Join us to explore the features, benefits, and potential of these tools, helping you make the ideal selection for your design requirements.
Table of contents
- Key Insights
- UserZoom and Pendo alternative – UXtweak
- Features and Capabilities
- Participant Recruitment and Management capabilities
- Pricing and Plans Comparison
- Customer Reviews
- Support options
- UserZoom vs Pendo: Conclusion
Key Insights
👉 UserZoom offers in-depth research capabilities but can be costly and inflexible for smaller teams or those needing more dynamic testing options.
👉 Pendo provides insightful natural user behavior observations but is limited by its lack of a participant panel and challenges with data relevancy and integration options.
👉 UXtweak stands out as the best option, delivering a user-friendly experience with reliable participants at a competitive price, though it may require users to adapt to its specific set of tools and features.
🐝 Register for free with UXtweak today!
UserZoom and Pendo alternative – UXtweak
UXtweak is a user research tool that stands out from Pendo and UserZoom. It’s designed to enhance the customer experience for websites and apps, covering everything from prototypes to final products.
What makes UXtweak different is its range of features, like tree testing, first-click testing, five-second tests, and mobile testing, all available in one platform. It also provides a full suite of recruitment, and participant management tools. With flexible and affordable pricing, UXtweak is a practical choice for UX professionals.
🐝 Explore UXtweak’s demos to witness user interactions and analytics in real-time⬇
Features and Capabilities
The table displays a comparison of features across three research platforms: Pendo, UserZoom, and UXtweak.
Features | UserZoom | Pendo | UXtweak |
Website Usability Testing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Prototype Testing | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ (compatible with Figma, InVision, Axure) |
Mobile Apps Testing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (you can test apps from App Store/Google Play, TestFlight, APK, and more) |
Card Sorting | ✓ (not avaliable in UserZoom GO) | ✗ | ✓ (available on all plans) |
Tree Testing | ✓ (not avaliable in UserZoom GO) | ✗ | ✓ (available on all plans) |
Preference Testing | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
First Click Testing | ✓ (not avaliable in UserZoom GO) | ✗ | ✓ |
5 Second Testing | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Session recordings + Heatmaps | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Survey (with conditional logic) | ✓ (not avaliable in UserZoom GO) | ✗ (only NPS surveys) | ✓ (available on all plans) |
Onsite Recruiting/ Site Intercept | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Custom branding | ✓ (customizable branding in all paid plans) | ✗ | ✓ (customizable branding in all paid plans) |
User Panel | ✓ (IntelliZoom panel) | ✗ | ✓ (testers from 130+ countries) |
Custom screener questions | ✓ (available on all plans) | ✗ | ✓ (available on all plans) |
Moderated/User Interviews | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (on Enterprise plans) conduct directly in one platform* |
*UXtweak offers built in features to recruit, schedule, conduct, and analyze user interviews or any other moderated studies.
The table shows that Pendo, UserZoom, and UXtweak each offer a wide range of features. Particularly, UXtweak includes all listed features, consistently improving or offering them at a more affordable price compared to its competitors.
Participant Recruitment and Management capabilities
The table details how Pendo, UserZoom, and UXtweak handle participant recruitment and management for usability studies.
Capabilities | Pendo | UserZoom | UXtweak |
User panel -Country coverage | ✗ Only tracks your site's natural visitor behavior, lacking a user panel. | 100+ countries | 130+ countries |
Advanced Targeting criteria | ✗ | ✓ (200 demographic filters) | ✓ (2000+ profiling attributes) available on all plans |
Automatic QA of responses | ✗ | ✓ (for professional, international, and premium plans) | ✓ |
Expert audit | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ (included with each order from User Panel) |
Ability to bring your own users | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ (for free) |
Participant management solution | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ (Own Database, available on all plans) |
Pricing and Plans Comparison
When selecting a user testing platform, it’s important to factor in pricing. Choose a platform that meets your research requirements without going beyond your budget. Next, let’s explore the affordability of these research tools.
Pendo
- Free Plan:
- Up to 500 monthly active users
- Basic analytics, guides, NPS *Pendo branded, roadmaps
- Growth Plan (Pricing on request):
- For single web/mobile app
- Advanced features, including cross-app reports
- Portfolio Plan (Pricing on request):
- For unlimited web/mobile apps
- Comprehensive features for multiple products
UserZoom (part of UserTesting)
UserZoom offers two platforms:
- UserZoom GO:
- For individual researchers or small teams.
- Provides usability testing tools for websites and mobile apps.
- Includes pre-study recruitment options.
- UserZoom:
- Geared towards enterprise teams with advanced capabilities.
- Offers card sorting, tree testing, surveys, and click tests.
- Two types of plans available: Quick Start Plans and Enterprise Plans.
Pricing starts at $70,000 annually, with details to be clarified in a meeting with UserTesting representatives.
UXtweak
- Free Starter Plan: Access to all features, one active study, up to 30 responses/month.
- Plus Plan: $708/year, ideal for individuals, 200 responses/month, unlimited studies.
- Business Plan: $1,812/year, for small to medium businesses, 1,000 responses/month.
- Enterprise Plan: Starts at $5,000/year, for large clients, unlimited responses, personalized support.
Billing annually or monthly, with flexible plan changes or cancellations. Visit UXtweak’s pricing page for detailed plan features.
Customer Reviews
To ensure an unbiased comparison of the three platforms, we’ve gathered data from G2, a leading website for B2B SaaS reviews. G2.com provides a platform for buyers to review, compare ratings, and evaluate software options.
UserZoom | Pendo | UXtweak | |
Overall Rating of the Platform | 4.2/5 | 4.4/5 | 4.7/5 |
Ease of Use | 7.8/10 | 8.2/10 | 8.9/10 |
Quality of Support | 8.1/10 | 8.5/10 | 9.8/10 |
Ease of Setup | 7.8/10 | 7.9/10 | N/A |
🐝 Note from the author: Pros and cons on this page were formulated by aggregating customer feedback from platforms like Capterra.com and G2.com.
Pendo
- Pros
- User Guides: Offers comprehensive guides, making it accessible for new users.
- In-App Surveys: Enables collecting user feedback directly, aiding in user persona research.
- Implementation: Noted for its easy and quick integration and setup.
- Feature Tagging: Offers a straightforward feature tagging tool for easy setup.
- Cons
- Sentiment Features: Some limitations in user sentiment features and analytics, requiring external integrations.
- Data Overload: Users may encounter excessive or irrelevant data, complicating analysis.
- Modularity: A need for more flexibility to opt in/out of specific features to align with budget constraints.
- Cost: May be expensive for smaller companies.
- Third-Party Integrations: Limited integrations, which could enhance Pendo’s functionality.
Source: G2.com
UserZoom (part of UserTesting)
- Pros
- Easy recruitment of participants: Users appreciate the platform’s ability to recruit participants for studies, simplifying the research process.
- Data export: UserZoom allows for easy export of data into formats that are simple to analyze, streamlining the data analysis process.
- Comprehensive features: Despite initial challenges, users find that once they become familiar with UserZoom’s features, it offers a comprehensive suite of tools for conducting research.
- Cons
- Cost: Many users find UserZoom to be expensive compared to other options available in the market.
- Limited flexibility in research sessions: It’s not easy to combine devices for one study, leading to the need for more studies than necessary.
- Additional charges for surveys: While UserZoom has survey capabilities, users note that there are extra charges associated with using this feature.
- User interface: The user interface is described as fairly basic compared to other platforms.
- Learning curve: Some users experience a learning curve, particularly when using the platform with mobile apps. Additionally, the interface can be confusing to navigate at times.
- Limited Features in UserZoom Go: Basic plans lack advanced functionalities like transcription, which are available only at additional costs.
Source: G2.com
UXtweak
- Pros
- Wide Range of Test Options:Users appreciate the variety of test options available at fair pricing, making UXtweak a cost-effective choice for user research and analytics.
- Clear Exports: It provides straightforward exports, aiding in advocating for necessary website structure changes.
- Responsive Customer Support: The support team consists of experts who promptly address issues and offer effective solutions to users’ problems.
- Seamless Integration with Figma Prototypes: The platform seamlessly integrates with Figma prototypes, making testing quick and efficient.
- Easy Audience Sourcing: UXtweak lets you quickly find study participants within the app, without needing extra tools.
- Interactive Demos: The ability to interact with demos of each tool allows users to gain a real view of how data is presented, enhancing understanding and usability.
- Cons
- Confusing Layout: Some parts of the app aren’t easy to figure out, like the left menu.
- Complex Setup: Setting up studies can be hard because there are so many options.
- Learning Curve: It takes time to get used to the dashboard, but it gets easier with practice.
- UXtweak note: To address this, new tutorial videos are being produced.
Source: G2.com
Support options
Let’s look at the support options available from each user experience platform. Generally, these platforms offer numerous resources, such as articles on different subjects and instructions for setting up tests.
Pendo
Pendo’s Help Center offers multiple resources. The “Academy” section features video tutorials and training webinars. There are also discussion forums for collaborative problem-solving with peers. In the “developer docs” section, users can access agent and API documentation, SDK release notes, and the “Adopt” section provides documentation for Pendo Adopt.
If you want to connect directly with technical support, you need to Submit a ticket in the Resource Center.
UserZoom (part of UserTesting)
UserZoom offers technical support during regular business hours, from 12 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday, excluding U.S. holidays. Support hours may vary for escalated issues. All support requests are tracked and logged, allowing customers to inquire about their request status at any time. Incident priority and response times are determined based on severity, with UserZoom providing timely acknowledgment, resolution efforts, time estimates, and ongoing updates for significant errors.
UXtweak
UXtweak goes above and beyond standard support by offering consulting services and audits from our expert in-house UX research team. Our dedication to quality service is reflected in our perfect 5/5 Capterra rating. To discover more, visit our UX research consulting services page.
UserZoom vs Pendo: Conclusion
While UserZoom presents certain limitations like high costs, limited session flexibility, extra charges for surveys, a basic interface, and a steeper learning curve for mobile app integration, it may not suit all users’ needs, especially those on tighter budgets or requiring more advanced features without additional costs.
Pendo, while beneficial for its direct observation of user behaviour in applications, lacks a dedicated panel for recruiting participants and conducting various tests. This limitation means you can only monitor natural user interactions, which might result in an accumulation of irrelevant data. Additionally, concerns about Pendo’s vague pricing structure and its limited third-party integrations have been noted, which could restrict its functionality and value for some users.
In contrast, UXtweak stands out by offering reliable participants for its studies, addressing the limitations observed in both UserZoom and Pendo. With its user-friendly interface, responsive customer support, and provision of advanced features at a more accessible price point, UXtweak presents itself as the superior choice for teams seeking an effective, affordable, and well-rounded tool for comprehensive UX research.
