Back to home

Cutting costs in the AI era? Start with your onboarding tools.

Every team is looking at its software bill this year. Onboarding tools are an easy place to save: most charge more as you grow, add a fee for every seat, and now bill each AI answer on top. Cueston does the same job with AI built in, for a flat monthly price.

The short answer

At 10,000 monthly active users, Cueston costs $79 a month billed yearly, with unlimited seats and 2,000 AI answers included. The tools below charge $299 to $1,250 a month for the same number of users, and most bill AI answers on top. If you mainly use tours, tooltips, checklists and in-app answers on a web app, switching cuts that line of your budget by most of its size.

Why this bill grows faster than your business

  • Users. Most tools price by monthly active users, so the bill rises every time your product does well.
  • Seats. Some charge for each teammate who edits guides, so adding product, marketing or support people costs more.
  • AI answers. In-app AI assistants are usually billed per answer or per resolution, often $0.37 to $0.99 each. A busy month means a surprise invoice.
  • Add-ons. A/B tests, SSO and removing the vendor’s branding often sit on plans that cost several hundred dollars more.

Cueston has one flat price per plan: unlimited seats, AI answers included, and extra answers at $10 per 1,000 if you ever need them.

What the same users cost on each tool

Monthly price of the cheapest plan that covers each size, billed yearly. Prices come from each vendor’s own pricing page.

Tool2,500 users5,000 users10,000 users50,000 users
Cueston$39 (Launch)$79 (Ascent)$79 (Ascent)$199 (Orbit)
Product Fruits$149$224$299Sales quote
Userflow$304$368$528$1,288
Jimo$453$501$621$1,321
Chameleon$750$750$1,250$2,500

Monthly active users (MAU). Chameleon’s prices up to 10,000 users are its Pro plan, which it bills monthly only; 50,000 is its Growth plan. Product Fruits asks larger customers to talk to sales. Jimo’s plan starts at 2,000 users.

What would you save?

Userflow (Essentials)
$6,336a year
Cueston Ascent
$948a year

You’d keep $5,388 a year, 85% of what you pay today.

List prices, billed yearly, before any discount you negotiated. AI answers beyond each plan’s allowance are extra on every tool, including Cueston.

The AI line on your invoice

In-app AI that answers your users is where costs are growing fastest. This is what 1,000 answers a month cost beyond what each plan includes.

ToolHow it’s billed1,000 answers a month
Intercom Fin$0.99 per outcome$990
UserGuiding AI Assistant$0.69 per resolution$690
Product Fruits$37 per 100 conversationsabout $370
Cueston500 to 10,000 a month included, then $10 per 1,000$0 on Ascent, which includes 2,000

Vendors count different things: Fin bills outcomes, UserGuiding bills answers the user confirms helped, and Product Fruits bills each conversation.

Already on Intercom?

Intercom is a support platform priced per agent seat. Product tours come in its Proactive Support Plus add-on ($99 a month with 500 messages), and Fin charges $0.99 per outcome. A three-person team with tours and 1,000 AI answers a month pays about $1,176 a month at list prices. Cueston Ascent covers the tours and the answers for $79. Keep Intercom’s inbox if your support team lives there, and move tours and in-app answers to Cueston. See Cueston vs Intercom.

Switching costs you nothing extra

  • Free until your contract ends. You don’t pay for two tools at once. Email sales@cueston.com with your renewal date.
  • We rebuild your top 5 guides. Send us the tours or checklists that matter most and we set them up in Cueston.
  • One script to install. A developer pastes one snippet, or your AI coding assistant (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) installs it for you. After that your team builds guides without code.
  • Start on the free plan. 3 live guides, 1,000 users and 50 AI answers a month, no card needed, so you can test it on your own app first.

When switching won’t save you money

Cheaper only matters if it does the job. Stay where you are if you need:

  • Native mobile apps. Cueston works on web apps only.
  • Tours that branch on what the user does. Cueston’s tours run in a fixed order.
  • A support inbox or full product analytics. Cueston has guide analytics and funnels, not a helpdesk or session replay.

Frequently asked questions

How much can we save by switching to Cueston?▾

It depends on your users and your current plan. At 10,000 monthly active users, list prices for Product Fruits, Userflow, Jimo and Chameleon run from $299 to $1,250 a month billed yearly; Cueston Ascent costs $79, with AI answers and unlimited seats included.

Do we pay for two tools while we switch?▾

No. If you’re under contract with another tool, Cueston is free until that contract ends. Email sales@cueston.com with your renewal date.

Are AI answers really included?▾

Yes. Free includes 50 a month, Launch 500, Ascent 2,000 and Orbit 10,000. If you need more, paid plans can add 1,000 answers for $10.

Can we import our existing tours?▾

There’s no automatic import. Your team rebuilds tours in the Chrome extension by clicking the elements each step points at, and we rebuild your top 5 guides for you when you switch.

Do you charge per seat?▾

No. Every plan includes unlimited team seats, so product, marketing and support can all edit guides at no extra cost.

Keep the onboarding, drop the bill

Start free on your own app. If you’re under contract elsewhere, Cueston is free until it ends.