Chartbeat vs. Optimizely Web Experimentation

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Chartbeat
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Chartbeat delivers real-time analytics, insights, and transformative tools for content teams around the world, to help improve audience engagement, inform editorial decisions, and increase loyalty.N/A
Optimizely Web Experimentation
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Whether launching a first test or scaling a sophisticated experimentation program, Optimizely Web Experimentation aims to deliver the insights needed to craft high-performing digital experiences that drive engagement, increase conversions, and accelerate growth.N/A
Pricing
ChartbeatOptimizely Web Experimentation
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ChartbeatOptimizely Web Experimentation
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsChartbeat pricing is based on monthly site page views. Discounts are applied to multi-year contracts. The Basic Plan includes the Real-time Dashboard, Historical Dashboard, Heads Up Display, Reports, Big Board, iOS and Android app, and Real-time API endpoints. The Plus Plan includes all of the Basic Plan features, plus ONE of the following Premium features: Headline Testing, Advanced Queries, or Multi-Site View. The Premium Plan includes all of the Basic Plan features, plus ALL Premium features: Headline Testing, Advanced Queries, Multi-Site View, and enterprise-level support and custom trainings.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ChartbeatOptimizely Web Experimentation
Features
ChartbeatOptimizely Web Experimentation
Web Analytics
Comparison of Web Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Chartbeat
7.7
15 Ratings
5% below category average
Optimizely Web Experimentation
-
Ratings
Lead Conversion Tracking6.15 Ratings00 Ratings
Bounce Rate Measurement7.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Device and Browser Reporting7.714 Ratings00 Ratings
Pageview Tracking8.613 Ratings00 Ratings
Event Tracking7.68 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting in real-time9.214 Ratings00 Ratings
Referral Source Tracking8.314 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Dashboards6.812 Ratings00 Ratings
Testing and Experimentation
Comparison of Testing and Experimentation features of Product A and Product B
Chartbeat
-
Ratings
Optimizely Web Experimentation
7.9
163 Ratings
6% below category average
a/b experiment testing00 Ratings9.0163 Ratings
Split URL testing00 Ratings8.5135 Ratings
Multivariate testing00 Ratings8.4139 Ratings
Multi-page/funnel testing00 Ratings7.9126 Ratings
Cross-browser testing00 Ratings8.197 Ratings
Mobile app testing00 Ratings8.175 Ratings
Test significance00 Ratings8.4147 Ratings
Visual / WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings8.1133 Ratings
Advanced code editor00 Ratings7.9125 Ratings
Page surveys00 Ratings6.217 Ratings
Visitor recordings00 Ratings8.418 Ratings
Preview mode00 Ratings7.6145 Ratings
Test duration calculator00 Ratings7.8112 Ratings
Experiment scheduler00 Ratings8.2112 Ratings
Experiment workflow and approval00 Ratings7.890 Ratings
Dynamic experiment activation00 Ratings7.674 Ratings
Client-side tests00 Ratings7.896 Ratings
Server-side tests00 Ratings7.250 Ratings
Mutually exclusive tests00 Ratings8.180 Ratings
Audience Segmentation & Targeting
Comparison of Audience Segmentation & Targeting features of Product A and Product B
Chartbeat
-
Ratings
Optimizely Web Experimentation
8.2
152 Ratings
6% below category average
Standard visitor segmentation00 Ratings8.4147 Ratings
Behavioral visitor segmentation00 Ratings7.7122 Ratings
Traffic allocation control00 Ratings9.1144 Ratings
Website personalization00 Ratings7.8111 Ratings
Results and Analysis
Comparison of Results and Analysis features of Product A and Product B
Chartbeat
-
Ratings
Optimizely Web Experimentation
8.3
149 Ratings
4% below category average
Heatmap tool00 Ratings9.313 Ratings
Click analytics00 Ratings8.833 Ratings
Scroll maps00 Ratings8.517 Ratings
Form fill analysis00 Ratings8.072 Ratings
Conversion tracking00 Ratings8.744 Ratings
Goal tracking00 Ratings8.2127 Ratings
Test reporting00 Ratings7.9137 Ratings
Results segmentation00 Ratings7.7103 Ratings
CSV export00 Ratings7.9102 Ratings
Experiments results dashboard00 Ratings8.049 Ratings
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ChartbeatOptimizely Web Experimentation
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Optimal
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Score 9.1 out of 10
Dynamic Yield
Dynamic Yield
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.1 out of 10
Dynamic Yield
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Score 8.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
ChartbeatOptimizely Web Experimentation
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(69 ratings)
8.7
(253 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(9 ratings)
9.4
(51 ratings)
Usability
9.9
(60 ratings)
10.0
(58 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(7 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(6 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(10 ratings)
10.0
(16 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
3.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(11 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(162 ratings)
User Testimonials
ChartbeatOptimizely Web Experimentation
Likelihood to Recommend
Chartbeat
The main point of benefit is the realtime data. This is vital to our team as we are publishing a lot of content per day, so we have a busy homepage to manage and it's important to know which content is performing well. We also like to get an understanding as quickly as possible - which Chartbeat offers - of where traffic is coming from. Often we will see an example where a page is getting high traffic from Google, for example, and we know that might not need to be placed so prominently on the homepage because the traffic is arriving to us externally anyway. Without that depth of understanding what is performing best and why - updated immediately, unlike in Google Analytics now - our homepage would not be as well optimised for users coming to us direct
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Optimizely
I think it can serve the whole spectrum of experiences from people who are just getting used to web experimentation. It's really easy to pick up and use. If you're more experienced then it works well because it just gets out of the way and lets you really focus on the experimentation side of things. So yeah, strongly recommend. I think it is well suited both to small businesses and large enterprises as well. I think it's got a really low barrier to entry. It's very easy to integrate on your website and get results quickly. Likewise, if you are a big business, it's incrementally adoptable, so you can start out with one component of optimizing and you can build there and start to build in things like data CMS to augment experimentation as well. So it's got a really strong a pathway to grow your MarTech platform if you're a small company or a big company.
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Pros
Chartbeat
  • Provides easy at-a-glance look at what people are reading right now
  • Heads-up Display allows you to make sure the homepage is showing the content people want to read
  • Headline testing tool provides fascinating insight into what makes people read a story and improves headline-writing ability
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Optimizely
  • The Platform contains drag-and-drop editor options for creating variations, which ease the A/B tests process, as it does not require any coding or development resources.
  • Establishing it is so simple that even a non-technical person can do it perfectly.
  • It provides real-time results and analytics with robust dashboard access through which you can quickly analyze how different variations perform. With this, your team can easily make data-driven decisions Fastly.
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Cons
Chartbeat
  • Source of traffic needs improvement. Search and social make sense, but "internal" and "links" is a grey area. It would be helpful to define those with an organization and provide an information icon so users can easily remember what each of those buckets is tracking.
  • More ways to customize the real-time board. For example, with video content, that's great that I can see a user has started a video, but what is the completion rate, was that only on O&O or can that track Facebook, too?
  • Would like to see demo (age) information included as a way to slice the data so I can see what's working with my older and younger demo.
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Optimizely
  • JavaScript is hard to implement sometimes especially for JQuery elements
  • ROI reporting should be part of the overall experimentation reporting
  • CMP integration: where we can easily show status of test on the HPT request
  • CMS integration
  • More widgets like social proof banners, etc.
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Likelihood to Renew
Chartbeat
I gave Chartbeat a 5 for a renewal rating, because, while it delivers clear and understandable content, Google Analytics also provides many of the same features for free. For a small to medium website, I believe it would be more cost effective to use Google Analytics. A website with a high amount of traffic, however, could merit spending the money on Chartbeat to maximize their potential.
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Optimizely
I rated this question because at this stage, Optimizely does most everything we need so I don't foresee a need to migrate to a new tool. We have the infrastructure already in place and it is a sizeable lift to pivot to another tool with no guarantee that it will work as good or even better than Optimizely
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Usability
Chartbeat
I am able to "set it and forget it," keeping it up on my monitor for either constant checking or just keeping an eye on the numbers during the day. I'm also able to keep track of what times are perfect to post a story and which stories rack up the most traffic.
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Optimizely
Optimizely Web Experimentation's visual editor is handy for non-technical or quick iterative testing. When it comes to content changes it's as easy as going into wordpress, clicking around, and then seeing your changes live--what you see is what you get. The preview and approval process for sharing built experiments is also handy for sharing experiments across teams for QA purposes or otherwise.
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Reliability and Availability
Chartbeat
No answers on this topic
Optimizely
I would rate Optimizely Web Experimentation's availability as a 10 out of 10. The software is reliable and does not experience any application errors or unplanned outages. Additionally, the customer service and technical support teams are always available to help with any issues or questions.
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Performance
Chartbeat
No answers on this topic
Optimizely
I would rate Optimizely Web Experimentation's performance as a 9 out of 10. Pages load quickly, reports are complete in a reasonable time frame, and the software does not slow down any other software or systems that it integrates with. Additionally, the customer service and technical support teams are always available to help with any issues or questions.
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Support Rating
Chartbeat
I have had limited experience of support for Chartbeat but whenever I have needed help it has been there. Recently there was an issue of seeing different forms of data in real time - app and otherwise effectively, and the issue was being clearly dealt with and communicated back to us.
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Optimizely
They always are quick to respond, and are so friendly and helpful. They always answer the phone right away. And [they are] always willing to not only help you with your problem, but if you need ideas they have suggestions as well.
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Online Training
Chartbeat
No answers on this topic
Optimizely
The tool itself is not very difficult to use so training was not very useful in my opinion. It did not also account for success events more complex than a click (which my company being ecommerce is looking to examine more than a mere click).
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Implementation Rating
Chartbeat
No answers on this topic
Optimizely
In retrospect: - I think I should have stressed more demo's / workshopping with the Optimizely team at the start. I felt too confident during demo stages, and when came time to actually start, I was a bit lost. (The answer is likely I should have had them on-hand for our first install.. they offered but I thought I was OK.) - Really getting an understanding / asking them prior to install of how to make it really work for checkout pages / one that uses dynamic content or user interaction to determine what the UI does. Could have saved some time by addressing this at the beginning, as some things we needed to create on our site for Optimizely to "use" as a trigger for the variation test. - Having a number of planned/hoped-for tests already in-hand before working with Optimizely team. Sharing those thoughts with them would likely have started conversations on additional things we needed to do to make them work (rather than figuring that out during the actual builds). Since I had development time available, I could have added more things to the baseline installation since my developers were already "looking under the hood" of the site.
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Alternatives Considered
Chartbeat
Omnilytics is more robust, detailed, and catered for an intermediate media user, while I think Chartbeat is a more user-friendly and beginner-oriented piece of technology. That being said, there is an impressive amount of lift for Chartbeat, and it's evident that simplicity is the key to using a software daily (which is absolutely the point in the content world).
Read full review
Optimizely
The ability to do A/B testing in Optimizely along with the associated statistical modelling and audience segmentation means it is a much better solution than using something like Google Analytics were a lot more effort is required to identify and isolate the specific data you need to confidently make changes
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Scalability
Chartbeat
No answers on this topic
Optimizely
We can use it flexibly across lines of business and have it in use across two departments. We have different use cases and slightly different outcomes, but can unify our results based on impact to the bottom line. Finally, we can generate value from anywhere in the org for any stakeholders as needed.
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Return on Investment
Chartbeat
  • It has helped us save time in report generation and performance analysis.
  • By helping us evaluate our contributors, we're able to get our money's worth.
  • Seeing our numbers on the Big Board fosters healthy competition among brands, motivating us to distribute our stories better.
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Optimizely
  • We're able to share definitive annualized revenue projections with our team, showing what would happen if we put a test into Production
  • Showing the results of a test on a new page or feature prior to full implementation on a site saves developer time (if a test proves the new element doesn't deliver a significant improvement.
  • Making a change via the WYSIWYG interface allows us to see multiple changes without developer intervention.
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ScreenShots

Chartbeat Screenshots

Screenshot of Big Board: For newsrooms, the leaderboard-style visualization shows the top stories on the biggest screen.Screenshot of Real-time dashboard: Displays how an audience is connecting with content in the moment – across platforms, channels, and devices.Screenshot of Historical Dashboard: To assess content performance, KPIs, and valuable trends over the long term.Screenshot of Heads Up Display: Shows which homepage articles are the top performers, how stories are trending up or down in traffic, and how far visitors are scrolling down the page.Screenshot of Video Dashboard: Reveals how video content captures viewer attention.Screenshot of Conversion Dashboard: Tracks conversion metrics and insights.

Optimizely Web Experimentation Screenshots

Screenshot of AI-Powered Experimentation with Opal:

- Instant Test Ideas: Generates high-quality A/B test ideas based on any goals and audience insights.
- Smarter Experimentation: The AI can suggest impactful variations, reducing guesswork and increasing test velocity.
- More Than Just Ideas: From hypothesis generation to analyzing results, Opal helps optimize every stage of the experimentation process.Screenshot of the Web Experimentation Visual Editor :

- Tweak experiments using the visual editor or dive into custom code when needed.
- Modify elements, update styling, or add dynamic behaviors.
- Ensure perfect variations while keeping control over every detail of the experiment.Screenshot of AI Content Suggestions:

- Generates copy variations to supercharge experiments.
- The AI suggests high-impact messaging for tests when hovering over a field.
- AI-powered content suggestions help skip the brainstorming process.Screenshot of Advanced Audience Targeting:

- Delivers personalized experiences by targeting users based on behaviors, attributes, and real-time conditions.
- Defines precise audience segments using first-party data, geolocation, and device type.
- Can test and optimize for different audience groups to maximize impact and engagement.Screenshot of Custom Templates in the Visual Editor:

- Offers pre-built templates for common test setups.
- Standardized variations and maintains brand integrity with reusable templates.
- Templates can be customized visually or tweak them with code for full flexibility.Screenshot of the Web Experimentation Results Page:

- Data visualizations help interpret experiment performance.
- Displays which variations are winning with built-in statistical significance calculations.
- Results can be filtered by audience segments, events, and conversions to uncover key trends.