WalkMe vs. Pendo: Which DAP Is Better?

pendo-alternatives

As businesses continue to navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape, the need for robust digital adoption platforms (DAP) becomes increasingly apparent. These platforms offer critical tools that help businesses streamline their digital transformation process, enhance user experience, and improve overall productivity. 

According to a recent report by MarketsandMarkets, the global digital adoption platforms market is expected to reach $16.7 billion by 2026, with an annual growth rate of 29.1% from 2021 to 2026.

Two prominent players in the digital adoption platform market are WalkMe and Pendo. While both platforms share similar goals, their approach to achieving those goals varies greatly. 

In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into these two platforms, exploring their unique features, use cases, and customer reviews. Whether you’re a business looking to execute your digital transformation roadmap or a DAP provider looking to expand your product offerings, this comparison will provide valuable insights into the latest trends and innovations in this rapidly growing market.

Pendo vs. WalkMe: Comparing Key Features

First, let’s compare the key features of Pendo and WalkMe.

Pendo features

1. Product usage analytics

Pendo’s product analytics feature provides insights into how users interact with your product. This allows you to track user behavior, like which features are most used, which are overlooked, and which are causing confusion. With this data, you can optimize your product for a better user experience and identify areas for improvement. 

The product usage tracking features also provide a visual representation of user behavior over time, making it easy to see trends and patterns. This way, you can identify how your product is being used, what areas need refinement, and what features are working as intended. 

2. In-app messaging

Pendo’s in-app messaging feature allows you to communicate directly with users while using your product. With this feature, you can send targeted messages to specific user segments, including brand-new users or users who haven’t used a particular feature. These messages can include essential updates, alerts, or tips to help them get the most out of your product. 

The in-app messaging feature also provides analytics to help you measure the effectiveness of your messages, including click-through rates and user engagement. Doing so lets you adjust your messaging strategy and improve communication with your users.

3. Product tours

Pendo’s product tour feature is helpful for onboarding new users and guiding them through your product’s key features. You can create interactive tours that walk users through your product’s interface and demonstrate how to use different features. These tours can incorporate text, images, and videos to provide a comprehensive overview of your product’s offerings. 

Pendo’s product tour feature is customizable, allowing you to tailor each tour to unique user segments or use cases. You can also embed these tours directly within your product, making it easy for users to access them at their moment of need. 

The feature provides detailed analytics on how users engage with each tour, including completion rates and time spent on each step. This insight can help you optimize your tours for maximum impact and identify areas for improvement.

4. Feedback collection

Pendo’s customer feedback collection feature allows you to easily gather user feedback to improve your product. You can collect user feedback in several ways, including surveys, polls, and in-app feedback forms. These feedback collection tools can be customized to fit your needs and targeted to specific user segments. 

This feature provides detailed analytics on how users engage with each feedback collection method, including response rates and sentiment. This data can help you prioritize feature development initiatives based on user feedback. 

TIP: Explore the best Pendo DAP alternatives.

Related Resources

WalkMe features

1. In-app guidance created for walkthroughs and tours

WalkMe’s in-app guidance feature allows you to create interactive walkthroughs and tours that guide users through your product’s key features. Using this feature, you can create interactive guides that show how to use different features and provide a thorough overview of your product. These guides can include text, images, videos, and animations to offer a rich and engaging experience. 

Customization is simple with WalkMe’s in-app guidance feature, letting you adjust every guide to cater to distinct user groups or purposes. Furthermore, these guides can be embedded directly into your product, allowing users to access them easily at all times.

The feature comes with comprehensive analytics that track user engagement with each guide, measuring completion rates and time spent on each step. By utilizing this data, you can fine-tune your guides for optimal impact and pinpoint areas for improvement.

With WalkMe’s in-app guidance feature, users can receive real-time assistance, eliminating the need to leave your product to seek help.

2. Tooltips and contextual nudges

WalkMe’s tooltips and contextual nudges provide real-time guidance to users as they interact with your product. You can easily create contextual tips and nudges that appear right when users need them most. These tips can provide helpful information, such as keyboard shortcuts or hidden features, to enhance the user’s experience. 

Contextual nudges can gently steer users in the right direction, highlighting the next logical step or encouraging them to take a specific action. WalkMe’s smart tips and contextual nudges feature can help reduce user frustration and increase user satisfaction, leading to greater product adoption and loyalty.

3. Analytics

WalkMe’s analytics feature helps measure user engagement and behavior with your product. With this feature, you can track key metrics, like user activity, feature adoption, and conversion rates, to gather insights into how users interact with your product. 

WalkMe’s analytics feature offers several ways to visualize your data, including dashboards, graphs, and charts, that can assist you in examining your information and recognizing patterns. You have complete control over the analytics feature, allowing you to keep track of metrics tailored to your business goals and product. The real-time data empowers you to make informed decisions quickly and alter your approach as necessary.

You can detect weak spots using WalkMe’s analytics feature and put feature development at the forefront based on user behavior, ultimately streamlining your progress.

4. Automation

WalkMe’s automation feature helps to streamline repetitive or time-consuming tasks within your product, eliminating the need for manual intervention. With this feature, you can create workflows that enhance your users’ experience and improve overall efficiency. For example, you can automate data entry, form submissions, or entire processes—resulting in significant time savings.

WalkMe’s flexible automation feature allows you to customize each automation to cater to particular user groups or purposes. The feature also offers comprehensive analytics that track user engagement with each automation, measuring completion rates and time saved. By analyzing this data, you can optimize your workflows for maximum effectiveness and identify areas of opportunity to adjust and improve.

TIP: Explore the best WalkMe DAP alternatives.

Meets Requirements

87%
89%

Ease of Use

84%
80%

Ease of Setup

80%
79%

Quality of Support

88%
89%

Ease of Doing Business With

91%
89%

Product Direction

89%
89%

Visual Walkthroughs

85%
85%

Comparing Pendo vs. WalkMe Use Cases

DAP usage can be divided into two distinct categories: employee experiences and customer experiences.

The primary objective of employee experiences is to encourage the use of internal applications such as CRM, ERP, and HCM by providing in-app onboarding, training, and continuous support tailored to employee roles. This approach ensures seamless adoption and promotes productivity.

On the other hand, customer experiences are geared towards promoting customer-facing applications. The use cases in this category focus on providing solutions for user onboarding, customer support, and other related use cases that facilitate customer adoption. The goal is to create a positive and engaging experience that leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Employee Experience (EX) Use Cases

 PENDOWALKME
Employee Onboarding
  • Automate the employee onboarding process by providing personalized onboarding guides, ensuring a smooth and efficient onboarding experience.
  • In-app feedback forms can help new employees provide feedback on their onboarding experience, enabling you to identify areas for improvement.
  • Analytics tools can help you measure the effectiveness of your onboarding program and optimize it accordingly.
  • Interactive tutorials and on-demand support can help employees get up to speed on their new role quickly and easily.
  • Contextual guidance can help new employees navigate complex systems and processes, reducing the time and resources required for onboarding.
  • Performance support capabilities can help employees overcome any obstacles they may encounter during the onboarding process.
Employee Training
  • In-app training capabilities can help employees learn new skills and workflows within the context of their job, improving knowledge retention and performance.
  • Analytics features can help you track the effectiveness of your training initiatives and identify areas for improvement.
  • Personalized training recommendations can help employees take ownership of their learning and development, leading to increased job satisfaction and retention.
  • Interactive tutorials and simulations can help employees learn new skills and workflows quickly and easily, reducing the time and resources required for training.
  • On-demand support can help employees get the help they need when they need it, improving knowledge retention and performance.
  • Analytics tools can help you measure the effectiveness of their training initiatives and optimize them accordingly.
Performance Support
  • In-app guidance and support can help employees overcome any obstacles they may encounter, improving productivity and job satisfaction.
  • The analytics tool can help you identify areas where employees may need additional support or training, leading to increased performance and productivity.
  • Customizable dashboards and reports can help businesses track key performance indicators and measure the success of their performance support initiatives.
  • Performance support capabilities can help employees overcome any potential roadblocks or issues they may experience, improving productivity and job satisfaction.
  • WalkMe’s analytics tools can help you identify areas where employees may need additional support or training, leading to increased performance and productivity.
  • Personalized guidance can help employees work more efficiently and effectively, leading to increased performance and productivity.
IT Support
  • In-app messaging and announcements can help you communicate with employees proactively, reducing the need for reactive IT support requests.
  • In-app feedback forms can help employees provide feedback on their IT support experience, enabling you to identify areas for improvement.
  • The analytics tool can help you track the volume and types of IT support requests, leading to improved resource allocation and faster resolution times.
  • Self-service support capabilities can help employees find solutions to their IT problems on their own, reducing the volume of support requests.
  • Interactive tutorials and on-demand support can help employees resolve IT issues quickly and easily, reducing downtime and improving productivity.
  • The analytics feature can help you identify patterns in IT support requests and optimize your IT support processes accordingly.
Change Management
  • In-app messaging and announcements can help you communicate changes proactively to employees, reducing resistance to change.
  • Analytics capabilities can help you track employee adoption of changes, enabling you to identify areas where additional support may be needed.
  • In-app guidance and support can help employees adapt to changes more quickly, reducing the impact of change on productivity and job performance.
  • WalkMe can guide employees through the process of implementing new policies by providing step-by-step guidance and support.
  • Help employees adjust to system changes by providing targeted guidance on how to use new systems.
  • Provide support during organizational changes by guiding employees through new workflows and helping them to navigate new systems and processes.
Digital Transformation
  • Help teams to adopt agile methodologies by providing real-time feedback and insights to teams during development sprints.
  • Drive adoption of new digital tools by providing in-app messaging and guidance to employees on how to use them.
  • Measure and improve employee engagement by providing insights and data on how employees are interacting with digital tools and systems.
  • Accelerate digital adoption by providing personalized, in-app guidance to employees as they learn new tools and technologies.
  • Improve user engagement by providing insights into how users are interacting with digital tools and systems.

Customer Experience (CX) Use Cases

 PENDOWALKME
Customer and User Onboarding
  • Personalized onboarding capabilities can help to ensure that new customers are successful with your products or services, leading to increased retention and customer loyalty.
  • In-app guidance and walkthroughs can help customers get up to speed on your product quickly, reducing the time and resources required for customer support.
  • Contextual guidance can help you create a smooth and intuitive onboarding process, ensuring that customers can get started with your product quickly and easily.
  • Interactive tutorials and on-demand support can help customers overcome any potential roadblocks they may face during onboarding.
Customer Self-Support
  • Provide step-by-step guidance with guided walkthroughs and tutorials to help customers self-serve and resolve issues on their own.
  • Offer in-app messaging and notifications to help customers find answers and support resources.
  • Use contextual help to deliver personalized self-service support and address customer issues.
  • Use interactive guidance to walk customers through self-service support options and help them find solutions.
  • Provide personalized support based on customer data and behavior to help them resolve issues.
  • Offer in-app chat support to give customers quick and easy access to help when they need it.
User Engagement Monitoring
  • Monitor user behavior and track usage metrics to gain insights into customer engagement.
  • Use feature usage data to identify areas where customers need additional support or training.
  • Analyze user feedback to understand customer satisfaction and identify opportunities for improvement.
  • Use in-app surveys to gather customer feedback and understand their needs and preferences.
  • Analyze user data to identify patterns and trends that can influence product development and improve the user experience.
Product Analytics
  • Analyze customer behavior and identify areas of your product where they get stuck, helping you prioritize feature updates.
  • Track adoption rates of new features and compare them to previous launches to see the effectiveness of your messaging and onboarding efforts.
  • Segment users based on their behavior and demographics to personalize their experiences and improve their overall satisfaction.
  • Increase adoption of a new feature by creating interactive walkthroughs and guides that lead users through the process step-by-step, increasing user engagement and usage.
  • Track user behavior and identify areas where users get stuck in your product. 
  • Create heat maps and user flow diagrams that reveal where users are dropping off or struggling.
Customer and User Feedback
  • Use in-app messaging to gather feedback and ratings from customers on specific features or areas of the product, helping you identify pain points and areas for improvement.
  • Create surveys and gather feedback from customers at specific touchpoints in their journey, like after onboarding or when they’ve reached a specific milestone.
  • Track customer engagement and identify trends in feedback to proactively address any negative experiences.
  • Use surveys and feedback prompts to collect feedback on specific features, product improvements, and overall satisfaction. 
  • Feedback analytics can help identify common support issues and improve the support experience for users.
  • Improve user engagement by providing personalized guidance and recommendations based on customer feedback. By using feedback data to provide targeted prompts and suggestions, you can improve customer engagement and satisfaction.
Digital Transformation
  • Monitor user behavior during a digital transformation, identifying areas where users may struggle and need additional training or resources.
  • Personalize onboarding experiences based on user roles and responsibilities to help ensure a successful transition to a new system or process.
  • Track adoption rates of new digital tools and provide insights into which areas may require additional attention or resources.
  • Streamline workflows and automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time for customers to focus on more important tasks. 
  • Use WalkMe’s automation capabilities to reduce errors and increase efficiency, improving overall productivity and output.
  • Use interactive guides and prompts to provide a consistent onboarding experience and ensure new customers are ramped up quickly.
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Pendo vs. WalkMe Pricing Comparison

Pendo pricing

Pendo offers a range of pricing options for their digital adoption platform that are tailored to the needs of different organizations. The pricing is based on a subscription model, with costs calculated based on the number of users and the specific features required.

Pendo’s pricing options include a free trial period, which allows organizations to try out the platform before committing to a paid subscription. After the trial period, organizations can choose from a variety of plans, including the Essentials, Growth, and Enterprise plans, each with increasing levels of functionality and support.

WalkMe pricing

WalkMe offers several pricing plans to accommodate businesses of different sizes and needs. Their pricing plans range from a basic plan, which includes core features such as on-screen guidance and analytics, to an advanced plan that offers additional features, like A/B testing and advanced analytics.

The pricing for WalkMe’s plans is typically determined based on the number of users that will be accessing the platform. They offer a pay-per-user pricing model, which means that the cost per user decreases as the number of users increases.

Pendo vs. WalkMe: What Do Customer Reviews Say?

 PENDOWALKME
Capterra

4.5 out of 5 stars

“The team were highly attentive and supportive. Has been a really enjoyable project getting this set up and running with benefits almost immediately.”

4.4 out of 5 stars

“The system has an extremely deep rules engine that allows you to create a solution for pretty much all use cases.”

G2

4.4 out of 5 stars

“The fact we had to create all of these segments and individual dashboards manually was a significant undertaking. This information should have been captured during setup with more input from specialists at Pendo to help us get the best analytical overview of our client data without such a massive upfront investment.”

4.5 out of 5 stars

“Some of their latest features (such as Adaptive Flows) is only available for use on select platforms. Their support team is very helpful; however, sometimes they do not respond in a very timely manner; I have waited over a week on occasion to receive a response.”

Gartner Peer Insights

4.1 out of 5 stars

“We have recently started using Pendo to track our users and understand their journeys and pain points, it’s an “okayish” experience so far mostly from an ease of use standpoint. While there are lot of functionalities, the tool learning time and deployment is tough.”

4.6 out of 5 stars

“The biggest issue I have was with the onboarding process. They were busy with a lof of new clients, so we didn’t get the care they promised until they shifted us to a 3rd party vendor. In the meantime, we had to make key decisions and we weren’t guided correctly on how to make those decisions and more importantly the impact of our decision. This caused a lot work and rework for us.”

GetApp

4.5 out of 5 stars

“Overall if you are willing to put in the time to learn it, Pendo can provide tremendous value for a variety of different reasons, especially if you are looking to elevate your customer service level without requiring the help of your engineering team.”

4.4 out of 5 stars

“Walkme UI components sometimes are a nuisance while creating or updating records. Setting up content is not easy and the content creation takes a lot of time.”

TrustRadius8.2 out of 10 stars7.9 out of 10 stars

Whatfix: The Ultimate Winner Among Pendo and WalkMe

WalkMe and Pendo are both powerful DAPs that offer a range of features designed to enhance user engagement and streamline the user experience. However, when it comes to choosing the best solution for your organization, it’s important to consider all the available options.

That’s where Whatfix comes in. Whatfix offers a unique blend of features that make it the ideal DAP for businesses of all sizes. With its easy-to-use, no-code interface, customizable training and support tools, and powerful analytics and automation capabilities, Whatfix delivers an unparalleled user experience that drives adoption and increases productivity, which is why it’s been ranked better than WalkMe and Pendo among DAP users on G2.com for over four years running.

Adoption anywhere

Whatfix allows businesses to create interactive walkthroughs, tutorials, and guides that help users adopt new software applications, tools, and processes. These guides can be accessed from anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Whatfix’s DAP solution makes it easy for businesses to create personalized, contextualized, and interactive guidance that can be tailored to the specific needs of different user groups.

Smart detection

Whatfix’s smart detection technology can identify user behavior and provide real-time guidance that helps users complete tasks more efficiently.

For example, if a user is struggling to complete a task, Whatfix can automatically detect the issue and provide step-by-step guidance to help them complete it successfully.

Best customer support

Whatfix offers exceptional customer support, with a dedicated team of experts who are available to help users with any issues they may encounter. Whatfix’s customer support team is available 24/7 to answer questions, provide guidance, and help users get the most out of the platform.

Whether you’re looking to streamline your employee experiences, promote customer adoption, or both, Whatfix has the features and flexibility you need to achieve your goals.

Experience the power of seamless digital adoption with Whatfix today.

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What Is Whatfix?
Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that provides organizations with a no-code editor to create in-app guidance on any application that looks 100% native. With Whatfix, create interactive walkthroughs, product tours, task lists, smart tips, field validation, self-help wikis, hotspots, and more. Understand how users are engaging with your applications with advanced product analytics.
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