7 Best Help Hero Alternatives to Boost your Engagement Rates (free and paid)

A hero is supposed to save you from your problems.

Not this one, though.

I didn’t really feel the ‘’hero’’ while I was trying Help Hero out, and I wanted to share my experiences with you.

So in this article, I will:

  • Quickly introduce Help Hero,
  • Show you a few real user reviews,
  • Show why you might need an alternative to Help Hero,
  • Talk about the best 7 alternatives to Help Hero,
  • And put a comparison table with all the alternatives that I’ll mention.

If you already know about Help Hero, you can skip directly to the alternatives.

Or you can click here to go straight to the Help Hero Alternatives Comparison Table.

What is Help Hero?

Help Hero is a user onboarding and product adoption tool that helps you train users and announce product updates.

help hero

Help Hero is a 2-year-old startup that is too new to be a fully developed tool, and too expensive for a tool that offers so little.

If you have any experience with any kind of user engagement tool that helps you create interactive product walkthroughs, you would know that many of those offer much more than just interactive onboarding.

Not Help Hero, though.

Before I get to the details, let’s see what Help Hero is charging their customers:

Help Hero Pricing

  • 14-day free trial
  • Up to 1000 MAU: $55/month (2 months for free if paid annually)
  • Up to 2500 MAU: $115/month (2 months for free if paid annually)
  • Up to 5000 MAU: $179/month (2 months for free if paid annually)
  • Up to 10.000 MAU: $249/month (2 months for free if paid annually)
  • Up to 20.000 MAU: $299/month (2 months for free if paid annually)
  • More than 20.000 MAU: Custom plan.

Help Hero Reviews

👍 Pros:

It’s easy to use and could be customized for all scenarios that we had during setup. Support is also excellent.”

👎 Cons:

“The stats on what your users are doing are quite limited and ultimately we’re testing out a far more expensive tool to see whether it’s worth it for us.”

Why you need a Help Hero Alternative

There are certain things that you expect a user onboarding and product adoption tool to do. 

From what I’ve experienced, and from the reviews we’ve found online, found a few that Help Hero lacks:

1- Limited Analytics

How are you going to track your user’s in-app engagement rates, if not while they use the user engagement tool? Help Hero’s analytics options fall very short in these terms. They offer almost no details and only surface numbers.

2- Little to No Customization Options

No one would want to have tooltips that scream ‘’I was bought, I don’t belong here.’’ Well, that’s what you think when the tool has no customization options, but color changes. The limited customizability of Help Hero makes it look unprofessional.

3- Too Few Features

The features that Help Hero offers are interactive tours, checklists, and segmentation options. Some highly important user engagement features such as help centers or NPS surveys are not included.

Top Help Hero Alternatives

Now that you know what Help Hero is, what it’s used for, and the main challenges you encounter when using it; we can dive straight into the alternatives.

Here are the top 7 alternatives to Help Hero:

  1. UserGuiding
  2. Whatfix
  3. Chameleon
  4. Intercom
  5. WalkMe
  6. Intro.js
  7. Crumble

We’ll go over each tool, how it compares to Help Hero, and in which cases they should be preferred. Without further ado, let’s start with our first product:

1- UserGuiding – No-code Interactive User Onboarding

UserGuiding is a no-code digital adoption product that helps you provide better in-app experiences.

UserGuiding is just like an all-inclusive offer that makes you say ”why did I not know about this product until now?”

Here’s what UserGuiding does:

  • Interactive product walkthroughs,
  • In-app messages, popups, and hotspots,
  • Interactive checklists,
  • Resource centers and help centers,
  • Detailed analytics,
  • NPS surveys

UserGuiding also provides advanced personalization and segmentation options.

What makes UserGuiding different is how easy the software is to install and use.

The UI itself is clear, and the tool has a built-in system that guides you through all the necessary steps to install the software and create your first tour/checklist/resource center in under an hour.

UserGuiding can also be used to create guides for mobile applications, but the tool can’t be used on mobile to create tools – yet.

UserGuiding Pricing

  • 14-day free trial (no credit card required)
  • Basic Plan: $89/month when billed annually for up to 2500 MAU
  • Professional Plan: $389/month when billed annually for up to 20000 MAU with unlimited guides
  • Custom Quotation Available for Larger Companies

UserGuiding Reviews

👍 Pros:

“As a product manager, this tool is a great way to build out different onboarding flows and test them with my team long before I push something live.”

👎 Cons:

“Although we could integrate some of the tools we use with UserGuiding, it was a downer when I saw there is no integration with Heap yet.”

UserGuiding vs Help Hero

  • Interactive walkthroughs ✅
  • Checklists ✅
  • Tour creation in 10 minutes ✅
  • Hotspots and in-app messages ✅
  • Detailed analytics ✅
  • Resource centers ✅
  • Advanced customization options ✅
  • Interactive walkthroughs ✅
  • Checklists ✅
  • Steep learning curve, complex UI ❌
  • Limited in-app message options ❌
  • Limited analytics ❌
  • Limited amount of features ❌
  • Limited to no customization options ❌

UserGuiding also offers free migration services for your in-app content created using other software to minimize your switching costs.

Schedule a demo with one of our experts or start your free trial now:

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Don’t Pay a Fortune for Other Tools!

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2- Whatfix vs. Help Hero

Whatfix is an advanced digital adoption tool, that requires advanced tech knowledge.

whatfix vs help hero

Compared to Help Hero, Whatfix is everything that Help Hero isn’t.

For instance, Whatfix has a wide range of features to choose from, and better customization options.

Bur as easy it is to set Help Hero up, it’s almost impossible to integrate Whatfix into your website if you don’t have any coding knowledge.

Also, the benefits of Whatfix come along with a price. A high one:

Whatfix Pricing

Whatfix creates customized plans with custom prices, therefore doesn’t have a fixed price.

Whatfix Reviews

👍 Pros:

“I like how much control I have over managing and creating guided content for end users. I also like how quick support team is to respond and address issues when they occur.”

👎 Cons:

“I would like to see more control around embedding images, gifs, and video within individual guides. I would also like to see more advanced customization options.”

3- Chameleon vs. Help Hero

Chameleon (or tryChameleon) is a customization-oriented product engagement tool.

chameleon vs help hero

If what you are looking for is advanced customization options, the Chameleon could be the tool for you.

As long as you know how to code, you can personalize and customize your interactive onboarding elements as if they were tailor-made (or developer-made 🤷🏻‍♀️)

If you don’t have the required technical knowledge, you can purchase a custom-made plan.

Since the tool itself is highly expensive by itself already, it would almost be impossible for small businesses to afford the just-as-expensive customization support.

Chameleon Pricing

  • 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: $599/month for 2000 MAU, $999/month for 15.000 MAU, including unlimited experiences and A/B testing

Chameleon Reviews

👍 Pros:

“If you have a 90 minute block of time to sit down and really dig in using all the tools, you will end up with a very pro looking email or newsletter. As good as any you’ll see in any inbox.”

👎 Cons:

“Who has 90 mins. for this, espsecially in light of the complex user interface? They provide templates, but navigating around the various elements is not intuitive at all.”

4- Intercom vs. Help Hero

Intercom is a widely used user engagement tool that does mainly live chat and email optimizations, but also helps with onboarding.

intercom vs help hero

You might be using Intercom already since it’s one of the top SaaS tools that almost every B2B and B2C company needs and uses.

If you want to stick with what you already know and use, I’m more than happy to let you know that Intercom has an interactive product tour add-on.

But that’s all in terms of additional user engagement and onboarding features that Intercom offers.

There are many other tools that offer 10 times more features for a better price, such as UserGuiding.

Intercom Pricing

If you want to use Intercom with Product Tours add-on:

  • Start Plan: $74/month for Intercom subscription (2 seats) plus $199/month for Product Tours add-on = $273/month Total
  • Support Package: Custom quote on request

Intercom Reviews

👍 Pros:

“ I love that intercom has adapted and provided many tools needed in each different role! It’s easy to understand feedback and send this to productboard, I can create product tours that are contextual and more.”

👎 Cons:

“There is no onboarding checklist during creation product tours.”

5- WalkMe vs. Help Hero

WalkMe is a digital adoption tool that does more than user oboarding.

walkme vs help hero

WalkMe can be considered an overall product adoption tool since it offers an extensive amount of features and solutions.

This doesn’t mean that the product is made for every business, though. Since they are helping many enterprise-level customers, they develop accordingly.

In other words, they won’t be a good fit for small-medium range businesses.

Also, just like Chameleon and Whatfix, WalkMe is far from being a no-code tool that is simple to use, and definitely not the most affordable one.

WalkMe Pricing

WalkMe doesn’t provide customers with a fixed price. The customized prices are often a bit more than what their competitors offer.

WalkMe Reviews

👍 Pros:

“WalkMe provides the user with on-screen guidance to get them to where they need to be without weighing down support teams on training for every function.”

👎 Cons:

“As powerful as funnels could measure metrics, a website needs to be very specific to the steps. If a screen has more than one purpose, this inflates numbers, and your reporting is inaccurate.”

6- Intro.js vs. Help Hero

Intro.js is an open-source product tour library.

introjs vs help hero

Intro.js is an open-source library from which a developer can benefit – nevertheless, Intro.js has a little more to give.

You must apply for a license if you want to use the source for business reasons. Because the purchase is done only once, there is no need for a monthly membership.

Intro.js also provides commercial support, product updates, and custom themes, depending on the licensing plan you choose.

Otherwise, the source isn’t very adaptable.

Intro.js Pricing

Intro.js is completely free to use unless it is for a commercial product, which then requires a license. License pricing is as follows:

  • Starter pack without any official support for $9.99,
  • Business pack with a month of official support and code review for $49.99,
  • Premium package with a year of official support, code review, and unlimited projects for $299.99.

7- Crumble vs. Help Hero

Crumble is a product introduction-based open-source library.

crumble vs help hero

Just like Intro.js, Crumble doesn’t offer much.

A developer can use the library to create product tours that consist of speech bubbles, but again, since it’s only an open-source library, it’s not a good fit for non-technical people.

Also, Crumble doesn’t offer any support, but this means that the source is fully free of charge.

Crumble Pricing

Crumble is 100% free to use!

Conclusion

Each tool has its strengths and weaknesses. Help hero is surprisingly too weak for a ‘’hero’’, though.

Instead of Help Hero, you should consider:

  • Whatfix or WalkMe for a variety of features to use,
  • Intercom to go with what you already know,
  • Chameleon to have unlimited customization options,
  • Intro.js or Crumble to save the expense,
  • UserGuiding for all the things above.

Frequently Asked Questions


Who should use Help Hero?

Product owners, growth managers, customer success, and product managers can use Help Hero and its alternatives such as UserGuiding to effectively onboard new users.


How much does Help Hero cost?

Help Hero charges according to your MAU, starting from $55 (1K MAU) and going up to $299 (20K MAU).


What are the top alternatives to Help Hero?

The top paid alternatives to Help Hero are UserGuiding, Intercom, Whatfix, WalkMe, and Chameleon. The top free alternatives to Help Hero are Intro.js and Crumble.

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Hilal Çökeli

Hilal Çökeli

I’m UserGuiding’s growth-obsessed product marketer. I like to research and write about product, onboarding, and inbound marketing. If you feel like we could exchange ideas, feel free to reach out via LinkedIn or email! P.S. If I don’t respond, please know that I’m on a road trip with my camera and motorbike.