TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Tag Manager

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/AFrom Google, the Google Tag Manager is a tag management application that facilitates creating, embedding, and updating tags across websites and mobile apps. It is a free option, vs. the company's enterprise-tier Google Tag Manager 360.

    $0

    Pendo.io

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/APendo.io is a product engagement platform with features for in-app analytics, surveys and feedback, and guidance.N/A
    Pricing
    Google Tag ManagerPendo.io
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    *Free
    Free
    Base
    Contact sales team
    Core
    Contact sales team
    Pulse
    Contact sales team
    Ultimate
    Contact sales team
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google Tag ManagerPendo.io
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google Tag ManagerPendo.io
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    Chose Google Tag Manager
    Firstly, using GTM doesn't mean you can't use these other products if you choose. GTM is free, so there is no real "cost" to using it. The other products are meant for a slightly less technical audience, and they tend to do a better job of hand holding. The advantage for tag …
    Incentivized
    Pendo.io
    Chose Pendo.io
    It is a new product in the market in terms of share of voice but is totally worth it
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    61 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    14 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    48 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    61 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    35 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    34 Answers
    Features
    Google Tag ManagerPendo.io
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Google Tag Manager and Pendo.io
    Feature
    Google Tag Manager
    8.9
    58 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Pendo.io
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions8.958 Ratings00 Ratings
    Tag Management
    Comparison of Tag Management features of Google Tag Manager and Pendo.io
    Feature
    Google Tag Manager
    8.8
    68 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Pendo.io
    -
    Ratings
    Tag library9.163 Ratings00 Ratings
    Tag variable mapping8.955 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ease of writing custom tags7.267 Ratings00 Ratings
    Rules-driven tag execution8.062 Ratings00 Ratings
    Tag performance monitoring10.056 Ratings00 Ratings
    Page load times8.849 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile app tagging9.334 Ratings00 Ratings
    Library of JavaScript extensions8.838 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Management & Integrity
    Comparison of Data Management & Integrity features of Google Tag Manager and Pendo.io
    Feature
    Google Tag Manager
    7.6
    69 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Pendo.io
    -
    Ratings
    Event tracking8.666 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile event tracking9.347 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data distribution management8.841 Ratings00 Ratings
    Universal data layer8.358 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated error checking3.045 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google Tag ManagerPendo.io
    Small Businesses
    Adobe Experience Platform Launch
    Score8.4 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Adobe Experience Platform Launch
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Whatfix
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Adobe Dynamic Tag Management (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Whatfix
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google Tag ManagerPendo.io
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.7
    (73 ratings)
    8.5
    (130 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    8.2
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    7.1
    (18 ratings)
    7.5
    (43 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    2.0
    (12 ratings)
    8.2
    (5 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.8
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google Tag ManagerPendo.io
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    I have found Google Tag Manager as the go to solution for managing all of your event and conversion tags for your website. Not only does it make it easy to manage all of your tags in the one place, it is fairly intuitive to use and there is plenty of videos and help documentation online to help set up what ever you need. No scenarios come to mind at the moment on where it is less appropriate to use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    Pendo.io is useful in generating great dashboards that present user analytics in the best possible view that could be used for analysis & derive key insights on what could be done if there's a feature that's not being recognized by end users or if there are any pain points where users are struggling more around a workflow which is technically not that difficult. Pendo.io also can be used to create impactful guides where intercatoin of a user with the Guide can be created in less steps & have relevant information about that workflow that the user is completing. Pendo.io's resource center can act as a one stop hub to present any sidewide updates which could be information of Prod releases, New KB Articles, Register to any event, & much more. Segments can be created in as many variation as one can. In fact, Segments are the ruling property or feature that works so handy, which reduces a lot of iterative work.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Google
    • Selecting elements on a site [object, class, cookie, etc] (to later fire an event, send some data, etc) is very easy with triggers. Want to add an event when someone clicks on a button? Super easy. It was many many DOM selectors and you can even add custom functions if you need to do something more specific
    • In general, firing events in different circumstances is very easy mixing triggers and tags. You can track almost any element of the DOM and do whatever you want with it.
    • Testing is a great functionality. Only you can see what's on the site and you can debug it easily by seeing which events or tags were triggered and all the DOM elements involved (and why they matched the trigger).
    • Working in environments (staging, production) and versioning is easy to do, deploying changes in 2 clicks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    • NPS Surveys
    • Feature usage insights
    • Identifying user behaviors using Replay feature
    • Clearly segmenting users in a way we want it to be
    • Identifying time spent on a feature/product to better understand what customers actually use
    • Documentation, in-app guides and help section
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Google
    • There are several good integrations, but there can always be more. Native tracking for call tracking solutions, analytics providers, non-Google advertisers would be top of my list.
    • Documentation is just dreadful. Luckily there are some awesome folks out there doing crowdsourced tutorials (shout out to Simo Ahava) but by and large the Google Tag Manager instructions are worth what you pay for them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    • Dashboard is sometimes very slow to load
    • Preview is problematic if the Pendo.io user doesn't have access to the target environment or application where the guide is going to display
    • It would be ideal to have a gallery of thumbnail images of previously used guides to select from, either to pull a screen capture or to use as a template. It's cumbersome to go to the guides, find the one you want, click on Preview, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Google
    I haven't found another option for us to use especially one that is free. Down the road we may go a different route but for now GTM is a good option and does what we need it to do. It'd be nice to get more support or more integrations but with the free version there's only so much one can expect to get I suppose.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    We have had an excellent experience with Pendo. When we've had questions or concerns, Pendo is very quick to respond and communicate with us. We have experienced top-notch customer support and customer engagement. We have actually modeled some of our implementation and product processes after Pendo's examples.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Google
    No difficult obstacle to overcome but Google Tag Manager can still be difficult for many users to deploy. Sure the basic HTML script can be deployed quite easily, but when you start to require triggers, variables, etc, it can be a little daunting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    It is intuitive for core tasks like tracking feature usage, building Guides, and viewing dashboards. The interface is clean and well structured, making it easy for product managers and operational teams to get value quickly without heavy technical support. However, there is a noticeable learning curve when setting up advanced custom events, reports, or integrations, which can take some time and internal knowledge-sharing to master.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Pendo.io
    Every time I have logged into Pendo, the service has been available for me to use. The page has never been down when I am trying to get info from there.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Pendo.io
    Everything loads fairly quickly and it's not slow. I don't use an integration, I log in straight in the webpage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Google
    GTM does not provide support. This is one of GTM's biggest issues but it's due to the level of customization for each website. If your team thinks they would heavily rely on the need for a support staff it is probably better to invest in a paid service with a team that can support your needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    They've been great anytime that we have needed help with something. They also have some really great help articles. We're able to figure most things out through their articles, but when we've had to call in they've been very helpful and we haven't had any problems. I'd highly recommend working with them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Google
    I thought there was a little bit too much emphasis on AdWords stuff, not enough on the generic application of GTM.
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    The training schedule was well thought out and tailored to meet our needs. Chantelle stayed with us through the whole implementation and made sure that we were good to go.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Google
    Planning and communication will help greatly with an in-house implementation. If there are large teams, try to limit the number of people involved to 1-2 developers (back-end dev may be necessary depending on your platform), one analytics marketer and one project manager.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    Use Segment to install and cut developers out of the work cycle!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Google
    We moved to GTM from a standard Google Analytics implementation. GTM is much more flexible and easier to make changes, especially as the changes relate to multiple sites and environments. While there is a learning curve when figuring out how to use GTM, I believe the change has been worth it because it helps us understand at a more fundamental level how our tracking works and gives us a lot more control over what we track and how.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    I have just very superficial experience with Google Analytics but I do believe that Pendo.io is a much much better tool in pretty much all aspects of it. It has a ton more features and capabilities and even for the capabilities where there is overlap, Pendo seems to come out ahead easily. There are aspects that Pendo could improve for sure such as what metadata it captures from the users; an example of this is screen resolution which Google Analytics captures but Pendo does not.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Pendo.io
    The system is pretty flexible and scalable, I have used it in different browsers and devices without issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Google
    • GTM is very useful to determine if a particular element on the site is useful (i.e. is it being watched, is it being clicked, does it help customers navigate through more pages). As an SEO person, I can use this information to decide what to optimize for but also to track progress and see improvements in engagement.
    • With the use of Google Tag Manager, I was able to easily inject an A/B testing tool which lead to several improvements in lead generation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pendo.io
    • Reducing development time with in-app guides and resource center, with product management being able to agilely create guides in real time, this could be as much as 1 full time developer in savings.
    • Reducing business time scoping "rock fetches" than are proven to be invaluable based on analytics, each time 1 single piece of analtical data saves around ~20 hours across multiple resources.
    • Increasing user satisfaction with in-app guides and resource center
    • Increasing usage of key features through targetted messaging, those key features either drive costs ou of our business or add value to customers business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots