The onboarding process is critical for any SaaS business, as it sets the foundation for customer success, engagement, and long-term retention. With effective onboarding, users quickly understand the value of your product, leading to better adoption rates and reduced churn.

To achieve this, you need the right set of tools. Right off the bat, onboarding tools like Userflow, Appcues, Userguiding and Userpilot may come to mind, but there is so much more, like Intercom for knowledge bases. If you want to deliver personalized onboarding journeys that cater to user needs, you need a diverse set of tools. 

This guide presents 44 of the best user onboarding tools, organized into categories like in-app onboarding, email automation, video onboarding, customer analytics, and knowledge bases.

Let's get started!  

No-code In-App Onboarding Tools

In-app onboarding tools provide users with immediate, hands-on guidance directly within your product. This approach allows users to onboard faster by learning through interactive tutorials, tooltips, and app messages, which enhance the overall user engagement and user experience. The no-code aspect also allows SaaS teams to create onboarding without using engineering resources. 

Userflow

Userflow is an all-in-one digital adoption platform that makes it simple to create in-app onboarding flows, checklists, and surveys without any coding. With its drag-and-drop interface, you can easily and intuitively build personalized experiences that guide users through key features, ensuring they get started on the right foot. It also offers analytics to track feature adoption and user progress, helping you optimize the onboarding process.

• Userflow Pricing: Starting at $240/month. Free trial available.

Appcues

Like Userflow, Appcues helps SaaS companies to create personalized onboarding flows with in-app messages, product tours, and modals. Appcues is known for its no-code setup, allowing teams to build and deploy onboarding experiences quickly. Appcues includes detailed product analytics to measure success and refine the onboarding process. Plus, Appcues has a wide variety of integrations. 

• Appcues Pricing: Starting at $249/month. Free trial available.

Userpilot

Userpilot is another no-code onboarding platform that supports in-app tutorials, tooltips, and user segmentation. Userpilot is decent for creating personalized onboarding journeys that adapt to each user’s role or behavior. But beware, Userpilot does lack when it comes to integrations. 

• Userpilot Pricing: Starting at $249/month. Free trial available.

Chameleon

Chameleon is also no-code onboarding tool focused on building in-app experiences, like product tours, tooltips, and interactive walkthroughs. Unlike Appcues or Userpilot, it's known for extensive customization to match your brand’s look and feel, enhancing user experience and adoption, though it is more expensive due to that flexibility. 

• Chameleon Pricing: Starting at $279/month. Free trial available.

Pendo

Pendo combines in-app onboarding with product analytics. It helps teams create product tours, tooltips, and checklists to drive feature adoption. Its analytics tools offer deep insights into user behavior, making it easier to refine the onboarding process.

• Pendo Pricing: Custom pricing. Free version available. 

Helppier

Like other no-code tools, Helppier offers a variety of in-app guides, including tooltips, walkthroughs, and onboarding flows. While it's not as extensive in its feature list as well as its flexibility, it is quite cheap at $49 per month. 

• Helppier Pricing: Starting at $49/month. Free trial available.

Inline Manual

Inline Manual is an in-app onboarding solution that allows you to create step-by-step guides, tutorials, and tooltips to improve user engagement. It's very focused on user onboarding and adoption, and doesn't come with all the bells and whistles that other platforms offer. But it does come at a better price point. 

• Inline Manual Pricing: Starting at $158/month. Free trial available.

Apty

Apty is a digital adoption platform that focuses on in-app guidance. It helps users understand complex workflows by providing in-app tutorials, step-by-step walkthroughs, and tooltips, making the learning process more interactive and engaging. Though keep in mind, Apty is more geared toward employee onboarding than user onboarding. 

• Apty Pricing: Custom pricing. Free trial available.

WalkMe

WalkMe is built for enterprise-level onboarding, helping users understand complex software. It offers in-app guidance, tooltips, and step-by-step instructions to improve user proficiency and adoption rates. Like Apty, WalkMe is focused on employee onboarding than user onboarding.  

• WalkMe Pricing: Custom pricing. Free trial available.

Usetiful

Another entry in the budget onboarding tools list, Usetiful is designed for building interactive product tours, onboarding checklists, and tooltips. Like many standard platforms, it also comes with NPS surveys and knowledge bases, though it does lack flexibility, but that's why it comes at this price point.

• Usetiful Pricing: Starting at €29/month. Free version available.

Whatfix

Whatfix enables users to access a self-guided onboarding experience through its in-app guides, FAQs, and interactive walkthroughs. It supports both customer and employee onboarding, so if you're a SaaS team looking to focus on user onboarding, then there may be plenty of other options. 

• Whatfix Pricing: Custom pricing. Free trial available.

Product Fruits

While not the cheapest, it does come at an attractive price point. This onboarding tool gives you the basics, and if you upgrade it also gives you NPS & surveys, as well as advanced integrations for what is still a competitive price. 

• Product Fruits Pricing: Starting at $79/month. Free trial available.

Omniplex Guide

Once called Nickelled, Omniplex Guide is an enterprise oriented tool for personalized in-system training. This is another tool that is more suited really for employee onboarding. Its integrations with SAP, Salesforce, Microsoft and so forth makes it an attractive option for training your team on software. 

• Omniplex Guide Pricing: Custom pricing. Free trial available.

Totango

Totango is another enterprise oriented user engagement tool, offering users the tools to guide themselves through setup and feature discovery. It includes checklists, step-by-step tutorials, and automated messages to keep users engaged.

• Totango Pricing: Custom pricing. Free trial available.

Userlane

Userlane provides users with self-serve walkthroughs and interactive tutorials. It’s a more enterprise software oriented onboarding solution that helps users navigate complex workflows. 

• Userlane Pricing: Custom pricing. Free trial available.

Userguiding

Like many others on this list, Userguiding offers an in-app onboarding toolset, including product tours, tooltips, and onboarding checklists. It enables user segmentation for personalized onboarding, helping to drive feature adoption and reduce churn. Compared to tools like Appcues and Userpilot, Userguiding offers a more basic set of onboarding tools, but at a steep discount to make it worth it. 

• Userguiding Pricing: Starts at $49/month. Free trial available.

Coding-Required Onboarding Tools

Tools like Userflow and Appcues offer a no-code onboarding solutions, but what if you don't have the budget? Enter free open-source libraries for creating onboarding flows. They are ideal for companies that have development resources but need a cost-effective way to implement user onboarding. These free open-source onboarding tools offer flexibility and customization, enabling developers to create personalized onboarding flows, tooltips, and walkthroughs tailored to specific needs.

Intro.js

Intro.js is a lightweight, open-source library for creating product tours, step-by-step guides, and onboarding flows. It allows developers to build interactive experiences that help users onboard seamlessly. It’s highly customizable, letting teams design tooltips, modals, and progress indicators that match the product’s UI. Though it is free, there is a $9.99 fee for a commercial license. 

Shepherd.js

Shepherd.js is another open-source onboarding framework that helps developers create dynamic, interactive guides within their products. It supports advanced features like step timing, transitions, and multi-step tours, making it a powerful tool for onboarding users directly within the app.

Tippy.js

Tippy.js is a lightweight library for creating tooltips, popups, and product tours. It offers high customization and flexibility, making it easy for developers to add interactive elements during the onboarding process.

Email Onboarding Tools

Email automation tools are crucial for keeping users engaged and informed throughout the onboarding process. They allow you to send timely, personalized app messages based on user behavior, helping guide users through setup, introduce new features, or re-engage inactive users.

Customer.io

Customer.io allows you to set up behavior-based email campaigns to guide users through the onboarding process. It integrates with your app, ensuring that users receive timely, relevant messages based on their interactions.

• Customer.io Pricing: Starting at $100/month. Free trial available.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a robust marketing automation tool that supports onboarding emails. You can set up workflows to deliver onboarding messages, nurture users, and guide them toward feature adoption.

• ActiveCampaign Pricing: Starting at $20/month. Free trial available.

Userlist

Userlist is built specifically for SaaS businesses, helping them send automated onboarding emails. It supports behavior-based messaging, allowing you to tailor onboarding messages to each user’s actions.

• Userlist Pricing: Starting at $149/month. Free trial available.

Ortto

Ortto combines email automation with in-app messaging, making it a powerful tool for onboarding users across different channels. You can create workflows that deliver onboarding emails and in-app messages based on user behavior.

• Ortto Pricing: Starting at $509/month. Free trial available.

Gist

Gist offers automated onboarding emails, live chat, and knowledge base features. It’s an all-in-one communication platform that supports users throughout their onboarding journey.

• Gist Pricing: Starting at $29/month. Free veresion available.

Video Onboarding Tools

Video onboarding tools are invaluable for demonstrating product features and use cases in a visual, engaging way. Videos can simplify complex concepts, making it easier for users to understand how your product works, improving the user experience and the onboarding process. 

Loom

Loom is a video recording tool that allows you to create short tutorials and walkthroughs for onboarding users. You can embed Loom videos directly into your app, making it easy for users to learn at their own pace.

• Loom Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $12.50/month.

Vimeo

Vimeo offers video hosting and sharing, making it an excellent tool for onboarding users through video tutorials. Its screen recording feature helps create quick, informative onboarding videos.

• Vimeo Pricing: Starting at $12/month. Free trial available.

Wistia

Wistia is a video hosting platform with features tailored for SaaS onboarding. It allows you to create detailed video tutorials, webinars, and product demos that can be embedded directly into your app.

• Wistia Pricing: Starting at $19/month. Free version available.

Livestorm

Livestorm is a webinar and video meeting platform that supports onboarding. You can host live training sessions, record them, and share them as part of your onboarding resources.

• Livestorm Pricing: Starting at $79/month. Free version available.

Vidyard

Vidyard allows you to create personalized video tutorials and walkthroughs. It’s designed for B2B SaaS onboarding, helping users understand your product with engaging video content.

• Vidyard Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $19/month.

Onboarding Analytics Tools

Customer analytics tools provide insights into user behavior during onboarding, helping teams identify what’s working and what needs improvement. With a great analytics dashboard, you'll have an easy bird's eye view of how users interact with your product. With that knowledge, you can optimize the onboarding process to boost user adoption and reduce churn.

Mixpanel

Mixpanel tracks user interactions within your app, offering detailed insights into how users navigate the onboarding process. It helps you identify drop-off points and optimize flows.

• Mixpanel Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $24/month.

Amplitude

Amplitude is a product analytics tool that helps SaaS teams understand user behavior. By analyzing user interactions during onboarding, you can identify friction points and improve engagement.

• Amplitude Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $49/month.

FullStory

FullStory records user sessions, providing insights into how users interact with your app during onboarding. It allows you to see exactly where users encounter challenges and adjust the process accordingly.

• FullStory Pricing: Custom pricing. Free trial available.

Heap

Heap offers comprehensive user behavior analytics, tracking every interaction in your app. This data helps you understand how users progress through onboarding and what can be improved.

• Heap Pricing: Free plan available. Custom pricing for paid plans.

Hotjar

Hotjar offers heatmaps, session recordings, and user feedback tools, making it an excellent choice for analyzing onboarding flows. You can identify what users struggle with and optimize the process.

• Hotjar Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $80/month.

Knowledge Base Tools

Knowledge base tools provide users with a library of self-help articles, tutorials, and FAQs to enhance the onboarding process. All of this boosts customer success while keeping churn low. 

Zendesk

Zendesk offers a comprehensive knowledge base tool that supports onboarding by providing users with self-serve support. It’s easy to create articles, FAQs, and tutorials that guide users through the product.

• Zendesk Pricing: Starting at $19/month. Free trial available.

Help Scout

Help Scout includes a knowledge base feature that allows you to create detailed onboarding guides. It’s ideal for SaaS companies looking to offer self-service support.

• Help Scout Pricing: Starting at $75/month. Free trial available.

Document360

Document360 is a knowledge base software designed to help teams create detailed documentation for onboarding. It’s easy to use and allows you to create step-by-step tutorials.

• Document360 Pricing: Paid plans start at $199/month. Free version available.

Confluence

Confluence is a collaboration tool that supports onboarding with comprehensive documentation. It allows teams to create and organize onboarding content, making it easy for users to find answers.

• Confluence Pricing: Paid plans start at $5.16/user/month. Free version available.

Guru

Guru is a knowledge management tool that helps onboard users by providing easy access to tutorials, FAQs, and support documents. It offers real-time search, making it easier for users to find the information they need.

• Guru Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $15/user/month.

Intercom

Intercom is a comprehensive customer communication platform that includes a robust knowledge base tool to support onboarding. Intercom allows teams to create self-serve support articles, FAQs, and onboarding templates. With in-app messages, analytics tools, and user segmentation, Intercom ensures a seamless user experience throughout the onboarding process.

• Intercom Pricing: Starts at $29/month. Free trial available.

User Feedback Tools

User feedback tools play a crucial role in the onboarding process by gathering insights directly from users. They help teams understand user needs, identify pain points, and optimize the overall user experience. Collecting feedback early on can improve feature adoption, reduce churn, and enhance customer success. These tools often use surveys, polls, and feedback forms to engage users and collect relevant data.

Typeform

Typeform is a versatile tool that enables teams to create engaging surveys, feedback forms, and quizzes. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy to collect user feedback during onboarding. You can customize forms to align with your brand’s look and feel, ensuring a seamless user experience.

Typeform Pricing: Typeform offers a free plan with basic features, paid plans start at $25/month. 

Beamer

Beamer is a changelog and feedback tool that helps users stay updated on new features and provide feedback directly in-app. It allows you to collect user reactions, comments, and survey responses during onboarding, which can be used to guide further development and refine user flows.

Beamer Pricing: Beamer offers a free version with limited features, while paid plans start at $49/month.

Qualaroo

Qualaroo is designed for collecting user feedback via pop-up surveys that appear during the onboarding process. It helps teams gather actionable insights by asking targeted questions, making it easier to understand user behavior and identify areas for improvement.

Qualaroo Pricing: Free version available. Paid plans start at $19.99/month.

Survicate

Survicate is a feedback collection tool that integrates directly into your product. It allows teams to create in-app surveys and feedback forms, gather user insights, and analyze the results to optimize the onboarding experience.

Survicate Pricing: Survicate has a free version. Paid plans start at €99/month.

Conclusion: Choose the Right Onboarding Tools for Your SaaS

Finding the right user onboarding tools is crucial for ensuring the success of your SaaS product. This list should offer you a great place to start when looking for solutions to enhance your onboarding process, all the way from a in-app tools that onboard users for conversion to knowledge bases that satisfy users and prevent churn. You're now all set to start your product-led growth journey. 

But remember, before committing to any onboarding tool, it's important to test it thoroughly. Most solutions offer free trials or starter plans, so take advantage of them. Use that time to see how well the onboarding tool aligns with your product’s needs and integrates with your team’s workflows. This will help you ensure that the onboarding tools you choose truly fit your product and team dynamics, setting the foundation for long-term success.

If you’re just beginning to build your onboarding process and tackle churn, then the best starter onboarding tool is Userflow. It’s built for rapid deployment, requiring no coding skills. You can use it to create personalized onboarding flows, interactive checklists, and app messages that are fully customizable. Userflow also offers a free trial, so give it a go, and start optimizing your onboarding experience today!