What onboarding tools actually cost.
Entry prices, included volume, and the per-MAU arithmetic across seven tools — read from each vendor's own pricing page, with the unpublished ones marked instead of guessed.
Every row is the vendor’s cheapest paid tier as published on August 21, 2026. Per-MAU is entry price divided by included volume — computed only where both numbers are public.
| Tool | Entry plan | Price | Included MAU | Per MAU | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wakeline (that's us) | Pro | $49/mo | 25,000 | $0.002 | 1,000 MAU free plan |
| Product Fruits | Starter | $96/mo | 1,500 | $0.064 | Trial only |
| UserGuiding | Starter | $174/mo* | 2,000 | $0.087* | Trial only |
| Chameleon | Startup | $279/mo | 2,000 MTU | $0.14 | Trial only |
| Userpilot | Starter | $299/mo | 2,000 | $0.15 | Trial only |
| Appcues | Start | Not published | Up to 3,000 | — | Trial only |
| Pendo | Free / paid | $0 / not published | 500 free; paid custom | — | 500 MAU free plan |
Wakeline (that's us): Monthly billing; Business $199/mo for 250k MAU
Product Fruits: $72/mo billed annually (25% off)
UserGuiding: *Billed yearly; monthly billing costs more. Caps: 15 guides, 1 checklist, 1 survey
Chameleon: Pro from $750/mo for 5,000 MTU
Userpilot: Advanced analytics start on Growth, from $849/mo
Appcues: All plans require a sales conversation
Pendo: Base, Core, Ultimate all custom-priced behind a demo
Three things the stickers hide.
Included volume is the real price
$299 for 2,000 MAU and $49 for 25,000 differ by 75× per user reached, not 6× on the sticker. Divide before you shortlist — the column does it for you.
Billing bases differ
Some headlines assume a year prepaid; others are true monthly prices. Normalize to one base before comparing — the footnotes flag every annual sticker in the table.
Caps are prices too
A tier capped at one active checklist or ten segments has a second price: the upgrade you’ll need in month two. Audit caps against the program you actually plan to run.
For the vendor-by-vendor fine print, the full comparisons: Appcues, Userpilot, Pendo, and UserGuiding. Or price every vendor at your own volume with the cost calculator.
How should I compare tools priced on different billing bases?
Normalize to monthly billing before comparing — UserGuiding's headline assumes a year prepaid, Product Fruits' discount is 25%, and others quote monthly. An annual sticker next to a monthly one flatters the annual tool by roughly a fifth to a quarter.
Why is per-MAU cost the right lens?
Because every vendor here meters on monthly active users (or tracked users), your bill is your traffic. Entry prices flatter tools with tiny included volumes; dividing price by included MAU exposes what you actually pay per person reached — a 75× spread across this table.
What will these tools cost at MY volume?
Only each vendor's own calculator answers that honestly — pricing rarely scales linearly, and volume discounts kick in at different points. The method that works: get a real number from each finalist at your current MAU and at 3× it, then compare those, not the entry stickers.
Why do Appcues and Pendo show no price?
Because they publish none — every Appcues plan and every paid Pendo tier requires a sales conversation. Third-party sites quote historical or negotiated figures; we only print numbers a vendor currently stands behind on its own pricing page.
Are cheap tools hiding costs elsewhere?
The patterns to check: annual-only headline pricing, feature caps that force tier jumps (active-guide or checklist limits), paid add-ons for replay or mobile, and MAU tiers that step steeply. The per-vendor comparison pages linked below walk each vendor's specific fine print.
The cheapest evaluation is a free one.
Wakeline's free plan covers 1,000 monthly active users — run the comparison against your own product instead of a table.