Best A/B Testing Tools (Google Optimize Alternatives)

Before you can truly understand A/B testing and what are some of the best A/B testing tools like Google Optimize, you need to look at your website in a different light.

Now I know that may sound stupid, but like many things in life, sometimes there is more to the story than meets the eye. Your website is no different.

Most companies see their website as nothing more than an online billboard. And most of those sites are static websites that never get updated. And this “online billboard” is often created to;

1. Get your name out to more potential customers.
2. Increase leads, sales, etc.

But what happens when your website is not accomplishing any of your goals? Either nobody visits your site (Hire Us), or if people do view your website, none of them execute your calls to action.

Often the problem is your company’s mindset. A website isn’t an electronic billboard. A website is a marketing tool. And this tool comes with some awesome metrics that you can use to increase its productivity.

The primary metric you hear touted by “SEO experts” is analytics. But A/B testing is just as useful as Analytics.

In this article, I will teach you everything important about A/B tests and follow up on the best A/B testing tools like Google Optimize.

For those who don't know, Google Optimize is a free A/B testing tool from Google, which has been discontinued. In light of this discontinuation, if you are someone who is looking for Google Optimize alternatives, you are in the perfect place as well.

What is an A/B test?

A/B testing is the process of splitting up your web traffic and sending them to two different destinations (or maybe three, four or five, sometimes called A/B/N testing).

And these destinations could be any number of things. These could be different landing pages, email newsletters, contact forms, etc.  And these destinations differ in small ways.

A/B Testing Examples

Let's say you run an online store and want to know which version of a product page design will generate more sales. For this, a simple design and marketing A/B testing are needed.

You create two different versions of the product page - one with a blue "Buy Now" button and one with a green "Buy Now" button - and randomly show each version to different groups of website visitors.

You then track how many people from each group click the "Buy Now" button and complete a purchase. The version that generates more sales is considered the winner, and you can use that design moving forward to increase your sales.

A/B testing allows you to make data-driven decisions based on real user behavior rather than just guessing what might work best.

Why do A/B Testing?

Let’s see another example of A/B testing with a Contact Form like this. This is an A/B test that we did.

So let’s say we have a contact form created asking people to request information about your services. You look at your analytics and see that many people visit your contact form page, but only 25% of them complete the form.

So we decide to do some A/B testing to try and increase the number of sign-ups. And we decide to create a simpler and horizontal form with one or two less fields for the visitor to fill out.

With both forms in place, we started splitting our traffic up and testing both options simultaneously.

After a set period of time, we view the results. In this example, we find that our original form still converted 25%, and the new form converted 30%. With that information, you would decide to run the new form full-time.

But you’re not done, right? For some, 30% is still not that good. So we return to the drawing board and continue testing ideas until we find a winning combination.

So without writing a book, that is A/B testing in a nutshell.

A/B testing is, in fact, the process of making small changes (headlines, colors, fonts, etc.) to increase a certain outcome.

It is a scientific method that uses analytics to provide quantitative and qualitative results. But this starts with understanding that your company website is a tool.

How to do A/B Testing?

How do we implement this concept? Well, to integrate A/B testing into your website, you need a program designed to run the tests.

You can either use custom-coded javascript to render different elements for different sets of visitors, use plugins to conditionally show different content or use a web service that does it for you.

On WordPress, there are a couple of plugins that can help you do the A/B testing:

1. MonsterInsights (Paid)
2. Nelio AB Testing (Free)
3. My WP A/B Testing (Free)
4. A/B Testing for WordPress (Free)
5. Convertize A/B Testing for WordPress (Free)

In addition to these there are several web services, also known as A/B testing tools amongst the general audience, which can help you do the required things without much setup. I have covered these in the next section.

Best A/B Testing Tools

1. Google Optimize

Google Optimize was a free A/B testing tool from Google and it allowed you to test multiple versions of a page. This feature can be found under the Analysis and Testing tab, in your Google Analytics account or here if you have been using it already. It will be completely retired on 30th September 2023.

Here are other, and the best Google Optimize alternatives that you can try.

2. Optimizely

Optimizely is a leading experimentation platform that offers A/B testing, multivariate testing, and personalization for websites and mobile apps. It helps businesses optimize the customer experience and increase conversion rates.

Optimizely offers custom pricing based on the specific needs of each customer. You need to contact their sales team for a quote.

Users praise the platform's robust features and easy-to-use interface. Some users find the pricing to be on the higher side and report occasional issues with implementing experiments.

Once Optimizely is set up on your website, it offers a WYSIWYG interface that allows you to A/B test and Multivariate test, just about anything your heart desires. Plans for this tool start at $17/mo.

3. Unbounce

Unbounce allows you to create, publish, and test landing pages. It features a drag and drop interface to create landing pages, and the pages are live as soon as you hit publish. Plans start at $49/mo.

Unbounce is a landing page builder with built-in A/B testing capabilities. It focuses on helping businesses create high-converting landing pages and improve conversion rates.

Unbounce offers three pricing plans: Launch ($80/month), Optimize ($120/month), and Accelerate ($200/month), all billed annually. They also provide a custom Enterprise plan.

Users appreciate the drag-and-drop landing page builder and the ease of setting up A/B tests. Some users find the platform to be a bit expensive and mention occasional issues with the builder.

4. Visual Website Optimizer

VWO is a comprehensive A/B testing and conversion rate optimization platform that offers a range of testing and personalization features, including heatmaps, visitor recordings, and funnel analysis.

VWO offers three pricing plans:

• Growth (starting at $200/month),
• Pro (starting at $480/month), and
• Enterprise (starting at $1068/month).