StepsKit
PendoLooking at more than two tools? The best Pendo alternatives covers the wider field, and the StepsKit features overview details what a single undivided plan covers.
Pendo alternative
Pricing verified 18 August 2026 · Updated August 2026
Pendo is a product analytics platform with in-app guides attached, and its analytics is the part teams pay for. Every paid tier is quote-only. StepsKit publishes its price and ships guides without the analytics stack. The comparison below is about which half you actually need.
Flat price · no MAU metering · no sales call
StepsKitvsPendo
StepsKit vs Pendo: the short version
The verdict
Pendo and StepsKit overlap on in-app guides and diverge everywhere else. Pendo is a product analytics platform first: Data Explorer, Paths, funnels, retention, and Product Engagement Score, with Session Replay, native mobile SDKs, and churn prediction alongside. StepsKit covers the guide half only, at $19 a month flat, and reports completion for the flows it runs. Pendo wins the free question outright. It runs a $0 tier at 500 monthly active users plus Novus, a free beta with no MAU limit. What Pendo does not publish is a price: Base, Core, and Ultimate all read 'Custom pricing' behind a demo request. The choice is whether analytics is the purchase and guides are the accessory, or the reverse.
Stay on Pendo if
analytics is the product you are buying and in-app guides come along with it.
Switch to StepsKit if
you need guides shipped this week and cannot start with a demo request.
The case for Pendo
What Pendo does better than StepsKit
Pendo's analytics platform is the part StepsKit has no answer for. Captured from pendo.io's product and pricing pages on 2026-08-18.
Deep product analytics
Data Explorer, Paths, funnels, retention, and Product Engagement Score make up a full analytics suite, not a reporting tab beside a tour builder. Pendo captures behavior retroactively, so pages and features can be tagged after the fact. StepsKit reports tour completion and step-level engagement, and nothing about the rest of your product.
Session Replay in the same platform
Session Replay is a first-class Pendo product, bundled into Core and Ultimate. A team can watch the session behind a funnel drop-off without buying a second tool. StepsKit ships no session replay at all, so that correlation is simply unavailable.
Native mobile and cross-application reach
Pendo runs Mobile as a named product alongside web and reports how users move across multiple applications. StepsKit is a browser embed with no mobile SDK, so a product with an iOS or Android app covers only half its surface with it.
Platform breadth
Guides, Analytics, Session Replay, Listen, Orchestrate, Roadmaps, Data Sync, Sentiment, Predict, and Agent Analytics all sit on one platform. Whether one team needs all ten is a fair question. StepsKit answers two of them, guides and surveys, and leaves the rest to tools you buy separately.
Two free front doors
Pendo's Free tier runs at $0 for 500 monthly active users. Novus, a free beta, drops the MAU limit entirely and adds auto-instrumentation from GitHub plus AI-generated PRs. On the free question Pendo is more generous than StepsKit, whose free plan stops at 1 tour, 1 tooltip group, and 1 announcement.
The case for switching
Why teams switch from Pendo
Pendo is built and priced for product organizations that treat analytics as a primary investment. The frictions below are what sends smaller teams looking.
No published price on any paid tier
Base, Core, and Ultimate all show “Custom pricing” and a “Request a demo” button. Aggregator quotes from real buyers reference figures in the four- to five-figure-per-month range, but Pendo's own pages publish no number.
The platform is the point, and you pay for all of it
Guides sit inside a stack that also includes Analytics, Session Replay, Listen, Orchestrate, Roadmaps, and Data Sync. Public reviews commonly cite CSS edits, selector tagging, and engineering involvement to ship a guide that is not default. A team that wants onboarding flows buys the whole platform to get them.
MAU metering on top of the contract
The Free tier stops at 500 monthly active users, and every paid tier is scoped to a custom MAU volume. The bill therefore tracks how many people use your product, which is the opposite of a fixed line item.
Annual contracts as the default
Multi-year terms appear in larger deals, and month-to-month is not a published option. Verify current terms directly with Pendo; their pricing page does not publish contract length.
Pricing
Pendo pricing vs StepsKit pricing
Pendo
Custom pricing
Sales required
Every paid tier is quote-only: Base, Core, and Ultimate all show 'Custom pricing' behind a demo request. Only the $0 Free tier and the Novus beta are self-serve.
CustomCustomCustom
Published paid tiers, lowest to highest.
StepsKit
$19/mo flat
Unlimited MAU — every feature included.
$19$19$19
At 1k, 10k, and 100k users.
Side by side
StepsKit vs Pendo, row by row
| Comparison | Pendo | StepsKit |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Highest plan pricing | Custom (Contact sales) | $19/month |
| Free plan | Yes — Up to 500 monthly active users | Yes — 1 tour, 1 tooltip group, 1 announcement |
| Public pricing for paid tiers | No | Yes |
| Self-serve purchase (no sales call) | No | Yes |
| Unlimited MAU on paid plan | No | Yes |
| Features | ||
Published price on every planStepsKit publishes $19/month on its pricing page; Pendo shows 'Custom pricing' and a demo request on Base, Core, and Ultimate alike. | No | Yes |
All features on a single tierStepsKit gates nothing behind a higher plan, while Pendo unlocks Session Replay on Core and Sentiment, Orchestrate, Listen, and Data Sync on Ultimate. | No | Yes |
Deep product analytics (Data Explorer, Paths, retention, PES)Pendo's primary moat, with retroactive capture so pages and features can be tagged after the fact; StepsKit reports tour completion only. | Yes | No |
Session ReplayPendo bundles Session Replay into its Core and Ultimate tiers as a first-class product; StepsKit ships no session replay of any kind. | Yes | No |
Native iOS and Android coveragePendo runs Mobile as a named product covering native apps; StepsKit is a browser embed, so a mobile app gets no coverage from it at all. | Yes | No |
Analytics across multiple applicationsPendo reveals 'how users move across multiple applications in web and mobile'; StepsKit reports on its own flows inside the one app it is installed in. | Yes | No |
Feedback, roadmaps, and churn predictionPendo ships Listen, Roadmaps, Sentiment, and Predict for churn; StepsKit ships in-app surveys and NPS and nothing downstream of them. | Yes | No |
Email and in-app campaign orchestrationPendo's Orchestrate combines in-app guides with email in one campaign; StepsKit sends nothing outside the app it is embedded in. | Yes | No |
AI agents can author from your codebase (MCP)Both list MCP servers; a coding agent such as Cursor can build StepsKit tours straight from your codebase, while Pendo pairs Pendo MCP with its Leo assistant. | Yes | Yes |
In-product surveys and NPS collectionBoth ship them, but Pendo's NPS surveys carry Pendo branding on the Free tier and full Sentiment sits on Ultimate; StepsKit includes surveys on its one plan. | Yes | Yes |
Free planPendo wins this row: $0 up to 500 monthly active users plus the Novus beta with no MAU limit, against StepsKit's 1 tour, 1 tooltip group, 1 announcement. | Yes | Yes |
Buy a paid plan without talking to salesStepsKit is self-serve checkout; every paid Pendo tier routes to a 'Request a demo' form, with only Free and Novus available to start directly. | No | Yes |
Where StepsKit fits
Where StepsKit fits — and where it doesn't
It builds in-app guidance and measures it. It is not a product-analytics suite, a session-replay tool, or an enterprise rollout service.
What it does do ships on one plan: no tagging configuration, no implementation project, no sales cycle to start.
Your planOne plan
- Unlimited tours
- Unlimited MAU
- All surfaces
Next invoiceSame as last
Every feature on every plan
One flat monthly price. Unlimited tours, unlimited MAU, no per-seat metering, no feature unlocks across tiers. The price you see is the price you pay.
1
Next
Visual builder, no engineering for install
Click-to-target inside your product to attach steps. One line of code to install, no selector tagging or developer ticket required to ship the first tour.
Show when
plan = proANDrole = admin
+ Add rule
Matches 847 users
Audience targeting & frequency capping
Show the right tour to the right user once. Filter by URL pattern, page-level visibility, user attributes, and frequency capping in a single panel.
Decision
Should you choose Pendo or StepsKit?
Choose Pendo if…
- Product analytics is the purchase and in-app guides are the accessory, not the reverse.
- You need Session Replay correlated with funnel drop-off inside one platform.
- You ship an iOS or Android app and need native mobile SDKs.
- You want churn prediction and AI adoption analytics sitting next to your guides.
- Your buying motion already includes a demo, a quote, and an annual contract.
- A free tier with no MAU limit matters and Novus is still in beta.
Choose StepsKit if…
- In-app guides are the whole reason you are shopping, not a module of something larger.
- You need a published number before a demo, not a quote after one.
- Nobody on the team will open a product analytics suite if you buy one.
- A free plan you can publish from matters: 1 tour, 1 tooltip group, 1 announcement.
- Analytics already lives in Amplitude or PostHog and does not need replacing.
FAQ
Common questions about Pendo
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