A/B testing doesn’t always need a $36k–$200k annual budget or take 2 months to configure. Especially when you’re just trying to validate a headline, tweak a design, or fine-tune a signup flow.
Sure, enterprise tools like Optimizely have deep, customizable insights. They’re designed for teams managing complex user segments, multi-step conversion funnels, and long planning cycles.
But not everyone needs that. Maybe you’re running lean, moving fast, or want to test an idea without looping in too many resources.
That’s why I’ve pulled together 5 Optimizely alternatives based on a mix of personal use, extensive research, expert commentary on social, 3rd-party interviews, and testimonials from trusted sources.
Tried any of these tools? DM me on LinkedIn. I’d love to hear what worked (or didn’t) so I can keep this article helpful and accurate.
What is Optimizely?
Optimizely is an A/B testing, experimentation, and optimization software for marketers and user experience (UX) professionals. The tool enables you to run personalization experiments on websites, apps, and back-end code—in the name of data-driven UX design.
How I chose these Optimizely alternatives
I’ve curated these Optimizely alternatives based on the following critical factors that address why teams look beyond this platform:
- Role. Does the platform serve your team needs? Can marketers use visual editors? Do PMs have access to feature flagging? Will devs find the APIs and SDKs good enough?
- Pricing. How does the pricing structure compare to a budget? Is there a free trial to start with? How will costs scale as you grow? Are there different fees for additional features?
- Use cases. Which experimentation aspects does the A/B testing tool excel at? Does it focus on website optimization, product testing, feature management, or personalization?
- Company size. Is it designed for what organizational scale? Does it have proper implementation onboarding, support quality, and governance controls for any business size?
- Industry focus. Does the platform come up with specialized features for certain industries? E.g., Are there templates or functionalities specific to eCommerce, SaaS, B2B or media?
- Learning curve. How soon can your team become proficient? Is the initial setup straightforward? How’s the documentation? What technical knowledge is required?
All these options tackle Optimizely’s pricing, steep learning curves, and technical misalignment. My evaluation identified which tools balance functionality, usability, and value for specific use cases.
The 5 Optimizely alternatives to A/B test
Here’s my selection of the best alternatives to Optimizely.
1. Crazy Egg – Best overall for CRO/UX specialists
Simple, easy to use, and self-service. That’s the Crazy Egg way.
Crazy Egg is a web optimization tool with heatmaps, clickmaps, scrollmaps, session recordings, and A/B testing functionality. It helps visualize how users interact within a website to spot friction points.
The platform serves marketing teams, UX designers, and CRO specialists across organizations of all sizes. From SMBs to enterprises like Intuit, CNET, Dell, Etsy, and Zendesk.
Unlike Optimizely’s ultra sophisticated, dev-focused infrastructure, I’d say Crazy Egg’s A/B testing feature offers an accessible approach to CRO with faster implementation and visual analytics.
Pros of Crazy Egg:
- Snapshots (that’s what we call heatmaps) for visual feedback on user behavior—without all the complex data analysis.
- Single JavaScript snippet installation requires minimal technical resources compared to Optimizely’s setup process.
- Rapid time-to-insight. Crazy Egg delivers actionable data within hours of implementation (quick-win optimizations).
- It’s cost-effective. Straightforward web analytics and testing capabilities at a fraction of Optimizely’s enterprise pricing.
Cons of Crazy Egg:
- Less advanced testing capabilities. It lacks Optimizely’s multivariate testing and complex segmentation options.
- Limited feature flagging. At the moment, Crazy Egg doesn’t offer feature management for product experimentation.
- Enterprise scalability. May need supplemental tools for organizations with complex, multi-product testing needs.
Pricing of Crazy Egg: 30-day free trial. Plans start at $29/month.
Why I recommend Crazy Egg: Fast UX insight without waiting for developer bandwidth. No need for a 36k–50k minimum budget. And it works for both testing and visual analytics in one platform.
Contrary to popular belief online, enterprise teams actually deploy Crazy Egg alongside Optimizely (or other Optimizely alternatives) for visual insights while running all kinds of A/B tests, simultaneously.
For content-heavy or eCommerce websites, Crazy Egg identifies UX friction points to address right away, which is ideal for a CRO stack.
“The most underrated screen recording, click tracking and A/B testing platform. It’s super capable for click tracking, snapshots, session recording and now A/B testing and all way more affordable. I’ve used Crazy Egg on and off for about 15 years. Their product’s only improved and they haven’t jacked up the price like all others.”
2. Unbounce – Best for landing pages A/B testing
Landing page builder and conversion optimizer for marketing teams, agencies, and SMBs to create, A/B test, and optimize landing page experiments. Unbounce combines drag-and-drop page building with AI-powered optimization tools like Smart Traffic and Smart Copy.
With the templates to get your landing pages built in a hurry and the customizability of HTML, Javascript, and CSS, Unbounce makes it easy to create the exact page you want your customers to see.
You can make any tweaks you want, and run your split tests. Unbounce is one of the best, no-nonsense options for A/B testing.
Pros of Unbounce
- No-code, intuitive drag-and-drop landing page builder.
- AI routes visitors to the most relevant page variants.
- 100+ conversion-optimized, ready-to-use templates.
- Launch new landing pages in hours rather than weeks.
Cons of Unbounce
- Limited site-wide testing. Focuses mainly on landing pages.
- May require extra work to integrate with enterprise stacks.
- Less robust for multivariate testing compared to Optimizely.
Pricing of Unbounce: 14-day free trial. Plans start at $79/month.
Why I recommend Unbounce: Marketing teams can deploy and test campaign landing pages in no time to optimize conversion paths and personalize visitor experiences. No complex implementation.
Forrest Schaffer, Manager of Growth at Going, shares how he achieved a 104% conversion lift using Unbounce’s A/B testing tool.
3. VWO – Best for mobile optimization A/B testing
VWO (Visual Website Optimizer) is another Optimizely competitor that combines A/B testing, heatmaps, session recordings, and user feedback functions. And although it has versatile experimentation capabilities for mid-market and enterprise companies across different sectors, VWO shines when it comes to mobile testing.
Pros of VWO
- Strong mobile optimization and testing capabilities with specialized mobile heatmaps and touch tracking.
- Integrates A/B testing, heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys in one place—eliminating the need for multiple tools.
- Hybrid implementation. Visual editor for marketers and developers creates cross-team collaboration opportunities.
- Built-in statistical significance. SmartStats Bayesian framework delivers reliable results with smaller sample sizes.
- Customer insights integration. Directly connects user behavior data with test results for deeper insights.
Cons of VWO
- Somewhat limited in feature management and feature flagging compared to Optimizely Feature Experimentation.
- May require additional configuration for extremely high-traffic or complex multi-product testing environments.
Pricing of VWO: Free basic plan. Paid plans start at $176/month.
Why I recommend VWO: Faster implementation cycles for testing with multiple CRO features. For organizations looking for enterprise experimentation without the learning curve and cost of Optimizely, VWO has a proper balance of capabilities, usability, and value.
4. AB Tasty – Best for retail and eCom businesses
Full-fledged A/B testing Optimizely alternative. AB Tasty is one of the best-known—and for good reason. AB Tasty offers the usual A/B testing and personalization features, but with automation to make it easier to test, iterate, and optimize websites on a larger scale.
Pros of AB Tasty
- Unified experimentation platform. It connects client-side and server-side testing with feature management in one UI.
- AI recommendation engine. AB Tasty automatically suggests optimization opportunities based on your website analysis.
- Global compliance focus. Built-in GDPR compliance features exceed Optimizely’s capabilities for European markets.
Cons of AB Tasty
- Smaller marketplace of integrations compared to Optimizely.
- Documentation may be less comprehensive than Optimizely.
Pricing of AB Tasty: Available upon request.
Why I recommend AB Tasty: Global experimentation capabilities with strong European support. Balance between marketing accessibility and developer functionality. And it’s one of the Optimizely competitors with the most customer-centric support.
5. Statsig – Best for product managers (PMs)
Statsig is a feature management and experimentation platform that enables product teams to deploy features safely and measure their impact with statistical rigor. Statsig offers a lightweight, dev-friendly Optimizely alternative with robust statistical analysis built in.
It’s ideal for product managers and developers at growing companies who need quick implementation, faster experimentation cycles, and data-driven decisions without the enterprise complexity.
Pros of Statsig
- Developer-centric UX/UI design. SDK-first approach with clean APIs and easy integration into existing workflows.
- Built-in statistical analysis. Automatic CUPED variance reduction and sequential testing that simplifies experiments.
- Relatively fast implementation. Get up and running in hours instead of weeks with minimal engineering resources.
- Transparent pricing. Way more predictable cost structure if we compare it against Optimizely’s enterprise pricing model.
Cons of Statsig
- Fewer third-party integrations than Optimizely’s marketplace
- Limited admin controls and compliance features for big orgs.
- Less WYSIWYG capabilities for non-technical Statsig users.
Pricing of Statsig: Free plan. Paid plans start at $150/month.
Why I recommend Statsig: It’s ideal for product teams that prioritize statistical validity. It’s valuable for organizations transitioning from homegrown solutions to a dedicated experimentation platform.
Companies like Brex and Notion have scaled experimentation programs with Statsig. From what I’ve seen, PMs frustrated with Optimizely’s pricing or implementation love Statsig’s core functionality for experimentation without the overhead.
To get a better understanding of Statsig as an Optimizely alternative, check out this walkthrough from Statsig PM Margaret-Ann Seger:
Which Optimizely alternative is best, then?
The best Optimizely alternative depends on whether you’re prioritizing budget, use case, learning curve, or industry focus.
I’d say Crazy Egg for straightforward CRO/UX A/B testing. Statsig for PMs collaborating with software engineers doing experimentation. And last but not least, AB Tasty for enterprise eCommerce retailers.
Those aren’t as expensive as Optimizely or complicated to set up.
My recommendation: Compare at least 3 Optimizely competitors. One free trial. One free basic plan. One demo (schedule this one).
Start with Crazy Egg’s 30-day free trial. It’s simple, easy to use, self-service, and affordable. If it doesn’t work out, you’d still have 4 other Optimizely alternatives remaining from this list to run A/B tests.
