This article will help you quickly compare and evaluate the best customer journey mapping tools and other experience mappings, customer mapping, and user journey mapping software.
So, you need to make a user journey map. You can use a simple flowchart to map out user journeys, but there are dozens more slick and sophisticated tools available. They include useful features like:
- Diagramming tools and templates that speed up the customer journey mapping process
- Collaboration and sharing tools to present user journey maps
- User persona generators and the ability to build, save, and customize user personas
- Customer feedback tools to help you modify your UX maps over time
I’ll highlight a few of the best tools, and I’ll answer common questions about customer journey mapping and the tools used in the process.
The Best Customer Journey Mapping Tools List
Here’s a shortlist of the best journey mapping tools:
Customer Journey Mapping FAQ
Learn more about journey mapping basics below.
What is customer journey mapping?
Customer journey mapping is the process of stepping into your customers’ shoes to understand customer personas, needs, goals, attitudes, and pain points.
What is the purpose of customer journey mapping?
The goal of customer journey mapping is to improve the customer experience and guide their interaction or transaction with your service or product by delivering what they need at every stage. It’s also often known as experience mapping.
What is a customer journey map?
A customer journey map is a visual representation showing a customer’s experience with your brand from start to finish. Journey maps can be very simple, but they can quickly evolve into complex flows with different entry points, exit points, goals, touchpoints, persona types, and types of interactions they have with your brand.
Customer journey maps can go by many other names, including customer experience map, user experience map or UX map, and persona map.
Customer Journey Mapping Software Comparison Criteria
What are we looking for when we select customer mapping tools for review? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Is it clean and attractive? Do the journey maps update in real-time for collaborating users? Is customer data presented in a friendly, accessible way? Are there interfaces for users to quickly and accurately gain insight about the personas/maps?
- Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Does the company offer good tech support, user support, tutorials, and training? Does the tool provide easy customer journey map template options to speed up the process?
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools? Any pre-built integrations? Customer journey mapping will require a lot of user feedback, so can the tool connect to popular collaboration platforms like Slack and Google Suite?
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use cases? Is pricing transparent and flexible? Do pricing plans accommodate numerous customer’s journey diagrams?
Customer Journey Mapping Feature List
- Lead-nurturing path templates
- Major and minor customer touchpoints
- Onstage/offstage map points
- New customer base development
- Templates for user path shape
- Emotions and motivations
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Overviews Of The Journey Mapping Software
Here’s a brief description of each of the journey mapping that are featured on this top 10 list.
1. A Whiteboard – Best for low-tech offices who don’t use SaaS
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. You can find them on Amazon for around $30-60.
Pros
- Low cost
- Easy installation
- Easy to use and understand
Cons
- Must manually record/save charts elsewhere
- Data is only saved temporarily.
2. PowerPoint – Best for easy adoption
PowerPoint is Microsoft’s answer to presentation software. It’s so ubiquitous in traditional office spaces that you’ve probably at least heard of it, if not used it extensively. Using templates, shapes, images, text, headings, and transitions, you can use PowerPoint to envision the customer journey.
Con: presentations are quite linear. It’s harder to sketch out branching customer paths and even harder to zoom out and get a complete picture. Still, PowerPoint remains a trustworthy and accessible tool.
PowerPoint is a super simple platform to first plot out the basics of any customer interaction.
PowerPoint integrates with 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. The downloadable, on-premise version comes with Microsoft 365, which costs from $6.99/month.
Pros
- Customizable templates
- Easy to use
- Supports offline presenting
- Supports animations
Cons
- Difficult to convert file type
- No real-time collaboration
3. Reveall – Reveall lets you visualize customer journey maps with real data.
Reveall 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 user research, journey mapping, and product prioritization together. 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 prioritze your product roadmap. You can also import any data directly into Reveall via multiple integrations and transcribe customer interviews in multiple languages.
Reveall integrates with tools like Slack, HubSpot, Google Drive, Zoom, Airtable, and Zendesk among others. Connect Reveall with 5000+ more apps with Zapier.
Reveall costs from $19.99/month and offers a 14-day free trial.
4. InDesign – Best software for complex graphical design
InDesign is an Adobe product, which means for a bit of a steep learning curve you can unlock unlimited flexibility. You can build, convert, edit, and collaborate on complex visual design projects. This includes customer journey maps but you can also use it for logo design, social media graphics, media kits, and more.
InDesign is a great “do anything” visual planning program. However, if you are only looking for journey mapping, it’s likely too overbearing for your needs. As an all-in-one digital design solution for your business, though, InDesign can’t be beaten.
InDesign is great for designing the entire customer journey because it can truly build anything visual and digital that you need.
Through their APIs and SDKs, you can integrate InDesign with almost anything. Native integrations include Pics.io, Slashdot, Canto, Brandfolder, and others.
InDesign costs from $20.99/month and comes with a 7-day free trial.
Pros
- Endlessly flexible and customizable
- Plenty of professional-looking templates
- Flexible export options
- Graphically pleasing results
Cons
- High learning curve
- No real-time collaboration
5. Smaply – Best for drag-and-drop interface simplicity
Smaply is a free-to-use customer journey mapping tool used by companies like Dyson, Bayer, Toyota, Ford, Verison, Whirlpool, and Amtrack. Smaply helps you build journey maps, customer personas, and stakeholder maps.
Key features of Smaply 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. They allow users to export projects to PDF, table (xlsx), or HTML sharing.
Smaply is great for quickly visualizing each customer touchpoint with their various arc and lane tools.
Smaply lets you integrate with other tools using their API starting at the Enterprise plan, though Jira integration is available at the Pro level.
Smaply is free to use for 1 project. Paid plans cost from ~$19.15/user/month (AKA 19€/user/month).
Pros
- Integrates with most CRM systems
- Drag-and-drop interface
- Marketing automation add-on
Cons
- Interface could use a modern refresh
- Learning curve for advanced features
6. Canvanizer – Best free customer journey mapping tool
Canvanizer is a free canvas software with basic business plan templates for things like 12-month plans, various blank matrices, and 4L retrospectives. You can click into any template to get started and from there design is basic drag-and-drop. You can export all designs to PDF, PNG, text, CSV, or slideshow.
Canvanizer key features really start to unlock in the paid plans, which provide access to over 40 different project templates, image uploading and editing, team collaboration, mobile editing and camera use, and private canvases. Note: The customer journey canvas unlocks at the higher priced tier, though basic “blank screen” canvas templates can work for you too.
Canvanizer’s free plan would be great for basic customer persona and customer data brainstorming.
Canvanizer does not list integrations on its website.
Canvanizer is free to use. Paid plans start at $25/year.
Pros
- Free to use
- Anyone with the link can access
- Paid plans have 40+ templates
- Mobile editing and camera use
Cons
- No attribution modeling
- PDF & PNG export only on the paid plan
7. Gliffy – Best customer journey map tool for wireframing
Gliffy is an enterprise-grade diagramming software that can be used for flowcharts, wireframes, and (you guessed it) customer journey maps. It’s used by companies like Nike, Starbucks, SpaceX, Mastercard, Disney+, and Seimens.
Gliffy’s key features include drag-and-drop shapes, project templates, sharing via URL or embedding, collaborative editing, tracked changes, and import/export options. Their flowchart templates and tools will probably be the most helpful for building out customer journey maps.
Gliffy’s easy sharing features make it great for quickly disseminating customer retention plans that include journey mapping.
Gliffy integrates with monday.com, Confluence, and Jira.
Gliffy costs from $8/user/month and offers a 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Helpful prompts and menus
- Great for simple diagrams
- Free version available
- Wide variety of shapes and icons
Cons
- Slows down with larger charts
- Some limitations to connector placements
8. LucidChart – Best for third-party integrations
Lucidchart is a cloud-based diagramming tool that is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux and boasts both iOS and Android apps. They offer real-time co-authoring, in-editor chat, shape-specific comments, and collaborative cursors.
Lucidchart offers templates for user flow, customer journey, and product use mockup planning. You can use sticky notes, shapes, lines, graphics, and text to build out your ideal customer journey flow. They have excellent collaboration features, where you can work together and see updates as they happen in real-time.
Thanks to ample integrations, Lucidchart can be an excellent piece of your customer success strategy, as it connects natively with tools you are probably already using.
Lucidchart integrates with Google products, Microsoft products, Atlassian products, Salesforce, Slack, AWS, Azure, GCP, BambooHR, Quip, LeanIX, Asana, AuditBoard, Vidstep, Zoho Connect, Loom, and more. You can connect to 1000+ more options with a paid Zapier plan.
Lucidchart is free to use. Paid plans start at $7.95/month for 1 user.
Pros
- Numerous libraries and templates
- Web app works offline
- Easy to use
- Great sharing/collaboration features
Cons
- Pricing structure is a little complicated
- Low object limit on free version
9. Omnigraffle – Best journey mapping tool for MacOS
OmniGraffle is a diagram, rapid prototype, and design tool for macOS and iOS devices. They have a library of stencils, templates, and icons to get you started. Those with a steady hand can free draw with the pen tool.
OmniGraffle has advanced graphics features, like a rubber stamp for rapid copy-pasting and a layers tab for element grouping. OmniGraffle supports the Apple Pencil for even faster freehand diagramming. OmniGraffle projects can export to PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PDF, EPS, and PSD.
OmniGraffle also boasts a great customer service team if you need any troubleshooting.
OmniGraffle doesn’t list integrations on its website.
OmniGraffle costs from $12.49/month and offers a 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Line routing for signal flow diagrams
- Large, comprehensive stencil library
- Magnet positions and routing algorithms.
- Many import and export options
Cons
- Not as collaborative as other mapping tools
- Object libraries could be more fleshed out
10. Touchpoint Dashboard – Best enterprise customer journey mapping tool
Touchpoint Dashboard is a journey management software that focuses on diagramming and flowcharts specific to customer journey mapping. They offer task management, intuitive reporting, and customer feedback tools to support this focus.
Touchpoint Dashboard offers templates to create goal-oriented and actionable journey maps that can be analyzed, collaborated on, and shared easily. You can add customer touchpoints to your map and then accent them with images, audio, and video.
Touchpoint Dashboard is a great option for customer journey analytics for market research and service planning.
Touchpoint Dashboard does not name integrations on its website.
Touchpoint Dashboard offers customized pricing upon request. They have a free trial.
Pros
- Create your own journey mapping templates
- Drag and drop touchpoints
- Can rank touchpoints by priority
- Touchpoints support images, audio, and video
Cons
- No behavioral or predictive analytics.
- No attribution modeling
- Few online resources for support and community
Other Customer Experience Mapping Tools
Here are a few more website mapping tools to define your customer journeys:
- Journifica – Best for incorporating user research questions/answers
- Baghera – Best smart persona mapping with psychological profiles
- SuiteCX – Bets software for quick CX assessment to identify pain points
- Transformation.ai – Best customer journey mapping tool for cloning, mapping, and reusing touchpoints
- Simplify – Best for collating a broad assortment of customer satisfaction feedback
- Woopra – Best software for journey analytics reporting and web analytics
- NICE Satmetrix – Best AI-driven customer journey mapping software
- CloudCherry – Best software for mapping micro-journeys (social media interaction, for example)
- UXPressia CJM – Best software for high-quality map exports with custom branding
- CFN Insight – Best for their customer engagement Score Card tool
- Kitewheel Customer Journey Hub – Best software for integrating customer journey maps with marketing and sales
- Medallia – Best employee experience (EX) mapping software
- Amperity – Best software for breaking down heavily siloed customer data
- Optimove – Best AI bot for parsing large amounts of campaign data
- Salesforce Pardot – Best B2B customer journey mapping software
- Custellence – Best tool for mapping empathy curve lanes
- Microsoft Visio – Best for those who are already in the Microsoft ecosystem
- Quadient Customer Journey Mapping – Best for complex stakeholder communications
Customer Journey Map Service Providers
Customer journey mapping, especially at an enterprise level, can quickly grow to be very complex. This is why this undertaking is sometimes outsourced to a specialized user experience company that manages customer journey mapping. Here are a few examples of customer journey mapping service providers:
- McorpCX – Customer research and journey mapping paired with CX learning modules
- Appnovation – Devise bespoke touch point strategies and optimise content messaging
- Vertic – Customer experience agency with marketing-as-a-service (MaaS) products
- TCXA – Strategy, brand, technology, and marketing tools with a main focus on CX
- PH1 – Audits, journey mapping, persona development, and Design Thinking workshops
- Customer Experience Group – 4 cooperative agencies covering all major aspects of CX
What’s Your Favorite User Journey Mapping Tool?
Have you tried out any of the customer experience journey tools listed above? What tool works best to imagine customer needs? Let the CX Lead community in on your thoughts: What do you think works best, and why? Comment below!
Worth Checking Out: Customer Journey Map Examples And Templates
