12 UserTesting Alternatives & Competitors in 2023

If you’re looking for UserTesting alternatives, you’re probably already familiar with this platform. In case you are not, UserTesting is a US-based company that offers an online platform for gathering rapid customer feedback with the help of various user research methods.

The platform makes it simple for you to get to know your users, watch them interact with your product, learn more about them, and collect data for future improvements. Being one of the most popular user research platforms on the market, UserTesting for sure has its advantages.

Table of Contents

• Drawbacks of UserTesting
• UserTesting features
• Why you should consider UserTesting competitors?
• List of alternatives to UserTesting
• So which UserTesting alternative shines the most?

 

What will you find in this article? For each alternative tool of UserTesting we evaluate these aspects:

1. Features
2. Pros & Cons
3. Pricing & Plans
4. User reviews
5. Comparison with UserTesting

Let’s first examine why you might reconsider using UserTesting and opt for an alternative. There are a couple reasons.

Or, get right to the list of competitors⬇️

3 main drawbacks of UserTesting:

1. Low-quality respondents

The biggest and the most noticed disadvantage of the platform is the big number of unhelpful respondents. UserTesting boasts great video and audio capabilities and an impressively large pool of respondents. However, it seems that a substantial part of them is not qualified for attending serious research and some recordings provide little value. Some respondents are impatient, cheat or just appear inactive, which really messes up the whole impression of the user testing experience and makes analyzing the results difficult.

2. Weak reports

People often say UserTesting’s reports are hard to read and analyze. This is a huge downside when it comes to summarizing and evaluating the research data. Some even claim the results to be inaccurate and sometimes lead to technical errors.

3. Pricing model

And the last thing that has already made so many people reconsider their choice of testing platform is UserTesting’s pricing. For some unknown reason, the pricing options are far from being user-friendly. With their basic plan, you can only test 15 participants. If you need more (which you probably do for good research), you will have to contact their sales team and get an Enterprise plan with customized pricing.

UserTesting features

• Moderated & Unmoderated usability studies
• Prototype testing
• Mobile app testing
• Card Sorting & Tree Testing
• Preference testing
• 5 second test
• Surveys

Some of these features are however only available in the enterprise-level plan – such as card sorting and tree testing.

Why you should consider UserTesting competitors:

• Pricing. UserTesting has a fairly high pricing policy. For a more affordable price and without losing the quality you can use other platforms.

• The number of features. UserTesting has an extensive number of functions. But they are not irreplaceable and can be found in other alternatives with even better functionality.

• Quality of reports. People frequently complain that UserTesting’s reports are challenging to read and examine. This is a significant disadvantage when it comes to summing up and analyzing research data. Other competitors have fewer problems in this part.

• Competent respondents. Although UserTesting has a large number of respondents, many of them are unqualified as participants and can bring inaccurate information that will have a negative impact on your study. Most modern user research platforms provide User Panels you’re welcome to switch to.

So what are the best alternatives to UserTesting?

We created a list of great tools you can try instead of UserTesting. These are the platforms that we personally recommend, as they have already been proven to be successful by a large number of people and can provide you with some fantastic information!

1. UXtweak
2. Lookback.io
3. Userbrain
4. Userlytics
5. UserZoom
6. UsabilityHub
7. Maze
8. PlaybookUX
9. Optimal Workshop
10. Hotjar
11. Loop11
12. Userfeel

Below, we provide a detailed overview of each usability testing tool with all the features, pros and cons, pricing, reviews, and a one-on-one comparison with UserTesting.

Before we delve into that, here’s a quick comparison table of all the alternatives to UserTesting, based on tools’ reviews from Capterra:

Let’s take a closer look at each of the user research tools to choose the right one for your case:

1.UXtweak

UXtweak provides powerful tools for usability testing of websites and web apps, from prototypes to production, including information architecture research and user behavior analytics. This platform is a great affordable UserTesting alternative with more flexible pricing plans and has everything you need and more combined in one place.

 

Features

• Unmoderated usability studies
• Prototype testing
• Mobile app testing
• Card Sorting & Tree Testing
• Preference testing
• 5 second test
• Surveys
• First click testing
• Session recording 

Pros

• Advanced analytics that are easy to read – UXtweak offers a variety of data visualizations that will give you plenty of insights about your users’ behavior. 
• 155M+ User Panel to recruit participants from
• Recruiting Widget – allows you to turn real website visitors into testers
• Intuitive UI and easy set-up
• Free plan

Cons

• Only supports 10 languages.

Pricing & Plans

While UserTesting is too pricey and complicated, UXtweak offers an alternative pricing model: a variety of plans for any type of project. 

Our free plan is unlimited in time for small projects. You can also choose a pro plan only for $80/month, billed annually. 

Judging by these numbers we can say that UXtweak is one of the most affordable user testing platforms out there, which makes it a great UserTesting alternative. See for yourself! Create a free account now and choose one of the plans which suits you the best!

User reviews & rating

The ratings below are solely based on the tool’s reviews from Capterra:

Overall – 4.9/5

Ease of Use – 4.8/5

Quality of Support – 5/5

UXtweak vs. UserTesting

For starters, UXtweak is definitely a cheaper option. While pricing at UserTesting starts at 15K/year, you can have UXtweak’s Pro plan for $80/month. Additionally, UserTesting doesn’t offer a free plan like UXtweak does. 

UXtweak also offers a bigger set of research tools.

2. Lookback.io

Another great platform to run moderated and unmoderated user tests online is Lookback. This tool is a perfect alternative to UserTesting, especially if you don’t need any extra help with recruiting participants as they don’t offer access to a user panel.

They are mostly known for their moderated tests and interviews that allow you to directly talk to the participants, and watch their facial expressions and body movements while testing. They also allow you to take notes about participant actions and write down insights directly in the app.

 

 

Features

• Moderated & Unmoderated usability studies
• Prototype testing
• Mobile app testing

Pros

• Stakeholder observations – Lookback allows multiple people to observe your study and take their own notes
• Live broadcasts – Lookback has a specific feature you can use to broadcast your studies to colleagues and discuss them in live mode.

Cons

• No user panel to recruit from
• A small range of research tools
• No free plan
• Problems with the mobile version and IOS testing 
• Connection drops

Pricing & Plans

Lookback doesn’t have a free plan, however, they do offer a free 14-day trial. After that their prices start from $25 per month with a limit of 10 sessions per year. Their professional “Insights Hub” plan is $344 per month.

User reviews & rating

The ratings below are solely based on the tool’s reviews from Capterra:

Overall score – 3.3/5

Ease of Use – 3.5/5

Customer Service – 2.1/5

Lookback vs. UserTesting

As alternatives to UserTesting go, Lookback is another great option, when you already have your own participants for your research and want to conduct simple moderated or unmoderated remote usability testing. It’s definitely cheaper than UserTesting. Both tools, however, do not offer a free plan.

3. Userbrain

Userbrain is known for its no-strings-attached plans and relatively low costs. They’re relatively new to the market and don’t offer anything extra, but it’s a nice UserTesting alternative when you need to run some basic unmoderated prototype testing.

They provide results in form of voiceover videos and allow comments and annotation.

 

Features

• Unmoderated testing
• Website testing
• Prototype testing

Pros

• No commitment – UserBrain has a pay-as-you-go option where you may pay for a single test without having to commit to a monthly subscription.
• 85K+ user panel 

Cons

• Customer service – There’ve been several complaints that customer service is not very responsive and is quite slow.
• Limited demographics – UserBrain’s demographics section might be improved to provide additional information about your testers. You can currently filter by age, gender, location, and device type. It’s also worth noting that you can’t choose testers from specific cities or provinces.
• No free plan

Pricing & Plans

The prices at UserBrain are pretty reasonable and a lot cheaper than UserTesting. You can either pay $39/tester with their pay-as-you-go option or pay for one of their yearly plan, starting at $990/year.

User reviews & rating

The ratings below are solely based on tool’s reviews from Capterra:

Overall score – 4.3/5

Ease of Use – 4.6/5

Customer Service – 4.6/5

Userbrain vs. UserTesting

Userbrain is a great UserTesting alternative that also helps with recruiting the participants for your study. Both tools don’t have free plans. The toolset at Userbrain is not as big as UserTesting’s, but it’s a great option for simple unmoderated tests, especially for those on a budget.  

4.Userlytics

Userlytics is another good option for user testing. They are known for their wide range of functionalities and competitive pricing model. A great platform to keep in mind, especially if the visual aspect of the tool doesn’t matter for you as (in our opinion) their UI is quite old-fashioned. 

 

Features

• Moderated & Unmoderated usability studies
• Prototype testing
• Mobile app testing
• Card Sorting & Tree Testing

Pros

• 1M+ User Panel
• Automated and multilingual transcriptions – you can get AI-generated transcriptions of your tests 

Cons

• No PDF reports
• Old-fashioned UI – their user interface could use some improvements as it is outdated and not very intuitive
• Audio issues – several clients reported audio issues during testing and claimed the process to be a little bit too slow.
• No free plan

Pricing & Plans

Compared to UserTesting, Userlytics have some great pricing options. It’s a lot cheaper, basic Quick & Easy plan is $49 per participant and Enterprise plan is $69 per participant. They also have an option of customized pricing. Their Pro plan subscription is $399/month, billed annually.

User reviews & rating

The ratings below are solely based on tool’s reviews from Capterra:

Overall score – 4.6/5

Ease of Use – 4.5/5

Customer Service – 4.9/5

Userlytics vs. UserTesting

Compared to UserTesting, Userlytics offer almost the same feature set for a much better price. They also offer help with recruiting. Both tools don’t offer a free plan.

5. UserZoom

UserZoom is another alternative option for UserTesting for both moderated and unmoderated usability testing. They are aimed at companies that do enterprise-level research and offer a good set of user testing tools. Their pricing reflects this and it is not the most affordable. 

Features

• Moderated & Unmoderated usability studies
• Prototype testing
• Mobile app testing
• Card Sorting & Tree Testing

Pros

• Advanced analytics
• 120M+ user panel

Cons

• Can be hard to use  – The UI of the platform is quite complicated and is not the best choice for a complete beginner.
• Study instructions are both detailed and confusing for the testers
• Very expensive compared to some other alternatives

Pricing & Plans

UserZoom’s pricing is more expensive than UserTesting, therefore it will not be the best choice if your company is on a tight budget. Their pricing is available upon request, but it usually starts at $50K/year. UserZoom doesn’t offer a free plan. 

User reviews & rating

The ratings below are solely based on tool’s reviews from Capterra:

Overall score – 4.4/5

Ease of Use – 4.5/5

Customer Service – 4.7/5

UserZoom vs. UserTesting

UserZoom pricing is significantly more expensive than UserTesting. This tool would be a great fit for larger enterprises with bigger research teams. However, they offer less tools than UserTesting does.

Want a more details? We prepared a comparison of UserTesting vs Userzoom and UXtweak.

6. UsabilityHub

UsabilityHub is another good user testing and user research platform to test customer satisfaction and get actionable insights. They allow you to launch tests, such as prototype testing, five second tests, car sorting or tree testing surveys. Currently, they only have options for unmoderated user testing and no live web/app user testing.

Features

• Prototype Testing
• Preference testing
• 5 second test
• Survey
• First click testing

Pros

• 340K+ user panel
• Free plan

Cons

• Textual response to study questions
• Can’t observe how the participants engage with the product

Pricing & Plans

UsabilityHub starter plan allows you to run tests up to 2 minutes long. Their paid plan starts at $75 per month (billed annually). 

User reviews & rating

The ratings below are solely based on the tool’s reviews from Capterra:

Overall score – 4.7/5

Ease of Use – 4.8/5

Customer Service – 4.8/5

UsabilityHub vs. UserTesting

Unlike UserTesting, UsabilityHub offers a free plan and much cheaper pricing. With that tool, however, you’re able to run usability tests only on prototypes not live websites or apps.  

7. Maze

Usability testing platform that allows you to collect quantitative and qualitative data about your customers with their 5 user testing tools. They offer some basic analytics tools as well and access to user panel.

Features

• Prototype testing
• Card sorting & tree testing
• 5 second test
• Survey

Pros

• 70K+ user panel
• Free plan

Cons

• Small list of features
• Only basic analytics
• Limited surveying capabilities

Pricing & Plans

Maze offers a free plan. Their Pro plan starts at $75/month, billed annually.

User reviews & rating

The ratings below are solely based on tool’s reviews from Capterra:

Overall score – 4.0/5

Ease of Use – 4.2/5

Customer Service – 4.5/5

Maze vs. UserTesting

Maze offers some basic capabilities of UserTesting, but unfortunately, it could not fully replace the tool. However, unlike UserTesting they offer a free plan and reasonable pricing. 

8. PlaybookUX

A great alternative to UserTesting, this platform offers solutions for both moderated and unmoderated user research and offers a set of tools for website and mobile app testing and prototype usability testing.

Features

• Moderated & Unmoderated usability studies
• Prototype testing
• Mobile app testing
• Card Sorting & Tree Testing

Pros

• Intuitive UI
• Flexible pricing options
• One-to-one video interviews with the user

Cons

• No free plan
• No user panel

Pricing & Plans

Playbook UX does not offer a free plan. Their paid solutions start at $228/month when billed annually.

User reviews & rating

The ratings below are solely based on tool’s reviews from Capterra:

Overall score – 5/5

Ease of Use – 5/5

Customer Service – 5/5

PlaybookUX vs. UserTesting

Playbook UX offers a significant part of the tools that UserTesting does. It’s a great alternative for a much better cost. However, they don’t have a free plan nor a user panel, to help you with recruiting.

9. Optimal Workshop

Optimal Workshop is another one of great alternatives to UserTesting. This user research platform provides a collection of usability tools to enhance website navigation, design information architecture, test websites, comprehend first-clicks, and record qualitative data.

Features

• Card sorting
• Tree testing
• Online surveys
• Qualitative research
• First-click testing

Pros

• There are multiple test types available, and you have many options for adjusting them to meet your needs.
• Platform has various useful resources, recommendations for best practices, and advice on how to make the most of their products.

Cons

• There is still room to make the tools more user-friendly since study participants occasionally struggle with the UI during sessions.

Pricing & Plans

Optimal Workshop has a free plan with a limit of 10 participant responses per study. And fee plans start at $166 per month, billed annually.

User reviews & rating

The ratings below are solely based on tool’s reviews from Capterra:

Overall – 4.4/5

Ease of Use – 4.0/5

Quality of Support – 5/5

Optimal Workshop vs. UserTesting

Optimal Workshop is a great alternative to UserTesting and can also help you find participants for your research. It is definitely cheaper than UserTesting. Furthermore, Optimal Workshop does have a free plan.

10. Hotjar

Hotjar is a cloud-based customer experience management platform that enables companies of all sizes to track and examine website visitors’ tap, scroll, and click actions using heatmaps. On the basis of navigational frameworks, marketing professionals can observe anonymous user sessions to gather insights and identify usability issues.

Features

• Feedback
• Surveys
• Heatmaps
• Recordings

Pros

• You can choose the session recordings and users that best fit your needs using a variety of filtering options.
• It is easy to navigate and has a straightforward user interface.
• The support team seems to be on hand at all times to provide assistance and support.

Cons

• The number of recordings that are available is limited by restricted plan tiers.
• Sometimes the recordings get stuck and you can’t see the full user path.

User reviews & rating

Based on the information provided by Capterra: 

Overall Score – 4.7/5 

Ease of Use – 4.6/5

Customer Service – 4.5/5 

Pricing & Plans

Hotjar’s basic free subscription includes 1,050 recordings per month, unlimited heatmaps, and up to 35 sessions per day. The cost-based plans begin at $32.

Hotjar vs. UserTesting

Compared to UserTesting, Hotjar has session recordings as well as heatmaps. It’s a lot cheaper, the basic plan is free and the business plan is $80 per month. They also have an option of customized pricing.

11. Loop 11

Loop 11 can be employed in order to examine user experience across websites, and mobile/web applications. It is a cloud-based software to build, launch, and manage custom usability tests. They offer a good set of tools for user testing however there is no option to filter out participants with a screening question which can be a draw-back when precise targeting is needed.

Features

• A/B Usability Testing
• Mobile & Tablet Testing
• Prototype Testing
• Benchmarking
• Information Architecture Testing

Pros

• It is easy to understand the data it provides about the usability and speed of your website/website app.
• You can record both video and audio.

Cons

• It’s been stated by some users that certain pages load slowly.
• No screening – without screening, you can’t tell if the responders to your survey are the intended audience.

User reviews & rating

These Loop11 reviews  are based the on the information provided by G2: 

Overall Score – 3.5/5

Ease of Use – 8.3/10

Pricing & Plans

When compared to several other well-known platforms on the market, Loop 11’s cost is relatively high. There is a 14-day free trial available, but all subsequent tests will cost money. The basic plan’s monthly cost is $199.

Loop11 vs. UserTesting

Loop 11 is definitely cheaper than UserTesting. The platform also has a wide range of features. Both tools, however, do not offer a free plan, but Loop11 has a 14-day free trial.

12. Userfeel 

Userfeel is a service for remote usability testing that provides over 150 000 testers that may analyze your website or mobile app in the scenario you’ll build while speaking 40 different languages. You’ll get a reply, as well as a video of them using the product and their comments.

Features

• Unmoderated & Moderated Tests
• Tester Panel
• Video Clips & Notes
• Voice Transcription

Pros

• Platform has a significant number of testers, which makes it possible to complete tests fast.
• Offers unlimited screener questions to discover testers who share your visitors’ hobbies and demographics.

Cons

• You may come across respondents who are not qualified enough to perform the task.
• The user interface is difficult to use while looking for your session highlights, and extracting them requires a few more steps.

User reviews & rating

These Userfeel reviews are based on the information by Capterra:

Overall Score – 4.6/5 

Ease of Use – 4.6/5

Customer Service – 4.1/5 

Pricing & Plans

On this platform, you pay for each tester separately. If it’s your tester then $30, if they find you a tester then $60, this is for unmoderated testing. Moderated testing has a higher price tag.

Userfeel vs UserTesting

Userfeel is a great alternative to UserTesting and can also help you find participants for your research. Moreover, Userfeel is cheaper and offers a wide range of languages.

So which UserTesting alternative shines the most?

Finding the perfect usability testing tool or platform for your needs might seem extremely difficult sometimes. Our first pick does not always live up to the high expectations we set, which is why having alternatives is so beneficial.

We hope our list provided you with a comprehensive overview of your options if you are looking to make the change and step away from UserTesting. Hopefully, by now you have picked the one that appealed to you the most

If you want to try UXtweak, you can register for free and run your first test on a new platform today without any hassle!