Product Managers are often considered the “CEO of a product”, and just like successful CEOs, successful data-driven product managers need a variety of different tools, skills, and capabilities that cut across many domains.
As a product-centric company building a behavioral analytics platform used by many product teams, we originally started creating this list for ourselves as an internal company spreadsheet. As it’s grown over the years and we’ve filled it out with our notes, we thought it might be a valuable resource for others to accelerate their own data-driven product management process.
Below we’ve broken out the list by category of tools with an explanation of how we define them. They are listed in order of each step of how the product management process operates, from product ideation all the way through to analyzing user engagement with your finished product.
Did we miss one of your favorite tools for PMs? Tweet us @getindicative or let us know in the comments.
Categories:
- Mindmapping: For organizing concepts in related groupings at the beginning of the ideation process
- Flowcharts & Diagrams: For doing high-level process mapping and rough sketchinguser onb
- User Research: For doing qualitative and quantitative research on users and personas to validate concepts
- Roadmapping: For organizing and prioritizing product roadmaps, strategy, and releases
- Wireframing: For creating low-fidelity product mockups prior to visual design
- User Onboarding: For guiding your customers in real time through the features and functions in your software
- Prototyping: For creating high-fidelity product prototypes after designing but prior to writing code
- Usability Testing: For getting and analyzing user feedback on prototypes and pre-release versions
- Agile Project Management: For managing an active product management process in an agile workflow
- A/B Testing: For testing different versions of features and copy to optimize your product
- Heatmapping & Session Recording: For recording and analyzing individual user sessions and clicking / scrolling
- Analytics: For analyzing and optimizing your full customer journey – the most critical part of the process
Mindmapping
#1: Popplet
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “Popplet is a tool for the iPad and web to capture and organize your ideas.”
Type: SaaS & iOS app
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $3 / Month or $30 / year; $4.99 iOS app
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for one of the easiest ways to organize ideas in one place, similar to how you’d put post-it notes on a wall or whiteboard. It doesn’t look like traditional, more complex mind-mappers and that’s intentional – it’s focused on the quickest way to get notes down and group them together.
Two best features:
1) Ability to embed sketches and drawings on each note (vs typically just text on mindmapping tools)
2) Group collaboration capabilities (not just sharing)
#2: MindJet
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “The world’s best mind mapping software”
Type: Desktop
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $349 / one time license
Best for: Mid-size and large enterprises
Learning Curve: High
Choose it because: You’re looking for a comprehensive planning tool that turns mindmaps into forecasts and project plans – essentially using a mindmap as part of your project management workflow. The fully featured tool is used predominantly in large enterprises.
Two best features:
1) Integrated flowcharts capability
2) Prioritization and task assignment
#3: XMind
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “XMind is the most professional and popular mind mapping tool.”
Type: Desktop
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: Desktop – $27.99 per 6 months, iOS – $9.99 per 6 months, Desktop + iOS $29.99 per 6 months
Best for: Mid-size and large enterprises
Learning Curve: High
Choose it because: You’re looking for a fully featured project management and project planning tool that’s more than just mindmaps, and having an open-source and free versions is important.
Two best features:
1) Large selection of integrated chart types for project management, like fishbone, matrices, and Gantt
2) Ability to merge different maps together
#4: Coggle
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “A clear way to share complex information.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $5 – $8 per user per month
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a browser-based, affordable tool, with a modern UI/UX that only does mindmaps but does them very well.
Two best features:
1) Automatic version control
2) Strong team collaboration capabilities
#5: Freemind
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java.”
Type: Desktop or Self-hosted
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: N/A
Pricing: N/A
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: High
Choose it because: You want an absolutely free, open-source tool with a lot of features, and you want to either run locally or self-host, and you don’t mind a slightly rusty-looking UI.
Two best features:
1) Simultaneous team editing / collaboration
2) Easy to export maps in XML and import into many other tools
#6: Mindnode
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “MindNode makes mind mapping easy”
Type: Mac app and iOS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $9.99 iPad; 29,99 € App store
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You want a Mac or Ipad/iOS app only, and a simple core feature set with a beautiful UI is important
Two best features:
1) Applescript integration for export
2) Smart automatic layout management
#7: Wisemapping
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “Free online mind mapping editor for individuals and business”
Type: SaaS & self-hosted
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: N/A
Pricing: N/A
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You want a fully free, open-source tool that you can run as both SaaS and on your own server, and aren’t worried about support or fast feature development
Two best features:
1) Embedding maps in web pages
2) Exporting into Freemind
#8: MindMeister
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “More than 4 million people use MindMeister for their creative work.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $4.99 – $12.49 per user per 6 months
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You want a fully featured, web-based tool focused just on mindmapping
Two best features:
1) Sharp UI and ability to create to good-looking presentations directly from maps
2) Real-time group collaboration in the browser
#9: ConceptDraw Mindmap
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “A versatile, yet easy-to-use tool for organizing ideas and data. ”
Type: Desktop
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $199-$499 per user per perpetual license
Best for: Mid-size and large enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You want a modern, fully-featured desktop mindmapping tool with good collaboration features that’s part of a broader product suite.
Two best features:
1) Strong collaboration capabilities
2) Ability to import and export to a variety of different document and file types
#10: iMindQ
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “Mind Mapping Software for Business”
Type: SaaS & Desktop
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $79 perpetual license and $39 yearly subscription
Best for: Mid-size and large enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for an an enterprise mindmapping tool with additional flowcharting and diagramming capabiliites that has a Microsoft Office influenced interface with a lot of visual design customization options.
Two best features:
1) Integrated project planning features and output to Gantt charts
2) MS Office and Sharepoint integration
#11: Mindgenius
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “Capture your ideas, visualise information, plan projects, manage tasks and share knowledge”
Type: Desktop
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $232 for the first year, $56 per year after / $392 perpetual license
Best for: Mid-size and large enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You need a business class enterprise mindmapping tool with a Microsoft Office style interface that has broader project management and planning features built in.
Two best features:
1) Microsoft Office and Project integrations
2) Different mapping modes for things like brainstorming and roadmap prioritization
#12: Mindmaple
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “MindMaple® will increase your productivity and creativity by visually organizing your ideas
and thoughts onto a mind map. ”
Type: Desktop
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $8.99 iPad and Mac App
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You need a simple, mindmapping only tool with both mobile app and desktop options.
Two best features:
1) Ability to link different map documents together
2) Presentation mode
#13: Mindmapper
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “Harness the Power of Visual Mapper, Planner, and Dashboard”
Type: Desktop
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: $100 – $249 per person
Best for: Mid-size and large enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for comprehensive enterprise project management tool based that is based on mindmapping.
Two best features:
1) Dashboard feature for overall project views
2) Integration calendar
#14: Novamind
Category: Mindmapping
Tagline: “Visualize your information to get things done”
Type: Desktop & SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $7 per user per month; $72 per year
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a fully featured, cross-platform mindmapping-only tool with MS project integration and a solid presentation mode.
Two best features:
1) Import and export to/from MS Project
2) Support for both desktop and cloud options
Flowcharts & Diagrams
#15: Lucidchart
Category: Flowcharts & Diagrams
Tagline: “Diagrams Done Right”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $5-$20 per user per month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a fully featured, browser-based diagramming and flowchart tool that is usable for a variety of usecases and has enterprise-class support if needed.
Two best features:
1) Diagrams that can be embeddeed in other docs and webpages and automatically update
2) Easy-to-user, browser based drag-and-drop
#16: Creately
Category: Flowcharts & Diagrams
Tagline: “Online Flowchart Software To easily create flowcharts, process flows and workflows”
Type: Desktop, SaaS and self-hosted
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $5 per month for individuals; team plans from $25 per month for 5 users to $750 per month for 500 users
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You want a fully-featured, browser-based, high-powered diagramming and flowchart tool that integrates with a variety of other enterprise product management suites.
Two best features:
1) Integrations with several enterprise project management tools
2) A lot of customization options including thousands of pre-built templates
#17: Gliffy
Category: Flowcharts & Diagrams
Tagline: “Where Ideas Take Shape”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $5-$10 per user per month
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You want a browser-based diagramming and flowcharting tool that can also be used for other usecases like wireframing, UML, and sitemaps.
Two best features:
1) General ease-of-user and speed
2) Integration with Atlassian’s suite
#18: Draw.io
Category: Flowcharts & Diagrams
Tagline: “Free online diagram software for making flow charts, process diagrams, org charts, UML, ER and network diagrams”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: N/A
Pricing: N/A
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You want an absolutely free, browser-based, feature-rich diagramming and flowchart tool that integrates with Atlassian’s suite and you don’t want to have to create an acccount.
Two best features:
1) Variety of features without compromising usability
2) Totally free tool (the makers license the underlying graphing engine to other companies)
#19: Omnigraffle
Category: Flowcharts & Diagrams
Tagline: “OmniGraffle is for creating precise, beautiful graphics”
Type: Desktop – Mac / iOS only
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $50 iOS; $100 Mac; $200 Pro
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You want a very robust, feature-rich diagramming and flow-chart tool with a massive featureset.
Two best features:
1) Automatic shape recognition when using a finger or drawing tools like Apple Pencil on iPad
2) Huge variety of image and diagramming customization capabilities
#20: Smartdraw
Category: Flowcharts & Diagrams
Tagline: “The Smartest Way to Draw Anything”
Type: Desktop – Windows and SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $9.95 per month for single users, 5+ users $5.95 per month each
Best for: Enterprises
Learning Curve: High
Choose it because: You’re looking for a highly flexible, very polished drawing and diagramming tool that can be used for a variety of usecases and has very strong Microsoft suite integration.
Two best features:
1) Intelligent auto-formatting and professional looking design
2) Integration with the full Microsoft suite including Sharepoint embedding
User Research
#21: Ethnio
Category: User Research
Tagline: “It lets you recruit the best possible participants for user research from your app, site, or around the internet.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $79 – $349 per month
Best for: Mid-size companies and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking to recruit users with specific subsets of criteria at scale.
Two best features:
1) Embedding live research questions into your site or app to be able to connect with users directly to ask questions
2) API integration for integration with other user research tools
#22: Survey Nuts
Category: User Research
Tagline: “The most easy-to-use questionnaire maker and survey builder.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $17-$39 per month
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for an affordable, easy-to-use but capable survey tool that has both free and paid plans.
Two best features:
1) Clean, modern UI/UX
2) Easy to use branching logic to make custom paths through a survey
#23: Survey Planet
Category: User Research
Tagline: “A simple and powerful online survey tool.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $20 per month, $180 annually
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a well-designed, affordable, survey tool with a variety of customization options
Two best features:
1) Unlimited surveys and responses
2) Great design and good-looking existing templates
#24: Surv Metrics
Category: User Research
Tagline: “An entirely new way to create and share
mobile-friendly surveys”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $20-$100 / month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for mobile-centric survey capabilities
Two best features:
1) Well-design, native mobile formats
2) Powerful response analytics
#25: Survs
Category: User Research
Tagline: “Create online surveys with ease. Get valuable feedback.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $19-$120 / month
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a survey platform that is both feature-rich and has really high usability.
Two best features:
1) Smart branching and skipping logic with the ability to show previous answers as part of a later question
2) Strong team collaboration capabilities
#26: Survey Gizmo
Category: User Research
Tagline: “Survey software that will make you smile”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $22 / month – $1500 / annually
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very robust survey platform that is enterprise-ready that you can customize but als has a generous free plan.
Two best features:
1) Robust customization and communication/invite feature set
2) Lots of integrations, like panel partners and marketing / CRM tools
#27: Lookback
Category: User Research
Tagline: “Record your app or prototype.”
Type: SaaS or self-hosted
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $49-$99 per collaborator per month
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a way to record mobile app sessions for recruited testers or for users that want to record feedback while using your app.
Two best features:
1) Integrations with both iOS/Android/Mac for live apps as well as Invision/Marvel for prototypes.
2) Records both onscreen actions and user’s facial reactions
Roadmapping
Screenshot from Roadmunk:
#28: Roadmunk
Category: Roadmapping
Tagline: “Roadmaps for Product Success”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $20-$100 / month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a comprehensive roadmapping tool with beautiful design and a lot of flexibility in visual representation.
Two best features:
1) Variety of different views to represent your roadmap to different audiences
2) Local storage and other enteprise security options
#29: Productboard
Category: Roadmapping
Tagline: “Make products that matter”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $49 per editor per month for basic plan, $99 per editor per month for mid-tier, and custom pricing beyond that.
Best for: Startups, Mid-Size, and/or Large Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking to better understand what your users need, confidently prioritize what features to build next, create consensus around your product roadmap, and engage with your customer community.
Two best features:
1) In a single place, see all of the details of your user feedback. You’ll see exactly what your customers are saying and understand the importance of feature requests based on input from support tickets, user research, sales/CX calls, and feature requests.
2) Interactive roadmap/product portal to collect feedback on feature ideas being considered, planned, or recently launched. Collect votes and input from colleagues and customers to help prioritize what to build next.
#30: Aha
Category: Roadmapping
Tagline: “Aha! is roadmapping software for PMs who want their mojo back”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $59 – $149 / month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a complete product roadmap management tool that has a variety of different modules to manage all parts of a product lifecycle as well as large amounts of integrations with other tools.
Two best features:
1) Great portfolio of different modules for different parts of the product lifecycle
2) Large library of integrations with other PM tools
#31: Prodpad
Category: Roadmapping
Tagline: “The World’s Most Loved Product Management Software.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $99-$999 per month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a product roadmapping tool that has a focus on incorporating internal and external comments and feedback on ideas and mockups.
Two best features:
1) Modules to gather both feedback and ideas from customers and your internal team
2) Ability to share and comment on design mockups from within the tool
#32: ProductPlan
Category: Roadmapping
Tagline: “Create Beautiful Roadmaps”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $39 per month per editor
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a product roadmapping tool with a focus on planning and prioritization, as well as integration with Atlassian’s Jira.
Two best features:
1) Interactive planning tool
2) Ability to link multiple roadmaps together to create a master company roadmap
Wireframing
#33: Balsamiq
Category: Wireframing
Tagline: “Balsamiq Mockups is a rapid wireframing tool that helps you Work Faster & Smarter”
Type: Desktop and SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $12 / month or $89 / perpetual license; per user
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a wireframing tool that focuses only on wireframing, but has a lot of features and good sharing capabiliites, and has an intentional low-fi “sketched” look.
Two best features:
1) Great selection of pre-formed, low-fidelity images for digital wireframing
2) Collaboration and user permission / sharing features
#34: UXPin
Category: Wireframing
Tagline: “Wireframe, mockup & prototype. Together.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $19 – $49 per user per month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very well designed, all-in-one wireframing and prototyping platform, with usabillity testing features built in as well.
Two best features:
1) Ability to create both low and high fidelity wireframes and protoypes in the same app
2) Ability to get external user and internal feedback
#35: Mockingbird
Category: Wireframing
Tagline: “Mock up an application and show what’s important: the idea, the information, the interaction.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $9 – $85 per month (depends on number of projects)
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a web-based, easy-to-use, wireframing tool and don’t need complicated interactions features.
Two best features:
1) Super easy to use and well-designed web app
2) Affordable pricing plan
#36: Pidoco
Category: Wireframing
Tagline: “A better way to wireframe”
Type: SaaS and self-hosted
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $12 / month or $175 / month
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a web-based, well-featured wireframing tool with good interactivity capabilities and enterprise integrations.
Two best features:
1) Good library of powerful interactivity optoins
2) Enterprise integrations
#37: Mockflow
Category: Wireframing
Tagline: “Design Tools to Create and Collaborate”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $14-$160 depending on number of users
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a web-based, well-featured wireframing tool that is designer-centric and has a suite of additional designer apps.
Two best features:
1) Crisp, lo-fi look with a lot of customization options for elements for fine-tuning layouts
2) Includes additional design tools in the suite at an affordable price
#38: HotGloo
Category: Wireframing
Tagline: “HotGloo combines interactive wireframing and collaborative prototyping – all in one tool.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $14 – $54 / month
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a web-based, well-featured wireframing tool with prototyping-like capabilities like strong interactivity components and state control.
Two best features:
1) Large pre-built stencil libraries so it’s easy to start with all the components of certain type of activity or function
2) Lots of smart interactivity capabilities like showing different states for different types of users
#39: Wireframe.cc
Category: Wireframing
Tagline: “A Tool In Line With The Mindset You Need For Wireframing”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $15 – $99 / month
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a web-based, drop-dead simple tool for quickly creating lo-fi mockups and don’t need a lot of features or interactivity components.
Two best features:
1) Snappy, simple interface that is easy to get immediate value out of.
2) Good version control capabilities
User Onboarding
#40: Userlane
Category: User Onboarding
Tagline: “The navigation system for software that guides users to customer success.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: Price is modular and is based on user, features, deployment, and additional services. Our customer success program is included for free in every plan.
Best for: Mid-sized to large SaaS companies
Learning Curve: Medium (but Userlane uses its own guides to onboard its customers and also offers an interactive academy).
Choose it because: You’re a SaaS solution looking to maximize engagement and increase conversion and retention rates with onboarding tours and on-screen interactive support.
Two best features:
1) Custom Segmentation: The opportunity to create different discovery journeys and walkthroughs for different users
2) A Virtual Assistant that users can access on demand at any time. Userlane is a form of contextual electronic performance support that gives users on-demand assistance with interactive guidance.
Prototyping
#41: Axure
Category: Prototyping
Tagline: “Create Prototypes of Websites & Apps Without Coding”
Type: SaaS and Desktop
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $29-$99 per user per month; perpetual license $495-$895 per user
Best for: Mid-size enterprises and large enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very powerful, high-fidelity, enterprise-class prototyping tool with all the bells and whistles.
Two best features:
1) Powerful interactivity features like calculations of fields and conditional logic
2) Excellent ability to start with low-fi wireframes and evolve them into high-fidelity prototypes in the same tool
#42: Justinmind
Category: Prototyping
Tagline: “Prototype Faster Communicate Better”
Type: Desktop
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $29 per user per month or $495 per user for perpetual license
Best for: Mid-size enterprises and large enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a fully-featured prototyping-focused tool with some unique high fidelity widgets and interactions.
Two best features:
1) Powerful interactivity features comparable to other higher-end tools
2) Powerful database simulation capabilites
#43: Marvel
Category: Prototyping
Tagline: “Free mobile & web prototyping for everyone. No coding required.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $12-$84 depending on number of users
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a well-designed, web-native prototyping tool focused on using existing design mockups to test out interactivity.
Two best features:
1) Smart and well-designed pre-built interactivity frameworks for a variety of different devices
2) Good team collaboration and commenting features
#44: Invision
Category: Prototyping
Tagline: “Design better. Faster. Together. The world’s leading prototyping, collaboration & workflow platform.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $15 per user – $99 per 5-person team per month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a well-designed, web-native prototyping tool focused on using existing design mockups to test out interactivity, with strong workflow management and collaboration capabilities.
Two best features:
1) Design inspiration collaboration capabilities
2) Strong focus on workflow management for both small and big companies
#45: Proto.io
Category: Prototyping
Tagline: “Prototypes that feel real.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $29 per user – $199 per 10-person team per month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a well-designed, web-native prototyping tool that both users existing design mockups to test out interactivity as well as allows creation of hi-fidelity prototypes from scratch, with strong enterprise and user testing capabilities.
Two best features:
1) Ability to both create high-fidelity prototypes from scratch as well as import already-created design files
2) On-device testing via a native iOS and Android app
#46: Pencil
Category: Prototyping
Tagline: “An open-source GUI prototyping tool that’s available for ALL platforms.”
Type: Desktop
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: N/A
Pricing: N/A
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a free, open-source, cross-platform downloadable prototyping tool that can do both basic wireframing and prototyping, and don’t need a lot of additional features.
Two best features:
1) Includes both low-fi and high-fi elements
2) Free and open-source
#47: Protoshare
Category: Prototyping
Tagline: “Powerful Prototyping Made Easy.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $29 – $59 per user per month
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a web-native low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototyping tool with advanced customization options and a good selection of enterprise-centric features.
Two best features:
1) Ability to deeply customize interactivity and layout using HTML/CSS/JS
2) Strong controls and permissions on reviewing & collaboration
#48: FluidUI
Category: Prototyping
Tagline: Create Web and Mobile Prototypes in Minutes
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $15/month or $99/year for a solo license; up to $65/month for a team license
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: of its simplicity. Its features include built-in high and low fidelity component libraries, live team collaboration, device previews and video presentations. It’s a great solution for designers, entrepreneurs and product visionaries.
Two best features:
1) Real time collaboration on designs including chat, comments and video calling.
2) Over 2000 pre-built widgets in component libraries covering iOS, Android and web prototyping.
Usability Testing
Screenshot from Usertesting:
#49: Usertesting
Category: Usability Testing
Tagline: “Give your users a great experience”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $49 per 15 video sessions
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a scaleable platform for getting on-demand recorded videos and survey responses of users testing your app or site via panels that fit your target demographics.
Two best features:
1) On-demand capability to get qualitative video and survey feedback of people testing your site or app
2) Enterprise features like consulting and custom analysis and interpretation of your feedback results
#50: Try My UI
Category: Usability Testing
Tagline: “Get the user’s view”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: $35 for individual tests, team and enterprise plans from $299-$1,000 per month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a scaleable platform for getting recorded videos and survey responses of users testing your app or site, with the additional ability to get a panel recruited for you.
Two best features:
1) Additional built-in tests that help you benchmark product and task usability
2) Abiltiy to get crowdsourced insights and voting from your user panel
#51: PickFu
Category: Usability Testing
Tagline: “Our responders provide unbiased feedback on your project in just minutes!”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: $9-$74 per month
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking to get quick feedback on headline or mockup option preferences from a panel of users with feedback as to why
Two best features:
1) Quick turnaround as they use Amazon’s Mechanical Turk
2) Simple and quick – can use in many quick usecases
#52: UserZoom
Category: Usability Testing
Tagline: “Rapidly Test Usability & Measure UX”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: $19,000 – $55,000 per year
Best for: Enterprises
Learning Curve: High
Choose it because: You’re a large enterprise looking for the complete package of online user research, from recording sessions on multiple devices to clickstreams, heatmaps, and 3rd party panel integrations.
Two best features:
1) Includes everything needed for running a complete online UX testing operation
2) Strong enterprise consulting & advisory services
#53: UsersThink
Category: Usability Testing
Tagline: “Get more conversions out of your landing pages with user feedback on demand.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: $39 – $99 for feedback from 6 – 18 users
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a small number of detailed qualitative user feedback surveys on your landing page or design mock within 24 hours.
Two best features:
1) Super simple to get started
2) Screened respondents that give high quality feedback
#54: Loop11
Category: Usability Testing
Tagline: “Online User Testing. Powerful. Simple.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: $158 – $825 per month or $350 per project
Best for: Midsize and large enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a large volume of qualitative user feedback survey-based reponses to your
Two best features:
1) Includes clickstream and heatmap analysis to augment surveys
2) Strong consulting options as needed
#55: Helio
Category: Usability Testing
Tagline: “Helio is the fastest way to collect and analyze user feedback on screens or mockups.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: N/A
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a tool for generating survey-based responses and heatmapping / goal analysis on mockups or designs.
Two best features:
1) Variety of different test options that are easy and quick to set up
2) Ability to get a recruited user panel if you don’t have one
#56: What Users Do
Category: Usability Testing
Tagline: “It’s all about the people. Real user, real insight.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: £650 for 10 user test videos, £10,000 per year unlimited
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a scaleable platform for getting on-demand recorded videos of users testing your app or site via panels that fit your target demographics.
Two best features:
1) Ability to set up tests and get video sessions quickly with both domestic and international panels
2) Full-service option for larger enterprises
Agile Product Management
#57: Jira
Category: Agile Project Management
Tagline: “The #1 software development tool used by agile teams”
Type: SaaS and self-hosted
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $10 for 10 users per month; 11-100 users $7 per user per month
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a fully-featured, very robust agile project management platform that has both kanban and scrum-style interfaces and a huge ecosystem of partners and integrations
Two best features:
1) Complex workflow customization
2) Huge selection of integrations and add-ons
#58: Trello
Category: Agile Project Management
Tagline: “Trello is the free, flexible, and visual way to organize anything with anyone.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $9.99 – $20.83 per user per month paid annually
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a flexible and very powerful kanban style project management platform that can be used for a huge variety of usecases.
Two best features:
1) Super easy-to-use interface with a quick time to value
2) Growing partner ecosystem and large amount of integrations
Choose it because: You’re looking for a flexible and very powerful kanban style project management platform that can be used for a huge variety of usecases.
Two best features:
1) Super easy-to-use interface with a quick time to value
2) Growing partner ecosystem and large amount of integrations
#59: Asana
Category: Agile Project Management
Tagline: “Asana is the easiest way for teams to track their work—and get results.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $9.99 per user per month paid annually
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a flexible and very powerful to-do-list style project management platform that can be used for a huge variety of usecases.
Two best features:
1) Familar easy-to-use interface with a quick time to value
2) Multiple ways to prioritize and structure lists for individuals and teams
#60: Pivotal Tracker
Category: Agile Project Management
Tagline: “Build better software faster.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $12.50 for 5 users scaling to $250 for 50 per month
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very powerful and full-featured scrum-style tool with a rigorous adherence to scrum principles.
Two best features:
1) Full suite of scrum features like task estimation and burndown charts
2) Large amount of integrations and robust API
#61: Wrike
Category: Agile Project Management
Tagline: “Go beyond traditional task and project management”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $9.80-$36.40 per user per month
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very powerful and full-featured, timeline-style project management tool with a lot of powerful features like dependencies and support for waterfall approaches, as well as a large amount of integrations.
Two best features:
1) Very powerful email integration for creating and updating tasks from within an email client
2) Huge amount of enterprise-style project management features
#62: Liquidplanner
Category: Agile Project Management
Tagline: “Trust your project schedule. Get the best project management tool for technology teams.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $45-$65 per month per user
est for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very powerful and full-featured, timeline-style project management tool with some unique features like automatically updating time estimates and support for dependencies and waterfall approaches.
Two best features:
1) Automatically updating predictive project and sprint completion estimations
2) Ability to compare estimated workloads by team member
#63: Blossom
Category: Agile Project Management
Tagline: “Build Products, effectively.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $22 per month for 5 users up to $178 per month for 25 users
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very powerful and great-looking kanban style project management platform designed specifically for software development teams and with a large amount of unique features.
Two best features:
1) Strong cycle time analytics
2) Large amount of deep software development integrations like Git and and Slack
#64: TargetProcess
Category: Agile Project Management
Tagline: “Love Your Project.”
Type: SaaS & self-hosted
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $20 per user per month
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for an enteprise-class full project management platform that has timeline, scrum and kanban options and a full project management features including roadmapping and release planning.
Two best features:
1) Highly customizable to many different workflows.
2) Different modules for the full product lifecycle like product requests, roadmapping, and sprint estimation.
#65: Hubstaff Tasks
Category: Agile Project Management
Tagline: “Simple, agile project management for productive teams”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $5 per user per month
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for an Agile-based project management solution with Kanban boards to help you organize tasks more easily, custom workflows to streamline collaboration, and automated stand-ups to help you keep track of your team’s progress.
Two best features:
1) Agile Sprints that are designed to help your team prioritize tasks and avoid missing deadlines
2)Custom workflows that you can configure to automatically move tasks forward and assign them to team members with just one click
A/B Testing
Screenshot from Optimizely:
#66: Optimizely
Category: A/B Testing
Tagline: “Test, personalize, and optimize”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: Custom
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very easy-to-use and quick-to-implement A/B testing platform with additional personalization and multi-variate testing capabilities.
Two best features:
1) Easy to use point-and-click test setup, including multi-page tests
2) Personalization capabilities
#67: Visual Website Optimizer
Category: A/B Testing
Tagline: “A/B Testing Software for Marketers”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: $299-$599, custom pricing for enterprise
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very easy-to-use and quick-to-implement A/B testing platform with additional personalization and multi-variate testing capabilities, as well as heatmaps.
Two best features:
1) Advanced multi-variate testing capabilities
2) Built-in user research & feedback capabilities
#68: Convert
Category: A/B Testing
Tagline: “Most Affordable Enteprise A/B Testing Tool”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $449-$4,499
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for an easy-to-use and quick-to-implement A/B testing platform with a lot of features and support, but don’t need custom personalization capabilities.
Two best features:
1) Strong Google Analytics integration out of the box
2) Strong multi-variate testing capabilities
#69: AB Tasty
Category: A/B Testing
Tagline: “Boost conversions on your websites, mobile sites and applications.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: Custom
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a very easy-to-use and quick-to-implement A/B testing platform with additional personalization, multi-variate testing, and automatic personalized offer messaging/popup capabilities.
Two best features:
1) Strong personalization capabilities and 3rd party data integrations
2) Automated messaging/popup capabilities
#70: Taplytics
Category: A/B Testing
Tagline: “Mobile optimization made simple”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: Custom
Best for: Startups & mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a mobile-only A/B testing platform that also has push notification capabilities as well as basic analytics capabilities.
Two best features:
1) Point-and-click visual A/B testing engine as well as code-based option
2) Easy-to-use push notification platform
#71: Apptimize
Category: A/B Testing
Tagline: “Mobile optimization in minutes, not months
for iOS and Android”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $995 per month for 100k active users, custom pricing beyond that
Best for: Startups & Enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a mobile-only A/B testing platform that also has instant app store update capabilities.
Two best features:
1) Experiment planning capabilities ot ensure proper sample size collection and test setup
2) Instant app store update capabilities
Heatmapping & Session Recording
Screenshot from Clicktale:
#72: Clicktale
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “Build a Better Online Customer Experience”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: No
Pricing: None – all custom pricing
Best for: Enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a premium, fully-featured heatmapping and customer experience platform with strong session replays and analytics capabilities.
Two best features:
1) Multiple heatmapping, click, attention, mousemove, and scroll analysis capabilities
2) Strong conversion analytics capabilities
#73: Appsee
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “Understand user experience. Optimize your app. Drive results.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: None – all custom pricing
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a mobile-only heatmapping and user session recording platform with automatic event tracking.
Two best features:
1) Touch heatmapping and user session recording
2) Automatic crash detection and video recording
#74: UXCam
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “Fix User Experience Issues by recording and analyzing what users do inside your app”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $249 for 5m sessions – $999 per month negotiated sessions
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a mobile-only heatmapping and user session recording platform for iOS and Android with a user flow analysis tool.
Two best features:
1) User flow analysis capabilities in addition to heatmapping/session videos
2) Good search / filtering capabilities
#75: CrazyEgg
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “What’s making your visitors leave? Find out by seeing how users click and scroll through your website”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $29-$189 per month, depending on number of pageviews
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for an easy-to-use web-only heatmapping and scroll analysis tool.
Two best features:
1) Includes several different heatmapping and scroll analysis view types
2) Affordable pricing
#76: HotJar
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “All-in-one Analytics and Feedback.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $89-$589 depending on number of pageviews
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a comprehensive web and mobile heatmapping and recording platform with a variety of different tools like form completion analysis, funnel analysis, basic surveys, and user testing recruitment.
Two best features:
1) Includes both heatmapping and recording
2) Form abandonment analysis tool
#77: FullStory
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “See what your users see.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $199 per month up to 25k sessions per month; custom pricing beyond that
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for an easy-to-use web-only user recording tool with automatic event detection and powerful search capabilities.
Two best features:
1) Automatic event detection and event timeline display
2) Powerful search capabilities
#78: Inspectlet
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “Stop guessing what your visitors want.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $39 per month up to 5k sessions per month; $499 for 250k sessions
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for an easy-to-use web-only user recording tool that also has form analytics and mouse & scroll heatmapping.
Two best features:
1) Records all sessions vs sampling
2) Includes form analytics
#79: Mouseflow
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “Mouseflow lets you record website visitors and see website heatmaps showing where they click, scroll and even pay attention.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $29-$399 per month
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for an easy-to-use web-only user recording tool that also has funnel analytics and mouse & scroll heatmapping.
Two best features:
1) Powerful filtering capabilities
2) Funnel analysis capabilities
#80: Lucky Orange
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “The Original All-in-One Conversion Optimization Suite.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $10 per month for 25k pageviews up to $100 per month for 500k pageviews
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a heatmapping and user recording tool that has a large suite of additional tools like conversion funnels, form analytics, online chat, and polls.
Two best features:
1) Unlimited recordings and heatmaps within a rolling 30 day period
2) Includes user chat capabilities and form analytics
#81: Mouse Stats
Category: Heatmapping & Session Recording
Tagline: “The UX Analytics Suite That Answers “How”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Pricing: $29 per month for 15k recordings up to $299 per month for 250k recordings
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a heatmapping and user recording tool that also has form analytics and surveys.
Two best features:
1) Includes several unique heatmap and form funnel conversion chart types like radar charts
2) Includes comprehensive and form and field analytics
Analytics
#82: Indicative
Category: Analytics
Tagline: “The most powerful behavioral analytics platform for marketers, product managers, and analysts to understand the complete customer journey”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes, free up to 1 billion tracked user actions per month
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: Pro tier $950 per month
Best for: Mid-size enterprises and large enterprises
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a powerful behavioral analytics platform for optimizing the full customer journey that integrates any user engagement source and is designed for non-technical users like product managers and marketers.
Two best features:
1) Data Integration platform that connects to a large amount of engagement data sources, including websites, mobile apps, marketing automation platforms, CRM systems, and others.
2) Fully integrated dashboarding platform that allows any analysis created in the Segmentation, Funnel, Cohort Analysis, or User Insights tool to be added a real-time dashboard.
#83: Localytics
Category: Analytics
Tagline: “Smart app marketing demands powerful analytics”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: N/A
Best for: Startups and enterprises
Learning Curve: Medium
Choose it because: You’re looking for a mobile-only analytics tool that also includes mobile marketing automation features.
Two best features:
1) Integrated push, in-app, and email messaging capabilities
2) Integration with mobile install attribution networks
#84: Periscope Data
Category: Analytics
Tagline: “Type SQL, Get Charts”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: None – all custom pricing
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: High
Choose it because: You’re looking for a SQL-based in-database analytics & visualization tool for data and analytics specialists.
Two best features:
1) Connects directly to SQL databases
2) Variety of pre-built chart types to use with rolled-up SQL analysis
#85: Mode
Category: Analytics
Tagline: “One Platform. Your Entire Analytics Workflow.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: None – all custom pricing
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: High
Choose it because: You’re looking for a SQL-based in-database analytics & visualization tool for data and analytics specialists with strong collaboration and workflow capabilities. Two best features:
1) Connects directly to SQL databases
2) Ability to share and store SQL queries with team
#86: Looker
Category: Analytics
Tagline: “Analytics that everyone loves.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: None – all custom pricing
Best for: Startups and mid-size enterprises
Learning Curve: High
Choose it because: You’re looking for a SQL-based in-database analytics & visualization tool for data and analytics specialists with a custom data modeling language.
Two best features:
1) LookML, the custom data modeling language used by data scientists and technical users
2) Connections to a variety of different database types including Vertica, Teradata, and Cloudera Hadoop.
#87: Woopra
Category: Analytics
Tagline: “Real-time Customer Activity All in one place.”
Type: SaaS
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: Yes
Pricing: $999 up to 5 million tracked actions per month, custom pricing above that
Best for: Startups
Learning Curve: Low
Choose it because: You’re looking for a web and mobile only customer analytics tool with a focus on real-time pageview activity.
Two best features:
1) Real-time analytics capabilities
2) User profile streams
Indicative Team
