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Google Analytics vs. Optimizely Content Management System

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Analytics

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition seems likely to close the gap.

    $0

    per month

    Optimizely Content Management System

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AOptimizely Content Management System (CMS) is purpose-built for marketers, and fully composable for developers. The CMS supports the end-to-end content lifecycle, helping users to deliver on-brand, high-impact digital experiences that 'wow' audiences.N/A
    Pricing
    Google AnalyticsOptimizely Content Management System
    Editions & Modules
    Google Analytics 360
    150,000
    per year
    Google Analytics
    Free
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google AnalyticsOptimizely Content Management System
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google AnalyticsOptimizely Content Management System
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Optimizely
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    N/A
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    I've used a lot of content management systems, like Sitecore, WordPress, everything. I think this one is the easiest for different teams to use. So between marketing, customer service, and IT, everyone from different backgrounds can use this.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Their products were more enterprise-grade and integrated together in the way that we needed. It also offered the ability to customize to meet our needs.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Opeimizely's sales team did an excellent job of supporting our decision. The CMS is actually bigger than what we are currently using it for, but with the opportunity to grow into using the platform, this was the right decision. So the support staff is the key differentiator for …
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Opti was definitely the right choice for our distributor. The other platforms did not have much distribution experience and templates.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Magento fell off the list in an early stage because we didn't need a webshop functionality. We needed a "content/marketing platform. In regard to Sitecore I concluded that handling multiple websites in multiple languages was less flexible and a bit more complex in this matter. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Optimizely Content Cloud is an enterprise-level solution that offers great security and has the flexibility to expand at scale.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Episerver is a CMS and is not quite comparable to SharePoint or Teams. WordPress is a great product but not as sophisticated as Episerver.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Frontpage is the thing we had before; Episerver CMS is so much better.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    While other CMS software like Wix and WordPress are a lot more intuitive and aesthetically pleasing, they don't have the full functionality of what we need. As mentioned, we need to have varying levels of user access, with different product price points for each group, and we …
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Ultimately it depends on needs. Price point for Episerver can be similar to Sitecore and is definitely less than Adobe. I think Episerver is strong because the product isn't looking to replace powerful systems (email, etc.) which is why their add-ons are so successful. Sitecore …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    101 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    170 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    100 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    144 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    104 Answers
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    164 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    77 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    104 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    87 Answers
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    120 Answers
    Features
    Google AnalyticsOptimizely Content Management System
    Web Analytics
    Comparison of Web Analytics features of Google Analytics and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    8.4
    11 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Lead Conversion Tracking8.210 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bounce Rate Measurement8.410 Ratings00 Ratings
    Device and Browser Reporting9.311 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pageview Tracking9.111 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event Tracking8.411 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting in real-time7.810 Ratings00 Ratings
    Referral Source Tracking8.610 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable Dashboards7.910 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Google Analytics and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Content Management System
    8.4
    169 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.4169 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Google Analytics and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.8
    166 Ratings
    0% below category average
    API00 Ratings7.8159 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings7.8127 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Google Analytics and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.7
    194 Ratings
    2% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings7.6178 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings7.9166 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings8.0178 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings8.0172 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings7.497 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings7.9176 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings8.1172 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings6.4131 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Google Analytics and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.5
    180 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings7.9165 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings7.1164 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings6.9137 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings7.5142 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings8.0117 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google AnalyticsOptimizely Content Management System
    Small Businesses
    Matomo Analytics
    Score9 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Lead Forensics
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Chartbeat
    Score9.2 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google AnalyticsOptimizely Content Management System
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (193 ratings)
    8.5
    (223 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (51 ratings)
    9.8
    (34 ratings)
    Usability
    7.4
    (19 ratings)
    8.5
    (92 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.2
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (42 ratings)
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google AnalyticsOptimizely Content Management System
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    Google Analytics is particularly well suited for tracking and analyzing customer behavior on a grocery e-commerce platform. It provides a wealth of information about customer behavior, including what products are most popular, what pages are visited the most, and where customers are coming from. This information can help the platform optimize its website for better customer engagement and conversion rates. However, Google Analytics may not be the best tool for more advanced, granular analysis of customer behavior, such as tracking individual customer journeys or understanding customer motivations. In these cases, it may be more appropriate to use additional tools or solutions that provide deeper insights into customer behavior.
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    If you want to build a website quickly there are plenty of ways to do so with some great examples and plenty of support both from the company and in the forums. if you want to build a more complex structure you can but be ready to spend the time to build exactly what you need as a solid foundation goes a massive way before building out content and making those choices early and sticking with them helps
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Google
    • Multiple reports to see website use and behavior
    • Allows you to customize reports with days, weeks, months, and years
    • You can build out a dashboard to easily view stats from multiple websites in one place
    • You can share analytics reports via the dashboard, automatically emailed PDFs or in other formats
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    • I think the user interface for content admins is very good and very competitive. And compared to other providers, the technology that CMS in particular has. So the way it integrated the net ecosystem is very well because it follows the MBC pattern. So basically it just allows really simple implementations for what would normally be complex components on any other sort of vendor that's out there.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Google
    • Data sampling is somewhat inaccurate on the free tier - this is addressed in premium but is expensive.
    • Some of the UI is very similar in naming when presenting different data, some in-situ information might be useful.
    • Gotchas around filtering and data validation.
    • Implementation can be tricky, it can take a lot of time and expertise to get a full, accurate picture of your metrics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    • Magento did have some nice tools for creating product groups or carousels for promotion. Opti seems to be lacking in that.
    • A blog - maybe this is available and we don't have it installed, but a searchable blog would be very appreciated.
    • Structured Data/MicroData - maybe it's our install, but this seems to be missing
    • Meta data: we have access to limited types and need to make a request from IT, it would be nice to be able to access more to adjust for SEO needs.
    • When in a folder on the BLOCKS tab, it would be wonderful to hit the MEDIA tab and stay in that same folder.
    • I have some less technical people that will make folders with spaces - which Opti handles, but it would be great if it wouldn't accept a space or gave an error message not to use them.
    • I think I know why the extra code is added to urls and image links, but it causes issues when taking things from our testing site to the live site. For example, I need to copy the Navigation from Inspect Element on testing to put it in production. I have learned to work around it, but it's not my favorite.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Google
    We will continue to use Google Analytics for several reasons. It is free, which is a huge selling point. It houses all of our ecommerce stores' data, and though it can't account for refunds or fraud orders, gives us and our clients directional, real time information on individual and group store performance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    Since I work on the implementation side of things, and do not directly own licensing for Ektron CMS, I have to base this rating off of how I think it will be received or presented to customers looking to start a new site deployment. I try to remain CMS agnostic, though my specialty is with the .NET and Microsoft stack. Because of the experience I have working with Ektron, I tend to be more forgiving with the shortcomings as I am familiar with how to work around them or past them from experience. Being familiar with the community available also helps, as you become familiar with the best approaches to find solutions to your issues. Each product has it's ups and downs and all of them are only going to be as good as the company or development team implementing them can make them. This is EXTREMELY important to remember when choosing a CMS, as it can make or break your expensive investment.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Google
    Google Analytics provides a wealth of data, down to minute levels. That is it's greatest detriment: find the right information when you need it can be a cumbersome task. You are able to create shortcuts, however, so it can mitigate some of this problem. Google is continually refining Analytics, so I do not doubt there will be improvements
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    From our editors perspective they find the CMS system easy and to clear to use. Our developers find it very easy to design on and appreciate the level of service support available. It's also always evolving and getting better every year. We find this investment reassuring and encourages us to try keep pace and see how we can continue to push the envelope and continue to improve all aspect of our websites and online touch points.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Google
    We all know Google is at top when it comes to availability. We have never faced any such instances where I can suggest otherwise. All you need is a Google account, a device and internet connection to use this super powerful tool for reporting and visualising your site data, traffic, events, etc. that too in real time.
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    Unplanned outages or errors are fairly rare in our instance. And when there are issues, they're usually fixed fairly quickly
    Read full review
    Performance
    Google
    This has been a catalyst for improving our site's traffic handling capabilities. We were able to identify exit% from our sites through it and we used recommendations to handle and implement the same in our sites. We have been increasing the usage of Google Analytics in our sites and never had any performance related issues if we used Analytics
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Google
    The Google reps respond very quickly. However, sometimes they can overly call you to set up an apportionment. I'm very proficient and sometimes when I talk to reps, they give beginner tutorials and insights that are a waste of time. I wish Google would understand my level of expertise and assign me to a rep (long-term) that doesn't have to walk me through the basics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    I attended multiple trainings/tutorials early in the process. The vendor-supplied content about Optimizely was engaging for users/attendees (I often analyze training content, compliance programs, governance plans), which helps our OCM people by having good "word of mouth" about the product long before a rollout ever happens. I actually when the user-focused portion of the Optimizely Academy twice in 2022 to ensure I had a grasp on operability and to be able to support the training and OCM efforts
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Google
    love the product and training they provide for businesses of all sizes. The following list of links will help you get started with Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented by Google Analytics.
    1. How to Use Google Analytics for Beginners – Mahalo’s how-to guide for beginners.
    2. A beginner’s guide to Google Analytics – A free eBook walking you through Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented.
    3. Getting to Know Your Google Analytics Dashboard – The title says it all! This is a brief post with one goal: to introduce you to the Google Analytics dashboard.
    4. Google Analytics for Beginners: How to Make the Most of Your Traffic Reports– This guide doesn’t cover setup, but it does a great job of helping you to better understand the data being presented.
    5. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 1: Setup – A video presentation that walks you through Google Analytics setup.
    6. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 2: Essential Stats – A video presentation that introduces you to some of the most important data being presented in Google Analytics.
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    Ektron is one of the best solution for .Net platform. Over the years have improved the performance issues that the previous versions had. My only complain is right now you can't do Page builder pages if you choose to have a MVC architecture
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Google
    I think my biggest take away from the Google Analytics implementation was that there needs to be a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it before you start. Originally the analytics were added to track visitors, but as we became more savvy with the product, we began adding more and more functionality, and defining guidelines as we went along. While not detrimental to our success, this lack of an overarching goal resulted in some minor setbacks in implementation and the collection of some messy data that is unusable.
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    I was not fully involved.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Google
    I have not used Adobe Analytics as much, but I know they offer something called customer journey analytics, which we are evaluating now. I have used Semrush, and I find them much better than Google Analytics. I feel a fairly nontechnical person could learn Semrush in about a month. They also offer features like competitive analysis (on content, keywords, traffic, etc.), which is very useful. If you have to choose one among Semrush and Google Analytics, I would say go for Semrush.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    Optimizely Content Management System is much more feature rich, and less complex that the other CMS platforms we have used. Optimizely Content Management System is more intuitive in how the content is structured and how easy it is to pull blocks of content to create the layout of a page.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Google
    Google Analytics is currently handling the reporting and tracking of near about 80 sites in our project. And I am not talking about the sites from different projects. They may have way more accounts than that. Never ever felt a performance issue from Google's end while generating or customising reports or tracking custom events or creating custom dimensions
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Google
    • It has helped us gain understanding of what is going on on our website.
    • It has helped us determine areas that need fixing (i.e. pages with extremely high bounce rates may need to be redone).
    • It has helped us understand our biggest avenues for bringing traffic to the website and business in general.
    • It has helped guide our website redesign.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    • Flexibility with design that allows us to work towards our mission of 'Tennis Opened Up'
    • Speed of deploying content, meaning users can really on us for the most up-to-date content on tennis in Britain
    • Ability to have different logged-in areas for different user groups, allowing us to create more bespoke and personalised experiences
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Optimizely Content Management System Screenshots

    Screenshot of Content delivery: Developers can use modern GraphQL and REST APIs to query content from any source and send it to any channel or device.Screenshot of User roles and permissionsScreenshot of (SaaS CMS): Visual Builder: Add an image: Optimizely Visual Builder offers a range of editing features designed to make content creation and layout building intuitive and accessible to both technical and non-technical users. A drag-and-drop system is used to add, move, and rearrange elements within the layout, for quick and flexible content organization.Screenshot of (SaaS CMS): Visual Builder: Create an experience: Create an Experience functionality in Optimizely Visual Builder offers a code-free way to build and manage captivating digital experiences. It offers pre-built content blocks or elements (like text, images, buttons, forms, etc.) that can be positioned on the page layout as desired. Visual Builder offers extensive options to customize the appearance and behavior of these elements. Users can modify colors, fonts, sizes, animations, and even add interactive features providing flexibility in arranging content, accommodating various design needs and responsiveness across different screen sizes.Screenshot of (SaaS CMS): Visual Builder: Publish: The Visual Builder displays changes in real-time as they are made. This includes side-by-side previews for different devices like desktops, tablets, and mobiles. Before publishing, the Interactive Preview mode can be used to test elements like forms, buttons, and other interactive components to ensure they work as expected on the live site. Changes can then be published directly from the Visual Builder interface, making them instantly available to site visitors.Screenshot of the central location to manage assets, editing and publishing content.