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Which are the most popular A/B testing tools?

Author's avatar By Dave Chaffey 05 Feb, 2018
Essential Essential topic

Chart of the day: A comparison ranking AB testing services used for structured experiments to boost conversion

In our Essential Digital Marketing Tools infographic and guide we recommended the top 5 tools for AB and Multivariate testing in category 19 of 30. Our recommendations focused on the best value tools for small and mid-size businesses, but the popularity of the services will vary by company size and there are many more options than the 5 we have recommended.

This analysis by Datanyze shows number of websites using one of the services for AB and multivariate testing divided by the total number of websites using any of the technologies. This is shown for the top 1 millions sites by traffic as ranked by Alexa.

We're fortunate to have a number of services like Datanyze which crawl sites categorising the Javascript tags of different tools (others include Builtwith, Observe Point and Similar Tech. I'd recommend these when reviewing your marketing technology stack against competitors. It can also make the case for investment in new or alternative marketing tools when you can competitors are using them.

How do the top AB testing tools compare?

Optimizely is the clear sector leader. It's no surprise to see Visual Website Optimizer in second place since it's popular among SMBs. If you're looking for more details, check out this AB testing tool comparison.

It IS surprising to see Google Analytics Experiments in third place since it is or was a free tool. However, it hadn't been evolved until recently. But that has now changed since we announced at the end of the year, Google Optimize is now free for basic AB testing and personalization. Google has been promoting the new service, so expect this ranking to change (and the label Datanyze uses)

Adobe Test and Target in third place. It's popular amongst larger businesses who will often use Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions. The Datanyze service enables you to select the top 100 or 10000 sites to show which are the most popular tools amongst larger businesses. Likewise, Maxymiser and Monetate are used in larger businesses typically for transactional ecommerce sites. It's also worth noting that increasingly these testing tools are overlapping with personalization software.

Author's avatar

By Dave Chaffey

Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.

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