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Optimizely Web Experimentation

Optimizely Web Experimentation

Overview

What is Optimizely Web Experimentation?

Optimizely Web Experimentation empowers teams to conduct experiments (without having to rely on developer resources) in order to test various user interactions, make website changes backed by data, and personalize customer experiences.

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Recent Reviews

Not value for money

5 out of 10
April 24, 2024
Incentivized
We use Optimizely Web Experimentation to launch different experiments in our site. We have different type of audiences, coming from …
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Optimizely Review

8 out of 10
April 23, 2024
Incentivized
We use Optimizely for A/B testing and soft rollouts of changes. This allows us to test and make changes without needing to use engineering …
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Good platform

8 out of 10
April 23, 2024
Incentivized
I have used Optimizely in order to conduct simple AB tests and more complex MVT test to improve an ecommerce website. We had issue …
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Data has no opinions

8 out of 10
April 16, 2024
Incentivized
It's simple for us, we want to make data driven decisions and Optimizely Web Experimentation gives us the tools and data we need to …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 33 features
  • a/b experiment testing (101)
    9.3
    93%
  • Standard visitor segmentation (93)
    8.9
    89%
  • Test significance (92)
    8.5
    85%
  • Preview mode (90)
    8.0
    80%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Video Reviews

1 video

Optimizely Web Experimentation Review from a Director of Partnerships
08:08
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Pricing

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What is Optimizely Web Experimentation?

Optimizely Web Experimentation empowers teams to conduct experiments (without having to rely on developer resources) in order to test various user interactions, make website changes backed by data, and personalize customer experiences.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.optimizely.com/plans/

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Features

Testing and Experimentation

These features enable companies to plan, set up, and execute different types of tests (e.g. A/B, A/B/n, multivariate, split URL tests).

8
Avg 8.6

Audience Segmentation & Targeting

A set of tools used for website optimization experiments (e.g. A/B, A/B/n, funnel, split URL, multivariate tests) that can help users segment their audience in to different groups for the purpose of exposing specific audiences to tests or personalization efforts.

8.6
Avg 8.8

Results and Analysis

Tools that allow users to evaluate the results of website optimization tests (e.g. A/B, A/B/n, multivariate, and split URL tests), or view visitor interaction with webpages and specific site elements.

8.3
Avg 8.6
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Product Details

What is Optimizely Web Experimentation?

Optimizely Web Experimentation empowers marketers to conduct fast experiments and personalization campaigns without relying heavily on technical resources. Marketers can test various user interactions, make website changes backed by data, deliver personalized customer experiences, and do it all from edge networks.

Optimizely provides a single workspace for experimentation collaborators to have control and visibility across their experiments — from setting up experiment components to interpreting test results — ultimately to improve velocity and collaboration, and elevate performance.

Optimizely Web Experimentation Features

Testing and Experimentation Features

  • Supported: a/b experiment testing
  • Supported: Split URL testing
  • Supported: Multivariate testing
  • Supported: Multi-page/funnel testing
  • Supported: Cross-browser testing
  • Supported: Mobile app testing
  • Supported: Test significance
  • Supported: Visual / WYSIWYG editor
  • Supported: Advanced code editor
  • Supported: Preview mode
  • Supported: Test duration calculator
  • Supported: Experiment scheduler
  • Supported: Experiment workflow and approval
  • Supported: Dynamic experiment activation
  • Supported: Client-side tests
  • Supported: Server-side tests
  • Supported: Mutually exclusive tests

Audience Segmentation & Targeting Features

  • Supported: Standard visitor segmentation
  • Supported: Behavioral visitor segmentation
  • Supported: Traffic allocation control
  • Supported: Website personalization

Results and Analysis Features

  • Supported: Form fill analysis
  • Supported: Goal tracking
  • Supported: Test reporting
  • Supported: Results segmentation
  • Supported: CSV export

Platform Integration Features Features

  • Supported: API
  • Supported: Web analytics integration
  • Supported: Content Management System Integration
  • Supported: Integration with CRM or DMP software

Optimizely Web Experimentation Screenshots

Screenshot of the visual editor, used to make changes to the appearance and layout of a website.Screenshot of the results dashboard that displays experiment results.Screenshot of the integrations page, where integrations can be enabled.Screenshot of Advanced Audience Targeting: Custom Real-Time Segments provide customers with the ability to create rapidly-updating segments which can be used as audiences for testing or personalization. These segments can be based on profile data, omni-channel behaviors, and AI-based observations.Screenshot of AI Content Suggestions: AI-powered suggestions in the Visual Editor accelerate ideation.Screenshot of Extensions for Edge: reusable elements minimize developer dependency when launching multiple tests with the same element.

Optimizely Web Experimentation Video

Optimizely Web Experimentation Competitors

Optimizely Web Experimentation Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Optimizely Web Experimentation Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

Optimizely Web Experimentation empowers teams to conduct experiments (without having to rely on developer resources) in order to test various user interactions, make website changes backed by data, and personalize customer experiences.

AB Tasty, VWO, and Adobe Target are common alternatives for Optimizely Web Experimentation.

Reviewers rate Traffic allocation control highest, with a score of 9.4.

The most common users of Optimizely Web Experimentation are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(502)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(101-125 of 186)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are an Optimizely agency community partner and have been working with our clients to support them on their website experimentation initiatives. For some clients, it's owned and executed by a demand/lead generation team, which is responsible for lead production from calls, the website, etc. Other clients, however, are part of marketing teams and have some ownership of the brand website, but not all, which limits or hinders our ability to test.
  • Very User-friendly
  • Large, Robust Source of Documentation and Use Cases
  • Optimizely-Based Support
  • Knowledge Community
  • Expensive SaaS - probably most expensive of it's kind in the marketplace
  • No Freemium model, which forces me to recommend other tools to our clients who are just getting started in testing
I believe Optimizely to be the best in its class, but the expense of the platform makes it difficult to project its ROI.
Ashley Smith | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Optimizely is currently being used for our CRO programme to run A/B testing as well as smaller personalisation campaigns. This currently sits solely within the product team to make quick front end changes and testing. This helps to address and resolve user experience issues, styling and formatting issues as well as ensure we are testing within the right areas.
  • Easy to use platform with an easy to use WYSIWYG editor for non-technical people.
  • Specific personalisation suite to enable effective use of 1:1 personalisation on landing pages.
  • Accurate statistcal modelling to ensure confidence in results.
  • Assistance with on-boarding the tool as opossed to using a partner.
  • Dedicated training on the tool for internal business users both on the development and consultancy side.
  • Impression usage should be applied to running AB tests only - Development teams need to take some time to implement a winning variation and so using impressions to temporarily run a winning experience is not ideal.
Well suited to make quick amends to existing issues on site. Althought I don't believe the platform should be used for this purpose for too long. With the program management tool, Optimizely enables users from across the business to share ideas and collobarate and prioritise testing efficiently. There are many ways to QA an experience but changes to the QA tool such as being able to trigger different experiences and/or variations on or off would be ideal.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Optimizely is being used across the whole organization. It helps to give our customers more personalization and optimization. We use it for A/B testing. Every team is allowed to use it autonomously and if there is any problem or question there is the Optimization team that provides support. I have been using it for one year, managing experiments and features. I find it very powerful and easy to use.
  • Features flag managing
  • Experiment managing
  • Optimizely goes beyond classic A/B testing and allows you to manage many different variants.
  • I like it and I'm not able to provide you improvement.
In my opinion, Optimizely should not be abused. Sometimes having in the same time on the same component more than 6/7 tests can add complexity. It is well suited when there is a clear vision of what we want to test, how to do it, and why we are doing this test.
William Sargent | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Optimizely is being used primarily with our product managers within one department. It has allowed us to use experimentation to prove our hypothesis that have directly affected change for our public facing membership webpages.
  • The tech support has been outstanding.
  • The online documentation is very well written. It makes it easy for us to solve our own challenges.
  • The analytics reporting has been very helpful for us to understand what our audience likes and dislikes.
  • I would have liked to use the Full Stack product, but it was just too expensive to justify its additional cost.
  • I would have liked more control over user permissions and global controls over all experiments.
  • Integration of third-party software was confusing at first.
I would recommend using Optimizely for any website with an ecommerce component as it has the potential to pay for itself if you use a UX Designer and a Front End Developer to implement your experiment ideas.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for experimentation on new product features. It is being used by more than one department and helps in understanding customer choices.
  • Random allocation in A/B Tests
  • KPI Monitoring
  • Experimentation
  • Version Control
  • Traffic Allocation Insights
A/B testing of traffic is the best scenario for Optimizely.

Other use cases requiring detailed metrics is something that Optimizely is less appropriate for.
Jared Gardner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Optimizely to do all the web site testing and optimization in the Marketing department.
  • Integrates with most digital marketing tools well.
  • Library features make it easy to reuse metrics, goals, and pages.
  • Endless ways of executing a test.
  • Great thought leadership and training.
  • Being able to target analytics audiences is limiting compared to Google and Adobe products.
  • UI looks nice but its layout a little weird IMO.
Really one of the top tier testing tools, there are very little things it can't do. The personalization add-ons can get expensive though. I wish you could use audiences from GA or Adobe Analytics (and Audience platforms) to target tests, besides that, I have not real complaints.
January 28, 2019

Optimizely Experience

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Optimizely within our department. Our website is composed of our upcoming events, contact info, and some resources. Optimizely is a wonderful product for A/B testing results and improves it with better choices. The best thing about this product is that it is very easy to use.
  • Very easy to use compared to other alternatives. Just add the script to the website.
  • Frees up our time.
  • You can test things out before actually implementing.
  • It is too expensive.
  • It needs to have a more visual data representation.
  • Customer service is slow.
If you have a website that a lot of users interact with, then this product would help you to choose the best choices to use on your website. If you have a website that has low traffic, then this might not be the best product. Also, the pricing is very expensive. Small businesses can find cheaper alternatives.
Alec Dibble | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Optimizely provides start-of-the-art infrastructure for running split-and-multivariate content testing on websites & apps. I have seen Optimizely used cross-organizationally, usually implemented by Engineering and utilized by a Product and/or Marketing. Testing can be targeted to ad campaigns, segmented based on visitor type, or started by more complex, programmatic triggers.

By utilizing Optimizely, organizations can test and iterate how content changes affect Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It provides best-in-class tools to setup testing & customization, as well as tracking it's effectiveness.

I have several clients that have utilized Optimizely in the past, with one client that still uses it.
  • Optimizely makes it extremely easy to setup almost any type of split or multi-variate testing experiment. It has a variety of test triggers types & many ways to segment incoming visitors.
  • I believe Optimizely's results dashboard is one of the best among split testing software. It allowed my team to get insights into the running of tests, like time to significance and a view of metric changes over time.
  • Optimizely is very easy to use for non-engineers. It has a powerful visual interface that allows marketers and advertisers to setup complex variations without 1 line of code.
  • In terms of documentation and implementation, I believe Optimizely is ahead of its competitors in terms of its focus on reliability and speed.
  • Optimizely is now very expensive. It's pricing models have change a lot over the time I have used it. Now, it has many different plans with no pricing online.
  • I believe the interface for setting up experiment goals could use improving. Sometimes, there is friction with adding pre-created metrics if you don't remember exactly what they were tracking.
  • Wish the dashboard had more of awareness of funnels and more funnel-specific reporting.
I think Optimizely is a great fit for data-driven organizations that can afford a top-of-the-line testing tool. With Optimizely, you can be sure that performance and reliability will never be an issue with your site. Some split testing solutions can change the end-user experience, but I have had no issues with Optimizely. It is expensive, but provides tools for both engineers & non-engineering departments to implement, run & analyze tests.
Brian Nizinsky | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Optimizely for all of our A/B webpage testing across both our main website and any campaign landing pages. Only the Marketing department uses this tool. We use Optimizely to test out theories in order to see their effect on conversion rates and other relevant KPI's.
  • It makes it easy to set up the A/B testing parameters and allow us to focus on running multiple tests.
  • We love the ability to exclude audiences so that the test data is as pure as possible
  • We like the interface since its easy to see what version is "winning"
  • There is a bit of a learning curve with the interface, it's not that intuitive day 1.
  • You will need a web dev to help get these tests set up. It is not easy enough for a non-tech person to do.
Optimizely is well suited for your standard A/B testing scenarios. It does not do multivariate testing (at least the version we have does not). I would not look to Optimizely for any type of personalization for a website. There are better tools out there for that.
Sylvia Flores | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am using Optimzely with multiple clients in order to battle test marketing messages for relevancy to their potential client base. I am also constantly pushing personalization of the customer experience, which Optimizely helps me to achieve, and in large numbers. With a few clients, I am also using it to test and push new product features to ensure optimum customer delight!
  • Battle testing marketing messages.
  • Personalization to prospects and customers.
  • Product feature testing.
  • Their user experience in Bang On!
  • I've had some bugs with the preview tool.
  • Their cost structure sucks for small businesses - they seem to be aiming for more medium to enterprise-sized customers who need scale.
  • Analytics are a bit weak as it applies to user retention.
This tool is really robust. It is great for mid to large companies with a marketing budget. This is not going to be friendly for bootstrapped small businesses or startup. They really need to change that, because who better to use this tool than a startup to determine their messaging through testing? This is a fundamentally awesome tool for A/B testing messages and for personalization. Also, determining if a feature that you are purchasing is a good feature for your customers or a bad one. Overall, I would give Optimzely a B+/A-. I really want this for my small clients. It kicks ass.
Polly Harris | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
When we first implemented Optimizely, I was the only one using it to run tests. As I gained momentum and other members of the marketing team, management and customer service became familiar with the platform and possibilities, they began contributing to the testing backlog and even running tests themselves.
  • It's simple to integrate with any website, one tag in the header and you're good to go in a few minutes!
  • The interface to set up experiments is easy to use for simple experiments, just about anyone who can use a computer can set up an experiment in the Optimizely editor.
  • Their new Stats Engine they realeased a few years back allows marketers to declare a winner sooner (with a smaller required sample size) than traditional statistics would allow.
  • While it's great they offer a free version, technical support for more difficult experiment set up is unavailable unless you are an enterprise level member.
  • Optimizely has a synchronous tag, which means it cannot be added to a website using Google Tag Manager (>90% of all sites using a TMS use GTM so this affects most users.)
  • I'm sure most of us mathletes would appreciate a more in depth explanation of the statistics used in their new Stats Engine. I did a lot of digging when it was first released and wasn't able to get answers from their support team. It's great to be able to test more rapidly but understanding the maths behind the decision engine is paramount - or your essentially flying blind.
Optimizely is great for testing on sites with moderate to heavy traffic. It doesn't seem to be as effective with lower trafficked sites because the sample sizes just aren't there. I'd recommend going with a User Testing-type platform to perform CRO on lower trafficked sites.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've primarily used Optimizely for it's A/B testing functionality. Within my last 3 roles, Optimizely has been a key MarTech tool within the marketing and demand gen teams. Recently, we've began using the web personalization feature, which enables us to provide specific customers, either geolocalically, returning customers, etc, with results personalized on their data.
  • A/B Testing: To run an A/B test through Optimizely is incredibly simple when compared to other tools. And if you're using WordPress, it's even more easy as they have a plugin that enables you to use the tool directly through the CMS.
  • Simple personalization: There is no need to hire/contract a full stacked developer to create a website that can personalize for visitors; Optimizely enables you to do simple personalizations. And from a B2B perspective, we didn't want to put all our eggs in the basket on personalization, so Optimizely enabled us to test it out.
  • Display of Data: The graphs that you get are simple and easy to understand. And with their "Always Valid' analytics promise, I feel like I'm seeing the correct data at all times.
  • While I love the personalization feature on desktop, we have encountered glitches with the function on mobile. There are times where it slows down mobile speed, won't load correctly, or doesn't work.
  • The visual editor is easy to use, but I do often become flustered with lag time on changes, or just being unable to format something the way I want it.
  • The audience targeting is helpful for getting things off and running, but you have to make sure it's formatted correctly, or else you have to start over, or update manually.
Optimizely is great to companies looking to run A/B tests or personalize their websites without the need to full-stack developers. I've primarily used it in startups, which means that it's not going to break the bank, but it's also worth the money because it will help you generate money by enabling you to appeal better to visitors.
Chris Lesner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Optimizely is being used to help us figure out better messaging and get better engagement on our website. It allows us to test which images, call to actions, colors, messages, etc. convert best on any and every page we have. This not only effects website engagement, but how we choose to message in our ads based on the data we have found from our website to work.
  • You can a/b test colors of buttons and text
  • You can a/b test the words within buttons, your nav bar, etc.
  • You can swap out pictures based on what pictures are engaged with more
  • You learn a lot about what your customers are actually doing and clicking and what language they would use vs. your own language.
  • The price is very expensive. Too expensive for the average person.
  • If you want to use this on a mass level, you need a developer.
  • This is minor, but they could suggest things based on what has worked on other sites etc.
Well suited for: It allows us to a/b test literally any call to action we have. When we are looking at pricing, shop now buttons, etc. Optimizely is able to help us figure out at what points we get our best conversions and conversion rates.

Less appropriate for: If you have more than one site, Optimizely quickly outprices itself, as it gets expensive to use on scale.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our marketing team uses Optimizely to A/B test landing pages. It's a great tool to test things like buttons, taglines, images. etc. It's very easy to use and gives you really good data on how your different site variations compare. I would recommend it to any marketing staff who controls a website or landing pages.
  • A/B tests
  • Analytics
  • Conversion Rate Domain expertise (lots of helpful info)
  • Page customization
  • Pricing is pretty high
  • Sometimes it can be a little buggy in preview mode
Optimizely is great if you use landing pages for signups. Their A/B testing will help you optimize workflows and improve your conversion rates. If you're a marketer responsible for signups, you'll want a tool like this. You can easily set up a test to see which feature converts better. Very simple to use. But if you're using something like Instapage which already has A/B testing built in, it's not worth paying for a product like Optimizely.
December 19, 2018

Optimizely review

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Optimizely is used to test and optimize web pages. It's used in the process of answering business questions in more detail, beyond just using analytics.
  • Setting up simple tests.
  • Easy implementation.
  • Simple metrics to make conclusions based on the test results are easy to set up.
  • It's not complex enough in web interface changes and experience building.
  • It can interfere with the live versions of the page and disrupt the design.
  • Analytics platform does not integrate with popular tools like Adobe Analytics.
Simple A/B testing of web pages, creating versions of action on the page and testing them with certain traffic distribution for true insights on user experience.
Ryan Berg | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Optimizely with SaaS clients for A/B test landing pages, sign-up flows, and in-app features to improve key business metrics.
  • Easy to use interface.
  • Solid visual editor.
  • Fairly straightforward to set-up.
  • Doesn't always integrate well with other tracking tools.
  • Limited out of the box metrics to provide more context around your tests.
If you're just getting started with A/B testing, Optimizely is pretty straightforward to use and offers a lot of out-of-the-box features to get insights from your tests. As you grow into the enterprise level, you may want to look at more robust solutions that allow for more granular reporting and customization.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I previously used Optimizely to conduct A/B tests for our conversion landing pages. We needed to increase conversions and Optimizely has a number of features that allowed us to determine what worked best. I also used Optimizely on our main website to test out certain scenarios regarding our customer service activities.
  • Optimizely offers a number of great features that other testing services do not.
  • Optimizely allows us to test within certain timeframes and in specific timezones.
  • One of the cooler features Optimizely offers is its multivariate testing. It automates multiple tests at one time.
  • My biggest con is that the service is much more expensive than its competitors.
  • There are too many tiers to the services. The basic tier, which is still pricey only gets you simple A/B tests and not all the bells and whistles.
  • It did not allow me to extend the account to other managers in my department.
For what it does Optimizely is very good. Although I did have to splurge and pay for the larger package to get all of the bells and whistles I was looking for, I was able to expand my testing scenarios. Looking at the landscape of all other testing services Optimizely is at the top.
December 13, 2017

Decent optimization tool

Thue Lægdsgaard Madsen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Optimizely on the marketing team to run A/B and multivariate tests. Mainly we use it for splitting our traffic when testing not so much for building the actual tests themselves. The tests that we use it for are mainly to verify hypothesis around the top of our funnel acquisition flow in connection with our marketing site.
  • It is very easy to set up a test and split traffic to various test variations.
  • It has a decent smart editor for tests that only involve small changes.
  • The version that we use (Optimizely classic) has a decent amount of integration with other analysis tools.
  • It is way too expensive.
  • The editor is only useful when you run a test involving small/simple changes to your pages.
  • The support is lacking.
It is well suited for simple testing and optimization. Anything more substantial will still require engineering and will likely not benefit from the native editor. It also does a good job of splitting traffic, either in even sized groups or based on specific demographic data points.
Tigran Hakobyan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Optimizely helped us in running quick experiments on our websites. We used it for A/B testing in order to understand which call to action button colors/style/text was working better and converting more users. I personally set up the experiments and did the tests. The integration part was very easy.
  • Easy integration
  • Great platform for A/B testing
  • You can start and run experiments straight from the dashboard, no need to ask developers to change anything in the code
  • The pricing model was hard to understand and could be improved
  • Our website loading took longer when Optimizely code was added, would be great to see this improved/solved
  • Getting on board was easy, but still took some time to understand the details
If you are looking for a platform that will allow you to quickly do some experiments and A/B testing on your website/platform, then Optimizely is a great choice. For us, it was a perfect solution to test different call-to-action buttons, colors, and texts. It helped us figure out the winning one and we started using that version of our CTA.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We manage multiple brands, and we choose to use Optimizely on one of them. We mainly use Optimizely on this website for testing to improve our conversion rate with simple A/B tests, and we also use Optimizely to modify messaging and sales prices on front of site when running flash sales. In a pinch, we can also use Optimizely to make hot fixes when we find errors and typos, until we can get our dev team to put a more permanent fix in for the bug.
  • Optimizely has a great WYSIWYG editor, very intuitive and easy to use. For more advanced users, you also have access to the raw code, which I go in frequently to clean up things that the editor may have done.
  • I'm a huge fan of Optimizely's targeting criteria. I know that I can run tests on my site based on almost an audience I'd like.
  • I really enjoy Optimizely's analytics and reporting. They allow you to choose which metrics you're looking for, then they have built in confidence percentages to show you at a glance how your test is running.
  • Optimizely used to be free, now it's pretty expensive. Luckily, my account was grandfathered in, but I really think they're making a mistake by moving to a paid-only model instead of a freemium.
  • Sometimes there is a "flicker" when your page first loads where you can see the original page before the experience loads. Most visitors probably won't notice but it is not desirable.
  • The reporting doesn't always match up to the same stuff I see in Google Analytics. I know there is multiple reasons that this could be happening, but it is something to keep in mind when analyzing your data.
I used to recommend Optimizely to everyone, but with it being pay to play now, it is best used only for larger businesses. If you are a small business owner who is just looking to take advantage of some small testing on your site, you may be better off looking elsewhere (perhaps VWO or some other software that is priced based on traffic).
Grant Wilkins | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
At Northern Tool + Equipment the design and analytics teams primarily use Optimizely to test design, usability and promotional changes to see what impacts our users in a meaningful way. We run experiments to determine whether or not a new feature is worth building, an existing feature or piece of content is useful or clutters the page and should be removed, and also what promotions and marketing messages resonate.
  • Quickly and easily set up new A/B tests. Some tests can be completed in only a few minutes.
  • A robust results engine. It automatically creates segments based off URL parameters and other common criteria (new vs returning) in addition to predefined criteria you set up.
  • The support of the Optimizely implementation team and customer care is fantastic. Optimizely easily ranks as one of our best third party software vendors. They provide not just knowledge of how to use the tool, but how to build a culture around testing and experimentation within your company.
  • Acts as a great lightweight content management system for making temporary changes. We use Optimizely to make changes for 100% of traffic for controlling scheduled promotions and also bug fix patches while waiting for permanent fixes.
  • Geo-targeting for tests does not allow you to use ZIP Codes.
  • URL targeting does not have a mass upload option for lists of unrelated URLs. It does have substring and regular expression matches that cover most other needs.
  • The preview feature rarely works as expected. We run tests on a dedicated testing environment to preview and do QA.
Optimizely is a great tool to get you up and running with A/B testing quickly without sacrificing quality. The WYSIWYG editor mode is passable for someone without html and javascript knowledge, but to get the most out of the tool you'll definitely want to have a developer that is fluent in javascript. As of a few months ago Optimizely now offers server side (or full stack) testing in addition to their client side testing. This is an additional feature you have to pay for, but if you have the need and teams to support server side testing it allows you to test a lot of different things you won't get out of client side testing.
Andrew Weitsman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Optimizely to test new ideas from the marketing and development teams. The scale varies, from link redirects and button color changes all the way to page redesigns and conversion funnel adjustments. It is very easy to set up and use, allowing us to determine actionable results from our experiments before looking into a full development project. There are many features that allow for WYSIWYG page edits, but the platform's real power comes across to users who have at least a cursory understanding of HTML, Javascript and JQuery. It allows users to take experiments from thought to action with almost no time in between, and is a valuable tool for our growth and development plans.
  • Test setup is fast and easy, without using many resources.
  • Customizable metrics allow flexibility in monitoring and reporting of experiment performance.
  • Constant updates ensure that experiments run cleanly on all devices and platforms.
  • Intuitive user interface allows users to learn the platform quickly and efficiently.
  • Some rendering issues with older pages set to http: instead of https: (Optimizely is in the latter); there's a workaround that they provide, but users will need to know to look in the knowledgebase to find it.
  • Would like more baked-in metrics (e.g. time on site) and the opportunity to cross-compare different metrics (e.g. clicks as a percentage of engagement instead of visitors).
  • Occasional issues in rendering previews.
Optimizely is fantastic for quick and easy testing, and implementing experiments without a long lead time from the dev team. The company is constantly innovating and updating and creating new opportunities to try the product. However, the platform has a lot of features that are reliant on at least a remedial knowledge of code, so users should make sure to at least have a resource available to help them create more detailed experiments.
Brynn Arego | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize Optimizely to test our clients UX on the Magento platform. It is easy to install and there is a handy module for Magento that makes it easy for clients to add the snippet to their site. Optimizely is very easy to use and even better if you have jQuery knowledge. It loads fast and allows you to test many things on the site without a lot of overhead and minimal effort. If you are a savvy user it is easy to work with. If someone isn't savvy and tries to use the editor there is a risk of breaking your site. For example, if working with a product detail page template, be wary of using their WYSIWYG editor on any dynamic information like pricing. It can turn it into a static html element on the page. Overall it's a great tool that allows you to be nimble with your testing and has great reporting on the results of your test.
  • Test setup is easy and doesn't take a lot of company resources.
  • The impact on page speed is incredibly small.
  • The results dashboard gives great insights to how your test is performing and you can track multiple goals.
  • I'd like to see more tools comparable to Visual Website Optimizer (VWO). Like user recordings and in page analytics.
  • If you have a dynamic area of information and edit it you pose a risk to making the page templates dynamic data static across the site. Pricing is a great example of this.
If you want better insight into how users are specifically interacting with a page, a different tool would be able to do this whereas Optimizely is lacking.
Matthew Pimenta | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Optimizely is, among other things, a conversion rate optimization tool. This allows our creative and development teams to build unique desktop experiences for the many different users who interact with the site. Whether it's testing an A/B (or C/D/E) split among different creative and structural choices or simply just showing a different page for a different geographic location, Optimizely helps target and switch fairly seamlessly.

Sometimes traffic and engagement metrics to websites will stagnate. And Optimizely is a way to test different website layouts to discover winners (or losers) in a statistically significant way.
  • Optimizely does fairly pain-free WYSIWYG web editing. Once the code has been implemented, it is easy to move around pieces of the website, resize and format different elements around the page. You don't need that much experience in coding to operate Optimizely, although it helps.
  • Optimizely allows the team to target and serve different pages based on UTM tags.
  • Optimizely allows unparalleled creativity in determining triggers for different pages to show. With Optimizely, you can discover the geographic location of users, reference this against the weather patterns in their area and serve a different website. This may be a particularly useful tool if your client is REI, for example. REI would benefit from showing a website optimized for cold-weather climates to cold weather climates. The same goes for more temperate and warm climates. Optimizing your website so that users find what they're looking for, convert, and stay longer is the goal. And Optimizely is a great way to start reaching that goal.
  • Perhaps in the certification exams - these seem much easier when described, but take a surprising amount of studying, especially into development specialties. It's mentioned that no developer skills are needed to pass certification, but very specific certification questions are asked regarding JavaScript, HTML, and tagging that the regular account manager or similar jobs wouldn't have knowledge of.
Optimizely is well suited any time you need to serve a different version of a website to varied users or potential customers. It is also well suited when you are uncertain of which version of a website to serve to users. Optimizely provides a no-frills medium within which you may test which version leads to better conversion and optimize towards it.
Joseph Taylor | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As the head of our company's front end team, I use Optimizely to prove concepts and ideas before having the team fully develop the feature to see if it will get any traction. We use it to vet ideas that come in from product and marketing as a regular part of our process.
  • Making quick variations on pages for testing - you can use the GUI or just whip up some jQuery so you can do more advanced tests.
  • Love the reporting/results page - once you establish real goals to measure it's just awesome.
  • At least in our network, the previews often never load - this could just be our network.
  • Having to routinely click the little shield in the address bar to load the editor is annoying - again I think this is just our network.
Unless you're skilled with jQuery you won't be able to run experiments on pages that are private on your sites since you won't be able to open those pages in the editor easily.
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