Best Onboarding Software
Top Tools Compared for 2025
Buyer's Overview
SaaS companies today fight tooth and nail to acquire customers. Yet, after investing heavily in sales and marketing, many watch their hard-won customers slip away due to poor onboarding experiences. The first few weeks of a customer's journey can make or break their long-term success with your product - and ultimately, your relationship with them.
The stakes have never been higher. According to Wyzowl's 2024 research, 86% of customers say they're more likely to stay loyal to a business that invests in onboarding content, while 88% of customers say their decision to remain with a company long-term depends on the quality of onboarding. This reality has pushed organizations to fundamentally rethink their approach to onboarding.
"Organizations increasingly recognize customer onboarding as a function in itself: 60% of teams either have an independent and well-defined customer onboarding function or are in the process of setting up one."
- State of Customer Onboarding 2024, Rocketlane.
Similarly, for employee onboarding, disengaged employees in the US cost their employers $450 to $500 billion each year, making it hard to ignore the impact of a considered and engaging onboarding approach.
This shift from treating onboarding as an afterthought - both for customers and for employees - to viewing it as a critical business function has driven rapid evolution in onboarding tools and approaches.
Understanding Different Types of Onboarding Solutions
1. Customer Onboarding Tools
Creating engaging customer onboarding experiences has become critical for SaaS businesses. Whether you're helping users understand your product features, guiding them through complex workflows, or managing enterprise implementations, the right onboarding approach can dramatically impact adoption rates and customer satisfaction.
In-App Guidance Platforms
Interactive product tours and walkthroughs
Contextual help and tooltips
Feature announcements and user analytics
Best for: Progressive feature discovery and activation
Video Onboarding Solutions
Product demonstrations and tutorials
Feature walkthroughs
Best practices guides
Best for: Visual learners and complex workflows
Onboarding Project Management
Customer journey orchestration
Milestone tracking
Resource management
Best for: High-touch onboarding with multiple stakeholders
Quick Comparison: Customer Onboarding Software Types
Type | Best For | Key Tools |
---|---|---|
In-App Guidance | Product adoption | Pendo, UserPilot, AppCues |
Video Tutorials | Visual learning | Clueso, Camtasia, Loom |
Project Management | Enterprise clients | Rocketlane, Dock, GuideCX |
Employee Onboarding Tools
Employee onboarding presents unique challenges compared to customer onboarding - organizations need to efficiently transfer knowledge about company culture, internal processes, and various tools while maintaining consistent quality across different departments. According to Gallup, only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job of onboarding, highlighting the need for better solutions. Employee onboarding tools address different aspects of bringing new team members up to speed:
Company Culture & Practices
AI-powered video presentations
Training material creation
Virtual meeting platforms
Best for: Company-wide policies and cultural alignment
Technical Onboarding
Step-by-step guides for internal tools
Process documentation
System walkthroughs
Best for: Software and workflow training
Quick Comparison: Employee Onboarding Software Types
Type | Best For | Key Tools |
Company Practices | Cultural training | Clueso, Synthesia, Zoom, Teams |
Technical Training | Tool adoption | Clueso, Whatfix, Tango |
Top Customer Onboarding Software Tools Compared
1. Video-Based Onboarding Solutions
While in-app guidance helps with feature discovery, video tutorials remain the most effective way to demonstrate complex workflows and ensure users truly understand your product. However, teams often struggle between choosing quick, simple recordings that lack professionalism, or sophisticated editing tools that require significant time and expertise.
Video-Based Solutions: Quick Overview
Feature | Clueso | Camtasia | Loom |
---|---|---|---|
Professional Voiceovers | ✓ | Manual | ❌ |
Documentation Generation | ✓ | ❌ | ❌ |
Content Updates | ✓ | Manual re-recording | Manual re-recording |
Multi-language Support | ✓ | Manual | ❌ |
Learning Curve | Low | High | Low |
Enterprise Security | SOC2, ISO 27001 | SOC2, ISO 27001 | Basic SSO |
Creation Time | ✓ Minutes | Hours | ✓ Minutes |
Clueso
Clueso represents the next evolution in onboarding content creation, combining powerful AI capabilities with professional features that transform simple recordings into polished, branded content. While traditional tools require choosing between speed and quality, Clueso automates the entire workflow - from script enhancement to professional voiceovers and instant documentation. What takes hours in other tools takes minutes in Clueso, making it ideal for teams who need to create and maintain professional onboarding content at scale.

Key Features
AI script enhancement and professional voiceovers
Automatic article generation with screenshots
Multi-language support with AI translations
One-click branding and customization
Easy content updates without re-recording
Built-in knowledge base hosting
Enterprise-grade security features
What Users Love
"Clueso has been a game changer in creating our user education content. We’re now generating high-quality user guides 10x faster.”
- Angelo Huang, Co-founder and CEO, Swif
➡️ Read more about how Swif transformed their customer education with Clueso here
H3: Camtasia
A robust video editor that offers extensive customization for creating detailed product tutorials with professional transitions and effects.
H4: Features:
Full video editing suite
Extensive effects library
Multiple audio tracks
Custom transitions
<aside>
Pros:
Powerful editing capabilities
Large resource library
Extensive customization options
Strong community support </aside>
<aside>
Cons:
Steep learning curve
Time-intensive editing process
Manual voiceover recording required
Expensive one-time purchase </aside>
H3: Loom
Where Clueso and Camtasia focus on creating polished onboarding content, Loom emphasizes quick, informal video communication. Originally designed for internal team messaging, Loom has evolved to include basic features for customer-facing content. Its strength lies in speed and simplicity - perfect for quick updates or simple explanations. However, this simplicity comes at the cost of professional features - teams often find themselves needing additional tools to create the kind of polished, branded content modern customers expect.
A quick and simple solution for basic screen recording for simple product demos with easy sharing capabilities.
H4: Features:
Quick recording via browser extension
Basic editing capabilities
Cloud storage
Viewer insights
<aside>
Pros:
Easy to use
Quick sharing options
Good for team communication
Reliable cloud storage </aside>
<aside>
Cons:
Limited professional features
Basic editing capabilities
No advanced effects </aside>
H3: 2. In-App Guidance Platforms
While video tutorials excel at demonstrating complex workflows, in-app guidance helps users discover features in context. These tools serve different but complementary purposes in your onboarding strategy. They typically appear as a series of tooltips or modals that highlight specific UI elements.
H3: In-App Guidance Platforms: Quick Overview
Feature | Pendo | UserPilot | AppCues |
---|---|---|---|
Event-based guide triggering | ✓ | ✓ | Enterprise only |
Mobile Support | Limited | Limited | x |
Native analytics | ✓ | ✓ | x |
Knowledge base linking | x | ✓ | Enterpise only |
A/B Testing | Advanced | Basic | Basic |
H3: Pendo
Pendo approaches onboarding from a data-first perspective, combining analytics with in-app guidance. Unlike content creation tools like Clueso that focus on comprehensive product education, Pendo specializes in understanding user behavior and creating targeted tooltips. While powerful for feature discovery, teams often find themselves needing additional solutions for creating actual training content and documentation.
Source: Pendo
H4: Features:
Interactive walkthroughs
User analytics
Feature adoption tracking
Custom messaging
A/B testing
Usage patterns
<aside>
Pros:
Deep analytics capabilities
Good for data-driven decisions
Strong enterprise features
Multiple app support </aside>
<aside>
Cons:
No content creation capabilities
Significant setup time
Steep learning curve </aside>
H3: UserPilot
UserPilot positions itself as a simpler alternative to Pendo, focusing on quick implementation of product tours and feature announcements. While it makes creating custom in-app guidance easy, and provides detailed analytics for product usage, it doesn’t support the actual creation of onboarding guides and videos.
Source: UserPilot
H4: Features:
Code-free UI analytics
User segmentation
Resource center
Simple implementation
<aside>
Pros:
Robust behavior tracking & analytics
Easy to implement
Good for gathering user feedback </aside>
<aside>
Cons:
No content creation capabilities </aside>
H3: AppCues
AppCues strikes a middle ground between Pendo's complexity and UserPilot's simplicity in the in-app guidance space. However, like other tools in this category, it focuses solely on in-product experiences, requiring teams to use separate solutions for creating tutorial content and maintaining documentation.
Source: AppCues
H4: Features:
No-code builder
UI element tooltips & feature discovery
Flow analytics
Goal tracking
Theme customization
<aside>
Pros:
Ideal for basic UI introduction and simple feature highlights
Good for first-time user guidance
Simple implementation </aside>
<aside>
Cons:
No content creation capabilities
Cannot effectively demonstrate complex workflows or processes
Can get expensive at scale </aside>
H3: 3. Onboarding Project Management
These tools focus on orchestrating the human side of onboarding, particularly valuable for companies with complex implementation processes requiring significant customer interaction.
H3: Project Management Platforms: Quick Overview
Feature | Rocketlane | Dock | GuideCX |
---|---|---|---|
Client Portal | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Project Templates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Content hosting | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Content creation | x | x | x |
H3: Rocketlane
Purpose-built for managing high-touch customer onboarding, Rocketlane excels at coordinating complex implementation projects. While tools like Clueso handle the content creation aspect of onboarding, Rocketlane manages the project management and client communication aspects. This makes it complementary rather than competitive with content creation platforms.
Source: Rocketlane
H4: Features:
Customer portal
Project templates
Time tracking
Document collaboration
Milestone tracking
Integration capabilities
<aside>
Pros:
Purpose-built for onboarding management
Strong client collaboration
Good project visibility tools </aside>
<aside>
Cons:
Requires separate content creation workflows
Complex setup process
Higher learning curve </aside>
Dock
While Rocketlane focuses on project management, Dock approaches onboarding from a client portal perspective. Think of it as a resource hub for all resources and communications shared with a client - right from the deal stage to onboarding to renewals. That said, it requires teams to create and maintain all the actual onboarding content using other tools. This makes it a good complement to content creation platforms like Clueso rather than a standalone onboarding solution.
H4: Features:
Sales deal rooms & client spaces
Project tracking and visibility
Document sharing
Meeting scheduling
Custom branding
<aside>
Pros:
Clean client interface
Ready-to-use templates
Easy to customize </aside>
<aside>
Cons:
Requires separate content creation workflows
Not mobile-friendly </aside>
H3: GuideCX
GuideCX combines elements of project management and client portals but focuses specifically on implementation tracking. Like other tools in this category, it handles the coordination aspects of onboarding well but requires separate solutions for creating the actual training content and documentation that drives successful implementations.
H4: Features:
Implementation tracking
Task automation
Client communication
Resource sharing
Progress reporting
Team collaboration
Best Practices for Creating Effective Onboarding
Content Strategy
Map Your Onboarding Journey
Define clear paths for different user segments
Create content hierarchy based on user needs
Plan update frequency and maintenance
Consider multi-channel distribution
Set clear success metrics
Production Standards
Establish branded templates
Define quality benchmarks
Create review processes
Set up content governance
Maintain consistent voice and tone
Content Management
Regular content audits
Version control system
Update triggers defined
Archive strategy
Content reuse plan
ROI Measurement
Track these metrics to measure the impact of your onboarding:
Customer Onboarding Metrics
Short-term Impact | Long-term Impact |
---|---|
Time to first value | Customer retention |
Feature adoption rates | Product adoption |
Support ticket volume | Customer satisfaction |
User engagement | Expansion revenue |
Completion rates | Net revenue retention |
Employee Onboarding Metrics
Short-term Impact | Long-term Impact |
---|---|
Time to productivity | Employee retention |
Training completion rates | Team productivity |
Knowledge retention | Cross-team collaboration |
Tool adoption rates | Employee satisfaction |
Feedback scores | Internal mobility |
Frequently Asked Questions About Onboarding Software
General Questions
Q: What's the difference between customer and employee onboarding software?
A: While there's some overlap in features, customer onboarding software typically focuses on product adoption and self-service learning, while employee onboarding software emphasizes internal processes and compliance. However, modern tools like Clueso serve both use cases effectively by providing flexible content creation capabilities.
Q: Do I need different tools for different types of onboarding?
A: Not necessarily. While some organizations use specialized tools for specific needs, modern platforms often combine multiple capabilities. For example, you can use Clueso for both video tutorials and documentation, while complementing it with in-app guidance tools for specific feature discovery needs.
Q: How long does it take to implement an onboarding solution?
A: Implementation time varies by solution type:
Content creation tools (like Clueso): 1-2 days
In-app guidance platforms: 2-3 weeks
Project management tools: 1-2 weeks
Enterprise solutions: 4-8 weeks
Cost & ROI
Q: How much should I budget for onboarding software?
A: Pricing varies by solution type:
Basic tools: $8-15/user/month
Professional solutions: $50-250/month
Enterprise platforms: Custom pricing Consider features, time savings, and team size when evaluating costs.
Q: How do I measure the ROI of onboarding software?
A: Track metrics such as:
Reduction in training time
Decrease in support tickets
Improvement in feature adoption
Time saved in content creation
Customer/employee satisfaction scores
Technical Questions
Q: What are the minimum technical requirements?
A: Most modern tools require:
Updated browser (Chrome recommended)
Stable internet connection
8GB RAM minimum Specific requirements vary by platform.
Q: Can I update content when products or processes change?
A: Yes, but capabilities vary:
AI-powered platforms like Clueso: Easy updates without re-recording
Traditional tools: Usually require complete re-recording
Basic tools: Need new recordings for changes
Content Creation
Q: How do I maintain consistent quality across teams?
A: Look for tools that offer:
Branded templates
Style guides
Team collaboration features
Review workflows
Automated quality controls
Q: What's the best format for onboarding content?
A: Consider a mix of formats:
Video tutorials for complex processes
Interactive guides for feature discovery
Written documentation for reference
Live sessions for personal touch Choose tools that support multi-format content creation and management.
Enterprise Considerations
Q: What security features should I look for?
A: Key security features include:
SOC 2 compliance
SSO integration
Role-based access
Content permissions
Secure hosting
Audit logs
Q: Can I create onboarding content in multiple languages?
A: Yes, but capabilities vary:
AI-powered tools like Clueso: Often offer automatic translation and localized voiceovers
Traditional tools: Require manual translation and recording