10 Digital Adoption Platform Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 25 tools reviewed.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
There are seemingly countless digital adoption solutions available, so figuring out which one is best for you is tough. You want to accelerate user onboarding, increase productivity, and reduce support and training costs but need to figure out which tool is the best fit. I've got you! In this post I make things simple, leveraging my experience managing big, complex products, and using dozens of different tools to bring you this shortlist of the best digital adoption software.
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The Best Digital Adoption Platform Comparison Chart
Here is a table you can use to compare all the tools we just covered in the overviews.
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| UserGuiding | From $89/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Plotline | From $499/month | Website |
| Absorb LMS | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Product Fruits | From $89/month | Website |
| Apty | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Whatfix | 14-day free trial + Demo available | Website |
| Appcues | From $249/month (billed annually) | Website |
| WalkMe | From $2-3000/annually | Website |
| Usetiful | From $29 per month | Website |
| Constructor | Pricing upon request | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareHow to Choose Digital Adoption Software
As you work through your own unique software selection process, keep the following points in mind:
- Define Your Goals: Understanding your specific objectives is critical when selecting digital adoption software. Consider what you aim to achieve with the software: Is it to reduce the learning curve of new software deployments? Improve user engagement with your systems? Or perhaps streamline complex processes? For instance, if your primary goal is to accelerate user competency, the digital adoption software you choose should offer powerful interactive walkthroughs and role-specific content.
- Assess User Needs and Skills: The diversity in user tech-savviness within a target user base can significantly impact the effectiveness of digital adoption efforts. Analyze the current skill levels and learning preferences of your users to ensure the software provides appropriate support. For example, non-technical users may benefit more from solutions that offer straightforward, jargon-free instructions and visual aids, rather than complex textual content.
- Integration Capability: Ensure the digital adoption software integrates with your existing digital tools. Effective integration minimizes disruptions and enhances user experience by allowing the software to provide contextual guidance within the applications users are already utilizing.
- Scalability: The digital adoption solution should grow with your organization. It should be capable of supporting an increasing number of users and adapting to new software tools as your technology stack expands. This consideration is particularly relevant for rapidly growing companies that may add new technologies frequently and need their digital adoption solutions to adapt quickly.
- Evaluate Support and Updates: Ongoing support and regular updates are crucial to ensuring the long-term success of your digital adoption efforts. Consider the vendor’s reputation for customer service and the frequency of their software updates. A provider that offers prompt customer support and regular updates will help you keep the software effective against evolving digital landscapes and emerging user needs.
These tips are to support you in selecting the right tool for your needs. I've also outlined the selection criteria I used to curate this list further down the page!
Overviews Of The 10 Best Digital Adoption Platforms
Here’s a brief description of each digital adoption solution to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
UserGuiding helps product teams create step-by-step product walkthroughs without requiring any coding. You can also use their software to highlight new features for your customer base to increase their digital adoption.
In addition to improving your feature adoption and overall customer success rate, UserGuiding's software can also help with product redesigns. If your product has been redesigned, you can use UserGuiding to give users the option to explore your new user interface through a guided walkthrough. This is a savvy option for proactively avoiding user confusion if the changes to your user experience are substantial.
Integrations include HubSpot, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Intercom, MixPanel, Segment, Slack, and Woopra.
Paid plans start at $89/month when billed annually.
Plotline is an in-app engagement platform for consumer brands that provides digital adoption tools such as tooltips, in-app videos, animations, and spotlights. You can use it to communicate with your users in your app and improve new feature adoption within your product. You can craft personalized onboarding flows, create tours and tutorials and highlight new features with their UI template library.
You can also run user feedback surveys right in the system, collecting invaluable insights to inform your product strategy and roadmap. Their segmentation engine allows you to target specific user cohorts with in-app messages.
Integrations include Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Mixpanel, Slack, Clickhouse, Amplitude, Segment, Rudderstack, and OneSignal. Paid plans start from $499 per month, and a 21-day free trial is available.
Paid plans start from $499 per month, and a 21-day free trial is available.
Absorb LMS is a cloud-based learning management system that can be used to improve user adoption through product education and training. You can create, track, and manage online courses for your customers, helping them better understand how to make the most out of your product. The course builder lets you create engaging and interactive courses with multimedia elements like videos, quizzes, and interactive scenarios.
What sets Absorb LMS apart from other tools in the market is its focus on the user experience. It's not just about delivering content, but about creating more engaging and interactive content. With features like gamification, social learning, and personalized learning paths, Absorb LMS makes learning more enjoyable and effective. You can even reward users with badges and certificates, helping to turn new customers into power users.
The software integrates with other tools like Google Suite, Microsoft Azure, Namely, Okta, Salesforce, WebEx, Workday, Zoom, and more. Pricing is available upon request, and a free trial and demo are both offered.
Product Fruit’s step-by-step walkthroughs guide users through complex software processes, helping them understand how to use the software and complete tasks efficiently. Additionally, Product Fruits provides real-time guidance, meaning users can get help as they work, rather than having to stop and consult an external resource.
One standout feature of Product Fruits is its ability to provide personalized guidance to users. The tool tracks individual user behavior and can adapt its guidance based on a user's specific needs and skill level. This feature helps ensure that users are receiving the guidance they need to master new software, regardless of their experience level.
Product Fruits offers integrations with popular software platforms, including Slack, Google Analytics, Heap, Segment, and HubSpot.
Pricing for Product Fruits begins at $89/month. A 14-day free trial is also available.
Apty is digital adoption software that helps get your employees up to speed with new technologies. This ensures you get the most from your software investment.The tool has plenty of analytics features. Managers can see how employees use the software and which business processes work.
You can see technology adoption and how this changes over time. The tool will even highlight the specific points that are causing issues.When you spot a point of friction, it’s easy to create in-app help that guides people past these barriers. This improves employee onboarding, new product adoption, and how people use your existing tools.
The tool works with any web-based application, meaning you can use it across your tech stack.
The company doesn’t advertise pricing, but you can contact the team for a quote via the website.
Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that promises to streamline how people use your product. You can use it with both employees and customers. The software has several helpful features. Flows help you create product tours that are targeted toward specific user segments.
Use these alongside in-app task lists to get users up to speed with your tool. Beacons are another useful feature—these allow your product team to highlight specific features, for example, new releases or updates. Or you can use in-app pop ups with videos to communicate information to all users, while surveys allow you to collect customer opinions without dedicated customer feedback software.
The final feature is knowledge bases. You can build these directly into the app so that users can easily access all they need to use your product.
Thanks to the browser plugin that works with Chrome and Firefox, all these features are easy to use. And you can customize all the content so that it matches your branding.
Whatfix doesn’t advertise pricing, but you can contact the company for a quote.
Appcues is easy-to-use software that lets you build onboarding flows. It uses no-code tools so anyone can create workflows and publish them within a day.The tool has personalization features so you can build customized journeys. For example, you can create different onboarding workflows depending on the user’s role in the company.
You can show a designer the most relevant features, while leading a manager through the features someone in their role is most likely to use.The tool lets you create checklists with a progress bar that shows customers how far into the onboarding process they are. This automatically updates as they complete more tasks, so they can see exactly how far they have come on their journey with your product.
There are also features designed for introducing users to product updates and new functionality. For example, you can create introductions and product flows to quickly get people up to speed, then add further information via the announcement center.
Appcues starts at $299 per month for up to 2,500 monthly active users. You can get started for free on the website.
WalkMe is a digital adoption tool with plenty of features to help you teach employees about your software.The biggest draw is that you can build on-screen experiences that guide users through each step in a process. This helps your team get up to speed with new software or features.
WalkMe also has powerful analytics and reporting. These tools show user behavior such as how long people use different tools and the places where they struggle. Use this to see underutilized apps and build help flows to increase engagement. The tool is easy to use—the no-code platform lets anyone in your team build learning experiences.
It also integrates with plenty of other tools to increase the data you collect. And you can use the tool with any app that uses Amazon Web Services.
The company doesn’t provide pricing, but you can request a quote via the website.
Usetiful is digital adoption software with plenty of features to help people get up to speed with your tools. It’s used for onboarding, customer self-service help, and feature adoption. The onboarding features help customers see the value of your tools faster. This can, in turn, lead to a reduction in churn. Create a product tour that guides them through the setup process and include a checklist so they get everything done.
You can also use these tours to guide people through new features and updates.The tool makes it easy to get started. You can begin with one-off smart tips to quickly provide help if you don’t have time to create a full onboarding sequence. Just use it to highlight essential information about your product’s most important features.
The product tours are easy to create using the Usetiful no-code tools. They use a visual interface, so it’s easy for anyone to create flows, and then you use the customization tools to match the tour with your branding. You can also easily review tours with the browser extension to make real-time improvements. Another helpful feature is the ability to create different product tours for user segments, device types, or pages.
This ensures everyone gets the most relevant help content. It’s easy to integrate your tours with your product by adding a code snippet. Pricing starts at $29 per month with a free trial. There’s also a completely free version that allows you to create a single product tour.
Constructor
Adoption software that allows companies to create personal learning experiences
Constructor is a digital adoption platform designed to help organizations onboard and train employees in using different digital tools and software.
It can be used to onboard new employees, train people to use software and tools, support employees using different resources, track employee progress and provide analytics, and create custom tutorials to meet a company’s specific requirements.
Constructor features a learning management system, and an enterprise resource planning solution to help train people to adopt digital tools. Employees and customers will be able to learn using different interactive content. Constructor’s LMS allows organizations to create custom quizzes and provides people with hands-on learning environments, and their ERP streamlines all an organization’s financial operation needs. Using the different tools that Constructor provides effectively helps users train people to use a company’s tools and products and makes learning complex topics much easier. Both the Virtual Lab and Coding Lab are instrumental in optimizing training and demonstrations for employees, partners, and customers.
The platform comes with real-time data collection to support a trainee’s personalized training program and trainees can have a personalized learning journey, learn with other people, and have an intuitive and reliable platform to create interactive courses. Using this platform can help boost course completion rates and ensure that trainees can effectively use the software on which they’re trained.
Other Options
Here are a few more that didn’t make the top list but are worth your consideration.
- Inline Manual
DAP with easy-to-use visual tour builder
- AppLearn
Best to instill a self-service culture
- Minerva
AI-powered DAP
- Stonly
Add product tours to your knowledge base
- iSpring Learn
Best for online learning and training management
- Guru
Best for AI-driven knowledge search
- Pendo
Create personalized in-app guides based on analytics
- Userlane
Increase your product’s user adoption
- SkyPrep
Best for data-driven reporting to improve learner experience
- Intellum
Complete toolkit for creating educational experiences
- Lemon Learning
Digital adoption tool for users and employees
- Userflow
Easily create product onboarding workflows
- Baton
Manage software implementation and onboarding
- OnScreen
Enterprise digital adoption platform
- Walnut
Build personalized product demos to help with sales
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Selection Criteria for the Best Digital Adoption Software
Selecting the right digital adoption software involves a careful evaluation of its features, functionality, and alignment with specific organizational needs. From my experience trying and researching various solutions, I've established a framework to guide my decisions based on functionality that simplifies onboarding and enhances ongoing usage of digital tools. These criteria ensure that the chosen software not only meets common requirements but also addresses particular pain points within an organization.
Core Functionality: 25% of total weighting score
To be considered for inclusion on my list of the best digital adoption software, the solution had to support common use cases, like:
- Guided Tutorials: Ensuring users understand software features through interactive tutorials.
- Task Automation: Simplifying repetitive tasks to save time and reduce errors.
- User Progress Tracking: Monitoring user engagement and completion of training modules.
- Feedback Collection: Gathering insights directly from users to improve tools and training.
- Role-Specific Content: Providing tailored content that addresses the needs of different user roles.
Additional Standout Features: 25% of total weighting score
- Customized Learning Paths: Adapts training based on user progress and feedback.
- Predictive Assistance: Uses AI to offer proactive support before a user encounters an issue.
- Rich Multimedia Support: Includes varied formats like videos, diagrams, and interactive simulations.
- Real-time Performance Support: Delivers on-the-spot guidance and support within the application.
Usability: 10% of total weighting score
- Intuitive User Interface: Clean layouts and clear navigation that require minimal training.
- Accessibility Features: Supports users with disabilities, ensuring universal usability.
- Mobile Responsiveness: Provides a consistent experience across all device types.
Onboarding: 10% of total weighting score
- Interactive Product Tours: Introduces features and functionality through engaging walkthroughs.
- Accessible Training Resources: Includes videos, templates, and FAQs readily available.
- Implementation Support: Offers guidance from the vendor during initial setup and deployment.
Customer Support: 10% of total weighting score
- 24/7 Availability: Ensures help is always on hand, regardless of time or day.
- Multi-channel Support: Includes live chat, email, phone, and social media.
- Proactive Problem Solving: Staff can anticipate common issues and provide quick solutions.
Value For Money: 10% of total weighting score
- Transparent Pricing: Clear, upfront costs with no hidden fees.
- Scalable Subscription Models: Offers plans that grow with the organization’s needs.
- Free Trial or Demo: Allows evaluation without financial commitment.
Customer Reviews: 10% of total weighting score
- User Testimonials: Reflect real-world benefits and challenges experienced by users.
- Success Stories: Case studies that demonstrate measurable improvements after implementation.
- Consistent Ratings: High marks across various user reviews indicate reliable performance.
By adhering to these criteria, I ensure that digital adoption software not only fits within the framework of common functionality but also stands out in areas that bring unique value to an organization. This comprehensive approach assists in choosing a solution that effectively meets the complex needs of modern enterprises, enhancing both the onboarding process and ongoing usage of digital tools.
Trends in Digital Adoption Software For 2024
In 2024, the landscape of digital adoption software continues to evolve, reflecting broader technological advancements and shifting organizational needs. As companies increasingly rely on digital tools for every aspect of their operations, the software designed to facilitate the adoption of these tools is becoming more sophisticated. A review of recent product updates, press releases, and release logs from leading digital adoption platforms provides insight into current trends, the evolution of key features, and shifts in user demand.
- Enhanced Personalization and User Analytics: There is a significant trend towards increasing the personalization of learning paths and content delivery. Software updates show a heavy investment in analytics capabilities that track user interaction and progress. This data-driven approach allows the software to offer more tailored experiences, thereby improving user engagement and speeding up the learning curve.
- Integration with AI and Machine Learning: The integration of AI technologies is rapidly evolving within digital adoption platforms. AI is being used to predict user needs, offer proactive support, and automate repetitive training tasks. These features not only enhance user experience but also reduce the workload on human trainers and support teams.
- Expansion of Multimodal Learning Resources: The most novel functionalities include the expansion of learning formats to include interactive video content, AR-guided tutorials, and real-time feedback through voice assistants. These multimodal resources cater to diverse learning preferences and help bridge the gap between digital content and practical application.
- Focus on Mobile Optimization: With the increasing use of mobile devices in professional settings, there is a noticeable increase in features that optimize digital adoption platforms for mobile use. This trend underscores the need for tools that support learning and adaptation on-the-go, reflecting the modern workforce's flexibility needs.
- Decline in One-Size-Fits-All Training Modules: Conversely, the demand for generic, one-size-fits-all training modules is decreasing. Users and organizations are seeking more customized solutions that can address specific challenges and adapt to particular corporate cultures or industry requirements.
These trends in digital adoption software reflect a broader move towards more personalized, flexible, and data-driven tools. They align with the needs of product managers who are tasked with ensuring that digital tools are seamlessly integrated into their teams' workflows without disrupting productivity. By keeping abreast of these trends, product managers can better select and implement digital adoption solutions that will be most effective for their specific organizational contexts.
What Is Digital Adoption Software?
Digital adoption software facilitates the effective use and maximization of digital tools within organizations. This category of software is primarily utilized by IT trainers, HR professionals, and organizational change managers who are responsible for overseeing the smooth transition to new technologies. Businesses use this type of software to accelerate the onboarding process for new technology, ensuring that employees quickly become proficient and productive with new systems.
Features like interactive walkthroughs, personalized learning paths, and analytics support these goals by enhancing user engagement, providing customized training, and measuring adoption success. Ultimately, digital adoption software significantly increases the return on investment in technology by ensuring that all users can fully leverage the capabilities of their digital tools.
Features of Digital Adoption Software
Here are some key features that I look for when choosing digital adoption software:
- Interactive Walkthroughs: These guides offer step-by-step instructions directly within the application. This feature is crucial as it provides real-time, context-sensitive guidance that adapts to each user’s actions, making learning intuitive and directly relevant to their tasks.
- Customizable User Journeys: This allows the software to adapt to the specific needs and roles of different users. Customized pathways ensure that users receive relevant information and support that matches their unique skills and job requirements, enhancing their experience and efficiency.
- Analytics and User Feedback Tools: These tools gather data on how users interact with the software. By analyzing user engagement and feedback, organizations can identify pain points and areas for improvement, ensuring that support and resources are effectively aligned with user needs.
- In-App Support and Chatbots: This feature provides users with immediate access to help and FAQs within the application. It ensures that users can resolve issues and find information without leaving their workflow, which is critical for maintaining productivity and engagement.
- Multimedia Support Content: Offering support through videos, images, and documents within the application helps cater to different learning styles. This diversity in content delivery ensures that all users can find help in a format that suits them best, enhancing their understanding and application of the tool.
- Role-Based Content Delivery: This ensures that users see content that is pertinent to their specific role within the organization. Tailoring the information to each user's role prevents information overload and increases relevance, which in turn speeds up the adoption process.
- Progress Tracking and Milestones: Monitoring user progress through the software helps in recognizing achievements and identifying where users struggle. This tailored approach ensures that users feel supported throughout their learning curve, encouraging continued engagement and skill development.
- Mobile Optimization: With the increasing use of mobile devices in professional settings, having digital adoption software that is optimized for mobile ensures that users can learn and seek assistance across all devices. This flexibility is key to accommodating the modern workforce’s varied ways of working.
- Integration Capabilities: Seamless integration with existing tools and software ecosystems is essential. This coherence ensures that digital adoption tools enhance rather than disrupt the user experience, facilitating smoother transitions and wider adoption.
- Language and Localization Options: Supporting multiple languages and localizing content are important for global organizations. This ensures that all users, no matter where they are or what language they speak, receive the same level of support and information, which is essential for consistent user experience and satisfaction.
Prioritizing the features that are most aligned with your needs will help you narrow down a selection of platforms most suitable to help you succeed. As a result, you'll see increased productivity, reduced frustration among team members, and a higher return on investment in their digital tools.
Benefits of Digital Adoption Software
Digital adoption software is designed to facilitate and accelerate the process by which users and organizations become proficient with new software tools. This technology plays a crucial role in helping teams and individuals optimize their use of digital resources, thereby enhancing overall productivity and satisfaction. Here are five primary benefits that digital adoption software offers:
- Streamlined Onboarding Processes: Accelerates the time it takes for new users to become proficient with software. By providing interactive guides and personalized learning paths, digital adoption software significantly reduces the learning curve, enabling faster integration into daily workflows.
- Increased Productivity: Ensures that users fully utilize all features of a software application. Digital adoption platforms help users discover and use advanced features they might not find on their own, leading to more efficient use of the software and increased overall productivity.
- Reduced Support Costs: Minimizes the need for extensive IT support. With step-by-step tutorials and in-app support tools, digital adoption software allows users to solve common issues independently, reducing the workload on IT departments and lowering support costs.
- Enhanced User Experience and Satisfaction: Improves how users interact with software. By making learning more engaging and less frustrating, digital adoption software improves user satisfaction and helps maintain high levels of engagement, which are crucial for long-term software adoption.
- Data-Driven Insights: Offers valuable analytics on software usage and user engagement. Organizations can leverage these insights to understand how well their tools are being adopted, identify areas for improvement, and tailor training to meet user needs more effectively.
For businesses looking to maximize the effectiveness of their digital resources, adopting such platforms can be a game-changing decision. This strategic approach to digital tool integration helps maintain a competitive edge by ensuring that both users and organizations can fully leverage the capabilities of their software investments.
Costs & Pricing For Digital Adoption Software
When exploring digital adoption software, it's crucial to understand the various plan options and pricing structures available. These plans are typically designed to accommodate organizations of different sizes and with varying needs, ensuring that there is a suitable option whether you are part of a small team or a large enterprise. Pricing and features can vary significantly, so selecting the right plan will depend on your specific requirements and budget.
Plan Comparison Table For Digital Adoption Software
Below is a table outlining the typical plan structures and pricing for digital adoption software, helping you make an informed decision based on your organization's needs.
| Plan Type | Average Price | Common Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Basic tutorials, limited analytics, community support |
| Basic | $10 - $30 per user/month | Enhanced tutorials, usage analytics, email support |
| Professional | $30 - $70 per user/month | Full feature access, integration capabilities, 24/7 support |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Advanced analytics, personalized training programs, dedicated manager |
When choosing a plan, consider the size of your user base, the complexity of your digital tools, and the level of support your team requires. Balancing these factors will help you select the plan that best meets your needs and ensures a successful digital adoption process.
Digital Adoption Software Frequently Asked Questions
If you still need more information about digital adoption and the tools that support it, we’ve got answers for you!
What is digital adoption?
Digital adoption is the capacity to learn to use and adopt a new product, whether that is an app, a website, or some other digital product.
Digital adoption is crucial for end-users to have a positive customer experience and the reason why so many companies invest in these platforms to build customizable self-help guides that improve customer success and reduce reliance on customer support tickets and other costly alternatives.
What is a digital adoption software used for?
A digital adoption platform is a tool with features that encourage people to use the software. It has two main use cases.
The first is to increase the adoption of the software organizations use in their businesses through onboarding experiences. This ensures companies get maximum value from software investments and is an essential part of digital transformation. It also ensures organizations make the most of the $700 billion spent annually on digital adoption.
The second use case allows software companies to improve the adoption of their tools. It’s especially useful for onboarding new customers or educating existing users about new products. Ultimately, it should lead to a better user experience.
You can use your digital adoption platform alongside product experience management software to improve how people use your tools.
What Do You Think About This List?
This list includes ten of the best digital adoption platforms, plus a few more thrown in for good measure.
When deciding on a tool, first choose your use case and look for products with the features you need. You can then take advantage of either free trials or demos to find out more.
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