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Choosing the right UX research tool is critical for gathering accurate and actionable insights. There are various tools catering to different research needs such as usability testing, surveys, remote testing, and card sorting, among others.
The tool you select can significantly impact your research process: How you design studies, collaborate with your teammates, recruit and manage participants, and ensure quality of the data. Multiple factors ultimately influence the success of your research process.
One of the most popular tools in the market is UserTesting.com. However, it is not the only option available. This article explores a range of UX research tools, highlighting their features, use cases, and pricing. We’ll also provide a detailed analysis of the best alternatives to UserTesting.com, to help you make an informed decision on which tool best suits your needs.
UserTesting and its offerings
Let’s first get a quick overview of UserTesting’s key offerings and main features. UserTesting.com is a popular UX research platform that provide diverse testing options to streamline your research processes. Many enterprises use UserTesting for both moderated and unmoderated research.
Key Features
While UserTesting has a range of features wit various test types, below are some of the key features of UserTesting:
Live conversations:
You can schedule participants to facilitate a real-time remote moderated studies. This is helpful when your study involves interviews.
Unmoderated testing:
You can have participants complete tasks independently at their own convenience without the need for any facilitator.
Participant recruiting:
Besides inviting your own pool of participants to the study, the platform gives you access to its own participant recruitment panel, allowing you to filter and select participants based on specific demographics, behaviors, and other criteria.
Comprehensive analytics:
The tool has various analytics capabilities. With moderated studies, you can view transcripts and time-stamped annotations along with sentiment analysis, highlighting positive and negative comments throughout the study.
Pros of UserTesting
- Wide range of features: Comprehensive toolkit for all types of UX research, supporting various device testing and research methods.
- Detailed Analytics: Video recordings are transcribed, and offers time-stamped annotations for note-taking and easy collaboration.
Cons of UserTesting
- Cost: Pricing is available upon request. Even though UserTesting offers customizable starter plans, its price range is high compared to other alternatives as the platform seems to emphasize on enterprise solutions.
- Limited features with low-cost plans: While UserTesting supports a wide range of research methodologies, you would need to the highest tier (Ultimate) plan to get access to features like card sorting, secured prototype testing, and AI features.Its low-cost plan offers limited capabilities to conduct a full study as it doesn’t support live moderated studies and scheduling. Basically, you would need its Advanced tier plan to get access to its recruitment panel.There are other cheap alternatives that support these feature sets.
- Poor participant quality: Compared to services like Respondent and UserInterviews that are dedicated participant panel platforms, there have been mixed feedback on the quality of participants recruited from UserTesting for both moderated and unmoderated studies.
Overview of best UserTesting alternatives
1. Hubble
Hubble is an unified product research tool that offers in-product surveys, unmoderated studies for prototype testing, usability testing, live-site testing, and participant recruiting to streamline your research in a single platform.
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You can easily kickstart projects based on your research needs with 50+ customizable templates. With in-product surveys, you can target specific audience at specific interactions and touchpoints within your product.
With Figma integration, unmoderated prototype testing allows you to test early with Figma prototypes and easily scale. Moreover, you can recruit quality B2C and B2B participants within Hubble to streamline the end-to-end research process.
“I wanted it to be easy for the customers to reply to us and Hubble has done that…we can go wild and test multiple features at once without needing the engineers to implement the product."
Minhtri Chu Head of Product at Doorvest
➕ Pros:
- In-product surveys for live contextual feedback
- Figma integration for easy prototype testing
- Access to 3 million pool of high quality participants
- Streamlining research from designing, recruiting, and analyzing in a single platform
- AI-powered summary feature to help with qualitative data analysis
- 50+ research and product development related templates that you can customize
- Dedicated customer support team and Slack community
➖ Cons:
- Manual support for moderated sessions. Unlike unmoderated studies, requests for moderated sessions are not automated.
- No support for other prototyping tools like Sketch or InVision
💰 Pricing:
- Free to use
- Custom organization plan available starting at $500 per month
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.8/5
- Ease of Use: 4.7/5
- Value for Money: 4.9/5
- Customer Service: 4.5/5
Hubble vs UserTesting:
- Diverse testing options are free with Hubble: Unlike UserTesting, in which you need higher tiers to unlock certain test features like moderated studies and card sorting, Hubble provides these options at free tier.
- Targeting specific audience at certain interactions with in-product surveys: Hubble’s in-product surveys allow you to trigger surveys to real-time users engaging with your product at specific touch points for contextual feedback on your product.
- High quality B2B and B2C participants with Hubble: Hubble partners with Respondent so that you get direct access to 3M pool of B2B and B2C participants to help you streamline your research process.
Run unmoderated tests with high quality participants with Hubble
Streamline your research by building studies and recruiting participants in a single tool
2. Lyssna
Lyssna, previously known as UsabilityHub, is a comprehensive UX research tool tailored for conducting unmoderated studies.
It primarily serves product teams with a wide range of research capabilities. These include usability testing, user interviews, surveys, and market research, along with the recruitment of participants for research.
➕ Pros:
- Packed with various unmoderated study methods:
- Prototype testing
- 5 second test, surveys, first click testing
➖ Cons:
- Limited to getting textual data from participants
- Lacks audio and video recording
- Unable to capture how users engage with prototypes
💰 Pricing:
- Free to use
- Basic plan starts at $75 per month (annual billing)
- Pro plan is $175 per month
- Customizable enterprise plan
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.4
- Ease of Use: 4.5/5
- Value for Money: 4.6/5
- Customer Service: 4.7/5
Lyssna vs. UserTesting:
Lyssna, unlike UserTesting, offers a free plan and more affordable pricing. However, Lyssna has some limited capabilities when conducting various tests. It has robust unmoderated study features, but does not offer live website or app testing.
While Lyssna receives positive reviews on the ease of building and testing Figma prototypes, some of pointed out the lack of audio and video recording capabilities during prototype testing, limiting the ability to capture screen or video recording of participants as they are engaging with the prototype in real time.
3. Hotjar
Hotjar is a powerful tool for customer experience management as it helps track and analyze your website visitors’ actions including taps, scrolls, and clicks through advanced heat maps.
Renowned for its website testing and behavioral analytics tools, Hotjar visualizes user interactions through heat maps and screen recordings. Additionally, Hotjar offers survey integration, allowing you to collect live feedback from your customers to further enhance their experience.
➕ Pros:
- Live website testing
- Robust recording, product analytics and visualization features through heatmaps
➖ Cons:
- Focuses on analytics and less emphasis on unmoderated studies and usability testing
- Some reviews regarding buggy video recording options
💰 Pricing:
- Free to use
- For small teams, $32 per month
- For enterprise and large teams, $56 per month
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.7/5
- Ease of Use: 4.6/5
- Value for Money: 4.5/5
- Customer Service: 4.5/5
Hotjar vs. UserTesting:
Hotjar offers a free trial and is generally more affordable than UserTesting, with its basic plan starting at just $32 per month. It provides session recordings and visualization heat maps to aid in product analytics. However, despite its lower cost, Hotjar imposes limits on the number of recordings you can take.
4. UXTweak
UXtweak provides a range of usability testing tools for unmoderated studies, web and mobile testing along with its recruitment panel. The platform is a great economic option for running unmoderated usability tests for quick turnover with flexible pricing plans.
➕ Pros:
- Support for both moderated and unmoderated testing
- Provides various testing options including card sorting, tree testing, 5 second tests, and more
➖ Cons:
- The quality of participants from its own recruitment panel could be inconsistent
💰 Pricing:
- Free version available
- Flexible pricing option is available: The basic Plus plan starts at $59 per month
- Business plan at $161 per month
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.8/5
- Ease of Use: 4.7/5
- Value for Money: 4.8/5
- Customer Service: 5.0/5
UXtweak vs. UserTesting:
For teams that are starting out with their research initiatives, UXtweak would a good option to run quick usability tests and prototype tests with its free trial. Along with its other various test features, you’ll likely be able to design tests that suit to the goal of your research.
While UXtweak boasts having its own recruitment panel, the quality of the participants could vary depending on the type of participants you search for.
5. Userlytics
Userlytics provides both moderated and unmoderated testing options, offering a range of other research methods at competitive pricing. With its own recruitment panel of 2M users, you can build and run tests within a single platform. It also has AI-powered analytics features.
➕ Pros:
- Unlimited team seatings
- Integrations with design tools like Figma, Adobe XD, InVision
- Provides various testing options
- Offers participant panel of 2M+
- AI-powered analytics
➖ Cons:
- Reviews about outdated interface
- Quality of participants from its own recruitment panel could be inconsistent
💰 Pricing:
- No free version available
- Custom pricing available with limited number of responses
- Starting estimate of $3,500/year
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.6/5
- Ease of Use: 4.5/5
- Value for Money: 4.7/5
- Customer Service: 4.9/5
Userlytics vs. UserTesting:
Both Userlytics and UserTesting are less friendly for smaller businesses or teams with limited budgets. Userlytics does not have a free plan, but it is equipped with feature sets that are comparable to UserTesting.
If you are looking for other more affordable solutions, consider looking into other tools listed in the list.
6. Userbrain
Userbrain is a popular tool that offers unmoderated usability studies for web and mobile applications with affordable pricing. It has the necessary features to run unmoderated studies. While there is no free version, it has a pay-as-you-go option per session, which may turn out to be more economical if your research needs are sporadic.
➕ Pros:
- Unmoderated prototype testing
- Has recruitment panel
- Flexible pricing with pay-as-you-go option
➖ Cons:
- Flexible pricing but no free plan
- Reviews about limited customer support
- Quality of participants from its own recruitment panel could be inconsistent
💰 Pricing:
- Offers pay as you go option ($39 per participant)
- Offers pricing plans from Starter ($79 per month) and Pro ($239 per month) to Agency ($659 per month)
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.3/5
- Ease of Use: 4.6/5
- Value for Money: 4.4/5
- Customer Service: 4.7/5
Userbrain vs. UserTesting:
Even though Userbrain does not offer free plans, it could be a more affordable alternative with its flexible pricing and pay-as-you go model especially if you know your research cadence is infrequent.
While Userbrain has fewer feature sets, it is a much economic alternative to UserTesting for teams with limited budgets.
7. Userfeel
Userfeel advertises as a research platform developed by UX researchers, offering both moderated and unmoderated research options and participant panel. Similar to Userbrain, Userfeel offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model that does not require a monthly subscription.
➕ Pros:
- Don’t have to commit to a monthly subscription but instead use the pay-as-you-go model
- Great pricing model for teams that run one time research
- Offers participant pool that are globally distributed
➖ Cons:
- Pay-as-you-go pricing can be more expensive in the long-term especially if your team is looking to exercise a more regular research cadence
- Quality of participants from its own recruitment panel could be inconsistent
💰 Pricing:
- Pay-as-you-go plan for moderated and unmoderated studies
- 60 minute unmoderated for $30
- 60 minute moderated for $60
- 20 minute unmoderated with Userfeel panel $60
- 40 minute unmoderated/moderated with Userfeel panel $120
- 60 minute unmoderated/moderated with Userfeel panel $180
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.6/5
- Ease of Use: 4.6/5
- Value for Money: 4.5/5
- Customer Service: 4.2/5
Userfeel vs. UserTesting:
If you know you won’t be running research projects as often, Userfeel could be a great testing option as you won’t have to commit to monthly or annual subscriptions. Userfeel is aimed towards small organizations that run one-off research, while UserTesting is oriented towards enterprises that conduct regular testing.
The pay-as-you-go pricing model can be a good model for small product teams or contractors that run one-time research.
8. Maze
Maze offers a range of testing options, including prototype testing, card sorting, tree testing, 5-second tests, and surveys. These features allow teams to collect both quantitative and qualitative data about their customers.
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Maze supports both moderated and unmoderated testing, enabling mixed-method studies that provide comprehensive insights. With basic analytics tools and access to a user panel, product teams can quickly test ideas and prototypes.
➕ Pros:
- Various testing options from surveys, tree testing, live website testing, and card sorting
- Free plan available
- Offers participant pool of 70K
➖ Cons:
- Doesn’t have native moderated session support
- Analytics feature limited to basic capabilities
- Quality of participants from its own recruitment panel could be inconsistent
💰 Pricing:
- Free version available with limitations
- Starter plans available at $99/month
- Customizable price plan available upon request
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.4/5
- Ease of Use: 4.2/5
- Value for Money: 4.1/5
- Customer Service: 3.8/5
Maze vs. UserTesting:
Maze offers the necessary set of features especially with unmoderated studies and live site testing at an affordable price. Compared to UserTesting, Maze has free plans and reasonable price plans.
9. Optimal Workshop
Optimal Workshop is a user research platform with tools for both qualitative and quantitative insights, offering various testing methods like card sorting, tree testing, moderated usability testing, first-click testing, and surveys.
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➕ Pros:
- Collect data related to how participants engaged with your product, including through click maps and path analysis
- Various testing options like card sorting, tree testing, and moderated usability testing to suit your research needs
➖ Cons:
- No direct integrations with design tools which makes importing prototypes and setup more potentially difficult
- Inconsistent participant quality from its recruitment panel
💰 Pricing:
- Limited free version available
- Flexible pricing plan starting at $191 per month
- $208 per month for a single Pro user
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.5/5
- Ease of Use: 4.0/5
- Value for Money: 4.4/5
- Customer Service: 5.0/5
Optimal Workshop vs. UserTesting:
Optimal Workshop could be a great economic alternative to UserTesting with its various testing feature sets supporting moderated and unmoderated studies, and its own participant panel.
If you are looking for a more scalable product that supports large teams and regular research cadence, you may look for a more enterprise-friendly alternative.
10. Sprig
Sprig empowers organizations to gather real-time insights through targeted in-product surveys. Its analytics dashboard provides AI-powered reporting tools that visualize user feedback, helping to pinpoint usability issues and improve user engagement.
➕ Pros:
- Free to use with 1 limited study
- In-product surveys for contextual live feedback
- AI insights capabilities
➖ Cons:
- Reviews about having occasional technical glitches impacting the overall user experience
- Inconsistent participant quality from its recruitment panel
- Integrations with tools like Figma, InVision, AdobeXD, and Google Drive only available for certain paid plans
💰 Pricing:
- First study is free
- Starter plan at $175 per month
- Custom pricing available for enterprises
🌟 Rating:
- Not available
Sprig vs. UserTesting:
Compared to UserTesting, Sprig is more affordable for small teams with limited budget. However, it comes with limited feature sets compared to UserTesting. With reviews regarding frequent bugs and technical glitches, it may be worth considering other alternatives.
11. Lookback
Lookback provides a research tool that mainly focuses on qualitative moderated studies. It facilitates collaboration among product team members by allowing your teammates to join the call or have you livestream the sessions. Unlike other platforms that provide recruitment panels, Lookback doesn’t provide one.
➕ Pros:
- Live streaming feature to bring stakeholders and colleagues for real-time collaboration
- Easily able to review and analyze video recordings
➖ Cons:
- No free plan
- Reviews of unstable connection problem for participants
- Not as diverse toolkit for research methods
💰 Pricing:
- No free plan available
- Freelance plan starts at $25 per month
- Custom pricing for enterprise
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 3.4/5
- Ease of Use: 3.6/5
- Value for Money: 3/5
- Customer Service: 2.2/5
Lookback vs. UserTesting:
Lookback and UserTesting both have extensive features and focus on moderated studies. Lookback could be a cheap alternative to UserTesting if you are looking for streamlining your moderated tests.
However, many researchers and product teams use other video conferencing tools to organize and facilitate moderated studies. Since Lookback doesn’t offer participant recruiting, you might as well consider looking into other tools that support both unmoderated and moderated studies along with participant recruiting.
12. dscout
dscout is a remote qualitative research platform with features like diary studies, live studies, and Express missions. Among its key components, dscout Live is a moderated study version focused on qualitative in-depth interviews.
dscout Diary allows you to conduct diary studies, providing a glimpse into users' day-to-day product experiences through video or photos.
dscout Express features quick tests for participants to complete within a short period of time, decreasing your research turnover.
➕ Pros:
- Features quick “Express” tests that makes participants complete within 48 hours
- Integrates with whiteboard tool like Miro for easy brainstorming and affinity mapping
- Provides video playlist editing
➖ Cons:
- Incurs additional incentives for managing participant panel
💰 Pricing:
- Pricing plans available as Researcher, Team, and Enterprise
- Exact quote is available only upon request
🌟 Rating:
- Not available
dscout vs. UserTesting:
dscout can be an affordable alternative to UserTesting if your research is focused on qualitative research especially with its diary and express test features. However, there are also other tools listed in this article that offer those features on top of the various unmoderated study features. Consider widening your search for other tools if you are considering dscout.
13. Loop11
Loop11 is a research tool that supports both moderated and unmoderated studies. With Loop11, you can conduct usability testing, benchmark studies, A/B tests, IA Testing, and various other types of research methods.
➕ Pros:
- Supports both audio and video recording for unmoderated studies
- Integrations with tools like Figma, AdobeXD, and inVision
➖ Cons:
- Study becomes uneditable once its published
- Lack of screening feature for participant recruiting
- Limited capabilities in basic plan that make research difficult (e.g., not being able to export results)
💰 Pricing:
- 14 day free trial available
- Rapid Insights: $199 per month (limited to 3 projects per month)
- Pro: $399 per month (limited to 10 projects per month)
- Enterprise: $599 per month with unlimited projects
🌟 Rating:
- Overall Score: 4.5/5
- Ease of Use: 4.5/5
- Value for Money: 5/5
- Customer Service: 5/5
Loop11 vs. UserTesting:
UserTesting has more diverse test methods and features, but Loop11 can be an economic alternative for conducting both moderated and unmoderated studies. You can try the 14 day free trial as you explore the tool, but also consider trying other tools before making the decision.
Why you should consider UserTesting alternatives
UserTesting may not always be the perfect fit for every organization or project. Here are several reasons to consider exploring alternatives to UserTesting:
1. Low-quality participants
The primary drawback lies in the quality of its recruitment panel participants. Despite UserTesting's excellent video and audio capabilities, which facilitate easy recording for participants and thorough review for researchers, the participant quality often renders the results less insightful.
While the platform's large participant panel allows unmoderated studies to scale quickly and collect numerous user video recordings, many of these videos often lack in value. Participants often seem more interested in incentives, leading them to cheat or fake their way into the study even though they are not well-fit for the study profile. Additionally, poor video and audio quality further diminish the usefulness of these recordings.
This overall undermines the user testing experience and complicates the analysis process, as researchers must sift through and filter out poor-quality data alongside reviewing individual recordings.
2. Expensive cost
UserTesting is known for its comprehensive feature set, which often comes with a significant price tag. For startups, small businesses, or individual freelancers, low-cost plans have limited set of features that you can access. Type of tests you can run become limited unless you get the ultimate plan.
Unless you have a robust research process in place with less budget constraints, consider exploring other alternatives to help you find a solution that fits both your budget while still delivering the necessary functionality.
While UserTesting offers an extensive feature set, these features are often available at a lower price point elsewhere.
3. Difficult data analysis and reporting
With poor participant quality, UserTesting makes the already challenging process of research analysis more difficult. Although there are measures to report and prevent low-quality participants to participate in the future, this means recruiting additional participants to make up for the missing data.
Factors to Consider When Choosing UserTesting Alternatives
Features and functionality that fit your research needs
Understanding the unique needs of your product and the focus of your research is crucial when selecting the right UX research tool. Determine whether your research will be generative, foundational, or evaluative, and then seek out tools that excel in those specific methodologies.
Key features to consider:
- Collaboration capabilities: Make sure the tool has great support and easy onboarding for team members for seamless collaboration experience. Remember, UX research is a team effort that benefits from diverse inputs and perspectives.
- Customization options: The ability to design and align testing formats with your brand identity and specific research goals is essential. Look for tools that allow flexible question formatting and customization to fit your unique needs.
- Support and resources: Often overlooked, but resources such as how-to-guides, tutorials, and extensive customer support can assist you with unexpected issues and troubleshooting.
Cost
Evaluate the overall cost of the UX research tool, including subscription fees, usage-based pricing models, and any additional charges for premium features.
Assess your research needs and budget constraints to ensure the tool provides a good return on investment.
Scalability
Consider the scalability of the tool for both your team and research purposes. Evaluate how pricing and collaborative features adapt when inviting multiple team members to the platform.
Additionally, make sure the tool can robustly handle large datasets and provides comprehensive analysis features to manage extensive research efforts effectively.
Data security and privacy
Data security and privacy are critical, especially when collecting sensitive information from participants.
Ensure the tool adheres to industry-standard security practices, including data encryption, secure data storage, and compliance with regulations such as GDPR. This protects participant data and maintains the integrity of your research.
Integration with other tools
Check if the UX research tool supports integration with your existing internal tools and workflows. Seamless integration can streamline the ResearchOps process, improving efficiency and productivity.
Compatibility with platforms like project management software and data analytics tools can enhance overall team coordination and data utility.
Choosing the right UX research tool involves balancing multiple factors, from feature sets and cost to scalability and security. Taking the time to carefully assess these elements will help you select a tool that supports your research goals.
What is the Best UserTesting Alternative?
UserTesting is a powerful research tool with various testing methodologies, making it one of the most popular choices in user research. However, it is known for being enterprise-level and less affordable for smaller teams with limited resources and budgets.
For more cost-effective solutions, consider exploring some of the tools introduced here. These alternatives are much more affordable than UserTesting.
One such alternative is Hubble, a robust tool that helps streamline your research process. With Hubble, you can create unmoderated prototype tests, card sorting, in-product surveys, A/B tests, and more. It also provides access to 3 million high-quality participants, all within a single platform. This unified experience allows you to gather research insights more effectively throughout the entire product development life cycle.
Run unmoderated tests with high quality participants with Hubble
Streamline your research by building studies and recruiting participants in a single tool
Additional Resources
If you are interested in further exploring various tools available in the market, we recommend some of the articles below:
- To learn more about top UX research tools, please see the best user research tools in 2024.
- To see our curated list of survey tools, see the best survey tools for research in 2024.
- To learn more about UX research agencies, see the top UX research firms in the US and the best alternatives.
- To learn more about AI-powered tools for user research, we recommend the top 11 AI tools for user research.
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