Appcues lets you create in-product experiences that onboard users, drive feature adoption, collect feedback, and reduce support load — without engineering help for every change. This article covers the core concepts you need before you start building.

How Appcues works

Appcues has two tools you use together:

• Appcues Builder — a Chrome extension you open on top of your product to create Flows, Pins, and Banners directly on your pages. Install it from the Chrome Web Store. See What is the Appcues Builder? for details.

• Appcues Studio — the web dashboard at studio.appcues.com where you create all other experience types, configure targeting and settings, manage themes, view analytics, and administer your account.

Your developer adds a lightweight JavaScript snippet (web) or native SDK (mobile) to your product. Once installed, Appcues overlays or injects experiences on top of your app — Modals, Tooltips, Banners, and more — based on rules you define.

Experience types

Experiences are the messages and guides you show to users. Each type serves a different purpose. Choose the one that matches the action you want to drive.

Flows

Multi-step or single-step guidance built with Modals, Slideouts, Tooltips, and Hotspots. Use Flows to welcome new users, walk them through key actions, announce features, or collect feedback mid-task. See What is a Flow?.

Checklists

Task lists that break onboarding or adoption goals into steps users work through at their own pace. Each item can link to a Flow or a page. Checklists track progress and show users what's left to do. See What are Checklists?.

Launchpads

An always-available resource center you embed in your product. Launchpads centralize Flows, links, FAQs, and knowledge base articles so users can find help without leaving your app. See What are Launchpads?.

Pins

Small, persistent icons attached to specific elements on a page. Pins provide on-demand tips, links, or deeper guidance when users hover or click — without interrupting their workflow. See What are Pins?.

Banners

Lightweight announcement bars at the top or bottom of your product. Use Banners for timely updates like releases, outages, or promotions. See What are Banners?.

NPS

A recurring in-product survey that measures customer sentiment on a 0–10 scale. Responses are segmented into detractors, passives, and promoters and can route to tools like Slack or your CRM. See What is NPS?.

Surveys

Custom forms that collect structured feedback on features, launches, or any topic. See Surveys and Forms.

Embeds (Beta)

Persistent, inline components embedded directly into your product's UI — they live inside your page layout rather than overlaying on top. See What are Embeds?.

Events and properties

Properties describe who your users are — attributes like role, plan, createdAt, or companySize. You send them to Appcues via the Appcues.identify() and Appcues.group() calls. See User properties overview and Group properties overview.

Events capture what your users do — actions like Created Project, Invited Teammate, or Completed Onboarding. You send them via Appcues.track() or set them up with Click-to-Track. See Events overview.

Together, properties and events let you target experiences to the right people at the right moment, personalize content with dynamic fields, and measure impact with Goals.

Targeting

Targeting controls who sees an experience, where it appears, and when it triggers.

• Audience — filter by user properties, events, or segments. Example: show a Flow only to users with role = admin who signed up in the last 7 days.
• Page rules — specify which URLs or screens trigger the experience. See Page targeting.
• Trigger and frequency — control whether the experience shows on page load, on an event, or manually. Set how often it can repeat. See Flow trigger settings.

For targeting best practices, see Recommended segments and Targeting logic: all vs. any.

Goals

Goals define what success looks like for an experience. A Goal tracks a key event or property change — like Created Project or Upgraded Plan — within a time window you set. Appcues measures conversion rate and attributes it to the experiences users saw.

Use Goals to compare experience performance, run A/B tests, and set up control experiments. See Goals overview.

Workflows

Workflows let you orchestrate multi-channel messaging from a single place. Combine in-app Flows, emails, and push notifications into sequences triggered by user behavior. Use Workflows to re-engage users who drop off, follow up on NPS responses, or connect onboarding steps across channels. See Workflows quickstart guide.

Next steps

• Set up Appcues — install the snippet or SDK, identify users, track events, and verify your setup.
• Build and publish your first experience — design your theme, create an experience, configure targeting, and go live.
• Manage your account and measure results — set Goals, organize your team, keep data clean, and maintain your content.

Common questions

How does the Appcues free trial work?

New accounts start with a 14-day free trial. After you install the Appcues SDK, you receive another 14 days, giving you time to build and test experiences with real data before committing.

Will Appcues affect my app's performance?

The SDK is lightweight and delivered via Fastly's CDN. It loads asynchronously and does not block your page rendering. See FAQ for developers for performance details.

Does Appcues require PII?

No. Appcues needs a unique user ID to function, but it doesn't have to be personally identifiable. You can use a database ID or UUID. If you do send PII (name, email), consult your security team and review the FAQ for developers on data handling.

How long does implementation take?

Most teams complete a basic installation in a few hours of developer time. Adding properties, events, and integrations is incremental — you can start publishing experiences with minimal data and layer in more over time.

Which integrations does Appcues support?

Appcues integrates with analytics tools (Segment, Amplitude, Heap, Mixpanel), CRMs, marketing platforms, and data warehouses. You can also send data via webhooks or the Public API. See the full integrations overview.