9 Appcues Alternatives & Competitors [In Depth Comparison]

If you're looking to compare Appcues alternatives, you're justified — and in the right place.

Why?

Appcues is a great user onboarding platform and the pioneer of no-code user onboarding tools. But it's not the only Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) software in the market. 

Also, we've reviewed many DAP tools, including our own ScribeHow and we're best placed to give you the top Appcues alternatives.

But there are various ways for DAP tools to onboard users, each offering different features and functionalities requiring different levels of technical background.

With the many Appcues competitors and alternatives, choosing the right tool is a challenge.  

So, we've compiled this list of Appcues alternatives to help you choose a digital adoption and user onboarding tool. We'll compare ratings, features, prices and more.

Top Appcues alternatives

• Pendo. 
• Scribe.
• UserGuiding. 
• WhatFix.
• UserPilot.
• WalkMe.
• Apty.
• UserIQ.
• Intercom.

What is Appcues?

Appcues is a user onboarding, digital adoption platform boasting "the product-led growth platform." It's the pioneer of no-code onboarding tools and helps users create interactive user onboarding experiences. 

What does Appcues do?

With a G2 rating of 4.7/5 and a Capterra rating of 4.8/5 stars, Appcues is a highly-rated tool for good reasons. 

It makes digital adoption easy, with no code, increasing activation, reducing time to value and driving overall digital adoption.

Appcues also has unique onboarding elements, such as checklists, tooltips, slideouts and more, making it a popular DAP for user onboarding. 

The platform's customer-focused features and solutions allow users to combine different UI features to streamline user onboarding. You can use it to engage customers and new users through surveys, announcements and support. 

And it has basic and advanced analytics (based on your plan) that help monitor your user onboarding training effectiveness.

Appcues key features

• Appcues Onboarding Flows. Personalized and pre-set welcome flows and targeted checklists, guiding new users to their aha! moment and shortening their value time.
• Encourage great product tours and self-guided user learning. 
• Feature Walkthroughs. Give users contextual guidance and proactive support for particular product features and improvements adoption. 
• User engagement with in-Product Surveys and feedback. Understand users' feelings about your product through in-app surveys, NPS and increased feedback. Use customer sentiment from NPS to improve your product offering. 
• In-Product Announcements. Announce new features with pop-ups and engage users with in-app marketing campaigns.  
• Drive growth using sticky, engaged users. Use pop-ups, hotspots, slideouts and tooltips to drive awareness and engagement. Improve the adoption of new features and increase usage.  

Appcues pricing

Appcues has 3 pricing plans.

• 14-day full feature free trial.
• Essentials Plan: Starts at $249/month, billed annually with 2500 MAU.
• Growth Plan: Starts at $879/month, billed annually, again at 2500 MAU.
• Enterprise Plan: Custom quotation.

Why you might want Appcues alternatives

Here are some reasons why you may consider Appcues alternatives.

• Cost. It's a little more expensive than its competitors and for smaller companies. Any smaller company will see $879 as a little too expensive.
• Limited customization in the essentials plan. If you want to customize your user onboarding experiences, you may want a higher plan.
• Steep Learning Curve. This may require a technical background. Although it's a no-code tool, Appcues UI is a little too complicated and may be difficult to navigate for non-technical people.  
• Little desktop support. Appcues is made for web applications and doesn't work well on various desktop products. But it supports mobile apps.
• Feature Bloat. Many users consider Appcues too complex because of its features and setting's comprehensiveness — feature bloat — too detailed for average users.

In short, if you want more customization, less complex customer onboarding flows, easy navigation and greater control, Appcues might not be the right solution for you.

9 Top appcues tool alternatives of 2022

Now that you know Appcues's pricing, features and advantages let's look at our list of Appcues alternatives and find out which one best fits you.

Let's dive in.

1. Scribe vs. Appcues 

G2 rating: 5.0/5 stars

Capterra Rating: 5.0/5 stars

Scribe Description

Scribe is the best DAP tool with the best "how-to" guide creation, the first of its kind for documenting processes. You simply install the Scribe extension and click record. Scribe will capture your screen, keystrokes, clicks and create how-to guides for your digital process, with screenshots and descriptions.

So, as you onboard new tools, you can use Scribe to create, share or embed how-to guides called Scribes in any knowledge base. 

Plus, Scribe's unique feature, called Pages, lets you combine Scribes (how-to guides) with text, images, video, images, GIFs and more. Scribe allows collaboration on a project/task fast and effortlessly.

Scribe Pricing

Scribe currently offers three pricing plans.

• Scribe Basic — Free.
• Scribe Pro — $29/user/month. 
• Scribe Enterprise — Customized quote.

Why Scribe a good Appcues alternative:

• Automate process documentation & SOPs.
• Document Processes 15X Faster.
• High-quality, consistent process documentation throughout the organization. 
• Create easy-to-follow how-to guides, product guides, job aids, instructions, etc., for employees and user onboarding.
• Crop or redact sensitive product/user/company information out of screenshots.
• Add or embed Scribes in any page or content management system.
• Easy integration with other tools and knowledge base tools like Notion, Zendesk, Slack, Trello and more.

2. Pendo vs. Appcues 

G2 rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Capterra Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Pendo Description 

Pendo.io is a DAP product engagement platform with key features for centralized feedback, surveys, guidance and in-app analytics for customer journey mapping.

Pendo's strong suit is its surveys, in-depth analytics, user journey and behavior analysis features. It allows an easy understanding of the whole user journey from onboarding to the end.

It helps app/software developers "drive product adoption, great user experience, customer loyalty and team innovation."

Pendo Pricing

• Free plan for up to 1000 monthly users. 
• For greater than 1,000 monthly users, contact Pendo for custom pricing: Growth, Portfolio & Premium.

Why Pendo is a good Appcues alternative:

Appcues and Pendo are similar in their focus on driving product adoption. But Pendo has a more robust analytics focus and adaptable reports, making it more desirable for the enterprise market than Appcues. Other great Pendo features are:

• Wonderful user feedback mechanism. 
• Data retention for up to seven years.
• Deep understanding of your users' journeys.
• Customer support. Live chat assistance (for enterprise version only).

Read about Pendo alternatives here.

3. UserGuiding vs. Appcues 

G2 rating: 4.7/5 Stars

Capterra Rating: 4.7/5 Stars

UserGuiding Description

UserGuiding is a no-code DAP and user onboarding tool to create quick, hassle-free, interactive and engaging guides for users and employees to discover your product. It's like Scrive but more expensive and has lesser futures than Appcues. You can use it to create capable in-app experiences by creating: 

• Tooltips.
• Interactive product walkthroughs.
• User onboarding checklists.
• Software documentation. 
• Hotspots.
• Interactive and self-serve resource centers.

UserGuiding might be a great SaaS user and customer onboarding tool, but it lacks extensive training resources.

UserGuiding Pricing

UserGuiding has 3 different plans.

• 14-day free trial.
• Basic Plan: $69/month, billed annually for up to 2500 MAU.
• Professional Plan: $299/month, billed annually for up to 20000 MAU with unlimited guides.
• Enterprise plan: Custom Quotation Available.

Why UserGuiding is a good Appcues alternative

• Its Simplicity. It's simple to use.
• Customer support. Great customer support that always responds via email and chat.
• Innovation. It has an innovative approach to DAP products and a great UI.
• Checklists for new employees.
• Integration with Google Analytics. 

4. WhatFix vs Appcues

G2 rating: 4.6/5 Stars

Capterra Rating: 4.6/5 Stars

Whatfix Description 

Whatfix is a great DAP software and a top Appcues alternative for specific user onboarding needs. Like Appcues, WhatFix allows you to create guided product walkthroughs and offers in-product surveys and usage analytics.

But unlike Appcues, WhatFix might be challenging to use for non-tech-savvy individuals. It requires technical CSS know-how.  

Whatfix Pricing

• N/A – contact the company for a custom quote.

Why Whatfix is a good Appcues alternative.

• Easy-to-use content editor. 
• Versatile in supporting employee training for internal applications than Appcues.
• Intelligent Segmentation. Automatically contextualize product guidance based on location.
• Help in filling out forms.
• Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS).
• Omnichannel Content Integration with existing knowledge assets and auto-generate content in various formats: video, PDFs and slideshows. 
• Open Ecosystem. Access 50+ APIs to integrate the tool with your existing tools. Combine Whatfix analytics with your product usage data to consolidate reporting.

Read about Whatfix Alternatives here.

6. UserPilot vs. Appcues 

G2 rating: 4.6/5 Stars

Capterra Rating: Not Rated

UserPilot Description

Userpilot is a DAP tool that focuses solely on interactive customer onboarding, making it a direct Appcues competitor and alternative.

Userpilot is a versatile Appcues alternative if you want a complete Product Adoption Platform with interactive user onboarding. Create more interactive customer onboarding content like tooltips, modals, hotspots, slideouts, banners, checklists and many more.

With Userpilot as your DAP, you can show the right messages to your users (customers or employees) at the right time.

Although Appcues has a stronger user segmentation and in-app targeting, UserPilot provides a fully-customizable, interactive no-code user onboarding process.

Plus, Userpilot's lower price tag makes a stronger DAP solution among SMBs.

Although Userpilot is better at revealing user engagement and sentiment, it doesn't allow users to arrange NPS surveys through rating.

UserPilot Pricing

3 plans

• Traction plan: starts at $249/mo.
• Growth plan: start at $499/mo.
• Enterprise Plan: $1,000/mo. 

Why UserPilot is a good Appcues alternative.

• Powerful consumer sentiment capabilities.
• Userpilot is more direct and easier to use.
• More interactive user onboarding content.
• Easier segmentation of users based on user behaviors.
• Personalized in-app guides and experiences.
• Build contextual and user-behavior-based progressive onboarding.
• Better ongoing product support. 

6. WalkMe vs. Appcues 

G2 rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Capterra Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

WalkMe description

WalkMe is the tool that pioneered Digital Adoption Platforms to mutate user experience in the digital world.

Today, WalkMe focuses more on third-party app adoption for enterprises and employee onboarding/training in addition to its versatile analytics and feedback. This makes it a great DAP solution for medium and large organizations.

Using guidance, artificial intelligence, engagement, automation and analytics, WalkMe's transparent UI overlay helps users complete tasks easily. It works well on different platforms, including enterprise software, mobile apps or websites.

WalkMe Pricing

• N/A – No Free Trial. 
• Contact the platform for a custom quote.

Why WalkMe is a good Appcues alternative.

While Appcues focuses on 3 key things: feedback, analytics and insights, WalkMe provides more training and guidance. But there's more.

• Easy setup and employee-focused training capabilities.
• In-app self-help menu allowing easier adoption. 
• More experience, having been on the market for 10+ years.
• The reputation of serving enterprise-level businesses for employee and customer onboarding.

But, compared to Appcues, WalkMe has much higher pricing. It's not a no-code solution because users need technical knowledge and background. 

Also, WalkMe has a much wider range of features that might be redundant for smaller organizations.

Read about WalkMe alternatives here.

7. Apty vs Appcues

G2 rating: 4.7/5 Stars

Capterra Rating: 5.0/5 Stars

Apty Description

Apty is a fast-growing DAP solution for SMEs. It offers a robust DAP solution for companies looking to improve their software's onboarding, productivity and ROI.

Use Apty to accelerate selling, provide support and offer training with its workflow automation and real-time step-by-step guidance for staff, prospects, customers or partners in their moment of need.

Apty provides documentation automation like Scribe, ensures data accuracy and streamlines tasks and cross-application processes. 

You get all these with zero integration or changes to your underlying app or website required.

Apty Pricing

2 pricing plans.

• Free Evaluation plan for up to 45 Days.
• Custom Plan.

Why Apty is a good Appcues alternative.

• Quality customer support. 
• Accelerates user Onboarding to scale adoption. 
• Ease of set up.
• Reduces training and support costs. 
• Reporting/Analytics.
• Gain visibility on your tech stack.
• Engagement tracking.

8. UserIQ vs Appcues 

G2 rating: 4.4/5 Stars

Capterra Rating: 4.0/5 Stars

UserIQ description

UserIQ is an Appcues competitor but a different tool from other Appcues alternatives. Why? 

Because of its features, UserIQ is an effectively automated in-app data engine, survey and engagement tool. It is promoted as a customer success platform instead of a DAP. 

UserIQ is more similar to Pendo, WhatFix and Walkme. But rather than focusing on user onboarding flows, UserIQ focused on in-depth analytics, customer health scores, NPS and such.

It helps software enterprises/developers predict user behavior, find ways to act on it and create winning user/customer experiences. Its key features include product intelligence, a customer health dashboard, in-app engagements like user onboarding tours and more.

While both UserIQ and Appcues offer customer onboarding features, Appcues' product-led platform is more robust in onboarding features and UserIQ is more robust in customer success. 

But UserIQ offers deeper customer engagement, success analytics and improved segmentation for user targeting.

UserIQ Pricing

• Not provided.
• Contact platform for Demo and custom pricing. 

Why UserIQ is a good Appcues alternative.

• 17 days average time to value. 
• Serves rapidly scaling SaaS companies.
• Tasks and plays.
• Custom health scoring.
• In-app onboard tours.
• Great support.
• Product usage insights.
• Segmentation & filtering.

9. Intercom vs Appcues 

G2 rating: 4.4/5 Stars

Capterra Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Intercom Description

Intercom is an Engagement OS, providing an open channel between the business and the customer at the moment for articulate customer communication, engagement and support. It breaks down data silos and unified systems to create an ongoing dialogue so businesses can make the most of their customers. 

Now, Intercom has joined the user onboarding space with many add-on features, including Product Tours, making it an Appcues alternative.

But Product Tours isn't Intercom's main feature, making the platform a lesser Appcues alternative.

Intercom  Product Tours mainly supports walkthroughs and product tours, making it a key UserPilot competitor. It doesn't allow users to create checklists, slideouts, contextual user onboarding flows or driven actions.

Intercom Pricing

Two categories of pricing plans.

• For most businesses: 3 plans custom based. Support plan, Engage plan and Convert plan. Or Product Tours Add-on which costs $199/month.
• For very small businesses: from $74/mo billed annually. 

Why Intercom is a good Appcues alternative

Although it's not a key Appcues alternative, you can still look into Intercom for:

• Personalized customer service at scale.
• Increased customer satisfaction.
• Efficient team support. 
• Modern messenger, self-service tools and smart automation.
• Workload management.
• Next-gen omnichannel inbox.
• Conversation routing.
• Analytics and Reporting.

Conclusion: find the best Appcues alternative  

The best Appcues depends on your specific need because there's no shortage of Appcues alternatives and competitors. At first glance, they may offer similar features — in-app process documentation, product tours, surveys, analytics, etc.

Choosing the right digital adoption solution depends on your goal and budget. 

From a user onboarding perspective, Scribe offers great process documentation, ease of use and better tech integration, making it an appealing Appcues alternative.  

Make customer and new hire training and onboarding 15X faster with Scribe. Try Scribe Now.