Appcues vs. Stonly 2024 Comparison - Which tool better fits your needs?

What is Appcues?

• G2: ⭐4.6/5 (305 reviews)
• Capterra: ⭐️ 4.8/5 (102 reviews)

Appcues is a user onboarding and product adoption platform that is among the pioneers of no-code digital adoption.

The tool was founded in 2013, and it has been a prominent user onboarding tool ever since.

Right now, Appcues positions itself more as a product adoption solution, but it is still equipped with all sorts of features of a user onboarding platform.

Within Appcues' user onboarding feature set are UX onboarding elements like product tours, interactive walkthroughs, user onboarding checklists, tooltips, and hotspots. Contrary to some Appcues alternatives like UserGuiding and WalkMe, Appcues doesn't offer resource centers.

Some other noteworthy qualities of Appcues include its advanced analytics tool.

Though the platform does not offer product analytics, its events explorer feature allows for in-depth analytics when it comes to event tracking.

Appcues also offers a mobile adoption use case, which allows users to create user onboarding flows for mobile as well.

Though this sounds like a dream come true, because Appcues isn't a mobile experiences product adoption platform, it naturally gets buggy, and reviewers report problems with it.

When it comes to customer support, Appcues offers self-serve support and email support for its basic plan, and only after the second tier can users get real-time support.

Appcues Best Use Cases

Just as we've mentioned above, Appcues is a user onboarding tool turned product adoption platform.

And that means certain use cases arrive as an essential package deal:

1- User Onboarding & Feature Adoption

Appcues offers better onboarding flows and consequently optimized product experiences with its essential features like user guides, tooltips and hotspots, onboarding checklists, and user segmentation.

‎These features combined help Appcues users create onboarding journeys for new users, refine onboarding flows for existing users, and offer better product adoption.

In the long run, this use case contributes to customer satisfaction via a better customer experience.

2- User Engagement & Advanced Analytics

Appcues also offers a solid set for higher user engagement and in-depth analytics.

‎While features like behavioral targeting and triggered experiences offer higher engagement for specific user segments, content personalization helps personalize product experiences.

Appcues also offers in-app analytics functionalities like A/B testing, which allows users to experiment with different in-app elements, and the analytics dashboard helps with data visualization.

Though Appcues' analytics features aren't the most advanced, they are advanced enough for a digital adoption platform.

3- In-App Surveys & Announcements

Another use case Appcues backs up with a big list of features is in-app surveys and in-app announcements.

First and foremost, the surveys and feedback forms features are the backbone of in-app surveys for Appcues. They allow for surveys like NPS, CSAT or other forms of feedback to happen inside your product.

When it comes to in-app announcements, Appcues offers announcement modals, banners, and popups, which can be used in different ways, like to introduce new product features, guide users through new updates, or even for user activation.

Another feature that supports this use case is user segmentation since in-app surveys and announcements need to target specific user segments.

Adding the data integration function to the mix, in-app surveys can easily be integrated into other analytics tools to run more comprehensive user behavior analysis.

4- Mobile Adoption

Lastly, Appcues offers a mobile onboarding function that lets users create mobile-friendly onboarding flows.

There is even a mobile-specific analytics dashboard that lets users separately go through insights for their mobile onboarding flows.

While there are sometimes bugs and discrepancies between a flow's desktop and mobile versions, Appcues also offers a debugger for such cases.

Pricing

Appcues started offering adjustable MAU ranges not too long ago, and there is also a free trial.

<2500 MAU

Essential: $249/month

Growth: $879/month

Enterprise: Custom

5K+ MAU

Essential: $399/month

Growth: $1149/month

Enterprise: Custom

10K+ MAU

Essential: $499/month

Growth: $1289/month

Enterprise: Custom

What is Stonly?

• G2: ⭐4.8/5 (123 reviews)
• Capterra: ⭐4.6/5 (57 reviews)

Stonly is a knowledge base tool that started off as a customer service solution and then came up with a user onboarding use case later on.

Currently, the platform positions itself as a "knowledge management for customer service tool."

Stonly is a pretty powerful platform and a good option for SaaS, especially for those looking to approach product experiences from a customer service standpoint.

Still, keep in mind that it is mainly a knowledge base solution that aims to automate customer support processes and offers a good user onboarding solution.

Stonly is also well known for its newest addition to its deck, AI Answers. The feature practically functions as an AI assistant, but we can say it's most useful when used internally for your support agents.

Meaning, it might help little for user onboarding use cases.

With all these cool functions and features in mind, Stonly is sadly pretty weak when it comes to customization, integrations, or ease of use.

Though it has a sleek user interface, Stonly's ease of use is often an issue for users while the lack of in-depth customization is discussed in reviews.

Stonly Best Use Cases

While Stonly lists a few use cases on its website, we believe their "solutions" sum it up a lot better.

So Stonly's use cases are:

1- Support Agent Knowledge

With Stonly's comprehensive knowledge base, support agents can quickly find the info they need to solve customer issues. This helps secure faster responses and a better customer experience.

Interactive guides are another standout feature of this use case.

They break down complicated processes into simple, easy-to-follow steps. These guides can also be embedded right into the support interface so that the agents don’t have to switch screens.

Another feature we mentioned above supports this use case: Stonly’s AI-powered answers. The AI suggests relevant articles or solutions based on what the customer is asking, and it also gets smarter over time.

2- Customer Self-Service

Stonly also shines when it comes to customer self-service. Interactive guides offer detailed, step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow.

Users can also add visual aids like images and videos to the guides, which makes the whole experience more engaging and effective. On top of that, the checklist feature helps end users follow the guides better.

The number one key feature of Stonly, the knowledge base feature, is also active in this use case. Customers can quickly find the answers they need without having to wait for support, which speeds up issue resolution and reduces support ticket volume.

Stonly also offers a resource center variant, The Widget. It provides in-app guidance that customers can access directly within the app or website.

And lastly, Stonly also offers user feedback collection using in-app elements. Though it is only NPS surveys available at first, different survey options can be used in bigger plans.

Pricing

Stonly offers custom pricing at the moment, but it also offers a free trial that can be signed up on after a quick form.

Though we don't know much about the ranges of the custom pricing at the moment, the last time Stonly's pricing was public, the starting price was $199/month.

Appcues vs Stonly

We've looked into both tools and now it's time to directly compare them and find out which one is the best option for you.

1- Feature Set & Functionality

Appcues excels in user onboarding and product adoption, being a leader in the market for so long.

It offers a solid feature set and great functionalities like analytics and mobile adoption.

Stonly is strong in knowledge management, ideal for support agents and customer self-service.

It features a comprehensive knowledge base and interactive guides that simplify complex tasks. And AI is an obvious benefit.

The comparison here boils down to the main use cases for both tools.

Appcues leads with advanced onboarding flows and engagement tools, making it perfect for user adoption.

Stonly’s strength lies in detailed, interactive guides, which is ideal for step-by-step support.

2- Ease of Use and Support

Appcues is user-friendly with a no-code interface, allowing easy creation and management of onboarding experiences. And it also integrates well with other tools, which is a huge plus.

Appcues' customer support includes self-service support and email options on the basic plan, with real-time support available on higher pricing tiers.

Stonly, on the other hand, has an intuitive interface, though some users find customization challenging.

Support includes comprehensive resources but similar to Appcues, it is not fully available.

So, in terms of user interface, we can say both are user-friendly, but Appcues is more intuitive and versatile for non-technical users. And for support, both can do a little bit better.

3- Pricing

Lastly, when it comes to pricing, Appcues is clearly more expensive.

We do not know for sure how much Stonly costs, but knowing its starting price from before, we can say it would be a little less than Appcues at the moment.

So, Stonly is generally more affordable, making it accessible for smaller businesses, while Appcues offers more advanced features but at a higher price.

Wrapping Up

As expected, choosing between Appcues and Stonly depends on your specific business needs.

Appcues is a good option for user onboarding and product adoption. It offers guided tours, interactive walkthroughs, and behavioral targeting to optimize user experiences and drive engagement.

Stonly is the one to go with if enhancing support agent efficiency and customer self-service is your priority. It features a comprehensive knowledge base and interactive guides that simplify complex tasks.

The conclusion here is that both tools are user-friendly and offer valuable features, but they cater to different needs.

Good luck in making the right decision for you 🍀