Top 6 CommandBar Alternatives & Competitors (free tools incl.)

What CommandBar Does Well

Now, if you've been to the CommandBar website, and if you're looking for alternatives, I think you might have, you would know that it is a pretty cool tool.

It offers a good set of features and integrations, and you can just tell that it is a young, evergreen product that is developing well.

Beyond these, there are 2 main things that put CommandBar ahead of the competition:

1- Mobile Support

While most digital experience solutions focus on desktop experiences due to the B2B industry existing within that space, CommandBar offers mobile support.

Though not all features are available on mobile, key features like in-app help and announcements are available.

2- AI Assistant‎

In a similar vein, CommandBar also got on the bandwagon for AI support and introduced its AI-powered assistant feature, Copilot, not long ago.

Copilot has a great set of capabilities and works similarly to a super smart chatbot. If you're into AI tech, this is one good case of it in use.

However, it is worth mentioning that before starting to see the impact of Copilot, you might have to train it well, which we will address in...

Drawbacks of CommandBar

While a great tool, especially for AI enthusiasts, CommandBar also has drawbacks.

1- Pricey Pricing

CommandBar has a pretty generous free version.

But once that threshold is passed, it can easily become expensive as usage increases.

On top of that, every potential user counts against the quota, which can lead to significant costs for larger organizations​.

2- Complex Implementation

The setup is also among the potential problems you might run into.

Setting up CommandBar requires substantial technical knowledge and efforts that could elongate the implementation process.

Training the AI assistant is also time-consuming, making the onboarding process lengthy and complex​.

3- Limited Product Analytics

The platform lacks detailed user and interaction analytics, offering only high-level reporting.

Meaning practically no product analytics.

This limitation makes it difficult to gain deep insights into user behaviors and optimize performance​.

4- Integration and Feature Gaps

Lastly, CommandBar has fewer integrations than other tools and lacks certain advanced features, such as A/B testing and extensive localization options.

Additionally, it does not support detailed segmentation or custom user data management​.

If you are content with CommandBar's pros and can deal with its cons, that means it is the right product for you.

If not, here's a look at the best alternatives for CommandBar.

6 Best CommandBar Alternatives

1- UserGuiding - the all-in-one product adoption platform

• G2 ⭐4.7/5 (391 reviews)
• Capterra ⭐4.7/5 (51 reviews)

UserGuiding is an all-in-one product adoption platform that aims to optimize in-app user experiences and lead users to success from the moment they step into your product.

It comes with features complementing this mission and more to come since it is an evergreen product.

UserGuiding is a user-friendly, no-code platform with a highly praised customer support team that will be with you along the way, no matter your pricing plan.

UserGuiding Use Cases

Launching new features regularly, UserGuiding offers a wide variety of use cases for B2B, B2C, and different teams.

But at its heart, the platform is a hub for product people to build better products for their end users.

And so the main use cases include:

👉 User Onboarding

UserGuiding excels at creating interactive and step-by-step onboarding experiences for new users.

Its ease of use allows non-technical team members to design product tours, walkthroughs, and onboarding checklists without any coding.

This improves user retention and reduces the learning curve for new users​.

👉 Feature Adoption

Beyond onboarding, UserGuiding encompasses the entire user journey.

The platform helps in driving product adoption by highlighting new features to users. Through targeted in-app messages and guides, UserGuiding ensures that users are aware of and know how to use new or underutilized features.

This can significantly enhance user engagement and satisfaction.

👉 In-Product Messaging

UserGuiding supports the creation of in-app messages tailored to specific user segments.

These messages can be used to deliver important updates, promote new features, or guide users through complex workflows.

The ability to customize the frequency and content of these messages ensures they are relevant and non-intrusive.

👉 Customer Feedback

One of UserGuiding's freshest launches, in-app surveys, powers this use case.

UserGuiding’s in-app survey tools, including NPS surveys, streamline user feedback collection. These tools help gather valuable insights into user satisfaction and areas for improvement.

This way, data-driven decisions can be made easily with a healthy feedback cycle.

Pricing

UserGuiding has a 14-day free trial and offers pricing with adjustable MAU ranges. When billed yearly, here is how the plans look:

• Basic Plan: Starting from $69/month.
• Professional Plan: Starting from $199/month.
• Corporate Plan: Custom quote.

UserGuiding vs CommandBar

When choosing between UserGuiding and CommandBar, the main decision is based on your expectations from such a tool.

CommandBar offers mobile support and AI-powered assistance, which are not among the UserGuiding features.

UserGuiding, on the other hand, offers a hub for product teams to be in full control of an end user's journey, from onboarding to feedback collection. It also has Knowledge Base.

CommandBar is on the pricier part of the spectrum, possibly due to its AI capabilities, while UserGuiding offers pretty logical scaling options.

UserGuiding also offers a bigger number of integrations.

2- Appcues - DAP for enterprises

• G2 ⭐4.6/5 (306 reviews)
• Capterra ⭐4.8/5 (102 reviews)

Appcues is a powerful digital adoption platform that is among the leaders in the DAP industry.

Appcues' main value proposition revolves around enhancing user retention and feature adoption. The software sticks out thanks to its analytics capabilities and is a favorite among mid-market companies scaling up which is due to its slightly higher pricing.

Appcues Use Cases

Thanks to its wide variety of features, Appcues successfully offers a good set of use cases, the big 3 being:

👉 User Onboarding and Activation

Appcues is highly effective in user onboarding and activation, backed up by its key features, interactive guides, and personalized walkthroughs.

Additionally, in-app tutorials and contextual help ensure a smooth and intuitive onboarding process.

👉 Feature Adoption and Engagement

Appcues drives user engagement through targeted in-app messaging and announcements.

For feature adoption, it utilizes tooltips and guided tours to effectively introduce new features, helping users discover and use them seamlessly.

👉 User Feedback and Surveys

Appcues also supports collecting user feedback with in-app surveys and feedback forms.

This allows businesses to gather valuable insights directly from their users.

Pricing

Appcues offers adjustable MAU ranges and a free trial.

>2500 MAU

• Essential: $249/month
• Growth: $879/month

5K+ MAU

• Essential: $399/month
• Growth: $1149/month

10K+ MAU

• Essential: $499/month
• Growth: $1289/month

Appcues vs CommandBar

Appcues is a well-established, all-encompassing solution for digital adoption, while CommandBar is more on the developing product side of the spectrum.

Appcues, like CommandBar, offers mobile support along with a good majority of the features on CommandBar's feature set.

However, the main difference is that Appcues offers robust analytics, while CommandBar's product analytics capabilities are pretty limited, close to non-existent. Robust analytics while for CommandBar, product analytics capabilities are pretty limited, close to non-existent.

The pricing for CommandBar and Appcues hovers around similar ranges. However, CommandBar's pricing tends to get steeper as you scale.

3- Pendo - all-in-one experience hub

• G2 ⭐4.4/5 (1422 reviews)
• Capterra ⭐4.5/5 (215 reviews)

Similar to Appcues, Pendo is one of the leading platforms on the DAP charts and we can add that Pendo is one of the most packed tools in the industry.

By combining features from various use cases, Pendo aims to become a one-stop hub for all digital experiences.

This naturally has some downsides and upsides, but it is a worthy alternative to CommandBar.

Pendo Use Cases

👉 User Onboarding and Feature Adoption

Pendo enhances user onboarding with personalized guides, in-app tutorials, and onboarding checklists.

It also drives feature adoption by using targeted in-app messages, tooltips, and announcements to introduce new and underused features.

👉 Product Analytics and User Feedback

Pendo provides robust analytics tools, such as heatmaps, user journey tracking, and detailed reporting, to understand user behavior and product usage.

The platform also supports collecting user feedback through in-app surveys and NPS surveys.

👉 Customer Segmentation and Personalization

Pendo allows advanced user segmentation based on behavior, demographics, and other similar criteria.

This enables businesses to deliver personalized experiences and targeted messaging to different user groups.

Pricing

Pendo offers a free version but no public pricing.

Though it is not official, Pendo users report the pricing starting from around $25,000. The MAU ranges are also adjustable.

Pendo vs CommandBar

Similar to how it was with Appcues, Pendo is also a very advanced product that brings all kinds of abilities together and perfects them.

Since CommandBar is a younger tool that's still perfecting its main features, we can say that Pendo features are more established. Especially regarding analytics, Pendo offers a very strong set of capabilities, while CommandBar falls way behind.

Pendo also offers a more capable feedback collection feature set.

Though Pendo seems like a better solution, it is also essentially a very powerful analytics tool that suffers from feature bloat.

Also, though neither of the tools shares public pricing, Pendo is pricier.

So, unless you need better analytics over digital adoption, Pendo won't be your alternative.

4- Shepherd Pro - open-source alternative

Shepherd Pro, based on the popular open-source library on GitHub previously known as Shepherd.js, is an upgrade on the library with added functions.

‎Shepherd Pro offers everything Shepherd.js offers, which is simple onboarding journeys. But it also adds analytics and integrations to the mix now.

Shepherd Pro Use Cases

Shepherd Pro is a simplistic tool that aims to give you the fundamental tools for a good onboarding flow.

Because of this, its main use case is user onboarding. It is backed up with basic analytics for better insight into the flow you create. It is also highly customizable since it feeds from the Shepherd library.

Different from the original library, Shepherd.js, Shepherd Pro can now be added to your product more easily, using React, Ember, Angular, Vue.js, ES Modules, or just Javascript.

Pricing

The Shepherd library on GitHub is a free solution for those who do not want the Pro features. However, there is also a free version of Shepherd Pro.

The pricing plans look like this:

• Alpha: Free version, unlimited features and integrations with additional support
• Enterprise: Custom pricing, with white-glove service and priority support

Shepherd Pro vs CommandBar

Shepherd's number one advantage on CommandBar is essentially pricing. Shepherd Pro is infinitely cheaper, and you can achieve goals even with the free tier.

Of course, this depends on the goals you have in mind.

If you're looking for product analytics or AI, CommandBar is the right option.

Shepherd Pro might be a good alternative if they are not priorities and you are on a budget.

5- Usetiful - the affordable alternative

• G2 ⭐4.7/5 (155 reviews)
• Capterra ⭐4.8/5 (8 reviews)

Usetiful is a digital adoption platform with a compact set of features and very fair pricing.

Thanks to its simplistic use cases and pricing, Usetiful has become a solid alternative to CommandBar, especially for those on a budget.

Usetiful Use Cases

Usetiful offers powerful use cases for a tool with such a  set of simplistic features, namely:

👉 User Onboarding

Using its key features, such as product tours and smart tips, Usetiful offers a solid user onboarding use case that is simple but effective.

👉 Employee Onboarding

Another solution Usetiful offers is for the HR teams working on new hire onboarding.

Using the same features as the user onboarding use cases, like onboarding checklists and product tours, it becomes a good buying point for Usetiful.

👉 Sales Demos

Lastly, Usetiful offers a feature called interactive demos. This feature enhances demo experiences and boosts sales teams.

👉 Customer Self-Service

Another good use case is for customer success teams looking to make the best of self-service capabilities.

With Usetiful's knowledge base and assistant features, it becomes ever so easy to enhance customer service with Usetiful.

Pricing

Usetiful offers a free version, and its pricing range for MAUs is semi-adjustable. This option becomes available with the premium plan.

>2500 MAU

Plus: $29/month

Premium: $69/month

Enterprise: Custom quote

5K+ MAU

Premium: $69/month

Enterprise: Custom quote

10K+ MAU

Premium: $139/month

Enterprise: Custom quote

Usetiful vs CommandBar

The main difference between Usetiful, as we've just mentioned, is pricing.

While CommandBar offers pricing that matches enterprise-level businesses, Usetiful pricing appeals to most budgets.

Though Usetiful does not offer AI support like CommandBar, it features a knowledge base option that can be much more helpful if you don't need AI capabilities and better customer service.

So, you might want to go with Usetiful if you need simplistic and budget-friendly onboarding and self-service over AI-supported UI experiences.

6- Stonly - the knowledge base alternative

• G2 ⭐4.8/5 (125 reviews)
• Capterra ⭐4.4/5 (11 reviews)

Lastly, Stonly is a knowledge base platform that aims to enhance knowledge communication between support agents and customers.

It is also a good alternative to CommandBar since its features make up user onboarding and digital adoption use cases as well.

Remember, though, that Stonly is a help center platform. The tool's value proposition revolves around support agents' experience and the users in touch.

Stonly Use Cases

Stonly essentially offers 2 solutions, one for your customer service agents and one for your customers:

👉 User onboarding

Though not Stonly's main use case, it does a pretty good job of enabling user onboarding options along with its help center features.

Stonly's guided tours feature is sufficient for starters.

👉 Support agent knowledge

Stonly's key features, such as knowledge base and AI answers, help customer support agents access information more easily and smoothly.

This makes the customer service processes serve for retention and satisfaction.

👉 Customer self-service

In the same vein as supporting customer support agents, Stonly uses its entire feature set to support better customer self-service.

Features like checklists, interactive guides, and the resource center solution, the Widget, support this use case.

Pricing

Stonly offers a free trial, but its pricing information is not shared publicly.

Stonly vs CommandBar

Comparing Stonly and CommandBar, we can see that both tools have their pros and cons, as well as similar capabilities.

Stonly matches CommandBar by offering AI assistance, but CommandBar keeps the upper hand since it has mobile support.

On the other hand, Stonly also has NPS surveys like CommandBar, as well as better engagement features and knowledge base capabilities.

Though Stonly isn't as advanced with its user onboarding use case, it offers better pricing than CommandBar.

So, the decision lies in your priorities once again.

If you are looking for a product that primarily enhances your product's UI, you should stick with CommandBar over Stonly.

But if you need customer service capabilities and not so much AI, Stonly might be the one.

Wrapping Up

When considering alternatives to CommandBar, the overview looks like this:

UserGuiding offers a no-code, user-friendly platform perfect for overall product adoption. Appcues is ideal for larger enterprises since it offers advanced analytics and extensive features to enhance user retention.

Pendo serves as a comprehensive hub with very powerful analytics, and it is suitable for businesses that need such detailed insights.

Shepherd Pro offers an affordable, open-source option for basic onboarding experiences, while Usetiful is a budget-friendly alternative with essential onboarding and customer self-service features.

Lastly, Stonly focuses on enhancing knowledge communication, which is ideal for improving support agent and customer interactions.

Whatever you feel is best for you, selecting the right platform will depend on your needs, budget, and desired feature set.

Good luck in advance! 🍀