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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

    Plone

    Score10 out of 10
    N/APlone is a free and open source content management system built on top of the Zope application server. Plone can be used for any kind of website, including blogs, internet sites, webshops, and internal websites.N/A
    Pricing
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationPlone
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationPlone
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationPlone
    Considered Both Products
    Optimizely
    No answer on this topic
    Plone
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    89 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    69 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    89 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    52 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    58 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationPlone
    Testing and Experimentation
    Comparison of Testing and Experimentation features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Plone
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.0
    163 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Plone
    -
    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 Plone
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.2
    152 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Plone
    -
    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 Plone
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.3
    149 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Plone
    -
    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
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Plone
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    19% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Plone
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    25% above category average
    API00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Plone
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    9.4
    6 Ratings
    18% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings10.06 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings5.05 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Plone
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    9.4
    5 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationPlone
    Small Businesses
    Google Optimize
    Score6.7 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    AB Tasty
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Content Experiments (discontinued)
    Score7.3 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationPlone
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (254 ratings)
    10.0
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (51 ratings)
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (58 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (6 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (16 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (163 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationPlone
    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
    Read full review
    Plone
    The larger your organization, the more appropriate Plone will be. This is not to say that Plone is a worse choice for small websites, only that the minimum investment for a Plone site is certainly higher than for other platforms. If you already use Plone for your site and are looking for a redesign or an overhaul, I would only advise switching to a different platform such as WordPress or Drupal if your organization is downsizing. For any other situation, Plone is the natural choice for your growth.
    Read full review
    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
    Plone
    • Plone is a folder-based system, organising content in a similar way desktop-users are doing for the last two decades. No need to teach non-tech customers some relational-database like paradigm for content management.
    • Plone is secure. It is the most secure CMS you can get your hands on.
    • Plone is flexible, and makes fast development easy.
    Read full review
    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
    Plone
    • Not everything is configurable or editable by Plone, and when you need to adjust or add custom pieces in, you need to deal with Zope. Zope has an ugly, confusing and difficult UI and structure as a backend.
    • Using 3rd party products is difficult to do - there are a few different ways to get them installed, all of which take a bit of luck to get right.
    • Building custom products for Plone is not fun. You've got to deal with an archaic framework to tie in that is not well documented (there is documentation about many things, but not great documentation and there are a lot of holes in the documentation).
    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
    Read full review
    Plone
    We have critical systems running on Plone so will need it in the future.
    Free to use since its Open source, so we don't have to worry about licence costs.
    We know how to use and develop Plone and it has no limits.
    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
    Read full review
    Plone
    Compared to the amount of Plone sites, users and customizations we have in our organization, the amount of support requests and training needed is really small.
    The new user interface in Plone 6 is even better, it is super fast, has lots of different blocks for enhancing the page, has flexible layout system and is easy to extend with more features.
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Plone
    Our Plone sites are very robust. We have critical systems on Plone and we have been running sites on Plone for over 20 years with very little unexpected downtime.
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Plone
    Plone is very intensive in its operations, and if not configured well it can be slow. However it is designed and built with speed in mind and with proper use of coding, templates and caching can perform extremely well under high loads. It is capable of scaling to very high load availability environments with no specific coding requirements.
    Read full review
    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
    Plone
    There are not too many Plone companies in the world. But the ones who are, are high level professionals
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Optimizely
    No answers on this topic
    Plone
    I have been participating Plone training and the trainers have always been professional. Materials were good and the instructions clear
    Read full review
    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
    Plone
    Well organized, professional training with good materials and instructions
    Read full review
    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
    Plone
    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
    Read full review
    Plone
    Drupal: Plone is cheaper, so with Drupal is more complex to reach the required ROI. However, Drupal has a lower learning curve WordPress: For our necessities it has a more expensive learning curve than plone. Joomla, is easier to use. However, it have some issues on security and web content where Plone is much better
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Plone
    Plone has no limits. We have massive sites and can run them just fine
    Read full review
    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
    Plone
    • The impact Plone has had at the University of Oshkosh is as follows: this software allows student workers to learn about IT departments and CMS's in a user-friendly way. It gives many students great jobs that look great on their resumes.
    • Since there are great training manuals for Plone, there is increased employee efficient in the workplace. Training doesn't take long, and if there's ever a question, the Plone manual is a great tool to refer to.
    • If an employee using Plone quits, its easy to find someone to replace them with quick training and great resources.
    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.