6 Stonly Alternatives to Upgrade Your Product Adoption

What Stonly Does Well

Stonly is a digital adoption platform strengthening its hand to create an effective knowledge base. Basically, it's a self-service customer tool and it's a good option for customer support use cases.

If you need to educate customers, Stonly can provide some value by collecting all the knowledge you want to convey in one place.

In addition, its AI assistant helps you provide answers to questions faster.

If that's all you need, you can appreciate Stonly's service. However, there are certain drawbacks you should consider before starting to use it.

Drawbacks of Stonly

Stonly lacks some essential features.

Stonly offers a streamlined approach to user onboarding, but its simplicity might hold you back in certain situations.

For example, in-app surveys, which almost every adoption process requires, are missing in Stonly. This means you will have limited access to valuable user feedback directly within the product.

Stonly also lacks a dedicated mechanism for announcing product updates to users within the onboarding flow. It's possible to add customized banners about your announcements, but they are quite free-style compared to the proper product update announcement.

Still, in-app announcements are possible with Stonly. But, they will work only on the resource center. That means you cannot deliver the information to your users naturally when they use the tool. They need to seek out this information to discover it.

Limited integrations can fail to build connections.

If your workflow relies heavily on other tools like customer relationship management (CRM) software or analytics platforms, limited integrations can create data silos and hinder a holistic user experience.

Honestly, Stonly cares about integration, and they even provide some useful ones. However, they are mostly knowledge base or help widget integrations rather than analytic integrations.

Low visual customization requires technical teams.

The tool is quite customizable, as you can play with HTML and CSS codes. However, it might not offer the level of visual customization you desire.

Compared to its no-code competitors, Stonly needs improvements in visual customization.

6 Best Stonly Alternatives

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

• Capterra ⭐ 4.7/5 (51 reviews)
• G2 ⭐ 4.6/5 (228 reviews)
• Appsumo ⭐ 4.9/5 (35 reviews)
• Software Advice ⭐ 4.7/5 (51 reviews)

UserGuiding is a robust tool for product adoption with powerful features for all use cases. It is different from Stonly as it enables extensive in-app experiences, which helps you design a complete adoption journey.  

You can also customize the experience without coding. Thus, any employee in charge of onboarding, engagement, sales, or support can easily use it.

UserGuiding Use Cases

Optimize product adoption through in-app communication

Great onboarding = happy, loyal users.

A smooth onboarding process is key to product adoption, especially in SaaS. It helps get new users and keep customers engaged. To achieve this, you need compact communication to get to the point and deliver your message without distraction.

In-app communication is a great way to do this and may include many elements, such as announcement modals or in-app surveys.

For example, in-app surveys let you gather instant feedback from new users on their onboarding experience. This valuable insight helps you refine and personalize the adoption journey. So you can understand users' needs and expectations perfectly and keep them coming back for more.

In-app surveys of UserGuiding come with templates you can customize and run without hassle.

‎In-app communication to drive upgrades and loyalty

The key to encouraging upgrades lies in timely communication. You cannot wait long before showcasing a clear value proposition.

Tooltips, hotspots, product tours, and announcement modals will be your ally while designing communication through your app. Focus on users' needs and pain points and utilize the appropriate elements to provide solutions.

Well-designed guidance brings upgrades and loyalty, which ensures systematic growth to your business.

New feature announcements to increase adoption

People may think your product is outdated if you don't offer new features regularly. This is quite a challenge to retain your users.

Another challenge is to ensure that related people hear about your new features. This requires various steps, mainly user segmentation, announcement plans, and support.

UserGuiding helps you go through all the steps with one tool, which simplifies and boosts the process.

User behavior tracking and analytics

UserGuiding lets you track user actions and understand how people interact with your product. You can see what resonates with them to improve the experience and engagement.

The analytics feature allows you to take action with the support of data because you can examine your MAUs, completion, view, and abandon rates. You can even create goals and track them for all users or specific segments.

Pricing

UserGuiding offers 3 different options depending on your needs and preferences. Pricing also changes according to MAU ranges.

• <2500 MAU - Basic:$89/m | Professional:$249/m
• 5K+ MAU - Basic:$230/m | Professional:$449/m
• 10K+ MAU - Basic: $300/m | Professional:$524/m

UserGuiding vs Stonly

UserGuiding and Stonly are quite different in terms of the variety of use cases and features, as UserGuiding is a feature-rich tool.

They both have NPS surveys, but UserGuiding also has in-app surveys that help you gather more and deeper feedback.

Stonly provides in-app announcements through the resource center for announcing products. However, ‍with our tool, you can create a product updates page and create filters so that users can find what they are looking for. Plus, they both provide knowledge base.

You can also attract attention with an announcement modal or a UI notification to ensure that your users don't miss any updates.

I can also mention that our tool is rich in material configurations, integrations, and customization. But let's use a table to make it easier to see the differences between UserGuiding and Stonly.

2. Usetiful - an affordable tool for user guides

• Capterra ⭐ 4.8/5 (8 reviews)
• G2 ⭐ 4.7/5 (154 reviews)
• Appsumo ⭐ 4.8/5 (36 reviews)

Usetiful is a cheap alternative for product adoption, and it's actually good for user guides. However, not surprisingly, considering the pricing, it lacks many essential features for the adoption journey.

Regarding the features, we can hardly say it provides an experience. Usetiful is a good option if showcasing what your digital product can do is sufficient.

Still, it can be reasonable for very small companies with very basic and limited user onboarding needs.

‎Usetiful Use Cases

Product tours to support product adoption

Usetiful has quite some features that let you design step-by-step walkthroughs to guide new users through your product's key features. You can build an engaging experience that highlights the value proposition right away.

Tours of Usetiful can cover pop-ups, sliders, and pointers. Plus, you can add surveys to gather valuable feedback and keep users engaged throughout the onboarding process.

Self-service support experience

Usetiful can also help you build knowledge bases and in-app help centers. It's possible to publish articles and collect them in a place to make a knowledge base. Quite simple and useful.

You can also add the assistant feature so that your users can find the articles they are looking for.

Pricing

• <2500 MAU - Plus:$29/m Premium:$69/m
• 5K+ MAU - Premium:$69/m
• 10K+ MAU - Premium:$139/m

Usetiful vs Stonly

One of the most important differences between Usetiful and Stonly is surveys. Usetiful facilitates user feedback with in-product surveys. However, they both fail in analysis.

Usetiful fails a bit more because it also loses the battle in user identification. Without this feature, it's almost impossible to track many details.

They both have limited features compared to alternative tools. Poor integrations, for example, will limit your experience. So, if you're looking for a complete experience, you may need another tool.

3. Pendo - many features for various needs

• Capterra ⭐ 4.5/5 (215 reviews)
• G2 ⭐ 4.4/5 (1,421 reviews)

Pendo is a product adoption tool with many features, including product analytics, in-app guides, and feedback. That's why they prefer to call it a product experience tool, as its focus is broader than product adoption.

The tool classifies its experience "for customers" and "for employees." The abundance of features may allow you to design a complete adoption journey, but it comes with a price.

‎Pendo Use Cases

Strong analytics suite

Pendo's biggest advantage over other product adoption and self-serve support tools is that it's primarily a product analytics suite. With advanced reports and dashboards, you can identify the hurdles in your user experience and address them with in-app elements.

In-app support for customers

You can design a self-service support system in your application, combining the necessary features. Product walkthroughs, onboarding checklists, and tooltips are popular among them.

Personalization of customer experience

Pendo will help you gather feedback so you can improve the experience across your product. Conducting a well-informed analysis of the data you collect, you can show up timely in the app to support your users.

Pricing

Pendo applies custom pricing based on monthly active users (MAU).

Pendo vs Stonly

Pendo comes with a full bundle of product adoption features compared to Stonly. As it is mainly an analytics tool, it can be too comprehensive and expensive for companies looking for a basic user onboarding or a product adoption solution.

So, you'll need to make sure that you don't pay for something you'll not even realize its existence.

Stonly is quite fast to start using, but Pendo's technical product setup takes weeks and needs maintenance.

It can also be good to note that they both unfortunately fail in customization, which can create problems in time.

4. Shepherd.js and Shepherd Pro - a simple and open-source library

• GitHub ⭐ 13k

Shepherd.js is a great tool when all you need is a simple product tour. You will need technical skills to use it, as it's an open-source tool. However, that means it's the most affordable option if it matters to you.

For enterprises, the Shepherd team offers Shepherd Pro, a premium version of their GitHub library. Shepherd Pro goes beyond the open-source version by providing expert assistance with white-glove setup and on-premise deployment.

‎Shepherd.js and Shepherd Pro Use Cases

Guided product tours created with coding skills

If you have a developer who knows JS and CSS to spare for this task, Shepherd.js is a simple way to create guided product tours. Using Shepherd's code will undoubtedly accelerate the development process.

‎Pricing

• Shepherd.js is free.
• Shepherd Pro comes with two options with custom pricing for enterprises, but still can be used for free.

Shepherd.js / Pro vs Stonly

Shepherd.js's being an open-source library makes it a game-changer. It has free and very affordable options.

If you choose Shepherd.js, you will definitely need a technical person (or even a team) to create and customize your team. However, it's highly customizable, which is a big plus. For Stonly, you don't need a technical person as long as you're not looking for customization.

In addition, while Stonly is weak when it comes to analytics or tracking, you will find nothing about them if you opt for Shepherd.

5. Appcues - higher price, better features

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

Appcues is a product adoption tool that covers product analytics and mobile onboarding. With Appcues, you can design walkthroughs, tooltips, and modals that appear to users at specific points in their journey.

You can tailor these messages to different user segments and track how users interact with them. This lets you see what resonates with your users and optimize your onboarding process for better engagement and retention.

Appcues Use Cases

Personalized feature discovery for higher adoption

With Appcues, you can create targeted walkthroughs with useful elements that trigger according to user behavior. This way, users discover valuable features at the right moment.

Surveys and goal-tracking features can boost your personalization process along with analytics.

On-the-spot guidance to make the experience smoother

Appcues allows you to create informative tooltips that appear when users hover over specific elements. These tooltips provide instant clarification, eliminating frustration so users can continue using the app seamlessly.

Mobile onboarding experiences

Appcues is pioneering by combining desktop & web UX onboarding with mobile by providing mobile app support, which is rare in the product adoption industry.

Pricing

• <2500 MAU - Essential:$249/m Growth:$879/m
• 5K+ MAU - Essential:$399/m Growth:$1149/m
• 10K+ MAU - Essential:$499/m Growth:$1289/m

Appcues vs Stonly

Appcues is much stronger than Stonly, considering the features, as it provides almost everything you need. However, it all comes with a cost. You need a solid budget to use Appcues.

Product analytics and mobile onboarding are Appcues's important features that make it stand out. Considering the difficulty of starting to use and maintaining them, they are quite similar, both being a bit challenging.

6. Chameleon - a pricey option to onboard

• Capterra ⭐ 3.9/5 (10 reviews)
• G2 ⭐ 4.4/5 (216 reviews)

Chameleon has the potential to improve user adoption by allowing in-app experiences like step-by-step guides, tooltips, modals, checklists, etc.

Chameleon delivers a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality. So, anyone can create and publish these elements.

Chameleon Use Cases

Smooth onboarding for new features

Chameleon enables the creation of a targeted walkthrough that appears only to users encountering the new feature for the first time. This experience walks them through the steps of using the tool, highlighting its benefits.

So your new users don't miss out on valuable features and can leverage the app's full potential.

Personalized feature discovery

The tool allows product teams to design subtle in-app messages or banners that appear based on user behavior.

For instance, if a user frequently uses the basic editing tools in a photo editing app, Chameleon can display a banner showcasing the app's more advanced features. This use case is great to encourage users to explore and unlock the app's full potential.

Pricing

• <2500 MAU - Startup:$354/m Growth:$1350/m
• 5K+ MAU - Essential:$704/m Growth:$1500/m
• 10K+ MAU - Essential:$1704/m Growth:$1750/m

Chameleon vs Stonly

Chameleon and Stonly are both user onboarding tools but cater to different needs. Chameleon is a powerful option with AI features and in-depth analytics, but it can be trickier to implement and comes at a higher cost.

Stonly shines with its affordability, making it ideal for those who prioritize a simple knowledge base and basic in-app guidance.

If advanced features and optimization are crucial, Chameleon might be worth the investment. But for a budget-friendly and easy-to-use solution, Stonly could be the perfect fit.

Conclusion

Stonly serves a valuable purpose, but numerous user adoption platforms are available to cater to diverse needs. Evaluate your requirements and explore the options to find the perfect fit for your product and budget.

Among all these options, UserGuiding stands out as a feature-rich tool. With it, you can create a product journey for your users without any coding. Sign up for a free UserGuiding trial today!