Article · 7 min read
Top 9 Free User Onboarding Software: A Complete Guide
Free user onboarding software comes in three forms: a free plan with limits, an open-source library your developers build with, or a paid tool's free trial. As of October 2026, only Pendo, iorad and Stonly list a free plan among the 18 onboarding tools whose pricing we read, and each caps something different: users, privacy or guide views.
By Hilal Yıldırım
In short
Three tools have a free plan as of October 2026: Pendo Free (up to 500 monthly active users), iorad Free (public tutorials only) and Stonly Basic (400 guide views a month and 5 guides). Open-source libraries cost developer time instead of money, and most of the paid tools listed run a 14-day trial without a card. Pick the free option whose limit you won't hit in the next six months.
Most results for "free user onboarding software" mix three different things: open-source libraries, free trials of paid tools, and free employee onboarding apps. None of them says what a free plan stops you doing. Of the 18 onboarding tools whose pricing pages we read on 19 October 2026, three list a free plan (Pendo, iorad and Stonly), and each one caps something different. This guide sorts the free options by kind and names each limit.
What counts as free user onboarding software?
Free user onboarding software is any tool you can use to guide your product's new users (tours, tooltips, checklists, tutorials) without paying a licence fee. In practice there are three kinds, and they cost you in different ways:
| Kind | What you pay instead | Tools in this list |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | You live within a cap on users, views or features | Pendo Free, iorad Free, Stonly Basic |
| Open-source library | Developer time to build, target and maintain every step | Intro.js, Shepherd.js |
| Free trial | Nothing for 14 days or so, then the paid plan | UserGuiding, Appcues, Userflow, Userpilot |
The word "onboarding" also covers welcoming new employees, which is a different job; see user onboarding vs employee onboarding. This list is about the users of your product.
Which onboarding tools have a free plan in 2026?
Pendo, iorad and Stonly are the only tools we track with a free plan as of October 2026. The figures below were read on each tool's pricing page and on G2 on 19 October 2026.
| Tool | Free plan and its limit | Cheapest paid plan | Free trial | G2 rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pendo | Pendo Free: up to 500 MAUs, with product analytics, in-app guides and Pendo-branded NPS surveys | Custom quote | 30 days, arranged through sales | 4.4/5 from 1,821 reviews |
| iorad | Free: unlimited tutorial capture, public tutorials and learners; no card, no time limit | $200 a month (Individual, 1 creator) | None listed | 4.7/5 from 52 reviews |
| Stonly | Basic, after the 14-day trial: 400 guide views a month, 5 published guides in one language, 1 team member | Custom quote | 14 days of Small Business | 4.8/5 from 132 reviews |
| UserGuiding | None listed | $249 a month billed yearly (Starter, up to 2,000 MAUs) | 14 days, no card, can be extended on request | 4.7/5 from 781 reviews |
| Appcues | None listed | $3,600 a year (Spark, up to 1,000 MAUs, plus a $250 one-time fee) | Yes, no card; starts with a sales call, length not stated | 4.6/5 from 359 reviews |
| Userflow | None listed | $300 a month billed monthly, $240 billed annually (Essentials, 1,000 MAUs) | 14 days, no card | 4.8/5 from 125 reviews |
| Userpilot | None listed | $299 a month (Starter, up to 2,000 MAUs; billing period not stated) | 14 days, no card | 4.6/5 from 1,020 reviews |
MAU means monthly active users. Chameleon and Intercom also run 14-day trials with no card, and neither lists a free plan.
How do you choose between a free plan, a library and a trial?
Pick the free option whose limit you won't hit in the next six months; switching tools later means rebuilding every flow. A few rules of thumb:
- Fewer than 500 monthly active users, and you want analytics too: Pendo Free. Over 500, Pendo's FAQ says you can't create new guides, NPS surveys or segments until you upgrade.
- You need how-to tutorials, and they can be public: iorad Free. Its FAQ says free tutorials are public and indexed by search engines, so don't capture anything confidential.
- You need a handful of help guides for support: Stonly Basic, as long as five guides in one language cover it.
- You have developer time and want no vendor at all: an open-source library.
- You're choosing a paid tool anyway: a trial. Write down your first-run flow before you start, so the 14 days test the tool rather than your planning.
What are the 9 free user onboarding tools?
The nine tools below are in three groups: free plans (1 to 3), open-source libraries (4 and 5) and paid tools with a free trial (6 to 9).
1- Pendo Free
Pendo combines product analytics with in-app guides for web and mobile apps. Pendo Free covers up to 500 MAUs with analytics, in-app guides, Pendo-branded roadmaps and Pendo-branded NPS surveys, and unlimited web and mobile app keys, according to its pricing page in October 2026.
The catch is the ceiling at 500 users, and the paid plans above it are quoted rather than printed. In the 300 G2 reviews we read, analytics is the most-praised theme (209) and the learning curve the most common complaint (77).
Free plan: Yes ✅
Free trial: Yes ✅ (30 days, through sales)
2- iorad Free
iorad records the steps you click through in a browser or desktop app and turns them into interactive, step-by-step tutorials. Its Free plan has no time limit and no learner cap, but every free tutorial is public; privacy controls, branding, analytics and collaboration come with paid plans, according to its FAQ.
iorad suits help-centre and training content more than tours inside your product: its FAQ describes its tutorials as standalone. Ease of use is praised in 46 of the 52 G2 reviews we read.
Free plan: Yes ✅
Free trial: No ❌ (its FAQ points you to the Free plan instead)
3- Stonly Basic
Stonly builds interactive step-by-step guides and a knowledge base, mainly for customer service, which can also run as guides in a web app. A new account gets a 14-day trial of the Small Business plan; if you don't upgrade, it drops to Basic without being charged, keeping 400 guide views a month, 5 published guides and 1 team member.
That's enough for a few troubleshooting or setup guides, not for onboarding at scale. Its knowledge base and in-app help are praised in 96 of the 132 G2 reviews we read.
Free plan: Yes ✅
Free trial: Yes ✅
4- Intro.js
Intro.js is a lightweight, open-source JavaScript library for step-by-step tours and hints in a web application. Developers write each step in code and style it to match your product.
Open source doesn't always mean free for commercial use: Intro.js's site has listed separate terms for commercial projects, so read its current licence before you ship it in a paid product. Our guide to onboarding with open-source libraries covers what a library leaves you to build.
Free plan: Open source ✅ (check the licence for commercial use)
5- Shepherd.js
Shepherd.js is an open-source JavaScript library for guided tours in websites and web apps, with steps you position against page elements and style yourself.
Shepherd.js gives developers full control of the look and behaviour of each step. What it doesn't give you is a visual editor, user targeting or completion analytics: those are yours to build, which is the real cost of a free library.
Free plan: Open source ✅ (check the licence, as with any library)
6- UserGuiding
UserGuiding is a no-code tool for product tours, checklists, resource centres and in-app surveys on web apps. It has no free plan; its 14-day trial needs no card and, according to its pricing FAQ, can be extended on request.
Ease of use is praised in 164 of the 299 G2 reviews we read, and missing features are the most common complaint (61).
Free plan: No ❌
Free trial: Yes ✅
7- Appcues
Appcues builds in-app flows, checklists, banners and surveys, and sends email and push messages from the same platform. Its trial needs no card but starts with a call with its sales team, and the pricing page doesn't say how long it lasts.
Ease of use is praised in 186 of the 294 G2 reviews we read; missing features are the top complaint (86).
Free plan: No ❌
Free trial: Yes ✅
8- Userflow
Userflow builds product tours, checklists, tooltips, surveys and a resource centre in web apps. Its 14-day trial covers either paid plan, Essentials or Studio, with no card.
Ease of use is praised in 99 of the 125 G2 reviews we read; missing features (28) and price (16) are the top complaints.
Free plan: No ❌
Free trial: Yes ✅
9- Userpilot
Userpilot pairs no-code flows, checklists and surveys with product analytics. Its "Get Started Free" button leads to a 14-day trial with no card, not to a free plan.
Ease of use is praised in 166 of the 300 G2 reviews we read; the learning curve is the most common complaint (97).
Free plan: No ❌
Free trial: Yes ✅
When is free onboarding software enough?
Free is enough while your product is small and your onboarding is simple: one welcome tour, a short checklist, a few help guides. Once you need to target different users with different flows, or measure which step loses people, the caps above start to bite.
Effective onboarding depends more on the flow than the tool, and a personalised onboarding experience is where free plans usually run out first. When you outgrow them, our comparison of paid user onboarding software covers what each entry plan includes, and our user onboarding tools by category covers email, video and analytics tools around it.
About the author
Hilal YıldırımHilal is a creative content writer highly focused on growth, occasionally product, and always onboarding.
