5 Less Expensive UserTesting Alternatives for Usability Testing in 2022

Are you looking to switch from UserTesting to another, less expensive testing platform? Here are 5 alternatives to UserTesting that offer fast, easy, and less expensive tools.

Did you come here looking for a less expensive tool for usability testing that offers similar quality results, allowing you to find issues on your website, designs, app, or other resources?

UserTesting basically created unmoderated remote usability testing. David Garr who was managing websites for Apple, HP, and Intuit partnered with Darrell Benatar in 2007 to address the issues with usability testing. They created the first remote usability testing platform.

What Makes UserTesting Popular?

UserTesting is the first unmoderated usability testing tool ever, giving them plenty of time to optimize the platform and provide great testing solutions to their customers. According to their data they utilize a panel of over 1.5 million users, letting customers get quick feedback on a sophisticated platform with a lot of testing methods and tools.

With audience segmentation, targeting, multiple testing methods, with many ways to run and analyze user tests, UserTesting.com is a great platform for testing any element of your business.

Why UserTesting Isn’t For Everyone

The biggest downside of UserTesting is their pricing model. They offer tests that cost $49 per test, but only if you’re testing with 15 users or less. Most usability tests need more than 15 users to get significant results. If you want to use UserTesting with more than 15 users you’ll need to contact their sales team for an enterprise plan.

With enterprise plans starting at $15k the platform is too expensive for everyone to use. Despite its popularity and great features, their expensive annual testing plans is hard to justify for small and medium sized businesses.

The Best Alternatives to UserTesting

UserTesting isn’t for everyone, that is why we put together a list of the 5, less expensive alternatives to their platform.

1. Poll the People
2. UsabilityHub
3. UserBrain
4. Lookback
5. Userzoom

1. Poll the People

If you or your business thinks UserTesting has everything you need but is far too expensive to consistently and continuously test your resources, Poll the People is a great option.

Marketers and designers can put their resources to the test before they go live. This will allow them to avoid costly re-designs while also gaining insight into their clients’ brains. Best of all, getting started and running your first test using Poll the People is quite simple and quick. To understand a few of the things you can test on the platform, how they’re done, and what results look like head over to our examples page.

Pros of Poll the People Compared to UserTesting

• No long-term contracts – Poll the People offers a pay-as-you-go option that allows you to pay only when you need to test, they have monthly subscriptions for more features that can be canceled at any time
• Less expensive – At $1.00 per response and the most expensive plan costing $99.99 per month it is hard to pay anywhere close to UserTesting’s lowest enterprise plan.
• Fast results – Almost every test with Poll the People is completed in just an hour.
• Insights – You’ll get insights from each person that took the test, unlike most platforms Poll the People requires users to give a detailed explanation of their choice. Poll the People makes this easy; you’ll get charts, graphs, and written feedback to easily analyze results.
• Free accounts – Poll the People lets users explore and sign up for free before they commit to any plan

Cons of Poll the People Compared to UserTesting

Poll the People is a new and emerging platform, which makes it’s features a little more limiting than UserTesting.

• No native app testing – Poll the People supports testing anything that can be accessed via URL or upload. Testing native iOS or Android apps isn’t available for now.
• More limited segmentation – the segmentation options and panel size is smaller than UserTesting. While Poll the People has a panel of 500,000 plus more sophisticated options are available on UserTesting.
• No moderated testing – Poll the People is a pre-live testing platform and currently doesn’t offer video or audio recording.

Poll the People Pricing Compared to UserTesting

Poll the People is the most affordable and cost-effective alternative to UserTesting

1. There is a pay-as-you-go pricing option for $1.00 per response without any subscription or additional fee when using a general audience.
2. The Plus plan offers more features, access to more testers per test, and improved analysis tools. Giving users many of the same benefits of UserTesting’s more expensive plans.
3. The most expensive subscription plan is $99.99, far less than UserTesting enterprise plans. It offers unlimited access to all of the features Poll the People offers.

Poll the People is the least expensive platform on the market, offering a lot of great benefits, with a larger user panel, and faster results.

2. UsabilityHub

UsabilityHub offers multiple testing methods including first-click tests, design testing, preference testing, and five-second tests. These tests not only give users quality data but you’ll get written responses from the panel. With UsabilityHub you also have the option to recruit your testers and send any of their testing methods to your friends, colleagues, co-workers, or any other audience you want. The platform utilizes a panel of 400,000+ that is “standing by to test your designs in real-time”.

With audience segmentation, multiple audience selection methods, and a number of ways to test designs, UsabilityHub allows marketers, designers, and product managers to gather feedback.

Pros of UsabilityHub Compared to UserTesting

• Starting at $1 per response – As long as you don’t need moderated testing you can quickly get results at a convenient price with UsabilityHub’s user panel.
• CVS export – The platform allows users to export results as a CVS file, allowing you to analyze the results in any way you want.
• Buying credits – Credits for usability tests can be purchases as you go when setting up your test or bought in bulk before the test without expiring.

Cons of UsabilityHub Compared to UserTesting

• No screen or audio recording – UserTesting offers screen and audio recordings of your test. UsabilityHub only offers written feedback to your questions and can be hard to fully understand the results of your test.
• No prototype testing – You can run wireframe tests but testing interactive prototypes is not available on  their platform.
• Multi site testing – UsabilityHub does not have a feature to send participants to another website for testing.

UsabilityHub Pricing

There are two pricing options with the UsabilityHub Platform:

1. The first plan starts at $79 per month or billed annually.
2. Pay per response is offered at $1 per user response.
3. Usability hub does set restrictions on available testing time depending on the plan.

There is a very limited free plan that lets you test for up to 2 minutes on a branded interface.

3. UserBrain

UserBrain is a less expensive but very user-friendly tool for any level of user testing.

Pros of UserBrain Compared to UserTesting

• Subscription model – They offer a pay-as-you-go pricing option, allowing you to test when you need to. You pay for your tests and can cancel subscriptions at any time.
• Diverse user panel – With UserBrain you don’t have to recruit your participants. The platform manages a panel of over 85,000 users to give you fast and effective feedback.
• Fast results – Tests are run and results are gathered in just a few hours.
• Testing with your own participants – Depending on your plan you can send a sharable link or recruit participants for your UserBrain tests.
• Unlimited members – If you have a large user testing team you can invite all of them to use the platform and assign roles.
• Free account – You can create a free account and run your first test for free.

Cons of UserBrain Compared to UserTesting

• Lack of mobile app testing – UserBrain allows customers to test via URL but lacks the ability to test iOS or Android native apps.
• Limited demographics – Filtering for gender, age, region, etc. is available for narrowing your audience. UserTesting offers more sophisticated segmentation options including parental status and other detailed options.

UserBrain Pricing

UserBrain is a more affordable option than UserTesting with multiple pricing options.

1. Pay-as-you-go is an option that lets you pay for individual tests without subscriptions or fees.
2. Subscription plans at $69 per month, $230 per month, and $690 per month with 3, 10, & 30 testers respectively.
3. Invite your own plan for $99 per month, with up to 30 testers from your own audience.
4. You can create a free account and get your first test for free.
5. When you pay annually you get 2 months of testing for free.

4. Lookback

When you are looking to test your resources with an audience of your own users and don’t need a platform that has a built in user panel, Lookback is a great option.

Pros of Lookback Compared to UserTesting

• Unlimited participants – Lookback doesn’t put restrictions on the number of participants you  can use or cap recordings, test as much as you need.
• Remote moderated testing – You can directly talk with users with live and face to face user testing.
• Broadcasting research – The live feature allows customers to share your research with your team, invite them to watch tests and gain insights.

Cons of Lookback Compared to UserTesting

• No Tester Pool – Lookback does not have an internally managed user panel, you need to invite your own participants with a sharable link to the testing platform.
• Dropped connection – Some users have reported connection drops during live test broadcasting sessions.

Lookback Pricing

Lookback offers a number of payment options that let just about anyone use their platform.

1. All subscriptions are billed annually.
2. Team plans start at $99 per month offering 100 test sessions per year.
3. Insights plans at $229 per month with 300 sessions a year.
4. They offer an enterprise plan starting at $1300 per year.
5. A 14-day free trial with no credit card required.

5. UserZoom

UserZoom started with moderated testing and later added unmoderated remote testing. Unlike most alternatives that started with unmoderated testing for faster and easier tests.

Pros of UserZoom Compared to UserTesting

• Use your own testers – The monthly plans allow customers to use their own participants for a test for free.
• Moderated testing – UserZoom supports both moderated and unmoderated testing with desktops or mobile devices.

Cons of UserZoom Compared to UserTesting

• Limited researchers – UserZoom plans limit the number of people that can create and launch tests, if you need more it is an additional charge.
• Smaller user panel – UserTesting has the largest panel on the market, giving customers faster results and better segmentation.
• Annual Contracts – UserZoom offers multiple plans but you pay for the year up front.

UserZoom Pricing

UserZoom offers different pricing options for moderated and unmoderated user tests.

1. Plans for both types of tests start at $500 per month with 2 researcher seats, unlimited collaborators, and 40 tests per year.
2. Customizable plans are offered when you reach out to UserZoom.
3. They offer a 14-day free trial to explore their platform.
4. All subscriptions and contracts are billed annually.

Our Suggestion

After taking a look at all of the alternatives to UserTesting, their benefits, drawbacks, and pricing, Poll the People stands out as the best option. The tool is the cheapest and most cost effective option that gives users valuable feedback and lightning fast results.

While all of these options are great alternatives to UserTesting, Poll the People offers the most benefits at a much lower cost than UserTesting while maintaining a large panel of respondents.

If you’re considering making a switch from UserTesting, check out Poll the People. They offer testing for web designs, logos, ads, videos, audio, and more to help you make great data-backed decisions.

If you’re ready to start optimizing your business, sign up for FREE with Poll the People and explore our platform.

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Owen Fay

Owen is a digital marketer at Poll the People an emerging user research and usability testing platform. Owen focuses on content creation and moving Poll the People forward through all digital marketing mediums. He is a graduate from Bryant University with a concentration in marketing, living in Boston.

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