❕ Important note: This review site presents information relevant for researchers, not for participants in the user panel.
What is Optimal Workshop?
Optimal Workshop is an online user research tool designed to test your website’s information architecture and usability, identify issues, and improve the user experience. Its focus is much narrower compared to other UX tools, as it primarily targets website architecture, making it ideal for the early stages of website development.
Key Features of Optimal Workshop
What does Optimal Workshop lack?
- Mobile usability testing
- Prototype testing
- Preference testing
- Moderated/User Interviews
- Website Usability Testing
What do people think about Optimal Workshop?
Pros and cons on this section were formulated by aggregating user feedback from platforms like Capterra.com and G2.com.
Advantages
- User-Friendly Setup: The tool is easy to set up and get started, though it may be slightly less intuitive during actual activities.
- Concept Association Exploration: OptimalSort is great for exploring how individuals associate concepts.
- Card Sorting and Tree Testing: Optimal Workshop excels in these areas, making it essential for optimizing website navigation.
- Results Analysis: Offers detailed analysis to improve usability.
Reviews: What do you like best about Optimal Workshop?
👌 ”Tree testing, Card Sorting, Research Analysis, and Qualitative tagging are excellent!”
– Anand B., Source: G2
👌 ”It is a really structured way to gather real user feedback about the IA or navigation of your website. The tool also provide you with helpful results analysis.”
– Verified User in Marketing and Advertising, Source: G2
👌 ”I like the exercises Optimal Workshop has to offer, easy to analyse results and get recruitment quickly.”
– Rebecca H., Source: capterra.com
Disadvantages
- Costly and Inflexible Pricing: A more flexible pricing option, allowing users to pay for specific features, would be beneficial.
- Expensive Recruitment: High recruitment costs make the plans less cost-effective, adding extra charges that can feel excessive.
- Incomplete Responses: Some responses are completed too quickly, requiring extra effort to identify genuine ones.
- Inflexible Question Order: In surveys, questions can’t be rearranged by dragging and dropping; you must delete and start over.
- Limited Mixed Card Sorts: Conducting mixed open/closed card sorts with both set cards and participant-created cards is not supported.
Reviews: What do you dislike about Optimal Workshop?
👎 ”Not all participants who take part in the survey take the survey seriously. A lot of time goes to waste on filtering this out.”
– Anand B., Source: G2
👎 ”The cost plans are frustrating. It is expensive to recruit through them, so seems to cheaper to have a monthly plan – however they still charge extra for the recruitment. Feels money grabbing.”
– Verified User in Marketing and Advertising, Source: G2
👎 ”Once questions have been written for a survey, you can’t drag and drop them in a different order, you have to delete and start again.- While recruitment is quick to come back I find many responses are completed too quickly and I have to spend considerable time looking through responses to check which are genuine.”
– Rebecca H., Source: capterra.com
Identifying potential alternatives for Optimal Workshop
UXtweak
UXtweak is an all-in-one user research tool that contains many features, such as moderated testing, first-click testing, and advanced mobile testing, all within a single platform. It also provides tools for recruitment and participant management. With its flexible and affordable pricing, UXtweak is a practical choice for UX professionals.
🐝 Tip: For additional options, explore the “Optimal Workshop alternatives” article.
Key Features of UXtweak
- Moderated testing
- Advanced Mobile Usability Testing
- Website Testing
- Session Recording
- Card Sorting
- Tree Testing
Reviews: What do you like best about UXtweak?
👌 “I love how easy and quick it is to set up the tests. To import the prototype from Figma you just need a link. It imports all your transitions directly from Figma or you can choose to connect the screens manually during setup. The analytics are great, you can easily filter out specific respondent groups, based on different criteria, and analyze results for each of them. I like that you can get a great amount of qual and quant insights without having to spend hours on the manual analysis.”
– Syuzana G., Source: G2
👌 “We used UXtweak to test usability of our mobile app’s interface and it helped greatly. We were able to recruit a rather niche audience of participants directly in the app, which honestly saved a lot of time. The study had great analytics for each task of our test. There are also recordings for each session that you can come back to for further analysis.”
– Emilly S., Source: G2
👌 “Their card sorting feature. It’s a great tool that offers an incredible amount of analytics and features for such a price.”
– David, Source: G2
Reviews: What do you dislike about UXtweak?
👎 “The UI of the study setup could use a face lift, it’s quite outdated.”
– David, Source: G2
👎 “There is currently nothing we dislike about UXtweak, as we always get enough insights about our products that we can implement into the practice straight away.“
– Matej K., Source: G2
👎 “Sometimes it takes time to import Figma prototypes. I guess because of API. Also, the interface of UXtweak should be a little bit more designed. Their site is very modern, but the application can also be redesigned. But it is functional and easy to use.“
– Denisa M., Source: G2
Pricing
When selecting a user research tool, it’s important to consider the cost to ensure it aligns with both your needs and budget.
Optimal Workshop
- Free Plan: Includes 1 live study with limits on participant responses.
- Pro Plan: Costs $208 per month (billed annually) and provides unlimited live studies and participant responses.
- Team Plan: Starts at $416 per month for a minimum of two users (each at $208 per user), tailored for larger teams with multiple admin users.
- Enterprise Plan: Customized pricing solutions are available upon request.
UXtweak
- Starter Plan: Free
- Plus Plan: $708/year ($59 monthly).
- Business Plan: $1,812/year ($151 monthly).
- Enterprise Plan: Starts at $5,000/year.
Subscription options are typically annual with monthly payments available; plans can be easily changed or canceled. Check UXtweak’s pricing page for more details.
Optimal Workshop reviews and ratings on review platforms
For an unbiased comparison, we used data from G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius. These platforms feature B2B SaaS reviews where buyers rate and evaluate software.
Review Site | Optimal Workshop | UXtweak |
4.5/5 | 4.8/5 | |
8.8/10 | 10/10 | |
4.4/5 | 4.8/5 |
Decision-Making Guide: Is Optimal Workshop Right for Your Team?
Optimal Workshop offers a user-friendly setup, making it easy to start your research. It excels in exploring how users associate concepts and proves highly effective for card sorting and tree structure testing, aiding in the optimization of website navigation. However, there are limitations, such as screening questions and the challenge of aggregating user answers for post-test questions. Not all survey participants take the survey seriously, leading to time-consuming filtering. The cost plans, especially for recruitment, can also be frustrating, with additional charges applying.
UXtweak outshines Optimal Workshop with its broader range of features and a more diverse tester pool across various countries. While Optimal Workshop excels in exploring concept associations, UXtweak offers advanced capabilities like heatmap analysis and video session recordings, providing deeper insights into user interactions. Additionally, UXtweak is praised for its affordability and access to reliable respondents, making it a more cost-effective choice.