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The success of a product isn't just about creating a brilliant solution—it's about ensuring that users embrace it with open arms. Yet, product adoption and onboarding often pose challenges for product teams.

The steep learning curve of some tools leaves users feeling baffled. On top of that, unhelpful onboarding experiences make it even harder for them to become proficient with the product. So, how can product teams overcome these challenges? By using the right tools that help understand how users interact with their products and optimize the onboarding process for a smoother product experience.

In this article, I'll introduce you to 9 product adoption and onboarding tools that will change the way you guide users into the heart of your product.

What is product adoption and onboarding software?

Product adoption and onboarding solution refers to a specialized category of applications developed to streamline and improve the process of introducing new software products to end-users.

Such solutions help product marketers facilitate user onboarding, monitor user engagement, collect product feedback, and personalize user experiences.

Top features to look for in product adoption and onboarding software

  1. User onboarding flows: The solution should support the creation of customized onboarding flows, allowing you to guide users through key features and actions within your product.
  2. In-app messaging: Look for tools that provide in-app messaging to communicate with users while actively using your product. These can be used to provide tips, updates, and important information.
  3. Interactive tutorials: Walkthroughs or interactive tutorials should be easy to create and customize. They help users understand how to use your product effectively.
  4. Analytics: Robust analytics capabilities are essential for tracking user behavior during onboarding. Look for software that provides metrics into where users drop off or struggle in the onboarding process.
  5. A/B testing: A/B testing features allow you to experiment with different onboarding approaches and see which are most effective in converting users.
  6. Feedback and NPS surveys: Integration with feedback mechanisms like surveys and feedback forms helps collect user input, letting you make data-driven improvements to the onboarding process.

The best product adoption and onboarding tools

  1. Userflow
  2. Appcues
  3. Lou
  4. Pendo
  5. Eyelet
  6. Plotline
  7. Product Fruits
  8. ChurnZero
  9. Stonly

1. Userflow: best for streamlined user onboarding and adoption journeys

Userflow is a platform that allows users to create interactive in-app user experiences and guides within web and mobile applications. It’s developed to help businesses improve user onboarding, increase product adoption, and enhance user engagement.

Userflow features

  • User onboarding: Create step-by-step tutorials and walkthroughs to assist users in understanding your application's features. Provide your customers with structured and on-demand onboarding experiences through onboarding checklists.
  • Resource center: Build a knowledge hub to enhance the user experience by making resources context-aware (relevant to the current page) and personalized (adapted to the user's role). Plus, it integrates with your existing knowledge base provider.
  • Feature announcements: With Userflow, you can communicate new features and updates to users through in-app announcements.
  • Product tours: Userflow allows to create interactive product tours that guide users through the core functionalities of an application.

Pricing

Userflow pricing kicks off at $300/month (billed monthly) for 3000 monthly active users, which comes with only 2 survey/NPS questions.

2. Appcues: best for comprehensive in-app product adoption and engagement

Appcues is a platform that specializes in user onboarding and product adoption. Appcues provides tools that allow businesses to create and deploy in-app messages, product tours, and user onboarding flows to guide users through their software applications.

Appcues features

  • User onboarding: With Appcues, you can create customized onboarding flows that can be tailored to different user segments. These flows provide step-by-step guidance to help users get started with your software.
  • Feature adoption: You can track and measure how users are adopting specific features within your application.
  • NPS and surveys: Use NPS prompt or no-code custom surveys to collect insights and feedback to improve your product. Plus, after collecting NPS, you can further target your promoters to ask for a review or your detractors for more information.
  • In-app announcements: Create and display in-app messages and announcements directly within your application. This lets you communicate updates to users as they interact with your product.

Pricing

The starting Appcues pricing of $299/month includes 3 licenses and accommodates up to 2500 monthly active users.

You can learn more about Appcues pricing here.

3. Lou: best for effective user guidance and feature announcements

Lou is a digital adoption platform that SaaS businesses use to create product experiences, track user activity, and measure product adoption.

Lou features

  • Feature adoption: Inform users about new functionalities, provide step-by-step guidance for their initial usage, and monitor how these new features are being adopted within your product.
  • NPS and surveys: Gather user feedback through Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys and custom surveys integrated directly into your product.
  • User onboarding: Create customized onboarding experiences using product tours and checklists, with full control over the design and content to maintain a consistent brand identity.

Pricing

Lou has a free plan which is great for personal use or side projects. Its free plan is limited to only 1 NPS survey and 2 announcements.

Lou’s paid plans start from $79/month, which comes with all the features to drive early product engagement.

You can learn more about Lou pricing here.

4. Pendo: best for in-depth product analytics and user insights

Pendo is a product analytics, user feedback, and guided user engagement solution for digital products. It helps businesses understand how their users are interacting with their software, collect feedback, and guide users through various functionalities.

Pendo features

  • User onboarding: Create customized onboarding experiences for new users. You can guide them through the product, show them key features, and provide interactive tours to help them get started.
  • In-app support: Pendo's in-app support minimizes support tickets by delivering automated solutions within the application, enhancing customer satisfaction. It includes in-app walkthroughs and a resource center for immediate access to assistance.
  • Product planning: Pendo provides insights into user engagement, allowing efficient resource allocation. It collects and segments feedback for data-driven roadmaps that align your organization with development priorities.

Pricing

Pendo's free plan supports usage by up to 500 active users per month at no cost.

If you exceed this limit, you may need to consider a paid plan or additional fees for higher usage. Its paid plans start from $7000/year for 2000 monthly active users.

For detailed information on Pendo pricing, please visit this page.

5. Eyelet: best for targeted in-app user communication and education

Eyelet helps businesses create product tours to guide users through their applications, streamline the onboarding process for new users, and offer self-service support options to assist users in using their products more effectively.

Eyelet features

  • Product tours: Showcase your product's features and benefits to users with this feature. Create support guides and FAQs to minimize support requests by providing users with comprehensive information about your product.
  • User onboarding: Streamline user onboarding processes for web apps, websites, or software with no-code onboarding tools.
  • Interactive guides: Eyelet's interactive guides provide clear instructions through tooltips, hints, warnings, and pop-ups, ensuring that new users can navigate your product's features with ease.
  • Resource center: Break down complex onboarding processes into manageable steps, and provide support guides, articles, and FAQs to address user inquiries, reducing the need for extensive customer support.

Pricing

Eyelet pricing begins at $39/month, covering up to 2000 monthly users and accommodating unlimited team members.

You can learn more about Eyelet pricing here.

6. Plotline: best for interactive onboarding for web applications

Plotline is an in-app engagement platform that helps product teams improve onboarding, feature adoption, and user retention. With Plotline, product teams can choose from a variety of UI templates to guide their users in-app, showcase real-time offers, and drive feature adoption

Plotline features

  • User onboarding: Plotline streamlines user onboarding by guiding new users through a tailored journey that highlights your app's key value propositions. It introduces them to essential features as they navigate through your app, with real-time targeting ensuring a personalized experience.
  • Feature adoption: With Plotline, you can promote feature adoption by targeting users in real-time based on segmentation criteria. This includes introducing new features to power users and creating custom cohorts using event and attribute filters.
  • Surveys: Customize the look and feel to align with your design theme, configure flexible data logic, and choose from a selection of pre-built survey templates, including Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and drop-off reasons.

Pricing

Plotline pricing starts at $499/month, but if you wish to use A/B testing and advanced targeting capabilities, you’ll have to pay $1299/month.

View full Plotline pricing here.

7. Product Fruits: best for feedback-driven tutorials and user guidance

Product Fruits is customer onboarding software to streamline user onboarding and guide them in seeing the full potential of your product. By using Product Fruits, you can improve user adoption, increase conversion rates, and enhance customer retention.

Product Fruits features

  • In-app announcements: Share important updates such as release notes, webinar invitations, and maintenance outages directly within your application.
  • Life ring button: Product Fruits helps you enhance user support and accessibility with the always-on in-app help center. Accessible from every page of your application, it serves as a hub for support documentation and tutorials.
  • User onboarding checklist: Simplify complex software onboarding with step-by-step guides using the intuitive no-code builder. Create and preview checklists directly within your app's interface and choose whether to embed the checklist into your page or present it as a standalone button.

Pricing

Product Fruits comes with a price tag of $89/month for up to 1500 unique monthly active users.

See full Product Fruits pricing here.

8. ChurnZero: best for customer retention and churn analysis

ChurnZero is a customer retention platform designed to help subscription-based businesses reduce customer churn and increase customer engagement.

ChurnZero features

  • In-app messaging: Users can send in-app messages and notifications to engage with customers directly within the product. These messages can be used for onboarding, feature announcements, or upsell opportunities.
  • Customer segmentation: Users can segment their customer base based on different criteria such as behavior, demographics, or engagement level. This segmentation enables targeted communication and engagement strategies.
  • Renewal management: For subscription-based businesses, ChurnZero offers features to track and manage renewals, ensuring that customers continue to use and pay for the service.
  • Customer health scoring: ChurnZero allows businesses to create customer health scores based on various factors such as product usage, support interactions, and customer feedback. These scores help identify at-risk customers and areas that need attention.
  • Customer journey mapping: Mapping the customer journey within ChurnZero can help visualize the customer lifecycle and identify key touchpoints for engagement and intervention.

Pricing

Churnzero pricing isn’t publicly available, but you can book a demo here.

9. Stonly: best for interactive knowledge base and user guides

Stonly is a platform that helps businesses create interactive, step-by-step guides and tutorials to enhance user onboarding and provide self-service support for their digital products and software applications.

Stonly features

  • Interactive guides: Stonly allows users to create interactive step-by-step guides and tutorials with a no-code or low-code approach. These guides can include text, images, videos, and links.
  • AI answers: Enhance user support with AI-powered responses derived from structured Stonly guides. These answers not only boast higher accuracy but also feature in-line links, which take users to the precise steps for resolution.
  • Knowledge base: Stonly's knowledge base functionality offers interactive guides that direct users to the right information. Its modular structure ensures that updates are automatically reflected across all content locations.

Pricing

Stonly pricing kicks off at $249/month, which comes with unlimited guides, 3 knowledge bases, and custom branding.

You can see full Stonly pricing here.

Final words

These 9 product adoption and onboarding solutions bring a bunch of handy features to the table. From understanding user behavior with analytics to creating interactive guides and getting feedback through in-app surveys, these tools offer a range of goodies.

So, go ahead, explore them, and pick the one that suits your needs best to create a fantastic user experience.

Further reading: