8 Best User Onboarding Software for SaaS Startups

The quick answer

Quick answer: user onboarding software (often called SaaS onboarding software) puts product tours, checklists, tooltips and short surveys inside your app, so new users reach their first win without a call or a manual. For most SaaS startups the shortlist is Userpilot or Appcues for a mature no-code builder, Pendo when you also need product analytics, and PLG OS when you want onboarding, help and gamification components on one SDK with a free tier. Contentsquare (formerly Hotjar), Customer.io and Rocketlane round out the list as companions for behavior analytics, lifecycle messages and client-onboarding projects. Prices below are as of September 2026.

Ever wondered why some users instantly “get” your app while others struggle to figure it out? The answer often lies in user onboarding software. A smooth, engaging introduction to your product can make all the difference between a new user sticking around or abandoning the ship.

A few years ago, the term "user onboarding software" was utterly alien to most customers. Now it shapes buying decisions: in Wyzowl's 2020 survey, 63% of customers said onboarding (the support they're likely to get after the sale) is an important consideration in whether they buy at all.

But with so many onboarding tools in the market, how do you choose the right one for your SaaS business? Don’t worry; we’ve done the legwork for you! Let’s explore the eight best user onboarding software that will turn your trial users into long-term loyal customers.

What does user onboarding software do?

User onboarding software involves various applications to educate consumers about your product's features. Its goal is to get new users up and running with your product quickly so they can start reaping the benefits.

You could be confused by the last part. Why fast? Because customer retention is directly proportional to how quickly they get the value they hoped for.

Incidentally, the overarching goal of user onboarding software is to assist clients in beginning to derive value from a product by utilising various tools that guide them through the harder parts of your SaaS offering.

Implementing and delivering resources to help consumers reach their goals is made easier with user onboarding software solutions .

User onboarding software compared

Five of the eight tools below build tours, checklists and guides inside your product; the other three support onboarding from the side, with behavior analytics, lifecycle messaging and client onboarding projects. Prices are the lowest published entry points as of September 2026 and change often, so check the vendor page before you budget.

8 Best user onboarding software for SaaS

1. Userpilot

Userpilot is a full user training tool that lets you show people how to use your product quickly and easily. With segmentation, A/B testing, and engagement data, the platform gives you the tools you need to make personalized onboarding experiences.

If you want to learn more about how your users behave during the customer journey, this tool has product data built in. You can make micro surveys with Userpilot's user feedback tool to find out how people feel and analyze that information.

Pricing (as of September 2026): priced by monthly active users. Starter is $299/month for up to 2,000 MAU; Growth starts at $849/month; Enterprise is quoted. A/B testing, general surveys and the resource center are Growth features, while Starter includes NPS and up to 10 segments. There is a 14-day free trial and no free plan.

Best Features:

• With in-app training
• Self-service support
• Product analytics
• Feedback collection
• UI patterns and no-code builder

2. PLG OS

The PLG Operating System, or PLG OS, is made to help SaaS companies make their onboarding, interaction, and retention processes more efficient. It gives you a full set of tools for making personalized, easy-to-use product experiences that get people to use your products and keep them as customers. With PLG OS, you can centralize your user onboarding software processes, monitor key product usage numbers, and equip your team with the necessary tools to enhance the customer journey through data analysis.

Best Features:

• In-app messages: modals, banners and alerts
• Campaign analytics and user analytics
• Audience segmentation on custom events and attributes (Growth plan)
• Onboarding components (walkthroughs, onboarding quizzes, get-started guides) managed from a no-code dashboard
• User feedback collection: surveys, NPS and a feedback workflow

Pricing (as of September 2026): a free tier covers 100 monthly tracked users and one component; Starter is $49/month and Growth $149/month on monthly billing (both marked limited-time on the pricing page); Scale is custom. Full disclosure: PLG OS is our product.

3. Appcues

Appcues is a tool for scaling teams that helps them accept new products. This onboarding tools saas is great for getting new users started. It has customizable in-app messages, walkthroughs, and analytics to see how users are behaving.

With customized training, Appcues lets you get more people to use your app. This tool can also help you get more conversions by cutting down on the time it takes to get a sale.

Pricing (as of September 2026): priced by monthly active users, installations and published experiences. The Start, Grow and Enterprise plans are quoted; the Spark plan for teams of 25 or fewer is $3,600/year for up to 1,000 MAUs plus a $250 one-time implementation fee. A/B tests are run by comparing flow variations.

Best Features:

• No-code builder
• Flow targeting
• Pre-designed templates
• Event tracking
• A/B testing

4. Pendo

Pendo is a product experience and digital adoption tool that does everything in one package. This platform has in-app messaging, guides, and data to make getting new users easier and keeping old ones. Pendo lets you make the process of onboarding and teaching your customers unique.

Pendo lets you make powerful in-app tips that will keep customers interested during onboarding, which will help them adopt your product more quickly. Pendo also lets you customize training and give more difficult jobs to users who are already good at them.

Pricing (as of September 2026): Pendo Free covers up to 500 monthly active users with in-app guides and analytics; the Base, Core and Ultimate plans are quoted on request.

Best Features:

• Custom Themes
• No-code builder
• Flexible Dashboards
• Multi-Platform Analytics

5. Hotjar (now Contentsquare)

Hotjar is mostly known as an analytics tool, but it also gives you special information about how users behave that can help you make better onboarding plans. If you know how people use your site, you can find places to improve it and change how people sign up to meet their wants and expectations better.

What changed: Contentsquare acquired Hotjar in 2021, and hotjar.com now redirects to Contentsquare, which says new Hotjar accounts can no longer be created. The heatmaps, recordings and surveys carry on inside Contentsquare, which has a free plan (200k monthly sessions) and a Growth plan from $39/month on annual billing, as of September 2026.

Best Features:

• Visitor records
• Heatmaps
• Funnels that show conversion steps and drop-offs
• Polls and surveys for feedback

6. Customer.io

Customer.io is a powerful platform for engaging with customers. It lets you send personalized, automated messages to improve the onboarding process and keep users interested throughout their trip. Its advanced segmentation and behavioral triggers let you send the right message at the right time, whether it's a push reminder, an in-app message, or a welcome email.

Not only does Customer.io help with onboarding, but it also lets you make custom workflows that keep users engaged with relevant information based on what they do. It connects to your product data and lets you send real-time, automated messages that get people to engage, stay with you, and buy.

Best Features:

• Automated marketing for emails and texts
• Advanced grouping of users
• Behavioral triggers and messaging
• Reporting and data in real time
• A/B and multivariate testing for messages

Pricing (as of September 2026): Essentials starts at $100/month and Premium at $1,000/month billed yearly, with a 14-day free trial. Channels include email, push, in-app, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack and webhooks.

7. Helppier

Helppier is a strong SaaS onboarding tool for self-service onboarding, making it easy for users to figure out how to use your product independently. Businesses can use it to make step-by-step guides, lessons, and helpful messages inside apps that users can use to get on their way. Focusing on do-it-yourself education, Helppier's solutions let you train and help people without being involved, but they still offer a fun and engaging experience. It's a great choice for SaaS companies that want to give users the tools to find things on their own, so they don't have to rely on help teams as much.

Best Features:

• Videos and step-by-step guides
• Self-service sign-up
• Help in multiple languages (up to 65, per Helppier)
• Turning guides into training videos

Pricing (as of September 2026): priced by monthly active users, from $49/month for up to 1,000 MAUs, with two months free on yearly billing and a free trial. Its blog has been quiet (the newest post we found is from December 2023), so ask about the roadmap before you commit.

8. Rocketlane

Rocketlane is a client onboarding and professional services platform. It does not add tours or tooltips inside your product; it runs the onboarding project around it, which matters when a new customer needs setup, data migration or training before they can use your SaaS. It helps your customers get value faster by letting you make personalized processes and automating the client journey. Rocketlane lets teams work together and walk clients through every step of the process, with shared project plans and real-time visibility. Sharing documents, managing tasks, and automatic communication are also built into the app to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Best Features:

• Customizable onboarding workflows
• Project collaboration and task management
• Sharing documents and other resources
• Automated contact with clients
• Analytics and tracking of progress in real time

Pricing (as of September 2026): priced per team member, from $49 per member per month billed annually with a five-member minimum, and a 14-day free trial.

How does user onboarding software help?

1. Friction Reduction: By automating common operations like account creation, data entry, and basic setups, they streamline the first user experience. This means that first-time buyers will have an easier time reaching the "aha moment" - the moment when they realize how great your product is—because of this.

2. Scalability: Automation enables you to onboard many people at once without increasing the support or personnel resources proportionally, which is a key aspect of scalability. This becomes even more crucial when onboarding whole teams or departments at once in a business-to-business setting.

3. Uniformity: They ensure that no matter when a person signs up or their use case, they all receive the same high-quality introduction to your product. Consistent messages, resources, and direction are all part of this.

4. Customization: With the analytics and customization capabilities provided by many onboarding platforms, you can design a unique onboarding process for each user according to their role, industry, past actions, and other criteria. This can greatly enhance engagement and retention rates.

5. Gathering Feedback: By incorporating surveys and feedback prompts, you may quickly learn about user experiences and make modifications based on that information.

How to choose user onboarding software

Most teams pick from demo galleries and regret it three months later. Score each candidate on the same seven criteria (implementation effort, targeting depth, how flows look on your real UI, analytics, page-load cost, maintenance when your UI changes and price at your MAU) with our user onboarding software evaluation scorecard, and only score what you have built inside your own product during the trial.

Then ask every vendor to show activation for users who completed a flow against eligible users who did not. A completion percentage on its own flatters every tool; the product tour completion versus activation report lays out the four cohorts to compare. Agree on the start and value events first, using the time-to-value event timing specification, or each vendor's demo will measure something different.

Two more reads if you are building the flows yourself: how to personalize onboarding and in-app feedback by role and behavior, and six interactive walkthrough examples from products that teach by doing.

Conclusion

In the world of SaaS, SaaS onboarding software can make or break your success. Whether you're a startup looking to keep things simple, a growing company in need of advanced features, or an enterprise that needs onboarding to scale without extra headcount, the right onboarding tool can set you up for long-term growth. It’s about more than just guiding users, it’s about creating lasting, valuable relationships with them.

If you’re ready to take your onboarding to the next level and streamline your entire product-led growth (PLG) strategy, PLG OS has got you covered. With its powerful suite of tools designed to enhance product adoption and engagement, PLG OS is the perfect partner in your journey to success. Schedule a call today to know more about our user onboarding software and how it can streamline your customer engagement.

FAQs

1. What is user onboarding software?

A user onboarding software helps guide new users through your product, making it easier for them to understand and adopt the features, ultimately leading to faster value realization and higher retention. It usually does this with in-app product tours, checklists, tooltips and short surveys that non-engineers can edit, which is why it matters for SaaS: users who understand the product quickly are less likely to churn.

2. What is the best user onboarding software for SaaS startups?

For in-app tours and checklists, Userpilot and Appcues are the most complete no-code platforms, Pendo fits teams that also need product analytics and has a free plan for up to 500 monthly active users, and PLG OS suits startups that want onboarding, help, feedback and gamification components on one SDK with a free tier. Pick by the job you need done first, then check the price at your own user count.

3. How much does user onboarding software cost?

As of September 2026, published entry prices range from free tiers (Pendo up to 500 monthly active users, PLG OS up to 100 monthly tracked users) to $299 a month for Userpilot Starter and $3,600 a year for the Appcues Spark plan. Most in-app onboarding tools price by monthly active users, so the bill grows with your user base rather than with how much you use the tool.

4. Can I create onboarding flows without coding?

Yes, many onboarding tools, like UserGuiding, Userpilot and Appcues, offer no-code options, allowing you to design and implement customized onboarding flows without the need for technical expertise. A developer still has to install the tool's snippet or SDK once before non-engineers can publish flows.

5. What is the difference between SaaS onboarding software and client onboarding software?

SaaS onboarding software works inside your product: tours, tooltips and checklists that teach users as they click. Client onboarding software such as Rocketlane runs the project around the product: tasks, documents, timelines and reminders shared between your implementation team and the customer. Sales-led products with a setup phase often need both.