Are you looking for an alternative to Pageguide.js, for educating users in-app or implementing UX improvements?
Whether you are looking for better onboarding elements, or a no-code product, we’ve got you covered.
In this article, I’ll go over 4 different alternatives to Pageguide, including other open source tools to enterprise-level platforms.
Let’s start with getting to know Pageguide:
What is Pageguide?
Pageguide is an interactive guide for web page elements using jQuery and CSS3, developed by Tracelytics, a popular team in GitHub.
It offers developers the ability to rather easily create product tours (compared to creating from scratch.)
It is a solid library that is used by many product owners for educating users. However, it has disadvantages.
Let’s see where Pageguide becomes insufficient:
Why you need an alternative to Pageguide
There are a few reasons why you might need an alternative to Pageguide:
🗓 It is simply outdated
Pageguide’s latest version was released more than 5 years ago (2015), and the latest commit was made on 2017.
There are actually 17 open issues, some of which date back to 2013, so you shouldn’t expect any official support.
🎨 Limited Elements, No Customization
As the name of the tool suggests, it consists of only Pageguides. It might be sufficient for single-page/element businesses that don’t have much explaining to do, but complex products require a bit more than a single guide.
🧑💻 Requires Technical Knowledge
It is an open-source tool, so non-technical people won’t be able to utilize Pageguide.
😵 Not a Good Performer
I’ve mentioned that there were 17 open issues as of December 2020, and most of these issues are created in search of a solution to a bug, or an error.
Top Alternatives to Pageguide
- UserGuiding
- Intro.js
- WalkMe
- Appcues
1- Pageguide vs. UserGuiding – No-code User Onboarding Platform
UserGuiding is a third-party user onboarding platform that is far superior to Pageguide.
It offers interactive product tours, user guides, standalone in-app messages, user checklists, self-help centers, and many other UX elements for a complete user onboarding experience.
The product is no-code, meaning that anyone regardless of their technical background can easily create user onboarding flows in minutes.
With UserGuiding’s analytics, you can see how your creations are performing, and with the User Segmentation feature, you can group different users to offer a personalized experience to each one of them.
UserGuiding vs Pageguide
- Product Tours ✅
- Feature Highlights ✅
- Checklists ✅
- Tooltips ✅
- No-code, easy-to-use ✅
- Segmentation, targeting ✅
- Self-help Centers ✅
- Extremely simple Product Tours ✅
- Limited Customization ❌
- Limited Features ❌
- No Segmentation, Analytics ❌
- Technical knowledge required ❌
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:
“I love how different elements can be combined to create unique user guides.”
👎 Cons:
“This product definitely needs time-triggering for guides. It would be great to be able to push guides to inactive/stuck users.”
Simple, Affordable, and Powerful User Onboarding Software.
2- Pageguide vs. Intro.js
Intro.js is another open-source product tour library for web products.
If you are enjoying the core function of Pageguide but experiencing any problems with it, you can also try Intro.js, since they are highly similar. Actually, Intro.js is more widely-used, as it is utilized by 5000+ businesses including Amazon and Nestle.
The same main issues with Pageguide occur for Intro.js too, it has low to no customization with limited onboarding elements.
Compared to a 3rd party user onboarding tool such as UserGuiding, Intro.js and Pageguide are inferior in offering a better experience to end-users.
Intro.js Pricing
Intro.js is completely free for those who do not use it for commercial projects.
When the project is commercial, however, a lifetime license is required to be purchased:
- 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.
Intro.js Reviews
👍 Pros:
“I really like the Intro.js plugin because documentation is straightforward and easy to understand. This can work in almost any webpage using jQuery as an included library.”
👎 Cons:
“The library is definitely open source and free software, but at the same time if I want to use it for commercial use it seems I need to pay a license fee. Why is this required if the code is open source?”
3- Pageguide vs. WalkMe
WalkMe is another solid paid alternative to Pageguide, if you have a high budget.
The cloud-based user onboarding platform used by big enterprises can solve your user onboarding and employee training problems immediately.
If you are a small startup yet, it would be better if you stood away from WalkMe. It requires a bit of technical knowledge, and might not be affordable for your business.
WalkMe Pricing
WalkMe currently doesn’t offer a fixed price. Its prices change according to the company’s customized plans for your product.
WalkMe Reviews
👍 Pros:
“Flexibility to create walk-throughs and customer facing assets to support new feature releases, share important communications and understand what features users are interacting with in our product.”
👎 Cons:
“Support team is extremely slow to respond with resolutions for critical bugs. When I try to contact my client success manager for help, I’m told that if she responds I’ll be billed for professional services hours. I often feel stuck and helpless when encountering major issues, such as session playbacks not being available, due to lack of response, support tickets being assigned and re-assigned from team to team. Managing my walkme support tickets has become a full time job and is not time well spent.”
4- Pageguide vs. Appcues
Another decent paid alternative to Pageguide is Appcues.
Appcues is the first code-free onboarding platform that has ever been developed, and they’ve been at the top of the market ever since. With various comprehensive features to choose from for perfecting your onboarding process, Appcues is generally a bit complex than UserGuiding.
So a little technical knowledge is required.
Appcues Pricing
Essentials plan for Appcues starts from $249/month and the Growth package is priced at $879/month.
Appcues Reviews
👍 Pros:
“If you are looking for a low code based in-app guiding tool then Appcues is one of the best tools”
👎 Cons:
“I have to build a theme even for making small color changes.”
Pageguide Alternatives Comparison Chart
Conclusion
If you’re looking for an alternative to Pageguide for whatever reason:
- Try Intro.js if you have ample extra developer time and a simple product,
- Try UserGuiding if you need more elements to complement your user education,
- Try Appcues or WalkMe if you have a big budget and technical background.
