Overview

Monthly Active Users (MAUs) are initially the total number of unique users visiting the pages where the UserGuiding container code is installed. This article explains in detail how the MAU is calculated.

To access your current MAU total, go to Performance > Dashboard

Important: MAU count is independent of the status of your content! If you have installed UserGuiding on your platform, MAUs will be calculated automatically, even if you do not have any active Guides.

Methods to Calculate MAU

1. The Default Method

UserGuiding stores user history in browsers' local storage by default. The container code installed on your platform recognizes unique browser sessions and creates unique user IDs for them. We link each end user's event history (seeing a Guide or responding to a Survey) to their unique IDs.

In the default method, the listed types of logins are counted as new monthly active users:
counted

When a user visits your platform on a private (incognito) window.
When a user visits your platform on a different computer or browser.
When a user visits your platform after they delete browser cookies.

The following are NOT counted as new monthly active users:

When a user visits your platform on the same browser at different times.
When a user visits your platform on the same browser's different windows and tabs.
When a different user with a different email address or account ID logins to your platform on the same browser's different windows and tabs.

2. User Identification Is Enabled

With this feature, you can send precise user IDs to your end-users. This cancels out MAU's dependency on unique browser sessions. Instead, you start defining your exact MAU count (user base) with the IDs you send us.

Identifying users has additional perks, such as having persistent user data at UG and access to our user API.

You can enable User Identification from Settings > Installation.

Knowledge Base and the Product Updates Page

If you are using the Knowledge Base and the Product Updates features, the visitors of your stand alone Knowledge Base and Product Updates Page also add up to your MAU count. To control the number of visitors you can manage the Access settings of those pages.

☝️ Note here: MAUs are calculated on a rolling 30-day basis. When you exceed your MAU quota, your onboarding material will not be visible to the end users. However, you can still use the UserGuiding Panel and the Chrome Extension to create and maintain your onboarding material.

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