Best UserVoice alternatives: where to go and how to switch without losing votes
Nine detailed destinations, one per reason for leaving, and a seven-step migration plan.
The short answer: Canny if you want the closest match and someone else to run the migration (watch its per-voter billing), Featurebase for most of UserVoice from $29 a seat, Productboard if you need real product management rather than a voting board, Frill if lots of colleagues need to reply, Sleekplan if you've got a big voter history and a small team. One thing to know before you pick: the UserVoice export that keeps voters has one row per vote. Import it raw and you get hundreds of duplicates. We compared all nine destinations in this guide and checked their pricing pages in 2026.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Why teams leave UserVoice, and what they miss
Let's be fair: UserVoice is still a solid product, and most of its users are happy with it. Teams leave over price and weight, rarely over quality. The loudest signal came from Microsoft, which closed its UserVoice forums in 2021 and went back to in-house tools. Here are the six reasons that come up most.
$12,000 a year just to start
The entry plan, Launch, starts at $1,000 a month, billed as $12,000 a year. Business runs $1,833 a month, or $22,000 a year. For a five-person team that wants a voting board, that's enterprise money. Every comparison says the same: the model doesn't fit small teams. Meanwhile Featurebase starts at $29 a seat and Sleekplan at $13 a month.
No buying without a sales call
You can't sign up and pay online. The 30-day trial opens only after a demo, and UserVoice itself says most teams launch in 4 to 6 weeks. A few years ago there was a 21-day trial with no sales call; it's gone. If you just want to compare two tools one afternoon, that process gets in the way.
Every extra admin is billed
Launch includes 20 admins, Business 50. Beyond that, each admin costs $40 a month, or $480 a year. Read-only users are free and unlimited, but once a 25-person support team needs to reply to ideas, the bill climbs. Frill, by contrast, gives unlimited admins on every paid plan.
Duplicates split the votes
On a big portal, finding an existing idea gets hard. Customers post a new one instead of voting on the old one, and votes spread across three or four identical ideas. The result: skewed priorities and manual merging, a complaint that shows up again and again in user reviews.
An interface that takes time to learn
Several users describe a steep learning curve and an admin console that loads slowly. That's fine for a team that lives in it daily. It's painful for a PM who opens it once a week and has to remember where everything is.
Limited public forums
In the public forums, users complain they can't format text (lists, bold, code). Others don't like that a team member can mark the team's own reply as the solution. Small things, but they matter when the portal is the public face of your customer relationship.
You're leaving because… go to…
The right UserVoice alternative depends on what's pushing you out. Usually one row fits. Each card jumps to the full write-up below.
Free UserVoice migration done by Canny within 48 hours.
The price has nothing to do with your usageFeaturebaseFree to start, then $29 per seat per month.
Ideas never turn into decisionsProductboardPrioritization and roadmap tied to customer feedback.
Your whole support team needs to replyFrillUnlimited admins on every paid plan.
Thousands of voters, small teamSleekplanUnlimited voters, native UserVoice import via API.
You want to own your dataFiderOpen source, runs on your own server.
UserVoice alternatives, tool by tool
For each tool: why you'd move there, who it's for, its limit, how to migrate from UserVoice, and what it costs. All prices are in US dollars, as listed on each vendor's pricing page in 2026.
Canny: the closest match, and they move your data for you
Done-for-you migrationWhy switch to Canny. Feature for feature, it's the nearest thing to UserVoice: idea boards, voting, prioritization, a public roadmap, a changelog, and links to Jira and your CRM. The real draw is the move itself. Canny says it will migrate your UserVoice data for free, within 48 hours: forums become boards, suggestions become posts, supporters become votes, and users are matched by email address.
The catch you need to understand first. Canny doesn't bill per seat. It bills per "tracked user", meaning anyone who has posted, voted or commented on an idea. That number only ever goes up. Cross your tier and Canny moves you to the next one automatically, prorated, unless you've set a spend cap. One SaaS founder wrote it up publicly: he went from $0 to $311 a month ($249 on annual billing) with 943 tracked users and roughly 85 open ideas. If your UserVoice history holds thousands of voters, run the numbers before you import them.
Who it's for. A product team that wants to switch tools without changing habits, and would rather pay someone else to handle the move.
Who it's not for. A consumer product with lots of one-time voters. Every voter lands on the bill.
Its limit. Free stops at 25 tracked users and 5 managers. Pro starts at $79 a month billed annually, for 100+ tracked users and 10 managers. Business is quote-only. Annual billing saves 20%.
How to migrate. Ask Canny's team to run the import. Before they do, turn on the spend cap and prune inactive voters: importing 5,000 voters can push you up several tiers in one go.
- Free
- 25 tracked users
- Paid
- Pro from $79/mo (annual)
- Migration
- done by Canny, 48 h
- Watch out
- billed per voter
Featurebase: the most features for the money
Best valueWhy switch to Featurebase. It covers most of what UserVoice does at a small slice of the price: voting boards, a public roadmap, a changelog, and an in-app widget. The free plan is real (1 seat, 1 board, 1 roadmap), so you can set everything up before paying. After that you pay per seat: Growth at $29 per seat per month (5 boards), Professional at $59 (10 boards, plus 20 free "lite" seats for colleagues who only need to read), Enterprise at $99 with SSO and SCIM provisioning from 5 seats.
The tip worth knowing. The startup program advertises 86% off if your company is under 2 years old, has fewer than 6 employees and has raised less than $3M. The pricing page also shows 20% off for annual billing. A three-person team on Growth pays $87 a month ($29 times 3 seats). UserVoice starts at $1,000.
Who it's for. A product team of 2 to 15 people who want votes, statuses, a roadmap and release notes without going through sales.
Who it's not for. A large company that needs a negotiated security review and a named account manager. Enterprise can do it, but that's not where the product shines.
Its limit. Removing Featurebase branding costs $69 a month extra, and the Fibi AI agent bills $0.49 per resolved conversation. Add both before you compare quotes.
How to migrate. Featurebase has one-click importers for Canny, Productboard, Frill and Beamer, but not UserVoice. You go through CSV: the UserVoice "Ideas & Voters" export, grouped by idea first (step 3 of the migration plan below). Free trial: 10 days, no card.
- Free
- 1 seat, 1 board
- Paid
- Growth $29/seat/mo
- Trial
- 10 days, no card
- UserVoice import
- via CSV
Productboard: when you need more than a voting board
Full product managementWhy switch to Productboard. UserVoice collects ideas. Productboard helps you decide what to build. It pulls feedback from several sources (support, sales, customer calls), links it to features, and helps you prioritize and plan. If your real problem is that UserVoice ideas never turn into decisions, this is the tool that changes how the team works.
Who it's for. A structured product org with several PMs that wants one source of truth between customer feedback and the roadmap.
Who it's not for. A team that just wants a cheaper voting forum. You'd pay for a lot you'd never open.
Its limit. Pricing isn't public. Business and Enterprise both go through a demo and a sales call, which looks a lot like the UserVoice buying process you may be trying to escape. You need at least 5 makers (the paid seats that build the roadmap). Business includes 25 contributors and 2 portals; Enterprise adds unlimited portals, white-labeling, SAML SSO and Salesforce. Annual billing saves 21%, and AI credits top up at $5 per 50.
How to migrate. Don't drag your whole voting history across. Keep the ideas that are still open and link them to planned features. Productboard works best with less noise.
- Price
- quote only, after demo
- Minimum
- 5 makers
- Best for
- prioritizing and planning
- Limit
- no self-serve purchase
Frill: simple, with unlimited admins
Unlimited adminsWhy switch to Frill. At UserVoice, every admin above your quota costs $40 a month. At Frill, admins and widgets are unlimited on every paid plan. You can give your whole support team, product team and sales team access without counting heads. The tool is deliberately simple: ideas, votes, roadmap, announcements.
Who it's for. A mid-size company where lots of people need to reply to ideas, but nobody wants to spend a week configuring software.
Who it's not for. A team that wants a free plan to start. Frill has none, only a 14-day trial with no card.
Its limit. The entry plan, Startup at $25 a month, caps you at 50 active ideas and 1 survey. With a UserVoice backlog you'll blow through that on day one, so aim for Business at $49 a month, which removes the idea cap. Some add-ons (privacy, extra surveys, white-label) cost extra and their prices aren't listed. Growth is $149 and Enterprise $349 a month (SOC 2, audit logs, dedicated hosting).
How to migrate. No UserVoice importer is advertised. Build a clean CSV, one row per idea with its vote count, and archive finished ideas you don't want on display before importing.
- Free
- no, 14-day trial
- Paid
- Startup $25/mo
- Admins
- unlimited
- Limit
- 50 active ideas on Startup
Sleekplan: the only one with a built-in UserVoice importer
Native importWhy switch to Sleekplan. Two reasons. First, it's the only tool on this list with a native UserVoice importer. You enter your UserVoice API key and subdomain, and Sleekplan pulls posts with their original dates, comments, votes with their authors, statuses and categories, matching users by email. Second, the bill follows seats, not voters. Tracked users are unlimited on every plan.
Who it's for. A small team sitting on a big UserVoice history. Thousands of voters that would get expensive on Canny cost nothing extra here. The company behind it, Sleekplan GmbH, is based in Germany.
Who it's not for. An organization that needs several heavily customized instances and hands-on onboarding. That's Enterprise territory, on quote.
Its limit. The importer doesn't dedupe: run it twice and everything shows up twice. You also need to switch off moderation first, or every imported idea sits in a review queue. And the pricing page doesn't say where data is hosted, so ask before signing if that matters to you.
Its price. Indie is free (1 admin, unlimited feedback and subscribers, board plus changelog). Starter is $13 a month billed annually for 3 seats, with CSAT and NPS surveys, SSO and API. Business is $38 a month billed annually for 10 seats, with surveys and a custom domain. The 30-day trial needs no card and drops you back to Indie when it ends.
- Free
- Indie, 1 admin
- Paid
- Starter $13/mo (annual)
- Voters
- unlimited
- UserVoice import
- native, via API
UserJot: a generous free plan for small teams
Free for 3Why switch to UserJot. Its free plan is one of the roomiest around: 3 members, 2 boards, a public roadmap and a public changelog. For an early-stage team that inherited an old UserVoice account, it's a zero-cost exit.
Who it's for. A young product with 1 to 3 people and a simple need: collect ideas and show what's shipping.
Who it's not for. A team that lives on integrations. Free has none, and Starter ($29 a month) allows just one. You need Professional ($59 a month) for SSO and lifted limits. Trial: 14 days.
Its limit. One founder who compared several tools ruled it out over weak support and incomplete SSO. That's a single account, but check both during the trial if your portal is wired into your app.
How to migrate. Via file, with the UserVoice export grouped by idea. With only 2 boards on Free, merge your old forums before importing.
- Free
- 3 members, 2 boards
- Paid
- Starter $29/mo
- SSO
- Professional, $59/mo
- Limit
- no integrations on Free
FeedBear: unlimited ideas and voters at a flat price
Predictable billWhy switch to FeedBear. Ideas and users are unlimited on every plan. You pay for team members, not for vote volume. For an ex-UserVoice customer who's tired of billing surprises, that's the point.
Who it's for. A small product team (3 to 10 people) that wants ideas wired into Jira, Slack or Intercom without a per-voter tier.
Who it's not for. A company running several brands. Each brand is a separate, separately billed project.
Its limit. Lite ($19 a month, $15 annually) keeps you at 1 member and 1 board. Jira, Slack and Intercom plus a custom domain arrive with Startup at $49 a month ($40 annually, 3 members, unlimited boards). Business at $99 ($82 annually) adds SSO and private projects for 10 members. Enterprise is $299 ($249 annually). 14-day trial.
How to migrate. File import. Set up one board per old UserVoice forum and recreate your statuses first. FeedBear also offers a nonprofit discount on request.
- Paid
- Lite $15/mo (annual)
- Users
- unlimited
- Jira and Slack
- from Startup, $40/mo
- Limit
- one brand = one paid project
Upvoty: the budget pick with unlimited voters
BudgetWhy switch to Upvoty. Price. Power is $15 a month for one project, Super $25, Hyper $49 with unlimited projects. Tracked users are unlimited everywhere, so a history of thousands of voters won't move the bill.
Who it's for. A solo founder or small team that wants a voting board and a public roadmap, and nothing more.
Who it's not for. A team that wants deep prioritization or tight Jira and CRM links. Look at Canny or Featurebase instead.
Its limit. The annual discount is only 10%, where most rivals give 20%. Over three years, that adds up. Enterprise is on quote; the trial runs 14 days.
How to migrate. Via file. Start on Power with one project to check the import, then move up if you need to split several products.
- Paid
- Power $15/mo
- Voters
- unlimited
- Annual
- only 10% off
- Best for
- a single product
Fider: the open-source option you host yourself
Open sourceWhy switch to Fider. Its creator pitches it as "an open source alternative to UserVoice". The code is public, you can run it on your own server, and thousands of instances already run that way. It's the only option here where you pick the hosting location yourself instead of trusting a vendor's DPA.
Who it's for. A technical team that's comfortable running a web service and would rather own its data than pay a subscription.
Who it's not for. A team with no developer. Updates, backups and server security are on you.
Its limit. Fider keeps to the basics: ideas, votes, comments, statuses. No advanced prioritization, no long integration list. The free cloud plan stops at 250 pieces of feedback; Pro is $25 a month with no commitment.
How to migrate. No UserVoice importer. You'll need a small script that reads your export and creates posts through Fider's API. Budget about a developer-day for a mid-size history.
- Self-hosted
- free, open source
- Cloud
- Pro $25/mo
- Data
- on your server
- Limit
- import needs a script
All 9 alternatives side by side
Our default pick: Canny if you want a hands-off move, Featurebase if you'd rather control cost. To make it concrete, take a 3-person team with 2,000 voters in its history. UserVoice costs at least $1,000 a month. Featurebase Growth is $87 ($29 times 3 seats), Sleekplan Starter $13 billed annually, Frill Business $49. On Canny, 2,000 voters sit well above Pro's 100-tracked-user entry tier, so get a quote before importing. One row per tool below.
| Free plan and billing unit | First paid plan and UserVoice import | |
|---|---|---|
| UserVoiceWhere you're starting | No free plan; 30-day trial after demo; billed per plan and admin | Launch $1,000/mo ($12,000/yr), 20 admins |
| CannyClosest match | 25 tracked users; billed per voter | Pro from $79/mo annual; migration done by Canny |
| FeaturebaseBest value | 1 seat, 1 board; billed per seat | Growth $29/seat/mo; CSV import |
| ProductboardProduct management | No free plan; 5 makers minimum | Quote only, after demo |
| FrillUnlimited admins | No free plan, 14-day trial; billed per plan | Startup $25/mo (50 active ideas); file import |
| SleekplanBig voter history | Indie, 1 admin; billed per seat | Starter $13/mo annual (3 seats); native UserVoice import |
| UserJotFree for 3 | 3 members, 2 boards, no integrations | Starter $29/mo; file import |
| FeedBearPredictable bill | No free plan, 14-day trial; billed per member | Lite $15/mo annual; file import |
| UpvotyBudget | No free plan, 14-day trial; unlimited voters | Power $15/mo; file import |
| FiderOpen source | Free self-hosted; cloud up to 250 feedback | Pro $25/mo; scripted import |
Entry prices before tax, in US dollars, subject to change. Always check against your own team size and voter count.
Migrate off UserVoice in seven steps
Order matters. Each step protects something: your votes, the link with your customers, your public portal, and your budget at renewal time.
Inventory everything wired into UserVoice
Day 1List your forums, statuses, categories and custom fields. Then everything that touches UserVoice from outside: the subdomain (say, feedback.yoursite.com), the SSO snippet that logs customers in without a password, the in-app widget, and the Jira, Azure DevOps, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack or Teams integrations.
One row per item, with its equivalent in the new tool. That's your cutover checklist. Anything not on it stays pointed at UserVoice.
- Time
- half a day
- Risk if rushed
- forgotten widget or SSO
Export "Ideas & Voters", not just "Ideas"
Day 1UserVoice offers two idea exports, as CSV or XLSX, after filters: "Ideas" and "Ideas & Voters". Only the second keeps voters. Pick the first and you keep titles but lose who voted, which means you can't tell those customers when their idea ships.
Comments come out separately, through their own export or the full account export. The roadmap has its own export too. Download all three and store them outside UserVoice.
- Formats
- CSV or XLSX
- Don't forget
- comments and roadmap
Group the file by idea before any import
The trapThe "Ideas & Voters" export has one row per voter. An idea with 120 votes takes 120 rows. Import it as is and the new tool creates 120 identical ideas with one vote each.
Build a pivot table: one row per idea, row count becomes vote count, and voter emails go in a separate column if the destination can link them. Then check the math: total votes should equal the original row count.
- Check
- total votes = export rows
Set up the destination: one forum, one board
Before importCreate one board per old UserVoice forum, and recreate any statuses the new tool lacks (planned, in progress, shipped, declined). Custom fields get mapped by hand, one by one.
Clean house while you're at it. Ideas declined years ago with no recent votes don't need to move. On Canny, every imported voter counts toward your bill.
- Rule
- 1 forum = 1 board
Import once, with moderation switched off
Day 2Three routes depending on the tool. Sleekplan reads your UserVoice account directly with your API key and subdomain. Canny runs the migration for you. Everyone else takes your grouped file.
Either way, switch off moderation and user notifications before importing, or your customers get hundreds of emails. Run the import once: some tools don't dedupe.
- Before
- moderation and notifications off
- Risk
- duplicates if rerun
Rewire the domain, SSO, widget and integrations
CutoverPoint your subdomain at the new tool (one DNS record), swap the SSO snippet and the widget in your app, then reconnect Jira, Slack or Salesforce. Go back to your step 1 list and tick every row.
Test with a real customer account: automatic login, vote, comment, and the status-change notification.
- Test
- one full customer journey
Tell your customers, then cancel
Week 2Announce the new portal to customers with the link and one line on what changes (nothing for their votes, if the import is clean). Voters on still-open ideas come first.
Keep your UserVoice subscription until the import is verified. Exports arrive by email, and nothing guarantees access once you've cancelled. Check your annual renewal date too, so you don't roll into another year.
- Cancel
- after full verification
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes a UserVoice migration go wrong
The same mistakes show up in vendors' import guides and in write-ups from teams that already moved. None is truly technical. They're oversights, and each one costs more than the time it would have taken to avoid it.
Exporting "Ideas" instead of "Ideas & Voters"
You keep the ideas and lose the voters. You can't notify the customers who were waiting for a feature, which is exactly when a feedback portal pays off.
Importing one row per voter
The voter export repeats each idea once per vote. Without grouping, you get dozens of one-vote duplicates. Group first, then check that total votes match the row count.
Rerunning an import that doesn't dedupe
An API import that stops halfway makes you want to run it again. On Sleekplan, that creates duplicates. Check what arrived before rerunning anything, and switch off moderation before the first attempt.
Forgetting SSO and the widget
If your app logs customers into the portal without a password, the SSO snippet and widget still point at UserVoice. Customers keep voting in the old tool and nobody notices.
Comparing prices with different units
UserVoice bills per plan and admin, Canny per voter, Featurebase and Sleekplan per seat, Frill and Upvoty per plan. Price it on your real numbers: how many people reply, and how many voters sit in your history.
Cancelling before everything is verified
Keep UserVoice open until the import is verified, and note your annual renewal date. A closed account means a comment history you can't get back.
- "Ideas & Voters" export downloaded, plus comments and roadmap
- File grouped by idea, vote total checked
- One board per old forum, statuses recreated
- Moderation and notifications off during import
- Subdomain, SSO, widget and integrations rewired
- Spend cap on if the new tool bills per voter
UserVoice alternatives: frequently asked questions
How much does UserVoice cost in 2026?
At least $1,000 a month, billed as $12,000 a year, for the Launch plan with 20 admins. Business starts at $1,833 a month ($22,000 a year) with 50 admins and multiple instances; Enterprise is quote-only. Extra admins cost $40 a month each. Ideas, portal users and read-only admins are unlimited on every plan.
Does UserVoice have a free plan?
No. There's no free plan and no self-serve signup: the 30-day trial only opens after a sales demo. The older no-sales trial is gone. If you want to compare today, Featurebase, Canny, Sleekplan and UserJot all have a permanent free plan.
What is cheaper than UserVoice?
Almost everything in this guide. Sleekplan Starter is $13 a month billed annually, Upvoty Power $15, FeedBear Lite $15 annually, Frill Startup $25, Featurebase Growth $29 per seat. Even Canny Pro starts at $79. The one to price carefully is Canny, because its bill grows with your voter count.
Is there a free UserVoice alternative?
Yes, several. UserJot Free gives a team the most room (3 members, 2 boards). Sleekplan Indie keeps voters unlimited with a single admin. Featurebase Free has the full workflow for 1 seat and 1 board. Canny Free stops at 25 tracked users. Fider is free if you host it yourself.
What did Microsoft replace UserVoice with?
Microsoft shut down its UserVoice forums product by product in 2021 and moved feedback into its own in-house tools. The reasons were centralization and avoiding a third-party dependency, with feedback scattered across many forums. It says more about Microsoft's scale than about UserVoice's quality.
Can I use GitHub Issues instead of UserVoice?
For a developer audience, yes: some teams use GitHub Issues as a free public idea board, with reactions standing in for votes. You lose a real roadmap view, SSO for non-technical customers and vote-based prioritization. For a B2B product with business users, a dedicated tool like Featurebase or Sleekplan fits better.
Is Canny worth it compared to UserVoice?
On day one, easily: Pro starts at $79 a month against $1,000. Over time it depends on voter growth. Turn on the spend cap in your billing settings before the migration, because without it Canny upgrades your tier automatically when tracked users cross the limit.
Should you leave UserVoice if it works for you?
Not necessarily. Most user reviews stay positive: people leave over price and weight, rarely over quality. If you truly need 20 admins, several instances, SSO and Salesforce, price the alternatives at that level before moving. Our guide to leaving Pendo walks through the same decision for another product tool.
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