29 Best Customer Journey Mapping Tools of 2023: Reviewed & Compared

Lucidchart is a cloud-based diagramming application that helps you visually represent processes and systems.

Why I picked Lucidchart: Used by BP, L’Oréal, and BMW, Lucidchart simplifies customer journey mapping with a large library of templates, drag-and-drop functionality across an infinite canvas, real-time collaboration, in-app chat, automatic sync and save, and more. Being a web-based app, there are no downloads or installations needed and it works on any device, browser, or operating system.

Usability and value are two of Lucidchart’s biggest strengths. The low per-month cost combined with intelligent features and an intuitive interface make it one of the easiest wireframing tools to use. Features like comments, tasks, sharing, revision history, and embedding make collaboration simpler for remote and hybrid teams.

Lucidchart Standout Features & Integrations

Features include numerous templates, automated diagrams, a drag-and-drop editor, conditional formatting, and team collaboration features like real-time co-authoring, an in-app chat, shape-specific comments, and live cursors so you can see what portions of your journey map your other team members are working on.

Integrations are available with Microsoft Office, Atlassian, Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Slack, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Jive, GitHub, BambooHR, Quip and more—including many apps through Zapier. Lucidchart also has free add-ons for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and works perfectly with Lucid's virtual whiteboarding product, Lucidspark, to boost collaboration throughout the entirety of your workflow. 

Their free plan includes 100 templates and up to 3 editable documents. Or you can opt for their 7-day free trial to give it a test drive before you commit.

FigJam is a whiteboard tool developed by Figma. It's designed to make brainstorming, ideation, and mapping out customer journeys a whole lot easier.

Why I picked FigJam: It's collaborative, interactive, and it's got this real-time element that makes it feel like you're all working in the same room, even if you're miles apart. Plus, it's super intuitive to use. You don't need to be a tech wizard to get the hang of it.

The sticky notes are a game changer. You can jot down ideas, move them around, and group them together. The drawing tools are also very handy. You can sketch out ideas, create diagrams, and even add emojis. It's a fun, visual way to map out customer journeys. And let's not forget about the live cursor tracking. You can see where everyone is on the board and what they're doing in real-time, which can save the whole team time.

FigJam Standout Features & Integrations

Features include pre-built project management templates, audio and live chat, stamp and emoji reacts, external collaborator access, calendar and timeline widgets, bitmoji avatars, music player, and mobile app.

Integrations include Figma, Microsoft Teams, Asana, Jira, Mixpanel, and Github.

InDesign is a page layout design software from Adobe, which means for a bit of a steep learning curve, you can unlock unlimited flexibility.

Why I picked InDesign: You can build, convert, edit, and collaborate on complex visual design projects. This robust tool has everything you need to build customer journey maps and much more, such as logo design, social media graphics, and media kits.

InDesign is a great “do anything” visual planning software that allows you to create custom size pages, insert anything from text to graphics, shapes, and stock images, and export in multiple formats, including interactive PDFs. However, if you are only looking for journey mapping, it’s likely too overbearing for your needs.

InDesign Standout Features & Integrations

Features include thousands of fonts, pen tools for freehand drawing, tables, buttons, forms, animations, and many ways to export your final product to picture and PDF formats.

Integrations can be custom-made using its APIs and SDKs. Native integrations include Pics.io, Slashdot, Canto, Brandfolder, and other software that is part of the Adobe Creative Suite.

InDesign is a great tool for diagramming if that is only one of your many graphic design needs.

Totango is a customer success platform that can help you manage your customer experience and map your customer journey for digital products. You can use it to track product usage and adoption and measure the success of your customer success initiatives.

Why I Picked Totango: From the platform's dashboard, you can see which features are being used and which are not. It's alert tool notifies your team when specific events occur. This can be things like changes in usage patterns, customer engagement, or other factors. This helps you track your customer journey in real-time and address churn risk factors as they happen.

The software has detailed trend analysis tools so you can see how buying and usage patterns evolve over time. This can help you spot positive or negative responses to new features, product updates, and changes to your offer. You can also get detailed information about each customer, including demographic data, usage patterns, and more, which can help you develop customer personas.

Totango Standout Features & Integrations

Features include usage tracking, customer insights, customizable health scores, proactive alerts, trend analysis, adoption tracking, customer success management, segmentation and targeting, and reporting and analytics.

Integrations include Salesforce, Hubspot, Microsoft Dynamics, Marketo, Pardot, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Stripe, Recurly, Jira, Trello, and other popular tools.

Smaply is a customer journey mapping tool that helps you build journey maps, customer personas, and system maps.used by companies like Dyson, Bayer, Toyota, Ford, Verison, Whirlpool, and Amtrack.

Why I picked Smaply: It's great for quickly visualizing each customer touchpoint with their various arc and lane tools and works well for geographically dispersed teams as the interface is available in English, Spanish, and German. Additionally, to help you better understand your customer's journey, the tool lets you add images, emotions, text, and channels of communication to your maps.

Smaply helps you build journey maps for multiple personas at the same time and see them in detail, so you can make informed decisions on your different types of customers. Finally, it lets users export projects to PDF, Excel (.xlsx), or HTML.

Smaply Standout Features & Integrations

Features include lanes (dramatic arc, activity lane, separator lane, journey map info); an icon and image library; and duplicate projects, personas, stakeholder maps, and journey maps.

Integrations include custom connections using their API starting at the Enterprise plan, though Jira integration is available at the Pro level.

Smaply is free to use for three journey maps, in case you would like to give it a test run before making any purchasing decisions.

Canvanizer is a free canvas software with basic business plan templates for things like 12-month plans, various blank matrices, canvas diagrams, and 4L retrospectives.

Why I picked Canvanizer: It is a software that recently developed a paid version, after being a free tool for years. While you can still access and use the free version, the paid one has more features and lets you custom-build canvases instead of only using templates. As such, you can use the whiteboard canvas to build your customer journey map from scratch. From there, the design is basic drag-and-drop. You can export all designs to PDF, PNG, text, CSV, or slideshow.

Canvanizer Standout Features & Integrations

Features include a timer, templates, PDF and PNG export, history logs that allow you to edit at a specific time, shared access to files, filters, and links to publicly share a read-only version and an admin version of your work.

Integrations are not available at the moment.

Canvanizer 2.0 is currently not active as a monthly subscription model, which is why you only need to pay a one-time fee to access the software for a full year.

Reveall is a product discovery platform that allows you to map customer journeys to know how your client experiences different aspects of your product.

Why I picked Reveall: It is a journey mapping tool that helps product and UX teams become more customer-led by making it easy to turn customer insights into clear product decisions. With Reveall you can bring together user research, journey mapping, and product prioritization.

It’s more than just a repository or journey mapping tool—Reveall can centralize data in one place, analyze findings by collaborating on tags and journeys, and plan and prioritize your product roadmap. You can also import any data directly into Reveall via multiple integrations and transcribe customer interviews in multiple languages.

Reveall Standout Features & Integrations

Features include a drag-and-drop interface, insights and data point libraries, color-coding on cards to depict customer emotions, and the possibility to add external links and text to your maps.

Integrations include tools like Slack, HubSpot, Google Drive, Zoom, Airtable, and Zendesk among others. Connect Reveall with 5000+ more apps with Zapier.

As you can see, Reveall is more than just customer journey maps. It's a complete product discovery platform that lets you centralize insights, prioritize opportunities, and validate solutions.

OmniGraffle is a visual communication software for MacOS to make PRO diagrams and helps professionals who need to organize or communicate visually.

Why I picked OmniGraffle: They have a library of stencils, templates, and icons to get you started. If you are brave and with a steady hand, you can try drawing using the pen tool. It also supports the Apple Pencil for even faster freehand diagramming. Basically, all the elements you need to build a customer journey map can be personalized to reflect your customer's experience.

OmniGraffle has advanced graphics features, like a rubber stamp for rapid copy-pasting and a layers tab for element grouping. Also, its projects can be exported to PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PDF, EPS, and PSD. Finally, you can get this software in two ways, using their subscription plan or buying traditional licenses. Your choice.

OmniGraffle Standout Features & Integrations

Features include multi-layer support, infinite canvas, an extensive shape library, templates, style customization, magnets to connect shapes, and a selection tab to help you bulk edit or select items on your canvas.

Integrations include 1Password and the files app in iOS 11 and later.

Although this tool does not have an extensive knowledge base, you can find a guide on how to use the software on their website, and it also has a great customer service team if you need any troubleshooting.

PowerPoint is Microsoft’s answer to presentation software that needs little introduction. It’s so ubiquitous in traditional office spaces that you’ve probably at least heard of it, if not used extensively.

Why I picked PowerPoint: Most people have access to this software already, and it has the flexibility to build anything, from a presentation deck about puppies to customer journey maps. Using templates, shapes, images, text, headings, and transitions, you can use PowerPoint to envision the customer journey. Although it might not have the same live editing features as other software on this list, Microsoft 365 has the option to share your decks online, and it's still a reliable option that can always get the job done.

Tip: You can create a big table and edit the width of the columns to build your diagram lanes.

PowerPoint Standout Features & Integrations

Features include a web and mobile version of the software, dozens of shapes and forms to personalize your customer journey maps, templates, and personalization elements like color selection, text, images, and emojis to depict specific information.

Integrations include Digital Signage, Facebook, Google Analytics, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, Instagram, JSON, and Microsoft Access, as well as other popular tools. PowerPoint is free for the online-only version.

Consider Microsoft PowerPoint if you already have access to the product and don't want to go through the task of learning how to use a new software.

Tried and true: the trusty whiteboard! A whiteboard can be used to plot customer journey maps. Many offices have one installed somewhere and they make a great starting point for brainstorming and first drafts.

Whiteboards are visual, flexible, and great for engaging meetings where team members aren’t glued to a screen. Whiteboards are a quick, reliable, non-technical way to build out a visual paradigm for any customer journey. Whiteboards range in size, quality, and cost. And don't forget to invest in several colors of sticky notes to make your journey mapping even more fun!

You can find them on Amazon for around $30-60.