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18 Top Customer Activation Tools & Software for Enhanced User Engagement
Customer activation is not a one-time event.
It’s more of a journey where you have to engage each user at the right time with the right approach and work towards building a lasting connection.
From onboarding flows to personalized nudges, every step should guide users toward meaningful actions while addressing their unique needs.
To truly excel, customer activation must go hand in hand with user behavior analysis. Understanding what motivates your users and where they encounter friction helps you optimize their journey, ensuring every interaction adds value.
In this blog, we’ll take a detailed look at the best customer activation tools that can help you drive better engagement and build user loyalty.
Customer activation tools: A quick look
8 top customer activation tools explained in detail
1. VWO
VWO enables you to analyze user behavior, run experiments, and personalize user experiences across your website and mobile app, making it a complete platform for optimization and customer activation.
Key features
Funnel analysis – Track every step of a user’s journey—from their first visit to the post-purchase stage—and get in-depth reports about where they drop off and identify hidden leaks or friction areas that need to be fixed.
Insights for apps and websites – Identify high activity zones and common engagement patterns with heatmaps. Additionally, watch video recordings of users interacting with your websites/mobile apps to understand where they struggle and what challenges they face.
Surveys – Ask relevant questions about the challenges, and experiences of users through on-page surveys. Generate AI-powered summaries of survey responses to get instant recommendations and insights on how to address user struggles and optimize their journey.
Experimentation – Run experiments across client-side, mobile app, and server-side to test everything from content to design, search algorithms, and pricing plans – all in one place.
Personalization – Use insights about visitor behavior to build highly personalized experiences that cater to the specific intent, challenges, needs, and struggles of each user.
VWO Copilot – Let VWO’s powerful AI-powered assistant take over the tedious tasks of optimization such as analyzing tons of user data, creating variations for experiments, and building a pipeline of hypotheses, so you can focus on making data-backed decisions and driving better results for your business.
Top integrations
Analytics – Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Amplitude
CMS – WordPress, Drupal, Contenful
Marketing – Salesforce, Marketo, 6sense, Clearbit
eCommerce – Shopify, Magento, BigCommerceOther – HubSpot, Segment
Customer support
Apart from a smooth onboarding process, VWO offers round-the-clock support to customers through phone, email, live chat, and dedicated customer success managers.
VWO’s first response time is 1.7 hours and it has a CSAT score of 98%, which is far better than the industry-wide average of 2.4 hours and 94% respectively.
Pricing
VWO provides a forever-free Starter plan, while paid plans for VWO Insights start at $139/month. These plans are based on MTU or monthly tracked users, ensuring you only pay for users who become a part of your campaigns.
Large teams and enterprises can also request custom plans designed for their unique business needs.
ShopClues increased visits-to-order on its category page by 48%
ShopClues, a major eCommerce player serving 42 million visitors in India, was looking to optimize its category page experience and increase conversions.
The ShopClues team started by analyzing heatmaps of the category page and realized that users were engaging with only a select few filters in their promotional categories.
They then ran a few on-page surveys to gather user feedback, which confirmed their hypothesis that users were more interested in particular filters like New Arrivals, Best Selling, and Price Sorting.
Based on the insights gathered from heatmaps and website surveys, ShopClues designed a new version of the category page where visitors were instantly shown products from these popular categories.
The new version led to an amazing 48% increase in visits-to-order.
“We use insights heavily for discovery phases, particularly heatmaps, session recordings, and form analytics. Super easy to integrate with our websites. We use this daily and the support is really reliable and fast.”
2. Userpilot
Userpilot is one of the leading customer activation tools, offering various capabilities to guide users through a product, analyze user behavior across the product journey, and gather feedback at scale.
Key features
User onboarding, product analytics, in-app engagement, tooltips, and micro surveys.
The features are available for both websites and mobile apps.
Pros
Easy to set up tooltips and feedback surveys.
Flexibility to customize onboarding flows and user journeys.
Seamless delivery of updates through the announcement tool.
Cons
Steep learning curve, especially for smaller teams.
Limited options for customization and usability.
Occasional bugs and glitches cause freezing.
Pricing
Userpilot’s pricing options start at $249/month. Enterprises can request customized pricing options according to their business needs.
3. Appcues
Appcues is one of the oldest tools for customer activation that enables you to onboard new users, nudge them to use your product, and deliver tailored messages at different stages of their journey.
Key features
User onboarding, in-app communication (messages, emails, push notifications), feedback surveys, and on-demand customer support.
The features are available for both websites and mobile apps.
Pros
Easy creation of visual workflows saves time and resources.
Detailed insights into user behavior and performance of in-app messages.
Advanced user segmentation allows for better targeting and personalization.
Cons
Limited options for creating customized banners and pop-ups.
Lack of in-depth tutorials and documentation for better onboarding of new users.
Difficult to navigate and use the platform’s management console.
Pricing
The basic plan for Appcues starts at $250/month, while the Grow plan starts at $1000/month. Businesses with large teams can opt for flexible, customized pricing.
4. Intercom
Intercom is a popular customer service platform that enables businesses to meet their customers at different stages through omnichannel support and an integrated help center.
Key features
Multilingual support via live chat, email, and other social platforms, connected help center, AI-powered chatbot.
The features are available for both websites and mobile apps.
Pros
Useful integrations enable streamlining of onboarding and other processes.
Smooth and reliable user experience offering uninterrupted communication.
Ability to customize layout preferences, and other settings in the user interface.
Cons
Confusion among users and disruption of workflows due to misdirected emails
Complex email settings and occasional roadblocks due to technical problems.
Lack of options to customize templates, branding elements, and content layouts.
Pricing
Intercom’s pricing options start at $29 per seat/month.
Use behavioral analysis to closely analyze how new users interact with your product. For instance, if they explore FAQs, trigger a follow-up email with quick-start guides, or if they focus on a specific feature, display relevant tips during their next session. These small, behavior-driven actions make the user experience more intuitive and personalized.
5. Pendo
Pendo is a fast-growing customer activation tool that offers a wide range of capabilities such as feature adoption, feedback analysis, user insights, and in-app personalization.
With Pendo you can analyze how users engage with your products, deliver detailed communication, offer in-app support, and deliver features that users love.
Key features
User analytics, session replay, in-app guides, feedback surveys, and behavior-based segmentation.
The features are available for both websites and mobile apps.
Pros
Comprehensive analytics for tracking user behavior and feature usage.
Easy-to-use in-app messaging and surveys.
Tailored solutions for different business scales.
Cons
Limited customization and road mapping capabilities.
Lengthy process of installment and onboarding.
Lack of advanced filters in the dashboard.
Pricing
Pendo offers customized pricing options based on the specific needs and requirements of businesses.
6. UserGuiding
UserGuiding is one of the leading product adoption and customer activation tools that helps you create onboarding experiences, improve feature usage, and offer in-app self-service options.
Key features
User onboarding, product tours, onboarding checklists, segmentation, analytics, and in-app surveys.
The features are available only for websites.
Pros
Drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create surveys and guides.
Easy to set up product tours, feedback surveys, and onboarding checklists.
Fast and responsive customer support team.
Cons
Steep learning curve, especially with the Initial setup and usage.
Limited options for customizing the in-app guides.
Takes time to build walkthroughs with advanced logic.
Pricing
The Basic plan for UserGuiding is priced at $69/month, and the Professional plan at $99/month. You can also get custom pricing options based on your requirements.
7. Helppier
Helppier is a useful tool for customer activation as it allows you to create customized guides, product tours, and in-app messages, helping users at the right moment and improving engagement.
Key features
Interactive guides, tutorials, tooltips, hotspots, segmentation and triggers.
The features are available for both websites and mobile apps.
Pros
Simple and intuitive user interface ensures good usability and navigation.
The multipage guiding feature enables businesses to offer prompt assistance to users.
Easy to customize product tours, and other elements with the Canva integration.
Cons
Common bugs and frequent crashes impact the flow and overall experience.
Additional configuration to set up the software leads to website slowdown.
Lack of different customization options for the in-app pop-up boxes.
Pricing
Helppier’s pricing starts at $49/month for 1000 monthly active users. The platform also provides customized plans for businesses with advanced requirements.
8. Userflow
Userflow is known to offer useful capabilities to optimize onboarding and increase feature adoption among users. Apart from product tours, it also enables you to manage announcements, build a resource center, and gather feedback.
Key features
Onboarding flow builder, resource center, in-app surveys, checklists, feature announcements, AI assistant.
The features are available only for mobile apps.
Pros
Easy-to-navigate editor enables seamless creation and editing of workflows.
Support for in-app announcements, resource center, help articles, and chatbots.
Helpful customer support team offers unique solutions and video walkthroughs.
Cons
Lacks some key features like linking of checklists.
High pricing, particularly for smaller teams, startups, and non-profits.
Lengthy learning process for certain advanced features.
Pricing
Userflow’s pricing plans start from $240/month for 3,000 monthly active users. It offers customized plans for large teams and enterprises.
Customer activation tools: Summary
| No. | Tool | Free trial | Pricing (in USD) |
| 1. | VWO | 30 days | Free, for upto 5k monthly active users per month. |
| 2. | Userpilot | 14 days | $249/month |
| 3. | Appcues | 14-28 days | $250/month |
| 4. | Intercom | 14 days | $29 per seat/month |
| 5. | Pendo | – | Custom |
| 6. | UserGuiding | 14 days | $69/month |
| 7. | Helppier | 14 days | $49/month |
| 8. | Userflow | 14 days | $240/month |
Other customer activation tools (not covered previously)
- Actito (for apps and websites)
- Zendesk (for apps and websites)
- Chameleon (for apps and websites)
- Walkme (for apps and websites)
- Inline Manual (for apps)
- Freshdesk (for websites)
- Whatfix (for apps and websites)
- Customer.io (for apps and websites)
- Encharge (for apps and websites)
- Stonly (for apps and websites)
Final thoughts
Choosing the right customer activation tool is key for effective user engagement and it also helps you build long-term loyalty.
However, these tools alone don’t provide the full picture.
Without behavioral analytics, it’s challenging to truly understand why users act (or fail to act) in certain ways.
For instance, a tool like VWO Insights that offers features like heatmaps, session recordings, and on-page surveys can help you gain deeper insights into user actions, identify key friction areas, and build a seamless user journey.
By combining the strengths of customer activation tools with the depth of behavioral analytics, you can create a holistic approach that’s both strategic and user-centric.
We hope this list helps you find the best customer activation tool for your business needs, empowering you to create seamless, impactful customer experiences that drive meaningful engagement.
Further, take a free trial or quickly request a demo with VWO to try out its capabilities and see how it can inform your customer activation strategies.
Customer activation is the process of engaging users and guiding them to experience the value of your product or service, turning them into active, loyal customers.
Userpilot, Appcues, and Intercom are some of the most popular tools for customer activation.
A strong customer activation strategy improves retention, improves user satisfaction, and ensures customers experience the value of your product early in their journey. It also reduces churn and builds long-term loyalty.
To improve customer activation, focus on clear onboarding, personalized communication, and behavior-based triggers to guide users. Analyze activation metrics to identify friction points and optimize the customer journey.
Customer activation is measured by tracking the percentage of users who complete specific actions such as signing up, completing the onboarding process, or using a core feature.
These actions indicate that users have successfully experienced your product’s value and are now actively engaged with your product.
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