Of 27 measured SaaS homepage tests, 26 won, 1 lost and none were flat, and the clearest pattern is that homepages won when they said plainly what the product does and pointed visitors to one low-risk next step, usually a free trial or free demo.
Most of these results were published by the SaaS companies themselves, such as GetResponse, Hubstaff and Voices.com, with others from VWO, Cro Metrics, CXperts and MarketingExperiments.
Published case studies lean towards wins, so the one loss and the side effects inside some wins are worth reading closely.
What a SaaS homepage has to do
The homepage gets the widest mix of visitors: new prospects, returning trial users and people comparing tools.
In a few seconds it has to say what the product is, who it is for, and what to do next.
Most of the winning tests here fix one of those three jobs rather than redesigning everything.
Most-tested changes on the homepage
CTA wording and offer: "free", "trial" and "demo" in the button.
Headline and positioning: a plainer tagline or sub-headline.
Removing distractions: navigation, search, extra fields and featured content.
Proof: testimonials, logos and customer numbers.
Hero design and forms: contrast, sign-up forms above the fold, video or slider.
Write a headline that says what the product does in plain words.
Make the main CTA free and low-risk: a free trial or free demo, and say "free".
Keep sign-up short; don't split it into extra steps or ask for an email in the CTA.
Remove links and content that compete with the CTA.
Add proof near the CTA, such as testimonials with real customer numbers.
Track trial-to-paid as well as sign-ups.
Tools to run these tests
These tests used A/B testing tools such as VWO, or before/after comparisons for full redesigns, like Going's month-over-month result.
A split test is stronger evidence than a before/after change, so use one where traffic allows, and connect the test to your product analytics so you can see trial and paid outcomes.
Questions
What should SaaS teams test first on the homepage?
Start with the main CTA. Adding a Free Trial button next to Buy Now gave GetResponse +158.6% free accounts with no drop in paid accounts, and changing 'Get a Demo' to 'Free Demo' gave Corcentric +99.42% CTA clicks.
Should the SaaS homepage headline be clever or plain?
Plain won in these tests. CityCliq's tagline 'Create a webpage for your business' lifted clicks to pricing from 25.3% to 47.8%, and AwayFind's simpler sub-headline gave +91% setup completions.
Can a homepage test increase sign-ups but hurt revenue?
Yes. Hubstaff's homepage redesign gave +49% visitor-to-trial, but trial-to-paid fell -7%.
Track paid conversions as well as sign-ups before calling a winner.
MarketingExperiments