In keeping with their reputation of building or acquiring useful tools – and then killing them off – Google has announced they’re closing the doors on their popular A/B testing tool Google Optimize on September 30, 2023.
So if you’re currently using Google Optimize to improve your website, it’s time to start looking for a replacement.
You can read Google’s official announcement here, but the long and short of it is they’re “looking toward the future” and “investing in third-party A/B testing integrations for Google Analytics 4”… which, to the average user, means export your data and find a Google Optimize alternative pronto.
But what are the best Google Optimize alternatives in 2024? Let’s take a look…
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Comparing the Main Google Optimize Alternatives
There are a few powerful tools available that offer A/B testing like Google Optimize. But which ones are right for your business, website and budget? Let's explore some of the leading brands.
Optimizely offers a range of online testing tools aimed at corporate and enterprise level businesses. This includes A/B testing, personalization, and multi-page funnel experiments. They’re used by brands such as Sky, IBM and Salesforce.
The Optimizely team definitely know their stuff when it comes to A/B testing – they’ve been around since 2010 – but realistically they’re unlikely to be a good Google Optimize alternative for the majority of people given the complexity of their software and the price… which you’ll only discover once you book a phone consultation with their sales team.
Our advice is to leave this tool for the bigger brands with huge marketing budgets, and look for something more suitable for your online business.
Price: Our best research comes up with a minimum of $36,000 USD per year!VWO Testing
VWO Testing features professional A/B testing tools for all budgets. The free version includes split URL testing, mobile testing, the choice between a visual editor and a code editor, device targeting, traffic allocation, and a generous limit of 50,000 unique visitors per month.
Once you grow beyond their free tier, VWO Testing offers more A/B segmentation options, such as targeting visitors by their operating system, cookies, and location.
Overall, VWO Testing is well worth considering as an alternative to Google Optimize, but bear in mind that you’ll be limited to 3 testing variations on their free plan, and their next tier costs $356 USD per month.
Price: Free plan + Paid plans: $356 – $1,461 USD per month
Convert
We love Convert’s tagline “Enterprise grade A/B testing features at self-service prices” – that sounds like a recipe for a great tool with an active userbase of real online business owners. Their A/B testing tool features 9 experiment goal types including page visits, revenue, clicks, JavaScript triggers and even a pre-defined scrollpoint (perfect for making sure visitors see important calls-to-action before they click them).
Convert integrates with over 90 applications and tools, such as Shopify, WordPress, Magento, Hubspot, Salesforce, Prestashop and more. If you already rely on a wide range of tools in your tech stack, Convert might be a good Google Optimize alternative to consider.
Price: Starts at $99 USD per month with a 15-day free trial.
Crazy Egg
Best known for making heatmaps accessible and actionable, Crazy Egg now also offers an A/B testing tool that promises to be simple, fast to implement, and requires no code… 3 things we LOVE to hear at Thrive Themes.
Rather than being offered as a standalone product, Crazy Egg’s A/B testing tool is now included with their subscription package, and includes all their amazing tools like heatmaps, user recordings, tracking analysis, error tracking and surveys. At $29 USD per month, this is a crazy eggcellent alternative to Google Optimize!
To use Crazy Egg’s A/B testing software, you need to add a small script to the pages you want to test, make your changes and experiment with new ideas, and then decide which changes to keep based on your goals.
Price: $29 - $249 USD per month, plus a 30-day free trial.
Thrive Optimize
Thrive Optimize is the best landing page A/B testing plugin for WordPress, and of course it’s built by the talented team here at Thrive Themes.
Thrive Optimize lets you easily test different variations of sales pages, landing pages, funnel pages and more, to see which version converts best. We’ve used Thrive Optimize to improve conversion rates on this website by a massive 25%. And best of all, it’s made for non-techies, so you don’t have to touch a single line of code!
If you already own Thrive Suite, or the standalone Thrive Optimize plugin, you already have access to amazing, easy-to-use A/B testing software. This means:
Price: $199 USD for the first year, or together with 9 other conversion-focused WordPress plugins for $299 USD for the first year.
Thrive Optimize - The Best Landing Page A/B Testing Plugin for WordPress
If you want to learn more about Thrive Optimize, check out our feature page, our helpful A/B testing videos, and our 7 golden rules of A/B testing.
But now, let’s explore what makes Thrive Optimize a great choice for replacing Google Optimize…
Fast A/B Testing
Easily create A/B tests for your Thrive Architect built landing pages
Unlimited Tests
Run as many tests as you want, concurrently or in sequence. There are no limitations
Max 5
Unlimited Variations
Thrive Optimize allows you to test as many variations as you want
Max 16
Different Conversion Goals
Choose to measure "page visit", "opt-in form submission" or "revenue" as conversion goals
Custom Traffic Distribution
Evenly distribute traffic between your test variations or set your own ratio
Detailed Reporting
See all the details about how your tests are performing, statistical significance and more
Automatic Winner Feature
Let Thrive Optimize crunch the numbers and choose the winning variation for you, with "set-it-and-forget-it" automatic winner settings
Visual Editing
Thrive Optimize is an add-on to Thrive Architect, the most advanced visual front end editor for WordPress
Runs on Your WordPress Site
Thrive Optimize installs and runs on your own WordPress website and is managed through your WP dashboard
Strong Support
Thrive Themes has a dedicated support and development team to help you out when needed
* see note
One Click Variation Cloning
Clone an existing landing page in one-click so you can quickly modify the variation and launch your test in mere minutes
* Google Optimize’s free support is limited to their “self-service help center and community forums”
Curious to know the types of tests you can run with Thrive Optimize? Here’s some easy testing ideas:
- 1Test different sales pages headlines to see which one results in the best conversion rate
- 2Test your sales page with and without customer testimonials
- 3Test whether a video-focused sales page drives more enquiries
- 4Test many different call-to-action variations to zero in on the best words to use
- 5Test the effects of adding an FAQ or money back guarantee to remove purchase objections
If you’re currently using Google Optimize to do any of these A/B tests, you’ll have no trouble switching over to Thrive Optimize before the deadline on September 30, 2023.
Thrive Leads - Opt-in Form A/B Testing for WordPress
One more option to consider when looking for a Google Optimize alternative…
Not only can you replace Google Optimize with Thrive Optimize for your landing page A/B tests, but you can also A/B test your email opt-in forms with Thrive Leads.
Thrive Leads lets you build beautifully designed opt-in forms and display them anywhere on your WordPress website – but it also comes with its own powerful A/B testing engine so you can find exactly which designs convert the best!
It comes with an impressive number of opt-in form templates to make creating A/B tests easy, too: pop-ups, scroll mats, sidebars, exit-intent lightboxes, ribbons, screen overlays, content locks, 2-step opt-in forms, and many more such template designs.
So if you’re looking to grow your email subscribers or improve your lead generation, the A/B testing feature inside Thrive Leads is an ideal Google Optimize replacement.
Which is the Best Google Optimize Alternative in 2024?
Remember, Google Optimize is officially closing in September 2023… it’s time to find a suitable replacement so you can continue testing and improving your website.
If we had to choose an affordable, accessible and WordPress-compatible A/B testing tool in 2024, we’d probably suggest either Crazy Egg (as part of their already great heatmap and user recording tools), or Thrive Optimize for its features, support and ease-of-use.
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Squeeze every last drop of conversion juice from your landing pages with Thrive Optimize — the A/B testing add-on to Thrive Architect. Get instant access to both plugins in this powerful bundle.
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Some quick questions to get the comments going…
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
Will there be an integration for thrive optimize with WooCommerce? I’d really love that!
Hello Sander. At the moment, there are no plans to fully integrate Thrive Optimize with WooCommerce as it’s not possible to use different product templates at the same time. However, you can create ‘product page’ standalone landing pages for your flagship products, and then use the results to improve your WooCommerce product pages.