Best Alternative to Dovetail (2025)
Are you exploring alternatives to Dovetail for your user research and product insights in 2025? You’re not alone.
Are you exploring alternatives to Dovetail for your user research and product insights in 2025? You’re not alone. While many teams love Dovetail’s user research repository, recent advances in AI and automation have opened the door to new tools that go far beyond what Dovetail offers. In this post, we’ll compare the best Dovetail alternatives – including BuildBetter, Condens, and EnjoyHQ – and see how they stack up on key features.
Spoiler: BuildBetter emerges as the top choice with AI-powered capabilities and seamless workflow integration. Below, you’ll find a feature-by-feature comparison and learn why BuildBetter’s unique strengths (universal search, AI chat, signal extraction, document generation, automation, CRM integration, scheduled tasks, and more) make it the best option for teams wanting to supercharge their research process.
Why Look for a Dovetail Alternative in 2025?
Dovetail has been an industry leader, providing robust tools for tagging, transcribing, and storing research data. However, some teams encounter:
- High costs and per-seat pricing – especially for larger teams.
- Basic AI features that haven’t proven very robust in practice.
- A siloed repository that can be confusing to navigate.
- Limited automation and reporting.
In 2025, many product and research teams need more intelligent, integrated solutions that analyze data automatically, pull insights from multiple sources, and feed those insights into everyday workflows. Below, we’ll look at how alternatives stack up and why BuildBetter stands out.
Top Dovetail Alternatives in 2025
1. BuildBetter – AI-Powered Product Insights Hub
BuildBetter is an AI-driven platform for teams that want to convert unstructured data—like interview recordings, support tickets, and internal chats—into actionable insights. Here are its standout features:
- Universal Search: Vector-based AI search across all your data (calls, tickets, documents, etc.). Ask questions in plain English; BuildBetter finds answers and citations.
- AI-Powered Chat: BuildBetter has a built-in assistant (like a private ChatGPT) that knows your company’s data. Anyone can ask research questions and get instant answers with direct references.
- Automated Signal Extraction: BuildBetter automatically surfaces recurring themes, requests, pain points, and sentiment. It flags top feature requests, complaints, and more without manual tagging.
- Document Generation: Quickly turn raw data into polished PRDs, Q&A docs, or strategic briefs. BuildBetter can create meeting notes, reports, and summaries from multiple sources—even thousands of calls.
- Workflow Automation: Set up triggers and schedules so that weekly insights or new feature requests automatically get summarized and pushed to the right teams (e.g., Slack, email, CRM).
- CRM & Tool Integrations: Seamlessly sync with Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira, Slack, Zoom, Webex, and more. Bi-directional integration means your CRM stays updated with the latest call data.
- Unlimited Seats: Pricing is based on data usage, not seats—so you can invite your entire organization without worrying about per-user costs.
Ultimately, BuildBetter is the all-in-one platform that both stores and analyzes your data—helping you find insights in minutes rather than weeks. This breadth of AI-driven functionality is where it truly surpasses Dovetail.
2. Condens – Streamlined Research Repository
Condens is a lighter, more streamlined alternative to Dovetail, focused on core research repository features:
- Simplicity: A clean interface that makes it easy to store, tag, and highlight user research data.
- Collaboration: Multiple researchers can annotate and tag transcripts in real-time.
- Participant Management: Keep track of who you’ve interviewed and filter data accordingly.
However, Condens lacks robust AI capabilities and workflow automation. It’s a “no-frills” approach—solid for smaller teams with minimal AI needs. For those seeking advanced automation and analytics, Condens may feel limited.
3. EnjoyHQ – Data Aggregation Powerhouse
EnjoyHQ (acquired by UserZoom/UserTesting) is known for:
- Aggregation: Pulling data from many sources—survey tools, support systems, etc.—into a single hub.
- Broad Integrations: Connects with Jira, Intercom, and other feedback channels.
However:
- Steep Learning Curve: Its interface can be confusing and overwhelming.
- Limited AI Assistance: You’ll still rely on manual analysis for identifying trends and patterns.
- Enterprise Pricing: It can get expensive as data volume and user counts grow.
EnjoyHQ is powerful if you need to ingest large amounts of feedback from multiple channels, but it won’t provide the same automated insight generation that BuildBetter does.
Quick Comparison: Key Features
| Feature | BuildBetter | Dovetail | Condens | EnjoyHQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal AI Search | Yes | No (basic) | No | Partial |
| AI Chat Assistant | Yes | No | No | No |
| Automated Signal Extraction | Yes | Limited | No | Limited |
| Document Generation | Yes | No | No | No |
| Workflow Automation | Yes | Minimal | No | Minimal |
| CRM Integration (2-way) | Yes | No | Limited | Limited |
| Seat Pricing | Unlimited | Per-seat | Per-seat | Per-seat |
| Ease of Use | High | Moderate | High | Low |
BuildBetter stands out in AI-driven features, automation, and unlimited seat pricing—letting your entire team benefit from insights without extra cost.
Why BuildBetter Is the Best Choice
- AI Everywhere: BuildBetter’s integrated AI doesn’t just store transcripts—it proactively finds patterns, answers questions, and generates content.
- Actionable Insights: You can schedule tasks, automate report generation, and push insights directly into Slack, CRM systems, and more—turning raw data into operational workflows.
- Unlimited Collaboration: No per-seat fees means you can invite your whole organization. Everyone from product managers to sales can tap into the same insights.
- Seamless Integrations: Connects to all major call and CRM platforms (Zoom, Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.).
- Time Saved: No more manual tagging, reviewing hours of recordings, or writing lengthy summaries. BuildBetter’s automation cuts down on tedious chores, so you focus on strategy.
Teams using BuildBetter frequently report hours saved every week and faster decision-making. Plus, having AI mine all your customer and team interactions ensures no insight slips through the cracks.
Conclusion & Call to Action
If you’re tired of manually piecing together data in Dovetail—or you need something more powerful than basic tagging—BuildBetter is a game-changer. It’s the all-in-one, AI-powered hub that transforms scattered customer feedback into clear, actionable insights for product teams, researchers, and beyond.
Ready to see the difference for yourself?
Try BuildBetter for free and experience how AI can supercharge your research and product development process.
Pro Tip: Use BuildBetter’s AI Chat to quickly ask product questions (“What are the top 3 pain points raised last month?”) and watch it pull direct quotes from calls or tickets—no more digging through transcripts!
Level-up your user research in 2025. Say goodbye to siloed data and manual analysis—choose BuildBetter and build better products, faster.