I am an audio-visual learner. I’ve always preferred listening to the teachers instead of researching on my own, and when I missed a lesson, I never understood the things I missed unless someone taught me everything.
The same goes for learning a tool. I always wished that there was a tool that explained me everything without any coding skills. In short, I needed an onboarding process that included audio-visual walkthroughs.
It turns out that it was not the best idea ever, though…
In this article, I’ll introduce you to Toonimo, a user onboarding software, talk about its strengths and weaknesses, and compare it to its alternatives.
What is Toonimo?
Toonimo is an audiovisual onboarding tool that lets you onboard users with voiceovers, audio material, and visualized guides to enhance user experience.
The concept of Toonimo is just amazing. Even the guide of their website's main page was quite interesting. As a person in the user onboarding and website walkthrough business, I was mind blown when I first heard about the tool.
The execution, though, needs some work to become an actual digital adoption solution. But that’s the topic for the next subtitle.
You can use Toonimo for almost anything. They help you come up with scripts according to whatever you need, whether if you are trying to increase conversion or just let people have the best experience on your website.
Also, they have some useful video demos on how you can create projects with Toonimo, which is also inspiring.
Toonimo Pricing
Toonimo charges $7200/year, which translates to $600/month, and actually competes with the price of WalkMe.
The price goes up significantly if you need additional seats, and there is a free trial available if you want to give it a shot.
Toonimo Reviews
👍 Pros:
“Rule engine is good, with every option we need including custom javascript.”
👎 Cons:
“Data tracking on their platform was not easy to reconcile with our internal reporting. Additionally, we did not see the desired increase in conversion.”
Why you need a Toonimo Alternative
There might be a number of reasons for your search for an alternative to Toonimo.
From what we’ve experienced, and from the reviews we’ve found online about Toonimo, we have a few theories:
1- It’s Not a Good Fit For Everyone
Not everyone is good at multitasking or doing things while listening to something else. There are people who can’t read subtitles and understand the plot of what they’re watching. While that’s the case, using only Toonimo to increase product adoption rates won’t be a huge success.
2- Not Affordable for Most Businesses
Don't get me wrong; if a solution is improving your digital adoption, it is worth every penny. But when there are products that provide the same, or even better value with prices that start from one-sixth of Toonimo, you should reconsider.
3- Not Enough Analytic Support
What good is a user onboarding tool, if it doesn’t prove that it gets the job done? Having access to a comprehensive analytics dashboard is a big part of the user adoption process, and Toonimo not qualifying for good analytic support is just a big let down. Along with paying for Toonimo, to get the best results, you would have to pay for another metrics tool.
4- The Visualization is Not Sophisticated
Since Toonimo mainly focuses on voiceovers and audio support, their visual materials fall short beside this. For people who are really not good with listening, the product tour will be a big disappointment.
Top Toonimo Alternatives
Now that you know what Toonimo 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 6 alternatives to Toonimo that won't let your customer onboarding efforts down.:
- UserGuiding
- WalkMe
- Wyzowl
- Intercom
- Intro.js
- PageGuide.js
We’ll go over each tool, how it compares to Toonimo, 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 platform that helps you provide better in-app experiences.
On top of that, it features advanced user onboarding, internal employee training, and walkthrough capabilities. Here’s how the tool works:
Basically, UserGuiding provides you with a way to trigger interactive guides (voice-over, video) at certain points during the experience (e.g., when users complete an action). These interactions are designed using the tool’s visual builder and then invoked using JavaScript.
UserGuiding also comes with a bunch of ready-made guides that you can insert into your web page (e.g., notification, contextual help, etc.).
At this point, you might ask: What’s the difference between UserGuiding and Toonimo?
The key difference is that Toonimo comes with a visual editor and, therefore, only provides you with the ability to create static images - which is not the best option to enhance customer experience. On the other hand, UserGuiding lets you build completely interactive guides (audio content, video integration) using an online builder.
UserGuiding Pricing
UserGuiding offers scalable pricing plans that change based on the number of active users you have. When billed yearly:
- 14-day free trial (no credit card required)
- Basic Plan: Starting from $69/month.
- Professional Plan: Starting from $199/month.
- Corporate Plan: Custom quote.
UserGuiding Reviews
👍 Pros:
“Codeless integration and the overall UI and setup experience. The browser plugin is an excellent idea for implementing guides and checklists.”
👎 Cons:
“More information about the best uses for each tool and also on requirements. For example, autofill and fill required functions only work on input html elements and not on div elements.”
UserGuiding vs Toonimo
Don't take my word for it, give UserGuiding a try 👇
2- Toonimo vs. WalkMe
WalkMe is a platform that lets you create onboarding and smooth product experiences for users across multiple devices.
The tool provides interactive tutorials, video walkthroughs, and even gamification capabilities to guide the user through your product or service.
The context-aware guides are created using WalkMe’s visual editor and can be triggered at any point in the user journey. In addition, the onboarding platform provides reporting capabilities to track user behavior and usage patterns.
Yet, the product is far from being a no-code solution, as it will likely take a team of developers to fully integrate WalkMe with your workflows. As a result, I strongly suggest organizations with a strict budget and even less developer time to consider the other options.
WalkMe Pricing
WalkMe doesn’t have a set pricing at the moment and you’ll have to get a demo and a custom plan to learn about their offers, but users say that it starts from $9000/month.
WalkMe Reviews
👍 Pros:
“The system has an extremely deep rules engine that allows you to create a solution for pretty much all use cases.”
👎 Cons:
“They will NOT let you out of your multi-year contract. That alone should be a cautionary tale for the consumer.”
3- Toonimo vs. Wyzowl
Wyzowl is a video creation company that creates walkthroughs and tutorials for you.
Here's how they work:
- You contact a member from Wyzowl, and tell them what you have in mind and what kind of a video you need.
- The Wyzowl team comes up with a tailor-made plan and theme for you.
- They create the script, the video, the audio, and anything that you package covers.
Although Wyzowl doesn’t come with an interactive onboarding feature like WalkMe or UserGuiding, the company creates beautifully animated walkthroughs.
Wyzowl Pricing
- Wyzowl doesn’t have clear pricing at the moment. To get a custom quote for your business and your requests, you’ll have to contact them.
4- Toonimo vs. Intercom
Intercom is a user engagement and live-chat tool that also has an interactive website walkthrough add-on.
Intercom is a customer engagement platform that lets you communicate with customers, trigger targeted campaigns, and send automated messages across all channels. On top of that, the tool provides marketing teams with analytics to track the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Intercom’s onboarding feature is called Intercom Welcome, which provides you with a way to introduce your product or service to users in real-time.
Here are the key features of the tool:
- Send welcome messages based on actions taken
- Offer help & support based on customer behaviour
- Trigger onboarding journey at point of most friction (e.g., sign up, purchase)
- Tracking user engagement with email notifications
Intercom Pricing
If you aim to use Intercom Product Tours add-on, you’ll need to also buy their core plans, which will end up making the pricing:
- 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:
“The product once you get past the setting up and figure out everything on your own, is great and meets our needs.”
👎 Cons:
“WORST CUSTOMER SUPPORT EVER!!! 7 days without a first response. They barely have any features, and if they do - they expect you to pay thousands of dollars to get them.”
5- Toonimo vs. Intro.js
Intro.js is an interactive product tour builder that provides you with the tools to quickly and easily create onboarding experiences for your website.
Intro.js features a visual editor to add tours, guides, and messages across multiple devices (e.g., desktop, tablet). The tool also comes with a JavaScript library that you have to include in your HTML file.
This basically means that you have to have a developer that only develops and maintains the product tour, which took less time to create, thanks to Intro.js.
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 on 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?”
6- Toonimo vs. PageGuide.js
Pageguide.js is a simple interactive product tour builder that lets you create walkthroughs in an HTML file.
The tool doesn’t come with a visual editor, but it does provide you with the necessary JavaScript functions to add guides, change places, and animate guides on web pages. Here’s an example:
Here are some key features of Pageguide.js:
- An interactive walkthrough that guides users through a process
- Mouse-over tooltips to highlight & show call-to-action buttons
- 3 built-in themes (light, dark, and custom)
Pageguide.js is available as open-source software on GitHub.
PageGuide.js Pricing
PageGuide.js is completely free of charge!
Toonimo Alternatives Comparison Table
Frequently Asked Questions
Who should use Toonimo?
Toonimo is a great user and employee training solution for HR, customer service and customer success departments, and product teams of companies of any size, due to it’s unique features and ease of use.
How much does Toonimo cost?
Toonimo doesn't have a set pricing model, they rather offer their customers a price depending on their needs.
What are the top alternatives to Toonimo?
The 6 best alternatives to Toonimo that offer a similar or better value are UserGuiding, WalkMe, Wyzowl, Intercom, Intro.js, Inline Manual, and PageGuide.js.