AB Tasty vs. Webtrends Analytics

A/B Tasty tool allows us do easy testing without burdening our limited developer resources all the time. Reports are simple enough to interpret. Support has been excellent and proactive, also the onboarding was successful. It is also an advantage that we have the possibility to drive all our traffic to the test versions rather than being limited to specific user amount per month. We can recommend A/B Tasty for testing purposes, as the platform keeps it’s promises, doesn’t require too much technical knowledge and the support is excellent.

Incentivized

Scenarios 1. If you want to use web server log files as input to your web analytics, then Webtrends will provides a good product, with great ease of implementation. Don't even think about being cheap on hardware, and make sure Webtrends runs on real servers, not in a VM environment. 2. If you want to use Data Tagging, similar to Google Analytics or Site Catalyst, Webtrends has a powerful product, just be prepared to pay. 3. If you are new to Web Analytics, but it is the strategic direction, start with Webtrends on Premises. Questions to Ask 1. What are you trying to accomplish? 2. Can you place a dollar value on the benefit that you expect/need from Webtrends? 3.Can you live with Webtrends running SaaS?

• Customer-focused. Over the past year, AB Tasty has worked with us to overcome many obstacles (e.g. tracking hurdles, ITP issues, etc.). The team always finds a solution in a timely manner to ensure we're able to execute on experiments.
• Reliability. One of the biggest hurdles earlier this year were the ITP regulations set out by Apple. Over 40% of our ad traffic was Safari users. AB Tasty was using 3rd party cookies but quickly migrated over to a local session storage solution that circumvented the issue.

Incentivized

• Control privacy, data sharing and competitive industrial knowledge using Webtrends on premises
• Great control over custom reports, custom dimensions and metrics
• Flexible tool which allows multiple methods of data capture. To my knowledge it was the first tool with a Tag Builder / Tag Management function built in via a supporting website.

• Sometimes the platform is a little glitchy and requires a refresh.
• Would be great to be able to see the experiments and projects on a timeline with their status and main result to have an immediate view of ongoing and completed projects.
• Email notification for when an experiment reaches a certain confidence level.

Incentivized

• The big downside, the elephant in the room, is that it does not (as of right now) have on-demand segmenting, drilldowns, etc. You have to think of what you want in advance and create those reports then analyze some data. This is huge. You can, of course, re-analyze old data after creating new reports but you still have to wait. (This deficiency may become obsolete with the release of Webtrends Explore later this month (May 2014).)
• It has fewer mature integrations with other products and databases than competitors do, although I'm told it works with SharePoint better than anything else does.
• Its attribution modeling capability is behind Google Analytics'. In my humble opinion, this could be changed quickly if Webtrends would make some tweaks to its standard visitor history files (i.e. preserve the order in which past visits were sourced beyond the single most recent one, rather than storing all those past sources as a randomized list).
• It doesn't incorporate statistical tests, confidence intervals, or statistical associations. However, this same criticism can be applied to its competitors (other than A/B Testing products). It's a tabulation program, as they all are. In this respect, web analytics tools as a group are relatively primitive. Sorry to bring this up as a criticism of Webtrends but it's my pet peeve about the whole industry and I just have to say it. (p.s. take advantage of the heavy-duty Webtrends Scheduled Export functionality to get really granular data that you can feed to a stats program to get significances.)
• Although the documentation, help screens, phone support and the knowledge base have improved tremendously in recent years, there is still a pretty steep learning curve because it is different from the tools that entry-level users may have already been exposed to. This can be a shock and many users are alienated at first because they just don't get some of the fundamentals at first. I'd like to see much better help screens that are thoroughly interlinked with the KB and documentation. Having superb online support would make a world of difference with the adoption of this basically powerful tool.

AB Tasty's tool as well as the support team completely met my goals on A/B Testing. Editing a test is really easy and AB Tasty made the marketing team free to launch nearly any test. Reporting is also easy to set up and give us the information needed to keep improving transformation on landing pages and forms

I would be willing to try Webtrends again AFTER some research from other users. I would need to see that users mention better and faster customer support on questions and issues that arise while using the software. The software is capable of vast and incredible things, but if it isnt properly set up and supported during use, it is just a big hassel and waste of everyones time and money.

The tool’s usability is excellent, with a smooth and intuitive interface. It is continuously updated with new features and improvements aimed at enhancing the user experience. Setting up experiments and personalizations is straightforward, thanks to a well-structured process that even less experienced users can easily follow. There are sometimes small issues with the QA section which slows the QA process but it is so much better now compared to 2024.

Incentivized

If I could give it a 0, I would. Not having an intuitive user interface made it impossible to convince non-analytic business users to use the tool on their own. Even as a seasoned analyst, frequent calls were needed to get what should be simple tasks done. Account managers don't understand the tool either, and have to refer you to technical support

It is much better than average. Down time usually occurs because of a need to refresh the server on our end.

The v9 admin interface and v10 reporting interface work as well as expected, but have a tendency to be pokey, especially for bulky reports and whenever you're connected to wifi. I much prefer using the REST API for all reporting for this reason, which simply dumps out the data and doesn't bother with the user interface.

Support is good, but it would be better if it was quicker or if AB Tasty provided a quicker SLA. At times, you require stuff urgently but AB Tasty support isn't as quick as I personally like it to be.

Incentivized

I once went on to Twitter to ask for help from my network of analytics people, and Webtrends themselves responded. They have been an excellent partner in making sure that their product is being used to the best of it's ability and I greatly appreciate that. Both Omniture and Google Analytics, do not have that level of support over social media

The in-person training was comprehensive enough to get you started, but I strongly recommend having a more experienced person when beginning with the tool.

There is a vast amount of training available on their online platform, including their university area of which you can get certified for (and then share this with your connections on platforms such as Linkedin). There is also specific hand created training which can be provided by your customer success manager if that is requested by yourself.

Incentivized

Webtrends provides several free webinars over the course of the year, many of which I would expect to pay for. The people providing the webinars seem to have a good feel for real-world application of the product.

Careful planning and patience. Use a non-public test site to fine tune tags and reporting. Despite best laid plans, there will be surprises when you collect the data, run the analysis and begin generating reports using the tool. Perform a tag audit to ensure tags fire as desired.

We selected AB Tasty mostly because we got a sense that their dev and customer service teams were going to go above and beyond to help us out. We were right! The cost was also a factor as they came in a small bit lower, but cost wasn't the only factor.

Incentivized

Webtrends has its work cut out for itself considering you have the behemoth Google Analytics and Google Analytics Premium having a strong offering and brand recognition for the price of free. After reviewing the paid service I'd suggest you start off with GA as a cheaper alternative that is just as robust, if not much more flexible in regards to the reporting and goal tracking needs for our company.

Incentivized

• Since we use AB tasty our conversion rates have significantly increased on the Watch pages.
• We can report positive comments about the evolutions of our interfaces, from our expert users. And so improved customer satisfaction.
• The solution allows us to validate or invalidate without taking major risk while gaining in reactivity, our proposals relook pages.
• Commitment rates are much higher, multiplied by 2 or 3, when we implement customizations that are relevant. These customizations are very relevant insofar as we are governed by the seasonality of events as a media site.

• Webtrends has had a positive impact on site visitation because it allowed us to understand the sources by domain for site traffic and find out ways to increase visits from those domains.
• Webtrends has also allowed us to understand areas of optimization on the site, which has had a positive impact on the overall user journey on the site, likely leading to longer site duration and engagement.