This article evaluates Lookback and UserTesting, covering features, pricing, and support options. Explore key insights, consider UXtweak as an alternative, and finalize the Lookback vs. UserTesting comparison.
Key Insights
👉 UserTesting is suited for businesses with flexible budgets and tight schedules, but the low quality of testers and rushed feedback can impact results.
👉 Lookback excels in moderated usability testing with its effective screen and face recording, but its requirement for a Chrome plugin and the need for users to provide their own testers are notable limitations.
👉 UXtweak differentiates itself with a strong emphasis on tester privacy and a favorable price-quality balance, avoiding the common drawbacks seen in Lookback and UserTesting.
👉 The platform’s diverse tools and flexible pricing plans make UXtweak adaptable to a wide range of user research needs.
👉 Notably, UXtweak’s customer support is praised for being exceptionally responsive and helpful, enhancing the overall service quality.
👉 In the comparison between UXtweak, Lookback, and UserTesting, UXtweak consistently earns the highest customer ratings for factors like price-to-quality ratio, ease of use, and customer service on independent websites.
🐝 Register for free with UXtweak today!
Lookback and UserTesting alternative – UXtweak
UXtweak functions as an alternative to platforms like Lookback and UserTesting, operating as a comprehensive user research platform. It offers a diverse set of features that assist organizations throughout the entire product development lifecycle, from initial stages to product optimization. These features encompass prototype testing, live interviews, remote usability testing, mobile app testing, tree testing, first-click testing, five-second tests, card sorting, and more.
🐝 Experience UXtweak’s demos for a firsthand look at user interactions and analytics 👇
Lookback and UserTesting: Features and Capabilities
The table offers an comparison of three research platforms: Lookback, UserTesting, and UXtweak, with a focus on their distinct features.
Note: A feature marked with an orange check in the table signifies its availability on certain testing tools, though it might come with an extra fee or be exclusive to a more advanced subscription plan.
Features | Lookback | UserTesting | UXtweak |
Website Usability Testing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Mobile Apps Testing | ✓ | ✓ (iOS, Android, and TestFlight, no SDK installation required) | ✓ |
Prototype Testing | ✓ | ✓ (only on the Ultimate plan, Adobe XD, InVision integrations) | ✓ (Compatible with Figma, InVision, Axure) |
Card Sorting | ✓ | ✓ (only available on Ultimate plan or as an add-on) | ✓ (available on all plans) |
Tree Testing | ✓ | ✓ (only on the Ultimate plan or as an add-on) | ✓ |
Preference Testing | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
First Click Testing | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
5 Second Testing | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
A/B Testing | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Moderated/User Interviews | ✓ | ✓ (on Advanced plan and higher) | ✓ (on Enterprise plans) conduct directly in one platform* |
Session recording | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Survey | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Website recruiting widget | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Branching logic (conditional logic) | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
*UXtweak offers built in features to recruit, schedule, conduct, and analyze user interviews or any other moderated studies.
The table shows that all three platforms offer a wide range of features. Notably, UXtweak includes every feature listed, often in a more advanced form or at a more affordable price compared to the other two platforms.
Lookback and UserTesting: Participant Recruitment and Management Capabilities
The table shows how Lookback, UserTesting, and UXtweak find and manage people for usability studies.
Capabilities | Lookback | UserTesting | UXtweak |
User Panel | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Panel size - country coverage | ✗ | 35 countries | 130+ countries |
Advanced Targeting criteria | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ (2000+ attributes) |
Price per participant | Starts at $0 | Starts at $39 | Starts at $10 |
Expert audit | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ (included with each order from User Panel) |
Ability to bring your own users | ✓ | ✓ (for a certain price) | ✓ (for free) |
Participant management solution | ✓ (possible through Ethnio) | ✓ (advanced plan and higher) | ✓ (available on all plans) |
Automatic QA of responses | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Lookback and UserTesting: Pricing and Plans Comparison
When choosing a platform, it’s important to evaluate its cost-effectiveness and ensure it aligns with your research needs and budget. Now, let’s explore the affordability of the researched platforms.
Lookback pricing options
Lookback offers diverse pricing plans to accommodate various research needs. Here’s an overview of Lookback’s pricing, features, and annual costs.
- Freelance: $300 per year
- Solo plan with 10 Sessions/year, Core Features, 24/7 Help Center, and a free 60-day trial.
- Team: $1,788 per year
- Includes 100 Sessions/year, Core Features, Unlimited Collaborators, 24/7 Help Center, and a free 60-day trial.
- Insights Hub: $4,128 per year
- Offers 300 Sessions/year, Core Features, Security Self-Assessment, Priority Support, and a free 60-day trial.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- Unlimited Sessions, Core Features, Unlimited Observers, Dedicated CSM Support, and Team Demo.
UserTesting pricing options
Plan Options:
- Essentials: Basic user feedback collection; excludes card sorting, tree testing, advanced demographics, sentiment analysis, live interviews.
- Advanced: Enhanced test creation, advanced reporting, mobile app testing, advanced User Panel demographics, sentiment analysis, click maps, live interviews.
- Ultimate: Includes Advanced features plus card sorting, tree testing (in English), additional targeting filters, and advanced reporting.
Customization and Scenarios:
- UserTesting offers customized plans upon request. Solo researchers might find the Essentials or Advanced plans suitable, while research teams are better served by the Ultimate plan with relevant add-ons.
Cost Details:
- The pricing for UserTesting’s annual subscriptions begins at approximately $30,000 per year. However, the average spending for users typically reaches $50,000 annually. This cost can vary depending on the number of seats required and additional features such as User Panel credits and support for international teams.
UXtweak pricing options
UXtweak offers various pricing plans, each designed to suit different testing needs, including a no-cost option for smaller projects.
- Starter Plan: Free. Suitable for basic testing with access to all features, one active study, and up to 30 monthly responses.
- Plus Plan: $708/year. Ideal for individual researchers, offering 200 monthly responses, unlimited studies, and one-year data retention.
- Business Plan: $1,812/year. Tailored for small to medium businesses, providing unlimited studies, 1,000 monthly responses, and enhanced support.
- Enterprise Plan: Starts at $5,000/year. Customized for larger clients, offering unlimited responses, access to real users, and personalized support.
All plans are typically billed annually, with a monthly subscription option for extra flexibility. Plans can be changed or canceled anytime. Visit UXtweak’s pricing page for detailed plan features.
Lookback and UserTesting: Customer Reviews
To ensure an unbiased assessment of the three platforms discussed, we’ve incorporated a table compiled using data from capterra.com. Similar to G2, this website aggregates user reviews of various platforms.
Lookback | UserTesting | UXtweak | |
Overall Score | 3.4/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.8/5 |
Ease of Use | 3.5/5 | 4.4/5 | 4.7/5 |
Customer Service | 2.1/5 | 4.3/5 | 5/5 |
Value for money | 3.0/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.8/5 |
Source: capterra.com
Lookback
Pros:
- Ideal for Moderated Usability Testing: Provides support for full-screen and face recording of users interacting with sites.
- Download and Sharing Options: Ability to download notes and videos, and share videos via link.
- Project Organization: Offers the convenience of creating different projects and adding descriptions to them.
- Effective Note-Taking Tools: Provides note-taking features with timestamps, enhancing the efficiency of documenting user sessions.
Cons:
- No Built-in User Tester Pool: Lookback does not provide its own pool of user testers. Users must invite their own testers, which can be a time-consuming process.
- Participant Privacy Concerns: The necessity for participants to enter their name and email address. (In an era where data privacy is a significant concern, finding participants willing to participate and share their information is challenging.)
- Google Chrome Plugin Requirement: Users must have the Google Chrome plugin installed, which can be inconvenient for those not using Chrome.
- Session Visibility Problems: Instances where users attend sessions, but are unable to see or interact with each other for unknown reasons.
- Recording Limitations: When using an alternative like Zoom alongside Lookback, the person recording cannot take notes in Lookback simultaneously.
Source: G2.com
UserTesting
Pros:
- Valuable Video Feedback: The platform is appreciated for its video feedback feature, which provides insightful and honest reviews that aid in project development.
- Rapid Panel Responses: Noted for quick feedback from its panel.
- SUS Scale Evaluation: Availability of System Usability Scale (SUS) evaluation.
- Sentiment Analysis: Available in the Advanced and higher plans.
Cons:
- Respondent Quality Issues: Testers often rush through tests, which can lead to skewed results. Additionally, there’s a mismatch in tester location, as requests for a United States-only tester pool often result in receiving testers from Canada, who may not be familiar with US-specific products.
- Platform Stability: Occasional glitches during tests have been noted by users on G2.
- Audience Targeting Limitations: The level of audience targeting and segmentation could be more detailed.
- Cost Factor: Generally perceived as an expensive tool.
- Mobile Testing: Needs significant improvements in comparative testing on mobile devices.
Source: G2.com
UXtweak
Pros:
- Tool Variety: A broad range of tools with advanced features, reducing the need for additional software.
- Cost-Effective: Offers friendly pricing, making it an economical option.
- Quality of Respondents: Provides access to high-quality respondents.
- Questionnaire Flexibility: The platform allows for versatile design options in questionnaires.
- Audience Sourcing: Integrated within the app, this feature allows targeting specific respondents easily without needing external tools, providing quick responses.
- Responsive Customer Support: The customer support team is noted for its responsiveness and helpfulness.
Cons:
- Learning Curve: Initial familiarization with the dashboard may take some time.
- Feature Complexity: Regular addition of complex features can be challenging for users.
- UXtweak note: To address this, new tutorial videos are being produced.
Source: G2.com
Lookback and UserTesting: Support options
When dealing with usability challenges, it’s important to have strong support from your chosen platform. Next, let’s look into the support options offered by each platform in this comparison.
Lookback
Lookback’s customer support is rated relatively low by users, scoring just 2.1 out of 5 on Capterra. The platform primarily provides two support options:
- Advice and Answers: Articles on using Lookback, such as project setup, participant invitation, and troubleshooting.
- Live Chat Support: Available for Intercom customers, providing real-time assistance.
UserTesting
UserTesting provides various support services tailored to different user requirements:
- Basic Support: Available for all users, it includes 24/7 email support from Sunday 3 pm to Friday 10 pm PT, excluding major holidays.
- Enhanced Support: Offered to mid-tier plan users, this includes the Basic Support features along with live chat and phone support during the same hours.
- Premier Support: Designed for top-tier plan subscribers, it features 24-hour support on weekdays, covering most holidays, with priority responses, one-hour email reply time, and exclusive Premier Support Power Sessions for comprehensive help.
- Additional Services: Consultation for non-customers and scheduling of Premier Power Sessions from Sunday 5:30 pm to Friday 4 pm PT.
UXtweak
UXtweak goes beyond standard support by offering consulting and audits from our team of skilled UX researchers. Our dedication to quality is reflected in our 5/5 rating on Capterra. Learn more about our UX research consulting services.
Lookback vs UserTesting: Conclusion
If you can navigate the challenges of privacy concerns, the necessity for users to have the Google Chrome plugin, and the need to source your own user testers, Lookback presents itself as a valuable tool. Its strengths lie particularly in moderated usability testing, offering sufficient support for full-screen and face recording as users engage with websites. This makes it a strong choice for specific testing scenarios, provided the initial hurdles are addressed.
UserTesting is a suitable option for businesses facing tight deadlines but with more budget flexibility. However, its main drawback is the quality of testers, who are frequently perceived as low-quality and often seem to rush through tests, potentially leading to skewed results. Additionally, there’s room for improvement in its audience targeting and comparative testing on mobile screens also requires significant enhancement.
Unlike Lookback and UserTesting, which face issues like privacy concerns and tester quality, UXtweak offers a seamless experience. It provides high-quality respondents, valuing tester privacy, and has a favorable price-quality ratio. Its advantages include a diverse toolset, flexible questionnaire design, and an integrated feature for easy audience targeting. Additionally, UXtweak’s customer support is notably responsive and helpful.
