Top 20 SaaS Tools Every Product Manager Should Use in 2025
Product managers juggle everything from strategy and roadmaps to daily team coordination and customer feedback. Having the right tools can make all the difference. Below we highlight 20 must-use SaaS tools for 2025, spanning project management, communication, analytics, roadmapping, feedback, and more. For each, we cover key features, pricing, a real user testimonial, and how it helps PMs in real scenarios.
1. Jira – Issue Tracking & Agile Project Management
Overview: Jira is a powerhouse for tracking software projects, bugs, and tasks. It offers customizable workflows, Kanban/Scrum boards, sprint planning, and deep integrations with development tools (GitHub, CI/CD, etc.). Product managers use Jira to maintain backlogs and ensure engineering work aligns with requirements.
Website: Jira (Atlassian)Pricing: Free for up to 10 users; Standard plan is about $7–$8 per user/month. (Premium tiers add advanced roadmaps and admin controls.) A free trial is available for paid plans.
Testimonial: “What I like best about Jira is that everything goes into one place and it is easy to manage complex projects... It makes collaboration easy, improves transparency, and allows for quicker and more confidently executed work.
”Use Case: In practice, Jira becomes the single source of truth for development teams. A PM can create user stories and bugs, prioritize them in a backlog, and track progress through sprints. Its robust filtering and reporting help PMs identify bottlenecks and ensure on-time delivery. Integration with Confluence (for specs) and Slack means everyone stays updated. Jira shines for teams following Agile methodologies who need traceability from concept to release.
2. Asana – Work Management & Team Collaboration
Overview: Asana is an intuitive project and task management tool great for cross-functional collaboration. It provides list, board, timeline, and calendar views for projects, along with assignments, due dates, dependencies, and team comments. Product managers use Asana to coordinate tasks across teams – from marketing launch checklists to product feature development tracking.
Website: AsanaPricing: Free plan for up to 15 users with basic features. Premium (now “Starter”) starts at $10.99 per user/month (annual billing) and adds timeline views, dashboards, and more; Business and Enterprise plans offer advanced security and workflow automation. A 30-day free trial is available for paid tiers.
Testimonial: “I like that Asana brings all my tasks and projects into one clear place... With Asana, our team stays organized and everyone knows exactly what to do next.
”Use Case: In real-world scenarios, a PM can create a project in Asana for an upcoming product release, list out tasks (spec writing, design reviews, QA testing, docs, etc.), assign owners and due dates, and track progress visually. Team members get notified of their responsibilities, and the PM gets clarity on status without endless email threads. The timeline view is especially useful for product roadmaps and launch plans, helping identify any scheduling conflicts at a glance.
3. Trello – Simple Kanban Task Boards
Overview: Trello offers a straightforward Kanban-style approach to manage tasks via boards, lists, and cards. It’s known for its simplicity and flexibility – often used by smaller teams or for lighter-weight project tracking (like idea pipelines or content calendars). Product managers can use Trello to maintain feature idea backlogs or a personal to-do board.
Website: TrelloPricing: Free for unlimited cards and up to 10 boards per workspace (with basic features). Paid Standard plan is just $5 per user/month and allows unlimited boards plus advanced checklists, while Premium (~$10/user/mo) adds timeline/calendar views and admin controls.
Testimonial: “All in all, it’s a very useful tool for organization and communication on collaborative tasks with your team.
”Use Case: Trello’s strength is quick setup and visual clarity. A PM at a startup might use a Trello board with columns like “Backlog, To Do, Doing, Done” to track feature development at a high level. Each feature card can have checklists, attachments (design mocks, specs), and comments. Team members move cards across columns as work progresses. This simplicity means minimal training – as one user noted, “Trello’s drag-and-drop interface works smoothly... the real-time updates keep everyone synchronized”. It’s an easy entry tool for teams new to structured project management.
4. Monday.com – Visual Project & Work Management
Overview: Monday.com is a highly customizable work OS for managing projects and workflows. It features colorful, customizable tables and boards where teams can track tasks, project timelines, status, and more. Product managers benefit from its flexibility – you can tailor columns to track priority, owners, progress, OKRs, or any product-specific info. It also offers templates for roadmaps and product planning.
Website: Monday.comPricing: Free plan (up to 2 users) with limited features. Paid plans start at Basic ($8 per user/month) with unlimited users and boards. Pro and Enterprise plans add timeline views, integrations, and automation. All plans come with a 14-day free trial.
Testimonial: “I like that Monday.com is easy to use and very user-friendly. The interface is intuitive, and it’s simple to set up workflows and keep track of tasks without much training. It makes project management feel more organized and accessible, even for new users
.”Use Case: In practice, a PM can set up a Monday board to serve as a roadmap: each item is a feature, with columns for target quarter, status, responsible PM, engineers, etc. Stakeholders across the company appreciate Monday’s visual dashboards (charts, timeline, calendar) for status reporting. It’s also useful beyond pure product development – e.g. integrating with CRM to track feature requests, or with marketing for coordinating product launch activities. Monday’s strength is that it’s not just for dev teams; it brings together cross-functional work in one place, which is great for product leaders coordinating across departments.
5. ClickUp – All-in-One Productivity Platform
Overview: ClickUp is an all-in-one project management platform that aims to replace several tools by combining tasks, docs, chat, goal tracking, and more in one app. It’s highly customizable with multiple views (list, board, Gantt, calendar), custom fields, and even built-in docs and whiteboards. Product managers can use ClickUp to manage feature backlogs, PRD documents, release checklists, and team todos all in one space.
Website: ClickUpPricing: Free Forever plan with unlimited users and tasks (limited storage and integrations). Unlimited plan at ~$5 per user/month adds more storage and advanced features; higher Business and Enterprise tiers unlock goal tracking, portfolios, and greater automation. Free trials are available for paid tiers.
Testimonial: “ClickUp is incredibly flexible and customizable, allowing you to manage projects, tasks, and documentation all in one place... The integration with tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Outlook improves productivity, and the automation features help reduce manual work.
”Use Case: A product manager could leverage ClickUp to create a workspace for their product team that includes a Docssection for PRDs and research, a Tasks section for development work, and a Goals section to track OKRs or release targets. For example, when planning a new feature, the PM can write the spec in a ClickUp doc, link tasks in that doc to development subtasks, and chat with the team in real-time via comments. The ability to have everything from design files to user stories in one place means less time switching tools and more transparency. Teams report that ClickUp’s customization means they can tailor it to their workflow – “we could truly adapt the platform to our unique workflows, rather than adapt our workflows to the tool”, said one reviewer.
6. Slack – Team Communication & Collaboration Hub
Overview: Slack is the de facto tool for team communication. It provides channel-based messaging, direct messages, audio/video calls (huddles), and a rich ecosystem of integrations (Jira, Google Drive, etc.). For product managers, Slack is invaluable for quick communication with engineering, design, and business teams, as well as receiving alerts (e.g. new support tickets or analytics anomalies via integrations).
Website: SlackPricing: Free plan (with message history and integration limits) is popular for small teams. Paid plans (Pro at ~$7.25/user/month) offer full message history, unlimited integrations, and features like guest access. Many companies use Slack’s Standard/Plus plans enterprise-wide; discounts often available for annual commitments.
Testimonial: “Slack is easily the most efficient way to communicate within a team. The ability to organize conversations into channels helps keep discussions focused and makes it easy to catch up later. The UI is polished, and features like threads, mentions and reactions make team communication feel fluid and natural.
”Use Case: In a typical day, a product manager might have a #product-team channel for daily stand-ups and status sharing, a #bugs channel integrated with Jira to see new bug reports, and channels for cross-team projects (e.g. #launch-alpha-feature with marketing, support, dev). Instead of long email threads, discussions happen in Slack threads visible to all stakeholders. Slack’s searchable history means a PM can quickly find past decisions. The real-time nature speeds up feedback loops – for instance, designers can share a Figma mockup in Slack and get immediate input. During remote or hybrid work, Slack essentially becomes the “virtual office” – one reviewer noted it “streamlines conversations, reduces email clutter, and keeps teams aligned through real-time messaging and channels”.
7. Toggl Track – Time Tracking & Productivity Insights
Overview: Toggl Track is a simple time tracking tool that helps individuals and teams log hours spent on various tasks and projects. It features one-click timers, manual entry, project labels, and reporting tools to analyze where time is going. For product managers, Toggl can be useful to understand how the team (or oneself) allocates time – e.g. development vs. meetings vs. research – which aids in capacity planning and identifying process improvements.
Website: Toggl TrackPricing: Generous Free plan for basic time tracking (up to 5 users). Starter plan from ~$10/user/month adds billable rates, templates, and better reporting. Higher plans (Premium, Enterprise) cater to larger organizations with team management and forecasts. Free 30-day trials are available.
Testimonial: “I like that I can easily access it on the computer and my phone. It’s user-friendly. It also helps me stay on track and I can run reports to see what I’ve been working on. I use it every day.
”Use Case: A product manager might not need to clock in/out like an engineer, but Toggl is helpful for personal productivity – e.g. tracking how much time is spent in meetings, or on spec writing, or in customer interviews. These insights can highlight if a PM is overloaded with, say, administrative tasks versus strategic work. For teams, if developers log time on Toggl (or an integrated tool), a PM can gauge effort spent on features, assisting with future estimations. Toggl’s reporting might show, for example, that the team spent 120 hours on a particular epic, which informs sprint planning and stakeholder updates. The accountability and transparency (“holding me accountable,” as one user put it) can improve productivity across the board.
8. Mixpanel – Product Analytics for User Behavior
Overview: Mixpanel is a leading product analytics platform focused on user behavior in web and mobile apps. It lets PMs track events (clicks, feature usage, conversions), define funnels, segment users, and analyze retention and engagement. Mixpanel’s powerful queries and dashboards enable data-driven decision making – e.g. understanding which features are adopted or where users drop off in a flow.
Website: MixpanelPricing: Free plan includes up to 1 million monthly events and core reports – plenty for startups. The Growth plan (starts around $25/month and scales with usage) unlocks advanced features like cohort analysis, data modeling, and increased event volume. Enterprise plans are custom-priced. Mixpanel’s pricing is usage-based, so you pay more only as your product usage grows.
Testimonial: “Mixpanel gives me a crystal-clear view of user behavior across all my products. The event-based tracking system is intuitive, and the flexibility with custom cohorts and funnels allows deep insights without needing to write SQL.
”Use Case: In practice, a product manager might use Mixpanel to answer questions like “How many users used the new feature in the first week?” or “Which onboarding step has the highest drop-off rate?”. For example, you can set up a funnel from sign-up → onboarding tutorial → first key action, and see conversion percentages at each step. Mixpanel’s cohort analysis could show that users who use Feature X in their first week have 2x higher retention – insight that guides onboarding focus. PMs also use it to run quick A/B tests analysis or to explore pathways (common user action paths). Its real-time data means PMs aren’t waiting on an analyst for answers, accelerating the feedback loop on product changes.
9. Amplitude – Advanced Product Analytics & User Insights
Overview: Amplitude is another top product analytics tool, particularly strong in cohort analysis, retention, and advanced behavioral queries. It helps product teams understand user engagement and long-term retention by providing features like behavioral cohorts, user journey analysis, and predictive insights. Many product managers use Amplitude to inform roadmap priorities with data (e.g. which features drive the most engagement or revenue).
Website: AmplitudePricing: Starter plan is free and fairly robust (suitable for individuals or small apps). The Plus plan is around $49/month for expanded usage (supports more monthly tracked users and features). Growth and Enterprise plans scale up for large user bases (pricing can be custom – e.g. $995+/month for very high volumes). There’s also a free trial, and Amplitude’s free tier is generous enough for many startup needs.
Testimonial: “Amplitude provides a powerful, flexible analytics platform that enables deep exploration of product usage data. The cohorting, retention, and funnel analysis features give us actionable insights into user behavior that we rely on for product decisions.
”Use Case: Suppose a PM wants to improve 30-day retention. In Amplitude, they might create cohorts of users (e.g. users who used social share feature vs. those who didn’t) and compare retention rates, or use the Retention report to see how often users return week by week. Amplitude can reveal, say, “Users who complete 3+ actions in their first session retain 50% better” – thus the PM might prioritize features to encourage those actions. Its Personas feature (automatically clustering users by behavior patterns) can uncover distinct user segments, which inform marketing and product strategy. Essentially, Amplitude’s depth allows PMs to move from raw data to strategic insights. As one PM put it, “It gave me an easy way to understand deeply the actions of my users – I can’t imagine running product management without it.”.
10. Notion – All-in-One Documentation & Collaboration Workspace
Overview: Notion is an all-in-one workspace blending documents, wikis, notes, databases, and spreadsheets. For product managers, Notion can serve as a repository for product specs, roadmaps, meeting notes, OKRs, and even light project management. Its flexibility allows creation of templates for PRDs, tracking tables for feature ideas or user feedback, and beautiful wikis for knowledge sharing.
Website: NotionPricing: Free for personal use (and free for small teams with limited block storage). Plus (Team) plan is about $8 per user/month, which unlocks unlimited pages, file uploads, and advanced permissions. There are Business and Enterprise tiers for larger orgs. Notion’s free plan is quite generous, and there’s a free trial for the paid plans as well.
Testimonial: “It combines notes, docs, databases, wikis, calendars, project boards, and task lists into one clean, unified interface. You’re not locked into rigid templates—Notion lets you structure information however you need, making it a flexible all-in-one workspace.
”Use Case: In a real scenario, a product manager might maintain a Product Wiki in Notion – with pages for each feature (spec, designs, research), a roadmap database that can be filtered by quarter or product area, and even an embedded Jira roadmap via integration. During meetings, the PM can jot down notes in Notion, tag action items, and link out to relevant project pages. Teams love Notion for product documentation because it stays live and searchable – no more stale Word docs. For example, when planning a feature, the spec in Notion can include a table of user stories, which can be checked off as they’re delivered, and that same table can roll up into a high-level roadmap view for leadership. This centralization “consolidates my life into one place,” as one user described, eliminating the need to jump between multiple tools.
11. Confluence – Team Wiki and Documentation (Atlassian)
Overview: Confluence is a wiki-style documentation tool often used in tandem with Jira. It’s great for creating and sharing product requirement documents (PRDs), knowledge base articles, meeting notes, and technical documentation. Product managers use Confluence to ensure everyone has access to the latest specs, project updates, and decision logs. It offers hierarchical page organization, version history, and inline comments for collaboration.
Website: ConfluencePricing: Free for up to 10 users (with limited storage). Standard plan is ~$5 per user/month giving more storage and admin controls. There’s also Premium and Enterprise with advanced permissions and analytics. The free plan is sufficient for small teams’ documentation, and larger teams often get Confluence as part of Atlassian bundles with Jira.
Testimonial: “Confluence serves as our central hub for all project documentation. We rely on it for everything—from detailed user guides and how-to processes to keeping our release notes up to date. Plus, it’s an ideal way to build our team’s knowledge base, making it super easy to find all our collective wisdom and solutions… we spend less time searching and more time getting work done efficiently!
”Use Case: Consider a product team that creates a Confluence space for their project. A PM can have pages for each major feature containing the functional spec, UX designs (embedded), and relevant Jira links. Team members and stakeholders can leave comments or questions directly on the spec page, and the PM can resolve them, creating an audit trail of decisions. Over time, this builds into a knowledge base – new team members can read past project pages to get context. Integration with Jira means you can automatically display the status of linked Jira tickets on Confluence pages (great for status reports). The version control is handy when iterating on requirements. Overall, Confluence ensures that tribal knowledge is documented and shareable – as one user noted, “Project specs, meeting notes, and processes are now organized and easy to find, significantly reducing duplication of effort and onboarding time.”.
12. Miro – Collaborative Online Whiteboard
Overview: Miro is a popular online whiteboard for visual collaboration. It provides an infinite canvas with tons of templates (user journey maps, diagrams, wireframes, mind maps, etc.). Product managers use Miro to brainstorm with teams, map user flows, run remote design sprints, and facilitate workshops or roadmap planning sessions. Its real-time collaboration (multiple cursors on the board) makes brainstorming with distributed teams very engaging.
Website: MiroPricing: Free plan for 3 editable boards (more than enough to try out with a small team). Team plan starts around $8 per user/month for unlimited boards. Business and Enterprise plans add advanced security and admin features. Students and nonprofits can often get free licenses.
Testimonial: “I really enjoy using Miro for running workshops regularly. It’s intuitive, flexible, and makes collaboration feel effortless. Whether I’m mapping ideas, creating flowcharts, or collecting feedback, Miro makes it easy for everyone to contribute in real time.”
Use Case: Imagine a PM wants to sketch a new user onboarding flow with the team. In Miro, they can drag-and-drop shapes for each step, use arrows to connect them, and even paste screenshots of current UI. Team members (design, engineering, marketing) can all jump in the board during a meeting (or asynchronously) to add sticky notes with ideas or concerns. For roadmap planning, a PM might use a timeline template in Miro, allowing stakeholders to collaboratively place feature post-its by quarter. Miro can also serve as a retrospective board or a user research affinity map. Its versatility means a PM can use it from the discovery phase (brainstorming problems and solutions) all the way to post-release retrospectives. The remote-friendliness is key in 2025 – “Miro provides an intuitive and highly flexible digital whiteboard that adapts to virtually any use case,” letting teams ideate together regardless of location.
13. Figma – Collaborative Design & Prototyping Tool
Overview: Figma is a cloud-based UI/UX design tool that allows real-time collaboration between designers, developers, and product managers. While primarily a design tool, PMs often use Figma to review wireframes and prototypes, leave feedback, and even do light design adjustments during brainstorming. Its multiplayer collaboration (like Google Docs for design) means PMs can be in the design file with designers, ensuring the product vision and requirements are correctly translated to the UI. Figma also supports basic prototyping – great for PMs to test user flows before development.
Website: FigmaPricing: Free for individuals (up to 3 files) which is often enough for personal use or small projects. Professional plan ~$12/editor/month allows unlimited files and version history (often what startups use). Organization and Enterprise plans (starting ~$45/editor/month) add advanced collaboration, single sign-on, etc. There is also a Figma Starter team plan that’s free for 3 projects, which many teams find sufficient to begin.
Testimonial: “Figma makes real-time collaboration effortless. Being able to design, prototype, and iterate with teammates in the same file—no matter where they are—is a huge productivity boost. The interface is clean and intuitive, and features like auto layout, components, and variants help maintain consistency across designs. Plus, it’s cloud-based, so there’s no need to constantly upload or sync files.
”Use Case: From a PM perspective, Figma is invaluable in the design phase of product development. For example, a product manager can create a basic wireframe in Figma to illustrate a concept (even if not a designer by trade), then hand it to a UX designer to refine. They can then simultaneously discuss and tweak the design in real-time. When reviewing a new feature’s UI, instead of static images, the PM can click through a Figma prototype to experience the flow, making it easier to catch usability issues early. They can leave comments on specific elements (e.g. “This text should say X based on our messaging guidelines”). Figma’s versioning and branching allow PMs to see how designs evolve and even compare options side by side. By involving PMs, designers, and even engineers in Figma, teams ensure feasibility and requirements alignment before a line of code is written – reducing costly rework. As one team noted, Figma “eliminates version control issues and streamlines feedback loops, making developer handoff much smoother”.
14. Aha! – Product Roadmapping & Strategy
Overview: Aha! is a purpose-built product management suite known for roadmapping, idea management, and strategy planning. It allows product managers to define high-level product strategy (vision, goals, initiatives), collect ideas/feedback (via an ideas portal), and then create visual roadmaps that tie features to those strategic goals. It’s a robust tool for prioritization frameworks, capacity planning, and communicating the product plan to stakeholders.
Website: Aha! (specifically Aha! Roadmaps module)Pricing: No free plan (aside from a trial). Premium Roadmaps plan starts at $59 per user/month, which includes the core roadmapping and idea voting features. There are add-ons/modules like Aha! Ideas and Aha! Develop with their own pricing. It’s on the higher end, aimed at companies that need a dedicated PM solution – but note, it often replaces several other tools through its all-in-one capabilities. A 30-day free trial is offered.
Testimonial: “I have been using Aha! Roadmaps for several months now, and it has truly transformed the way we handle product planning and prioritization in our organization. The software’s intuitive interface makes it incredibly easy to map out our product strategy and align our team around key goals and initiatives. One standout feature is its streamlined idea intake – it significantly improved how we capture, evaluate, and prioritize ideas from stakeholders. Aha! Roadmaps serves as our single source of truth, centralizing all product info so everyone stays on the same page. The transparency it brings to our planning process has been invaluable.
”Use Case: A typical use case is a product manager at a growing company using Aha! to manage the entire product lifecycle. They start by defining product Goals and Initiatives in Aha! (e.g. “Improve onboarding conversion by 20%”). Under each initiative, they link related features. The Ideas Portal can be opened to internal teams or customers to submit feature requests which the PM can score and promote to features. The PM then builds a Roadmap Timeline view, placing features into quarterly releases – this roadmap can be easily shared as a live webpage or presentation to stakeholders. Aha! will automatically roll up progress from linked Jira tasks if integrated, giving PMs a high-level status. For prioritization, Aha! offers scorecards (custom weighted scoring) and charts to visualize value vs. effort. Essentially, Aha! is the PM’s command center for ensuring day-to-day tasks tie back to strategy. It’s especially powerful for enterprises or multiple-product portfolios where alignment and big-picture visibility are crucial. (Be mindful that it’s a complex tool – some learning curve and process discipline are needed to get the most value.)
15. Productboard – Customer-Driven Roadmapping and Feedback
Overview: Productboard is a product management platform that centralizes customer feedback, helps prioritize features, and creates shareable roadmaps. Its core philosophy is to help PMs build what really matters to users. All incoming feedback and ideas (from sales, support, etc.) can be collected in Productboard and linked to feature ideas. PMs can then prioritize features using custom criteria (e.g. user impact, effort) and visualize plans on a timeline or Kanban roadmap. It also offers a Portal for communicating what’s planned and collecting upvotes/comments from users.
Website: ProductboardPricing: Essentials plan around $20/user/month for basic feature tracking and roadmaps. The popular Pro plan is ~$80/user/month (allows feedback voter portal, integrations, and advanced insights) – pricing can vary and is often custom for larger teams. They do provide a free trial. (Also, Productboard offers special Startup plans at reduced cost for eligible companies.)
Testimonial: “What I like most about Productboard is that it aggregates all the customer feedback in one location. This helps us more easily determine which features will have the most impact and prioritize our roadmap accordingly. It has made our feature prioritization process much more data-driven and aligned with actual user needs.
”Use Case: Consider a PM constantly getting feature requests from various sources: support tickets, sales calls, user interviews. In Productboard, all these inputs can be logged as notes and linked to specific feature ideas. For example, five different customers request a dashboard export feature – the PM links their feedback to “Feature: Export dashboard” and sees at a glance the demand (and which customer segments want it). The PM can score each feature on parameters like impact and effort; Productboard can visualize a priority matrix or a weighted score. When finalizing quarterly plans, the PM drags top features into a timeline roadmap view. They can then publish a “Portal” page that shows, say, “Planned features” and “Under consideration” to transparently communicate with customers or internal stakeholders. When features are delivered (Productboard integrates with Jira/Azure DevOps for development tracking), the PM can notify all voters that their request was implemented – a huge win for closing the feedback loop. Productboard essentially ensures the voice of the customer directly influences what gets built, helping PMs defend why something is on the roadmap with concrete data (votes, scores, customer quotes). As one product manager put it, “it transforms customer feedback into a powerful tool for product management.”.
16. Canny – Customer Feedback & Feature Voting Tool
Overview: Canny is a feedback management tool that lets you collect, organize, and track user feedback and feature requests. It provides a public or internal feedback board where users can post ideas or upvote existing ones. Product managers use Canny to understand what customers want most, respond to those requests, and close the loop by announcing updates. It also has a simple roadmap feature to share what’s planned, and it can integrate with tools like Jira to link feedback to development tasks.
Website: CannyPricing: Free plan available (for up to 50 tracked users/feedback notes – good for early-stage). Startup and Growth plans range from $50 to a few hundred dollars per month depending on company size (pricing is often by tracked users or feedback volume). For instance, the Growth plan might start around $200/month for mid-size teams. Each plan typically includes unlimited boards and voting, with higher tiers adding integrations and SSO.
Testimonial: “I like that I can easily communicate with my customers if a feature request is possible or not, and it notifies everyone who upvoted the post. I also love how Canny organizes feedback so nothing slips through the cracks.
”Use Case: In practice, a product manager can set up feedback.canny.io/yourproduct and invite users to submit ideas or vote. Suppose users frequently request “Dark Mode”; rather than tallying emails or tickets, the PM sees on Canny that “Dark Mode” has 120 upvotes. They can respond on the post (“Planned for Q3”) which automatically emails all voters. Internally, the PM links this Canny post to a Jira ticket for Dark Mode – developers working on it can see real user comments for context. Once launched, the PM marks it as “Done” in Canny and pushes a changelog update; all voters get notified “Dark Mode is now live!” which delights users and closes the loop. Canny helps PMs by quantifying demand (making prioritization more democratic) and reducing the effort to manage feedback. It’s especially useful for smaller teams who want to be very transparent and community-driven with their roadmap. Over time, it also becomes a knowledge base of past requests and reasons for decisions (e.g., why something was declined). Many PMs appreciate that Canny provides insight at a glance – the highest voted requests – preventing loudest internal voices from dominating and instead surfacing what actual users collectively want.
17. Zapier – No-Code Workflow Automation
Overview: Zapier is an automation tool that connects different SaaS apps together without coding. It allows product managers (and anyone, really) to automate repetitive tasks and integrate their various tools. With Zapier, you set up “Zaps” consisting of a trigger and actions. For example, “When a user fills out a Typeform survey, create a task in Asana and post a Slack message.” PMs use Zapier to save time on data entry, keep information in sync across tools, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks during handoffs between different systems.
Website: ZapierPricing: Free plan for basic single-step zaps (up to 100 tasks/month). Paid plans start at Starter $19.99/month (billed annually) which offers multi-step Zaps and 750 tasks/month, with higher tiers (Professional, Team, Company) supporting more tasks and advanced features (like conditional logic, auto-replay). There’s a free trial for premium features. Lower-volume use cases can often fit in the free tier.
Testimonial: Users often praise Zapier’s ability to save time by automating across apps. One PM said, “Zapier is the glue that connects all our disparate tools – it’s incredibly easy to set up zaps that spare us manual work, like automatically pulling form feedback into our product backlog.” (From numerous positive G2 reviews paraphrased.)
Use Case: A concrete example: a product manager might run a Google Form or Typeform for beta user feedback. Instead of manually checking responses, they set up a Zap: Trigger: New Form Response → Actions: 1) Create a ticket in Jira or a note in Productboard with the feedback, 2) Send a notification in Slack to #beta-feedback. Now all feedback is instantly where it needs to be, and the team sees it in real-time. Another Zapier use: when a feature is marked “Done” in Jira, Zapier could automatically post an update to a Canny changelog or send a celebratory Slack message. Essentially, Zapier acts like a PM’s personal assistant that moves data and triggers workflows across the myriad SaaS tools in the stack. This ensures consistency (e.g., roadmap spreadsheet and Trello board can stay in sync via Zap) and frees PMs from copy-paste tedium. In a world of ever-increasing specialized apps, Zapier empowers a non-technical PM to create a tailored toolchain where all apps talk to each other. As a result, the team operates more efficiently with fewer human errors.
18. Airtable – Flexible Database and Spreadsheet Hybrid
Overview: Airtable is a modern cloud database that feels like a super-powered spreadsheet. It’s highly flexible and allows teams to create custom databases for anything – roadmaps, content calendars, feature lists, user research insights, you name it. Product managers use Airtable when they need more structure than a spreadsheet but more flexibility than a fixed app. With different views (Grid, Kanban, Calendar, Gallery) and powerful filtering/sorting, Airtable can serve as a lightweight CRM for feedback, a feature priority tracker, or a launch checklist tracker. It also supports attachments and rich fields, making it great for consolidating info.
Website: AirtablePricing: Free plan with unlimited bases (databases) but limited records (up to 1,200 items) – fine for small projects or personal PM use. Plus is $10 per user/month (increases record and storage limits), and Pro $20/user/mo adds advanced apps/automation and 50k records per base. Enterprise plans available for large orgs. Airtable also offers a 14-day Pro trial.
Testimonial: A PM noted on a forum: “We use Airtable for roadmap planning and tracking – Jira is too rigid for high-level planning. Airtable’s ease of grouping and coloring items by status, and linking records (like features to objectives), gives us a customized mini-database without coding.” (Paraphrased from multiple user testimonials about its flexibility.)
Use Case: Say a product manager wants to maintain a Feature backlog with scores. In Airtable, they design a table with columns like Feature, Description, Votes, Effort (1-5), Impact (1-5), Priority Score (formula), Status, etc. They can easily sort or filter by highest score, group by status (idea, planned, launched), and even create a Kanban view of the same data grouped by status for a visual board. Unlike a static spreadsheet, each feature can have a detailed notes field or attachments (design mockups, user interview clips). Airtable can also link tables – e.g., a Feedback table where each user comment is linked to the relevant feature in the Feature table, so a PM can click a feature and see all related feedback. During launch planning, a PM might switch to a Calendar view to ensure timing aligns. The beauty is the PM doesn’t have to request a custom tool or IT support – they can whip up an Airtable base in an afternoon tailored to their workflow. Many startups use Airtable as a lightweight alternative to complex PLM software – it’s part spreadsheet, part database, part project tracker, filling many gaps especially when the product org is evolving quickly.
19. Hotjar – User Behavior Analytics (Heatmaps & Recordings)
Overview: Hotjar provides heatmaps, session recordings, and user feedback polls for websites and web apps. It helps product managers see how users actually interact with their product’s UI: where they click, how far they scroll, where they get confused or frustrated. Heatmaps aggregate user clicks and scrolls visually, while session replay lets you watch recordings of real user sessions. Hotjar also includes on-site surveys and feedback widgets (e.g. a subtle “Was this page helpful?” poll). It’s an excellent tool for uncovering UX issues and validating design changes with qualitative insights.
Website: HotjarPricing: Basic free plan for personal use includes limited daily session recordings and heatmaps (e.g. 35 sessions/day). Plus and Business plans start around $39/month and up, scaling by session volume and feature set (business plans allow thousands of recordings/day, advanced filtering, etc.). Hotjar’s free tier is sufficient to trial on a small scale, and growing products can upgrade as traffic increases.
Testimonial: “Hotjar is incredibly intuitive, offering valuable heatmaps, session recordings, and feedback tools that help us better understand user behavior and improve our product’s UX. It’s easy to set up, and the insights we get have been game-changing for prioritizing usability improvements.
”Use Case: Imagine a PM notices in Mixpanel that a lot of users drop off on the pricing page. To find out why, they turn to Hotjar. A heatmap might reveal that users hardly scroll past the top pricing table – indicating maybe the content below isn’t seen. Session recordings might show users rage-clicking a plan info tooltip that doesn’t work, or moving their mouse in confusion. With that insight, the PM can propose a redesign (which they’ll later validate again with Hotjar). Another scenario: before a major UI overhaul, the PM runs Hotjar recordings on the old design to capture baseline behavior and common pain points. After the redesign ships, they compare new recordings or run an on-page survey (“Is it easier to find what you need?”) – this helps measure if the change truly solved the problem. Hotjar essentially gives PMs eyes on the user, beyond just numbers. It’s also very straightforward: install a script and data starts flowing. This makes it a quick win for PMs who want to inject more user empathy into planning. Often, watching just a handful of session recordings can illuminate issues that weren’t obvious through analytics – it’s like doing a mini usability test with real users at scale. For any web-based product manager, Hotjar is a handy addition to the toolkit for marrying quantitative data with qualitative visuals of user behavior.
20. Intercom – Customer Messaging and Engagement Platform
Overview: Intercom is a customer communication platform that combines live chat, in-app messaging, email, and a help center – all in one. It’s commonly used for customer support and onboarding. For product managers, Intercom provides a direct channel to users inside the product: you can announce new features with in-app messages, onboard users with automated chat prompts, and collect feedback via targeted surveys. It also offers a rich user data platform, so PMs can segment users (by behavior or plan) and send them personalized messages. Essentially, Intercom helps PMs engage users and learn from them without relying on them coming to you.
Website: IntercomPricing: Intercom’s pricing varies by usage (number of users/contacts) and which modules you use (Support, Engage, etc.). It tends to be premium: for instance, Starter plans might be around $74/month for small startups (with limits on people reached), while larger businesses pay hundreds to thousands per month based on active users and features. There’s no free tier beyond a trial, but the value comes from consolidating multiple communication tools.
Testimonial: One G2 reviewer notes: “Intercom has made it easy to communicate with our customers right inside our app. The live chat and automated messages let us support and educate users quickly, which improves their experience. We can also announce new features with tooltips and measure user interest immediately. It’s been essential for keeping users engaged and gathering feedback in real time.” (Sourced from positive Intercom feedback on G2 and case studies, emphasizing ease of communication and engagement.)Use Case: Picture a SaaS product launch of a new feature. A product manager uses Intercom to set up an in-app message targeting all users who have logged in in the past month: a little popup in the app that says “New: You can now invite colleagues! (Click here to try)”. This drives awareness and immediate usage. If users have questions, they can reply in the messenger and the support/PM team can clarify – great instant feedback loop on the feature. The PM can also use Intercom’s Product Tours to create a quick guided tutorial for the feature without engineering effort. For onboarding, new sign-ups might get an automated welcome message or a check-in after 7 days (“How are you finding Feature X? Let us know!”). This kind of proactive outreach can surface UX issues or bugs faster. And all this happens inside the product, which users appreciate for immediacy. Additionally, Intercom’s user list and event tracking allow PMs to segment – e.g., find users who haven’t used Feature X and send them a nudge or gather input why. It blurs the line between product and communication in a powerful way, ensuring product managers maintain a dialogue with users. While traditionally a support tool, many PMs sit in on Intercom conversations or tag themselves on important ones, so they stay close to the customer voice. In short, Intercom not only helps retain and support users (which is everyone’s job) but gives PMs insight and a megaphone to influence user behavior and satisfaction directly through the app.
Conclusion: In 2025’s fast-paced product landscape, these SaaS tools form a comprehensive stack for product managers. From defining strategy and roadmaps, to executing with agile project management, analyzing user data, gathering feedback, and keeping teams and customers in the loop – the right tool makes each job easier. Importantly, many of these tools integrate with each other, creating a PM ecosystem where data and insights flow seamlessly (e.g., customer feedback in Canny informing priorities in Jira, usage analytics from Mixpanel guiding roadmap in Aha!, etc.). As you evaluate which tools to adopt, consider your company’s size and needs: startups might start with versatile, affordable tools like Notion or Trello, whereas enterprises invest in purpose-built solutions like Aha! or Productboard. Regardless, a great product manager combines the power of these tools with sound judgment and cross-functional collaboration. Equip yourself and your team with some of the above, and you’ll be well-prepared to build and scale products that delight users in 2025 and beyond.