Underrun VS Rocketlane: Transparent Planning or Collaborative Project Execution for SaaS Onboarding?
April 15 2025
Underrun VS Rocketlane: Transparent Planning or Collaborative Project Execution for SaaS Onboarding?
A successful customer journey involves two critical phases: getting the customer successfully integrated and ensuring a smooth experience. Underrun focuses on streamlining the initial integration planning and setup through transparent, exportable plans. Rocketlane offers a dedicated platform for collaborative customer onboarding project management once the sale is made. They address different stages, but which one contributes more to easy onboarding and faster decisions in its respective domain?
Understanding the Players: What is Underrun?
Underrun tackles the friction in initial SaaS setup and integration by providing public, detailed, structured onboarding plan templates. It emphasizes pre-sale transparency, allowing customers to understand the full implementation scope upfront. Its key feature is the ability to export these plans directly into customers' project management tools (like Jira, Asana), enabling seamless integration into their existing workflows and proactive planning.
Understanding the Players: What is Rocketlane?
Rocketlane is a customer onboarding project management platform designed to create a shared, collaborative experience between vendors and customers after the sale. It offers features like project templates, task management, status updates, document sharing, integrated communication, and shared workspaces to provide customers with visibility and a collaborative hub.
Core Mission: Pre-Sale Planning vs. Post-Sale Collaboration
Underrun's Goal
To solve integration planning complexity and lack of pre-sale transparency. The aim is a smooth, fast, predictable initial setup and integration process.
Rocketlane's Goal
To solve inefficient post-sale onboarding project management and lack of collaboration. The aim is streamlined project execution, enhanced communication, and improved customer visibility during onboarding.
Operational Arena: Before & Early vs. During Onboarding
Underrun
Operates before and during the very initial stages of integration/onboarding. Focuses on pre-sale communication and delivering plans to external project management tools.
Rocketlane
Operates during the active onboarding project phase, providing a dedicated platform for collaboration and management between the vendor and the customer.
Key Capabilities: Plan Exports vs. Collaborative Platform
Underrun Features
Public Plan Templates (Structured Data/JSON), a discoverable Plan Repository, and direct Export-to-PM Tool functionality (Jira, Asana, etc.).
Rocketlane Features
Project Templates, Task Management, Status Updates, Document Sharing, Integrated Communication, Shared Workspaces, and potentially features like time tracking and CSAT surveys.
Impact on 'Easy Onboarding': Planning Clarity vs. Project Management
How Underrun Helps
It simplifies the initial planning phase of onboarding. By providing clarity upfront and integrating with customer tools, it reduces early confusion and sets clear expectations.
How Rocketlane Helps
It streamlines the execution phase of onboarding. By offering a collaborative platform with clear task management and communication, it ensures a smoother project flow.
Impact on 'Faster Decision Making': Purchase vs. Implementation
Underrun's Influence
Facilitates faster purchase decisions by providing upfront transparency into the implementation process.
Rocketlane's Influence
Facilitates faster implementation progress through efficient task management, clear communication, and shared visibility.
Pricing Models
Underrun
[Placeholder: Information on Underrun's pricing model needed].
Rocketlane
Typically employs a subscription-based pricing model, potentially tiered based on the number of users or features included.
Reviews & Reputation (G2, Capterra)
Underrun
[Placeholder: Reviews likely focus on its impact on pre-sale clarity and integration planning efficiency].
Rocketlane
Generally receives positive reviews for its collaborative features, project management capabilities tailored for onboarding, and its impact on customer satisfaction during implementation.
When to Use Underrun
Underrun is your best bet when onboarding challenges stem from a lack of clarity and understanding *before* the customer commits and during the initial planning stages. Consider it if:
- Your integration process is complex and needs clear articulation early on.
- Prospects hesitate due to a lack of understanding of the implementation scope and effort.
- You want to build strong trust early by being fully transparent about the onboarding journey.
- Your customers prefer to manage and track implementation tasks within their own project management systems.
When to Use Rocketlane
Rocketlane becomes essential once the sale is made and you need a dedicated platform to manage the collaborative execution of the onboarding project. Opt for Rocketlane if:
- You need a centralized platform for collaboration between your team and the customer during onboarding.
- Clear task management, progress tracking, and communication are critical for successful implementations.
- Providing customers with visibility into the onboarding process is a priority.
- You need features like document sharing and potentially time tracking within the onboarding workflow.
Conclusion: Distinct Tools for Different Onboarding Needs
Underrun and Rocketlane address distinct, though related, aspects of the customer onboarding journey. Underrun focuses on providing upfront clarity and facilitating initial planning by delivering transparent plans directly into the customer's workflow. Rocketlane focuses on providing a collaborative platform to manage the execution of the onboarding project post-sale. While not direct competitors, they cater to different needs: Underrun excels at setting the stage for a smooth onboarding, while Rocketlane ensures the execution of that onboarding is efficient and collaborative.