Your Guide to 8 Chameleon Alternatives (free tools incl.)

What Chameleon Does Well

Chameleon is a product adoption platform that offers to increase revenue, reduce churn, and make your customers happier.

These are, of course, the most desired feats for a SaaS business, and with the solutions Chameleon offers, they are within reach.

What are these solutions, you ask?

Chameleon has 2 main benefits that make it stand out as a worthy solution:

1- AI assistant

Chameleon's AI Assistant provides users with context-aware support and real-time tips for smooth navigation.

It features interactive tutorials and can automatically answer common questions. And though it is not the most comprehensive assistant, it grows the more it is interacted with.

2- Tracking and Reporting for Starters

Like any tracking feature, Chameleon's tracking and reporting features allow you to monitor user interactions and engagement.

Now, while this feature is useful, these insights require careful interpretation to truly enhance the onboarding process and user experience. It is great for starters, but along the way, it might come short.

Drawbacks of Chameleon

Great tool and all, like all software, Chameleon also has some drawbacks, the main 3 being:

1- Pricing

While Chameleon offers a free version for its CMD+K search, it gets a bit too expensive scaling up.

Though the pricing for each plan seems reasonable to an extent, they might also be considered too pricey for the features and capabilities offered.

2- Steep Learning Curve

Chameleon's onboarding process is pretty comprehensive and well-designed.

However, it is sadly too complicated and even a bit overwhelming for a beginner. Even if you have experience with similar software, it takes slightly too long to get to the point where the user feels fully trained with the tool.

3- Hard Implementation

In the same vein as the onboarding process, the setup and implementation process of Chameleon can also be difficult.

This is mainly due to the complexity of the setup and the integration of other software into Chameleon. Even with a completely fresh start, beginners might find it time-consuming and too technical.

If these drawbacks are red flags for you, fret not.

Let's take a look at a few Chameleon alternatives that might just be better options.

8 Best Chameleon Alternatives

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

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

UserGuiding is an all-in-one product adoption platform that focuses on helping product people create better in-app experiences and keep users engaged and happy.

With an evergreen toolset and no-code capabilities, UserGuiding offers different use cases and features at an affordable price.

The tool is known for its ease of use, and the UserGuiding customer support team is praised for its excellence. So if you've had problems figuring out software before, know that it won't be a problem with UserGuiding.

UserGuiding Use Cases

As an all-in-one product adoption platform, UserGuiding has a big set of use cases, but with its key features, we can list 3 top use cases for product teams:

👉 User Onboarding and Feature Adoption

UserGuiding's primary use case is user onboarding, and the feature is well-supported with powerful features like onboarding checklists and product tours.

These features, and many more, such as knowledge base, announcement bars, analytics, and product update pages, also help users nail feature adoption as an extension of user onboarding.

👉 Self-Service Customer Support

UserGuiding's mission is to provide tools for end users to navigate products independently. And self-service customer support is a huge part of this mission.

UserGuiding features like resource centers, in-app messages, and knowledge base help make self-serve the norm for smoother UX.

👉 In-Product Feedback Collection

Lastly, UserGuiding's in-app surveys feature fuels the in-product feedback use case with NPS surveys, different survey templates, and a complementary analytics dashboard.

Furthermore, you can collect feedback via the product updates page feature as well. This helps bring the feedback efforts full circle and collect user insights at every step of the way.

Pricing

UserGuiding offers a 14-day free trial and 3 different pricing plans along with add-ons.

<1000 MAU

• Basic: $69/month
• Professional: $199/month

<2500 MAU

• Basic: $89/month
• Professional: $249/month

5K+ MAU

• Basic: $230/month
• Professional: $449/month

10K+ MAU

• Basic: $300/month
• Professional: $524/month

UserGuiding vs Chameleon

UserGuiding is a good alternative to Chameleon mainly because it can do what Chameleon offers and top it off in certain areas.

First of all, UserGuiding offers a wider variety of standalone features, like UserGuiding's product updates page and knowledge base. Though Chameleon has extras like AI assistant that make it plausible, unique capabilities can be more helpful in the long run.

Although both Chameleon and UserGuiding are primarily onboarding solutions, the product onboarding process of the latter is a few miles ahead. UserGuiding is easier to learn and implement, while Chameleon can get a bit too technical in both onboarding and implementation.

UserGuiding also offers pricing that scales better as you upgrade. Chameleon, on the other hand, offers pricing above market standards for its feature set.

Overall, we can say that UserGuiding is by far more starter-friendly in terms of ease of use, pricing, and capabilities.

2- Pendo - the advanced option

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

Pendo is an all-in-one digital experience platform that offers quite a vast feature set and integrations to go with it.

The tool is a leader among the digital adoption platforms category due to its all-in-one quality and subsequently it serves a pretty big customer base.

So, Pendo is basically the behemoth of DAPs, but of course, it serves a pretty specific group of users.

Pendo Use Cases

👉 User Onboarding and Training

Pendo's main value proposition is that it helps streamline the onboarding process for new users by providing guided tours and in-app tutorials.

This is cool because it can be used for both users and employees, depending on why you wanted to use Chameleon in the first place.

👉 Product Usage Analytics

Pendo offers objectively good analytics to track user interactions with your product, which is crucial for understanding behavior and feature adoption rates.

Different report types and heatmaps back this up well for visualization.

👉 Feedback Collection and Management

Pendo also facilitates user feedback collection directly within the application.

Customizable in-app surveys gather specific feedback, while NPS tracking gauges loyalty and satisfaction. Plus, there is a centralized feedback portal.

Pricing

Pendo offers a free version, but there is no public pricing.

However, we know that Pendo pricing often starts from around $25,000 and can range to hundreds of thousands. The MAU ranges are adjustable, but extra features are also considered standalone products, which adds to the price.

Pendo vs Chameleon

Pendo as a Chameleon alternative is a viable option for people who are specifically looking for a few qualities in their digital experiences.

First of all, Pendo offers pretty solid analytics compared to Chameleon. Pendo's reports and tracking options are more packed; overall, product analytics just works better with Pendo.

When it comes to feedback collection, Pendo again offers more options, and the insights-gathering process is smoother compared to Chameleon.

These are, of course, true if you're willing to pay more, as Pendo has a steep price difference.

3- WalkMe - better for employee onboarding

• G2: ⭐4.5/5 (409 reviews)
• Capterra: ⭐4.6/5 (57 reviews)

WalkMe is yet another powerful digital adoption platform specializing especially in employee onboarding.

The tool offers pretty similar qualities as its contemporaries like Pendo and comes with quite a large feature set with an AI assistant similar to Chameleon.

WalkMe as a DAP is the best option for those looking to specifically use it for employee guidance and has the budget for a fully-fledged tool.

WalkMe Use Cases

Similar to most digital adoption solutions, WalkMe also has 3 main use cases:

👉 Employee Training and Onboarding

WalkMe excels in employee training and onboarding with interactive guides and in-app assistance.

Using personalized training experiences for specific roles, WalkMe becomes an effective solution for efficient onboarding processes.

👉 Customer Support and Self-Service

WalkMe enhances customer support by embedding self-service options within applications. This reduces direct support needs, as in-app guidance enables users to resolve issues independently.

👉 Product Adoption and Feature Utilization

WalkMe boosts product adoption by guiding users through new features with interactive walkthroughs and tooltips.

We can say that with these features, WalkMe is ideal for comprehensive employee guidance and, in some cases, customer support.

Pricing

WalkMe does not offer a free version and there is no public pricing shared. However, we know that WalkMe prices can get pretty high especially if you need more capabilities available to you.

WalkMe vs Chameleon

The most obvious comparison point for WalkMe and Chameleon is that there is a slight segment difference between the two.

While WalkMe is clearly an enterprise solution, Chameleon manages to serve medium- and enterprise businesses.

We can say that WalkMe offers much stronger analytics than Chameleon, and the guidance elements are naturally somewhat smoother and work slightly better.

But because of these differences, WalkMe is a lot more expensive.

So, if you are an enterprise-level company looking to enhance employee efficiency, WalkMe might be a better option.

Still, bear in mind that there is a substantial pricing difference.

4- Appcues - better for user onboarding

• G2: ⭐4.6/5 (306 reviews)
• Capterra: ⭐4.8/5 (102 reviews)

Similar to WalkMe, Appcues is also a fairly strong digital adoption platform. The difference between the two DAP leaders is that Appcues has better use cases for user onboarding than WalkMe.

In terms of product adoption and user onboarding, Appcues can be considered the Pendo of digital experiences. It has similarly big and advanced features and integrations.

Appcues Use Cases

Appcues use cases are, again, pretty similar to other DAPs we've mentioned above:

👉 User Onboarding and Activation

Appcues is highly effective in user onboarding and activation, with features like interactive guides and personalized walkthroughs.

Also, with additional features like in-app tutorials and contextual help, Appcues also ensures a smooth onboarding process.

👉 Feature Adoption and Engagement

Appcues does a pretty good job driving user engagement through targeted in-app messaging and announcements.

And when it comes to feature adoption, it introduces new features with features like tooltips and guided tours.

👉 User Feedback and Surveys

Appcues also offers user feedback collection through in-app surveys and feedback forms.

Pricing

Appcues has a free trial and its prices are adjustable according to MAU, which looks 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 Chameleon

Comparing Appcues and Chameleon boils down to a few key differentiators:

Though both tools offer pretty neat analytics features, Appcues does a better job with its product analytics.

Appcues also offers mobile app support, which is something Chameleon falls short of.

Appcues is also more affordable than all its fellow leader DAPs, including Chameleon, WalkMe and Pendo, making it a better option than all three in terms of pricing.

Still, Appcues is on the more expensive side of the spectrum.

5- Usetiful - the affordable alternative

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

Usetiful is yet another digital adoption platform in the race that has become a good alternative to Chameleon thanks to its pricing.

Usetiful is a solution that offers very simplistic and minimal features for a fraction of Chameleon's pricing. Thanks to this quality, it's garnered a pretty wide customer base, especially among the smaller companies.

Usetiful Use Cases

Usetiful is, as we've mentioned, a slightly simpler tool, but the solutions it offers are still pretty strong.

👉 User Onboarding

Like its DAP counterparts, Usetiful uses its product tours and smart tips features to onboard new users.

👉 Customer Self-Service

Usetiful also offers a customer success-oriented use case to make self-service more accessible with knowledge bases and its assistant feature.

👉 Employee Onboarding

Usetiful also has a solution for HR teams looking to onboard new hires. With the same capabilities as the user onboarding use case and features like onboarding checklists, this use case becomes viable.

👉 Sales Demos

And lastly, Usetiful offers a feature they call interactive demos. This feature helps with the demo experiences and gives a boost to sales teams.

Pricing

The pricing of Usetiful is semi-adjustable, becoming available with the premium plan. They also offer a free version.

>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 Chameleon

The difference between Chameleon and Usetiful in terms of features is not too big. When it comes to use cases and what you can do with each tool, the difference is even smaller; in fact, Usetiful offers solutions for more diverse teams.

When we compare these solutions, we can see that even though Usetiful offers limited customization and analytics, their features are pretty good for starters.

On top of that, Usetiful also has a knowledge base feature now.

Overall, Usetiful is also way more affordable, maybe even the most affordable option on the list.

So, if you're looking for a very simple solution and super affordable pricing, Usetiful can be the Chameleon alternative you're looking for.

6- Stonly - knowledge base alternative

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

Stonly is a knowledge-base platform that offers customer service automation with a mission to connect people with the right knowledge.

Now, though Stonly is essentially a help center solution, its features are very similar to some of the DAPs we've covered so far. And with a twist, it just might be the Chameleon alternative you're looking for.

Stonly Use Cases

Stonly essentially offers 2 solutions, one for your customer service agents, and one for your customers:

👉 Support agent knowledge

Stonly uses its key features like knowledge base, and AI answers to provide customer support agents with the information they need to serve customers better.

👉 Customer self-service

In the same vein as helping agents, Stonly makes use of most of its features. From checklists to interactive guides and a variation of a resource center, the Widget, many features go into the customer self-service use case.

Beyond these use cases, Stonly also does a neat job with user onboarding, thanks to its guided tours.

Pricing

Stonly offers a somewhat gated free trial and two different pricing plans.

There is no public pricing, but you can get a custom quote.

Stonly vs Chameleon

Comparing Stonly to Chameleon is not entirely fair since they are not actually in the same category. However, Stonly can be a great alternative to Chameleon and in that sense, a comparison might be needed.

Stonly is a better choice for those looking to use a built-in knowledge base along with somewhat limited digital adoption features.

The tool also offers a feature called AI answers, similar to Chameleon's AI assistant. Still, Stonly's engagement features might be a tad bit more limited.

Also, if you want a built-in feedback collection system, Stonly offers surveys, but again, it is somewhat limited and definitely weaker than Chameleon's solution.

7- CommandBar - AI support option

• G2: ⭐4.9/5 (130 reviews)
• Capterra: ⭐4.6/5 (57 reviews)

CommandBar is yet another digital adoption platform, and they position the tool as a User Assistance Platform (UAP).

The tool's mission is simple: to assist users without being annoying.

Using DAP features and some more of its own, CommnadBar manages to be a unique tool in the DAP space.

CommandBar Use Cases

CommandBar divides its capabilities into 2 suites, the Assist Suite and the Nudge Suite. These seemingly work to offer:

👉 Customer self-service

CommandBar uses features like Co-pilot, in-app help, and Spotlight to assist users within apps.

These features basically work as an AI assistant, a better-explained UI, and an in-app search bar, similar to a Macbook spotlight search.

👉 User onboarding and announcements

The second use case is practically user onboarding with features like product tours and checklists.

With the added advantage of the announcements feature, CommandBar can also be used to make announcements in-app.

CommandBar also offers a survey feature that they mention within the Nudge Suite.

Pricing

CommandBar does not offer a free trial or public pricing plans. Their pricing is also non-adjustable according to MAU.

Though the pricing is not public, CommandBar is on the same pricing band as Chameleon.

Commandbar vs Chameleon

CommandBar and Chameleon are very similar tools in that they share their core features, and both feature an AI assistant. Not to mention that their pricing range is about similar.

But when it comes to deciding which to pick, it boils down to a few differences.

CommandBar is a pretty cool tool with a unique positioning and clear promises. But it lacks product analytics capabilities.

CommandBar also arguably offers a better AI feature.

However, this feature is pretty technical, and there is a lengthy implementation process when training the AI assistant.

Now, if you're looking for a tool that will incorporate AI into your UI elements, CommandBar is pretty cool. If not, Chameleon might still be standing.

8- Intro.js - open-source alternative

And lastly, Intro.js is an open-source alternative to Chameleon.

The tool is a library designed to equip users with tools to enhance user experiences and offer better user onboarding.

These tools are basically step-by-step product tours for web applications, but its still a great option for those on a super tight budget.

Intro.js Use Cases

Intro.js mainly has one use case that its key features make up, and it is user onboarding.

It can also help with employee onboarding if you're willing to work with code to onboard employees since it is a library and not a no-code.

What Intro.js offers is basically step-by-step guides, customizable tooltips, cross-browser compatibility, JavaScript API, and accessibility support.

Pricing

Intro.js is free to use for non-commercial purposes, and a small fee is charged for lifetime access to the library.

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

Intro.js vs Chameleon

Intro.js and Chameleon have pretty clear differences. First of all, Intro.js is not a tool like Chameleon but a library.

Because of its nature, Intro.js is open source, free to use—or close to free—and very easily customizable if you know how to code.

Intro.js offers very basic onboarding elements, namely product tours and tooltips, but it is plenty enough at this price.

So, if you're looking to create an onboarding flow on a super tight budget and don't yet expect anything fancy from your UX, Intro.js is a perfect alternative to Chameleon.

Wrapping Up

When exploring alternatives to Chameleon, it's essential to consider each platform's unique strengths to find the best fit for your needs.

UserGuiding offers an all-in-one product adoption platform with user-friendly, no-code tools ideal for comprehensive onboarding and user engagement.

For advanced features and robust analytics, Pendo is a strong contender, albeit at a higher price point. WalkMe excels in employee training and onboarding with its rich feature set, while Appcues focuses on user onboarding with excellent engagement tools.

Usetiful stands out as an affordable option, providing essential features without breaking the bank. Stonly offers a powerful knowledge base solution, ideal for support teams and customer self-service.

CommandBar is notable for its AI-powered user assistance, enhancing in-app navigation and support. Finally, Intro.js provides a cost-effective, open-source alternative for basic user onboarding needs.

Choosing the right platform depends on your specific requirements, budget, and the level of complexity you need for your digital adoption strategy.

Good luck in advance 🍀