Appcues vs. Chameleon 2024 Comparison – Which tool could help you more?

Appcues is a great product with a strong base and many mid-market customers. But does being the first in the market mean being the best?

That is where Chameleon comes in.

Chameleon is an amazing product adoption platform software that provides well-designed and engaging walkthroughs.

So which one is better for you?

Which one of these tools is the one that is the better fit for your needs and goals?

To help you find an answer to those questions, I will:

• Introduce Appcues and talk about the tool’s cons and pros,
• Introduce Chameleon and talk about the tool’s cons and pros,
• Compare those tools side-by-side for you to have a better overview.

And also, if you want to skip all those, you can benefit from this quick table:

TL;DR – Side-By-Side Comparison Table

Starting Price	$249/month	$279/month
G2 Rating	4.7⭐	4.4⭐
Interactive Walkthroughs	✅	✅
Tooltips	✅	✅
Hotspots	✅	✅
Onboarding Checklists	✅	✅
Announcement Modals/Banners	✅	✅
NPS Surveys	✅	✅
In-Product Surveys	✅	✅
In-App Resource Center	❌	❌
Avg. Deployment Time	2-3 Hours	1-2 hours (Without Customization)
User Segmentation	✅	✅
User Analytics	✅	✅
Multi-Language Support	✅	✅
User Tracking	✅	❌
Knowledge Base Integration	❌	✅
Learning Curve	😟 Steep	😄 Smoot-ish

What is Appcues?

Appcues is a pioneer of “no-code” onboarding tools on the market.

They have introduced various onboarding elements for the first time while offering great fundamental solutions to their customers.

With a strong focus on user onboarding to web apps and digital products, Appcues can solve all your digital adoption needs regarding your customers and help you become a product-led business.

Pros 🤩 Appcues is good for:

✅ Appcues can help you create beautiful and interactive product walkthroughs so that you can provide your customers an engaging onboarding experience, and get them to like your product easily.

✅ Appcues provides exquisite customer support. They are great at coming up with quick and highly personalized solutions to all your problems whenever you have one.

✅ Founded in 2014, Appcues is among the first comers of no-code digital adoption; it has a strong background and customer portfolio.

Cons 😮‍💨 Appcues isn’t good for:

❌ Appcues isn’t the best when it comes to analytics features. If you would like to get the best out of your customers, you will have to use integrations.

❌ No matter how friendly the UI is, Appcues has a steep learning curve that you have to get past – which is only possible if you have enough technical knowledge.

❌ Appcues is also not affordable. Their starting price is not only above the market average, but they also don’t grant access to all features in the essentials package.

Appcues Pricing

• The Essentials Package of Appcues starts at $249/month when billed annually with 2500 MAU.
• The Growth Package of Appcues starts at $879/month when billed annually, again at 2500 MAU.
• The Enterprise Package of Appcues doesn’t have public pricing, so you need to get a custom quotation.

What is Chameleon?

Chameleon is a digital adoption platform that stands out with how customizable the tool is.

If your product team consists of people with powerful creativity and imagination and are obsessed with achieving the exact onboarding flow, this tool is for you.

As long as you also have a spare CSS developer available.

This tool is hard to use and will take your team’s time to create something you want. But Chameleon will do you a small favor and code your elements for you ( for a price of course).

I believe this presents a problem for a rapidly growing SaaS. I would prefer to have the ability to do iterations myself without assistance to make changes more efficiently.

As for the integrations, Chameleon is a strong player. It currently has 23 different integration options with strong tools such as Google Analytics, Intercom, Slack, and more.

Pros 🤩 Chameleon is good for:

✅ Chameleon is known for their customizability and range of custom CSS options. If you want your product walkthroughs to blend right in, Chameleon won’t make you upset.

✅ Chameleon’s Launcher feature – a unique onboarding checklist – is a very engaging element and drives the tool apart from competitors.

✅ If you work with lots of other tools, you will be happy to hear that Chameleon has lots of integration options so that you can keep all your data in one space instead of scrolling through every page. 

Cons 😮‍💨 Chameleon isn’t good for:

❌ The product walkthroughs of Chameleon are great, but apart from that, Chameleon doesn’t provide a full set of necessary onboarding elements. If you’re looking for an all-in-one tool, Chameleon isn’t the one.

❌ Unless you know how to use CSS or anything similar, you won’t be able to use Chameleon to its fullest since the tool isn’t non-technical friendly.

❌ Chameleon’s pricing is above the market average even though they don’t offer many distinct or advanced features.

Chameleon Pricing

Chameleon has different parameters for pricing. For instance, the price can go up if you have more monthly active users, but it can also go down if you need fewer launchers and onboarding flows.

• Free trial available for 14 days
• Startup plan: $279/month for 2000 MAU, $753/month for 15.000 MAU, including 3 surveys, 3 launchers, and no A/B testing
• Growth plan: $999/month for 2000 MAU, $1949/month for 15.000 MAU, including unlimited experiences and A/B testing
• Enterprise plan: Custom quote

Appcues vs Chameleon

	Features
Appcues is a cultivated tool since it was founded in 2014, and it definitely delivers what it promises. The set of features that Appcues provides is close to perfect, and they are relatively easier to use.	Onboarding ⬅️ 🤩	Chameleon also provides a great set of onboarding elements along with customization options, but since they aren’t accessible to non-technical people, it is more difficult to use the tool and more time-consuming.
Although Appcues does provide in-app analytics, since it is not the tool’s main focus, you might need an integration to handle the analytics.	Analytics ⬅️ 🤩	Chameleon isn’t much different than Appcues when it comes to analytics, but Chameleon doesn’t have as many many integration options.
Appcues doesn’t provide lots of surveying options, but the surveys are easier to create and much more accessible than Chameleon.	Surveying ⬅️ 🤩	Chameleon provides in-app NPS surveys and feedback collection modals. If you need other types of surveys, Chameleon might not be the tool you are looking for.

	Pricing
Appcues’s pricing starts from $249/month – which is above the market average, and the price goes up high very fast.	🤩 ➡️	Chameleon’s starting price is similar to Appcues, but the variety of packages Chameleon provides is more detailed – making sure that you spend your money right.

	Ease Of Use
Appcues is the first no-code DAP tool, but their understanding of no-code still involves technical aspects. In other words, technical knowledge is required, but not as much as Chameleon	⬅️ 🤩	Again, Chameleon relies on CSS usage and technical knowledge. That’s why the tool isn’t easy to use, and it’s not even a slightly good tool for non-technical people.

	Customer Support
Appcues clearly cares about their customers, and this is why they provide fast and personalized customer support – as per what actual users have said about them.	⬅️ 🤩	Chameleon has a very friendly customer support team as well, but Appcues’s support has been rated higher on G2 – meaning that customers are more satisfied.