Blog ComparisonsTop 10 Free Feature Tracking Tools in 2024
Top 10 Free Feature Tracking Tools in 2024
Want a free feature tracking tool with in-app widgets and voting boards? In this post, we've listed all of the best feature request tools that'll get you started. We analyzed their pros and cons, so you don't have to. Let's dive in!
Looking for a free tool to collect feature requests with? You're in the right place!
I get it. You want to track feedback and maybe even publish a few release notes, but most tools charge too much or just aren't it.
No worries. I gathered all of the free yet amazingly good feature tracking tools in one place and analyzed their pros, cons, and pricing, so you don't have to.
Let's find you the feature request tool of your dreams! 👇
In short - The top 10 free feature tracking tools of 2024:
- Featurebase - All-in-one feedback tool, best value for money
- Canny - For super small or enterprise companies, no in-between
- Sleekplan - Affordable pricing, limited features
- Ducalis - For advanced feature prioritization, poor collection
- GitHub Discussions - For open-source & internal projects, no prioritization features
- Jira Product Discovery - for a smooth Jira integration experience
- Trello - For simple idea and task management
- Ruttl - Good for website and video feedback
- Olvy - Mainly for prioritizing feedback, no public voting boards
- Pendo - Complete customer experience software for enterprises
Before you run off to choose the free feature tracking tool, let's go over some of the factors a good one should have. This can help you make the best choice. 🔎
What to look for in a feature tracking tool?
- Widgets & seamless integration: To make it effortless for users to leave feedback and upvote features, it's important to look for tools with widgets. You'd like to collect in-app feedback so users never have to leave your product page.
- Automatic authentication: Users shouldn't be forced to sign up for a new account to submit and vote on features. Great feature request tools let you automatically authenticate users with the account you already have with your app.
- Duplicate detection: As you collect more feedback, duplicate post-detection becomes increasingly important, so you don't have to waste time dealing with repeating requests.
- Revenue sorting: Not all user feedback is equal. That's why it's important to look for the ability to sync your user data with their posts. This allows you to sort ideas by customer revenue potential and create segments.
- User notifications: Closing the feedback loop is one of the most important parts of a feature tracking tool. Look for tools that send email notifications to users about the progress of their submitted ideas. It's a bonus if they also offer a changelog.
- Tools to manage feedback at scale: Many tools offer limited dashboards that don't enable you to stay on top of your user feedback when you're getting tens of requests every day. Look for bulk action and post-merging features to help with this.
- Integrations: A great feature tracking tool should plug into your workflow and connect with all the tools you already use. This can be Jira for task management, Intercom for pushing requests straight into your voting boards, or Slack for syncing release notes into the announcement channel.
After all the features, it's super important to consider the price.
Sure, they all have a free plan, but what if you start growing and need more advanced features? Do you really want to start migrating all of your feedback to other tools? 😅
Make sure the prices of upper plans still make sense in case you need to upgrade!
The 10 Best Free Feature Request Tools in 2024
Now that we know what a good feature tracking tool should have, let's get to the good part! I handpicked each software on this list based on its features and ease of use.
And of course, all of them have a free plan.👇
1. Featurebase
Featurebase is one of the best feature tracking tools. It offers affordable pricing and a Free plan that allows unlimited feedback.
It has a neat interface and many rich features, including voting boards, roadmaps, and a changelog, to get the most out of your feedback.
You can set it up in minutes and always get quick help through live chat. ⚡️
Featurebase's key features:
- Feedback boards, changelog, and a roadmap
- In-app widgets (see live demo)
- Surveys
- Sort feedback by monetary value
- Prioritization frameworks
- Automated notification emails
- Custom domain
- User segmentation
- Single Sign-On
- API
- Over 6 + languages, including Spanish, German, French, etc.
Advantages of Featurebase:
- Intuitive interface - a neat and easy-to-use design for you and your users with gamified features like leaderboards to incentivize feedback
- AI duplicate post-detection - users & admins will see relevant similar posts before posting to reduce duplicates
- AI-powered search - always find that idea that you were looking for, even if you don't remember the exact wording
- Lots of customizations - have your boards look exactly the way you want by changing the colors, theme, text, and much more
- Replies and @ mentioning - intuitive comment section for lengthy discussions
Drawbacks of Featurebase:
- No HubSpot & Salesforce integrations (see existing integrations)
How much does Featurebase cost?
- Free Plan - unlimited posts, all basic features like a feedback board, roadmap, and 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. See pricing here →
Featurebase reviews:
- Product Hunt - 4.9/5
Conclusion
Featurebase is one the best feature tracking tools available. It offers affordable pricing with a free plan that allows for unlimited feedback.
It comes with in-app widgets, voting boards, roadmap, and a changelog. In addition to that, it also lets you prioritize feature requests based on your customers revenue and keeps users automatically updated notification emails.
The onboarding is amazingly quick and you can automatically migrate your existing feedback from other tools in seconds.
Learn more here →
3. Canny.io
Canny.io is a popular feedback tool that targets enterprises. It offers all of the key features like voting boards, roadmaps, and changelogs. However, their paid plans cost a lot, and the free plan has a strict limit on monthly posts.
Canny's key features:
- Feedback boards, roadmaps, changelog
- Prioritization frameworks
- Feedback widget
- Automated email notifications
- Duplicate post-detection
- Custom domain
Advantages of Canny:
- SOC2 compliance for enterprises
- Modern & intuitive design
Drawbacks of Canny:
- Very expensive pricing
- No changelog popups
- No bulk editing
- No prioritization matrices
- No follow-up questions like "How important is this for you?" for extra insights
- Customers complain about not being listened to
- Supports only English
How much does Canny cost?
- Free plan - limits active posts to only 100 a month. For very small companies only
- $99/month (Starter Plan) - custom domain, roadmap, 2 integrations. Very limited in features, equal to competitors' free plans
- $399/month (Growth) - for 5 admins, user segmentation, private boards, and more
- Business (talk to sales) - unlimited boards, pay by invoice, SOC2, etc.
Canny Pricing 2024: Is It Worth It →
Canny reviews:
- G2 - 4.5/5 (complaints)
- Capterra - 4.8/5
- GetApp - 4.7/5
Conclusion
Canny is a reasonable feature request tool for very small teams. Just keep in mind that the free plan limits you to 100 posts a month.
The other plans cost a lot and are more targeted at enterprises, as the most useful features are on the $399/mo plan.
Check out these affordable Canny alternatives →
3. Sleekplan
Sleekplan is one of the most budget-friendly feature tracking tools. Besides feedback boards, roadmaps, and changelogs, it also supports satisfaction surveys. It's a great deal for smaller startups that don't need complex features.
Sleekplan's key features:
- Feedback boards, roadmaps, changelogs
- CSAT and NPS satisfaction surveys
- Anonymous posting, commenting, and voting
- Customizable survey widgets
- Supports 10+ languages
Advantages of Sleekplan:
- Very affordable pricing - highest plan $45/month
- A lightweight tool, not too complex
Drawbacks of Sleekplan:
- Outdated UI & UX
- No changelog popups
- No duplicate post-detection system
- No bulk editing
- No follow-up questions
- Few integrations
- Run by a solo founder, so customer support might not be good
How much does Sleekplan cost?
Sleekplan offers 4 plans to choose from. Each allows unlimited feedback and end users.
- Indie (free) - 1 admin, 1 feedback board, and a changelog
- Starter ($15/mo) - 3 admins, changelog, roadmap, customer satisfaction surveys
- Business ($45/mo) - 10 admins, merge posts, white labeling, custom domain, and user segmentation
- Enterprise (custom) - Everything in Starter, plus unlimited admins
Their pricing seems (and is) affordable, but many critical features like post-merging are only on the third plan.
Sleekplan reviews:
- G2 - 4.8/5
- Capterra - 5/5
- GetApp 5/5
Conclusion
Sleekplan is a good choice for smaller teams that also want to measure customer satisfaction. It's a nice, affordable alternative, but you'll have to go with the $45/mo plan to access most of the useful features.
Check out the best Sleekplan alternatives →
4. Ducalis
Ducalis is a feature-tracking tool that's more focused on product management and prioritization rather than collecting feature requests. It has many advanced prioritization frameworks and offers a free plan.
Ducalis' key features:
- Public roadmaps (with feature voting)
- Changelog
- In-app widget
- Many prioritization frameworks
- User segmentation
- Automated email notifications
- Duplicate post-detection
Advantages of Ducalis:
- Customizable domain & email address
- Mobile friendly
- Has many different translations
Drawbacks of Ducalis:
- Complex UI, too many knobs everywhere
- Unintuitive in-app widget - in side peek format, that's too tight for showing the roadmap
- No follow-up questions like "How important is this for you?" for extra insights
How much does Ducalis cost?
Ducalis offers 5 pricing plans to choose from. Here's a simple breakdown of them:
- Free plan - unlimited ideas & boards, prioritization, 1-way integration from task trackers
- Pro ($5/month/admin) - feedback collection, changelog, in-app widget, 2-way integrations, dependencies, brand customizations
- Team ($10/month/admin) - custom domain, user roles, voting on behalf, limit number of votes per idea
- Business ($16/month/admin) - private voting board, some more advanced prioritization frameworks
- Enterprise (contact sales) - white labeling, usage insights, dedicated training sessions
TL;DR - Team plan is the most viable in terms of features. Business doesn't offer anything relevant in addition & Pro lacks some important features like voting on behalf and custom domain.
Ducalis reviews:
- G2 - 4.8/5
Conclusion
Ducalis is definitelly a nice choice for specialized product managers that are looking for a robust product software. However, it has a steep learning curve and can be difficult for your users.
They have a decent pricing, with most of the necessary features on the Team plan.
Check out these top Ducalis alternaitves →
5. GitHub Discussions
GitHub Discussions is a collaborative communication forum for the community around an open source or internal project. Community members can ask and answer questions, share updates, have open-ended conversations, and follow along on decisions affecting the community's way of working.
GitHub Discussions' key features:
- Feedback boards
- Commenting
- Sorting feedback
- Email updates
Advantages of GitHub Discussions:
- Free of charge
- Robust integrations with other GitHub tools
- More community-focused (can also be a disadvantage)
Drawbacks of GitHub Discussions:
- No admin dashboard
- Poor feedback management & prioritizing
- Barrier to entry for non-developers
- No integrations with non-GitHub tools
- Very limited customizations
How much does GitHub Discussions cost?
Discussions is available on GitHub Free, GitHub Team, and GitHub Enterprise accounts for public and private repositories.
Conclusion
GitHub Discussions is a nice and affordable feature tracking tool. However, it lacks some crucial management & prioritization features, defeating the purpose for many.
Although it does not cost anything, at the end of the day you will save more time and money by using a feedback tool that doesn't slow you down. Time is money, after all.
Check out the best GitHub Discussions alternatives →
6. Jira Product Discovery
Jira Product Discovery bridges the gap between business and technical teams by linking planning directly to Jira. It's a nice option for managing feature requests if you're already using Jira or Atlassian products.
Jira Product Discovery's key features:
- Capturing feedback
- Feedback prioritization
- Product roadmaps
Advantages of Jira Product Discovery:
- Deep integration with the Jira platform
- Good collaboration features
- Cross-team collaboration
Drawbacks of Jira Product Discovery:
- The UX can be hard to navigate and complex
- Hard to share with your customers - they need to create an account with Atlassian.
- Not ideal for large volumes of feedback
How much does Jira Product Discovery cost?
The pricing for Jira Product Discovery is pretty straightforward:
- Free - max 3 creators, unlimited contributors, community support
- Standard ($10/mo per creator) - all features in free, more than 3 creators, custom project roles, data residency control
Jira Product Discovery reviews:
- TrustRadius - 8.0/10
Conclusion
Jira Product Discovery is a feedback tool for teams looking to have their entire workflow inside the Atlassian ecosystem. It works well for gathering feedback across different teams in the company.
Gathering feedback from customers using Jira Product Discovery can get quite difficult, because customers will have to create an Atlassian account in order to leave feedback. Furthermore, they do not have any in-app widgets for optimal feedback gathering.
Check out the best Jira Product Discovery alternatives →
7. Trello
Trello is one of the most popular task-management tools, with simple Kanban boards at its core. It can sort of be used for feature tracking, but it's very basic and not enough for many. Still it gets the job done and has a free plan.
Trello's key features:
- Kanban boards (Roadmaps)
- Timeline
- Calendar
Advantages of Trello:
- Robust Jira integration
- Many templates
- Good for task management (not feedback management)
Drawbacks of Trello:
- No feedback collection
- Poor for prioritizing & managing feature ideas
- No changelogs or emails to keep users in the loop about their requests
How much does Trello cost?
Trello has 4 plans to pick between:
- Free - unlimited cards, 10 boards, 10MB files with unlimited storage
- Standard ($6/user/mo) - unlimited boards, custom fields, advanced checklists, and up to 250MB files with unlimited storage
- Premium ($12.5/user/mo) - unlocks all the views, calendar, timeline, table, etc.
- Enterprise ($17.5/user/mo) - unlimited workspaces,
Note: The total cost of Trello depends on how many users you have in your team. For example, five users on their Premium plan will cost $62.5 a month.
Other than that, just keep in mind that most of their key features are on the Premium plan.
Trello reviews:
- G2 - 4.4/5 (see complaints)
- Capterra - 4.5/5
- GetApp - 4.5/5
Trello is a nice free option for tracking and managing feature requests, but the collection side is very basic and not enough for many.
You should also consider that most of their key features are on the Premium plan. Also, the PER USER pricing can get expensive for larger teams.
Check out the best Trello alternatives →
8. Ruttl
Ruttl is a website feedback tool for startups. It helps teams collect and manage user feedback to make better product decisions.
It's a budget choice with many limitations and can be expensive for larger teams. It offers feedback boards, roadmaps, and prioritization frameworks.
Ruttl's key features:
- Website feedback widget
- Roadmaps
- Prioritization frameworks
- Customer chat
Advantages of Ruttl:
- Video feedback
- SAML support
Drawbacks of Ruttl:
- Many users have reported Ruttl to be buggy. When testing it personally, my screenshots would sometimes just not be taken, and even when they were, they were very different from what was on my screen at the time I took them.
- No duplicate feedback management
- No public feedback board
- No changelog for closing the feedback loop
How much does Ruttl cost?
Ruttl offers 3 pricing tiers:
- Free - 1 admin, max 5 users, 1 project, unlimited guests, 1 min of video comments, 5 GB workspace storage, basic integrations
- Pro ($4/user/mo) - 1 admin, max 50 users, unlimited projects, 10 mins of video comments, 50 GB workspace storage, Clickup & Zapier integrations, dedicated success manager
- Team ($12/user/mo) - multiple admins, no user limit, 10 mins of video comments, 100 GB workspace storage
It doesn't seem too expensive at first. However, if you take into account the 'per user a month' pricing and compare its functionality to alternatives, it's quite a lot.
Ruttl reviews:
- G2 - 4.9/5
- Capterra - 4.9/5
- GetApp - 4.6/5
Conclusion
Ruttl is an okay website feedback tool for some. However the lack of voting boards and changelog make it unideal for feature tracking and managing.
The pricing isn't that high, but compared to other tools in this list, you'll find a better value elsewhere.
Check out these top Ruttl alternatives →
9. Olvy
Olvy is an AI user feedback tool for startups. It helps teams collect and manage feature requests to make better product decisions. They many integrations and in-app widgets to centralize all of your feedback.
Olvy's key features:
- In-app widgets for feedback collection
- Changelog & new releases popup
- Sort feedback by revenue
- Dashboard for managing feedback in one place
Advantages of Olvy:
- Uses AI to automatically detect valuable feedback
- Many integrations for collecting feedback
Drawbacks of Olvy:
- No feedback boards
- Users can't see, comment, or upvote peers' posts
- No two-way communication with users to clarify their ideas
- Quite expensive
How much does Olvy cost?
Olvy offers 4 pricing tiers that are quite tricky:
- Free ($0/mo) - 1 admin, 1,000 unique visitors per month, 100 tracked users, up to 100 feedback, changelog, no feedback analysis
- Essential ($60/mo) - 3 admins, unlimited visitors per month, 5,000 tracked users, up to 5000 feedback, 3 integrations, 2 widgets, feedback analysis
- Business ($300/mo) - 5 admins; unlimited visitors per month, tracked users, feedback, integrations, widgets
- Enterprise (talk to sales) - SAML Single Sign-On, custom contract & invoicing, custom integrations
Note: A unique visitor is anyone who views your releases page or visits any page your Olvy widgets are added to.
Note 2: A tracked user is anyone who has interacted with your widgets or Changelog, i.e. submitted feedback.
Olvy reviews:
- G2 - 5/5
- Capterra - 4.9/5
- GetApp - 4.9/5
Conclusion
Olvy is a nice SaaS feedback tracking tool if your focus is on collecting feedback from a lot of different places.
However it doesn't have public boards for users to vote and comment each other's ideas. Moreover, there's no 2-way communication between you and your customers, which can be useful for clearifying feature ideas and so on.
Check out the best Olvy alternatives here →
10. Pendo
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.
Pendo's key features:
- User onboarding
- NPS surveys
- Product analytics, like tracking in-app customer usage
- Product roadmaps
- Prioritization frameworks
- Session replays
Advantages of Pendo:
- Users can prioritize what posts are more important for them than others
- Great for onboarding new users and understanding the customer journey
- Has lots of 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:
- G2 - 4.4/5 (see complaints)
- Capterra - 4.5/5
- GetApp - 4.5/5
Conclusion
Pendo is an all-inclusive customer experience tool designed for large organizations.
Their free plan makes for a great option in this list. However, keep in mind that unless you're an enterprise, Pendo will not be scalable as the paid plans start from $7000 per year.
Check out these more affordable alternatives to Pendo →
Conclusion
The list of feature tracking tools available is diverse, with many choices with free plans.
Featurebase is one of the best feature request tools. In addition to a generous free plan, it offers a beautiful and intuitive design. Besides feedback boards and widgets, it offers surveys, changelogs, roadmaps, and automated emails.
You can automatically migrate your feedback over from any existing feedback tool in seconds, so there's no downside to trying it. 👇
Start tracking feature requests with Featurebase for free today →
The all-in-one tool for customer feedback, changelogs, surveys, and more. Built-in the 🇪🇺.