Top 8 Nickelled Alternatives and Competitors That Will Provide Actual Value

What Nickelled Does Well

Nickelled is a tool that not many know of, but it has its benefits nevertheless:

1- Simple employee training

Nickelled positions itself as an employee training solution first and foremost at the moment.

Nickelled offers a more simplistic set of features for employee onboarding compared to some of its competitors, which we'll discuss below.

So, if you are looking for a basic solution, Nickelled could be the answer.

2- Moderate learning curve

It is important for a user onboarding platform to make sure their onboarding doesn't take too much effort.

Nickelled seems to understand that, as Nickelled users also report, the learning curve is not too steep.

The tool also doesn't require JS installation, which means that, though with a few extra steps, you can start creating right away.

Drawbacks of Nickelled

Much like its benefits, there are some drawbacks to Nickelled as well.

1- Narrow feature set

Nickelled's simplistic feature set can be an advantage and a disadvantage.

For those willing to focus on a specific use case, which is employee onboarding, Nickelled might be adequate.

For others, not so much.

Nickelled offers guided tours, hotspots, and a help assistant, which is about it.

So, if you're looking for a wide selection of different onboarding user experience elements, Nickelled might fall short.

2- Limited customization

Another criticism from Nickelled users is that its customization feature is a bit primitive.

You can change the colors and the position of some elements, but inserting visuals or changing the shapes and sizes of elements isn't possible.

3- Slightly overpriced

Knowing what Nickelled offers, it is natural to expect fair pricing.

However, for many, the tool is overpriced compared to other tools offering more features and advanced capabilities.

Though Nickelled does not share public pricing, their last public pricing in 2022 was $249/month.

Now, these drawbacks call for some alternatives.

And we've got the full list for you 👇

8 Best Nickelled Alternatives

1. UserGuiding - the all-around product adoption platform
2. WalkMe - the advanced employee onboarding solution
3. Appcues - the user onboarding option
4. Pendo - the better analytics option
5. Usetiful - most affordable
6. Stonly - best for customer support
7. Intro.js - the open-source option
8. Crumble - the completely free option

1- UserGuiding - the all-around product adoption platform

• G2: ⭐4.6/5 (231 reviews)
• Capterra: ⭐️ 4.7/5 (51 reviews)

UserGuiding is a leader product adoption platform that started off as a user onboarding solution, and currently, it has become an all-around solution for in-app experiences.

The tool is highly recommended for its ease of use and wide set of features in the DAP category.

From a business perspective, UserGuiding is also cost-performance effective since it offers capabilities of different standalone tools for a fair price. On top of that, it is well-known for its stellar customer support.

UserGuiding also requires no technical knowledge or experience with coding to use, making it a top alternative for ease of use.

UserGuiding Use Cases

One of the most valid reasons to go with UserGuiding is that it offers a comprehensive set of use cases:

User onboarding & feature adoption

With features like interactive product tours, step-by-step guides, user onboarding checklists, tooltips and hotspots, and more, UserGuiding offers both a user onboarding solution and tools for continuous adoption.

This doesn't end at product adoption, either. Feature adoption is among UserGuiding use cases.

With interactive guides and other in-app elements, new features are easily adopted.

User engagement & feedback collection

The digital adoption solution UserGuiding offers is over and beyond onboarding flows.

With a powerful analytics dashboard, you can easily track user behavior and engagement of your in-app elements. But there is more.

With in-app surveys, you can collect customer feedback right inside your product.

The in-app surveys are fully customizable and come with a good set of templates, from NPS surveys to open-ended surveys.

The analytics dashboard makes it easier to understand user analytics and the overall user experience.

That's not all of it.

When you have an update to share with your users, UserGuiding's Product Updates page makes the announcements available in-app. Your users can also comment and leave reactions.

Self-serve support & knowledge base

And lastly, UserGuiding is a proud advocate of self-service in SaaS.

With resource centers that work as in-app help center widgets, users can see to their problems before they can reach out to your support team.

In the same vein, UserGuiding also offers a knowledge base solution to release even more of your support team's duties.

The knowledge base feature works as a centralized standalone hub for all that you need to share.

‎The knowledge base has its own analytics dashbaord as well, allowing users to track performance of specific articles and more.

Pricing

UserGuiding’s pricing plans are based on the number of active users you have. When billed yearly:

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

UserGuiding vs Nickelled

The comparison between Nickelled and UserGuiding boils down to a difference in class.

UserGuiding offers a big set of capabilities for digital adoption and elements to improve user experience. Nickelled offers enough to be a good employee training tool.

Nickelled seems to have a steep learning curve while UserGuiding is easy to use and learn, for non-technical people as well.

UserGuiding's starting price along with its other pricing plans set the capabilities offered while Nickelled is known to be a tad bit overpriced.

Here's the full overview:

The full disclosure is, if you want a bigger set of features, a free trial, a better user onboarding flow, and fair pricing, UserGuiding is the alternative for you.

2- WalkMe - the advanced employee onboarding solution

• G2: ⭐4.5/5 (407 reviews)
• Capterra: ⭐️ 4.4/5 (62 reviews)

WalkMe is among the biggest —and most expensive— digital adoption platforms. It is among the leaders in DAP and the tool is known to be very effective for enterprise level employee onboarding.

It is also effective if you want to onboard users rather than employees, but the tool's main use is to definitely train employees.

Still, WalkMe is also among the most expensive digital adoption platforms on the market.

WalkMe Use Cases

There are 2 important WalkMe use cases:

Employee Training and Onboarding

WalkMe features like interactive product tours and in-app assistance allow users to train employees better.

The tool can also be used to create personalized product walkthroughs for different roles.

Product Adoption and Feature Utilization

WalkMe's interactive product tours, tooltips and hotspots also help with product adoption and better feature utilization.

WalkMe features are also effective for those looking to offer more self-service options.

Pricing

WalkMe does not share public pricing. However, they are known for their annual contracts worth thousands of dollars.

WalkMe vs Nickelled

The most striking difference between WalkMe and Nickelled would be, again, capabilities.

While WalkMe offers one of the most advanced feature sets available for employee onboarding, Nickelled offers product tours, resource centers, tooltips and hotspots.

Even more striking is that even though WalkMe offers enterprise-level pricing, it is still more sensible buy WalkMe since its pricing actually matches what it offers.

So, if you have the budget for it, WalkMe is better than Nickelled as an employee onboarding solution.

3- Appcues - the user onboarding option

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

Appcues is the pioneer and leader in the user onboarding category.

It is one of the first platforms to address the need to onboard users without much technical knowledge.

While Appcues still offers a somewhat steep learning curve, its capabilities are surely good enough for no-code digital adoption.

Appcues Use Cases

Appcues use cases are very similar to UserGuiding's, the top 3 of which being:

User Onboarding

As a no-code digital adoption solution that pioneered no-code user onboarding, the first use case is, of course, user onboarding.

Appcues uses onboarding elements like interactive guides and product walkthroughs to onboard new customers and users.

Other user onboarding features like in-app tutorials and contextual help are also active in this use case.

Feature Adoption & User Engagement

With targeted in-app messaging, Appcues helps with user engagement. Adding the announcements to the mix makes the use case even stronger.

For feature adoption, tooltips and guided tours are your best friend when using Appcues.

User Feedback and Surveys

And lastly, with its very own in-app surveys, Appcues offers a scalable way of collecting feedback as well.

Pricing

With a free trial and adjustable MAU ranges, the pricing tiers for Appcues look like:

<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 Nickelled

Though Appcues is primarily for user onboarding and Nickelled focuses more on employee training, their core functions and features are the same.

And yet, Appcues still offers a lot more.

On top of product tours, resource centers, and other key features, Appcues offers a strong set of use cases while having the same starting price as Nickelled.

So, if you have the budget for it, Appcues offers more than Nickelled at the same price, and it just might be your alternative to it.

4- Pendo - the better analytics option

• G2: ⭐4.4/5 (1421 reviews)
• Capterra: ⭐4.6/5 (57 reviews)

Pendo is the tool for digital experiences, and it is also one of the leaders in DAP, along with UserGuiding, WalkMe, and Appcues.

The platform is well-known as an analytics tool. Whether it is user analytics or product analytics you need, it delivers.

Though it comes at a hefty price for those looking to use it as a full-on employee or customer onboarding solution, it is still a good alternative.

Pendo Use Cases

Pendo is the kind of tool you could call an "all-in-one solution," and its use cases seem to agree.

User Onboarding

Pendo's guided tours and in-app tutorial features help with user, employee, and customer onboarding.

If you meant to use Nickelled solely for employee training, Pendo can help make up for lost potential.

Product Analytics

Pendo's analytics feature is the reason why it is on our list, and with different report types and heatmaps, it can help you with product analytics too.

This is important to note because Nickelled's analytics feature is fairly limited.

Feedback Collection and Management

When it comes to user feedback collection, Pendo is useful once more.

Pendo offers in-app surveys and a centralized feedback portal to fight churn and build better user relationships.

Pricing

Pendo has a free plan, but no public pricing is available.

We do know that Pendo is close to WalkMe in pricing and objectively pretty expensive for any smaller business.

Pendo also offers key features in its main plans, but some extra capabilities have separate pricing.

Pendo vs Nickelled

Once again, Nickelled is a seriously basic tool compared to Pendo.

While Pendo offers features aimed at different use cases, Nickelled focuses on employee training.

Along with its many features, Pendo's analytics feature is also worth mentioning, while Nickelled offers only a few analytics features.

Pendo is naturally pricier than Nickelled, but if you're looking to handle your entire digital experience, it is worth it to give Pendo a try over Nickelled.

5- Usetiful - most affordable

• G2: ⭐4.7/5 (154 reviews)
• Capterra: ⭐4.6/5 (57 reviews)

Usetiful is a digital adoption platform known for its simplistic use case and pricing to match.

It is a tool that offers a well-designed but small set of features and works best for user onboarding beginners.

So, we can say that Usetiful is what Nickelled should have been for employee onboarding.

And that still qualifies it as a good alternative to Nickelled since its user onboarding features can also be used for employee training.

Usetiful Use Cases

Usetiful mentions a few use cases on its website, where they list the teams that would benefit from it, including sales, HR, support, marketing, and product.

The way I would put it, here are Usetiful's use cases:

User Onboarding & Employee Training

Usetiful offers product tours, checklists, and tooltips to help product teams onboard new users, while HR can use the same elements to onboard employees.

Because it is no-code like UserGuiding and Appcues, its onboarding elements are especially useful for non-technical people.

Engagement & Adoption

Usetiful uses its banners and tooltips to engage users in the app, while the same core functions help with feature adoption.

In-app surveys also contribute to user engagement and better feedback collection.

Self-Serve Help

Lastly, Usetiful's newly launched knowledge base feature offers self-serve help for users to support themselves in-app.

Similar to UserGuiding's knowledge base, users can access it as externally or within the app via the resource center.

Pricing

Usetiful offers a free plan and though their MAU ranges are only semi-adjustable, the pricing tiers sure are fair:

<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 Nickelled

The main difference between Usetiful and Nickelled is that the former comes at a way lower price and offers more defined features.

Now, again, Nickelled is not a user onboarding tool by definition. So, it might seem like it can offer fewer core functions.

But when Usetiful is on the market, it might not be a good look.

The pricing difference between the two tools is pretty big, with Usetiful's most expensive fixed plan not reaching Nickelled's starting price.

Usetiful also offers more integration options, better customer support, and more customizable elements.

So, if you're looking to use Nickelled's limited set of features at a much fairer price, Usetiful might be a better choice.

6- Stonly - best for customer support

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

Stonly is a knowledge base platform, and its main mission is to connect people to knowledge and automate customer service in the process.

Then why is it an alternative to Nickelled?

Alongside its core customer success and help center capabilities, Stonly offers user onboarding features as well.

From resource centers to step by step guides, Stonly features aim to give you better support and overall customer success.

Stonly Use Cases

Now, officially speaking, Stonly has 2 solutions on its website:

Support agent knowledge

Stonly's knowledge base and AI answers features work together to help support reps access relevant knowledge quickly and easily.

This helps with your support team's technical capability and flexibility in independent research to solve an issue.

Self-serve support

Stonly not only helps support teams but also any user looking to acquire knowledge.

Using checklists, interactive guides, and a resource center called the Widget, Stonly promotes self-serve via not only help centers but also online tutorials.

Stonly also offers a user onboarding use case, which is included in the starter plan and the professional plan.

Pricing

Stonly does not offer a free plan, but there is a free trial.

The platform also does not list public pricing, but the last time their pricing was public, it was along the lines of $199/month for the starting price and a custom quote for the professional plan.

Stonly vs Nickelled

Comparing Stonly and Nickelled is not completely fair since they are not positioned in the same category.

However, since Stonly offers very similar features to Nickelled, it sure is a good alternative.

When it comes to onboarding features, Nickelled is at the top; however, as a whole, Stonly is a more defined tool with more functionalities.

Stonly seems to be similar in pricing to Nickelled, but this is with a bigger feature set.

Stonly also has the advantage of a knowledge base, which is a feature offered only by UserGuiding and Stonly on this list.

Stonly also offers more integration options.

So, if you are not strictly looking for an employee onboarding product and can do with a customer support solution, Stonly might be the alternative for you.

7- Intro.js - the open source option

Intro.js is an open-source library that is designed to help developers with guide creation and create better onboarding experiences.

Now, the library is vastly limited due to a lack of ease of use and templates. But it is simple to use and has great customization options for a developer.

The question is, does your developer have the time?

Intro.js Use Cases

Intro.js's use case is simple: user onboarding.

But if you want to use it as an alternative to Nickelled, it can be used for employee onboarding as well.

The library basically helps users create step by step guides, tooltips, and JavaScript API.

Pricing

Intro.js is completely free unless you want to use it for commercial purposes.

Then, it still comes at a completely fair price:

• Starter: $9.99/lifetime
• Business: $49.99/lifetime
• Premium: $299.99/lifetime

Intro.js vs Nickelled

The main differentiator between Nickelled and Intro.js is the technical capability and coding skills required.

Practically speaking, the end products of both Intro.js and Nickelled are pretty similar. And if not for Nickelled's no-code quality, Intro.js can still be considered for its customization options.

Another difference is the pricing, with Intro.js being almost fully free to use.

So, if you have a developer with time in their hands, Intro.js is both more customizable and cheaper. It just might be the alternative you need.

8- Crumble - the completely free option

And lastly, Crumble is another GitHub library that holds the codes to create website bubbles.

These bubbles are, of course, a primitive version of a guide. The bright side is that it is completely free.

Crumble Use Cases

Crumble's only use case is onboarding guide creation in the shape of bubbles. It does not have customization options, and it was last updated 12 years ago.

Yet, it is still helpful for those looking to use their coding skills on a limited budget.

Pricing

Crumble is free to use.

Crumble vs Nickelled

When Compared to Crumble, Nickelled offers more features, customization options, analytics, and integrations, while Crumble has none of the above.

However, for the completely broke beginners, a tool is a tool. And if you are brave enough to use Crumble, it is the alternative for you.

Wrapping Up

Nickelled is good, but its features are too few, and the pricing is too expensive. So we need alternatives.

As we wrap this up, here's the gist:

For those seeking more robust solutions, UserGuiding is an all-around solution that is user-friendly, while WalkMe is suitable for enterprise-level needs despite its higher price.

For those focused on user onboarding and engagement, Appcues offers powerful onboarding elements, while Pendo provides extensive analytics.

For those looking to handle customer support as well, Stonly is a good option with complementary onboarding features.

For budget-conscious users, Usetiful is perfect for beginners. And if you're on an even tighter budget but know code, Intro.js and Crumble offer customizable, low-cost options.