Top 8 Product Adoption Platforms That Will Make Users Love You

How to choose a product adoption platform

There are 4 main factors you should weigh up when looking for a platform to boost your product adoption rates.

Doesn't require you to use code

In order to encourage more users to adopt your product, you'll need to make it as intuitive and seamless to use as possible.

A great way to do this is to add onboarding elements that highlight key features and explain how to use them.

Here's an example of a tooltip that does just that:

But there's a problem. Can you imagine how annoying it would be for your developers if they had to build tooltips like this manually?

Your developers have their hands full already with coding your core product features. And hiring extra developers isn't exactly cheap.

So it's incredibly helpful if you have a product adoption platform that will let your non-technical product people build and customize onboarding elements like the above tooltip – without having to mess around with code.

Keeps your customer data secure

To get the full value out of any onboarding platform, you'll need to pass the platform all your user behavior data so that its analytics systems can tell you where you can improve.

This data is sensitive, and you don't want it falling into the wrong hands. This is especially true if you're an enterprise or work with large enterprises – for whom data security is often a non-negotiable in doing business.

So, you'll want to ensure that your chosen product adoption platform conforms to the highest industry standards in data security and is audited regularly.

Analyzes in-app user behavior

You won't get your product adoption strategy right the first time around, so it's imperative to choose a product adoption platform that has strong analytics.

These will let you measure what's going well and what's not – so that you can tweak your strategy as you go.

Ensure your product adoption tool does these three things:

• Focuses on user in-app behavior: Demographics and psychographics are all well and good, but what really counts is what your users do inside your app. Look for a platform that lets you measure feature usage and see where users break off key flows.
• Structures data by company: Most platforms will let you structure your data by individual user or by user segment. The best ones go further and allow you to group all the users from one company together.
• Lets you create in-app surveys: Often forgotten as an analytics tool, surveys allow you to get the qualitative "why" behind the cold, hard numbers.

Avoids feature bloat

There's an optimal number of features that a product adoption platform should have.

It's a good idea to be able to manage all your user onboarding needs on one platform.

So, from a feature standpoint, this means that product adoption tools that allow you to handle product tours, surveys, your knowledge base, and tooltips from one central location are advantageous.

But it's possible to take this reasoning too far and try to be a platform that does everything under the sun. There are product adoption solutions that also specialize in customer support, AI chat widgets, training employees, workflow acceleration or even internal online chats!

This is confusing for users, and the fact that these platforms lack focus also means that the quality of their features is lower than that of the platforms that are solely concentrating on user onboarding.

Best Product Adoption Platforms to Help You Onboard Your Users

Let's take a look at the different product adoption software options available and see which one is the best for your business.

1. UserGuiding

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

UserGuiding is an all-in-one product adoption platform that allows you to onboard new users, inform existing ones about new features, and provide intuitive in-app support. You can also use it for a complete new product adoption project.

No-code onboarding features

As befits a platform that was created solely for the user onboarding use case, you can build a huge range of different UI elements with UserGuiding, including:

• Tooltips
• Hotspots
• Modals
• Help Center
• Knowledge Base
• Checklists
• Product Tours
• Product Updates
• … and more!

These features improve adoption by nudging users towards important parts of the UI and positioning help resources in-app, in the same context in which the user needs them.

UserGuiding functions as a Chrome extension that acts as an overlay to your product. What this means is that you'll need to spend a few minutes installing a snippet of code onto your website.

Thereafter, even the least technical product manager will be able to build and customize the above UI elements in 15 minutes or so. No code required!

Outstanding analytics

UserGuiding's analytics offer you a deep dive into your users' behavior.

You'll be able to see how many customers used a particular feature, which companies those users came from, and where users dropped off in your flows. This enables you to go back to your flows and improve them when needed.

Crucially, you can filter your view by user, user segment, or company.

UserGuiding's surveys will also help you understand your customer's needs and behavior in greater detail.

Unlike some of the other platforms out there, UserGuiding doesn't limit you to NPS surveys only – you can also send more detailed qualitative surveys when you need to.

Transparent, fair pricing

Unlike many of its competitors, UserGuiding shares its pricing openly on its website:

We don't believe in adding hidden fees: what you see is what you get.

Most of our customers pay $69 per month. But this price is on a sliding scale that changes according to how many monthly active users (MAUs) you have.

We don't think you should have to pay for users who aren't active.

2. Pendo

• Capterra ⭐3.5/5 (215 reviews)
• G2 ⭐4.4/5 (1423 reviews)

Pendo is a product adoption platform that's known for its exceptionally strong analytics.

Pendo Features

If your main aim with your product adoption software is to deepen your understanding of your customers' behavior using data analytics, Pendo might be the platform for you.

Here are some potential use cases that you might be interested in:

• Identifying where in user flows customers drop off, and why
• Using heatmaps to visualize where users click the most often
• Tracking user behavior by segment
• Uncovering the pathways through your app that users take the most frequently
• Sending custom analytics reports to senior management
• Detecting underused features and the reasons why customers are avoiding them
• Sending surveys to obtain qualitative data directly from users

So, yes, this is a powerful product analytics tool, to say the least!

But all of this data is a double-edged sword.

Pendo actually provides so much product data that it's hard to wrap your head around it, especially if your business isn't large enough to dedicate one person to looking at Pendo all day, every day.

And Pendo isn't especially easy to set up or maintain – precisely because it pulls data from so many places. All those data sources have to be kept up to date, otherwise the quality of the data will be compromised (and with it, the value of Pendo!).

Beyond data analysis, Pendo doesn't have too much to offer. It does have guides, hotspots, and checklists, but they're not especially easy to use, and the support options aren't great, either.

Pricing

Pendo's pricing isn't available publicly, so you'll have to ask them for a quote. However reports online suggest that Pendo starts from around $7000 a year, which is a lot.

There is a free plan for up to 500 MAUs, but are you really going to be able to benefit from Pendo's analytics with so few users? There are going to be all sorts of issues with sample sizes and statistical significance.

So perhaps this tool is best for enterprises with deep pockets who can afford to dedicate one person to Pendo full-time.

3. Userpilot

• Capterra: ⭐4.6/5 (57 reviews)
• G2: ⭐4.6/5 (382 reviews)

Userpilot is an onboarding and analytics tool for mid-market SaaS companies.

Userpilot Features

Like Pendo, Userpilot is known for the quality of its product analytics. For example, you can use Userpilot to

• visualize your onboarding funnel,
• see where users are getting stuck and
• where people are dropping out of your flows.

These analytics features aren't quite as strong as Pendo's are, but Userpilot makes up for this by giving you access to decent user onboarding features, such as hotspots, tooltips, and modals.

It's worth saying that you'll probably need a developer to install Userpilot and get the most out of customizing these features, but nevertheless, the quality is solid.

The main problem with Userpilot is that it's just not very user-friendly. This isn't just our opinion – have a look at what this G2 reviewer had to say:

Unlike UserGuiding, Userpilot isn't particularly helpful for new feature adoption either, since it lacks a product updates page and a dedicated feature for in-app announcements. You can get around this using modals to improvise, but it's not the same.

Pricing

Userpilot's monthly subscription fees start from $249 for 2000 MAUs.

Note that this is cheaper than Pendo, but much more expensive than UserGuiding. So, it's not the best option if you're a startup on a small budget.

The price is a little misleading as well, because the onboarding industry generally prices per 2500 MAUs, not 2000. So Userpilot is making it seem as if you're getting more for your money than you actually are.

4. Appcues

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

Appcues is the oldest, most established digital adoption solution on the market.

Appcues Features

The range and depth of the onboarding features offered by Appcues are excellent.

As well as the standard guides, hotspots, and checklists that you would expect from a product in this industry, Appcues is unique in supporting onboarding on mobile devices as well as desktops.

None of the other solutions in this article are capable of that, so that's a win for Appcues.

Appcues' analytics are also solid. You can even send reports about feature performance without having to code, which is pretty impressive.

So what's the catch?

The challenge with Appcues is that you'll need to allocate a developer (or two) to the platform in order to get the most out of it. Customization options without code are fairly limited.

This is fine if you have a developer sitting around with nothing to do, but in our experience, developers normally have their hands full coding primary product features. And hiring a new developer isn't exactly cheap.

Pricing

Appcues costs $249 per month for 2500 MAUs, which is cheaper than most of the other products on this list but much more expensive than UserGuiding.

And, of course, this doesn't include what you'll have to pay your developers in order to get the most out of the software.

5. Intro.js

• Github: 22.6K ⭐

Intro.js is a simple JS library that will help you code product tours.

Intro.js Features

Intro.js is an open-source JavaScript library for product tours. What this means is that your developers can leverage existing open-source code in order to build product tours, as opposed to doing everything themselves.

The quality of the product tour UI you can build is solid. And because it's all code, the product tours are also infinitely customizable, which is helpful.

Intro.js is used by big names like Nestle and Amazon, so clearly, they're doing something right.

The only downside is that this isn't a no-code solution like UserGuiding, so you'll need to assign a developer to Intro.js in order to get any value from it. And, as we already discussed above, developers are expensive!

Pricing

Intro.js is free for open-source, personal or commercial sites.

If you're using it for a business, you can buy a lifetime license for only $9.99, which is very affordable. More expensive packages are available for users who need development support.

And this highlights the problem with Intro.js: even though the tool itself is cheap, you always have to factor in the cost of your developer as well.

6. WalkMe

• Capterra ⭐4.4/5 (62 reviews)
• G2 ⭐4.5/5 (412 reviews)

WalkMe is a product adoption tool that enterprises can use to train employees to use complex software products like Salesforce.

WalkMe Features

WalkMe is best known for its walkthroughs. These are designed to make it easier for new employees to understand complex internal workflows.

One of the best features of WalkMe's walkthroughs is the ability to add contextual guidance. This means that employees can get the support they need when they get stuck in-app, right next to the feature that's confusing them, without having to go through a manager.

On top of this, WalkMe's analytics will let you know exactly where in user flows employees are getting stuck, which features they aren't using, and what inefficiencies can be improved in your workflow.

The AI even goes as far as to give you recommendations for fixing the problems it finds.

Note that WalkMe is not a user onboarding tool as such, or a product adoption tool that aims to help users. It's excellent at supporting employees in adopting software, but that's about all it does well.

It actually offers so many different features to support the employee onboarding use case that it's easy for users to feel overwhelmed.

And the sheer range of employee use cases this platform accommodates makes it difficult for their support agents to do their job properly.

Support requests are varied and nuanced, which means that as a customer of WalkMe, you'll be dependent on those agents, not on self-serve help resources. It's just not possible for WalkMe to generalize their support resources into neat FAQs.

Pricing

Unfortunately, WalkMe doesn't share its pricing transparently online.

Anecdotal reports suggest that they typically charge around $10k per year for an annual contract, which is consistent with going after the enterprise market.

So, this isn't a product for SMBs or budget-conscious startups.

7. Intercom

• Capterra: ⭐4.5/5 (1056 reviews)
• G2: ⭐4.5/5 (3013 reviews)

Intercom is an AI-first customer service platform that also offers some utility as a product adoption tool.

Intercom Features

Intercom is best known for its AI chatbots, which are ubiquitous in the SaaS world. These allow you to employ fewer support agents and can even suggest answers to simpler user queries without being prompted by a human.

On the human side of customer service, Intercom can help you develop a centralized ticketing system to handle inbound queries, and respond (either to individual queries or in bulk) on whatever platform you want.

As far as being a product adoption tool goes, Intercom also comes with the ability to make simple product tours, checklists, and in-app surveys.

The functionality here is limited. Intercom's product tours are notoriously linear, boring, and hard to segment, while its survey feature confines you to sending NPS surveys rather than qualitative ones.

Intercom's user behavior analytics are quite robust, but they're not as good at covering onboarding use cases (e.g., feature usage) as other tools in this article.

Pricing

Intercom's pricing starts from $39 per seat per month. This sounds cheap, but adds up quickly.

Note that the onboarding functionality described above requires you to also pay for an add-on, at another $99 per month.

There are also fees of $0.99 per support case solved by Intercom's AI, plus a few cents here and there for email, SMS, WhatsApp, or phone campaigns.

8. SAP Enable Now

• Capterra: no reviews
• G2: ⭐4.5/5 (4 reviews)

Famous for its suite of enterprise software, SAP is one of the largest tech companies in Germany. Enable Now is SAP's product adoption platform.

SAP Enable Now Features

Like WalkMe, Enable Now is focused on the employee side of product adoption. As such, the platform contains a range of tools that are designed to help employees use complex software.

For example, you can add guides to other tools as an overlay to point employees towards the parts of a workflow that are most relevant for them.

Alternatively, employees can use in-app help to answer their own questions without having to go through a manager.

One advantage Enable Now's employee onboarding software has over WalkMe is that it syncs with the rest of SAP's software. If you're an enterprise that uses a lot of SAP products, this could be useful for you.

Enable Now's onboarding tools are intuitive and easy to use, but they're not especially detailed. Their analytics, in particular, are poor compared with all the other solutions in this article.

We suspect this is because SAP doesn't specialize in onboarding, like most of the other companies listed. The fact that SAP uses Intro.js for their own internal onboarding and not their own tool speaks volumes.

Pricing

Enable Now requires you to sign up for a contract of at least a year, for a minimum investment of $10,200.

This covers 50 users, which is quite a bit, but just goes to show that this isn't a cheap product by any means.

Wrapping Up

Having read this article, you should now be in a position to choose a suitable product adoption tool for your particular use case.

If you're looking to onboard new users, not new employees, we hope that you'll take a look at UserGuiding. It offers a no-code solution, data security and powerful behavioral analytics for a competitive price.

But don't take our word for it. Sign up for a free UserGuiding trial account and see for yourself!