Did you know that 75% of new users drop off if they don’t grasp the product within their first week? No wonder teams rely on multiple engagement channels — from behavioral triggers to interactive walkthroughs and video tutorials — to show value quickly.
This guide breaks down essential tools and helps you build a stack that drives activation. We focused on platforms that actively guide users through onboarding — via in-app experiences, product tours, or automated messaging — not just passive content.
For each tool, we covered how it fits into your tech stack, who benefits most from using it, and the real costs beyond monthly subscriptions. That way, you can determine if it aligns with your onboarding approach and team capabilities.
Customer onboarding software helps guide new users through your product, ensuring they understand key features, reach their first “aha” moments, and adopt the product successfully. These tools reduce drop-off, accelerate time-to-value, and make onboarding scalable and consistent.
Here are some types of tools that can help you with customer onboarding:
Interactive demo tools: Create hands-on product walkthroughs
Video onboarding tools: Deliver tutorials and educational content
Customer behavior analytics tools: Track and analyze how users engage with your product
Email onboarding tools: Automate welcome sequences and onboarding campaigns
Customer success tools: All-in-one platforms for managing onboarding and ongoing success
Product adoption platforms: Drive feature adoption and activation
User feedback tools: Collect insights through surveys, videos, or user interviews
Depending on your needs, you can choose a few core tools or a full stack. The right setup helps users get value faster and reduces drop-off.
Here’s a quick overview of the different types of software you can include in your customer onboarding tech stack:
Best for PLG teams who want to reduce onboarding friction through self-serve interactive demos
Supports both video and interactive product tours
The AI demo agent can adapt demo flows to user behavior and interactions
You can convert YouTube and Loom videos into interactive demos with a click
Multilingual captioning and voiceovers can help you reach a global audience
Doesn’t support API-based products
Product tours have to be embedded into your in-app tour
Layerpath is an interactive demo platform that turns traditional product demos into clickable, self-guided experiences. Instead of static screenshots or passive videos, users can engage directly with your product through guided walkthroughs.
For PLG teams, this solves a key challenge: how to demonstrate product value without relying on live sales demos or resource-intensive onboarding. Layerpath enables true self-serve discovery, allowing users to explore features hands-on at their own pace. This reduces friction in the customer journey while easing the load on customer success teams.
Here’s how it works:
Layerpath captures your product interface and transforms it into an interactive, self-guided demo that users can explore on their own
You can insert annotations, tooltips, and AI-powered enhancements like voiceovers and text prompts to guide users through key features
Users click through workflows, experiment with functionality, and engage directly with the product without needing live demos
By letting users discover key functionality on their own via the interactive demo, Layerpath helps them reach “aha moments” quickly, improving understanding and retention.
And if you’re of a mind to leverage Layerpath’s AI Demo Agent, you can provide an even more personalized experience: the agent guides users through features, answers questions in real time, and creates a highly engaging, self-serve environment that accelerates onboarding, increases trial-to-paid conversion.
Multi-format demos: Create screen capture-based interactive tours, step-by-step guides, and demo videos from a single recording
AI-powered enhancements: Use AI to generate voiceovers and text enhancements in up to 30+ languages
AI demo agent: Set up an interactive AI demo assistant that guides users through your product demos and answers questions in real time
Lead capture: Embed custom forms and CTAs directly within demos to capture prospect information
Sharing options: Distribute demos via custom links or embed on websites, apps, and even Product Hunt to maximize reach
Analytics: Track demo performance with demo viewership and engagement metrics
Best for teams creating branded video content for customer onboarding and product education
In-depth video engagement analytics, including heat maps and drop-off points
The video player can be customized to match your brand
Limited storage on lower plans
Searching the video library becomes difficult when you have lots of videos
Wistia is a business video platform that goes beyond basic hosting. It tracks how users watch your videos and adds interactive features. Unlike consumer platforms, it treats video as a tool for conversion and retention.
In onboarding, this helps with product education — via a variety of video organization methods like channels, playlists, and carousels — where users can review specific product features and submit questions through forms.
On the other end, you can see not just if someone watched a tutorial, but where they stopped, what parts they rewatched, and which calls-to-action prompted action. This feedback helps you improve videos over time using real engagement data instead of guesswork.
Best for HubSpot-centric teams needing collaborative customer onboarding with shared progress tracking
Deep HubSpot integration with workflow automations
Lets you set up customer-facing progress tracking via "where are we?" emails
Limited flexibility for non-Hubspot users
Not ideal for self-serve or low-touch onboarding models
Arrows creates customer-facing onboarding plans that attach directly to your HubSpot deals, tickets, or custom objects. This gives your customer-facing teams shared visibility into onboarding progress and insights, while giving customers a clear, easy-to-follow path to success with your product.
The platform revolves around two main concepts, plans and rooms:
A plan is a customized set of steps for each customer, including onboarding questions they need to answer or tasks they need to complete on their journey.
A room is a dynamic, HubSpot-integrated page where sellers can share resources, track milestones, and send meeting information. Rooms also provide real-time Slack alerts and updates to the deal timeline.
This means, unlike project management tools that customers never see, Arrows makes the entire onboarding journey transparent to both teams
AI-powered personalization: Deliver dynamic content tailored to each customer’s profile and needs
Shared progress tracking: Give internal teams and customers real-time visibility into plan progress
Automated workflows: Send email reminders, due date notifications, and assign tasks automatically
Sales rooms: Create digital spaces to centralize customer-relevant documents and give the buying committee a common hub to collaborate during the sales process
Best for mid-market SaaS teams building no-code in-app onboarding experiences with advanced user behavior tracking
Enables you to create an entire onboarding sequence complete with tours, in-app triggers, and feedback tools
Supports Web, native Android & iOS apps
Can become complex for simple onboarding use cases
You might need to rely on integrations for deeper analytics
Limited customizations and templates
Userpilot is a product growth platform built for product-led onboarding. It helps teams guide users to key features, drive activation, and increase adoption with contextual, in-app guidance that lets users discover features at their own pace.
This just-in-time approach reduces dependence on customer success teams while scaling experiences that feel personalized. Userpilot works especially well for complex SaaS products where hands-on exploration drives activation and long-term engagement.
In-app onboarding flows: Create interactive tours, tooltips, and contextual guides that trigger based on user behavior
User segmentation: Target users based on properties, actions, or lifecycle stage for personalized experiences
NPS and feedback surveys: Collect user insights directly within the app during onboarding
A/B testing: Test different onboarding flows and messaging to see what drives better results
Best for teams prioritizing visual design control in their in-app onboarding experiences
Full design control for highly customized onboarding experiences
A good number of integrations
Launcher widgets: Create in-app widgets that open checklists, help tools, or notification centers
Advanced targeting: Segment users and trigger onboarding flows based on behavior and attributes
A/B testing: Test visual elements and messaging to see what works best
Tours and flows: Create multi-step onboarding sequences with branching logic
Modals and banners: Build customizable announcements and notifications for users
Best for teams needing user behavior insights for into onboarding friction analysis
Gives you both quantitative and qualitative data on user behavior
Automatically generates CSAT scores and engagement analysis by page
Requires minimal technical know-how
Hotjar pricing starts at $99 per month for 500 daily sessions, with a 20% discount for annual billing. Costs rise with traffic, reaching $989 per month for 800,000 pageviews and 15,000 recordings daily. While the session-based model keeps pricing predictable, it can add up quickly for high-volume onboarding flows.
Best for data-driven teams needing onboarding funnel analysis for customer activation
Plot user journeys and create targeted cohorts
Analyze onboarding funnels to spot drop-offs
Segment users to understand different onboarding paths
Onboarding funnel analysis: Track multi-step conversions and identify drop-off points
Behavioral Cohorts: Group users by onboarding actions and outcomes
User journey mapping: Visualize paths users take through onboarding flows
Feature engagement analysis: Compare which product features drive activation
Best for product-led teams using onboarding actions to trigger emails and messages
Supports unlimited users and segments for easy scaling
Enables targeted onboarding with advanced segmentation
Sends messages across multiple channels from one platform
Behavioral triggers: Send real-time messages based on user actions, inactivity, or profile changes
Advanced segmentation: Group users dynamically by behavior, attributes, and engagement
Multi-channel campaigns: Coordinate email, SMS, push, and in-app messaging
Visual campaign builder: Create workflows with a drag-and-drop editor and branching logic
Event tracking: Monitor onboarding milestones and custom events
Your customer onboarding tech stack determines whether new users become loyal customers or churn quickly. Unlike marketing tools that attract users, onboarding tools must deliver immediate value and guide users toward meaningful product adoption.
Over-engineering with too many tools or under-investing in essentials can cost thousands in lost customer activation revenue. Here are some tips to help you build your customer onboarding tech stack:
Early-stage startups (<$1M ARR) should focus on 1-2 core tools, typically demos and messaging. Mid-market companies ($1M–$10M ARR) can support 3-4 integrated tools, while enterprise teams can deploy comprehensive stacks with specialized solutions.
Choose tools based on the complexity of your onboarding. Simple SaaS products with linear flows benefit from demos (Layerpath), basic analytics (Google Analytics), and email automation. Complex B2B products with multi-stakeholder adoption benefit from behavioral analytics (Amplitude), in-app guidance (Userpilot),and collaborative planning (Arrows).
Follow the 50/30/20 rule: 50% on engagement via messaging and demo platforms, 30% on tracking, and 20% on optimization and testing. Adjust based on your model: sales-led teams should prioritize demos, while PLG teams should invest more in behavioral messaging.
Pro Tip: Use customer lifetime value to guide your budget. Products with $500+ LTV can justify premium tools, while sub-$100 LTV products should stick to essentials.
Master basic tools before adding complexity. Perfect email automation before behavioral triggers, build effective demos before advanced personalization, and refine funnel analytics before cohort analysis.
Technical teams can handle complex setups like Customer.io’s behavioral triggers. Non-technical teams benefit from no-code solutions like Chameleon, Userpilot, or Layerpath. Sales teams need demo tools they can customize independently. Match tool sophistication to your team’s skills and implementation capacity.
Remember — the best onboarding stack is the one your team actually uses. And successful onboarding programs succeed through consistent execution with simple tools, not by relying on complex platforms with endless features.
Getting onboarding right isn't just about having the right tools — it's about using them strategically. Here are five strategies that separate high-performing onboarding programs from those that waste resources and lose users:
Front-load value delivery within the first session: Users decide whether to stick around within minutes, not days. Design your onboarding to showcase core value immediately rather than explaining every feature. If users can't complete one meaningful task in their first 15 minutes, your onboarding is too complex.
Segment users and personalize their journey. A marketing manager exploring your analytics tool needs different guidance than a developer setting up integrations. Use behavioral data and role-based segmentation to deliver relevant experiences instead of generic tours that bore power users and overwhelm beginners.
Measure leading indicators, not just vanity metrics: Track activation events that predict long-term success — like connecting a data source, inviting team members, or completing a workflow — rather than surface-level engagement like email opens.
Automate the routine, personalize the critical moments: Use behavioral triggers to send timely reminders and celebrate milestones automatically, but reserve human touchpoints for high-impact moments like feature adoption blockers or expansion opportunities.
Continuously optimize based on drop-off data, not assumptions: Most onboarding improvements come from fixing specific friction points, not adding more features. A single fix to a confusing navigation element often improves activation more than an entirely new onboarding flow.
SaaS onboarding determines if new users adopt your product or drop off. Interactive demos can help them reach their first “aha!” moments — keeping them engaged longer. Plus, unlike lengthy guides or videos, interactive demos let users explore the product at their own pace, making complex features easier to explore.
Layerpath is built for exactly this — enabling customer success teams to create scalable, personalized onboarding flows .This includes:
Personalized guidance for different user roles and team structures
Step-by-step flows that simplify complex features and reduce cognitive overload
Automated tracking of progress and milestones, freeing up teams for high-touch support
The AI Demo Agent adds another layer of efficiency by automatically interacting with users, answering questions, and guiding them through demos 24/7. Combined with Layerpath’s interactive demo flows, it ensures users get immediate value — driving higher engagement and sustainable product-led growth.
Interested in experiencing the future of demos? Join our beta program and see firsthand how AI-powered demos can drive real revenue impact. And if you’d like to geek out about the potential of agentic AI and AI-driven demos, you can schedule a 30-minute call with Vinay, our founder.
An onboarding flow is the complete journey from sign-up to activation, including emails, tasks, and milestones. A product tour is a specific interactive walkthrough showing users how to use features.
If your team spends more time managing tools than analyzing results, or if you can't trace a clear path from user action to business outcome across your stack, you've over-engineered your onboarding tech stack. Start with 2-3 core tools maximum.
Focus on activation rate (users completing key value actions), time-to-value (days to first meaningful outcome), and onboarding completion rate. These three metrics predict long-term retention better than vanity metrics like email open rates.
Ready to decide? Sign up to Layerpath for free — and discover why it’s the simplest demo automation software option with the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO)