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Optimizely Web Experimentation vs. Sitecore Digital Experience Platform

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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

    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AThe Sitecore Experience Platform (Sitecore XP) is a digital experience platform used to build websites and create customer experiences online. The solution boasts fast content authoring, built-in personalization features, testing and other optimizations, as well as analytics and marketing features.N/A
    Pricing
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    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 ExperimentationSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Considered Both Products
    Optimizely
    Chose Optimizely Web Experimentation
    While they all do the same thing, I felt, and still feel, that Optimizely does it better. I felt like the other tool were too simple in format and analytics for the prices being charged and they also lacked reliable word-of-mouth. When talking to other professionals, Optimizely …
    Incentivized
    Sitecore
    Chose Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Sitecore provides and enterprise grade CMS over WordPress and allow us to do the customization we need for our unique environment. Optimizely might be better for AB testing.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    89 Answers
    90%
    Would buy again
    19 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    69 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    17 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    89 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    20 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
    18 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    58 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    19 Answers
    Features
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Testing and Experimentation
    Comparison of Testing and Experimentation features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.0
    163 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    -
    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 Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.2
    152 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    -
    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 Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    8.3
    149 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    7.5
    16 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Heatmap tool9.313 Ratings00 Ratings
    Click analytics8.833 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scroll maps8.517 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form fill analysis8.072 Ratings00 Ratings
    Conversion tracking8.744 Ratings7.716 Ratings
    Goal tracking8.2127 Ratings00 Ratings
    Test reporting7.9137 Ratings7.417 Ratings
    Results segmentation7.7103 Ratings00 Ratings
    CSV export7.9102 Ratings00 Ratings
    Experiments results dashboard8.049 Ratings00 Ratings
    Funnel Analysis00 Ratings7.417 Ratings
    User Segmentation00 Ratings7.717 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    9.9
    37 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.938 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    9.8
    34 Ratings
    20% above category average
    API00 Ratings9.934 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings9.732 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    9.2
    37 Ratings
    26% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings8.237 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings9.436 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings9.537 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings9.735 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings8.322 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings9.034 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings9.736 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings9.735 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    9.4
    36 Ratings
    35% above category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings9.735 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings9.733 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings9.531 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.534 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings9.632 Ratings
    Digital Experience Platform
    Comparison of Digital Experience Platform features of Optimizely Web Experimentation and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Optimizely Web Experimentation
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    8.2
    19 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Campaign management00 Ratings8.820 Ratings
    Cloud enablement00 Ratings8.119 Ratings
    Content aggregation00 Ratings8.219 Ratings
    Content classification00 Ratings8.619 Ratings
    Multi-channel content personalization00 Ratings7.819 Ratings
    Customer data analytics00 Ratings7.418 Ratings
    DXP Third-Party Integrations00 Ratings7.319 Ratings
    Multi-website management00 Ratings8.918 Ratings
    Digital asset management00 Ratings8.418 Ratings
    Editorial workflows and task management00 Ratings8.018 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Small Businesses
    Google Optimize
    Score6.7 out of 10
    Yext
    Score6.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    AB Tasty
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Content Experiments (discontinued)
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score7.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (254 ratings)
    8.7
    (49 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (51 ratings)
    8.7
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (58 ratings)
    9.0
    (24 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (16 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (163 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Optimizely Web ExperimentationSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    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
    Sitecore
    Sitecore offers Content Hub with Product Content Management and Content Management Platform. The Digital Experience Platform and Content Hub can both host structured content and publish the finalized version to Experience Edge. Both platforms offer different ways to manage content. During a technical and business evaluation, the evaluation panel must understand the difference between a Content Modelling focused approach, or a layout management focused approach. Sitecore Digital Experience Platform is also best not to be used to host many files and images in the Media Library. That responsibility should be offloaded to a digital asset management company like Sitecore Content Hub DAM. The technology evaluation panel must also understand how to work with a Headless CMS, where the HEAD needs to be hosted, and the costs associated with the HEAD. Composable DXP is fantastic, but everyone must understand the various cost components. Marketers and the data team will need to go into the CDP and Personalize the platform with an excellent understanding of how a composable "installation" works. All the Martech vendors have similar challenges that data and development teams need to work through with a full experience. Any CDP/analytics platform will, at some stage, require further data enrichment from other sources. Understanding the Sitecore Search features and limitations is also essential.
    Incentivized
    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
    Sitecore
    • Comprehensive Solution: Sitecore offers a fully integrated suite of products that cover the full spectrum of DXP capabilities, including search, personalization experimentation and more, delivering a complete composable DXP solution for customers.
    • Beyond Headless: XM Cloud provides more than just headless capabilities, featuring in-built tools like authoring host, page editor, etc., enabling faster and more powerful implementations.
    • Focus on AI: Sitecore has now got an excellent AI offering called Stream; it looks promising; however, it would be too early to give feedback on the same.
    • Customization: Sitecore's backend is highly customizable, allowing for deep modifications through pipelines and patch configurations.
    Incentivized
    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
    Sitecore
    • Experience Editor is a little old fashioned and sometimes slow to use.
    • Bulk operations in the Content Editor
    • Sitecore serialization is should be part of the Content Editor to provide visual reference for items which are serialized and will be overwritten by future deployments similar to what Unicorn does so well
    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
    Read full review
    Sitecore
    Sitecore has proven that it can deliver on its promise of a robust, reliable enterprise CMS solution with plenty of features. Also, they keep updating it with more and better features. Now that we are highly trained on it we have started on getting the most out of it and we plan to keep doing more of that in the future.
    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
    Sitecore
    We use Sitecore extensively because it provides a single platform for managing content, personalization, and digital experiences across multiple web properties and customer journeys. At our scale, the biggest value is consistency, governance, and the ability for marketing teams to manage experiences without needing engineering support for every change. It also integrates well with the broader CRM/marketing stack, so it becomes quite embedded once deployed.
    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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    Sitecore
    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
    Read full review
    Sitecore
    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
    Sitecore
    1. Customized software development & maintenance. 2. Technology Consulting - Consulting-based services for technology solutions data engineering or cloud solutions. 3. Used for tapping into multiple data sources such as CRM and marketing automation systems and, creating automated data extracts with a high-end visual representation of data. 4. Implemented for scheduling an existing report to automatically refresh and be delivered to specific users at a specific regular interval.
    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
    Sitecore
    Sitecore captures and remembers every single interaction your customers and prospects have in any part of the system, allowing you to build comprehensive, ever-learning profiles of each individual. From email marketing, to social media, to online shopping, Sitecore remembers where each interaction left off so you can automatically continue the conversation. Sitecore helps you manage your content for each and every experience your customers enjoy. Customize what content you want and the system will take care of how it's displayed.
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    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
    Sitecore
    Make sure you work with a partner that can help you take advantage of the entire platform. Specifically we see a lot of customers not taking advantage of Sitecore DMS and thus missing a huge opportunity. Sitecore is a platform that is meant to be constantly optimized and improved upon.
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    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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    Sitecore
    Really the only comparable product to Sitecore DXP is Adobe Experience Manager. Both are very well established and robust content management platforms. Products like Contentful and Contentstack are very lightweight and do not have as many built-in features like DXP, so it is not a fair comparison. For highly complex enterprise type engagements, Sitecore DXP and AEM are always brought to the table together for consideration.
    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
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    Sitecore
    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
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    Sitecore
    • Since moving the site to Sitecore we have had an increase in conversion - that's the ultimate goal of all these things. It's likely to be partly tied in to the re-design that happened at the same time, but the way in which you can personalise and change things really helps give the best customer journey.
    • The negative impact we've seen is mainly due to expectations around how easily things can be shared between separate instances of Sitecore - if you haven't built stuff sharable it won't be sharable, but the business have been sold Sitecore (partly) on the basis that things would be easily sharable.
    • My developers don't all like working in Sitecore - it takes time to learn, takes a long time to build and run as well as requiring a few processes around it, like Unicorn Sync, etc. One of my devs has actually asked to not work on it again! So, a potential recruitment issue.
    Incentivized
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    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.