We get this question all the time: "How is VisualSP different or similar to WalkMe?" So far we have been answering this question in one on one meetings but we felt that it was finally time to put together an article explaining the similarities and differences so you can decide for yourself which product is right for you.
VisualSP was first created in 2012 to support and train SharePoint on premises users. From there on forward, VisualSP evolved to a Microsoft Azure based overlay platform to support Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, custom web applications and many other SaaS applications such as ServiceNow, Workday, Salesforce, SuccessFactors, SAP and more.
All throughout the journey, the mission has remained the same: Increase user adoption of enterprise apps and decrease the employee support burden by making it simple to bring relevant information contextually to your end users to help them do their job quickly and efficiently.
To achieve this mission, we believe in making it simple for you to provide your employees with a variety of contextual experiences in the form of instructional videos, interactive walkthroughs, announcement banners, tip sheets, inline help, action buttons, announcement banners, invisible launchers, etc. Full analytics are always at your disposal to see the ROI and we meet with you monthly in customer success meetings to help you get the best out of the system for your business needs.
WalkMe started in 2011 and resides on the Amazon Web Services & Google cloud stack. They created the category of Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) and in the beginning focused primarily on helping Salesforce users with step by step guidance. Since then, they have expanded to support all interfaces including web applications, mobile apps and desktop. Their focus was always on, and still remains to be, guiding through interactive walkthroughs.
WalkMe is a powerful and complex platform with a steep learning curve. Customers dedicate at least 1 full time resource if not more as a Digital Adoption Professional to maintain the system. The usual duties of this person is to create and maintain WalkMe items such as walkthroughs, launchers, shoutouts, smarttips and other WalkMe items.
The table below is a quick snapshot of the main differences we see from our perspective. Below the table, you will find a breakdown of many of the specific facets of each application. This article will continue to be expanded further based on the queries we receive and as the feature set of each application evolves. If you have any specific questions, feel free to reach out to us at VisualSP at any time.
| Features | VisualSP | WalkMe |
| Hosting Provider | Microsoft Azure | AWS & Google Cloud |
| Announcement Banners | X | |
| Walkthroughs | X | X |
| Dialog Popups | X | X |
| Tooltips | X | X |
| Invisible Launchers | X | |
| Schedule Items to Appear | X | |
| Templates for Help Items | X | X |
| Application Complexity | Low | High |
| Knowledge Base Search | X | X |
| Auto Activation of Users | X | |
| Content Included | Ships with content for M365 & D365 | |
| Customizable Content | X | X |
| Bulk Import & Export of Content | X | |
| Content Publishing | Simple | Complex |
| Content Authoring | Simple | Complex |
| Specialty | Microsoft | Salesforce |
| Tight Integration and Partnership with Microsoft Ecosystem | X | |
| Automation (Auto Click Elements) | X | X |
| Integration with Most Web Applications | X | X |
| Chat Bot | X | |
| All Packages Include Customer Success | X | |
| Microsoft Teams App | X | |
| Pricing (Product + Services) Per Year | Starts at $6,875 | Starts at $60,000 |
| Master Subscription (for Partners) | X | |
| Customer Support | Eastern USA Business Hours | 24/7 |
VisualSP preaches the mantra of being quick about implementation since requirements change so quickly in the real world. That also holds true for when it comes to onboarding and setting up our new clients. The solution ships with preconfigured help and training items as well as templates for many applications which speeds up the deployment process. For example, we had one client who reached out to us on a Monday of the week about our product and we had them running in production the Friday of that same week. As long as your team is ready, our suggested rollout is quicker the better.
WalkMe usually takes 3-6 months to launch because of the complexity and expansive feature set entailed in the product. All of the items and processes have to be created from scratch usually requiring a professional who is very well versed with the WalkMe platform.
VisualSP is hosted completely on Microsoft Azure in the United States.
WalkMe is hosted using Amazon Web Services and the Google cloud platforms. They host data inside United States data centers as well as in other countries as needed.
VisualSP targets very specific scenarios when it comes to training, informing and supporting users.
WalkMe has a broad range of features and the price reflects that as well. Some of the feature details are listed side by side in the comparison table.
VisualSP allows any type of content (such as walkthroughs, videos, tip sheets, announcement banners) to appear automatically to users at a predefined schedule. For example, an announcement banner can automatically show up for users between a certain date range on any application informing them of important information. Or a walkthrough can be scheduled so it plays automatically every month interactively guiding users step by step to perform certain actions on specified pages. This provides a set it and forget it type of mechanism for VisualSP customers who want to provide scheduled contextual information to their users.
WalkMe does support a piece of content to automatically load for the first time. However, there is no support for pre-scheduling of content to automatically load between a certain period of time.
Since the beginning, VisualSP has had very strong tie-in to Microsoft applications such as Microsoft 365, Teams and Dynamics 365. VisualSP is able to target content on Microsoft applications much more granularly. For example, when items are created in VisualSP, they can be targeted to users with specific permissions and can be made to target specific types of content. Of course, this is all in addition to being able to target by URL, browsers and other methods.
WalkMe started its journey on Salesforce so it has strong tie-in to that application. It also has URL targeting methods to target any URL in an application.
VisualSP has created or curated over 1,500 help items related to Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics 365. We keep all of this content current and updated so our customers don't have to create this foundational content themselves. Our customers then focus on creating and maintaining their own custom help items required for their systems using our provided templates or creating them from scratch.
WalkMe does not come with any content built in. You are expected to build all help content from scratch or using templates provided.
VisualSP does not rely on any separate components that need to be installed. The Editor that lets you build help items is built into the internet browser and auto activates so no login is ever required and there is no password to remember. Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Firefox are supported for building out the help items by editors. In addition to those, all other browsers (including Apple Safari, Opera and others) are supported for consuming the content by the users.
WalkMe requires the download and maintenance of a separate application on the desktop in which you log in using your id and password and then build out help items. There is also a separate editor browser extension that needs to be installed before creating or editing items.
VisualSP believes that supporting and delighting our customers is our Top Priority! For us, it's not just about our product, but it's about the satisfaction of our customers. You are never on your own when you do business with VisualSP. Our support team usually responds within 1 business hour or less so we are helping you at Your moment of need.
WalkMe does not list a service level agreement (SLA) when it comes to support for WalkMe customers. A few WalkMe customers that have joined us have told us that sometimes they had to wait a couple of days or more to get answer to a question.
VisualSP's customer success team is separate from our support team. However, both full support as well as customer success is included in our pricing. While support focuses on reacting to our customer's needs, the customer success team proactively engages our customers.
Our digital adoption experts help your team with deployment & content planning, planning the launch of the system in your environment, digital adoption strategy sessions, and regular performance reports where we evaluate ourselves and report back to you the ROI of VisualSP for your organization.
You have to pay extra for customer success services which is usually needed to get a successful WalkMe implementation installed. This will sometimes double your cost for the solution.
VisualSP pricing is transparent and listed on our website. Pricing starts at $6,875/year for up to 500 users of our core Enterprise product which covers Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 environments, unlimited support and customer success services.
Many of our customers also opt to overlay VisualSP on top of their other enterprise web applications such as ServiceNow, Workday, Salesforce, SuccessFactors, SAP and many more. We do not charge separately for every single application. Our customers pay one flat price to deploy VisualSP on top of as many internal web applications as they want for the same user base. The cost: 35% of the core product cost or $3,950 (whichever is higher).
VisualSP offers a 10% discount to educational, non-profit and government entities.
WalkMe does not list their pricing on the website. WalkMe's cost structure is separate for each application. For example, to support Salesforce (which is the main target application of most WalkMe customers) with 500 users, you would have to pay x amount of dollars which covers the product and the support. Later, if you wish to deploy WalkMe on a separate application, you have to pay about the same amount for that application.
In order to deploy WalkMe, you either need to become an expert yourself or hire their services because the WalkMe product, while feature rich, is very complex. Usually the cost of services needed is as much as the product itself so it doubles the cost.
WalkMe does not offer any discounts for non-profits. Any other discounts offered are unknown at this time.
There are many similarities between VisualSP and WalkMe. However, the differences are hopefully clearly noted enough for you to make the decision as to which product is right for your organization's needs. If you think we can help answer any questions not listed in this article or if you find something listed incorrectly, feel free to reach out and let's talk.
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