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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Parse.ly

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AParse.ly is a content optimization platform for online publishers. It provides in-depth analytics and helps maximize the performance of the digital content. It features a dashboard geared for editorial and business staff and an API that can be used by a product team to create personalized or contextual experiences on a website.

    $499

    per month

    Pricing
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationParse.ly
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationParse.ly
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalRequired
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationParse.ly
    Considered Both Products
    Optimizely
    No answer on this topic
    Parse.ly
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    89 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    78 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    69 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    47 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    89 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    52 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    58 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    37 Answers
    Features
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationParse.ly
    Testing and Experimentation
    Comparison of Testing and Experimentation features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Parse.ly
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.0
    163 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Parse.ly
    -
    Ratings
    a/b experiment testing9.0163 Ratings00 Ratings
    Split URL testing8.5135 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multivariate testing8.4139 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-page/funnel testing7.9126 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cross-browser testing8.197 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile app testing8.075 Ratings00 Ratings
    Test significance8.4147 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visual / WYSIWYG editor8.1133 Ratings00 Ratings
    Advanced code editor7.9125 Ratings00 Ratings
    Page surveys6.217 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visitor recordings8.418 Ratings00 Ratings
    Preview mode7.6145 Ratings00 Ratings
    Test duration calculator7.9112 Ratings00 Ratings
    Experiment scheduler8.2112 Ratings00 Ratings
    Experiment workflow and approval7.890 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic experiment activation7.574 Ratings00 Ratings
    Client-side tests7.896 Ratings00 Ratings
    Server-side tests7.250 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mutually exclusive tests8.280 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audience Segmentation & Targeting
    Comparison of Audience Segmentation & Targeting features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Parse.ly
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.2
    152 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Parse.ly
    -
    Ratings
    Standard visitor segmentation8.4147 Ratings00 Ratings
    Behavioral visitor segmentation7.6122 Ratings00 Ratings
    Traffic allocation control9.1144 Ratings00 Ratings
    Website personalization7.8111 Ratings00 Ratings
    Results and Analysis
    Comparison of Results and Analysis features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Parse.ly
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.3
    149 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Parse.ly
    -
    Ratings
    Heatmap tool9.313 Ratings00 Ratings
    Click analytics8.833 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scroll maps8.517 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form fill analysis8.072 Ratings00 Ratings
    Conversion tracking8.744 Ratings00 Ratings
    Goal tracking8.2127 Ratings00 Ratings
    Test reporting7.9137 Ratings00 Ratings
    Results segmentation7.7103 Ratings00 Ratings
    CSV export7.9102 Ratings00 Ratings
    Experiments results dashboard8.049 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Analytics
    Comparison of Web Analytics features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Parse.ly
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Parse.ly
    7.6
    7 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Lead Conversion Tracking00 Ratings6.23 Ratings
    Bounce Rate Measurement00 Ratings6.85 Ratings
    Device and Browser Reporting00 Ratings8.36 Ratings
    Pageview Tracking00 Ratings8.26 Ratings
    Event Tracking00 Ratings7.85 Ratings
    Reporting in real-time00 Ratings8.46 Ratings
    Referral Source Tracking00 Ratings7.66 Ratings
    Customizable Dashboards00 Ratings7.66 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationParse.ly
    Small Businesses
    Google Optimize
    Score6.7 out of 10
    Matomo Analytics
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    AB Tasty
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Lead Forensics
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Content Experiments (discontinued)
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Chartbeat
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationParse.ly
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (254 ratings)
    7.8
    (82 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (51 ratings)
    8.7
    (32 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (58 ratings)
    7.7
    (35 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (16 ratings)
    7.8
    (35 ratings)
    Online Training
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (163 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationParse.ly
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
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    Parse.ly
    Parse.ly is a great tool for publishers who want to track engagement and audience behaviour across websites. With Parse.ly, we can easily track metrics like pageviews, time spent on page, and scroll depth to see which content is resonating with our audience and optimize our content strategy accordingly. Our marketers found Parse.ly to be an excellent tool for tracking the effectiveness of our campaigns. We can use Parse.ly to track metrics like referral sources, conversion rates, and engagement by audience segment to see which channels and tactics are driving the most engagement and conversions.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    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
    Parse.ly
    • Firstly, the platform is super easy to use, it is user-friendly and easy to navigate through.
    • Secondly, the platform also provides you the option to use filters to your best fit and adjust the filters according to what data you want to look at.
    • Thirdly, it enables the user to have live feedback on their articles and see what can be improved going forward to address the need of the readers.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    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
    Parse.ly
    • A more readily understandable visual guide to a visitor's pathway through your site would help understand what keeps a reader on-site.
    • The total page view number for the day should be more readily visible--on the overview page, not just by going to Posts>Historical.
    • Maintain the archive for longer than a year under all plans--it's a shame to lose year-on-year data quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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
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    Parse.ly
    As an employee, this is difficult for me to comment as I am not directly funding or making these business decisions. However, it is a tool many get on with for surface level data that is useful to editorial teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
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    Parse.ly
    The Parse.ly platform is very user-friendly and easy to use. User management is simple, and reporting setup only takes a few minutes. They provide very helpful documentation for implementing the scripts on your site and have great customer support to help with custom development such as implementing their content recommendation engine.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    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
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    Parse.ly
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    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
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    Parse.ly
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    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
    Parse.ly
    I rate this question this way solely because I haven't requested any support. I feel where I will eventually get support would be when we take Parse.ly up on some training that is being offered. We are looking to do that at some point after the first of the year and when our schedules support it.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    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
    Parse.ly
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    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
    Parse.ly
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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
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    Parse.ly
    Parse.ly does pretty well compared to Chartbeat, particularly when it comes to historical information and analysis options that are easy for employees to use after some short training. The onboarding for Parse.ly is intuitive, and the scheduled reports take away basically all of the inconvenience associated with regular metrics reviewing. But Chartbeat wins in its social audience tracking because it can source traffic to a specific social post, which can show you exactly how your audience is coming to your content and where you need to put your content to be sure you get that audience.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    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
    Parse.ly
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    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
    Parse.ly
    • Sometimes in meetings our editorial director will point out stories that didn't perform well. To us, that means readers don't really care about the topic, so we'll pivot away from writing about that in the future. That might not be "business objectives" though.
    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.

    Parse.ly Screenshots

    Screenshot of Overview in full-screen mode: Many Parse.ly pages, like the Overview, are TV-ready. Keep your entire team up-to-date with live, full-screen dashboards on TVs in your office.Screenshot of Overview screen: See a snapshot of what your audience is paying attention to today so you can make fast decisions about what content to produce or distribute. Customize it to show only what your team cares about by filtering it to a particular author, section, or tag. You can pick what stats and listings are displayed.Screenshot of Real-time posts page: See what’s gathering steam so you can capitalize on attention to every post, campaign, or section.
Real-time data includes the last 24 hours and updates every five seconds. It can be seen, filtered, and sorted on most screens.Screenshot of Historical posts page: Explore historical trends by post, author, section, topic, referrer, or campaign. Compare today’s performance to last week, month, or year.Screenshot of Campaign tracking: Easily tie in your off-site promotion to engagement with your on-site content using UTM parameters.Screenshot of Multi-channel tracking: Track all your content in one place, no matter where it lives.
Compare how your content performances on various distributed channels including your website, AMP, Facebook Instant Articles, and Apple News.