Chameleon vs WalkMe – Which Is Better for Interactive User Guides?

Chameleon or WalkMe, which is the superior tool for creating interactive user guides? Or is there a user onboarding alternative better than both?

Choosing a tool can sometimes feel like a gamble. You never know which product you’ve signed up for unless you actually start using it. The last thing you want is to find yourself stuck in an expensive plan.

To help you make a confident decision, we’ll compare each tool’s features, strengths and weaknesses, reviews, and pricing.

Let’s dive in.

TL;DR

  • Interactive user guides leverage various UI patterns to educate customers on how to use your product more effectively. These guides can be classified into two types: full product tours and interactive manuals.
  • There are many benefits of creating interactive user guides, namely short time to value, high product adoption, and lower customer success and support costs.
  • Using a tool for interactive user guides is essential as it reduces dependency on developers and enables you to trigger user guides contextually.
  • A good tool must be truly no-code in nature, host a range of UX patterns, offer user segmentation, and enable you to track product analytics.
  • Chameleon is a digital adoption platform that lets you create step-by-step guides. You can also launch microsurveys to gather customer feedback.
  • Chameleon offers advanced segmentation features and two-way integrations with HubSpot, Segment, Mixpanel, etc. However, it’s not fully no-code and some developer involvement is needed.
  • WalkMe is another digital adoption platform that can be used for both employee and customer onboarding. You can use WalkMe to create onboarding checklists and walkthroughs, along with trigger tooltips to boost adoption.
  • One advantage of using WalkMe is the high customization it offers. However, the tool has a steep learning curve and is generally very expensive to use.
  • A better alternative to Chameleon and WalkMe is Userpilot. Userpilot is a powerful product adoption platform that offers impressive UX patterns, in-app checklists, interactive walkthroughs, and in-app resource centers, among other features.
  • Userpilot provides great value for money and doesn’t take long to get started. However, it’s not for mobile applications and can’t be used for employee onboarding.
  • Interested in what Userpilot has to offer? Book a demo today.

Looking for the best tool for interactive user guides? Search no more!

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What is an interactive user guide?

An interactive user guide is a set of UI patterns designed to work together and help customers understand how to use your product.

There are two main types of user guides: full product tours (which tend to be more detailed and time-consuming), and interactive manuals (using tooltips and real-time guidance to provide more contextual help to your customers).

Interactive user manuals are an excellent way of engaging and educating your users, helping them to get the most out of your product, and improving user onboarding and feature adoption.

Why should you care about interactive user guides?

All product managers want to delight and engage their customers. A big part of that is making sure your users know how to get the most from your application (and in the modern world, that means more than creating a support documentation page).

Fail in that mission, and you risk damaging customer loyalty. Here’s why building interactive user guides is important:

All in all, interactive user guides are the backbone of a successful onboarding strategy and should be a must for your user experience.

Why do you need tools for building interactive user guides?

Wondering why you even need a tool to create interactive user guides? There are several reasons why you may need one:

For most software companies, creating interactive manuals from scratch is the wrong approach. Why?

Rather than reinventing the wheel, your developers should prioritize their efforts around enhancing your software – making it faster or more visually appealing – and regularly shipping updates that delight your customers.

Here’s how using a tool can help:

  • With the low technical barrier to entry, anyone – from operations to customer success managers – can quickly create an interactive tour, which means you can reduce reliance on software developers.
  • Rather than a “one size fits all” approach, you can trigger user guides contextually – so based on the specific actions the customer has taken, targeted support is triggered to help them navigate and use the product more effectively.
  • There are dozens of variables you might want to adjust, from small changes to copy to tweaking the design. In a custom-built tool, this represents a significant amount of work – in a no-code tool, it’s incredibly simple.
  • Customer adoption tools make it easy to see which version of an interactive user guide performs more effectively with A/B testing (and adapt your approach accordingly).

You shouldn’t question the necessity for a tool to build interactive user guides, but you need to understand what functionality you should look for in a tool and which tools are the best.

Must-have features for building no-code interactive user guides?

Not all tools are built the same. Some offer different advantages over others while some will simply get you basic functionality but at a low price. It depends on your budget and needs which will determine the best tool to build interactive user guides.

Here’s what to look for as the main functionalities when picking a tool to build in-app guides:

  • Good range of UI patterns to use for building your guides.
  • Ability to customize each interactive guide to fit your brand and style.
  • Segmentation so you could trigger the guides to the right audience at the right time. A one-size-fits-all approach won’t bring you the desired results.
  • The ability to trigger the user guides when specific in-app events happen is nice to have and will help you build more contextual in-app experiences.
  • Minimum product usage analytics, to be able to track how users engage with the product, and where they get stuck so you can build relevant user guides to help them.

The above list is not exhaustive but it’s a starting point. Depending on your product, you might also need automated localization, A/B testing capabilities, advanced analytics or security, and more.

Chameleon for interactive user guides

Chameleon is a digital adoption platform with a difference: while the other tools discussed are mostly no-code, Chameleon will require some developer involvement.

Nevertheless, it’s a powerful and effective tool that works in a similar way to Userpilot and offers similar features: styling, analytics, templates, goals, A/B testing, and checklists.

However, it doesn’t offer a resource center, or dedicated NPS, and it’s a lot worse value for money with limited features in the basic plan, which is over $100 more expensive for the same number of MAUs.

Chameleon is a no-code solution for SaaS product adoption. It offers four key products:

  • Step-by-step tours: to guide users through the product

  • Self-serve launchers: for easy access to resources

  • Tips: for unblocking users and giving best practices

  • In-product microsurveys: for gathering contextual feedback

By allowing you to personalize customer experiences, you’re able to create user flows that will lead to the successful adoption of your products.

Additionally, Chameleon offers highly customizable styling, allowing you to create experiences that look native rather than like external products.

Pros of Chameleon?

Chameleon is a robust tool for your onboarding and adoption needs. Here are the main pros to consider if you’re still deciding:

  • Offers a good range of in-app messaging and UI patterns. You can create custom modals, slideouts, tooltips, hotspots, launchers (checklists or resource hubs), and more.
  • Good segmentation options, you can either build different user segments inside the product, or you can integrate your Chameleon account with other tools and import your data.
  • Can be used on 3rd party tools, meaning you can use it for employee onboarding too.
  • Offers a good range of two-way integrations: Mixpanel, Segment, Intercom, Customer.io, Segment, HubSpot, etc.

Cons of Chameleon?

While Chameleon is a great tool, the main downside is the cost and restrictions you get with it. Here are the main cons of the tool:

  • There are some limitations to user onboarding flows. You can’t run multiple in-app experiences at the same time, as you can in Userpilot. Instead, Chameleon enables you to create user onboarding campaigns (different sequences of product tours shown over time).
  • It’s built for single-page apps: Chameleon can’t build flows that run over multiple URLs.
  • Doesn’t offer a self-service resource center where users can access multiple guides and tutorials or contact support. It does provide launchers that are similar but more restricted. A launcher can be a checklist or a list of resources, but can’t be both.
  • It has a steeper learning curve and it’s not a completely no-code tool.
  • The Startup (starter) plan is quite restrictive and expensive (starts at $349/mo for 2500 MAU and includes 1 Launcher only and 5 micro surveys). You will need to go for Growth ($1249/mo) if you want to drive product adoption.

What users say about Chameleon?

Users appreciate Chameleon’s versatile functionalities. Let’s see what they have to say about it.

I love the variety of formats we can build in Chameleon, from interactive tooltips to progressive tours and launchers! It’s also really easy to track performance of each of these and adjust accordingly. The interface still feels quite clunky whenever I’m in build mode. For instance, I don’t like that I have to use markdown and CSS when formatting text instead of having an inline styling menu to select from. Then there’s also the issue of surveys or tour steps appearing where they’re not supposed to, apparently mistaking an element in another page for the anchor. -Nikki D

Chameleon is a good tool overall and it’s loved by its users. Most complaints are about the price and some limitations such as customization of tours, reporting, and analytics.

I wish there was an easier way to schedule content for release and more button options on the Tours. However, I think the scheduling feature is coming soon! I also wish it was easier to customize how launchers look without needing to know how to code UI changes in. – Lubana L.

There is limited reporting and dashboarding functionality within Chameleon currently. – Administrator in Financial Services

I think the software is a bit on the pricey side, but since it lets us do things that we would normally need our developers to do, we are truly saving in the grand scheme of things. It means we can focus on features and bug fixes, instead of building a new communication method that would only be used internally!-Nathalie L.

Is Chameleon the right fit for your business?

Chameleon is a great tool but we can’t say it’s the best there is. Here are three main reasons why you might consider an alternative.

  1. To get access to all the needed tools for proper onboarding and adoption you need to pay for the higher plans that can get expensive.
  2. Chameleon focuses on customization but in most cases, you will need a lot of CSS to achieve the look and feel of your brand. There are other tools that are truly no-code.
  3. If you need proper product and user analytics without having to pay for extra tools and integrate with Chameleon, you might need to consider a different tool.

Chameleon pricing

Chameleon split their pricing options primarily by the number of monthly active users, but you should keep in mind that the Startup plan also has limited features and might not be enough for interactive user onboarding and adoption for SaaS products:

  • 0 – 2500 MAUs: Startup plan from $349/mo, Growth plan from $1249/mo.
  • 2000 – 3000MAUs: Startup plan from $419/mo, Growth from $1299/mo.
  • 3000 – 5000 MAUs: Startup plan from $489/mo, Growth from $1449/mo.
  • 5000 – 10,000 MAUs: Startup plan from $629/mo, Growth from $1749/mo

Disclaimer: with the Startup plan you only get 5 microsurveys and 1 launcher, no A/B testing, no Goals, and no localization.

There is a better tool for your SaaS than Chameleon!

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WalkMe for interactive user guides

WalkMe is one of the pioneers in the market of adoption tools. It is a cloud-based software that allows you to create product tours and in-app experiences to drive adoption faster.

WalkMe is best for enterprise companies as they are focused on employee onboarding rather than user onboarding.

WalkMe platform is a cloud-based digital adoption software catering to enterprise businesses mostly. Typically, it’s used as an employee training tool – for onboarding employees on third-party applications such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Xero, etc.

Additionally, it can be used for onboarding new SaaS users and driving product adoption.

Let’s see what you can do with WalkMe to drive product adoption:

  • Create onboarding checklists and take new customers through all the important steps they need to get through to get started.
  • Create interactive walkthroughs, called WalkThrus to introduce customers to the main functionality of your product and prompt them to take action.
  • Use SmartTips (tooltips) to offer contextual hints to customers that will help reduce friction across the journey and drive product adoption.
  • Although you can build different UI patterns and drive adoption, WalkMe is not the best tool for the job and it never will be, since it’s not their priority. But if you are in need of a tool that allows you to drive employee onboarding across your tool stack and product adoption of your tool, then this will be a good option for you.

Pros of WalkMe?

WalkMe has its fair share of advantages that make it a solid tool. So what are WalkMe’s pros?

Here are our top three:

  • Offers a high level of customization and works on both your own tool and 3rd party tools.
  • Allows you to create in-app quizzes to test user or employee knowledge after completing a flow.
  • Get access to a vast list of integrations that simply enhance your data collection or allow you to connect multiple tools in your stack.

Cons of WalkMe?

WalkMe is an established tool on the market but it does have its own share of cons too.

Here are the main ones you should consider:

  • There’s a steep learning curve and a fair amount of technical knowledge required to create WalkMe user guides and get them implemented the way they’re intended.
  • WalkMe is designed for enterprise organizations, and its pricing reflects that.
  • You could end up spending anything from $9000 to $50000 a year on WalkMe. That’s a lot of money for startups and SMEs.

What users say about WalkMe?

Users are mostly happy with WalkMe’s features: on-screen guidance, interactive walkthroughs, customizable UI patterns, and journey segmentation are highly used and appreciated by customers.

Here are some reviews from real users.

“The most valuable thing WalkMe provides is time. WalkMe provides the user with on-screen guidance to get them to where they need to be without weighing down support teams on training for every function. The automated steps can remove multiple clicks and quickly send the user to what they need to see. The ability to view user activity and search terms allows mapping new build requirements properly.”

“WalkMe is very user-friendly and easy to learn! There are so many different features of WalkMe to provide a customizable and creative experience for all of our users. I love creating smart walkthroughs and building flows charts, which is the most fun part of my day-to-day tasks!”

But WalkMe is not a perfect solution, most complaints are about hard implementation and annual contract pricing.

Here are some words from real WalkMe users:

We never had time to implement the product. It takes a huge time investment and isn’t designed for the full documentation. Rather than maintain two sets of documentation, we removed Walkme from our product. This company is as bad as AOL or TimeWarner: they will not let you out of your multi-year contract no matter how unhappy you are with the product.

The tool is not very intuitive and has countless challenges using and technical difficulties.

Is WalkMe the right fit for your business?

Is WalkMe all you need or are there better alternatives that can provide more value at a much lower price? Here are the main reasons you should look for an alternative:

  1. WalkMe offers only yearly pricing contracts which start at $9000 so if you want to onboard new customers or provide in-app guidance then there are better solutions that won’t lock you in.
  2. WalkMe is known for its hard implementation so it’s not recommended for non-technical people. Generally, it can take weeks or even months. For better comparison, Userpilot can be set up in just a few minutes as it’s completely code-free.
  3. Bad and outdated UX design is another thing that might disappoint you and make you search for alternatives.

WalkMe pricing

WalkMe works on a custom pricing plan that requires you to request a quote from their sales team (could be spending from $9000 to $50000 a year).

Their main two plans are:

  • WalkMe for employee onboarding experience: engagement tools and analytics
  • WalkMe for customer experience: engagement tools and analytics
  • Add-ons: Session Streams, TeachMe, AI analytics through UI intelligence

There is a better tool for your SaaS than WalkMe!

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Is there a better alternative for interactive user guides?

Chameleon and WalkMe are good tools for interactive user guides. We’ve seen how they compare to each other and what you can achieve with them. Call us biased, but if you’re looking for something better, Userpilot offers more value for your money than these tools.

Userpilot for interactive user guides

Userpilot is a powerful product adoption platform that enables you to quickly build personalized, flexible, contextually relevant in-app experiences targeted to different user segments – all without writing a line of code.

Product adoption describes the process of getting users to the point where they are experiencing value from your product.

Userpilot is a powerful product adoption platform that enables you to quickly build personalized and contextual in-app experiences targeted to different user experiences – all without writing a line of code.

It’s a great option for enterprise users too since it’s SOC 2 Type II certified and offers robust features for large-scale usage.

Here are some of Userpilot’s product adoption features that you may find helpful:

  • A broad range of UI patterns to build fully customizable, contextual, and interactive in-app flows: modals, slideouts, tooltips, hotspots, driven actions, banners, and more. And – most importantly – you are not limited by plan when it comes to how many UI patterns or designs you can build.
  • Advanced in-app checklists with built-in gamification elements like progress bars or ”automatically marked complete” tasks: checklists also come with analytics so you can track who is interacting with them and how.
  • Fully interactive walkthroughs walk users through engaging and adopting specific features of your app.
  • The self-service in-app resource center lets users search your knowledge base directly inside the app, access chat, and support but also launch guides and tutorials when they get stuck.
  • User feedback tools allow you to collect insights to improve the product and the user experience, thus leading to a higher product adoption rate. You can also collect NPS data and tag responses to uncover patterns into what makes users stick, or build micro surveys for more granular data. Then you can use all the feedback collected to build user segments based on the answers and personalize the path to higher product adoption for each segment.

Want to see Userpilot in action? Get a demo and improve product adoption with contextual and personalized in-app flows that actually help users.

Pros of Userpilot?

Userpilot has a number of advantages, especially for mid-market SaaS companies looking for a robust but at the same time very easy-to-use, no-code tool for user onboarding, product adoption, and simplified product analytics. Let’s have a look at the pros of using Userpilot:

  • No-code builder – Userpilot comes with an easy-to-use Chrome Extension builder.
  • Multiple UI patterns – choose from a range of options to build customized flows: modals, slideouts, banners, tooltips, hotspots, and checklists are all at your disposal.
  • UI patterns are not limited by plan – you get access to all of them on every single plan, meaning you get value even with the Traction plan (this is the entry-level one).
  • Engaging walkthroughs and onboarding flows – build interactive walkthroughs targeted to distinct user segments.
  • In-app help – build a resource center offering self-service support to your users, customize it with your branding, and select from a range of help options to boost user satisfaction (i.e., videos, in-app flows, chat, and more).
  • Experimentation – built-in A/B testing for flows lets you explore and quickly iterate based on direct user behavior.
  • Powerful feedback options – integrated NPS surveys with analytics and response tagging unlock insight into how your users feel.
  • Advanced analytics and segmentation – analyze product usage and in-app flow engagement and build user segments using the data.
  • Event tracking and feature tags – tag UI engagement (clicks, form fills, hovers) and group them into one custom event to track what really matters.
  • More value with integrations – unlock value faster with built-in integrations with popular tools like Segment, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Kissmetrics, Intercom, Heap, and more.

Cons of Userpilot?

There are, however, some downsides to Userpilot as well:

  • Browser/web app only – Userpilot won’t run on mobile devices/applications.
  • Doesn’t support employee onboarding – The tool is better suited for customer onboarding than for employee onboarding as you can’t build in-app guides on third-party tools.
  • Missing integrations – doesn’t have built-in integrations with some tools, but it has webhooks, and HubSpot and Zapier are coming soon.
  • Not appropriate for small startups on a shoestring budget (<$100) – Userpilot is a powerful, mid-market to enterprise-level tool. So $249 a month might be too expensive for really small startups.

What users say about Userpilot?

Let’s check what real users like about Userpilot.

Userpilot is an incredible, user-friendly software that allows us to create unforgettable experiences for our clients! From basic to complex experiences, we have been able to do them all with ease! I would highly recommend this software to anyone who wants to provide their clients or users with the best product tour experience. The possibilities of what you can create are endless! – Tayla G.

Userpilot is simple to set up, use, and does not require any dev – which means instant publishing. This is critical for us as a SaaS company that releases new features frequently; we need the ability to inform our customers of changes quickly, and doing this in our platform through Userpilot allows us to reach the right audience, at the right time, in the right place. There have been many awesome extra features we’ve discovered since coming on board, and it’s been great to see new features released frequently. The tool itself is intuitive and reliable. Having used similar products previously that were clunky and buggy this has really made us happy with our decision to move to Userpilot. – Melina K.

Get more value for your money with Userpilot!

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Userpilot pricing

Userpilot offers great value for money compared to other similar tools on the market. Even its entry-level plan (Traction) provides all the necessary features without any usage limit.

The price-to-feature ratio is the best for Userpilot. Other cheaper tools in the market would definitely not fulfill your needs, and others like Pendo would be out of budget. Userpilot sits in that sweet spot. – Saurav S.

The pricing differentiation happens mostly on the service level (e.g., custom domain hosting, dedicated Customer Success Manager, SLA) and is based on the number of Monthly Active Users (MAUs) your company has.

Here’s the detailed Userpilot pricing:

  • Traction: For up to 2500 users, this plan is $249/ mo.
  • Growth: For up to 10,000 users, this plan is $499/ mo.
  • Enterprise: For large-scale businesses, these plans begin from $1000/ mo.

Conclusion

You now have all the necessary information to make a confident decision. Both Chameleon and WalkMe are great tools for creating interactive user guides, but ultimately, your choice will come down to your current business needs.

If you’re looking for a solid tool with great value for money, give Userpilot a go. Book a demo today to discover how to use Userpilot to create interactive guides seamlessly.

There is no better tool for your SaaS than Userpilot!

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