Appcues vs Pendo — and a third option
Appcues and Pendo both put tours and guides inside your product, but they start from different places. Appcues is an onboarding and engagement tool. Pendo is a product-analytics suite that also does in-app guides. Here is how they compare on the points you can check on their own websites, and when neither is the right purchase.
The short answer
Appcues is built around onboarding and engagement: flows, checklists, banners, launchpads, NPS and surveys, on web and native mobile. It does not publish prices; plans are priced by monthly active users and the number of published experiences.
Pendo is built around product analytics: event data across the whole product, session replay, feedback and roadmaps, with in-app guides on top. It has a free plan for up to 500 monthly active users; paid tiers are quoted.
So the real question is not which tour builder is better. Do you need an onboarding tool or a product-analytics platform? If you need neither at that scale and only want tours, tooltips and checklists in a web app, a lighter tool with published prices may be enough. That is where we put Clew, and we say below when it is the wrong pick.
Appcues vs Pendo, point by point — plus Clew
| Feature | Appcues | Pendo | Clew |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Onboarding and in-app engagement platform | Product analytics suite with in-app guides | Onboarding for web apps: tours, tooltips, modals, checklists |
| In-app formats | In-app flows, checklists, banners, launchpads, NPS and surveys | In-app guides; NPS | Step-by-step tooltips (tours), modals, onboarding checklists, hover hints |
| Analytics | — | Full product analytics, session replay, feedback and roadmaps | Per-tour funnels and drop-off per step, broken-step alerts, A/B tests with a significance check |
| Mobile apps | Web and native mobile SDKs | Web and mobile | Web only |
| Free plan | No — free trial | Yes — up to 500 MAU, Pendo-branded | Yes, forever — 1 site, 3 published tours, no visitor caps |
| How paid plans are priced | Prices not published; plans are priced by monthly active users (MAU) and number of published experiences | Paid tiers (Base, Core, Ultimate) priced by quote | Published: Pro $14.99/mo, Business $39.99/mo — by sites, seats and tours, never by MAU |
| How you buy it | Quoted per plan | Free tier self-serve; paid tiers by quote | Self-serve; 14-day trial without a card |
| Self-hosting | Not stated on its public pages — cloud product | Not stated on its public pages — cloud product | Yes — Docker or one Node process (Self-hosted: $1,499 one-time) |
| How content is built | Appcues Builder Chrome extension | — | Visual editor on your live page |
Appcues and Pendo facts come from the vendors’ own public pricing, product and help pages, as of September 2026. Features and prices change; if something here is outdated, email hello@getclew.io and we will fix it. “—” means we could not confirm the point from the vendor’s public pages, so we don’t state it.
Which one fits
Pick Appcues if
- Onboarding and engagement are the job, and you want flows, checklists, banners and surveys in one tool.
- You need native mobile onboarding as well as web.
- Your product analytics already live elsewhere (Amplitude, Mixpanel or similar) and you don’t want a second analytics suite.
- You are fine with MAU-based pricing and a sales quote.
Pick Pendo if
- You need product analytics first — events across the whole product, session replay, feedback — and guides are a bonus.
- You want analytics and guides in one contract instead of two tools.
- Your app is small: the free plan up to 500 MAU is genuinely usable (with Pendo branding).
- You have a budget and a buying process for a quoted enterprise tier.
Pick Clew if
- You want tours, tooltips, modals and checklists in a web app, set up by product or marketing people without code.
- You want prices on the website: a free plan forever, Pro at $14.99/mo and Business at $39.99/mo, no MAU pricing.
- You need to run it on your own servers, with visitor data staying in your perimeter.
- You want A/B tests of tours with a significance check, and to make B the main version in one click.
- Not a fit if you need native mobile SDKs, session replay or product-wide analytics — Clew doesn’t do those.
How their pricing works
Neither vendor publishes a full price list. Appcues prices by monthly active users and the number of published experiences, and you get a quote per plan. Pendo has a free plan up to 500 MAU; above that, the Base, Core and Ultimate tiers are quoted.
With MAU pricing your bill grows with your user base, not with how much onboarding you run. Before you sign, ask each vendor for the price at your MAU today and at two to three times that number. We cover what else drives the cost, and what to ask, in what user onboarding tools cost.
Questions to ask both vendors
- How is a monthly active user counted: anyone who loads the page with the script, or only identified users?
- What happens to the price, and to the product, if we go over our MAU tier mid-contract?
- Which features are in the tier you are quoting, and which are add-ons (surveys, replay, mobile, SSO)?
- Is the contract annual, and is there a monthly option?
- Where is our users’ data stored, and can it stay in the EU?
- Can we export our flows or guides if we leave?
Frequently asked questions
Is Appcues or Pendo better for user onboarding?
For onboarding on its own, Appcues is the more focused product: flows, checklists, banners and surveys are its core. Pendo makes more sense when you also need product analytics, session replay and feedback, and want guides in the same tool.
Is Pendo cheaper than Appcues?
Pendo has a free plan up to 500 monthly active users; Appcues offers a free trial rather than a free plan. Above that, both quote prices, so the only reliable comparison is two quotes for your own MAU and feature list.
Do Appcues and Pendo work in mobile apps?
Both list mobile support: Appcues has native mobile SDKs, and Pendo covers web and mobile. Clew works on the web only.
Can Appcues or Pendo be self-hosted?
Neither offers self-hosting on its public pages; both are cloud products. If data has to stay on your own servers, Clew has a self-hosted edition that runs in Docker or as one Node process.
What is a cheaper alternative to Appcues and Pendo?
If you need web onboarding without product-wide analytics or mobile, Clew has a free plan forever (1 site, 3 published tours) and paid plans from $14.99/month with 20 published tours and no visitor caps. See Clew vs Appcues and Clew vs Pendo.