Blog ComparisonsTop 18 Canny Alternatives in 2024

Top 18 Canny Alternatives in 2024

Are you looking for an affordable Canny alternative with a rich feature set? This article compares the top 18 Canny competitors that cover Canny's drawbacks and offer a better bang for your buck.

Comparisons
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18 best Canny alternatives for feedback collection in 2024.

Looking for a reliable and customizable Canny alternative that won't break the bank? Good news!

In this post, we'll compare the top feedback tools that leading product teams from companies like Uber and Copy.ai prefer over Canny.

We have analyzed the features, pricing, and why these alternatives might be a better fit for your needs. Let's get into it! πŸ‘‡


Top 18 Canny.io Alternatives for Feature Tracking in 2024

  1. Featurebase - All-in-one feedback tool, best value for money
  2. Frill - Simple design and lightweight widgets
  3. Nolt - Great for small teams, limited features
  4. Upvoty - Aged user interface but affordable
  5. FeatureOS - Good for collecting feedback, poor for prioritizing it
  6. Product plan - For larger teams and issue management
  7. Productboard - Best for issue management, poor collection features
  8. Sleekplan - Most affordable pricing, limited features
  9. Userback - For large teams with many products
  10. Fider - Open-source option for small startups
  11. GetBeamer - Comprehensive changelog software, no collection
  12. FeedBear - Cheap feedback tool with limited features
  13. Rapidr - Feedback collection, good price for very large teams
  14. UserSnap - Very customizable widgets, best for enterprise use
  15. Feature Upvote - Simple feedback boards, expensive
  16. UserVoice - All-in-one feedback suite for enterprises 
  17. Headway - Very simple changelog tool for small teams
  18. Pendo - Complete customer experience software for enterprises

But before you rush off to make your choice, let's first go over the key factors to keep in mind when choosing a Canny alternative. πŸ”Ž


What to look for in a Canny alternative?

Canny is a great tool but has some notable drawbacks, like pricing. Here are some important factors to consider when looking for a Canny alternative:

  • Pricing
    Canny costs about 10x more than most alternatives. For many businesses, paying $400 for core feedback collection functions is a bit too much. So, look for reasonable pricing.
  • Missing features
    Canny lacks many crucial features like changelog emails, popups, anonymous posting, surveys, etc. To help you decide between alternatives, we added a section under each tool that lists their improvements over Canny.
  • Customizations & good UX
    Canny has a standard look that may not fit your brand. Plus, many of their (ex)customers complain about their product quality and user experience. Look for competitors with good UI and customization options so your feedback portal can blend in with your brand.
  • Customer support 
    From our own experience as a startup, go with a tool that provides the best support. This means not only a responsive team but also a helpful knowledge base and clear documentation. Generally, this shows that the team cares about their customers' success and will help you get quicker wins.
Customer complaints on Canny's pricing.
Customer complaints on Canny's pricing.

You can read more about Canny's shortcomings in this section. Now, to the real thing.


What are the best Canny.io alternatives?

While there are actually over 30+ alternatives to Canny, we filtered out the best ones so you can quickly make an informed decision.

We evaluated them based on pricing, features, user reviews, and drawbacks. After trying and testing all these tools ourselves, we handpicked the best ones. Let's get started! πŸ‘‡

1. Featurebase

Featurebase's product illustration.
Featurebase's feedback board.

Featurebase is one of the best alternatives to Canny for collecting, managing, and prioritizing feedback. It has many customizations, rich features, and an intuitive interface.

It offers an affordable pricing and a completely Free Plan. You can set it up in minutes and always get quick help through live chat. ⚑️

Key features that match with Canny:

  • Feedback boards, changelog, and roadmap
  • Custom statuses & tags
  • Widgets
  • Vote on behalf of customers
  • Custom domain
  • Single sign-on
  • Automated email notifications
  • User segmentation
  • Translations
  • A lot of integrations: Jira, Linear, Zapier, Discord, Intercom, etc.

What Featurebase has that Canny doesn't?

  • Affordable pricing - get Canny's Growth features and more 10x cheaper ($40/month)
  • Changelog popups - automatically show users new features with a popup when they log back into your app
  • Changelog notification emails  - notify your users about new changelog entries with emails
  • Surveys - measure customer satisfaction and collect additional feedback with in-app surveys.
  • Anonymous posting - remove friction by letting users post, vote, and comment without having to create an account
  • 2 extra widgets - neat separate feedback collection and changelog widgets (live demos here)
  • Follow-up questions - get more context on users' feedback with automatic questions
  • Prioritization frameworks - visualize ideas using the value/effort matrix
  • Leaderboards - get more feedback with gamified features
  • Full white-label - option to fully remove our branding from emails and feedback boards

Drawbacks of Featurebase:

How much does Featurebase cost?

  • Free plan - unlimited posts, all basic features like feedback boards, roadmaps, and a changelog to take your product to the next level
  • Growth Plan ($40/month) - 4 managers, all integrations and widgets, custom domain, and seamless user login
  • Premium Plan ($124/month) - 8 managers, API, SSO, and user segmentation

All plans let you collect unlimited feedback, and you can try the paid ones with a 10-day free trial. Read more here β†’

Featurebase reviews:

Conclusion

Featurebase is one of the best Canny alternatives. It has all the matching features and much more for a 10x lower price. 

Unlike Canny, Featurebase offers changelog notification emails, three different widgets, advanced prioritization frameworks, and much more.

The onboarding is amazingly quick and simple, with the automated migration from Canny helping you get set up in seconds. Learn more here β†’

2. Frill

Frill product illustration.
Frill's feedback board

Frill is a straightforward Canny alternative for those willing to sacrifice some features over simplicity. Its pricing and dashboard make it better suited for smaller teams that don't get tons of feedback.

What Frill has that Canny doesn't?

  • Automatic changelog popups
  • Anonymous posting, voting, and commenting
  • Supports translations into any language

Drawbacks of Frill:

  • Poor dashboard view for managing & moderating feedback
  • No user segmentation
  • No sorting feedback by customer revenue
  • No changelog notification emails
  • No duplicate post-detection system
  • No built-in prioritization frameworks for product managers

How much does Frill cost?

  • Startup ($25/month) - 50 active ideas at a time
  • Business ($49/month) - removes the feedback limit
  • Growth ($149/month) - unlimited feedback, white labeling, privacy features
  • Enterprise (starting at $349/month) - SOC2 and a dedicated support manager

Frill reviews:

  • G2 - 4.8/5
  • Capterra - 4.6/5
  • GetApp - 4.6/5
Conclusion

If you're looking for an affordable alternative to Canny, Frill might be a great option if you don't get much feedback. The first plan costs $25/mo and is suitable for smaller teams that don't get more than 50 ideas in a month.

If you can sacrifice some advanced features for a simpler experience and changelog popups, consider it.

Otherwise, check out these top Frill alternatives β†’

3. Nolt.io

Nolt product illustration.
Nolt's feedback board

Nolt is a lightweight Canny alternative mainly for feedback collection. It's best suited for very small teams looking for basic functions and simplicity. However, it can get quite pricey for what it offers.

What Nolt has that Canny doesn't?

  • More simplicity (at the cost of many features)
  • Anonymous posting, commenting, and voting
  • More affordable pricing (only if compared with Canny's $400/mo plan)

Drawbacks of Nolt:

  • No changelog for closing the feedback loop
  • No admin dashboard for prioritizing & managing feedback
  • No user segmentation
  • Can't sort feedback by customer revenue
  • No duplicate post-detection system
  • Doesn't scale well with many ideas (no bulk editing, filtering, etc.)
  • No built-in prioritization frameworks
  • Can't assign posts to teammates and add internal notes
  • No dark mode
  • Users complain about their outdated user interface

How much does Nolt cost?

Nolt offers three tiers of pricing:

  • Essential ($29/month) - 1 board, roadmap, SSO
  • Pro ($69/month) - 5 boards, API, and task management integrations
  • Enterprise (talk to sales) - unlimited boards

It's nothing expensive, but you can find many more affordable alternatives from this list.

Nolt reviews:

  • G2 - 5/5
  • Capterra - 4.9/5
  • GetApp - 4.9/5
Conclusion

Nolt is great for smaller projects that need anonymous posting/upvoting, which Canny's free plan doesn't support. However, it lacks many crucial features like changelogs, user segmentation, and a dashboard, making it poor for prioritizing feedback.

Their pricing isn't expensive, but most alternatives offer much more for the same cost.

Check out the best Nolt alternatives β†’

4. Upvoty

Upvoty product illustration.
Upvoty's feedback board

Upvoty is a Canny alternative best suited for small and medium-sized teams. It comes with feedback boards, roadmaps, and changelogs. It supports more languages but lacks many essential features and has an outdated user interface.

What Upvoty has that Canny doesn't?

  • Supports more languages
  • Anonymous posting, voting, and commenting

Drawbacks of Upvoty:

  • Outdated user interface
  • No changelog widgets or announcement popups
  • No user segmentation
  • No sorting feedback by customer revenue
  • No follow-up questions like "How important is this for you?" for extra insights
  • No built-in prioritization frameworks for product managers
  • Customer support is provided by contractors and freelancers, and there have been a lot of complaints about it
  • New features are extremely rare, and product development seems to be halted

How much does Upvoty cost?

Upvoty has quite a tricky pricing plan. Their starter plan costs $15 a month but limits trackable users to 150 and only supports one board.

This is not much, yet the next plan costs $39/month and still limits your users. The Unlimited Plan costs $75/month, removing all boundaries.

Upvoty reviews:

Conclusion

Upvoty is a simple Canny alternative but lacks many crucial features. Their usage-based pricing makes it only viable for those not getting much feedback. The only real upside is that it supports more languages. 

Want more options? Check out these Upvoty alternatives β†’

5. FeatureOS

FeatureOS product illustration.
FeatureOS feedback board

FeatureOS - formerly Hellonext - is another good alternative to Canny. It's a nice choice for SaaS and includes everything from roadmaps to changelogs. However, it might get a bit pricey.

What featureOS has that Canny doesn't?

Drawbacks of featureOS:

  • No automatic announcement popups
  • The dashboard often feels bloated with too many options
  • Can't sort feedback by monetary value
  • No user segmentation
  • No prioritization frameworks
  • No follow-up questions like "How important is this for you?" for extra insights
  • Few filtering options
  • Can't customize email notifications
  • Supports only English

How much does featureOS cost?

FeatureOS offers three pricing tiers that you can try out with a 14-day trial:

  • Runway ($29/month) - 2 boards, 1 admin, 1 integration
  • Take Flight ($79/month) - 10 boards, 3 admins, 3 integrations
  • Fly High ($149/month) - unlimited boards, 10 admins, SSO, API

They have offered free plans many times in the past and overall change the pricing rather often. Last time, they closed the free plan overnight.

featureOS reviews:

  • Product Hunt - 4.5/5
Conclusion

featureOS is a good Canny alternative for medium-sized teams. They have many matching features but lack some important ones, like user segmentation and sorting feedback by monetary value.

Regarding pricing, they offer great terms for companies that need to collect many different types of feedback.

Check out the best alternatives to featureOS β†’

6. ProductPlan

ProductPlan's roadmap product illustration.
ProductPlan's roadmap.

ProductPlan is an enterprise roadmapping and issue-management tool. It has lots of features and customizations around roadmaps but lacks on the feedback collection side, which could be a downside for many. The enterprise plan includes a basic feedback form, but it will cost you A LOT, and it doesn't have feedback boards and upvoting functions.

What Productboard has that Canny doesn't?

  • Different task management views and features
  • Prioritization frameworks
  • Many translations
  • Lots of enterprise-grade integrations

Drawbacks of ProductPlan:

  • Very expensive
  • No feedback boards, no upvoting
  • No changelog
  • Complex user interface with a steep learning curve
  • No commenting for engaging with users
  • No embeddable widgets

How much does ProductPlan cost?

ProductPlan offers three plans that each offer only yearly billing:

  • Basic ($20/editor/month) - unlimited roadmaps, prioritization board, customizable views & filters, some limited 1-way integrations
  • Professional ($79/editor/month) - portfolio views, SSO, API, more advanced 2-way integrations
  • Enterprise (contact sales) - Idea collection & validation, security reports, dedicated success rep

The 'editor/month' pricing, makes it quite expensive. For example, 5 editors on the Professional plan, will set you back $395/month.

Read the full in-depth analysis of ProductPlan's pricing β†’

ProductPlan reviews:

  • G2 - 4.4/5
  • Capterra - 4.5/5
  • GetApp - 4.4/5
Conclusion

ProductPlan is an enterprise alternative to Canny. It has advanced roadmaps and prioritization features, making it perfect for task management.

However, with no feedback boards and upvoting, it's not intutive for collecting new ideas and only has a very basic form to do so.

Their pricing is also high and for smaller startups there are more affordable alternatives to ProductPlan β†’

7. Productboard

Productboard product illustration.
Productboard's dashboard

Productboard is an enterprise-focused roadmap tool and alternative to Canny. It's centered around task management and roadmaps rather than collecting feature requests.

What Productboard has that Canny doesn't?

  • Different task management views and features
  • Prioritization frameworks
  • Many translations

Drawbacks of Productboard:

  • No changelog
  • It doesn't let users see, upvote, or comment on their peers' ideas - only shows what admins have posted
  • Complex user interface with a steep learning curve
  • No commenting for engaging with users
  • No embeddable widgets

How much does Productboard cost?

Productboard offers four plans to choose from:

  • Starter - free
  • Essentials - $20 per maker/month
  • Pro - $80 per maker/month
  • Enterprise - comes with a custom quote

Note: The total cost of Productboard depends on how many 'Makers' you have in your team. For example, five users on their Pro plan will cost $400 a month.

Productboard reviews:

Conclusion

Productboard is an enterprise customer feedback suite focusing on issue tracking and roadmaps. You can do a lot, but figuring out how to use it is a project on its own.β€Œ It allows users to only see and upvote admins' posts, making it unideal for feedback collection.

If you're a smaller startup, we recommend checking out these affordable Productboard alternatives β†’

8. Sleekplan

Sleekplan product illustration.
Sleekplan's feedback board

Sleekplan is one of the most affordable Canny alternatives that, in addition to feedback boards, roadmaps, and changelogs, also supports satisfaction surveys.

What Sleekplan has that Canny doesn't?

  • Very affordable pricing - highest plan $38/month
  • Anonymous posting, commenting, and voting
  • CSAT and NPS satisfaction surveys
  • Customizable survey widgets
  • Prioritization frameworks
  • Supports 10+ languages

Drawbacks of Sleekplan:

  • No changelog popups
  • No follow-up questions
  • Outdated UI & UX
  • Run by a solo founder, so customer support might not be good
  • Few customization options
  • Few integrations

How much does Sleekplan cost?

Sleekplan offers a free plan, but we recommend Featurebase since it provides many more features, like roadmaps, which Sleekplan doesn't include.

Their paid plans start at $13/month, which unlocks roadmaps and NPS scores. The last plan costs $38/month and offers crucial features like post-merging, custom domain, user segmentation, and more.

Sleekplan reviews:

  • G2 - 4.8/5
  • Capterra - 5/5
  • GetApp 5/5
Conclusion

Sleekplan is a good choice for smaller teams that want to measure customer satisfaction and don't need more advanced features.

It's a nice, affordable alternative, but you'll have to go with the $38/mo plan to access most of the useful features.

Check out the best Sleekplan alternatives β†’

9. UserBack

Userback product illustration.
Userback's feedback board

Userback fits folks with many products or companies they want to manage in a single tool. In addition to regular posts, it also supports session replays and video feedback.

What Userback has that Canny doesn't?

  • Session replays
  • Browser extension for internal feedback collection

Drawbacks of Userback:

  • No duplicate post-detection system
  • No changelog for closing the feedback loop
  • Lacks customizations (+ no dark mode)
  • No follow-up questions like "How important is this for you?" for extra insights
  • No built-in prioritization frameworks for product managers

How much does Userback cost?

Userback's pricing is best for larger teams with different products:

  • Startup plan - $59/month, allowing 10 admins and 5 projects.
  • Company plan - $119/month, allowing 15 admins and 15 projects.
  • Premium plan - $217/month, allowing 25 admins and 27 projects.

Note: 'Projects' are your companies or products, which you'd have to have a lot to get the most out of your money.

Userback reviews:

  • G2. - 4.8/5
  • Capterra - 4.8/5
  • GetApp - 4.8/5
Conclusion

Userback is the best choice for large teams with many different products. As a plus, the session replay feature makes it stand out from the others.

It's a good tool to capture user feedback, but if you're a smaller company, other deals will make more sense as you'd be paying for empty admin seats.

Check out the best UserBack alternatives β†’

10. Fider

Fider product illustration.
Fider's feedback board

Fider is a simple open-source alternative to Canny that has to be self-hosted. It's a straightforward feedback voting and collecting tool but lacks some crucial core features, such as a changelog and a roadmap.

What Fider has that Canny doesn't?

  • Open source
  • Supports translations into 10+ languages

Drawbacks of Fider:

  • No roadmaps and changelogs
  • No embeddable widgets
  • No user segmentation
  • Can't sort feedback by customer revenue
  • No built-in prioritization frameworks for product managers
  • Minimal features compared to other tools on the market at this price
  • Self-hosting could get expensive (especially as the pricing already matches most other tools)

How much does Fider cost?

Fider offers a simple flat pricing of $40/month that includes all features, unlimited managers, feedback, and more. 

You can try it out first with a free 15-day trial.

Fider reviews:

  • No reviews
Conclusion

Fiders is an open-source Canny alternative that requires self-hosting and is very limited in features. It's a straightforward tool enough for smaller startups to collect feedback and user votes.

The pricing only makes sense if you need an open-source solution. Otherwise, you can get more features from competitors at half the price.

Check out the top Fider alternatives β†’

11. GetBeamer

GetBeamer product illustration.
Beamer's changelog

Beamer is one of the most popular changelog-only tools on the market. It's a great Canny alternative if you only want to publish feature updates. It can get more expensive than other tools on this list and only offers a single functionality.

What GetBeamer has that Canny doesn't?

  • New feature popups
  • Automated email notifications for changelogs
  • Push notifications
  • User segmentation for changelog
  • Reactions - let users react to new releases with emojis
  • Multiple languages

Drawbacks of GetBeamer:

  • No feedback collection at all
  • Lack of customizations
  • Unpredictable and expensive pricing

How much does GetBeamer cost?

GetBeamer has a very limited free tier for startups on a tight budget. The paid plans - which all limit your monthly visitors - start at $50/month

You must go with the $99/month plan to collect reactions and access more powerful features. User segmentation and SSO costs $249/month, and SOC 2 starts from $499/month.

You can try out the paid features with a 14-day trial, but it requires a credit card.

GetBeamer reviews:

  • Product Hunt - 5/5
  • G2 - 4.7/5
  • Capterra - 4.8/5
Conclusion

Beamer is a good alternative to Canny if you only want a comprehensive changelog tool. It doesn't let you collect and prioritize feedback to help you understand customer needs before shipping.

Their pricing gets quite crispy and is mostly targeted at larger firms looking for a comprehensive solution solely for release notes.

Here are our top picks for GetBeamer alternatives β†’

12. Feedbear

Feedbear product illustration.
Feedbear's feedback board.

Feedbear is another very basic Canny alternative for collecting feedback. It has all the necessary features to get you started but falls short of competitors by missing many advanced functionalities like user segmenting.

What FeedBear has that Canny doesn't?

  • Anonymous posting, commenting, and voting

Drawbacks of FeedBear:

  • No admin dashboard to effectively manage feedback
  • Very primitive filtering and sorting
  • No user segmenting
  • Can't sort feedback by customer revenue
  • No built-in prioritization frameworks
  • No questions like "How important is this for you?" for extra insights
  • Supports only English

How much does FeedBear cost?

Feedbear has simple pricing starting from $41/month. It offers all core features like roadmap, changelog, and custom domain. The second plan is already $82/mo while removing branding and granting SSO. You can use the 14-day free to test them out.

Feedbear reviews:

  • G2 - 4.8/5
  • Capterra - 4.8/5
Conclusion

Feedbear is a very primitive feature tracking tool at an affordable price. They're ideal for smaller teams after simplicity and don't need many advanced features.

β€ŒIt lacks a dashboard and comprehensive filtering system to manage feedback effectively and doesn't scale well with those growing fast.

Check out these top FeedBear alternatives β†’

13. Rapidr

Rapidr's product illustration.
Rapidr's feedback board

Rapidr is another good Canny alternative with a pretty intuitive design. It's aimed at larger companies, helping them collect and manage user feedback to make better product decisions. The pricing only makes sense for very large teams, so keep in mind if you're a smaller startup.

What Rapidr has that Canny doesn't?

  • Changelog emails & reactions
  • More affordable pricing
  • White labelling option

Drawbacks of Rapidr:

  • Expensive
  • No changelog widget or popups
  • No built-in prioritization frameworks & matrices
  • No bulk editing, deleting, or merging
  • Very few customizations - can only change the theme color

How much does Rapidr cost?

Rapidr offers 3 pricing tiers:

  • Startup ($49/mo) - 5 admins, roadmap, changelog, custom domain, widgets, and basic integrations like Slack
  • Business ($199/mo) - 50 admins, user segmentation, SSO, and advanced integrations like
  • Enterprise (custom) - unlimited admins, white labeling, and priority support

While the first plan is comparable with most other feedback tools on the market, the other plans are quite expensive and more suitable for enterprises.

Rapidr reviews:

  • G2 - 4.8/5
Conclusion

Rapidr is a fresh feedback tool for larger teams. It's a robust alternative to Canny, but lacks some important features like prioritization frameworks and in-product widgets for notifications.

If you're a smaller startup, you'll find a better deal elsewhere in terms of pricing.

Check out the best Rapidr alternatives β†’

14. UserSnap

illustration of UserSnaps feedback boards.
UserSnap's feedback board

UserSnap is an enterprise user feedback tool with a large learning curve. Some of the core features include bug reporting, video feedback, two-way integrations & customer surveys.

It has lots of widgets for all types of feedback. Examples include NPS scores, feature announcements & feature satisfaction surveys.

What Usersnap has that Canny doesn't?

  • Surveys
  • Screenshots for bug reports
  • More affordable pricing
  • Lots of customization possibilities

Drawbacks of UserSnap:

  • No roadmaps
  • Costs a lot
  • The design is a bit outdated, which means widgets don't always look the best
  • Very complex and confusing

How much does UserSnap cost?

UserSnap has four tiers of pricing that go up pretty high compared to UserBack.

  1. Startup (€69/month) - 5 projects, 10 team members, screen capturing, surveys, 50+ integrations.
  2. Company (€129/month) - 15 projects, 15 team members, error log recording, data export features.
  3. Premium (€249/month) - 25 projects, 25 members, app surveys, API access.
  4. Enterprise (€949/month) - Unlimited projects/members, advanced security, full API, and strategy consultation.

Usersnap reviews:

  • G2 - 4.5/5
  • Capterra - 4.7/5
Conclusion

UserSnap is a versatile & enterprise-focused alternative to Canny. They have lots of widgets, large integrations, and a SOC2 compliance.

For pricing, UserSnap is a very costly tool. Their highest plan comes in at $949/month or $11,388/year.

If you want something more affordable, check out these top UserSnap alternatives β†’

15. Feature Upvote

Product illustration of Feature Upvote.
Feature Upvote's feedback board.

Feature Upvote is a simple feedback tool offering just feedback boards with an upvoting function. It gets pretty expensive, especially considering their limited features and aged UI.

What Feature Upvote has that Canny doesn't?

  • More languages (French, German, Italian, etc.)

Drawbacks of Feature Upvote:

  • No changelog
  • No roadmap
  • No user segmentation
  • Not supported on mobile devices
  • Aged UI/UX

How much does Feature Upvote cost?

Feature Upvote offers three paid plans:

  • Bootstrapper ($59/board/month) - unlimited admins and users, private boards, custom statuses, Slack integration
  • Standard ($99/board/month) - SSO, remove branding, Jira & Zapier integrations
  • Enterprise (price on request) - security audit, etc.

Note: The pricing for each plan is per board per month. So, while it may seem inexpensive at first glance, it gets quite pricey compared to alternatives.

Feature Upvote reviews:

  • No reviews
Conclusion

Feature Upvote is a simple yet expensive tool for the features you get. It's suitable for teams that only need one board and very basic feedback-voting functions. It doesn't have roadmaps or changelogs to close the feedback loop with users easily.

The bottom line is that you can get these same features and more from Featurebase's or Canny's free tier.

Check out more Feature Upvote alternatives β†’

16. UserVoice

UserVoice product illustration.
UserVoice's dashboard

UserVoice is another enterprise-grade feedback suite. It's a complex, all-in-one solution that requires time to master and is meant for larger teams that need custom workflows. It's one of the most expensive solutions, with plans starting at $699/month.

What UserVoice has that Canny doesn't?

  • Different features for internal alignment
  • Satisfaction surveys
  • More integrations
  • Translations

Drawbacks of UserVoice:

  • Expensive, starting at $699/month
  • No changelog
  • No changelog widgets or announcement popups
  • Outdated user interface
  • Feature bloated, too complex for regular usage
  • A steep learning curve that can slow down agile startups

How much does UserVoice cost?

UserVoice is mainly suited for larger Enterprises, as their pricing is extremely expensive.

It starts at $699/month for managing ideas you submit yourself on behalf of your users. And it's $899 to actually collect feedback. Connecting customer data to ideas costs $1,350/month, and you'll have to talk to a salesperson to start each plan.

Most of their competitors' prices don't even reach their starting point. For example, equivalent to their most expensive plan in Featurebase costs just $82 a month.

Learn more about UserVoice's pricing and if it's worth it β†’

UserVoice reviews:

Conclusion

UserVoice is an end-to-end product management tool for operating at scale. The additional features are excellent for enterprises but counterintuitive for SMBs looking to collect feedback and announce new features. It's also very expensive and targeted at enterprise companies.

Find more affordable alternatives to UserVoice β†’

17. Headway

Headway product illustration.
Headway's public changelog.

Headwayapp is another changelog-only Canny alternative. It's essentially a simpler and cheaper version of GetBeamer, also mentioned in this list. It features a changelog and an in-product widget to help smaller teams communicate updates to their users.

What Headway has that Canny doesn't?

  • More straightforward, simple, and intuitive
  • Cheaper pricing

Drawbacks of Headway:

  • No feedback collection
  • No roadmaps
  • No announcement popups
  • Few customization options
  • No translations

How much does Headway cost?

Headway offers simple pricing, starting with a free plan that includes a changelog and a widget. 

The only paid plan costs $29 a month and unlocks additional features like custom domain, scheduled posts, white labeling, and integrations.

Headway reviews:

  • No reviews
Conclusion

Headway is a very budget-friendly alternative to Canny for those just looking to publish new feature releases. It's a lightweight solution with a widget and a changelog page for smaller indie startups.

However, other choices in this list might work better if you also need to collect feedback and publish roadmaps.

Check out the top alternatives to Headway β†’

18. Pendo

Pendo product illustration.
Pendo's feedback board.

Pendo is enterprise-focused software offering a full suite of tools to improve user experience. Besides feedback boards and roadmaps, it helps manage user onboarding and includes product analytics tools.

What Pendo has that Canny doesn't?

  • Users can prioritize what posts are more important for them than other
  • NPS surveys
  • Product analytics, like tracking in-app customer usage
  • User onboarding
  • Session replays
  • Translations

Drawbacks of Pendo:

  • Very expensive, even more enterprise-focused
  • Steep learning curve and confusing to use
  • Limited customizations (No dark mode, custom CSS, etc.)
  • Aged UI/UX
  • Limited user segmentations

How much does Pendo cost?

Pendo has a free plan with limited features, such as NPS surveys, a roadmap, and a maximum of 500 monthly users. 

The only paid plan displayed with the pricing upfront is the Starter plan, which costs $7000 per year and has only yearly billing available. It includes the same features but allows for 2000 users.

They haven't listed the pricing for the Growth and Portfolio plans. However, users have claimed to be paying from $12,000/year to around $50,000/year.

Pendo reviews:

Conclusion

Pendo is an all-inclusive tool designed to help large organizations create the best software experience. Pendo is great if you're looking for everything you need for customer retention in one place and have lots of money to spare.β€Œβ€Œβ€Œβ€Œ

Otherwise, their prices are unjustifiably high, and we'd recommend these, more affordable alternatives to Pendo β†’

Why have users switched from Canny (with proof)

After reviewing other blogs about Canny, it's clear that many of the cons listed are either untrue or overplayed by the writer.

That said, Canny is still not a perfect tool, and knowing what you're signing up for is important. That's why we have relied on the experience and reviews of the ones that know the best - their users.

1. Expensive

Canny recently (Dec 6, 2023) updated their pricing in an attempt to make their product more accessible. They introduced a brand-new Starter Plan costing $99/month and restricted the Free Plan to only allow 100 active monthly posts and one feedback board instead of 2.

While the $99 tier makes Canny more available for mid-sized companies, you still get far less than other tools offer.

For example, Featurebase offers all of Canny's Growth features for only $82/mo instead of $400. That's exactly 10x cheaper. Plus, it comes with a better Free Plan that allows unlimited posts and has all the same features.

Twitter illustration of complaints about Canny's prices.
Twitter on Canny's pricing after moving upmarket.

2. Important missing features

Canny lacks many important features like anonymous posting, voting, and commenting. That means your users must always log in to post feedback, creating friction.

They are also missing changelog popups, which have been increasingly popular with competitors, and for a reason.

These popups show your users new releases they have missed out on when they open your app again. Seeing constant improvements has proven to significantly increase feature adption, and the number of posts users submit.

Talking about notifications, Canny doesn't send your users emails for changelog entries - something that almost all competitors do.

Another huge problem for many is that there's no way to completely white-label your boards and remove Canny's branding.

Finally, Canny is only available in English, which is not a huge problem if most of your users speak it. But if you're operating only in Spain, for example, having boards auto-translated into Spanish can make the difference between night and day.

Despite being their most requested feature, localization hasn't come out for 7 years, with almost 300 customers asking for it.

Canny's users requesting translations.

This isn't the only highly requested feature they've ignored, bringing us to our next point. πŸ‘‡

3. No product improvements

Another reason many teams look for alternatives is that Canny has been heavily prioritizing sales over product improvements. Lots of customers have been switching to more active tools due to Canny ignoring their feedback.

Furthermore, they target enterprise customers, making the tool complex and new updates useless for regular users.

Canny has even stated that all new feature releases will only be available on the $400/mo plan.

Screenshot of Canny's reviews saying they are not listening to feedback.
Canny's users on product improvements.

4. Poor for prioritizing feedback

Lastly, while Canny is a pretty complete solution, it's missing some critical prioritization features to make sense of the feedback you get.

They offer a limited prioritization framework that's quite inflexible and can't be customized for individual workflows. They also don't provide prioritization matrices like value/effort, which many PMs use daily in their work.

Moreover, Canny doesn't ask your users follow-up questions, which is a great way to gain deeper insights into their thoughts. Here's an example:

Short clip of how automatic follow-up questions work in Featurebase.
Automatic follow-up questions in Featurebase.

For example, Featurebase's free plan offers everything Canny does, including follow-up questions and a value/effort matrix. Give it a try for free β†’

TL;DR - Canny's drawbacks

  1. About 10x more expensive than alternatives
  2. No basic competitive features, like changelog emails, no sign-up posting, and feedback board translations
  3. Prioritizing sales over product improvements
  4. Missing prioritization matrices and workflow customizations

What is Canny.io?

Canny is a customer feedback tool that lets companies collect, prioritize, and analyze feedback to make better product decisions. The main features include feedback boards, product roadmaps, and changelogs. 

What is Canny used for?

Canny is primarily used to collect and organize feature requests to understand user needs and prioritize roadmaps. Their clients are mostly larger B2B software companies looking to improve their products with customer feedback.

Is Canny free? How much does Canny cost?

Canny offers a limited Free Plan, allowing only 100 monthly active posts. It contains one feedback board, a public roadmap, a changelog, 1 integration, and 3 admins.

The Starter Plan ($99/month) removes the post limit, has a custom domain, 2 integrations, and a prioritization roadmap. 

The Growth Plan ($399/month) allows 5 admins instead of 3, user segmentation, private boards, custom statuses, and unlimited integrations.

The Business Plan comes with a custom quote, and you'd have to talk to their sales. It removes Canny's branding and offers comprehensive integrations, including Salesforce and Hubspot.

You can test all the plans with a 14-day free trial.

Screenshot of updated Canny's pricing 2024.
Canny's pricing.

Does Canny offer discounts?

Canny offers three types of discounts:

  • Early-stage startups - 75% off the first year & 50% off the second year
  • Annual - 10% off with yearly billing
  • Nonprofit organizations - contact the team for details

To see if you qualify for the startup or nonprofit discounts, you'll have to contact the team.

Screenshot of Canny's discounts.
Canny discounts.

What are the key features of Canny?

Canny offers many features to help companies get the most out of their users' feedback. Here are the most popular ones:

  • Feedback boards - let users submit ideas and upvote others' posts
  • Public roadmap - display upcoming features and manage ideas on a roadmap view
  • Changelog - update customers about the latest features with release notes
  • In-app widget - embed a widget in your app to let users submit feedback without having to leave
  • User segmentation - group and filter users by different parameters, e.g. paying customers
  • Integrations - connect Canny with popular tools like Clickup, Jira, and more

The Conclusion

In conclusion, Canny is a great tool for some teams, but it can be expensive and lacks many features and customization options. There are plenty of alternatives that match these needs or at least offer a more budget-friendly solution.

Featurebase is one of the best Canny alternatives. It has all the matching features and much more for a 10x lower price. Unlike Canny, it offers changelog notification emails, 3 different widgets, advanced prioritization matrices, and much more.

Featurebase comes with a Free Plan that allows unlimited posts. You can automatically migrate over from Canny in seconds, so there's no downside to trying it. πŸ‘‡

Start collecting product feedback with Featurebase today for free β†’

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