Axure RP vs. Optimal Workshop

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Axure RP
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Axure RP is a software prototyping tool used by UX designers, from Axure Software Solutions in San Diego.N/A
Optimal Workshop
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Optimal Workshop, a company in New Zealand, offers their suite of user research tools on a subscription basis, including the Treejack information architecture tool, OptimalSort card sorting test, Chalkmark first-click testing, and other tools.
$191
per month per user
Pricing
Axure RPOptimal Workshop
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Team
$191
per month per user
Individual
$208
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Axure RPOptimal Workshop
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThese prices are based per user, per month billed annually. For 10 users or more, please contact us directly for a quote.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Axure RPOptimal Workshop
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Axure RPOptimal Workshop
Small Businesses
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.4 out of 10
Smartlook
Smartlook
Score 8.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.4 out of 10
Optimizely Web Experimentation
Optimizely Web Experimentation
Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.4 out of 10
Optimizely Web Experimentation
Optimizely Web Experimentation
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Axure RPOptimal Workshop
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(25 ratings)
7.7
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.3
(2 ratings)
8.9
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
Axure RPOptimal Workshop
Likelihood to Recommend
Axure Software Solutions
Still the best IMHO for dynamic prototyping. Sometimes you need to wireframe novel on-page widgets, such as draggable search areas (in the context of map-based search), or interactive annotations on diagrams. And sometimes real data values are necessary for test participants to give good feedback. However, this is something of a niche scenario. The majority of uxers prefer xd or Figma and find that static prototypes (screen1->click->screen2) is sufficient.
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Optimal Workshop
Optimal Workshop is great for UX testing for those with a budget to do so. This may be a little on the expensive side for smaller businesses, but definitely not anything crazy expensive. The insights that you get out of these tests are invaluable and can be the difference between launching a site and succeeding/failing.
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Pros
Axure Software Solutions
  • Adaptive views enable us to create truly responsive designs, even when they are very complex.
  • The platform’s many available templates and ability to create a library of reusable designs enables us to prototype faster and more efficiently than creating every single design from the ground up.
  • The company provides a lot of support options, from training videos to online forums. This is a pretty complex tool, so knowing that we can always look up or ask a question and get a quick answer has helped us immensely.
  • Axure’s comprehensive suite of tools to portray interactivity in prototypes has truly helped us show stakeholders and clients what an end product will look like, which has really helped us gain necessary internal and external buy-in.
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Optimal Workshop
  • The user interface is quite user friendly
  • Variety of tests
  • Access and variety of help on how to run tests, as well as educational information on which tests to run for your use case
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Cons
Axure Software Solutions
  • The user interface is somewhat old and not always the most intuitive.
  • I've been using Axure RP for 5 years and often forget that it has a steep learning curve, which makes it harder to onboard new employees.
  • The "teams" functionality, as far as working and sharing the same files, has some room for performance improvements.
  • Results of the Preview function varies per browser (although it works best on Chrome).
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Optimal Workshop
  • The recruitment panelists are not professional, nor do they take the tasks seriously. You are going to get a lot of bad data.
  • They are HQ'd outside the US and must have a small team because the customer service is the absolute WORST I've experienced in their industry.
  • They pride themselves on documentation, but when they fail to document something they blame the customer for the mistake.
  • There are way too many limitations with the tool after you launch, limited integrations, and poor survey questionnaire options. The tool itself is far too basic for most sites, especially B2B.
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Usability
Axure Software Solutions
Axure feels like a tool that started with a simple interface that wasn't redesigned over time. Simple tasks sometimes require clicking through multiple layers. Crucial pieces of functionality are hidden under text links, or just flatly aren't discoverable. Much of the quirks of the interface only come from having screwed up numerous times, and knowing that certain things are just difficult to accomplish.
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Optimal Workshop
Excellent and easy platform to use. Easy to onboard new members of the team. Easy to set up tests and follow number of participants performing the test. Easy to plug into other platforms to record participants. Excellent reporting. Easy to share reports with stakeholders. Easy to recruit through platform, however the quality of participants can be better.
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Support Rating
Axure Software Solutions
I've never used the support for Axure but they do have an online community that can be helpful when you're unsure how to accomplish a specific bit of interactivity. Overall the community for Axure is a great benefit for the software. There are also a lot of shared library assets which can help reduce the time you spend on projects.
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Optimal Workshop
The support has been good. No complaints. I have not needed to contact support more than 1-2 times when I was first getting set up, because the tools work well and are pretty straight forward. They do have good documentation
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Online Training
Axure Software Solutions
I think that the online training videos cover all product features and are a great resource to point people to. The newsletter is also frequent and passes on a range of tips and techniques for users that are eager to learn more, or just want to keep themselves up to date
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Optimal Workshop
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Axure Software Solutions
Since Axure RP is a desktop software that can work without a cloud connection, it is easy to have approved within a highly restricted corporate environment for a low cost with a small team. iRise is a solution that requires greater amounts of management, best service a group of designers in a corporate environment. InVision is cloud-based and, although not impossible, would require a long-term agreement to be made between the corporate and InVision. These could take years. Origami is free and desktop based and has great control of the transitions and data - but is so granular that additional time commitments may have to be made to make a prototype of this fidelity
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Optimal Workshop
For the price as it is very convenient for first-time beginners, its intuitiveness both for the one who is designing the activities and for those who have to interact with them. The fact that it collects and gathers the data into insights of the overall responses collected by all users.
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Return on Investment
Axure Software Solutions
  • Axure allows for us to quickly get the entire sales team trained on a specific narrative and gives them a fool proof click path for them to use in the demo.
  • Axure is relatively inexpensive and allows for purchasing the software without having to pay a monthly subscription (although they do have that option).
  • The Sketch integration has allowed for a 10 fold increase in productivity by taking designs already created in another program and quickly adding them to Axure.
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Optimal Workshop
  • Optimal Workshop has had a positive impact on investigating information architecture on several websites.
  • Optimal Workshop has helped investigated the labeling on several websites.
  • Optimal Workshop has also support in the investigation of UX in navigations.
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ScreenShots