Candu

Candu is a platform for creating onboarding, adoption and upgrade experiences inside a product. It suits growth product managers, designers and developers who need tailored in-product guidance; its format range is broad, but inline experiences require the more expensive Growth plan and deployment requires a JavaScript snippet.

Overview

Candu combines short prompts with structured guidance, including product tours and onboarding checklists. Teams can target experiences by user segment, reuse components, adjust responsive layouts and apply CSS styling controls. Real-time publishing supports updates without rebuilding each experience, though the initial setup requires a developer to add Candu’s JavaScript snippet to the product header.

Its AI can generate in-product UI from a prompt, screenshot or design, then leaves users to review and edit before publishing. That makes it a creation aid, not a substitute for product judgment. User and content analytics, engagement measurement and goal tracking help teams assess adoption; A/B testing is available only on Enterprise.

Key features

Multiple experience formats: Candu supports inline and overlay experiences, including banners, checklists, forms, empty states, homepages, modals and hotspots. The breadth suits teams coordinating several kinds of guidance, but the Free and Starter plans are limited to overlays.

Editing and targeting: Reusable components, segmentation, responsive design and CSS controls give teams ways to align experiences with product design and user context. This is more flexible than a fixed set of generic prompts, but teams still need to create and maintain the content.

Analytics and integrations: Analytics and integrations with webhooks are included on Starter, while Growth adds goal tracking. Candu also connects with analytics providers. Enterprise adds A/B testing, making it the relevant tier for teams that need controlled comparisons.

Operational assurances: Candu states a 99.9% SLA and says its SDK fails open if the service is unreachable. It uses TLS 1.3 in transit and AES-256 encryption at rest, and reports a SOC 2 Type II audit covering December 2023 through November 2024. Customer data is stored in AWS eu-west-1 by default, Candu says it does not require or actively collect PII, and it deletes data within 30 days after contract termination.

Pricing

Candu uses a freemium model, with paid plans billed annually and a 14-day trial. The Free plan costs nothing and allows unlimited user licenses, but caps teams at three live experiences and permits overlays only. It is a practical way to start with a small set of prompts, not a fit for teams needing inline guidance or room to publish more experiences.

Starter costs $199 a month, billed annually. It removes the three-experience cap and includes unlimited modals, hotspots and tours, plus segmentation, analytics, integrations and webhooks. It suits teams focused on overlay-based onboarding; it does not unlock inline formats such as banners or checklists.

Growth costs $799 a month, billed annually. It adds inline experiences, including banners, checklists, forms, empty states and homepages, along with unlimited workspaces, goal tracking, a dedicated customer success manager and Slack support. This is the appropriate tier for teams running guidance across different surfaces or workspaces, but the higher annual commitment is difficult to justify if overlays cover the use case.

Enterprise has custom pricing and adds A/B testing, a CMS, SSO, a custom contract and SLAs, 10 service hours per quarter, premium support and volume discounts. Free and Starter include email and chat support; Growth includes its dedicated CSM and Slack channel. Teams that need SSO, formal testing or custom terms will need to discuss Enterprise rather than assume those capabilities come with a lower tier.

Platforms

Candu runs as a web product and browser extension. It does not support mobile apps, so it is not the right choice for teams whose onboarding experiences must run inside a native mobile application. The JavaScript snippet requirement also means implementation is not entirely no-code, even though experience creation uses a no-code builder.

Who it's for

Candu is aimed at growth product managers, designers and developers working on onboarding, product adoption and product-led growth. It makes the strongest case for teams that want branded, segmented experiences and can use web-based overlays or justify Growth for inline formats. Small teams can begin on Free, while teams needing only a handful of live prompts may have little reason to move to Starter. Native mobile requirements, or a reluctance to involve developers in setup, point elsewhere.

Pros and cons

Pro: The format range spans tours, hotspots, checklists, forms and other in-product UI, so teams can use one tool for more than one kind of guidance.

Pro: AI-assisted creation, reusable components, segmentation and CSS controls support faster, more product-specific authoring without surrendering review before publishing.

Pro: Free includes unlimited user licenses, giving teams a way to try a small overlay-based deployment without per-seat limits.

Con: Free permits only three live experiences, and both Free and Starter restrict teams to overlays; inline formats require the $799 a month Growth plan.

Con: Setup requires adding a JavaScript snippet to the product header, so a developer is needed to launch.

Con: There is no mobile app support, which rules out native mobile onboarding.

Alternatives

Clew is a lower-cost alternative for teams needing tours and tooltips: its free plan covers one site, one team seat, three published tours and one month of analytics history, while Pro costs $14.99 a month. Wakeline is worth considering when Android or iOS support matters; its free plan caps usage at three flows, 1,000 monthly active users and one teammate, while Pro costs $41 a month billed annually for 25 flows and 25,000 monthly active users.

Driver.js is a free option for teams that want unlimited projects and personal or commercial use without attribution. Helppier may suit buyers seeking a paid product with a free trial and support across web, mobile, API, extension and self-hosted platforms; its Standard plan costs $299 a month, paid monthly, for up to 50,000 MAUs and two admin users. Userpilot is another paid option with a free trial: Starter costs $299 a month for up to 2,000 MAU, 10 segments, three seats and one-year data retention.

Appcues offers paid plans with a free trial, including a Start plan for up to 3,000 MAUs, 10 published experiences and 12 months of reporting history. Guidez has a free Hobby plan limited to 100 MAU per month, one team member and one environment, and a Pro plan at $79 a month with 2,500 MAU included. HelpHero is a paid alternative with a free trial; its plan for up to 1,000 MAU costs $55 a month and includes standard and advanced features.

For broader comparisons, browse User Onboarding Software, Digital Adoption Platforms and Product Adoption Software.

Verdict

Choose Candu if your team needs design-conscious, segmented onboarding and adoption experiences across web products, and its overlay or Growth-tier inline formats match your budget. Its combination of authoring controls, analytics and varied formats is the central strength. Look elsewhere if you need native mobile support, want to avoid developer setup, or need inline experiences without committing to the annually billed Growth plan.