Appcues vs Userflow vs Jelliflow: An Honest Comparison (2025)

Choosing the right user onboarding tool can feel overwhelming. With so many options available, how do you know which platform is best for your needs?

In this comparison, we'll take an honest look at three popular options: Appcues, Userflow, and Jelliflow. We'll cover features, pricing, ease of use, and help you understand which might be the best fit for different use cases.

Quick Overview

| Feature | Appcues | Userflow | Jelliflow | |---------|---------|----------|-----------| | Starting Price | $249/month | $240/month | $99/month (14-day trial) | | Best For | Enterprise teams | Mid-market | Teams wanting speed + AI | | No-Code Builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | | AI Features | Limited | No | AI flow generation + assistant | | Auto CSS Selectors | No | No | Yes (Chrome extension) | | Time to First Flow | Hours to days | Hours | Under 10 minutes |

Appcues

Overview

Appcues is one of the original players in the user onboarding space, founded in 2013. They've built a robust platform used by many enterprise companies including Atlassian, Canva, and HubSpot.

Strengths

• Mature platform: Years of development means comprehensive features
• Enterprise features: Advanced segmentation, security, SSO, and compliance certifications
• Large template library: Many pre-built patterns to start from
• Strong integrations: Works with Segment, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Salesforce, and 20+ other tools
• Proven track record: Used by thousands of companies

Considerations

• Pricing: Starts at $249/month, quickly scales to $1,000+ for growing teams
• Complexity: Feature-rich can mean steeper learning curve
• No recording: You'll need to manually identify CSS selectors and elements to target
• Setup time: Expect hours to days for your first flow

Best For

Enterprise teams with dedicated product or growth resources who need advanced features, compliance requirements, and have budget to match.

Userflow

Overview

Userflow entered the market as a more modern alternative to legacy tools. They focus on speed and ease of use with a cleaner, more contemporary interface.

Strengths

• Fast builder: Quick to create and publish flows once you learn the tool
• Clean interface: Modern UI that's pleasant to use daily
• Good documentation: Helpful resources for getting started
• Flexible targeting: Multiple ways to target users and segments
• Survey capabilities: Built-in NPS and feedback collection

Considerations

• Pricing: Still starts at $240/month minimum with no free tier
• Limited AI: No AI-assisted flow creation or suggestions
• Manual setup: You need to know your product well to build effective flows
• Element selection: Manual CSS selector identification required

Best For

Mid-market companies who want a polished tool with good UX and have the budget for premium pricing.

Jelliflow

Overview

Jelliflow is built with modern teams and AI-first workflows in mind. The focus is on eliminating the biggest pain points of traditional onboarding tools: manual CSS selector writing and slow iteration cycles. Describe what you want, record your journey with the Chrome extension, and AI generates your entire onboarding flow—including stable CSS selectors that work across frameworks like Tailwind and React.

Strengths

• No CSS selectors needed: Chrome extension automatically generates stable selectors with fallback alternatives
• AI-powered creation: Record once, AI builds tooltips, modals, and checklists automatically
• "Jelli" AI assistant: Chat to refine flows ("make this friendlier", "add a tooltip here")
• 10-minute setup: One line of code to install, record journey, publish instantly
• PM independence: Product managers can build and update flows without engineering help
• Visual canvas builder: Drag-and-drop interface with live preview
• A/B testing built-in: Test different flows with up to 5 concurrent experiments

Considerations

• Newer platform: Fewer integrations than established players (API available)
• Growing features: Still adding enterprise features like SSO
• Smaller community: Less third-party content and tutorials available

Best For

Teams that want to ship onboarding fast without writing CSS selectors or filing engineering tickets. Ideal for product managers who want to own the onboarding experience end-to-end.

Feature Comparison

Flow Building

Appcues: Powerful editor with many component types including modals, tooltips, slideouts, and checklists. Can feel complex for simple use cases. No recording capability—you identify elements manually using CSS selectors.

Userflow: Clean, fast editor with a modern feel. Good for teams who know exactly what they want to build. Still requires manual element targeting and CSS knowledge.

Jelliflow: Visual canvas builder with AI assistance. The Chrome extension records your actual user journey, then generates suggested flows complete with element targeting. Fastest path from idea to live flow.

Targeting & Segmentation

Appcues: Most advanced segmentation in the market. Can target based on user properties, events, pages, and complex boolean logic. Great for enterprises with sophisticated use cases.

Userflow: Good segmentation options covering role-based targeting, page targeting, and user properties. Covers most common needs without overwhelming complexity.

Jelliflow: Essential segmentation built-in including user properties, page rules, and journey progress. Growing to support more advanced use cases based on customer feedback.

Analytics & Insights

Appcues: Comprehensive analytics dashboard with funnel analysis, goal tracking, and deep insights into flow performance. Integrates with your existing analytics stack.

Userflow: Good analytics with conversion tracking, completion rates, and clear visibility into user progress through flows.

Jelliflow: Real-time analytics with journey completion tracking, step-by-step drop-off analysis, and focus on actionable metrics that help you improve immediately.

Integrations

Appcues: 20+ integrations including Segment, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Salesforce, Slack, and more. Most comprehensive integration library.

Userflow: 15+ integrations with major analytics and CRM platforms including Segment, Mixpanel, and HubSpot.

Jelliflow: Growing integration library with focus on modern tools. API available for custom integrations with any platform.

Pricing Breakdown

Appcues

• Essentials: $249/month (2,500 MAUs)
• Growth: $879/month (10,000 MAUs)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Annual billing required for listed prices

Userflow

• Startup: $240/month (3,000 MAUs)
• Pro: $680/month (10,000 MAUs)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

No free tier available

Jelliflow

• 14-Day Trial: Full Pro features free
• Starter: $99/month (2,500 MAUs)
• Pro: $299/month (10,000 MAUs)
• Business: $799/month (50,000 MAUs)

20% discount with annual billing

Cost Comparison Example

For a company with 10,000 monthly active users:

| Tool | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost | |------|-------------|-------------| | Appcues | ~$879 | ~$10,548 | | Userflow | ~$680 | ~$8,160 | | Jelliflow | $299 | $2,868 |

All three tools are in a similar price range at the enterprise level. The real difference is time-to-value: Jelliflow gets you from signup to live onboarding in 10 minutes with AI-powered creation, while competitors require hours or days of manual setup.

Which Should You Choose?

Choose Appcues if:

• You're an enterprise with complex segmentation needs
• Budget isn't a primary concern
• You need SOC 2 compliance and SSO
• You have dedicated growth/product resources
• You require extensive third-party integrations

Choose Userflow if:

• You're a mid-market company with budget flexibility
• You want a polished, modern tool with good UX
• You know exactly what flows you need to build
• Survey and NPS collection is important

Choose Jelliflow if:

• You want to ship onboarding in minutes, not days
• You hate writing and maintaining CSS selectors
• You want AI to generate flows from recorded journeys
• Your product managers want to own onboarding without engineering help
• Speed to launch and iteration velocity matter most
• You want to try the full product free for 14 days

The Bottom Line

All three platforms can help you build effective user onboarding. The right choice depends on your specific situation:

• Teams prioritizing speed: Jelliflow's AI-powered recording gets you live in 10 minutes
• Enterprise teams with complex requirements and compliance needs may benefit from Appcues
• Mid-market teams wanting a polished, proven solution might prefer Userflow

The best advice? Try them. Build a real flow and see which tool fits your workflow. The key questions to ask: How long until your first flow is live? Who on your team can make changes without engineering help?

Ready to see how fast onboarding can be? Start your free trial and build your first flow in under 10 minutes—no credit card required.