
73% of L&D and IT leaders cite pricing opacity and total cost of ownership as the #1 barrier when evaluating enterprise software adoption tools — yet fewer than 1 in 5 platforms publish transparent pricing upfront. (Source: 2026 Digital Adoption Benchmark Report)
Whatfix is a full-scale enterprise Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) with custom, quote-based pricing that typically ranges from $24,000 to $100,000+ per year, making it best suited for large organizations managing complex software rollouts. CloudApp (now rebranded as Zight) is a lightweight visual communication and screen recording tool with transparent plans starting at $0/month and scaling to $11+/user/month for teams — ideal for async video messaging, screenshots, and quick how-to content. Both tools address user enablement in very different ways and at very different price points. If you need an AI-powered solution that bridges the gap between guided walkthroughs and video documentation — without the enterprise price tag — Guidde is worth a serious look.
Choosing between an enterprise DAP and a lightweight screen recording tool is not just a product decision — it's a budget decision with long-term consequences. Over-investing in a platform like Whatfix when your team only needs quick visual guides means paying for complexity you may never use. Under-investing in a tool like CloudApp when you need structured, trackable, in-app guidance leaves significant productivity and adoption gaps.
In 2026, with AI reshaping how teams create and consume enablement content, the pricing model of a tool is just as important as its feature set. Opaque pricing creates budget uncertainty. Per-seat inflation punishes growing teams. Hidden implementation costs erode ROI before a single user is onboarded.
This guide gives you a clear, side-by-side view of exactly what you pay for — and what you give up — when choosing between Whatfix and CloudApp (Zight).
Whatfix and CloudApp (now Zight) represent opposite ends of the enterprise software pricing spectrum. One is a heavyweight Digital Adoption Platform built for Fortune 1000 organizations with custom enterprise contracts. The other is a consumer-friendly visual communication tool with a freemium model accessible to individual contributors and small teams alike.
Yet both products are regularly evaluated by the same buyers — L&D managers, IT leaders, and product teams looking to help users understand and adopt software faster. The question isn't just which tool is better — it's which pricing structure aligns with your organization's scale, use case, and budget reality.
This guide breaks down every pricing tier, surfaces hidden costs, and gives you an honest framework for evaluating both platforms in 2026. We also introduce a third option — Guidde — for teams that want AI-powered video documentation and guided walkthroughs without the complexity or the cost.
Whatfix is an AI-powered Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) designed for large enterprises that need to drive software adoption, reduce support tickets, and improve productivity across complex application ecosystems — including ERP, CRM, HCM, and custom enterprise software.
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Whatfix serves 700+ enterprise customers across 30+ countries. The platform operates as a browser extension or embedded SDK layer on top of existing enterprise applications — delivering in-app guidance, contextual tooltips, interactive walkthroughs (called Flows), pop-ups, task lists, and embedded self-help widgets directly inside the apps your users already use.
Whatfix's core audience includes enterprise L&D teams, IT adoption managers, HR technology leaders, and product managers at organizations with 500+ employees deploying complex software such as Salesforce, SAP, Workday, ServiceNow, Oracle, and Microsoft 365. Notable customers include Experian, Marriott International, bioMérieux, and Old Mutual.
CloudApp — now fully rebranded and operated as Zight — is a visual async communication platform that allows individuals and teams to record their screens, create annotated screenshots, capture GIFs, and share content instantly via auto-generated cloud links. It is available as a desktop app (Mac and Windows), Chrome extension, and iOS app.
While CloudApp was the original brand name, the platform has progressively evolved under the Zight identity, adding AI-powered features such as automatic transcription, AI-generated video titles and summaries, step-by-step guide generation, and smart annotations. As of 2026, Zight serves over 5 million users and 1,200+ reviews on major platforms.
Zight's audience spans individual contributors, small business owners, customer support teams, UX researchers, designers, sales teams, and educators — essentially anyone who needs to show rather than tell using quick video or visual content. It is decidedly not an enterprise DAP — it does not deploy in-app guidance overlays on other software.
The pricing gap between these two platforms is arguably the most dramatic in the user enablement category. Here is a comprehensive comparison across all available tiers:
| Dimension | Whatfix | CloudApp / Zight |
|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | ✅ Free trial available (limited duration) | ✅ Free forever — up to 25 captures, 5-min recordings, 720p quality |
| Entry-Level Paid | ❌ No self-serve entry-level plan; custom quote required | ✅ Pro: Starting at $9/month |
| Team / Mid-Tier | Custom pricing — estimated $24,000–$50,000+/year | Team: Starting at $11/user/month (min. 2 users) |
| Enterprise | Custom — estimated $50,000–$100,000+/year | Contact Zight sales for custom quote |
| Pricing Transparency | ❌ No public pricing — demo required | ✅ Fully transparent, published online |
| Pricing Model | Flat platform fee + per-user license fee (based on total users with app access or MAUs) | Per-seat monthly subscription (annual billing available) |
| Billing Cycle | Annual contract (multi-year discounts available) | Monthly or annual |
| AI Features Included | Included in paid plans (AI Agents, ScreenSense, Auto Translation) | Available as add-on (Zight AI — $4/month extra on Pro) |
| Analytics | Guidance Analytics, Funnel Insights, Cohorts, Adoption Dashboard (Product Analytics Standard free with DAP plan) | Basic (Free) / Advanced (Pro, Team, Enterprise) |
| SSO / Security | ✅ SSO, IP Whitelisting, Data Residency, Audit Logs (Premium+) | ✅ SSO (Enterprise plan only), SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA Compliant |
| Content Types | In-app walkthroughs, tooltips, pop-ups, task lists, self-help widgets, sandbox simulations, analytics | Screen recordings, screenshots, GIFs, step-by-step guides (AI-generated), video messages |
| Deployment | Browser extension or SDK embedded in enterprise apps; cloud or self-hosted | Desktop app (Mac/Windows), Chrome extension, iOS — fully cloud-based |
| Minimum Commitment | Annual enterprise contract; typically $24,000+ minimum | As low as $0 (Free plan) or $9/month (Pro) |
| Implementation Cost | Significant — requires onboarding, professional services (optional add-on), content authoring training | Minimal — self-serve sign-up, no implementation required |
| Customer Support | 24/5 standard; 24/7 as paid add-on; Named CSM included | Standard support; premium support on higher tiers |
* Whatfix pricing estimates based on 2026 industry benchmarks and third-party reports. Actual quotes vary by organization size, app type, and contract terms. CloudApp/Zight pricing sourced directly from the Zight pricing page (share.getcloudapp.com/pricing).
Whatfix does not publish its pricing publicly. Every plan — Standard, Premium, and Enterprise — requires a demo and a sales conversation. Based on 2026 market intelligence and third-party data sources (including Guidde's own benchmarking), here is what organizations can expect:
Whatfix's pricing formula is: Platform Flat Fee + Per-User License Fee. For employee-facing apps, user count = total employees with access. For customer-facing apps, user count = monthly active users (MAUs). This means costs can escalate significantly for high-MAU SaaS products.
Zight publishes all its pricing openly and allows self-serve sign-up at every tier:
The most striking observation in this comparison is not just the price difference — it's the philosophy gap. Whatfix treats pricing as a negotiation. CloudApp/Zight treats pricing as a product. One requires procurement cycles; the other requires a credit card. For budget-conscious teams or SMBs, this distinction is decisive. For enterprises with complex DAP requirements, Whatfix's investment model may be justified. But for the vast majority of teams creating how-to content and sharing video guides, the $9/month entry point of Zight is orders of magnitude more accessible.
| Cost Component | Estimated Range |
|---|---|
| DAP Standard Plan (1 Web App, ~500 users) | $24,000–$36,000/year |
| DAP Premium Upgrade (Auto Translation, Custom Surveys, etc.) | +$12,000–$24,000/year |
| Professional Services / Implementation Support | +$5,000–$20,000 (one-time) |
| Mirror Add-On (Sandbox Training) | +$12,000–$30,000/year |
| 24/7 Support Add-On | +$3,000–$6,000/year |
| Estimated Year 1 Total (Mid-Market) | $44,000–$110,000+ |
| Plan | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost (10 users) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 |
| Pro (per user) | $9/user | ~$1,080/year |
| Team (per user) | $11/user | ~$1,320/year |
| Pro + Zight AI Add-On (per user) | $13/user | ~$1,560/year |
| Enterprise (Custom) | Contact sales | Custom |
Key insight: A team of 10 using Zight Pro with AI costs roughly $1,560/year. A comparable team using Whatfix at the Standard enterprise tier would pay an estimated 24x–70x more. The comparison only makes sense if your needs genuinely require in-app guidance deployment — which Zight does not offer at all.
This comparison ultimately comes down to a fundamental question: do you need a platform that delivers guidance inside your software, or a tool that helps your team communicate about your software?
Whatfix is the right choice if you are a large enterprise with the budget, dedicated team, and technical complexity to justify a $24,000–$100,000+/year DAP investment. Its depth of in-app guidance, analytics, AI agents, and sandbox simulation capabilities are genuinely powerful for organizations managing complex ERP, CRM, or enterprise platform rollouts. But that power comes with price opacity, long implementation timelines, and a minimum investment that excludes most of the market.
CloudApp / Zight is the right choice if you need a fast, affordable way for your team to create and share visual how-to content — screen recordings, annotated screenshots, GIFs, and AI-generated step-by-step guides — without deploying anything inside other applications. Its $0–$11/user/month pricing is one of the most accessible in the category, and its self-serve model means you can be productive in under an hour.
However, both tools leave a meaningful gap in the market: teams that need AI-powered, structured video documentation — with narration, branding, multi-language support, and a knowledge base — at a price point that doesn't require an enterprise budget or a basic subscription that lacks structure. That is exactly the gap that Guidde was built to fill.
Despite their very different price points and architectures, Whatfix and CloudApp (Zight) share critical limitations that affect a large segment of modern teams:
Guidde is an AI-powered video documentation platform that enables teams to create professional, branded how-to video guides up to 11x faster than traditional methods — with automatic AI narration, voiceover generation, step-by-step annotations, and instant sharing. Here's why it outperforms both Whatfix and CloudApp for documentation use cases:
Guidde is used by 2,000+ companies — from fast-growing startups to enterprise teams — to replace manual documentation workflows, reduce support ticket volume, onboard new users faster, and create customer-facing how-to content at scale. Teams report cutting documentation time by up to 90% compared to screen recording and editing manually.
Whether you've been evaluating Whatfix for its in-app guidance or CloudApp for its quick recordings, Guidde offers a compelling middle ground — the speed and accessibility of a visual tool, with the structure and AI power of an enterprise platform, at a price that doesn't require a CFO sign-off.
👉 Try Guidde for free — no credit card required and create your first AI-narrated how-to video in under 5 minutes.
👉 See how Guidde compares to Whatfix and CloudApp in a side-by-side feature and pricing breakdown.
Whatfix does not publish its pricing publicly. Based on 2026 industry estimates, Whatfix plans start at approximately $24,000/year for a Standard single-app plan and can exceed $100,000/year for Enterprise multi-app deployments. Pricing is composed of a flat platform fee plus a per-user license fee. You must request a demo and speak with a Whatfix sales representative to get an actual quote.
CloudApp, now operating as Zight, offers fully transparent pricing: a Free plan at $0/month (up to 25 captures, 5-min recording), a Pro plan starting at $9/month (unlimited captures and recording length, up to 4K), and a Team plan starting at $11/user/month (minimum 2 users, with basic admin controls). Enterprise pricing is available via Zight's sales team. Zight AI features cost an additional $4/month per user as an add-on.
No — they serve fundamentally different use cases. Whatfix is an enterprise Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) that deploys in-app guided walkthroughs, tooltips, and task lists inside other software applications. CloudApp / Zight is a visual communication tool for creating and sharing screen recordings, screenshots, and GIFs. Whatfix guides users inside apps; Zight helps teams communicate about apps via shareable media.
Whatfix offers a free trial, but does not have a permanent free plan. To use Whatfix, organizations must commit to an annual enterprise contract. A free trial requires signing up and contacting Whatfix's team.
CloudApp has been rebranded as Zight. The getcloudapp.com domain still resolves to the Zight platform. All CloudApp plans, features, and pricing are now managed under the Zight brand. Existing CloudApp users were migrated to Zight accounts.
Guidde is widely recognized as the superior alternative for teams that need more structure than CloudApp offers and more accessibility than Whatfix provides. Guidde uses AI to automatically generate fully narrated, branded, step-by-step how-to video guides from browser recordings — in over 100 languages — in a fraction of the time it takes to create content with either tool. Unlike Whatfix, Guidde does not require an enterprise contract or a lengthy implementation. Unlike CloudApp, Guidde produces polished, structured, embeddable video documentation — not just raw screen recordings. Teams using Guidde report creating documentation up to 11x faster, with significantly lower cost and zero implementation overhead. Try Guidde for free today.
No. CloudApp/Zight cannot replace Whatfix for enterprise DAP use cases because it does not deploy in-app guidance, tooltips, or walkthroughs inside other software. If your requirement is contextual, in-app user guidance with adoption analytics, you need a DAP like Whatfix (or alternatives like WalkMe or Pendo). However, if your primary goal is creating shareable how-to content, Zight — or better yet, Guidde — is a far more cost-effective choice.
For small teams on a budget, CloudApp / Zight is vastly more accessible than Whatfix — with plans starting at $0 and professional features available for as little as $9/month. However, for teams that want structured, AI-narrated video documentation rather than raw recordings, Guidde's free plan offers an even more powerful starting point with AI-generated guides, multi-language narration, and a built-in knowledge base.