So you're on a fence – should you go with UXPressia or Smaply? Let us help you make this decision.

When it comes to comparing these two software products, there are a few things that come to mind:

If you want to get your whole team aboard for a digital workshop or a distributed brainstorm session so that all changes other people make are visible without refreshing the page, then your choice is UXPressia. Read on to learn all the details.

Both platforms have commenting. In UXPressia, users on any plan can leave text and audio comments in real time with your team and guest viewers coming through a password-protected direct link. You can also post reactions and leverage dot voting.

You can mention your teammates, inviting them to participate in the discussion, and get notified within the app.

Plus, you can leverage Slack integration to get updated in any channel of your choice.

In Smaply, like in UXPressia, you can add comments and resolve them, start new and answer to existing threads.

To invite Smaply users to add comments, you need to send them an email or give them login and access to the project containing the document you want them to comment on.

In UXPressia, commenting functionality is available for all user types, while in Smaply only Pro and Enterprise users have access to it.

In UXPressia, your team can have a shared repository of components and files to reuse across maps and personas within the workspace. This is called Team Library.

Currently, the following sections are available:

Note that you can upload your custom channel icons instead of the standard set UXPressia offers.

More sections are coming pretty soon!

In Smaply, there’s no such a library. But you can reuse, for instance, images and documents from other projects.

We offer Customer Journey Mapping, Personas, and Impact Maps. Smaply offers Customer Journey Mapping, Personas, and Stakeholder maps. No winner here – it’s just a different offer, that’s all. So figure out for yourself which one suits you more.

In Smaply, there are 10+ sections (aka lanes) in their journey mapping tool, including:

At UXPressia, we offer 20 sections including:

In UXPressia, you can link your map stages and substages to other maps and personas right in the stage or substage settings:

When it comes to personas, there are a few predefined sections and optional text sections that Smaply offers. Plus, you can’t change the layout much.

At UXPressia, we give you 25 sections, including skills, demographic, channels, browsers, technology, brand and influencers, document, chart, and channel sections. And there’re photo and name generators.

Plus, you can drag and drop, rename, and color everything. Finally, there’s a multiple persona view to see all your personas at once.

Both UXPressia and Smaply offer this feature where you can get a URL, send it over to the other person and they can view it without ever logging in. But here’s the catch - in Smaply it’s view-only, whereas at UXPressia you can collaborate and co-create in real time with whoever you want.

To put this into perspective, imagine you have a workshop at your company and you invited a bunch of people from different departments. If you want to collaborate with them at Smaply, you will have to go for an Enterprise package.

At UXPressia you just pass everyone a link and you’re all set for a super-productive workshop without paying any extra dollar.

Smaply does not have undo and redo as of now. So if you delete something by mistake before an important meeting or presentation - say adios to the deleted parts.

At UXPressia, we do have the undo and redo, so you can revert the latest changes that you don’t need. Moreover, we have the Version history for cases when you need to access an older version of your map or persona.

Imagine you're working at UXPressia on a journey map and your Internet connection breaks up. What happens with all the changes? They will sync back with the cloud as soon as you're back online. Just make sure you don't refresh or close the page until you're sure that the Internet is back.

Smaply exports documents to PNG, PDF, XLSX, and PPTX, and we offer export to PNG, PDF, CSV, and PPTX.

Now take a look at the resulting files and decide for yourself which one you will take to your executive or client - this is just a matter of taste.

A journey map created in UXPressia and then in Smaply (images used in the maps are from UXPressia’s Storyboard Gallery):

A persona done in UXPressia and in Smaply:

Not to mention that a possibility to add your own logo comes with our Pro package ($36/month) and Smaply allows this on their Pro offer that comes at 29 euros/month.

Smaply Pro supports map import from Mural, Miro, Excel, LucidSpark, and real photos.

At UXPressia, you can import Excel or CSV files, import data from Google Sheets, simply paste it, or import your maps and personas manually.

Smaply has a live data lane that pulls data from a Google Spreadsheet, which can get data from a third-party source through services like Zapier. The platform also has the Jira lane which allows users to connect journey steps with related Jira issues.

At UXPressia, you can add funnel sections connected to your web analytics tools such as Mixpanel or Google Analytics where you can get automated data poured into your journey map. Same as with Smaply, there is a section for Jira issues.

With UXPressia, you also embed a multitude of prototypes, videos, and whatnot using the embed code section.

This is debatable as each person is unique and perceives interfaces differently, but we find Smaply a little harder to use than UXPressia. Plus, at Smaply you most times start with a blank page when building journey maps which some will view as a deal-breaker. It’s just best to try and decide for yourself.

By default, the maps and personas you create within UXPressia will be assigned to you as an owner. But you can also reassign them to a different internal owner, or even several of them, from people who have access to the workspace. Also, all documents have a status field, where you can select from default or custom statuses to track progress.

At Smaply, as of now, there are no similar features available on any plans.

UXPressia lets you create custom views of your journey maps and choose which stages and sections will be visible or hidden from view. That way, you can have multiple versions of the same map and easily switch between them within the same document. This works both for presentation and export.

In Smaply, to have different views of the same map, you would have to create and store separate documents.

Now, this is the last point and it’s pretty huge.

At UXPressia, users can enjoy a forever-free account with 1 journey map, 1 persona, and 1 impact map. You can either build your map and persona from scratch or use one of 120+ templates from our library. You’ll be able to add comments and assign statuses for documents, export your work to PNG, share it via email with 1 other user, and have access to email support.

Smaply's pricing page says that under their free plan, you can have 1 project, 3 journey maps, 3 personas, and 3 system maps, but when you sign up to the tool and visit the Manage Subscription page, you’ll see different figures: 2 projects, 4 journey maps, 5 personas, and 3 stakeholder maps.

As a free user, you can use 5 lanes:

All documents can be exported to PNG files, each branded with Smaply (no watermarks). There are also a few predefined journey map templates inside the tool. As for support, there's self-service support on the helpdesk.

UXPressia's Starter plan comes at $16/month per license, while Smaply’s Basic plan comes at €19/month (~$21/month) per license (plus, VAT will be added if applicable). In UXPressia, you can have 3 projects, 3 journey maps, 3 impact maps, and 3 personas. You can share projects via email with any number of users or leverage password-protected direct links. You can export maps and personas to vector-based (and printer-friendly) PDFs and CSV files.

You can use embed code in journey maps and personas, as well as pie and bar charts. You can take advantage of the Multiple personas view in the Personas tool. As for linking, you will be able to link your journey map to other journey maps, impact maps, and personas. You will also unlock team management, map and persona copying, the presentation mode, and getting assistance via live chat.

In Smaply’s Basic plan, you can have 3 projects, unlimited journey maps, unlimited personas, and unlimited system maps.

More lanes are available under this plan:

Maps and personas can be exported to PDF, XLSX, and via HTML sharing. You will also be able to use the icon and image library (The Noun Project), duplicate projects, personas, and maps. You’ll get support from the platform’s team via email.

UXPressia’s Pro plan costs $36/month per license. Under it, you can have an unlimited number of projects, maps, and personas. You can brand your maps and personas, export them as PPTX files, and leverage Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Jira, and Slack integrations. Your team will also have access to the Team Library functionality and a rich collection of custom images (colored and black-and-white) inside the Storyboard Gallery, all of which were drawn by our design team. You’ll be able to create and assign custom statuses to your documents.

You will also take advantage of Version History and premium support.

Smaply’s Pro plan costs €29/month (~$32/month) per license (VAT will be added if applicable) and lets you have unlimited projects, maps, and personas.

More lanes come into play under this plan:

Maps and personas built under the Pro plan can be exported as PPTX files. You can also add text and audio comments to maps and personas and import your maps from Mural, Miro, Excel, LucidSpark, and real photos. Plus, you can set up custom-branded exports.

Besides the above-mentioned plans, both platforms offer custom plans for enterprise users.

Also, we wrapped up everything you’ve just read into a table for your convenience: