Best Customer Feedback Tools for Indie Makers (2026 Prices)

Short answer: Most indie makers should start on a free plan and only pay when they need a custom domain or want the vendor's branding gone. UserJot's free plan is the most complete starting point we found, Sleekplan is the cheapest paid step at $13/mo billed yearly, and Fider is the pick if you want open source you can host yourself. Hold off on per-tracked-user tools like Canny until you know how many people will vote.

Prices come from each vendor's own pages, checked 7 Nov 2026. Advice is ours and marked.

TL;DR#

• Best free plan: UserJot Free gives 2 boards, 3 team members, a public roadmap and a public changelog, with unlimited users and posts.
• Cheapest flat paid plan: Sleekplan Starter at $13/mo billed yearly, or Upvoty Power at $15/mo billed monthly.
• Open source: Fider is free to self-host (AGPL-3.0), free on its cloud up to a 250 feedback item fair-use limit, and $25/mo for Pro.
• Most features, highest price: Canny Pro starts at $79/mo billed yearly for up to 100 tracked users.
• $0 DIY: GitHub Discussions for developer audiences, a Tally form for everyone else.
• Dropped: Nolt and Bettter. We could not load either pricing page today, so we left them out rather than guess.

Disclosure: ZeroRaised is a launch site for bootstrapped products. It has no commercial relationship with any tool listed here and earns nothing if you sign up.

Comparison table#

The tools, one by one#

UserJot: best free plan#

UserJot's pricing line is "Pay for features, not seats", and every plan, including Free, has "unlimited users and unlimited posts" (UserJot pricing). Free includes 2 feedback boards, 3 admin roles, 3 team members, guest posting, a public roadmap, a public changelog, a REST API and an MCP server.

• Starter, $29/mo: adds a custom domain, moderation, automatic login, private boards, one integration and 5 boards.
• Professional, $59/mo: adds unlimited boards, single sign-on, unlimited integrations and removal of UserJot branding.
• Paid plans have a 14-day free trial.

Our read: the free plan already has the three things a solo founder needs (board, roadmap, changelog). The main reason to upgrade is putting it on feedback.yourdomain.com.

Sleekplan: cheapest paid step#

Sleekplan's Indie plan is "Free forever" with "Unlimited feedback & subscribers", a single-admin workspace, a feedback board and changelog, 1,000 announcement views and 500 email sends a month (Sleekplan pricing). Pricing is "per workspace", and tracked users are unlimited on every tier.

• Starter, $13/mo billed yearly: 3 team seats, CSAT and NPS, 1,000 AI credits, SSO, API access and webhooks, standard integrations.
• Business, $38/mo billed yearly: 10 team seats, 5,000 AI credits a month, surveys, branding removal and a custom domain.
• Paid plans have a 30-day trial with no card. If you do not upgrade, you move back to Indie.

Our read: good for an in-app widget, but a custom domain needs Business.

Fider: open source#

Fider says "Fider is free!" on its cloud, under a fair-use policy of 250 feedback items, with unlimited customers, voting and members (Fider pricing). Pro is $25 USD a month and adds "content moderation and unlimited feedback items", plus SEO indexing according to the FAQ. The source code is on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 license, and the README says self-hosting is "totally free, but of course you're responsible for everything."

Our read: if you already run a server, self-hosting costs an afternoon.

Upvoty: simple flat board#

Upvoty has no free plan but offers a "14-day free trial on every plan. No credit card required" (Upvoty pricing). Every tier lists unlimited boards and unlimited tracked users, so you pay by product, not by voter.

• Power, $15/mo: one project. Upvoty pitches it "For solo founders validating product ideas", and the card lists a public roadmap, custom domain and no Upvoty branding.
• Super, $25/mo: adds a changelog and all integrations.
• Hyper, $49/mo: unlimited projects, SAML SSO, API and webhooks, and an Upvoty MCP.
• Annual billing saves 10%.

Frill: polished widget#

Frill's headline is "Plans from $25/mo. Unlimited admins and unlimited widgets on every paid tier" (Frill pricing). Startup is $25/mo with 50 ideas and 1 survey, Business is $49/mo with unlimited ideas and 3 surveys, then Growth at $149/mo and Enterprise at $349/mo. There is no free plan, but there is a "14-day free trial. No credit card required." Privacy (private boards) and white labeling are listed as add-ons, and their prices were not shown.

Our read: the 50-idea cap on Startup is the thing to watch. A launch can fill that in a week.

Featurebase: feedback plus support desk#

Free is "$0 forever" with 1 seat, 1 feedback board, 1 roadmap, 50 help articles and unlimited end users (Featurebase pricing). Growth is $29 per seat a month and adds integrations, the API and webhooks, surveys and 5 boards. Professional is $59 per seat a month. Removing Featurebase branding is a $69/mo add-on, available on Professional and Enterprise. Annual billing saves 20%, there is a 10-day free trial, and Featurebase advertises 86% off for startups that meet its criteria (founded under 2 years ago, fewer than 6 employees, raised under $3M).

Our read: per-seat pricing is fine while you are the only seat.

Canny: the incumbent#

Canny Free covers "25 tracked users", 5 managers and unlimited feedback (Canny pricing). Pro "starts at $79 / month billed yearly" for 100+ tracked users, and Canny's help center gives the month-to-month price as "$99/mo for up to 100 tracked users" (Canny billing plans). A tracked user is "any user associated with feedback."

What is gated, per that help article:

• "Every plan includes a public roadmap and a changelog", but "Changelog emails are not sent on the Free plan."
• "Custom domains are NOT included on the Free plan."
• Free can connect only feedback and notification integrations. Project management integrations (Jira, ClickUp, Linear, Asana, GitHub) need Pro.

The pricing page FAQ warns that without a monthly spend limit, "we'll automatically upgrade you to the next tier once you exceed your limit."

Our read: tracked-user pricing punishes what you want, more users giving feedback. Set the spend limit on day one.

Free DIY options#

GitHub Discussions. GitHub's docs say discussions live in "user-defined categories", that you can "Mark comments as answers in question-and-answer categories" and "Gauge community opinion using polls" (About discussions). Users can "Upvote discussions and top-level comments" and "sort discussions to see which have been upvoted the most" (Participating in a discussion). An admin has to enable it per repository. It is ideal for developer tools and useless if your customers have no GitHub account.

Tally. Tally gives "unlimited forms and submissions, completely free, as long as you stay within our fair usage guidelines" (Tally pricing), with Notion, Airtable, Google Sheets and webhook integrations on the free plan. Pro is $24/mo and adds branding removal and custom domains. A three-question form piped into a Notion table is a perfectly good system for your first users.

How to choose by stage#

This section is our editorial advice.

First 20 users: do not buy a board#

Twenty users will not produce meaningful vote counts, and a board full of zero-vote posts looks empty. Use email, a Tally form and calls. Our guide to running customer discovery interviews covers what to ask so that you get behaviour, not wish lists.

Pick: Tally free, or GitHub Discussions for a developer product.

Around 100 users: open a free board#

Patterns start to show, and a public board saves you answering the same request twice. Keep the board and changelog in one tool.

Pick: UserJot Free or Sleekplan Indie. Choose Fider (cloud free or self-hosted) if you want open source and are happy to post release notes elsewhere.

Around 1,000 users: pay for flat pricing#

Now a custom domain, removed branding and an issue tracker integration are worth money. Choose flat pricing so a busy month does not change your bill.

Pick: UserJot Starter ($29/mo) or Professional ($59/mo) if you want the branding gone, Upvoty Super ($25/mo), or Sleekplan Business ($38/mo billed yearly). Look at Canny only if you need its CRM and project management integrations and can budget for tracked users.

How to run a feedback loop solo#

The habit matters more than the tool. About an hour a week:

1. Capture everywhere, store in one place. Support emails, DMs and call notes go onto the board, posted by you on the user's behalf if needed.
2. Merge and tag weekly. Merge duplicates so votes add up, and tag by theme (onboarding, billing, integrations).
3. Weight by who is asking. Ten votes from free users and two from your best-paying customers are not the same signal.
4. Move a few items to the roadmap. No more than three things in "Planned" at a time. Our SaaS product roadmap template shows a Now/Next/Later layout for a team of one.
5. Ship, then close the loop in public. Mark the post complete, link it from a changelog entry and notify everyone who voted. Our guide on writing a changelog that drives upgrades shows how to make those entries sell paid features too.
6. Say no out loud. Mark requests you will not build as "Not planned" with a one-line reason.

Our read: this is why we favour tools that keep board and changelog together. UserJot and Canny include a public roadmap and changelog on every plan, Sleekplan Indie has a board and changelog, and Upvoty adds a changelog on Super.

Our read: the pick list#

• Best overall free plan: UserJot Free.
• Cheapest paid plan with a custom domain: Upvoty Power at $15/mo, if one product is enough.
• Best open source: Fider, self-hosted.
• Best for an in-app widget on a budget: Sleekplan.
• Best if you also want a help center: Featurebase.
• Best for larger or funded teams: Canny.
• Best $0 option for developer tools: GitHub Discussions.
• Best for your first 20 users: a Tally form and your inbox.

Frequently asked questions#

What is the best free customer feedback tool for indie makers?#

For most solo founders, UserJot's free plan is the most complete: 2 feedback boards, 3 team members, a public roadmap and a public changelog, with unlimited users and posts. Sleekplan's free Indie plan is a close second if you want in-app announcements too. If you prefer open source, Fider is free to self-host under the AGPL-3.0 license.

Is Canny worth it for a bootstrapped SaaS?#

Usually not at the start. Canny's free plan covers 25 tracked users, and Pro starts at $79/mo billed yearly or $99/mo month to month for up to 100 tracked users. Canny counts any user associated with feedback as a tracked user and upgrades you automatically past the limit unless you set a monthly spend limit. It makes more sense once you need its project management and CRM integrations.

What does tracked users pricing mean?#

It means you pay based on how many end users leave feedback, vote or comment, not on how many admins you have. Canny defines a tracked user as any user associated with feedback. It suits companies with predictable, paying audiences. For an indie product with a big free tier or a launch spike, flat pricing such as UserJot, Upvoty or Frill is easier to budget.

Can I use GitHub Discussions as a feedback board?#

Yes, if your users are developers. GitHub's docs say you can organise discussions in categories, mark answers in Q&A categories, run polls, upvote discussions and sort to see which have been upvoted the most. An admin has to enable Discussions on the repository first. It is a poor fit if your customers do not have GitHub accounts.

When should I pay for a feedback tool?#

Our read: pay when one of three things happens. You need the board on your own domain, you want to remove the vendor's branding from a customer-facing page, or you need an integration that pushes requests into your issue tracker. Before that, a free plan plus a changelog does the job.

Turn feedback into a launch#

Shipped the feature everyone voted for? That is a launch. Submit your product to ZeroRaised for free, and join the ZeroRaised newsletter for more roundups.

Sources#

• UserJot pricing, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• Sleekplan pricing, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• Fider pricing, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• Fider on GitHub, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• Upvoty pricing, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• Frill pricing, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• Featurebase pricing, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• Canny pricing, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• Canny's billing plans (help center), last checked 7 Nov 2026
• GitHub Docs: About discussions, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• GitHub Docs: Participating in a discussion, last checked 7 Nov 2026
• Tally pricing, last checked 7 Nov 2026