Google Optimize Alternatives
Google Optimize, the A/B testing and personalization platform, is set to sunset on September 30, 2023. This means that Google […]
David Weihs
Google Optimize, the A/B testing and personalization platform, is set to sunset on September 30, 2023. This means that Google will no longer support the platform after this date and all users will need to transition to other similar tools. Google has recommended that users migrate to other third-party platforms.
This sunset of Optimize is part of Google’s ongoing effort to streamline its product offerings and focus on delivering more integrated and simplified solutions for its users. Google has also stated that it will continue to invest in and improve its other marketing and analytics products, including Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, and Google Marketing Platform.
Initially, Google stated that it will incorporate some testing capabilities within GA4, but that was changed to its plan to integrate with select 3rd party testing platforms. As of writing this post, that list contains: VWO, ABTasty, Optimizely. Moving forward, users of Google Optimize will need to explore their options for selecting a new testing platform. The three named platforms by Google are great options, but there are more available, some with different feature sets and some more affordable.
Moving from Google Optimize to a new platform
Pricing
One thing to keep in mind when considering alternatives to Google Optimize is that pricing can vary widely between platforms. While Google Optimize is free, most other platforms charge a monthly subscription fee that can range from reportedly around $700 to $3,000 or more per month, depending on the level of features and support included. Additionally, many platforms require yearly contracts, which can be a significant financial commitment for some businesses. However, it’s important to consider that these costs are often offset by the increased revenue and conversions that come from using a powerful A/B testing and personalization platform. When you choose a new platform, you are most likely getting a whole suite of new tools compared to Google Optimize.
Limitations
With Google Optimize, you are limited to 5 A/B, redirect or multivariate tests and 10 personalizations. For the most part, your new platform will provide far greater limitations and sometimes unlimited experiments and personalizations concurrently.
Features
If you’re used to Google Optimize, you are likely to be impressed with the feature lists of these other platforms. They bring major advantages in test creation, targeting (such as targeting specific Shopify metrics like purchase history), analysis and personalizations. Most platforms offer features that could replace Shopify apps you are currently paying extra for like pop up and banner creation, social proof messaging and other dynamic features.
Personalizations
One major bullet point to this inevitable switch, most of these platforms come with extremely advanced personalization capabilities compared to Google Optimize. Personalizations allow you to enrich your site content and experience by tailoring it specifically to different segments of users. If personalizations are not already a major part of your CRO efforts, be sure to add it to the list of your requirements as you make your platform decision. Some of these platforms extend your personalization capabilities far beyond what you are most likely doing currently so if this is of interest to you, choose one that provides these features.
Support Team
The level of customer support will greatly increase when moving from Google Optimize to a new platform. Having the platform’s team as a resource when you have questions or need assistance to take full advantage can be a major benefit for those coming from Google Optimize.
How to make a decision?
We’ve broken down each platform and have assigned grades for multiple categories. We recommend you prioritize these categories based upon your own needs and then look at which platforms rank highest for the categories that mean the most to you.
Optimizely
Optimizely is a well-known experimentation and personalization platform that offers a wide range of tools to help businesses improve their digital experiences.
Pricing:
Optimizely’s pricing model is based on custom quotes tailored to the specific needs of each business, such as monthly unique visitors and desired features. They offer several packages, including Grow, Accelerate, and Scale plans, which cater to organizations of various sizes and requirements. The main differences lie with Grow enabling most experimentation capabilities and Accelerate enabling most personalization capabilities. All plans allow for unlimited concurrent testing and projects. Optimizely comes with some of the most advanced features and their pricing is inline with that, however there are great introductory rates currently for those coming from Google Optimize.
Core Features:
Optimizely’s core features include A/B testing, multivariate testing, personalization, and analytics. With an easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) visual editor, most users can build experiments without the need for development assistance.
- Perform A/B/n, Split and multivariate testing to identify the best-performing content or designs.
- Create personalized experiences for different audience segments.
- Utilize robust analytics to measure the impact of experiments and track KPIs.
- Low/no code experiments with a solid visual editor
- Advanced targeting that allows you to precisely tailor personalizations and target experiments
- Experiment lifecycle management: Create test plans with all of the information you need to develop an idea into an experiment combined with roadmaps, list, timeline and board views.
Advanced Features:
Some unique advanced features of Optimizely are:
- Full Stack: Allows businesses to run experiments across web, mobile, and server-side applications, enabling more complex testing scenarios and seamless integration with existing tech stacks.
- Progressive Delivery: Combines feature flagging with experimentation, allowing for controlled rollouts and risk mitigation when launching new features.
- Stats Engine: A statistical analysis framework that enables faster, more accurate decision-making by reducing the time required to reach statistically significant results.
- Integrations: Offers a wide range of integrations with popular analytics, marketing, and data platforms, allowing businesses to streamline workflows and leverage existing tools.
Ease of Use:
Optimizely’s platform is designed to be user-friendly and accessible for marketers, product managers, and developers. Its visual editor simplifies content creation and modification, while the straightforward interface makes it easy to set up experiments, manage feature flags, and analyze results.
Support:
Optimizely provides extensive support options, including a comprehensive knowledge base, video tutorials, webinars, and community forums. They also offer email and phone support, as well as dedicated account managers and professional services for enterprise clients, ensuring a smooth implementation process and ongoing success.
How They Are Different from Other Testing Platforms:
Optimizely differentiates itself from other testing platforms through its advanced features like Full Stack and Progressive Delivery, which enable complex experimentation and risk mitigation across the entire tech stack. Additionally, the Stats Engine accelerates decision-making by providing quicker, more accurate results. For normal use cases, you may find Optimizely’s advanced benefits in the details of how experiments are built, types of targeting available, etc. Optimizely is also a featured 3rd party integration into Google Analytics 4.
What Are Some Things to Consider?
Optimizely’s pricing model can be relatively expensive, although they do have great introductory rates for new clients coming from Google Optimize. After the initial period, those rates could increase. Like some of the other larger platforms, Optimizely requires longer term contracts as well. While Optimizely is feature-rich, the complexity can be much for teams without dedicated CRO or development support making the learning curve steep to reach its full potential.
Helpful Links:
Optimizely Website
Optimizely Web Experimentation Features PDF
Optimizely Full Stack Features PDF
Optimizely Support Center for Experimentation
ABTasty
AB Tasty is a popular conversion optimization platform that provides a range of features and tools to help businesses enhance their digital experiences.
Pricing:
AB Tasty offers a custom pricing model based on the specific requirements of each business, such as monthly unique visitors and desired features. Clients can choose from several packages tailored to businesses of various sizes and needs. ABTasty does not offer month to month plans but instead yearly contracts.
Core Features:
AB Tasty’s core features include A/B/n, split, multivariate and predictive testing as well as personalizations.
- Perform A/B/n, split, multivariate and predictive testing to determine the best-performing content or designs.
- Create personalized experiences for different audience segments using segment builder and AI-based targeting (content interest, engagement level, etc).
Advanced Features:
Some unique advanced features of AB Tasty are:
- Nudge Engagement Library: A collection of pre-built, customizable nudges based on behavioral economics principles to drive user engagement and conversions.
- Server-Side Testing: Enables businesses to run tests and personalization on server-side applications, improving site performance and allowing for more complex testing scenarios.
- Widget Library: a library of widgets that are ready out of the box to help you add new dimensions to your experiments and personalizations like banners, pop ups, countdowns, social proof, etc.
- Real-Time Data Activation: Integrates with various data sources to create actionable insights and drive real-time decision-making.
Ease of Use:
AB Tasty’s platform is designed to be user-friendly and accessible, with a visual editor that makes it easy for marketers and product managers to create and modify content, run tests, and analyze results. The drag-and-drop interface and WYSIWYG editor require minimal technical knowledge, allowing users to implement changes quickly and efficiently. The experimentation setup is also designed to be step-by-step to guide you through the process.
Support:
AB Tasty provides comprehensive support through a dedicated help center, webinars, video tutorials, and live chat support. They also offer email and phone support, along with dedicated Customer Success Managers and Technical Support to ensure a smooth implementation process and ongoing success.
How They Are Different from Other Testing Platforms:
AB Tasty distinguishes itself from other testing platforms through local Customer Success Management and Technical Support. Increased scalability through unlimited testing across the site(s) without the risk of overages. A visual editor that ranks among the best. Superior tag performance that is well documented. Easy experiment lifecycle from ideation to testing to deploying. ABTasty also offers a push/pull integration as a featured 3rd party with Google Analytics 4.
What Are Some Things to Consider?
ABTasty pricing can be relatively high for a small or some medium sized business with limited budgets when combined with its requirement of long term contracts and no month to month options. ABTasty provides step by step instructions for launching a test, however to take full advantage of all of its features there will be some degree of a learning curve that may take some time. Some features that other alternatives carry such as Project Management, Session Recording and Heatmaps are not available in ABTasty.
Helpful Links:
ABTasty Website
ABTasty Detailed Features
ABTasty Knowledge Base
VWO
VWO (Visual Website Optimizer) is a comprehensive conversion optimization platform that provides a suite of tools to help businesses enhance their digital experiences.
Pricing:
VWO offers a tiered pricing model based on the specific needs and requirements of each business. They provide several packages, but different capabilities are separated. For instance if you want to run experiments, personalizations, take advantage of their session recordings and heatmaps platform and deploy successful experiments, these are all separate products and monthly rates. Pricing depends on factors such as monthly unique visitors, desired features, and the number of domains. The biggest advantage VWO has in pricing compared to its competitors is they do not require long term contracts, although signing one could bring reduced pricing.
Core Features:
VWO’s core features include A/B testing, multivariate testing, personalization, and heatmaps.
- Perform A/B/n, split and multivariate testing.
- Create personalized experiences for different audience segments.
- Analyze user behavior through heatmaps, click maps, and scroll maps.
Advanced Features:
Some unique advanced features of VWO are:
- Hypothesis and Idea Repository: A centralized platform for managing and tracking hypotheses, enabling better collaboration and more data-driven decisions.
- Session Recording and Analysis: Records user interactions with the website, providing insights into user behavior and identifying areas of improvement.
- VWO FullStack: Allows businesses to run experiments across web, mobile, and server-side applications, enabling more complex testing scenarios and seamless integration with existing tech stacks.
- VWO Plan: A project management tool designed to streamline the entire conversion optimization process, from hypothesis generation to reporting.
Ease of Use:
VWO’s platform is designed to be user-friendly and accessible for marketers, product managers, and developers. Its visual editor simplifies content creation and modification, while the intuitive interface makes it easy to set up experiments, manage personalization campaigns, and analyze results. There are some who may find the interface too technical but we recommend trying it out in a demo if you are considering VWO.
Support:
VWO provides extensive support options, including a comprehensive knowledge base, video tutorials, webinars, and community forums. They also offer email, phone, and live chat support, as well as dedicated account managers and professional services for enterprise clients, ensuring a smooth implementation process and ongoing success.
How They Are Different from Other Testing Platforms:
VWO differentiates itself from other testing platforms through its unique advanced features like the Hypothesis and Idea Repository and VWO Plan, which facilitate better collaboration and streamlined workflows. Additionally, VWO FullStack enables complex experimentation across the entire tech stack, providing businesses with a comprehensive solution for optimization. The combination of these features and a strong commitment to user experience and support makes VWO a powerful and versatile option for businesses looking to enhance their digital experiences. VWO also offers monthly rates, something not many major platforms are offering. Features are split up into separate products so you can pick and choose the ones you want to work with.
What Are Some Things to Consider?
VWO offers a wide range of capabilities but some of these advanced features such as advanced targeting, deploying winning tests and running personalizations require separate or higher-tier plans. So while the pricing options may be attractive, it’s worth looking into what exactly is coming with each plan compared to your needs. If you are looking into several of these plans, the pricing can quickly add up. VWO’s visual editor and interface come with a wide range of capabilities but can be reportedly buggy at times leading to some frustration. The visual editor can also run into issues if the complexity of your team’s code or designs is too great. For the most part, this shouldn’t be a concern, but it is something to consider.
Helpful Links:
VWO Pricing & Plans
VWO Testing
Kameleoon
Kameleoon is a powerful conversion optimization platform that offers a range of tools to help businesses improve their digital experiences.
Pricing:
Kameleoon offers custom pricing based on the specific needs and requirements of each business, such as monthly unique visitors, desired features, and the number of domains. They provide several packages tailored to businesses of various sizes and needs. For accurate pricing information, it is recommended to contact their sales team for a personalized quote.
Core Features:
Kameleoon’s core features include A/B testing, multivariate testing, personalization, and a large list of advanced features within.
- Perform A/B and multivariate testing to identify the best-performing content or designs.
- Create personalized experiences for different audience segments.
- Utilize AI-driven product recommendations to enhance customer engagement.
- Implement real-time, context-based targeting.
Advanced Features:
Some unique advanced features of Kameleoon are:
- Drag and Drop segment Builder: Kameleoon offers 40+ native criteria to create precise, personalized experiments and experiences. This includes direct integration with Shopify to target based upon customer shopping and experience history.
- Server-Side Testing: Enables businesses to run tests and personalization on server-side applications, improving site performance and allowing for more complex testing scenarios. Kameleoon Hybrid lets you create server-side experiments with client-side capabilities.
- More than 50 Integrations: Offers a wide range of integrations with popular analytics, marketing, and data platforms, allowing businesses to streamline workflows and leverage existing tools.
- Compliance: Kameleoon is designed with data privacy in mind, providing tools and features to help businesses comply with GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA requirements. Kameleoon also offers consent management that can adapt to each test and region.
Ease of Use:
Kameleoon’s platform is designed to be user-friendly and accessible for marketers, product managers, and developers. Its visual editor simplifies content creation and modification, while the intuitive interface makes it easy to set up experiments, manage personalization campaigns, and analyze results. From our experience, Kameleoon offers great ease of use.
Support:
Kameleoon provides extensive support options, including a comprehensive knowledge base, video tutorials, webinars, and community forums. They also offer email, phone, and live chat support, as well as dedicated account managers and professional services, ensuring a smooth implementation process and ongoing success.
How They Are Different from Other Testing Platforms:
Kameleoon differentiates itself from other testing platforms through its unique advanced features like Kameleoon Predict, which leverages AI-driven algorithms to predict visitor behavior in real-time and deliver highly targeted experiences. Additionally, Kameleoon’s strong focus on data privacy and compliance sets it apart from competitors. The combination of these features and a strong commitment to user experience and support makes Kameleoon a powerful and versatile option for businesses looking to optimize their digital experiences.
What Are Some Things to Consider?
Kameleoon’s pricing is something to consider alongside its direct competitors like ABTasty and Optimizely, with long term contracts and affordability concerns for teams on a budget.
Helpful Links:
Kameleoon Website
Kameleoon’s Shopify Testing Guide
Compose.co
Compose is a rising experimentation platform built by CRO and development agency experts with a lot of recent real world experience from testing with their clients. The current platform is affordable, powerful and as they continue to roll out new features, they will be difficult not to recommend. Compose is designed with planning tools to help you stay strategically focused to make a compounding impact on primary goals.
Pricing:
Get started on Compose as an early adopter with some great rates and a 30-day free trial. Pricing is available on their website and currently you can start testing for as little as $90/mo for 100k tested users, $450/mo for 500k tested users and $900 for 1MM tested users. These are annual prices with monthly rates available for a slight increase.
Core Features:
- Run experiments such as split tests, A/B/n and multivariate tests
- Multi-project organizations to allow teams their own space
- Lightweight and performance focused implementation
- Custom triggers, traffic allocation, goals
- Visual & code editor
- Personalizations and deploy experiments
Advanced Features:
Some unique advanced features of Compose are:
- Planning Tools: Build a CRO plan that’s strategically focused for larger compounding effects toward your primary goals with unlimited collaborators, hypothesis list, a roadmap, search and filtering, uploading images and design files, prioritization scoring (for deciding which test to run next).
- Reports & Analytics: Easy to understand reports, real-time data (set a test live and see traffic and data right away), automatic stats calculations, reports data filtering, notification settings
Ease of Use:
Compose has an impressive user interface that does a great job of walking you through the various steps required to initiate an experiment. They will be releasing more features that increase ease of use in the near future, but there may be some components of building tests currently that require a developer.
Support:
Based in Austin, TX, Compose’s team of experts are ready and available to work with you on your project and with their background as agency experts, should provide solid support for your questions. Compose offers free migration assistance and enhanced support through chat, email and Zoom meetings. Speak directly with the team via their Discord server and suggest feature improvements or ask questions as well.
How They Are Different from Other Testing Platforms:
While many leading platforms offer several advanced features, you may be looking for simply a solid replacement of Google Optimize and that is where we believe Compose differentiates themselves. When we looked into Compose we found they offer similar but improved capabilities compared to Google Optimize and at affordable rates compared to others. They are also coming out with great new features on a regular basis.
What Are Some Things to Consider?
While in many ways it is advantageous to work with a new solution, other platforms have solidified their platforms over a long period of working with many clients.
Helpful Links:
Compose Website
Compose vs Google Optimize – Full Feature Comparison
Dynamic Yield
Dynamic Yield is a full experience personalization and optimization platform that offers robust capabilities to businesses looking to enhance their customer experiences across all mediums.
Pricing:
Dynamic Yield’s pricing model is primarily based on the level of usage, such as the number of monthly unique visitors and the features that clients require. They offer yearly contracts that are at the higher end of the pack but that comes with great capabilities.
Core Features:
Dynamic Yield’s core features include personalization, A/B testing, segmentation, and targeting. They also offer
- Personalize content, recommendations, and offers based on user behavior and preferences.
- Conduct A/B and multivariate testing to determine the best-performing content or designs.
- Create audience segments based on demographics, browsing behavior, and other factors.
- Target specific segments with tailored content, offers, and promotions.
Advanced Features:
Some of Dynamic Yield’s advanced features are:
- AI-driven recommendations: Using machine learning algorithms, Dynamic Yield automatically suggests the most relevant content and products to users.
- Omni-channel personalization: This platform enables personalization across multiple channels, including web, mobile, email, and in-store experiences.
- Triggered messages: Users can set up triggered messages based on user behavior or events, such as cart abandonment or product page visits.
- Server-side APIs: Dynamic Yield offers robust APIs that enable developers to integrate its capabilities into their systems and applications.
Ease of Use:
Dynamic Yield’s platform is user-friendly and intuitive, allowing marketers and product managers to implement personalization and optimization without requiring extensive technical knowledge. Its visual editor and drag-and-drop interface make it easy to create and modify content, run tests, and analyze results.
Support:
Dynamic Yield provides a range of support options, including a comprehensive knowledge base, video tutorials, webinars, and live chat support. For enterprise clients, they offer dedicated account managers and priority support to ensure smooth implementation and ongoing success.
How They Are Different from Other Testing Platforms:
Dynamic Yield sets itself apart from other testing platforms through its emphasis on personalization and AI-driven capabilities. While most platforms focus on A/B testing and optimization, Dynamic Yield goes beyond that by offering end-to-end personalization tools and advanced features like machine learning-based recommendations and omni-channel experiences. This holistic approach enables businesses to deliver highly tailored experiences that drive customer engagement and revenue growth.
What Are Some Things to Consider?
Dynamic Yield allows for powerful experimentation but their focus on a wide range of mediums and industries may not make them the perfect platform for specifically ecommerce testing. Dynamic Yield can be considered by some as less user friendly than some of its competitors because it is designed for larger teams with development support.
Helpful Links:
Dynamic Yield Website
Dynamic Yield Testing Platform
Convert.com
Convert.com is a comprehensive conversion optimization platform that provides a suite of tools to help businesses enhance their digital experiences. Here’s a detailed breakdown of Convert.com’s capabilities based on the provided talking points, with a focus on differentiating features compared to other major testing platforms:
Pricing:
Convert.com offers tiered pricing plans based on factors such as monthly unique visitors and desired features. Convert’s pricing is very competitive and affordable with monthly and yearly rates.
Core Features:
Convert.com’s core features include A/B testing, multivariate testing, split URL testing, and personalization. These tools enable businesses to optimize digital experiences, boost conversions, and improve customer satisfaction. The core features allow users to:
- Perform A/B, multivariate, and split URL testing to identify the best-performing content or designs.
- Create personalized experiences for different audience segments.
- Manage experiments and monitor results through a central dashboard.
Advanced Features:
Some unique advanced features of Convert.com are:
- Privacy-First Approach: Convert.com prioritizes data privacy, with features like data anonymization, data processing agreements, and GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA compliance.
- Developer-Friendly Platform: Offers a range of tools and integrations for developers, including support for custom JavaScript, CSS, and jQuery.
- Integrations: Provides a wide range of integrations with popular analytics, marketing, and data platforms, allowing businesses to streamline workflows and leverage existing tools.
- Advanced Segmentation: Offers advanced targeting and segmentation options, enabling businesses to create highly relevant and personalized experiences for their users.
Ease of Use:
Convert.com’s platform is designed to be user-friendly and accessible for marketers, product managers, and developers. Its visual editor simplifies content creation and modification, while the intuitive interface makes it easy to set up experiments, manage personalization campaigns, and analyze results.
Support:
Convert.com provides extensive support options, including a comprehensive knowledge base, video tutorials, webinars, and community forums. They also offer email and live chat support, as well as dedicated account managers and professional services for enterprise clients, ensuring a smooth implementation process and ongoing success.
How They Are Different from Other Testing Platforms:
Convert.com differentiates itself from other testing platforms through its strong focus on data privacy and compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA regulations. Additionally, their advanced segmentation and targeting capabilities, combined with a developer-friendly platform, set Convert.com apart from competitors. The combination of these features and a strong commitment to user experience and support makes Convert.com a powerful and versatile option for businesses looking to enhance their digital experiences.
What Are Some Things to Consider?
Convert.com is a solid option for experimentation but may not have some of the bells and whistles and large feature sets of its larger competitors. Their reporting tools may not be as advanced as others.
Helpful Links:
Convert.com Website
Convert.com Pricing
FigPii
FigPii is a comprehensive conversion optimization platform that offers a range of tools to help businesses improve their digital experiences.
Pricing:
FigPii offers a tiered pricing model based on factors such as monthly unique visitors. Their Large plan is affordable and comes with all features and scales on pricing based upon visitors per month.
Core Features:
FigPii’s core features include A/B testing, multivariate testing, heatmap analysis, session recording, and polls. These tools enable businesses to optimize digital experiences, increase conversions, and improve customer satisfaction.
- Perform A/B and multivariate testing to identify the best-performing content or designs.
- Analyze user behavior through heatmaps, click maps, and scroll maps.
- Record and analyze user sessions to identify areas of improvement.
- Gather user feedback through polls and surveys.
Advanced Features:
Some unique advanced features of FigPii are:
- All-in-One Platform: Offers a suite of conversion optimization tools in a single platform, simplifying the process of analyzing and optimizing digital experiences.
- Unlimited Projects: Allows users to create an unlimited number of projects, enabling businesses to optimize multiple websites or domains.
- Integrations: Provides a range of integrations with popular analytics, marketing, and data platforms, allowing businesses to streamline workflows and leverage existing tools.
- ROI Calculator: Helps businesses calculate the return on investment (ROI) of their optimization efforts, enabling data-driven decision-making.
Ease of Use:
FigPii’s platform is designed to be user-friendly and accessible for marketers, product managers, and developers. Its visual editor simplifies content creation and modification, while the intuitive interface makes it easy to set up experiments, manage personalization campaigns, and analyze results.
Support:
FigPii provides extensive support options, including a comprehensive knowledge base, video tutorials, and webinars. They also offer email and live chat support, ensuring a smooth implementation process and ongoing success.
How They Are Different from Other Testing Platforms:
FigPii differentiates itself from other testing platforms through its all-in-one platform approach, offering a suite of conversion optimization tools in a single solution. This simplifies the process of analyzing and optimizing digital experiences and streamlines workflows. Additionally, FigPii’s unlimited projects and ROI calculator further set it apart from competitors. The combination of these features and a strong commitment to user experience and support makes FigPii a powerful and versatile option for businesses looking to enhance their digital experiences. You don’t need several packages to take advantage of all of the features, their Large plan comes with all features and scales on pricing based upon visitors per month.
What Are Some Things to Consider?
FigPii is a platform that is growing with its customer base, which can be an advantage for some to work directly with them to get the features you need but this can be a negative for those looking for a very easy out of the box experience. FigPii does not currently offer personalization or deployment options but have them on the short term roadmap.
Helpful Links:
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