The right usability testing platform for a CRO team depends on who you need to watch.
UserTesting is the enterprise default for fast think-aloud videos from a large panel, but it is sales-quoted.
Lyssna, Maze and Loop11 publish their prices and suit smaller teams, Userlytics prices by the session, and PlaybookUX lists a per-participant panel rate.
All of them should feed hypotheses into an A/B testing tool, not replace one.
We have not used these tools ourselves. This roundup draws on each vendor's own pricing pages and docs, checked in November 2026, plus tests from the LiftArchive database that show what usability findings turn into once they are tested.
Moderated vs unmoderated vs panel tests
Usability tests come in three shapes, and most platforms sell all of them at different prices.
- Unmoderated tests: participants get a task list and record their screen and voice on their own. They are cheap and fast, and they are the best fit for "watch five people try to check out" questions.
- Moderated tests: a researcher runs a live session and can ask follow-up questions. They are slower and cost more per person, but they suit complex B2B flows or high-ticket purchases.
- Panel vs your own users: a panel gives you strangers who match a screener within hours. Your own customers know the product, but they take longer to schedule.
For most CRO work, unmoderated panel tests on live pages cover the basics.
Moderated sessions with real customers are worth the cost when you need to understand motivation, not just friction.
UserTesting (and cheaper alternatives)
UserTesting is the best-known user testing platform. Its plans page lists three tiers as of November 2026 (Advanced, Ultimate and Ultimate+), all priced through sales.
The Advanced tier includes unmoderated think-aloud tests, moderated Live Conversation sessions and a participant panel across 60+ countries.
Ultimate adds card sorting, tree testing and AI analysis.
The page also offers one free test that returns a video of a real person reviewing your site, which is an easy way to see the format before talking to sales.
UserTesting says 80% of sessions come back within a few hours.
Who it's not for: small stores and early SaaS teams that want a published price or plan to run only a few tests a quarter.
The contact-sales model makes budgeting hard if you are not already buying enterprise software.
That is the main reason people search for UserTesting alternatives.
The tools below cover the same core job with published pricing. Our UserTesting review goes deeper.
Maze
Maze started as a prototype testing tool for product designers and now covers live website testing, mobile testing, surveys, card sorting, tree testing, moderated interviews and an AI moderator, according to its pricing page.
As of November 2026, Maze lists a Free plan with 1 study per month, 5 seats and pay-per-use panel credits.
Its organization tier has custom study quantities, unlimited seats and access to a panel of 7M+ participants, with no public price.
You can also bring your own users for free.
Best for: product and design teams testing Figma prototypes before they ship.
Not ideal for: marketing-led CRO teams that mostly test live landing pages and checkout flows, since its main strength is design-stage research. See the Maze review.
Lyssna
Lyssna (formerly UsabilityHub) has some of the most transparent pricing in the category.
Its pricing page lists, as of November 2026:
- Free: $0, unlimited quick studies, 3 seats and 15 self-sourced responses.
- Growth: $166 per month billed annually, with 5 in-depth studies per month, 5 seats, unlimited self-sourced responses, mobile testing and AI summaries.
- Enterprise: custom pricing with SSO, SOC2 report access and SLAs.
Panel responses are billed separately on every plan.
Lyssna's help center says 1 credit equals $1 (less in bulk), with unmoderated responses costing 1 credit per minute of test length, plus 2 credits for a screener and 2 for recording.
Its research panel claims 690,000+ participants in 124 countries.
Best for: quick preference tests, five-second tests on headlines and hero sections, and short live-site tasks on a small budget.
It is one of the better free usability testing tools for trying the method out. Read the Lyssna review.
Userlytics
Userlytics is the closest like-for-like UserTesting alternative, because it sells moderated and unmoderated sessions with a large panel and publishes a per-session price.
Its pricing page lists, as of November 2026:
- Project Based: custom pricing, no subscription, minimum 5 sessions.
- Enterprise: starting at $30 per session, unlimited seats and full panel access.
- Self-Recruitment Premium: $699 per month for testing with your own users (5 seats, 50 panel participants per month included).
- Self-Recruitment Advanced: $999 per month (10 seats).
- Limitless: custom quote.
Userlytics says its panel has over 2 million participants.
On Userlytics vs UserTesting, the clearest difference in the vendors' own materials is pricing: Userlytics publishes a per-session starting rate, while UserTesting quotes every plan through sales.
Trymata, Loop11 and PlaybookUX
Trymata
Trymata (formerly TryMyUI) offered moderated and unmoderated testing with its own panel.
On February 3, 2026, QuestionPro announced a merger that folds Trymata into the QuestionPro platform, with Trymata's 25,000-person testing panel moving into QuestionPro's audience offerings.
Trymata's old pricing page now redirects to QuestionPro, so check what is sold today before you shortlist it.
Loop11
Loop11 publishes its prices and lets you bring your own participants for free.
Its pricing page lists, as of November 2026, Rapid Insights at $199 per month ($179 billed annually) with 3 projects and 10 participants per project, and Pro at $399 per month ($358 billed annually) with 10 projects and 100 participants per project.
Enterprise is custom. There is a 14-day trial with no credit card.
Panel participants are arranged separately and not included in plan prices.
PlaybookUX
PlaybookUX lists a free self-serve plan with pay-as-you-go panel sessions, then Scale at $5,400 per year and Pro at $8,800 per year, per its pricing page as of November 2026. Panel sessions are listed at $65 per participant for a 10-15 minute unmoderated test and $115 per participant for a moderated interview.
| Tool | Test types | Pricing model (Nov 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| UserTesting | Unmoderated, moderated, card sort, tree test | Contact sales; one free test | Enterprises running research every week |
| Maze | Prototype, live site, mobile, interviews, surveys | Free plan (1 study/month); paid tier via sales | Product and design teams |
| Lyssna | Five-second, preference, live site, interviews | Free; Growth $166/month annual; panel $1/credit | Small teams testing copy and layouts |
| Userlytics | Unmoderated, moderated | From $30/session; own-user plans from $699/month | Pay-per-session teams wanting a big panel |
| Loop11 | Unmoderated, moderated, live site | From $199/month; own participants free | Teams with their own customer list |
| PlaybookUX | Unmoderated, moderated, surveys, diaries | Free self-serve; $65/unmoderated panel participant | Occasional B2C and B2B panel studies |
| Trymata | Unmoderated, moderated | Now part of QuestionPro; check current offer | Existing QuestionPro customers |
Testing with your own users
Panel participants are fast, but they are not your buyers.
A stranger told to "imagine you need a new mattress" behaves differently from someone actually shopping for one.
For high-intent questions, use your own customers and email list.
Most platforms support this. Maze and Loop11 let you bring your own users for free, Lyssna's paid plan includes unlimited self-sourced responses, and Userlytics has dedicated plans for it.
You handle the invite and the incentive; the tool handles recording and task flow.
A practical split: use the panel for first-impression and navigation tasks that any shopper could do, and your own customers for questions about why they bought, what nearly stopped them, and what they compared you against.
Price per test
The real cost of a usability test is mostly the participant, not the subscription.
Using each vendor's published rates as of November 2026, a round of five unmoderated 15-minute panel sessions works out roughly like this:
- Lyssna: 15 credits per response, plus 2 for recording and 2 for a screener, so about $95 for five at $1 per credit.
- Userlytics: from $30 per session on its Enterprise plan, so from about $150 for five.
- PlaybookUX: $65 per unmoderated panel participant, so about $325 for five.
- UserTesting and Maze: no public per-session price; ask sales.
Five participants is a common starting point for spotting obvious friction.
If you need to compare segments, such as mobile vs desktop or new vs returning, budget for five per segment.
From usability finding to A/B test
A usability test tells you where people struggle.
It does not tell you how much fixing it is worth.
That takes an A/B test on real traffic.
The usual CRO loop is research, then hypothesis, then test, as described in our customer research guide.
The tests in our database show how this plays out.
Oliver Kenyon reported that user testing and behavior analysis showed shoppers getting frustrated with small, hard-to-tap mobile menu categories.
A full-screen mobile mega menu with larger tap targets then won by +$50,568 per month in an A/B test.
Checkout is the classic place for usability work.
Conversionista's 18 checkout usability fixes at Devold came with a +73% checkout conversion lift, measured as a before-and-after comparison rather than a split test.
The home builder Miller and Smith bundled community page usability fixes for +8.5% goal conversions, and Worship Digital's clearer key information on product pages returned +11.6%.
Behavior data points the same way. Kasper Dolk turned hero store benefits that visitors kept trying to click into expandable sections with more context, worth +€49,938 per month.
Not every "obvious" usability fix wins, which is why you test them.
Clean Commit's sticky mobile filter button on collection pages lost, at -16.0% conversion.
GANNI's attempt at clarifying guest checkout was inconclusive.
@oliverkenyon
Conversionista
@kasper_dolk
Clean CommitOnce a usability round gives you a ranked list of problems, run the fixes through one of the A/B testing tools we compare.
For messaging questions, like whether visitors understand your value proposition, a message testing tool such as Wynter is often a better fit than a usability test.
For a wider view of the research stack, see our roundups of customer research tools and UX research tools.