Appcues
Appcues is a user onboarding software that helps you create personalized in-app experiences like walkthroughs, surveys, and announcements to drive product adoption and reduce churn without writing code.
Smaply
Smaply is a visual journey mapping software that helps you centralize customer insights, create detailed personas, and map complex ecosystem maps to improve your overall customer experience strategy.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Appcues | Smaply |
|---|---|---|
| Website | appcues.com | smaply.com |
| Pricing Model | Subscription | Freemium |
| Starting Price | $249/month | Free |
| FREE Trial | ✓ 14 days free trial | ✓ 14 days free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✓ Has free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2013 | 2012 |
| Headquarters | Boston, USA | Innsbruck, Austria |
Overview
Appcues
Appcues helps you design and publish in-app experiences that guide your users toward value without needing a developer. You can build interactive walkthroughs, checklists, and modals using a simple drag-and-drop editor. This allows you to welcome new signups, announce feature updates, and collect user feedback directly within your product interface.
By targeting specific user segments, you ensure that the right message reaches the right person at the perfect time. The platform helps you measure how these flows impact your bottom line, allowing you to iterate on your onboarding strategy based on real-time data. It is ideal for product-led growth teams at SaaS companies of all sizes who want to improve retention and conversion rates.
Smaply
Smaply is a dedicated journey mapping tool designed to help you visualize and manage your customer experience in one central place. Instead of scattered spreadsheets or static slide decks, you get a dynamic environment where you can build detailed journey maps, develop rich user personas, and visualize stakeholder relationships through ecosystem maps.
You can use the platform to identify pain points in your current service delivery and collaborate with your team to design better future-state experiences. It is particularly effective for UX researchers, service designers, and CX managers in mid-market to enterprise organizations who need to transform raw qualitative data into actionable visual insights that stakeholders can actually understand.
Overview
Appcues Features
- No-Code Builder Create beautiful modals, tooltips, and slideouts directly on top of your application using a visual point-and-click editor.
- Onboarding Checklists Give your users a clear path to success with persistent checklists that track their progress through key setup tasks.
- Advanced Segmentation Target your flows based on user behavior, attributes, or lifecycle stage to ensure every message feels relevant.
- In-App Surveys Collect Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and qualitative feedback while your users are active to understand their needs better.
- Event Tracking Monitor how users interact with your flows and track goal completion to see exactly which experiences drive results.
- A/B Testing Experiment with different messaging or designs to discover which onboarding paths lead to the highest conversion rates.
Smaply Features
- Journey Map Editor. Create multi-layered journey maps with text, images, and storyboard icons to visualize every step of your customer's experience.
- Persona Editor. Build detailed profiles of your target users to ensure your team stays focused on real human needs and behaviors.
- Ecosystem Maps. Visualize the complex relationships between stakeholders, processes, and technologies that happen behind the scenes of your service.
- Live Collaboration. Invite your teammates to edit maps in real-time and leave comments to speed up your design and approval process.
- Dynamic Data Linking. Link personas directly to your journey maps so you can see how different segments experience the same service differently.
- Export Options. Generate high-resolution PDF, PNG, or Excel files of your maps to share professional reports with your stakeholders.
Pricing Comparison
Appcues Pricing
- Up to 2,500 MAU
- 3 user licenses
- Unlimited workflows
- Standard integrations
- Basic segmentation
- Email support
- Everything in Essentials, plus:
- Up to 2,500 MAU included
- 10 user licenses
- Advanced targeting
- Unlimited integrations
- Event-based triggering
- A/B testing
Smaply Pricing
- 1 active project
- 3 journey maps
- 3 personas
- 1 ecosystem map
- Basic export options
- Everything in Free, plus:
- 3 active projects
- Unlimited journey maps
- Unlimited personas
- Unlimited ecosystem maps
- Premium export formats
Pros & Cons
Appcues
Pros
- Intuitive Chrome extension makes building flows very easy
- Highly flexible targeting options for personalized experiences
- Detailed analytics help track flow performance accurately
- Excellent customer success team and educational resources
- Fast implementation without requiring heavy developer resources
Cons
- Starting price point is high for early startups
- Mobile app support requires a separate SDK
- Styling complex elements may require custom CSS knowledge
Smaply
Pros
- Intuitive drag-and-drop interface for quick mapping
- Professional export quality for stakeholder presentations
- Specialized tools for personas and ecosystem maps
- Generous free tier for individual practitioners
Cons
- Learning curve for complex multi-lane maps
- Limited integrations with external data sources
- Performance can slow down with very large maps