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Customer Success · head to head

Appcues vs UserGuiding

Appcues logo

Appcues

Customer Success

In-app onboarding flows and product announcements built without engineering time

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
UserGuiding logo

UserGuiding

Customer Success

No-code product adoption tooling priced on monthly active users rather than per seat

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only UserGuiding has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Appcues appcues no longer publishes any prices; the pricing page shows tiers and limits but no dollar figures, so what used to be a self-serve purchase now requires a sales call and there is no way to compare cost against alternatives before contact.; UserGuiding pricing is by monthly active user, so a freemium product pays for a large population of users who will never convert, and a strong growth quarter produces a bill increase rather than a saving.
  • They diverge on capability: Appcues covers Segmentation and targeting, UserGuiding covers Resource centre.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Appcues and UserGuiding actually diverge.

Attributes where Appcues and UserGuiding differ
AttributeAppcuesUserGuiding
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotePer month by monthly active users
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, Chrome extension

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Customer Success).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Appcues

  • Segmentation and targeting
  • NPS and in-app surveys
  • Mobile SDK
  • Experience analytics
  • Workflows
  • A/B testing of flows

Only in UserGuiding

  • Resource centre
  • In-app surveys and NPS
  • Session replay
  • AI assistant
  • Feature requests and roadmap
  • Segmentation

Both cover

  • No-code flow builder
  • Onboarding checklists

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Appcues

  • A SaaS company whose trial-to-paid conversion stalls because new users never reach the action that demonstrates valuenot UserGuiding
  • A product team shipping a significant feature that needs an in-app announcement and walkthrough on launch day, not three sprints laternot UserGuiding
  • A customer success team wanting to replace repetitive onboarding calls with a self-serve checklist for smaller accountsnot UserGuiding
  • A team that needs contextual NPS or feedback prompts targeted at users who have actually used the feature in questionnot UserGuiding

UserGuiding

  • A software company that needs onboarding flows shipped this month without taking engineering off the roadmapnot Appcues
  • A product team replacing a stale help centre with in-app guidance where users actually get stucknot Appcues
  • A team wanting to test whether a checklist raises first-week activation before investing engineering time in a real onboarding experiencenot Appcues
  • A support organisation deflecting repetitive tickets with a resource centre and AI assistant inside the productnot Appcues

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Appcues

  • Appcues no longer publishes any prices; the pricing page shows tiers and limits but no dollar figures, so what used to be a self-serve purchase now requires a sales call and there is no way to compare cost against alternatives before contact.
  • Published experience caps bite well before user limits do: Start allows only 10 live experiences and Grow only 25, so a mature product with tooltips across many features hits the upgrade trigger regardless of how many users it has.
  • Flows are DOM overlays pointed at elements in your live application, so a front-end refactor or a class name change silently breaks a walkthrough, and nobody notices until activation metrics drop.
  • Pricing scales with monthly active users, which means cost rises as the product succeeds, whether or not the additional users ever see an Appcues experience; the bill tracks your growth, not the tool’s contribution.
  • The platform reports on its own influence, so completion and goal metrics attribute activation to the flow without a proper counterfactual; justifying renewal on Appcues’ own numbers is circular unless you run holdout groups yourself.

UserGuiding

  • Pricing is by monthly active user, so a freemium product pays for a large population of users who will never convert, and a strong growth quarter produces a bill increase rather than a saving.
  • Flows are built as an overlay on your interface and break when the underlying markup changes, so every significant front-end release carries a maintenance task nobody owns.
  • Session replay and the AI assistant are gated to the Growth tier at double the Starter price, so the feature list that sold the product is not what the entry plan delivers.
  • Analytics are adequate for guidance performance but shallower than a dedicated product analytics tool, so most teams end up running it alongside Amplitude or Mixpanel rather than instead of them.
  • Complex single page applications and heavily componentised interfaces need careful element targeting, and teams report brittle selectors that fail silently rather than raising an error.

Pricing, plan by plan

Appcues

On request
  • Start$undefined/month
    • Up to 3,000 monthly active users
    • 10 published experiences
    • 12 months reporting history
  • Grow$undefined/month
    • From 3,000 monthly active users upward
    • 25 published experiences
    • 24 months reporting history
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom monthly active user volumes
    • 100 published experiences
    • 36 months reporting history
  • Spark$undefined/month
    • Programme for teams under 25 people
    • Intended for a first set of in-app experiences
    • Terms quoted on application

UserGuiding

Free
  • Support EssentialsFree
    • Entry support-oriented tier
    • Limited monthly active users
    • Core in-app guidance
  • Starter$174/month
    • Billed yearly
    • Product tours, tooltips, hotspots and checklists
    • In-app surveys and NPS
  • Growth$349/month
    • Billed yearly
    • Higher monthly active user allowance
    • Session replay
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Custom monthly active user volumes
    • Security review and single sign-on
    • Dedicated support and onboarding

Which should you pick?

Choose Appcues if

  • You need segmentation and targeting.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want nps and in-app surveys.
Appcues review

Choose UserGuiding if

  • You need resource centre.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Chrome extension.
  • You also want in-app surveys and nps.
UserGuiding review

Questions people ask

Is Appcues or UserGuiding better?
Neither clearly leads. Appcues starts at On request and UserGuiding at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Appcues or UserGuiding?
UserGuiding has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Appcues and Free for UserGuiding.
Does Appcues or UserGuiding run on more platforms?
Appcues runs on Web, iOS, Android. UserGuiding runs on Web, Chrome extension.
Can I use UserGuiding for free?
Yes. UserGuiding has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Appcues starts at On request.
What is Appcues best used for?
Appcues is most often used for a saas company whose trial-to-paid conversion stalls because new users never reach the action that demonstrates value, a product team shipping a significant feature that needs an in-app announcement and walkthrough on launch day, not three sprints later, a customer success team wanting to replace repetitive onboarding calls with a self-serve checklist for smaller accounts, a team that needs contextual nps or feedback prompts targeted at users who have actually used the feature in question. Of those, a saas company whose trial-to-paid conversion stalls because new users never reach the action that demonstrates value and a product team shipping a significant feature that needs an in-app announcement and walkthrough on launch day, not three sprints later are not what UserGuiding is typically brought in for.
What can Appcues do that UserGuiding cannot?
Appcues covers Segmentation and targeting, NPS and in-app surveys, Mobile SDK, Experience analytics. UserGuiding covers Resource centre, In-app surveys and NPS, Session replay, AI assistant. Both handle No-code flow builder, Onboarding checklists.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Appcues: How much does Appcues cost?

It no longer publishes prices. Start, Grow and Enterprise tiers show monthly active user limits and experience caps but no dollar amounts, and each routes to a call or a trial.

UserGuiding: How is UserGuiding priced?

By monthly active users, not by internal seat. Starter is around one hundred and seventy four dollars a month billed yearly and Growth around three hundred and forty nine dollars, with a free tier and a quoted Enterprise plan.

Appcues: Do I need a developer to install it?

A developer installs the snippet or SDK once and maps user properties. After that, building flows genuinely requires no engineering time.

UserGuiding: Does it need engineering?

A one-time snippet install, then flows are built visually. Ongoing engineering involvement is usually needed only when interface changes break element targeting.

Appcues: What breaks flows?

Front-end changes. Because experiences are anchored to elements in your live DOM, refactors and renamed selectors break walkthroughs silently.

UserGuiding: How does it compare on cost to Pendo?

Materially cheaper at the published tiers, but the comparison changes if your monthly active user count is large relative to your revenue.

Appcues: What is the Spark programme?

A route for teams under 25 people shipping their first in-app experiences. Terms are quoted on application rather than listed.

UserGuiding: Is session replay included?

Only from the Growth tier upward, not on Starter.

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