Ultimate Review: Which CRO Software tool is best for your business?

Conversion rate optimization is not easy.

If it were easy we wouldn’t be here, but most probably on a yacht on some tropical island.

Now, perfect conversion rate optimization software is the fantasy of many digital marketers.

CRO tools I’ll review

Also, I spread funny cat memes so I can put a smile on your face  (I’m screwed if you don’t like cats).

#1 Who is Google Optimize and how is it different?

Google Optimize is mostly meant to introduce you to the world of A/B testing, so is mainly dedicated to beginners. It has a lot of limitations, so Google Optimize is NOT recommended for advanced experimentation.

How is Google Optimize different? Google Optimize can be highly appreciated by those who want to do small changes to the website and do not have too many technical skills in terms of A/B testing. Besides this, Google Optimize is also a free tool and has a native integration with Google Analytics so you can see report straight from Analytics if you have the right metrics set up correctly.

#2 Who is Visual Website Optimizer (VWO) and how is it different?

VWO is addressing to two groups: one that just begins testing and to CRO experts that are already accustomed to testing. For each group, plans are different and include separate features.

How is VWO different? VWO offers a variety of inspiration for users that are finding themselves lost in the deep sea of conversion rate optimization. VWO have created their independent system where you can do heatmaps, surveys, A/B testing and user testing in an integrated platform.

#3 Who is Optimizely and how is it different?

Optimizely is an optimization tool that aims to cover experimentation at all product levels: website, mobile apps and connected devices. However, it is mostly recommended for marketers, developers and product managers from large businesses and enterprises. The price point for Optimizely is much higher than other tools in the market.

How is Optimizely different? Optimizely differentiates by the easiness of setting up tests and its capability to test on applications. Their code editor is favorable for doing advanced testing and developers used to appreciate pretty much Optimizely for their stack of resources.

#4 Who is Omniconvert and how is different?

Omniconvert is an optimization tool oriented towards small and medium eCommerce stores, digital marketers and teams who are focusing their efforts towards on-site optimization planning and want to reduce their media ads expenses.

Omniconvert covers 3 main areas of expertise: website layout testing (A/B Testing, Multivariate Testing, Split URL Testing),  online surveys and overlays (also known as pop-ups) for a tailored experience of each visitor.

How is Omniconvert different? Omniconvert offers the instruments you need to start optimizing so you don’t need to implement multiple scripts on your website for each need: user research, A/B testing or personalized overlays.

The biggest differentiators are the fully customizable overlays that hold those visitors who are undecided, want to leave or are anxious and the easy-to-setup surveys.

Comparing Omniconvert with Google Optimize, VWO and Optimizely.

Now that you made an idea, let’s see how can Omniconvert cover your needs and why it is a valuable and affordable alternative to other competitors.

I tried to be as impartial and honest as possible, so you can really decide what fits you.

#1 All-in-one optimization tool

In the myriad of tools that this market offers, Omniconvert came up with an approach that brings together A/B Testing, customer research (through online surveys), personalized interactions and reporting in the same place. So you don’t need to buy a tool for each of these and compared to other tools, you can check them out with a free account.

✔ VWO (similar to Omniconvert, but access to all features is permitted just to higher pricing levels)

✘ Optimizely (just A/B testing and personalization)

✘ Google Optimize (includes just A/B testing, limited to 3 tests)

#2 A/B testing

Omniconvert allows you to manage A/B testing experiments, just like Optimizely, VWO and Optimize. The visual editor allows you to edit your page and add HTML, CSS or Javascript in our new code editor.

✔ Optimizely (they only have now Optimizely Web and Full Stack)

✔ Google Optimize (limited to 3 tests and up to 15,360 characters in the code editor)

✔ VWO (limited features for standard plans)

#3 Split URL testing

This testing feature is integrated into the A/B testing category so when creating the A/B test you can easily introduce your URLs landing page campaign link or the checkout page that you have created.

✔ Optimizely

✔ Google Optimize (limited to 3 tests)

✔ VWO

#4 Multivariate testing

If you are a fan of multivariate testing, in the Omniconvert platform you have the chance to add how many variations you want.

✔ Optimizely

✔ Google Optimize (limited to 3 tests)

✔ VWO

Are you still following me?

#5 Mobile testing

A buzzword these days. If you go for any feature that Omniconvert offers (any type of on-page testing, surveys or interactions) you can choose the device segmentation wherever you want to apply the test: desktop, tablet, mobile or all of them.

✔ Optimizely (mobile app and OTT testing on paid plans)

✘ Google Optimize (no, you can not segment visitors by device)

✔ VWO (just on paid plans)

#6 Surveys

This is my favorite part of all the optimization process: gathering qualitative data right from real visitors and customers or find out different usability problems of the website.

Surveys are meant to be part the starting point of the on-site optimization process. That’s why, Omniconvert included them in the features package so every marketer can discover first who is the audience, the buyers persona or discover the level of customer satisfaction, build NPS, website feedback and so many other cool stuff.

✘ Optimizely (no)

✘ Google Optimize (no)

✔ VWO (just on paid plans)

P.S Three amazing things in surveys that I love are the branching logic option, the possibility to filter the answers (see the first picture below) without exporting them in CSV, the option to use grid surveys and upload images for answers.

Survey @ Omniconvert

#7 Overlays

The template editor in Omniconvert offers that can help you to interact with your visitors in different ways:

• on exit popups
• lead collectors
• discount offers
• free shipping
• limited offer with a countdown, you can use different triggers to catch the visitor in the right moment:
  • on scroll  ( 30%, 60%  scrolling depth etc)
  • on exit
  • on load

So, why bother to install another third party script when you have everything at hand?

✘ Optimizely (no)

✘ Google Optimize (no)

✘ VWO (no)

#8 Targeting

No matter you try A/B testing, interactions or surveys, you can create segments that touch different campaigns/ audiences:

• Device segmentation (segment your tests by device)
• Traffic sources: organic, paid
• Ad campaigns — by UTMs, Facebook, PPC, Youtube, Instagram etc
• GEO-location: cities/ countries/ regions
• Type of visitors: new/ returning visitors
• By GTM data layers attributes
• Behavior/ browsing history – People that visited your website recently visited specific Landing page or previously visited the page, time on site, the number of visited pages more custom targeting:
  • Target specific javascript variables
  • Plus other combination of segments that cross your mind.

✘Optimizely (just for Business and Enterprise plans)

✘Google Optimize (no

✔VWO

#9 Goals

You probably have some KPI you want to report at the end of the testing process, right?

They can be macro or micro conversions that you or your team have to set up: clicks, page views, sales, revenue, AOV and so on.

Everything mentioned above can be in your regular report in a second!

✔ Optimizely (just for Business and Enterprise plans)

✘ Google Optimize (no)

✔ VWO (just for Conversion optimization platform plan)

#10 Cumulative reports 

You probably saw many graphs that show ascending and descending trends, but you can not see exactly what is the overall trend of a specific metric.

✘ Optimizely

✘ Google Optimize

✔ VWO (just for Conversion optimization platform plan)

#11 On page variables

You may find yourself in the difficulty to target a specific audience that made a certain action on site, like visitors who add to cart for example.

On page, variables are meant to ease this work of targeting different visitors with different actions.

#12 Overlays with dynamic text

This features basically introduces a dynamic that changes its value according to each visitor.

The most common example is the widget from Booking that creates that scarcity effect “{10 people} are looking at this accommodation”.

You can apply this to your website using custom variables.

You have access to variables like weather conditions, temperature, country, city, online visitors, device type and others.

Device detection @ Omniconvert

#13 Reporting & dashboard

I know how hard is to present results and explain the impact of a specific action.

To cover this, we have recently introduced a dashboard populated with the overall impact of the tests in terms of conversion rate, revenue/visitor, total revenue and many other metrics that you want to track. If you want to see the performance of a specific test, then you can check that experiment where you can find the KPIs timeline.

✔ Optimizely (Just on Business & Enterprise plans)

✘ Google Optimize (not a specific and explanatory dashboard for overall impact)

✔ VWO

#14 Linear versus assisted conversions

When you look up in acquisition reports, you will see there assisted conversions (the conversion was applied to the last source a user visited).

The same works in A/b testing: if a user was bucketed in multiple experiments the end conversion goes to the last experiment involved.

Omniconvert introduced the concept of linear conversions that distributes conversions to each experiment involved.

✔ Optimizely (They have their own Stats Engine)

✘ Google Optimize (no)

✔ VWO (They have their own Smart Stats)

#15 Debugging

It gets a little bit frustrating when you don’t know exactly what it does work.

Our development team at Omniconvert has created the extension that tells what & why does not work so you can go on with your testing.

✔ Optimizely (Full stack plan)

✘ Google Optimize (no)

✔ VWO (Enterprise plan)

#16 Preview mode

All your work can be previewed using the preview mode and can be shared with your team or anybody in order to get approval or feedback on it.

Also, the preview mode can help you see how the test looks on different devices & browsers.

Previews helped me to share the implementation result with our clients and that’s made things much easier.

✔ Optimizely (yes)

✔ Google Optimize (yes)

✔ VWO (yes, also screenshots and previews on different browsers)

#17 Double Statistical method

We have put ourselves in the smaller websites shoes that are waiting too much for their tests to validate, so we have introduced also the Bayesian method besides the Frequentist method.

#18 Integrations

Omniconvert offers over 300 integrations with other tools from Web Analytics, shopping cart or CMS.

The most important ones are the integration with your Google Analytics (also GTM), Hotjar and others like MailChimp, Shopify, Prestashop, Magento.

✔ Optimizely ( different integrations, no GTM integration)

✘ Google Optimize ( no, just Google Analytics native integration)

✔ VWO (15 basic integrations, native heatmaps and recordings, custom integrations for Enterprise plans)

You should care about retention because retention can help you save a lot of money.

#19 Resources library

You can have access to our gallery of resources knowledge base, webinars, ebooks, articles or guidelines for implementation our help section.

Besides this, for any client, we offer FREE access to our Conversion Vault that covers ideas for A/B testing, surveys or overlays for most of the industries.

✔ Optimizely ( Knowledge Base and Community)

✘ Google Optimize (no)

✔ VWO (Idea factory, KnowledgeBase, Webinars, Guides)

#20 Customer support

We know how important is the customer support when you are trying to debug a testing problem, so we offer 24/7 email & live chat support and a full support center with the knowledge base, experiment debugger and an omnitool that helps you to instantly see changes.

✔ Optimizely ( yes)

✘ Google Optimize ( no)

✔ VWO ( 20×5 Email Support for Standard Plan)What do you think so far?

Two-options tracking code

Everybody worries that the page speed will be affected if a third party script will be added to their website.

However, Omniconvert created a security time load checker that will skip rendering our tracking code if the Internet connection is slow so the user experience will not be influenced.

Furthermore, we have 2 options for the tracking code: synchronous and asynchronous so you can choose which one most suitable for you.

Our tracking code is hosted by Amazon AWS and the tracking code can be implemented also via GTM.

✘ Optimizely (just synchronous)

✘ Google Optimize ( no)

✘ VWO ( just asynchronous)

#21 Free trial

✘ Optimizely ( no)

Google Optimize (free)

✔ VWO ( 30 days trial with limited features)

#22 Pricing

The starting price gives you an idea of how expensive or cheap is a tool.

For 30k tested visitors, plans at Omniconvert start with $77/ month.

Also, Premium Support (Full Managed Services) is much more affordable than other optimization tools and takes care of each step of your optimization process.

✘ Optimizely (custom plans)

✔ Google Optimize (free)

✔ VWO ( starting from $49 for startups traffic — 10 000 tested views with limited features)

Conclusion

I understand it is really hard to pick that tool that will make a change on your business, I’ve been there. However, if you don’t try you will never know how efficient or less efficient is a tool. Choose the tool that covers at least 50% of your objective.

Got questions? Drop a comment below and I will be happy to jump in and answer all your questions.