10 Best Feature Voting tools
One of the best ways to collect and manage customer feedback is to work with a feature voting tool. With feature voting software, it's really efficient to really work together with your users on improving your product.
Why use feature voting in the first place?
There are a couple of good arguments on why using feature voting is one of the best ways to gather user feedback.
Asking your users is smart: they are the ones that are using your product
Users will be more willing to share feedback
Reduce churn: by working on actual user feedback, your product will be more valuable
Close the feedback loop: work on feedback and instantly share progress
The best tools for feature voting
There are 10 really good tools for feature voting. All are different in pricing and features, so we did our best to outline them all.
1. Upvoty
Of course, we have to name ourselves here. I mean, we have developed Upvoty just because of the same reason you're reading this article right now. We needed a way to collect and manage user feedback for our SaaS, but we couldn't really find a great user feedback tool that was both affordable and user-friendly. So, we created one ourselves.
Big benefits of Upvoty:
Pricing: starting from just $15 a month
Customizations: all fully customizable (statuses, look and feel, etc.)
Easy to implement: both with a widget or on a custom domain
User SSO: Identify your existing user accounts
Roadmap: share your roadmap and what's in progress
Changelog: when you ship, announce it on your changelog
Moderation: you can activate moderation to keep everything in control (something a lot of similar tools in the user feedback space don't have)
Anonymous voting: you could turn on anonymous voting if you don't want your users to participate by name
Tags: structure your feedback
Whitelabel: Seamlessly integrate Upvoty in your own software
Integrations: lots of integrations with tools such as Intercom, Zapier, Google Analytics, Chrome, Firefox, etc.
They also allow you to create a roadmap + changelog:
Pricing:
Upvoty is very fairly priced. You can start with the smallest plan of $15. When you grow with tracked users (users that are participating on your feedback boards), you can easily upgrade to the $25 plan. When you need even more features and tracked users, Upvoty has an unlimited plan of just $49 a month. This has everything unlimited included. And, it even has Whitelabel, Custom CSS, and access to its API.
2. Feedefy
Not specifically with a voting system, but it's one of the best ways to collect user feedback. Feedefy provides a straightforward widget for users to submit bug reports (with screenshots!), feature requests, or general feedback.
Big benefits of Feedefy:
Pricing: it is starting with just $9/month
Roadmap: share what's in progress
Widget: easy to install widget
Beautiful UX: Easy in use and straightforward
Powerful dashboard: manage your feedback
Pricing:
Starts at just $9 - start a free trial.
3. Productboard
It's one of the best and advanced tools out there. The latter can also be what would hold you back: it's so advanced that if you want a way to collect and manage feedback in an easy and straightforward way, you might get overwhelmed with Productboard.
Big benefits of Productboard:
Insights repository: consolidate ideas, requests, research, and feedback streaming
User insights: advanced user insights in who wants what
Product hierarchy: keep everything structured
Prioritization scores: get scored on how important the feedback is
Task management: track tasks and goals
Pricing:
This is where it becomes tricky. Productboard is so advanced that you'll pay straight-up $49 a month per maker (user). So with a team of 3, you're already at $150 a month. If you really need all the extras, this is fine, Productboard is a really great tool. But if you're looking for a great feature voting tool, this might be a little bit too much.
4. Tricider
With Tricider, you can publicly create a board based on your question or topic. It's very nice if you just want to have feedback for this one time. It's not a great tool if you're looking for a way to manage your backlog and really connect and engage with users. It's missing User SSO, ways to properly embed on your site or within your product, and it's missing a lot of features, such as tags, to really work efficiently on your feedback. But hey, if you don't need it, it might be the tool for you!
Big benefits of Tricider:
Free: it's completely free (although it's missing a lot of features!)
Easy to set up: just go to their website, type in a question, and you can go ahead
Multiple channels: with multiple channels, you can create multiple topics and ask feedback
Pricing:
It's free! But again, you can't really implement it in your product, so your users will have to do hard in order to give and participate on feedback.
5. The Idea Wall
Very high priced and with a bit outdated look and feel, The Idea Wall is a little bit down the list. However, it does have downvoting and a couple of more neat features that we don't see that much in order tools. So, nevertheless, it's worth mentioning.
Big benefits of The Idea Wall:
Limited votes: Set a limit on the number of votes each user can give
Downvote: If you're using a feature voting tool for like games, this could be a really great feature
Ratings: users can rate with a one to five-star rating
Voting: of course, it has a voting feature which works pretty straight forward
Video games: it is highly popular among video game developers
Pricing:
It's quite expensive. The plans start at $35 a month, but in order to get the most out of it, you're most likely going to need the $80 per month plan. Oh, by the way, those prices are per moderator. So, with a team of 3, you're already at $240 a month.
6. Convas
A bit limited, maybe just because they just started out, but highly potential: Convas starts with a $49 plan, which, in all fairness, is a bit much for what you can do with it. Yes, it has feedback boards, and yes, it has a roadmap, but to work with it, you'll need more features and you won't find them at Convas (yet).
Big benefits of Convas:
Design: Great design, fits almost in every product
Combined features: both the roadmap and boards are combined into 1
Easy to set up: it's easy to set up on your custom domain (it's lacking a widget though!)
Pricing:
It's quite expensive when you're comparing what features you get: there's one plan of $49 a month. It's is unlimited though, so it could benefit in the long run.
7. Zoom
Surprised to see Zoom here? Well, we are using it ourselves during demos and team meetings and we must say: it's a great way to collect feedback! With Zoom Polling, you can easily ask questions during meetings, demos, or webinars and ask for feedback among your users, audience, our team members.
Big benefits of Zoom Polling:
Integrated: it's already integrated when you're having demos, sales calls, or meetings with users. Big downside: you will only get feedback from the users you're doing Zoom calls with.
Easy to set up: just create a poll and let the feedback roll in!
Reporting: great reporting on the results after the poll is completed
Pricing:
It's included in every Zoom plan, so it's also available on the free plan. Woohoo!
8. UserVoice
One of the better tools which you can perfectly compare to Productboard. Not because of its greatness, but from a pricing point of view as well. Yes, it's expensive. And yes, it's worth it if you need all the additional features. It's down this list because of the fact it's too expensive if you just need a great tool to collect and manage user feedback with feedback boards and feature voting.
Big benefits of UserVoice:
Advanced: everything you need to collect and manage customer feedback
Reporting: great reporting, especially if you work in a bigger team
User roles: perfect roles for each of your team members
Pricing:
You'll have to talk to sales. But if we believe the numbers been shared on forums, keep a number above $100 a month in mind.
9. Trello
If you want to use Trello for user feedback just because it's free: be warned. It's very limited to efficiently collect and manage feedback. There's a good reason for it: it's a project management tool, not a feedback tool. So, why is it on this list then? Well, you could use it for feedback, especially if you want to collect it internally, but it has some very important limitations and it takes a while to structure it. But for some, it works.
Big benefits of Trello:
Boards: You can easily create multiple boards to add new feedback
Free: obviously a big benefit
Easy to set up: although it has a lot of limitations, it's very easy to set up and to share
Pricing:
It's available on a free Trello plan.
10. Good ol' excel
We wouldn't recommend it, but you know what, if you want to start with a free tool (because you're building your SaaS and you don't have any revenue for now, for example), Google Spreadsheet is a great way to collect feedback internally. The big downside: it will only work for internal feedback.
You can't share those spreadsheets and engage with users. If you have a little budget, consider a tool like Upvoty which helps you out with an affordable plan of just $15 a month. User feedback is, of course, one of the most important things in building your product the right way. So it's important to pick a smart choice here.
Big benefits of Google Spreadsheet:
Work together internally: You can share the spreadsheets with colleagues via Gsuite (that's also the downside: it's only internally!)
Cheap: you won't have to pay for any tool
Clear overview: you can create columns to get a nice and clean overview of the features to build next
Pricing:
Included in your Microsoft plan or free with Google Drive.