TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Google Universal Analytics (discontinued) vs. Optimizely Web Experimentation

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Universal Analytics was an enterprise-level analytics solution that was sunset in July of 2024.

    $150,000

    Up to 1 Billion hits/month

    Optimizely Web Experimentation

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AWhether 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
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Editions & Modules
    Google Analytics Premium
    $150,000
    Up to 1 Billion hits/month
    Google Analytics
    Free
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    Chose Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)
    Adobe Analytics is a robust tool, feature-rich, and good reporting. It has focused on understanding user behavior and e-commerce performance at its core. However, with the sophistication comes difficulty in use and the ability for simple reporting and analysis. The setup of Ado…
    Incentivized
    Optimizely
    Chose Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Google Optimize was great, but our organization already had contracts with Optimizely Web Experimentation for their other tools. unbounce wasn't really an option either mainly because it was only a landing page testing tool and had to use their platform to host the tests. We …
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Optimizely is the leader but Google Optimize and Adobe Target are up and coming given their ability to integrate with those marketing stacks.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Google Optimize 360.

    Reasons.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Web Experimentation
    It's more fully-featured, and easier to use.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Optimizely is easily a top 3 platform, depending on your other MarTech will determine if its the best tool for you.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Have used other tools like Google Optimize 360 (better integration with Google Analytics and ease of extracting insights into more granular segments) and Visual Website Optimizer (comparable to Optimizely but more geared toward beginners and focused on A/B testing).
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Web Experimentation
    We went with Optimizely over Lift because it was more flexible with creating variants outside of the "blocks" of content that Lift handles. So for instance, if you wanted to test an entirely new area of content you cannot do that with Lift. You can only test images/text in …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    89 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    26 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    69 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    32 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    89 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    27 Answers
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    52 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    24 Answers
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    58 Answers
    Features
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Web Analytics
    Comparison of Web Analytics features of Google Universal Analytics (discontinued) and Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Feature
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)
    6.9
    1 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Lead Conversion Tracking7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Device and Browser Reporting1.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pageview Tracking7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event Tracking8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting in real-time10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Referral Source Tracking10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable Dashboards5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Testing and Experimentation
    Comparison of Testing and Experimentation features of Google Universal Analytics (discontinued) and Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Feature
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.0
    163 Ratings
    5% 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 Ratings8.075 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 Ratings7.9112 Ratings
    Experiment scheduler00 Ratings8.2112 Ratings
    Experiment workflow and approval00 Ratings7.890 Ratings
    Dynamic experiment activation00 Ratings7.574 Ratings
    Client-side tests00 Ratings7.896 Ratings
    Server-side tests00 Ratings7.250 Ratings
    Mutually exclusive tests00 Ratings8.280 Ratings
    Audience Segmentation & Targeting
    Comparison of Audience Segmentation & Targeting features of Google Universal Analytics (discontinued) and Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Feature
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.2
    152 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Standard visitor segmentation00 Ratings8.4147 Ratings
    Behavioral visitor segmentation00 Ratings7.6122 Ratings
    Traffic allocation control00 Ratings9.1144 Ratings
    Website personalization00 Ratings7.8111 Ratings
    Results and Analysis
    Comparison of Results and Analysis features of Google Universal Analytics (discontinued) and Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Feature
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)
    -
    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
    Best Alternatives
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Small Businesses
    Matomo Analytics
    Score9 out of 10
    Google Optimize
    Score6.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Lead Forensics
    Score8.9 out of 10
    AB Tasty
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Chartbeat
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Google Content Experiments (discontinued)
    Score7.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (55 ratings)
    8.7
    (254 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    9.5
    (51 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (58 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (6 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (23 ratings)
    10.0
    (16 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (163 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google Universal Analytics (discontinued)Optimizely Web Experimentation
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    As I have discussed previously their insights were very useful. The second thing is since it is a Google product you will connect the data very easily from other platforms like Bigquery, Google Drive, etc. and even you can connect Google marketing platform. through this tool, you can track your live campaign how they were performing, and how it will be engaging your customer as well.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • It is an excellent cloud analytics platform that is easy to install and configure and easy to deploy and use, allowing us to measure web traffic and other tools.
    • It is an entirely online tool; it does not take up hard disk space like other desktop tools.
    • Since this tool is draggable, Google is constantly adding more features.
    • Even beginners who do not have a custom dashboard can get information. If there is a problem somewhere on the site that needs to be investigated, Google Analytics 360 will notify you.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Generally I think there is a lot you can do within the tool, but as it is a Google product it means there is limited support - something which I think lets all of the platform stacks down
    • There could be more visual signifiers to identify if a feature is a normal or 360 feature. This would mean you can really get to grips with what the extra more advanced elements are
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    Google Analytics 360 is an upgraded version of the most widely used web/app analytics tracking tools in the market. The price is stable and predictable making it a long-term product of choice. It's easy to use and pairs so well with other Google Marketing Platform products.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    The UI is very easy to navigate and use. The features are well designed and intuitive. As long as the user has a good understanding of basic digital analytics definitions and capabilities, this tool should be quite easy to use. I consider Google Analytics Premium to be the easiest of all of the enterprise solutions out there to use.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    If you purchase Premium through a reseller like LunaMetrics, you are going to be taken care of. The additional amount of support and services that a reseller provides to make sure you have the best experience with the product is the reason why the reseller program exists to begin with. Support doesn't have to be just reactive, it can be proactive as well.
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Discontinued Products
    There is a ton of information online about Google Analytics, but Google Analytics Premium users will have dedicated support and training from Google or an Authorized Reseller.
    Read full review
    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).
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    If you already have the basic version of GA installed, "getting" GA Premium happens immediately through a virtual flipping of the switch - no need to re-implement. You'll want to expand your use of custom dimensions and metrics (you get 10x the amount with Premium). Ideally, you'll be using a tag management solution to talk with GA Premium, in concert with implementing a dataLayer (to note, Google's Tag Manager platform is covered under the same GA Premium SLA, and it's free). There are some welcomed "configurations" with GA Premium, such as integrating with DoubleClick products, activating data driven attribution models, and building roll-up executive reports - but all of these are easy point and click solutions. In comparison with any other enterprise analytics solution, implementing GA and GA Premium is traditionally easier and more flexible. And if you have any trouble or need an extra set of hands for implementation, GA Certified Partners like LunaMetrics can help
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    Unless you have very complex and edge case analytics needs, Google Analytics [360 (formerly Google Analytics Premium)] is likely going to be the best choice. From both a cost and usability stand point, Google wins. Adobe has the edge case when you need to create really custom reports, dimensions, metrics, etc. In my experience, this is rarely the case and you end up biting off more than you can chew. Stick with Google unless you are or plan on hiring an Adobe Analytics expert.
    Incentivized
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • It helps me understand which social media platforms are most successful for me - which I should focus on and which I might want to focus less on.
    • I can also see which blog posts people are reading - so I know which topics resonate most. I can write more of those, hopefully gaining more visitors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    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 new Visual Editor with an AI Variation Development Agent

Create simple or advanced website changes fast without writing a line of code with our AI Development Agent.

Use natural language to build out your ideas and apply brand styles to your experiments instantly.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 Variation Template

Library of experience templates that you can access right within the Visual Editor. Customize these templates or create your own to easily reuse throughout your experimentation program.

- 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 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.Screenshot of the custom code editor for JavaScript & CSS changes, used to build complex tests.