Usivity vs digital adoption platforms
DAPs guide users through your product. Usivity changes it for them.
Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) add in-app guides, tooltips, walkthroughs and analytics on top of your product. Usivity lets each user change the product itself, in plain language.
The short answer
Use a DAP when users need to learn the product as it is: onboarding, walkthroughs, tooltips and in-app help.
Use Usivity when users know the product and want it to look or work differently for them. They ask for it and the page changes.
One user or a whole account. Your team writes a change once and sends it to the account’s users, so nothing is set up user by user.
Different jobs. One teaches the product. The other changes it, so one doesn’t replace the other.
Side by side
Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) and Usivity, compared.
The same customer request, handled two ways.
| Question | Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) |  Usivity |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A layer over your app that adds in-app guides, tooltips, walkthroughs, checklists and announcements, plus analytics on how users move through the product. | A layer in your app that changes how the product looks and shows data for each user, from a plain-language request, inside the zones you choose. |
| Personalized for each user or account? | No. The product stays the same. Users in a segment see the same guidance on top of it. | Yes. Each user gets their own changes, and your team can send one change to a whole account. |
| Who makes the change | Your team builds the guides, usually with a visual builder. Users follow them. | The user, in their own words. Or your team, from the Usivity portal, sent to one user or a whole account. |
| Time to change | No release needed. As long as your team takes to write and test each guide. | Seconds for the user who asks. |
| Engineering effort (code) | Low effortA snippet to install, then little code. | Low effortOnce: one script tag and a server-signed user identity. None per change. |
| Team effortIntake, sizing, prioritization, escalation, testing, upkeep | High effortWrite, target and test each guide, and keep it in step every time your interface changes. | Low effortUsers ask for what they want and get it. Your team writes account setups in the portal, with no ticket to size. |
| What your team learns | Where users click, where they drop off, and which guides they finish. | What users wanted changed, in their own words, and what the product couldn’t do yet. |
| Risk to your code and data | Guidance sits on top of your app. It doesn’t change your code or data. | Presentation changes in the user’s browser, inside your zones. Never writes to your backend; personal data is redacted before AI processing. |
Which to choose
DAPs teach the product. Usivity changes it.
If users don’t know how to do something your product already does well, guidance is the answer, and Usivity isn’t a guidance tool. If they know how and want it to work differently, a guide can’t help. Here is which to reach for.
Onboarding
New users need to learn the basics.
Step-by-step walkthroughs of the first tasks a new user has to learn.
Training
A workflow is long or rarely used.
Guidance through the process, at the moment it’s needed.
Announcements
You’re telling users what’s new.
Release news inside the product.
Help
Users get stuck in the same places.
Tooltips and help content where they need it.
Usage analytics
You want product-wide click paths.
Where users go and where they drop off, across the whole product.
Fit, not training
Users know how. It just doesn’t fit.
Nobody needs a tour past a column they never use. They need it gone from their view.
One person
Each user needs something different.
A guide shows a segment the same thing. Usivity keeps each user’s own version of the page.
Plain language
Users can say what they want.
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Accounts
An account wants its own setup.
Your team sends it to the whole account. For users whose button never shows, it’s simply there.
Learning
You want requests, not just clicks.
Usivity records what users asked for, including what the product couldn’t do yet.
Undo
It must be bounded and reversible.
Only inside the zones you choose, never writing to your backend, and off in one click.
Different jobs
Teach the product. Then let users make it theirs.
A DAP shows users how to use the product as it is. Usivity changes the parts that don’t fit their work.
- 1
Guide new users
A DAP walks users through the product’s main tasks.
- 2
Let them adapt it
Once they know it, users change what doesn’t fit them.
- 3
Learn from both
Usage analytics show where users go. Usivity shows what they wanted changed.
Frequently asked questions about Usivity and digital adoption platforms.
Is Usivity a digital adoption platform?
No. A digital adoption platform (DAP) helps users learn and navigate the product as it is, with guides, tooltips and walkthroughs. Usivity changes the product for each user: they describe what they want in plain language and the page changes for them alone.
Can Usivity replace in-app guides or product tours?
No. Usivity doesn’t build tours, tooltips or walkthroughs. If users need to learn how to do something, a guide is the right tool. Usivity is for when they know how and want the product to work differently for them.
Can we use Usivity and a DAP together?
Yes. They do different jobs. One thing to watch: if a user hides a column or section that a DAP tooltip points at, that tooltip has nothing to attach to. Keep guided flows on screens outside your zones, or test both together in a Private Launch.
What does Usivity’s reporting show?
Requests, not just behavior. Reports show what users change most, which accounts personalize, what is still on after 14 days, and what users asked for that the product couldn’t do yet.
Compare
Other comparisons.
The other ways teams handle requests to change how the product looks and shows data.
All comparisonsYour customers get a product that fits. Your roadmap stays yours.
In ten minutes we’ll show you what your customers can change on their own, and what your team never has to build.
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