ProductStash vs. Frill [Alternatives Review 2021]

Ideas

Both tools have boards for collecting ideas (e.g. feature requests).

Where users/guests can:

• Add ideas
• Comment
• Follow
• Upvote
• Choose up to 3 topics (Frill only)
• Add attachments (ProductStash only)

And admins can:

• Pin ideas to the top (Frill only)
• Add private notes
• Manage topics (Frill only)
• Add score for impact & effort (ProductStash only)
• Change idea status
• Merge ideas
• Push idea to roadmap

Roadmaps

The best ideas end up on the roadmap for development.

A product roadmap is nothing more than a pipeline with stages. (Kanban board)

Stages can be added, removed & hidden from the public.

Then inside the stages you can manage cards.

Those are the basic features of roadmaps.

And they are pretty well covered by both platforms.

Features only in ProductStash:

• Attach features to a card with a progress bar
• Embed the roadmap to your website via iframe
• Customization - You can hide/show each element individually (about 20 switches)

Announcements

After all the stages of a pipeline a feature is considered finished and it is time to announce it.

The announcements show in two places:

• On the announcements page created by the tool
• Anywhere where you embed the announcements widget

ProductStash has user segmentation.

A use-case for SaaS companies:

Let's say you have two pricing plans - standard & pro

A new feature is released just for the "pro" plan.

Then you would announce it to the "pro" segment.

So the "standard" clients wouldn't see it.

(And get hyped for nothing)

Frill has some basic customization options,

You can set them directly in the embed code.

Like the text translation for example.

Currently, ProductStash has better customization options:

• Choose an icon
• Pick the colors
• Display switches on/off for each element

However, Frill is building something epic...

A visual builder for you to design your own widget.

This will be a game changer.

The release date is set to be a month from now.

Here's a screenshot provided by Frill:

Feedback Boards

ProductStash created separate boards for feedback.

This is the next phase after you make the announcement.

The workflow suggestion itself is good.

However, the way this was implemented seems like copy & paste...

They just took the idea board and duplicated it into a separate section.

Authorization

ProductStash only supports guests (not registered users).

In theory, someone could manipulate the votes.

Which would be... well... bad.

Frill allows guests or users to add ideas, comment, etc.

Depending on how you set the permissions

They take it a step further with Single Sign-on (SSO).

Users can use your SaaS credentials to get access.

Instead of having to create a new account with Frill.

This way only your clients with credentials can add ideas, comments, upvote, etc.

Integrations

ProductStash has an API and integration with Jira.

Frill has webhooks and integration with Pabbly Connect.

You can easily setup a Pabbly workflow:

1. Idea is pushed to Roadmap (Trigger)
2. Task is created in your project management tool (Action)

This would (partially) save you the work of keeping both tools in sync.

A 2-way sync isn't currently possible, since there are no actions for Frill.

But better some automation than no automation.

Features Score

ProductStash has many more customization features than Frill.

However, I am hyped about Frill's visual builder which is to be released in a month.

A visual builder would be much easier to work with than all these on/off switches.

Also ProductStash did miss a critical feature - SSO.

I only want clients to add ideas and know that they can vote only once.

Not guests.

Otherwise, I'll always be doubting the results.

Frill has an integration I can actually use - Pabbly Connect.

ProductStash doesn't.

The only thing I was really impressed with is the user segmentation.

Features score:

ProductStash - 7/10

Frill - 8/10 (Winner)