Top 11 Chameleon Alternatives & Competitors (free tools incl.)

What is Chameleon?

• G2 Score: 4.4⭐/5 (294 reviews)

Chameleon is a product adoption platform that helps you create personalized in-app campaigns for product announcements and contextual guidance. 

Here’s what Chameleon offers in terms of features:

• Product Tours
• Modals
• Banners 
• Embedded Cards
• Tooltips
• Checklists
• Resource Centers
• NPS & Microsurveys
• CMD+K Search

You can use Chameleon to offer in-app support to your users and reduce the workload on your support team. While the platform doesn’t allow you to create a standalone knowledge base, it lets you link your existing KB to the Resource Center and the CMD+K Search bar. You can also use your KB content to train the AI to provide concise answers directly within CMD+K Search.

CMD+K Search is a centralized in-app search bar that allows users to access all your support resources from one place, directly within your product. 

Another strength of Chameleon is its wide range of embeddable elements. While some other tools also offer embedded tooltips, Chameleon goes further by allowing you to create and embed banners, tooltips, hotspots, and checklists. You can embed up to four messages at a time.

The platform supports web-based apps only. 

Chameleon Pricing

Chameleon has 3 paid plans and a free plan. 

The free plan, HelpBar, is designed solely for in-app support and includes CMD+K Search and AI-generated answers. It does not include analytics, event tracking, or guidance features such as tooltips, interactive guides, checklists, or tours.

The paid plans, Startup, Growth, and Enterprise,  offer a broader set of features, including tooltips, tours, embeddables, micro surveys, launchers, and event tracking, with varying feature limits.

The Startup plan starts at $279/month. It includes:

• Unlimited tours and tooltips
• 5 micro surveys
• 1 launcher
• Experience analytics
• 5 tracked events

The Growth and Enterprise plans have custom pricing.

The Growth plan unlocks unlimited access to all experiences, increases tracked events to 20, and adds A/B testing and conversion goal tracking.

Chameleon doesn’t offer a very extensive range of integrations, but the ones it does provide,  including Segment, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Heap, Intercom, and Slack, are available across all paid plans. 

What are the weaknesses of Chameleon?

• Lacks Certain Adoption Features: While Chameleon offers a solid set of in-app engagement tools, it lacks key off-app features that many other product adoption platforms provide, such as standalone knowledge bases, product update pages, or changelogs.
• Limited Customization: Customization options are fairly restricted, particularly for microsurveys, tooltips, Resource Centers, checklists, and buttons. This can limit the ability to fully match your brand’s look and feel.
• Outdated Templates: To build any material in Chameleon, you must start with a template, many of which appear boxy and outdated, offering limited flexibility in design.
• Fragmented User Experience: The customization and configuration settings are inconsistent across the platform. Some features must be edited in the Chrome extension, while others require navigating back to the dashboard. Additionally, there’s no way to toggle between content built in the extension; you have to return to the dashboard to manage or review your work.
• Material Maintenance Issues: Chameleon doesn’t have the easiest implementation. Over time, as you accumulate more content, the platform can start to feel heavy and harder to manage. Additionally, if your product’s UI changes frequently, you may find yourself having to rebuild the same guides repeatedly.
• Limited Platform Support: Chameleon does not support native mobile or desktop applications, which could be a dealbreaker for teams with cross-platform needs.
• Limited Integrations: Chameleon’s list of integrations is relatively limited. If your tech stack includes a variety of analytics or CRM tools, you may find it difficult to integrate Chameleon into your existing workflow.
• High Cost & Unclear Pricing Structure: Although Chameleon’s starting price is publicly available, the pricing structure beyond that is unclear. It’s difficult to predict how pricing scales with usage or feature needs.

11 Best Alternatives to Chameleon (Free & Paid)

#1 Chameleon vs. UserGuiding

• G2 Score: 4.7⭐/5 (632 reviews)

UserGuiding is a no-code, all-in-one product adoption platform that enables you to create engaging flows and experiences for your users. You can use it to offer guidance, communicate your updates, collect user feedback, and automate support. 

Here’s what you can expect from UserGuiding:

• Product tours
• Onboarding checklists
• Hotspots and tooltips
• Announcement modals (banners, slideouts, pop-ups, etc.)
• NPS and custom in-app surveys
• AI assistant
• Resource center (in-app)
• Knowledge base (standalone)
• Product updates (standalone) 
• Segmentation
• Analytics

As you can see, UserGuiding and Chameleon share many features, particularly when it comes to in-app experience tools. However, what sets UserGuiding apart is its comprehensive approach to the user experience. It extends beyond in-app engagement to include off-app support and communication through built-in Knowledge Base and Product Updates features.

With the Knowledge Base, you can consolidate all your help content in one place and link it to your in-app Resource Center and AI Assistant, and create a complete user support experience..

While Chameleon also offers a Resource Center, it does not include a built-in knowledge base. To achieve a similar setup, you need to either integrate with a separate platform or manually enter your help content into the Resource Center.

The Product Updates page in UserGuiding serves as a centralized hub for release notes and feature announcements. Plus, you can collect user feedback directly on the page and turn your announcements into a two-way communication channel.

Now, let’s see how Chameleon and UserGuiding compare side by side 👇🏻

It’s crucial to consider integrations, security, compliance, and pricing. Here’s a comparison of Whatfix and UserGuiding across those aspects:

UserGuiding Pricing

UserGuiding has 3 paid plans and a free plan for support essentials, similar to Chameleon.

The free plan, Support Essentials, includes a resource center, knowledge base, and product updates, as well as an AI assistant with 50 free resolutions. So, compared to Chameleon’s free plan, UserGuiding’s free plan comes with more features and offers a more realistic, comprehensive use case.

The paid plans are called Starter, Growth, and Enterprise.

UserGuiding has an MAU-based price calculation, which allows you to estimate your cost on the pricing website with the MAU slider.

The Starter plan begins at $174/mo, when billed yearly, for up to 2,000 MAU. From 2,000 to 5,000 MAU, this price rises to $209/mo, again when billed yearly. The Growth plan, on the other hand, has a starting price of $349/mo (billed yearly) for up to 2,000 MAU. From 2,000 to 5,000 MAU, this price rises to $419/mo (billed yearly).

UserGuiding allows you to choose whether to be billed monthly or yearly.

Of course, yearly billing is more cost-effective than the monthly option (it actually saves 30% over the year). However, if you prefer monthly billing for any reason, you have that option with UserGuiding.

In the case of monthly billing, the starting prices of the Starter and Growth plans for up to 2,000 MAU become:

• Starter: $249/mo
• Growth: $499/mo

Now, let’s see what you get in these plans.

The Starter plan includes almost all of the features and capabilities that UserGuiding offers, with lower feature caps compared to the Growth or Enterprise plans, of course.

You get interactive guides, hotspots, tooltips, checklists, resource centers, AI assistants, knowledge bases, product updates, and material engagement analytics.

What differentiates the Growth plan from the Starter plan is its advanced reporting and event/goal tracking capabilities, along with increased feature limits. Hotspots, checklists, and resource centers become unlimited in the Growth plan.

The AI Assistant is included in all plans and comes with 50 free resolutions, except for the Enterprise plan, which has custom calculation.

The level of service also improves in the Growth plan, for example, migration support, implementation workshops, and optional EU data hosting become available.

However, unlike Chameleon, UserGuiding does not put customer support behind a paywall. All plans include 24/7 support, a Help Center, UserGuiding University, email support, and access to a troubleshooter.

Live chat support is not available to Support Essentials (free plan) subscribers.

📝 Here’s what UserGuiding customers say about the platform:

#2 Chameleon vs. Product Fruits

• G2 Score: 4.7⭐/5 (137 reviews)

Product Fruits is a no-code user onboarding tool that mainly focuses on in-app communication and guidance. You can use it to improve your feature discovery and user retention, as well as to offer self-serve support within your product. 

With Product Fruits, you get:

• Tours and hints (tooltips and hotspots)
• Onboarding checklists
• NPS and surveys
• Announcements (banners, pop-ups, and newsfeed)
• Life ring button (resource center)
• Knowledge base 
• Feedback widget (for bug reports and user feedback)
• AI writer 
• Segmentation
• Event tracking 

The platform offers basic material engagement reports as well. While you don’t get highly detailed analytics or filtering, such as based on user flows, funnels, or workflows, you can still track how materials perform and whether users find them engaging or helpful.

Although Product Fruits doesn’t offer a native changelog or product updates feature that works outside of your product, it does let you organize your release notes and updates in one place through its Newsfeed feature.

Newsfeed functions within your product and acts as an internal update center for announcements.

Unfortunately, Product Fruits also does not support native mobile apps.

Chameleon Wins at…

• Embeddables: Chameleon offers more embeddable modals.
• Product Tour Customization: Chameleon allows you to snooze tours or save them as templates in the tour gallery for future reference or a head start.
• Advanced Segmentation: Chameleon’s segmentation capabilities are more detailed and allow you to set more rules and run A/B tests.

Product Fruits Wins at…

• Usability: Product Fruits has almost no learning curve and requires less effort for setup.
• Knowledge Base: Product Fruits offers a standalone knowledge base feature.
• Pricing: Product Fruits is on the lower end of the pricing scale compared to both Chameleon and other Chameleon alternatives.

Product Fruits Pricing 

Product Fruits has 3 plans: Core, Boost, and Enterprise. 

Similar to UserGuiding, Product Fruits uses an MAU-based pricing model and allows you to calculate your potential cost on its website with an MAU slider.

The Core plan starts at $79/mo (billed yearly) for up to 1,500 MAUs. For the same MAU limit, the Boost plan starts at $139/mo, also billed yearly.

You can switch to monthly billing, in which case the starting prices increase to:

• Core: $99/mo
• Boost: $159/mo

To give you an idea of how MAU growth impacts pricing, here’s what the Core and Boost plans cost for 1,500 to 3,000 MAU, billed yearly:

• Core: $149/mo
• Boost: $209/mo

The Enterprise plan has custom pricing.

All Product Fruits plans include the platform’s core features, so you’ll have access to unlimited tours, walkthroughs, UI hints, beacons, and tooltips, regardless of which plan you’re on. Features like announcements, newsfeeds, the resource center, and feedback widgets are also standard across all plans.

The checklist feature is limited to 3 checklists in the Core plan, but becomes unlimited in both the Boost and Enterprise tiers.

The real differences between the plans start to show in the availability of more advanced features. For instance, the knowledge base in the Core plan is public-only, meaning it can’t be used for internal, password-protected documentation. 

Additionally, surveys and the AI writer are not included in the Core plan at all; they are only available in the Boost and Enterprise plans. 

📝 Here’s what Product Fruits customers say about the platform:

#3 Chameleon vs. Userflow

• G2 Score: 4.8⭐/5 (106 reviews)

Userflow is another user onboarding tool that mostly focuses on in-app user experience and guidance. However, you can use it also for feature announcements, promotions, as well as collecting user insights. 

Here are its offerings:

• Product tours and Interactive Walkthroughs (Flow Builder)
• Checklists
• In-app surveys
• Resource center
• Banners
• Feature announcements
• AI assistant
• Segmentation
• Event tracking

What sets Userflow apart from Chameleon and other alternatives is its approach to feature building. Its builders are designed like flow diagrams, where each step follows the next visually.

This logic is consistent across the platform: the flow builder, checklist builder, resource center builder, and banner builder all use the same step-by-step structure. Instead of using a separate survey builder, Userflow allows you to create survey questions directly within the flow builder.

While the builder interface might feel a bit unintuitive at first, it becomes quite straightforward once you're familiar with how it works. 

Userflow, too, doesn’t support native mobile apps. 

Chameleon Wins at…

• CMD+K Search: Chameleon’s CMD+K Search feature allows users to quickly scan and access different help materials, offering a more dynamic and centralized experience compared to a traditional resource center.
• Embeddables: Chameleon provides a wider range of embeddable features, including tooltips, banners, checklists, and hotspots. While Userflow does support embedding certain types of content like videos, visuals, and columns, it’s not as extensive.

Userflow Wins at…

• AI Assistant: Userflow offers an AI assistant that can serve as an in-app support agent, available to users 24/7. This feature helps automate responses and reduces the load on support teams.
• Usability: Userflow has a minimal learning curve and is easy to get started with.
• Flow Builders: Userflow’s consistent builder logic across flows, checklists, and other components creates a unified experience. While the interface may feel a bit busy at first, it ultimately offers a smoother and more cohesive workflow compared to Chameleon’s more fragmented customization and targeting settings.

Userflow Pricing 

Userflow has 3 plans: Startup, Pro, and Enterprise. 

Similar to UserGuiding and Product Fruits, the pricing for these plans depends on your MAU count. For up to 3,000 MAU, the Startup plan starts at $240/month when billed yearly, and $300/month when billed monthly. 

The Pro plan follows a different MAU structure, starting at $680/month for up to 10,000 MAU when billed yearly, and $850/month when billed monthly.

As you can see, the starting prices are higher compared to UserGuiding and Product Fruits. However, Userflow is generous with both feature limits and MAU thresholds, especially when compared to other Chameleon competitors like Userpilot or Appcues.

For example, the Startup plan rises to just $320/month for 8,000 MAUs, while the Pro plan increases to $760/month for 15,000 MAUs. 

So, the unit cost per-MAU is pretty low.

The Enterprise plan comes with custom limits and pricing. 

The Startup plan includes essential onboarding features such as flows, checklists, surveys, and a resource center. It is a good fit for small teams that are starting to implement in-app guidance. 

The Pro plan adds more advanced options like localization and custom CSS. These features help teams that need more control over the appearance and experience. The Enterprise plan includes additional security features, such as Single Sign-On (SSO).

Across all plans, the platform offers generous limits. Users get unlimited flows, checklists, launchers, hotspots, banners, and announcements, even on the lowest tier.

📝 Here’s what Userflow customers say about the platform:

#4 Chameleon vs. Userpilot

• G2 Score: 4.6⭐/5 (732 reviews)

Userpilot is a product growth platform that empowers you with tools and capabilities to guide users, run surveys, monitor engagement patterns, and improve user retention. Some of these tools and capabilities are:

• Tooltips and hotspots, 
• Guides, 
• Checklists,
• Session replays,
• Surveys,
• Resource centers,
• Announcement modals,
• Feature tagging and event tracking capabilities,
• Segmentation.

Userpilot also supports native mobile applications (the first, but not the last, in this list) and offers mobile-first features like slideouts and carousels. You can also use web-app-compatible features such as surveys, analytics, and segmentation with your mobile apps as well.

Mobile app support is available as an add-on for the Growth and Enterprise plans.

Chameleon Wins at…

• CMDK+K Search: Chameleon’s HelpBar enables users to quickly find answers or navigate your product with ease.
• User Experience/ Onboarding: Chameleon offers a very detailed and structured onboarding process, with each feature having its own dedicated Arcade experience.

Userpilot Wins at…

• Surveys: Userpilot provides more customization options for in-app surveys, along with over 30 ready-to-use templates.
• Analytics: Userpilot allows you to generate detailed reports based on user behavior, including funnel reports and path analysis.
• Session Recording: Userpilot includes session recording and replay features that offer a comprehensive view of the user journey.
• Mobile App Support: As mentioned, Userpilot offers mobile app support as an add-on for its higher-tier plans.

Userpilot Pricing 

Userpilot has 3 plans: Starter, Growth, and Enterprise.

The cost of these plans also depends on your MAU numbers. However, in this case, there’s no MAU-based price calculator available to help you estimate your potential cost.

That said, we do have information about the starting prices. 

The Starter plan begins at $299/month (billed annually) and covers up to 2,000 MAU. The Growth plan starts at $799/month (billed annually) and uses custom MAU calculations. The Enterprise plan has both custom MAU and custom pricing.

There’s no monthly billing option available with Userpilot. 

MAU limits aren’t the only restrictions in the Starter plan. If you're on this tier, you won’t be able to purchase any add-ons. That means no mobile support, no session replays, and no Salesforce or HubSpot integrations.

Additionally, there’s no localization, no custom CSS, no A/B testing, no custom in-app surveys beyond NPS, no resource center, no advanced reporting, and no custom event tracking.

So, what do you get in the Starter plan? 

You still have access to NPS surveys, basic segmentation, basic analytics, and core in-app engagement features.

The Growth and Enterprise plans offer most of the same core features but differ in areas like integrations, advanced data capabilities, account management, and feature limits. More importantly, they allow you to scale and unlock add-ons.

📝 Here’s what Userpilot customers say about the platform:

#5 Chameleon vs. Appcues

• G2 Score: 4.6⭐/5 (337 reviews)

Appcues is a user engagement and onboarding tool that allows you to offer personalized user experiences and communication through in-app messages, emails, and push notifications. 

Here are its key features:

• Flows (modals, slideouts, and hotspots) 
• Tooltips
• In-app Surveys and NPS
• Checklists
• Launchpads (in-app resource center)
• Banners
• Resource Centers
• Segmentation‍
• Event Tracking‍
• A/B Testing
• Email Messaging

Appcues, too, supports native mobile applications. Plus, it also supports iFrames. However, not all features are compatible with mobile. For example, checklists, resource centers, and NPS surveys are not included in the mobile app plans.

So if these features are important to your use case, you may want to consider a different platform that supports mobile apps and includes these capabilities.

The platform’s analytics capabilities are also decent. You can monitor engagement and track custom events.

Chameleon Wins at…

• Usability: Chameleon’s setup process is relatively easier compared to Appcues. Appcues has a moderate learning curve. 
• Pricing: Chameleon is a little bit more affordable option than Appcues, though there isn’t a big difference.  

Appcues Wins at…

• Journeys: Journey is Appcues’ feature which allows you to create roadmaps.
• Analytics: Appcues’ analytics capabilities are more detailed. 
• Mobile Use Cases: Appcues supports native mobile applications.

Appcues Pricing 

Appcues has 3 plans: Start, Grow, and Enterprise. 

The pricing is based on the number of MAUs, and there’s a slider available to help you estimate your cost.

The Start plan begins at $300/month (billed annually) for up to 1,000 MAUs. The Grow plan starts at $750/month (billed annually) for the same MAU limit.

When you increase the MAU to 1,500, the prices rise to $375/month and $800/month, respectively, both billed annually.
As you can see, the price jump per MAU is quite steep with Appcues.

We’re talking about a $75/month increase with the Start plan and a $50/month increase with the Grow plan for every additional 500 MAUs.

The Start plan lacks several key features, such as resource centers, NPS surveys, and advanced integrations, which are either excluded or only available as paid add-ons. Additionally, support options and integration availability are limited in the lower-tier plans.

📝 Here’s what Appcues customers say about the platform:

#6 Chameleon vs. Whatfix

• G2 Score: 4.6⭐/5 (376 reviews)

Whatfix is a digital adoption and product analytics platform that allows you offer proactive in-app support, and guidance across different platforms including web apps, desktop apps, mobile apps, as well as OS. 

Whatfix offers 3 separate solutions: Digital Adoption Platform (DAP), Product Analytics, and Mirror. 

Here’s what you get with DAP:

• Flows
• Task lists (checklists)
• Smart tips (tooltips)
• Beacons
• Pop-up modals
• Launchers
• Surveys 
• Guidance analytics 

DAP includes basic analytics, but if you need more advanced capabilities and reporting, you'll have to purchase Product Analytics separately. Keep in mind, though, that Product Analytics only works with desktop and web applications, mobile and OS apps are supported exclusively by DAP.

Mirror is another solution that Whatfix offers, which is designed to create sandbox environments for training purposes. It allows you (or your users/employees) to practice using the software without affecting real data or settings.

All of these solutions (DAP, Product Analytics, and Mirror) are sold separately.

Chameleon Wins at…

• Usability: Chameleon has a gentler learning curve compared to Whatfix. Whatfix often requires some technical know-how, particularly when setting up analytics.
• Pricing: Whatfix uses a fully opaque pricing model and is widely regarded as expensive.

Whatfix Wins at…

• Multi-Platform Support for DAP: Whatfix supports web apps, desktop apps, mobile apps, and operating systems, making it more versatile for digital adoption.
• Product Analytics: Whatfix offers robust and detailed analytics capabilities, especially when the Product Analytics module is purchased separately.
• Mirror: Whatfix’s Mirror is a unique feature that enables sandbox environments for training, something Chameleon doesn’t offer an equivalent for.

Whatfix Pricing 

Whatfix has a very structured (but also very confusing) pricing. You need to choose your solution(s), first: DAP, Product Analytics, or Mirror.

Later on, for DAP, you need to choose your platform(s): Web & Desktop, Mobile, and OS. 

For Web & Desktop, you have then 3 plans: Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. For Mobile and OS, there’s only one plan, Standard.

All Web & Desktop DAP plans come with Standard Product Analytics by default. If you want to upgrade to Premium or Enterprise Analytics, you’ll need to purchase the Product Analytics tool separately. 

All plans include 24/5 customer support. 

So, basically, Whatfix’s cost is based on how many of their products you need, which platforms you’ll use DAP on, the feature set you choose (which means your plan), and user license fees. 

User license fees are calculated based on your MAU or, if you’re using Whatfix for internal business needs, the number of employees who have access to the product.

There are also add-ons for on-premise authoring, white labeling, 24/7 customer support, and additional assistance/project management from Whatfix teams. 

📝 Here’s what Whatfix customers say about the platform:

#7 Chameleon vs. Pendo

• G2 Score: 4.4⭐/5 (1,489 reviews)

Pendo is a Software Experience Management (SXM) platform that heps you improve your user experience through guidance, automation, and experimentation. 

Here are the features and capabilities Pendo offers:

• Guides, tooltips, onboarding modules,
• Resource centers,
• NPS surveys (in-app/ in-app + email),
• Product roadmaps,
• Session recordings, 
• Orchestrate (user journey automation),
• A/B testing,
• And reports for your funnels, user events, paths, and workflows

Pendo Orchestrate is Pendo’s user journey personalization and automation feature. It allows you to trigger messaging (both in-product and off-product via email) based on user behavior and engagement. 

Pendo Listen is Pendo’s user research and product planning feature set. It includes roadmaps, idea validation, and AI-powered sentimen analysis. 

Chameleon Wins at…

• Usability: Pendo has a steep learning curve and might require some technical background (even coding knowledge) for some features. 
• Pricing: Pendo does not offer transparent pricing, but based on Vendr data, the average cost is around $48,000 per year.

Pendo Wins at…

• Product Planning & User Research: Pendo offers tools like roadmapping, idea collection, and feedback management, enabling you to plan and prioritize product development based on real user insights.
• Analytics: Pendo’s built-in analytics are highly advanced, offering detailed insights into user behavior, feature adoption, and retention.

Pendo Pricing 

Pendo has 4 paid plans and a free plan.

Pendo Free offers in-app guides, NPS surveys (Pendo-branded), and basic analytics, supporting up to 500 monthly active users (MAU). However, it does not come with customer support, so you’re on your own to navigate the platform.

Though it’s not the most comprehensive tool, it still can be a good start, especially for startups and small businesses. 

The paid plans (Base, Core, Pulse, and Ultimate) have opaque pricing with custom MAU calculations. 

The factors that shape the cost of the platform for you are:

• Number of monthly active users (MAUs)
• Number of apps you track
• Depth of analytics or guide usage
• Access to premium features (resource center, NPS, session replays, etc.)
• Advanced capabilities (localization, automation, data sync, and more)
• Number of integrations needed
• API access
• Account and data management preferences
• Contract length and terms negotiated

👉🏻 For a deeper look at Pendo’s pricing, including how it compares to its value and what Pendo users have to say, take a look at our Pendo Pricing Guide.

📝 Here’s what Pendo customers say about the platform:

#8 Chameleon vs. WalkMe

• G2 Score: 4.5⭐/5 (493 reviews)

WalkMe is a digital adoption platform designed to personalize and optimize user experiences, automate workflows, and improve employee productivity. 

Seems unrelated? 

Well, WalkMe offers 2 solutions: WalkMe for Customers (the standard DAP) and WalkMe for Employees (a solution specifically designed for employee productivity and training.) 

Here’s what WalkMe for Customers and WalkMe for Employees have in common:

• Product tours and interactive walkthroughs 
• Hotspots and tooltips
• NPS, CSAT, and custom surveys 
• AI agent 
• Segmentation 
• Event tracking 
• Stories (Auto-captured guides)
• WalkMe Menu (In-app resource center)

👉🏻 Check out what WalkMe’s features look like (without booking a demo with them!!) and understand the purposes they serve.

Chameleon Wins at…

• Announcement Modals: WalkMe doesn’t offer announcement modals or banners. So if in-app announcements and feature highlights are a priority, WalkMe may not be the right fit.
• Usability: WalkMe has a steep learning curve and often requires coding knowledge to fully utilize its features. Maintaining the platform usually demands a dedicated team or individual, and even then, ongoing support from WalkMe’s team is often necessary.
• Pricing: WalkMe doesn’t provide transparent pricing, but it’s widely considered expensive, in fact, Vendr data says that the average WalkMe customer pays over $78,000 per year.

WalkMe Wins at…

• Employee Onboarding: Though you can theoretically use any onboarding tool for employee onboarding, WalkMe offers several more features for employee training and process standardization, compared to any other onboarding tool. 
• Product Analytics: WalkMe offers advanced analytics capabilities that give deep visibility into user behavior, task completion, and adoption trends. Plus, WalkMe’s analytics provide insights into SaaS spend and software adoption when used for internal teams.
• AI Capabilities: WalkMe’s ActionBot is a standout AI feature that allows users to complete tasks through conversational prompts. It enhances user productivity by simplifying multi-step actions into automated workflows.

WalkMe Pricing 

As mentioned earlier, WalkMe offers two main solutions (or plans, you could say): WalkMe for Customers and WalkMe for Employees. 

Both come with opaque pricing, so there’s no public, standardized cost. However, according to Vendr data, the average annual cost for WalkMe is around $78,000, with some contracts going as high as $405,000.

Feature-wise, WalkMe for Customers doesn’t include anything that isn’t already in the Employees plan. On the other hand, WalkMe for Employees offers additional features such as Workstation (for desktop and mobile), Workflow Accelerators, and access to the Solutions Gallery.

👉🏻 Check out our WalkMe Pricing Review to learn more about what drives WalkMe’s pricing and whether its feature set justifies the cost.

📝 Here’s what WalkMe customers say about the platform:

#9 Chameleon vs. Intercom

• G2 Score: 4.5⭐/5 (3,393 reviews)

Intercom is a customer support and service platform that is known for its powerful AI chatbots, Fin and CoPilot. However, in addition to the AI agents, the platform also offers several in-app experience and guidance features/capabilities as part of its Proactive Support Plus plan. 

Here is what you can expect from Intercom:

• Product tours
• Tooltips
• Onboarding checklists 
• Surveys 
• Banners 
• Help center (standalone)

‍

Because Intercom is not actually an onboarding or product adoption tool, the customization of these features are pretty limited compared to all the other Chameleon alternatives we’ve covered in this article. 

The tours are not interactive, and you don’t have a lot of control over user engagement data. 

Chameleon Wins at…

• Interactive Features: Chameleon provides a broader range of in-app experience features. Plus, its guides, tooltips, and checklists are designed to be fully interactive.
• Customization: Chameleon offers greater flexibility when it comes to customizing features, as well as more granular segmentation and targeting options.

Intercom Wins at…

• Multi-platform User Communication: Intercom enables communication with users across multiple channels, including email, SMS, social media, chat, and phone.
• AI Agents: Intercom’s AI offerings include Fin, an AI support assistant for end-users, and CoPilot, an AI-powered tool to assist support teams.
• Price: Intercom tends to be more affordable than Chameleon, especially for teams primarily focused on customer communication rather than in-product guidance.

Intercom Pricing 

Intercom’s pricing can feel straightforward at first, but it becomes more layered once you start adding features or scaling your team. The platform offers three main plans (Essential, Advanced, and Expert) starting at $29, $85, and $132 per seat annually. 

If you choose to pay monthly, the costs rise to $39, $99, and $139 per seat. 

These plans cover the basics like live chat, support email, in-app messages, banners, and tooltips. However, if you want to use additional communication channels like SMS, WhatsApp, email campaigns, or phone calls, you'll face extra usage-based fees.

The optional add-ons can significantly impact your total spend. 

For example, Intercom’s AI tools aren’t included by default. Fin, their AI support agent, charges $0.99 for each resolved conversation, while CoPilot, which supports internal teams, costs $29 per agent per month. 

If you need more in-app guidance tools like product tours, mobile carousels, A/B testing, and push notifications, you’ll have to add the Proactive Support Plus package for $99 a month.

Altogether, Intercom’s cost can grow quickly and become unpredictable as your needs evolve. Teams with large user bases or high support volumes may find it hard to stay within budget over time.

📝 Here’s what Intercom customers say about the platform:

#10 Chameleon vs. Intro.js (Free option)

• GitHub Score: 4.6/5⭐ (23.1K reviews aka “stargazers”)

Intro.js is a JavaScript library designed to enhance user experience through step-by-step walkthroughs, product tours, and tooltips (hints). It is a great option for those on a tight budget and need a simple website tour without the costly features like analytics.

Intro.js has one use case: user onboarding. Therefore, its features are geared towards that. Here are what you can expect to find in Intro.js:

• Step-by-step guides
• Customizable tooltips (hints)
• JavaScript API Events
• Commercial support
• Manual localization

Chameleon Wins at…

• Multi-Modal Onboarding: Chameleon goes far beyond basic product tours. With built-in checklists, surveys, carousels, and tooltips, it supports layered onboarding strategies tailored to different user journeys.
• Collaboration and Workflow Integration: Designed for cross-functional teams, Chameleon includes version control, approval flows, and integrations with tools like Jira, Slack, and analytics platforms, so that teams can move fast, together.
• Behavioral Targeting: Chameleon helps you test and optimize onboarding with A/B testing, real-time user targeting, and in-app personalization. It’s built for teams that iterate quickly and care about conversion metrics.

Intro.js Wins at…

• Pricing: Chameleon runs on a SaaS subscription. Intro.js doesn’t. You pay once, and it’s yours—source code, updates, everything. For teams that value independence and cost predictability, that’s a win.
• Straightforward Use Case: If all you need is a simple, guided product tour without interactive layers or complex UX logic, Intro.js delivers exactly that—no extra features to configure or disable.
• Lightweight: Intro.js is just a JavaScript library: no logins, no SDKs, and no hidden processes. It’s ideal if you want a clean, fast, front-end-only implementation that stays out of your way.

Intro.js Pricing 

As we talked above, Intro.js has a one-time purchase fee and you get lifetime access to all updates and licensing. It is also free to use for personal and non-commercial uses. If you want to get a commercial license for your product, here’s the breakdown of its plans:

• Starter: $9.99/lifetime
• Business: $49.99/lifetime
• Premium: $299.99/lifetime

📝 Here’s what Intro.js customers say about the platform:

It is a great alternative to Chameleon if you want a quick and simple onboarding flow that can easily be customized with coding.

#11 Chameleon vs. Shepherd.js (Free option)

• GitHub Score: 13.2K⭐

Shepherd.js is a lightweight, open-source tour library built for developers who want full control over the onboarding experience. Unlike heavy-duty platforms like WalkMe or Pendo, Shepherd.js keeps it minimal: no dashboards, no AI assistants, just clean code and total flexibility.

It’s best suited for teams who prefer to build their own flows from the ground up and don’t need the overhead (or cost) of an all-in-one onboarding suite.

Chameleon Wins at…

• No-Code Customization: Chameleon lets product teams build and launch tours, tooltips, and checklists without ever touching code. Perfect for fast-moving teams that want control without engineering cycles.
• User Targeting: With advanced segmentation and behavioral triggers, Chameleon makes it easy to show the right message to the right user at the right time, which is something Shepherd.js doesn’t handle out of the box.
• Integrations: Chameleon plugs into tools like Segment, Amplitude, and HubSpot, giving you a full picture of onboarding performance without needing to stitch it together yourself.

Shepherd Wins at…

• Developer Freedom: Total customization and no vendor lock-in. If you want full control over styling, logic, and implementation, Shepherd.js gives you the keys.
• Lightweight: Unlike platforms that add extra load time and complexity, Shepherd.js is fast, minimal, and built to integrate cleanly into your frontend.
• Cost: It’s free and open-source under the MIT license. If your team is watching budget or just prefers to build things in-house, Shepherd.js is a no-brainer.

Shepherd Pricing 

Shepherd.js offers a free plan for personal and non-commercial projects. For commercial projects, there are three separate plans, which look like:

• Business Plan: $50/lifetime.
• Enterprise Plan: $300/lifetime. 
• Shepherd Consulting: Custom pricing.

📝 Here’s what Shepherd.js customers say about the product:

If you want a powerful onboarding solution with robust targeting and zero dev work, Chameleon is a strong pick. But if you're a dev team that wants speed, control, and zero vendor costs, Shepherd.js is the leaner alternative.

AI Onboarding Tools

AI onboarding tools have started to lead the charge. Whether it’s personalizing flows, generating content, or adapting to user behavior in real time, these products show what the next wave of onboarding looks like ⬇️

• Frigade.ai: A developer-first onboarding tool with built-in AI that tailors user flows based on real-time behavior. It stays close to your codebase and offers personalization without the platform bloat.‍
• Hopscotch: A simple, no-code onboarding builder with an AI assist for writing copy and mapping out flows. Think of it as a lightweight alternative to Chameleon with some smart shortcuts baked in.‍
• Guidde: Not a traditional onboarding tool, but a powerful AI video generator that turns your screen recordings into step-by-step tutorials. Perfect for teams that want polished help content without spending hours on video editing.‍
• Onboardly: Onboardly uses AI to build onboarding flows that adapt as users interact. It’s designed to replace rigid walkthroughs with dynamic experiences that shift in real time.

In Conclusion…

Here’s how all of the tools we’ve examined so far compare to one another side by side:

Written by

Ceren Kurban

Creative Content Writer

Ceren is a Creative Content Writer at UserGuiding. She writes about the latest development in SaaS and product. She decided to pursue a career in journalism and content upon seeing The Bold Type. When she is not writing, you can find her gossiping with stray animals or listening to the Alvin and the Chipmunks covers of random songs

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