s features include:

• Interactive guides, tooltips, onboarding modules
• NPS surveys
• Segmentation
• Event tracking and session recordings
• Funnel, path, retention, and workflow analytics 
• Product roadmaps

Pendo also has a feature set called “Pendo Listen”, which includes user research and feedback collection tools, as well as internal AI capabilities for feedback analysis. 

Appcues Wins at…

• In-app Communication: Appcues offers several in-app announcement modals and capabilities (pop-ups, banners, push notifications), whereas Pendo only offers a modal within the Resource Center for announcements. 
• Pricing: Although Pendo doesn’t have transparent pricing, we know it’s expensive; even more expensive than Appcues, which says a lot. 

Pendo Wins at…

• Analytics: Pendo allows you to generate detailed reports from user events, funnels, workflows, and more. If you don’t already have an analytics tool and want to address that alongside adoption and onboarding, Pendo may be a better fit than Appcues.
• Employee Onboarding: Pendo has a different plan for employee onboarding with several additional features/capabilities for SaaS portfolio management, employee productivity or change management. 

Pendo Pricing 

Pendo offers a 4-tier pricing structure: Base, Core, Pulse, and Ultimate. However, the pricing is not transparent, so you’ll need to contact sales for details.

Pendo also offers a Free plan, which comes with limited features and supports up to 500 MAU. This can be a great option for small startups looking to get started with in-app onboarding and UX.

Here’s what Pendo’s customers say about Pendo and their experiences with Pendo:

#3 Appcues vs. Userpilot

• G2 Score: 4.6⭐/5 (679 reviews)

Userpilot is a product growth platform that helps you with user onboarding, in-app support, product launch, revenue expansion, and churn prevention. Its main offerings in terms of features and capabilities can be grouped as:

• In-app engagement (flows, checklists, tooltips, hotspots)
• Product analytics (funnels, paths, trends)
• User Feedback (in-app surveys)
• Session Replay (event tracking, session recording)

Appcues Wins at…

• Product Planning: Appcues has more features for product teams and product planning, like roadmaping. 
• A/B Testing: While you can perform your own A/B tests using the segmentation feature, Appcues stands out with its dedicated A/B testing functionality, complete with analytics. 
• Scaling Pricing: Userpilot offers three plans, two with fixed pricing and one custom. Unlike Appcues, it doesn’t have an MAU-based scaling option, so Appcues takes the lead in this category as well.

Userpilot Wins at…

• Session Recording: Userpilot has more behavior analytics capabilities, including session recordings and heatmaps.  
• Customization: Userpilot offers a lot of customization options for created materials. 

Userpilot Pricing

Userpilot offers a 3-tier pricing structure: Starter, Growth, and Enterprise. The Starter plan costs $249/month (billed annually), while the Growth plan is priced at $799/month (billed annually). The Enterprise plan offers custom pricing.

The Starter plan includes basic in-app engagement, product analytics, tracking, segmentation, and NPS features, catering to companies with up to 2,000 MAU.

The Growth plan expands on this by adding session recordings, resource centers, customizable in-app surveys, and localization capabilities.

Here’s what Userpilot’s customers say about Userpilot:

#4 Appcues vs. Userflow

• G2 Score: 4.8⭐/5 (104 reviews)

Userflow is a no-code user onboarding tool that focuses exclusively on in-app experiences. Unlike the Appcues alternatives we've covered, Userflow doesn’t offer standalone page features, complex analytics, or multi-channel communication tools. Instead, it’s an in-app UX-focused platform that provides features such as:

• Product tours
• Checklists
• Surveys
• Resource center 
• Banners
• Announcements
• AI assistant

Appcues Wins at…

• Mobile Onboarding: Appcues offers mobile onboarding support, which lacks in Userflow, as well as mobile push notifications. 
• Analytics & Event Tracking: Appcues provides in-depth analytics and reports about user actions and funnels. Userflow focuses more on flow and experience design, but it lacks advanced capabilities for monitoring the performance of those designs.

Userflow Wins at…

• AI Assistant: Appcues doesn’t offer any AI assistant. 
• Usability: Userflow has a limited number of features and there’s little to no learning curve. 
• Pricing: Both Appcues and Userflow start at similar price points, $250 and $240, respectively. However, Appcues offers this price for 1,000 MTU, while Userflow provides it for 3,000 MAU. Additionally, Userflow offers unlimited flows, checklists, launchers, and banners, with generally higher usage limits compared to Appcues.
• Design: Userflow’s UI is simple and clean. Once you get the hang of creating steps in a flow, the process becomes intuitive. The buttons and other UI elements are clearly labeled, making it easy to navigate and understand.

Userflow Pricing

Userflow has 3 tiers in their pricing: Startup, Pro, and Enterprise. The Startup plan starts at $240/month (billed annually) and covers up to 3,000 MAU. The Pro plan starts at $680/month (billed annually) and includes up to 10,000 MAU. The Enterprise plan offers custom pricing.

As mentioned earlier, Userflow offers unlimited flows, launchers, checklists, and banners across all plans. The Basic plan also includes 2 in-app surveys, a resource center, an AI assistant, basic integrations, and 3 team members.

The Pro plan adds event tracking (though not as advanced as some competitors), unlimited in-app surveys, and additional features such as localization and unlimited team members.

As you can see, Userflow is generous with its features, MAUs, team member seats, and more.

Here’s what Userflow’s customers say about Userflow:

#5 Appcues vs. Product Fruits

• G2 Score: 4.7⭐/5 (121 reviews)

Product Fruits is a user onboarding, retention, and product adoption platform. Its main use cases are onboarding new users and introducing new features. Some of the features of the product are:

• Tours and guides
• Hints and tooltips
• In-app announcements 
• Onboarding checklists
• Life ring button (Resource center)
• NPS and surveys
• Feedback widget
• Knowledge base

Product Fruits also has an AI Writer feature, which helps you to create copy for your onboarding materials (guides, tooltips, etc.). You can use the AI writer to improve your already-existing copy, grammar check it, or, create copy from scratch.

Appcues Wins at…

• Event Tracking & Analytics: Appcues offers more advanced event tracking and in-depth analytics compared to Product Fruits.
• A/B Testing: Unlike Product Fruits, Appcues has a built-in A/B testing feature for easier experimentation.
• E-mail Messaging: Appcues supports multi-channel communication, including email, while Product Fruits is limited to in-app announcements.

Product Fruits Wins at…

• AI Writer: Product Fruits’ AI Writer helps generate multiple versions of onboarding materials, allowing for iterative improvements in copy quality. While it’s not a dedicated A/B testing feature, it can still enhance onboarding effectiveness.
• Knowledge Base: Unlike Appcues, Product Fruits places a stronger focus on knowledge bases and in-depth user education. If you don’t already use a separate knowledge base management tool, Product Fruits’ built-in KB can streamline information management.

• Pricing: Product Fruits' pricing starts at $79/month (billed annually) for up to 1,500 MAU.

Product Fruits Pricing

Like most Appcues alternatives, Product Fruits offers a 3-tier pricing structure: Core, Boost, and Enterprise. The Core plan starts at $79/month (billed annually) for up to 1,500 MAU, while the Boost plan starts at $139/month (billed annually). The Enterprise plan has custom pricing.

NPS & Surveys, AI flow creation, and custom events are only available in the Boost and Enterprise plans, as they are not included in the Core plan.

Similar to Userflow, Product Fruits provides unlimited tours/walkthroughs, tooltips, beacons, and UI hints across all plans. However, checklists are limited to 3 in the Core plan.

Here’s what Product Fruits’ customers say about them:

#6 Appcues vs. WalkMe

• G2 Score: 4.5⭐/5 (476 reviews)

WalkMe is a digital adoption platform that helps you with user education and task automation. WalkMe is also an employee onboarding tool, which means that it has features and capabilities for change management, employee productivity, data integrity, and AI transformation. 

WalkMe has mant use cases and many features, here are some of them:

• Application usage
• Workflow analytics, automation, acceleration
• In-app guidance (tooltips, step-by-step interactive walkthroughs, etc.)
• Surveys (NPS, CSAT, and custom surveys)
• Conversational AI chatbot (ActionBot)
• Workstation employee hub

Appcues Wins at…

• Ease of Use: Appcues is a no-code tool (although it still requires some technical expertise for certain features) with a user-friendly interface. Whereas WalkMe requires heavy coding, has a very steep learning curve, and due to the complexity of its feature set, it’s not very easy to use without constant technical assistance. 
• Pricing: WalkMe doesn’t have a transparent pricing, however, it’s known that it’s a very expensive solution, which makes Appcues seem pretty cheap in comparison. 

WalkMe Wins at…

• Employee Onboarding: WalkMe has a lot of features for employee onboarding, and even different pricing plans specifically curated for this use case.
• Analytics Capabilities: Whether you use it for customers or employees, WalkMe has very detailed analytics and add-on modules. 
• Automation: Workflow allows you and your employees to automate repetitive and common tasks with ActionBot and not just save time but also eliminate mistakes and errors.

WalkMe Pricing

WalkMe offers 2 categories of plans: WalkMe for Employees and WalkMe for Customers. Unlike most Appcues alternatives, WalkMe for Employees follows a modular pricing model, where you start with a core plan and add specific bundles for use cases like analytics, customization & collaboration, workplace, or security. If you prefer a more set version, WalkMe Essentials is also available.

WalkMe for Customers, on the other hand, does not follow this modular approach —it’s a single plan that includes all features and capabilities.

None of WalkMe’s plans or add-on bundles have publicly listed prices. However, WalkMe is widely recognized as one of the most expensive digital adoption and onboarding tools on the market.

Here’s what WalkMe’s customers say about WalkMe:

Some WalkMe customers find the product limiting and challenging to use, particularly when it comes to customization and implementation. Updating existing materials can be inconvenient, as WalkMe doesn’t streamline the process. Instead, if you've made UI changes and need to update your content, you often have to recreate everything from scratch.

#7 Appcues vs. Intercom

• G2 Score: 4.5⭐/5 (3,336 reviews)

Intercom is primarily a customer service platform, with its core offering being the AI support agent/chatbot, Fin. However, it also includes features for product tours, tooltips, and onboarding checklists.

Intercom offers advanced surveys, live and AI-powered chat, and segmentation/filtering through integrations. It also supports a wide range of third-party integrations.

That said, since Intercom is mainly a customer service tool, its built-in analytics capabilities are relatively limited.

Intercom also has features for omnichannel communication and campaign management. 

Beside the live chat and Fin, Intercom allows you to meet your users through SMS, email, phone, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.

Appcues Wins at…

• In-app User Flows: Intercom is not primarily an onboarding or in-app engagement platform. Its product tours, checklists, and announcement modals are limited in capabilities and customization compared to Appcues' feature set.

Intercom Wins at…

• True Omni-channel Experience: Appcues is a multi-channel communication tool, but its capabilities are mainly limited to mobile apps and emails. Intercom offers a more comprehensive omni-channel experience, integrating live chat, messaging, and other platforms.
• Customer Support Chat: Appcues lacks live or AI-powered chat. Its communication is primarily one-way, using interactive modals, whereas Intercom provides real-time support through AI and human agents.

Intercom Pricing

All of these are seat-based, meaning the total price depends on the number of team members using the product. The per-seat pricing is as follows: Essential at $29/month (billed annually), Advanced at $85/month (billed annually), and Expert at $132/month (billed annually).

Intercom’s AI agent, Fin, has separate pricing at $0.99 per resolution. Additionally, email campaigns, SMS, WhatsApp, and phone services follow a pay-as-you-go model.

As you can see, Intercom has a highly structured and transparent pricing model that maximizes value based on your specific use case and needs. You mostly pay for what you use and how much you use, making it a flexible option. This can be especially appealing for small businesses that don’t require many seats or large feature quotas they won’t fully utilize.

Here’s what Intercom’s customers say about them:

A user review explaining pros and cons of Intercom. They like the product’s comprehensive toolkit, fast platform, and plugins.  They think there’s a steep learning curve and the product requires support from technical people. They’re also not very happy with the limited customization options.

In Conclusion…

Here is a table that summarizes the article:

Written by

Ceren Kurban

Creative Content Writer

Ceren is a Creative Content Writer at UserGuiding. She writes about the latest development in SaaS and product. She decided to pursue a career in journalism and content upon seeing The Bold Type. When she is not writing, you can find her gossiping with stray animals or listening to the Alvin and the Chipmunks covers of random songs

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