We’ve all heard about the "leaky bucket" problem in SaaS. You hustle to get new users in the door, only to watch them quietly slip away. It’s a tough cycle, and if you look closely, the biggest leak is often the first few minutes a person spends with your product.
Most people don’t decide to leave after a few weeks. They bail almost immediately. If they can’t figure out how to get something useful done right away, they’re gone. That first "aha moment" is everything. A clunky, confusing, or just plain unhelpful onboarding experience is the fastest way to make sure they never find it.
The fix is an onboarding experience that actually helps people, guiding them to value without getting in their way. This guide will walk you through the best SaaS onboarding software I’ve found for 2025, from tools that build slick in-app tours to the AI support layer that catches users before they get frustrated and churn.
What is SaaS onboarding software?
So, what are we really talking about with SaaS onboarding software? It’s not one single tool, but more of a toolkit designed to help new users get up and running. The whole point is to shrink the time it takes for them to see why your product is awesome, which is the key to getting them to stick around.
Think of it as a few different types of tools working together:
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Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs): These are what most people picture. They let you build interactive product tours, checklists, and little tooltips inside your app to show people where to click and what to do.
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Customer Messaging Platforms: These tools handle all the communication that happens outside your app, like sending a welcome email series or having a live chat widget available for human support.
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AI Support Platforms: This is your safety net. When a user has a question that your product tour doesn’t cover, an AI platform gives them an instant answer so they don’t get stuck and give up.
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Analytics Tools: These are for the folks behind the scenes. They show you exactly where users are getting tripped up or dropping off in the onboarding flow, so you know what you need to fix.
How we chose the best SaaS onboarding software for 2025
To put this list together, I wasn’t just looking for flashy features. I had a few practical, non-negotiable criteria in mind for what makes a tool genuinely useful.
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Ease of Use: Could a non-technical person actually use it? I looked for tools with no-code builders that let product, marketing, or customer success teams create and tweak onboarding flows without needing to file a ticket with engineering.
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Feature Set & Personalization: A simple product tour is table stakes. I wanted to see tools that could do more, like building interactive checklists or showing different guides to different types of users. A one-size-to-fits-all tour just doesn’t cut it anymore.
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Integration Capabilities: Onboarding tools have to play nice with everything else you’re using. I checked for solid integrations with CRMs, analytics platforms, and especially your help desk, where all your support knowledge lives.
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Impact on Activation: At the end of the day, this is all about results. The tools on this list were chosen because they have the potential to make a real dent in your user activation and retention numbers.
Comparison of the top SaaS onboarding software for 2025
| Tool | Best For | Key Feature | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| eesel AI | Instant AI support during onboarding | In-app AI chatbot trained on your knowledge | $299/month |
| Appcues | No-code product tours & checklists | Visual flow builder | Custom (premium) |
| Userpilot | Contextual, behavior-driven flows | Advanced segmentation & A/B testing | $249/month |
| Intercom | All-in-one messaging and tours | Integrated chat, tours, and helpdesk | Custom (modular) |
| Chameleon | Highly customizable, native-looking UI | Deep CSS styling & design flexibility | $349/month |
| Dock.us | High-touch, collaborative B2B onboarding | Shared customer implementation portals | $60/user/month |
| Mixpanel | Data-driven onboarding optimization | Funnel and retention analysis | Free plan available |
The 7 best SaaS onboarding software tools in 2025
Here’s a closer look at the tools that can help turn your onboarding process from a leaky bucket into a smooth ride for new users.
1. eesel AI
Best for: Providing instant, AI-powered support during the onboarding process.
Why we chose it:
Product tours are great for showing users the main workflow, but people rarely stick to the script. What happens when they have a specific question the tour doesn’t cover? They get stuck, frustrated, and might just leave. This is the exact gap eesel AI is built to fill. It acts as a support layer that catches users when they stray from the happy path.
You can embed its AI chatbot right into your app. It learns from your help center articles, developer docs, and even past support tickets to answer "how-to" questions in seconds. This means new users never have to wait around for an answer, and it frees up your human support team to focus on the truly tricky setup problems. The best part is you can get it up and running in minutes, not months.
Potential drawbacks:
eesel AI is focused on support automation, so it doesn’t build visual product tours or checklists. It’s meant to be used alongside one of those tools to provide a complete onboarding experience.
Pricing:
The pricing is straightforward and based on usage. Plans start at $299/month for the Team plan.
2. Appcues
Best for: No-code product tours & user-friendly in-app guidance.
Why we chose it:
There’s a good reason Appcues is a big name in this space. Its visual, no-code builder is genuinely easy to use, meaning your product and marketing folks can jump in and create really nice-looking product tours and checklists without writing any code. If your main goal is to get a polished, guided tour live quickly, Appcues is a top contender.
Potential drawbacks:
It can be on the pricier side, with costs scaling up as your number of monthly active users grows. Its analytics are also a bit basic, so you’ll likely want a separate tool to dig deep into how your flows are actually performing.
Pricing:
Appcues provides custom pricing based on your monthly active users and the features you need.
3. Userpilot
Best for: Creating contextual, behavior-driven onboarding flows.
Why we chose it:
Where Userpilot really stands out is its ability to go beyond a one-size-fits-all tour. You can trigger specific guidance based on what users are actually doing in your app or who they are. This lets you build a much more personalized and relevant experience. It also has helpful features like an in-app resource center and A/B testing to help you fine-tune everything over time.
Potential drawbacks:
The trade-off for all that power is a bit of a learning curve. Compared to a simpler tool like Appcues, it can take more time to get set up and unlock its full potential.
Pricing:
Starts at $249/month for the "Traction" plan, which covers up to 2,500 monthly active users.
4. Intercom
Best for: An all-in-one solution for messaging, tours, and support.
Why we chose it:
If your team already lives and breathes in Intercom for live chat and bots, then using its "Product Tours" feature feels like a natural extension. You can smoothly transition a user from a tooltip in a tour to a conversation with a bot or a real person, all within the same chat widget they already know. It’s a compelling option for teams who want to keep all user communication under one roof.
Potential drawbacks:
The product tour feature itself isn’t as robust as what you’d get from a dedicated platform like Appcues or Userpilot. It’s more of an add-on to their main messaging platform, and the pricing can climb quickly as you add more features and contacts.
Pricing:
Intercom offers custom pricing based on the number of agent seats and contacts.
5. Chameleon
Best for: Highly customizable onboarding that feels completely native.
Why we chose it:
If the look and feel of your onboarding experience has to be pixel-perfect and match your app’s UI exactly, Chameleon is probably what you’re looking for. It gives you incredible control over the styling, letting you tweak almost every aspect with CSS to make the guides feel like a core part of your product, not a third-party add-on.
Potential drawbacks:
This isn’t a pure "no-code" tool. While you can get a lot done without a developer, tapping into its full customization power often means you’ll need some help from a front-end developer, which can slow things down if you want to make quick changes.
Pricing:
Starts at $349/month for the "Startup" plan, which includes up to 2,500 monthly active users.
6. Dock.us
Best for: High-touch, collaborative B2B customer onboarding.
Why we chose it:
Not all onboarding happens inside the product. For those complex B2B deals that involve weeks of implementation calls and back-and-forth emails, Dock is a lifesaver. It gives you a shared digital workspace to create a mutual action plan, assign tasks, and keep all the files and communication in one place. It turns a chaotic process into an organized project.
Potential drawbacks:
This tool is built for a very specific use case: project-based, human-led onboarding. It’s not the right fit for self-serve SaaS companies where users are expected to get started on their own.
Pricing:
Starts at $60/user/month.
7. Mixpanel
Best for: Measuring and optimizing your onboarding with deep product analytics.
Why we chose it:
This one is a little different. Mixpanel won’t help you build any tours or checklists. Its job is to tell you if your onboarding is actually working. You can use it to build funnels to see exactly where people are dropping off, figure out which actions correlate with long-term retention, and compare how different groups of users are doing. It provides the hard data you need to make smart decisions.
Potential drawbacks:
It’s purely an analytics tool, not an onboarding UI builder. It also requires some technical setup to make sure you’re tracking all the right events, which can be a small project in itself.
Pricing:
Mixpanel has a great free plan that covers up to 20 million events per month, with paid plans for higher volumes.
4 tips for choosing the right SaaS onboarding software
- Map your ideal user journey first. Before you even look at a demo, grab a whiteboard and sketch out the key steps a new user needs to take to get value. This simple exercise will tell you whether you need a guided tour, a simple checklist, or something else entirely.
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Decide who will own the tool. Think about who is actually going to be using this software day-to-day. If it’s your product managers or marketers, a true no-code platform is a must. If you have developer resources to spare, a more powerful tool like Chameleon could be a better choice.
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Plan for the "I’m stuck" moments. Your users will always find creative ways to get lost or confused, no matter how good your product tour is. You need a plan for how to help them. An instant support tool like eesel AI can be the AI-powered safety net that ensures a simple question doesn’t cause them to abandon your product for good.
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Start with data. If you aren’t sure where the biggest leak in your onboarding is, start with an analytics tool like Mixpanel. Find the biggest drop-off points first. Once you know what problem you’re trying to solve, it’s much easier to pick the right tool to fix it.
The best SaaS onboarding software provides a supportive experience
At the end of the day, a product tour is just one piece of the puzzle. A great onboarding experience is a mix of clear guidance, helpful tips, and support that’s there the moment a user needs it. The best approach is usually to combine a few tools: a digital adoption platform to show users the way, an analytics tool to measure your success, and an AI support platform to answer all the questions that come up in between.
While tools like Appcues and Userpilot draw the map for your users, eesel AI is the friendly guide who can give directions when they take a wrong turn. It makes sure that getting lost is just a minor detour, not a dead end.
Ready to build an onboarding experience that never leaves a user behind? Book a demo or try eesel AI for free today.
Frequently asked questions
It varies widely. Simpler tools can start around $250/month, while more advanced platforms with high user counts can run into the thousands. It’s best to start by identifying your biggest onboarding problem and choosing a tool that solves it, rather than buying an expensive all-in-one suite you won’t fully use.
This depends on the tool. No-code platforms like Appcues or an AI support tool like eesel AI can often be set up in a day. More complex, customizable tools might take longer, especially if you need developer help to perfectly match your UI.
While some platforms try to cover everything, you’ll often get better results by combining best-in-class tools. A common, effective stack is a Digital Adoption Platform for tours (like Userpilot) and an AI support platform (like eesel AI) to handle questions the tour doesn’t cover.
Focus on key activation metrics like "time to first value," feature adoption rates, and the completion rate of your onboarding checklists. A successful implementation should show a clear improvement in these numbers and, ultimately, a reduction in first-week churn.
You should invest as soon as you have a consistent flow of new users and notice that some are dropping off before reaching their "aha moment." Starting with an analytics tool can help you pinpoint when and where this is happening, justifying the need for a dedicated solution.
Onboarding isn’t just about showing users a workflow; it’s about supporting them when they get stuck. Product tours can’t anticipate every question, and an AI tool provides instant answers so users don’t get frustrated and leave. It acts as a crucial safety net for the entire onboarding experience.
