The State of UX & CX Tooling 2026: What 189 Listed Tools and 6,900 Tool Page Views Show
189 tools, two catalogues, seven months of buyer research.
We analysed every tool we list across cx.tools and ux.tools, plus seven months of buyer research on both sites. Eight findings, each one citable.
The State of UX & CX Tooling 2026 is a data report from cx.tools covering the 74 customer experience tools on cx.tools and the 115 UX design and research tools on ux.tools. It shows who vendors build for, how they price, how far AI has spread, and what buyers research.
Key findings
Finding 1
70%
70% of the CX tools listed on cx.tools are built for enterprise buyers; only 23% target startups.
52 of 74 CX tools list enterprise as a target segment, against 17 for startups and 26 for small businesses.
Finding 2
37%
37% of UX tools listed on ux.tools have a free plan, and free or freemium tools drew 51% of UX tool views.
40 of 107 UX tools with known pricing offer a free plan. CX vendors rarely publish one, which keeps CX buying sales-led.
Finding 3
66%
66% of CX tools on cx.tools list at least one AI-driven capability.
49 of 74 CX tools list features such as AI text analysis, intent recognition, answer bots or predictive analytics. In UX, 11 of 115 tools are AI-native design tools.
Finding 4
96%
96% of CX tools on cx.tools offer an API; 53% claim an integration marketplace of 200+ apps.
The average CX tool lists 14.1 capabilities. Integration breadth no longer separates vendors; integration depth does.
Finding 5
14%
Journey Mapping & Orchestration was the most-researched CX category on cx.tools, with 14% of tool page views.
It holds 8 of 74 listed tools (11%), so buyer attention outweighs its share of the catalogue.
Finding 6
+160%
On a typical day, UX tool research on ux.tools changed +160% from Mar to Sep, while CX tool research on cx.tools changed -49%.
Measured as median daily tool page views, so one-off traffic spikes don't count. Design teams are re-evaluating their stacks; CX platforms are bigger, stickier contracts that buyers revisit less often.
Finding 7
Penpot
Penpot was the most-viewed UX tool on ux.tools, ahead of Figma.
57 of 101 UX tools with a known founding year (56%) were founded in 2015 or later; the UX market is young and still turning over.
Finding 8
2.4%
Only 2.4% of CX tool page views on cx.tools ended in a click to the vendor.
CX buyers compare for a long time before they talk to a vendor. Listings that answer the decision questions on the page win the shortlist.
The CX software catalogue
cx.tools lists 74 customer experience tools across 15 categories. Each tool lists 14.1 capabilities on average. Vendors overwhelmingly build for larger buyers: enterprise and mid-market are the two most common target segments.
| Item | Tools |
|---|---|
| Enterprise | 52 (70%) |
| Mid-Market | 51 (69%) |
| Small Business | 26 (35%) |
| Startup | 17 (23%) |
| Item | Share of views |
|---|---|
| Journey Mapping & Orchestration | 14% |
| CRM-Integrated CX Platforms | 10% |
| Feedback & Survey | 9% |
| Voice of Customer | 9% |
| CX Automation & Journey Orchestration | 8% |
| Chatbots & Virtual Assistants | 8% |
| Sentiment Analysis & VoC Analytics | 8% |
| Live Chat & Messaging | 8% |
| Omnichannel Engagement Platforms | 6% |
| Customer Support | 5% |
| Community Platforms | 4% |
| Personalization | 4% |
| Customer Relationship Management | 3% |
| Customer Analytics | 3% |
| Loyalty & Rewards | 1% |
Browse the leading category: Journey Mapping & Orchestration, CRM-Integrated CX Platforms, Feedback & Survey.
The UX tool catalogue
ux.tools lists 115 active UX design and research tools. Unlike CX software, UX tools are mostly bought bottom-up by designers and researchers, and pricing shows it: 40 of 107 tools with known pricing have a free plan, and 17 offer a free trial.
| Item | Tools |
|---|---|
| Paid | 40 (35%) |
| Freemium | 38 (33%) |
| Unknown | 29 (25%) |
| Free | 8 (7%) |
| Item | Share of views |
|---|---|
| Paid | 33% |
| Freemium | 39% |
| Unknown | 16% |
| Free | 12% |
| Item | Tools |
|---|---|
| UX Design | 28 |
| Analytics | 13 |
| AI Design Tools | 11 |
| User Testing | 8 |
| Design Collaboration | 8 |
| User Feedback | 7 |
| Remote Testing | 7 |
| UX Research | 7 |
Where buyer attention went
Between Mar 2026 and Sep 2026, tool pages on the two sites were viewed 6,945 times. The monthly charts show the median day, so one-off spikes don't distort the trend. They use separate scales on purpose; compare their shape, not their height.
| Item | Median daily views |
|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 17.5 |
| Apr 2026 | 15 |
| May 2026 | 11 |
| Jun 2026 | 10.5 |
| Jul 2026 | 15 |
| Aug 2026 | 11 |
| Sep 2026 | 9 |
| Item | Median daily views |
|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 10 |
| Apr 2026 | 5.5 |
| May 2026 | 11 |
| Jun 2026 | 22 |
| Jul 2026 | 17 |
| Aug 2026 | 22 |
| Sep 2026 | 26 |
| Item | Views |
|---|---|
| Salesforce Customer 360 | 83 |
| Survicate | 78 |
| Microsoft Visio | 77 |
| Kitewheel | 72 |
| Medallia Text Analytics | 69 |
| Kitewheel (CSG) | 68 |
| Medallia Experience Cloud | 66 |
| Kore.ai XO Platform | 64 |
| Item | Views |
|---|---|
| Penpot | 130 |
| Figma | 99 |
| Lovable | 86 |
| Sketch | 79 |
| Uizard | 78 |
| Wispr Flow | 78 |
| Mockplus | 75 |
| Visily | 64 |
Methodology and limits
- Catalogues. Every published tool on cx.tools (74) and every active tool on ux.tools (115) as of 2026-10-14. Segments, capabilities and pricing are what each listing states.
- AI capability means the listing includes at least one AI-driven feature (for example AI text analysis, intent recognition, answer bots or predictive analytics). Plain analytics such as cohorts or funnels don't count.
- Views are tool detail-page views logged by our own first-party tracking from 2026-03-01 to 2026-09-30. They contain no personal data and include some automated traffic: both sites had short bursts (for example 31 August and 10–17 September on ux.tools). Trends therefore use median daily views, which those bursts don't move; totals and shares include them.
- Limits. Our catalogues are curated, not the whole market, and the audiences of the two sites differ. Read the numbers as signals from people actively researching tools, not as market share.
Cite this report
You're welcome to quote any finding or chart. Please link to this page as the source.
Text
Source: cx.tools, "The State of UX & CX Tooling 2026: What 189 Listed Tools and 6,900 Tool Page Views Show" (2026), https://cx.tools/insights/state-of-ux-cx-tooling-2026HTML
<a href="https://cx.tools/insights/state-of-ux-cx-tooling-2026">The State of UX & CX Tooling 2026: What 189 Listed Tools and 6,900 Tool Page Views Show</a> (cx.tools, 2026)Frequently Asked Questions
What data is the State of UX & CX Tooling report based on?
Every tool listed on cx.tools (74 CX tools) and ux.tools (115 UX tools), plus first-party tool page views on both sites from 2026-03-01 to 2026-09-30.
How many CX tools use AI?
66% of CX tools on cx.tools list at least one AI-driven capability.
Do UX tools have free plans?
37% of UX tools listed on ux.tools have a free plan, and free or freemium tools drew 51% of UX tool views.
Can I use these numbers in my own article?
Yes. Quote any finding or chart and link to this page as the source. A ready-made citation is at the end of the report.