Top 8 Lookback alternatives for advanced UX research

Lookback is a platform that helps collect user insights on the go. With a lightweight suite of tools, it's focused exclusively on facilitating user interviews and usability testing.

While helpful, Lookback can fall short, especially when compared to the range of powerful UX research tools on the market. Whether you’re looking for a complete suite of UX research methods, or need a platform with end-to-end moderated interviews, you’re in the right place.

We’ve handpicked the best Lookback alternatives on the market to help you find the best choice. With complete tool suites, recruitment solutions, and robust analytics features, these tools excel where Lookback falls short.

To start, here’s the best Lookback alternatives side-by-side.

Maze is a UX research platform for uncovering in-depth user insights at every stage of the product development process. Feedback Surveys and moderated Interview Studies let you dig into deep, descriptive insights to uncover the motivations behind user attitudes. Meanwhile, usability testing methods like Prototype Testing and Live Website Testing deliver actionable feedback on user flows and experience. With Card Sorting, Tree Testing, five-second tests, heatmaps and more, Maze empowers your UX team with a comprehensive suite of unmoderated and moderated UX research tools—all on one platform.

While users can access Maze through web browsers on mobile devices, there isn’t (yet) a dedicated mobile app

Maze allows for holistic research that remains simple and swift to conduct, with a complete suite of UX research methods, alongside effective panel recruitment and automatic analysis.

One Maze user notes: “Maze helps me put my user research on autopilot. I don't have the time to talk to as many users as I would like, so Maze allows me to get data from my users as if I were observing them in person.”

The verdict: Opt for Maze if your team prioritizes a variety of research methods with robust reporting capabilities. With recruitment and participant management options, Maze is the best bet for teams who want a comprehensive UX research platform that can adapt and scale with their goals.

Lyssna (formerly UsabilityHub) is a UX platform that provides a range of methods for user testing. Like most tools on this list, its suite of tools comes complete with the big three: user interviews, usability testing, and surveys. Favored by beginner researchers for its basic set up, Lyssna is a solid option for smaller teams starting out.

While both Lyssna and Lookback are effective UX research tools, Lyssna offers a better range of unmoderated user testing. Plus, Lyssna offers recruitment and an intuitive interface, effectively streamlining UX research operations.

However, one user shares that they’ve been limited by the Figma file size allowances: “it prevented us from using [Lyssna] for a study where there were quite complex workflows involved in the prototype.” Another states that the reporting capabilities are lackluster, saying: “Lyssna’s major weakness is the presentation layer for results. It is very much a usability engineer's tool with none of the stakeholder-friendly sexiness of Maze, for example.”

The verdict: Lyssna is better for users on a budget who only need unmoderated user testing. However, for more complex user research, you might want to consider other alternatives on the list, such as Maze.

UserTesting is a UX research platform that offers both moderated and unmoderated testing. With a large participant panel, it is primarily known for moderated testing via user interviews, but does have features for usability and information architecture testing.

UserTesting doesn’t publicly share its pricing, though users have reported that plans start at approximately $20,000 per seat/year.

When comparing tool suites, UserTesting is definitely more complete than Lookback, offering a range of moderated and unmoderated research methods.

However, one user shares that “some of the features and functionality for quantitative analysis are still pretty lacking,” and that “the clunkiness of their highlight reel creation” is an issue.

While they offer a large global participant pool, users frequently complain about the quality of testers, even saying they have a “low level of trust in their panel—a lot of "testers" that come across as falsifying screener responses for incentives.”

The verdict: UserTesting beats out Lookback for range of research tools, but if you’re looking to get started ASAP or want a reliable source of research participants, consider other alternatives on this list.

Loop 11 is a user research platform with a mixed bag of tools to help teams uncover insights. Especially notable is its search engine findability function. It also offers A/B testing and clickstream analysis.

Between the two options, Loop11 is better if you’re looking for statistically meaningful data for usability testing, complete with automatic analysis. However, Lookback can be a suitable option for those who just need on-the-go insights.

One Loop11 user emphasizes: “Results get mapped soon after completion with detailed analytics and outputs like heatmaps, and navigation paths.” However, another shares that “it does not provide in-depth analytics or comprehensive insights, which limits its usefulness for user testing. Additionally, the platform's own UI/UX needs to be increased to improve the user experience.”

The verdict: Go with Loop11 if you plan to focus on usability testing, but for more flexibility or continuous research, try another option.

Userbrain is a platform that specializes in moderated usability testing. It offers an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, with multiple question templates for quick research designs. Like many tools on this list, it comes with its own participant panel.

Userbrain offers pay-as-you-go pricing at $45 per test, along with a few plan options:

While Lookback has both moderated and unmoderated methods, Userbrain only lets you perform unmoderated tests. However, Userbrain is specifically designed to get insights quickly, complete with a turnaround guarantee.

One user emphasizes that you can “jump into getting user insights without going through the whole rigmarole of meeting with the sales team, going through lengthy contract negotiations, etc.” Some users do, however, wish for a more organized workspace, as “things can easily get a little confusing and disorganized with a few different collaborators.”

The verdict: Go with Userbrain if you need a lightweight, unmoderated user research tool to dip into now and then for quick insights. If you need moderated capabilities to get deeper insights, more robust tools like Lyssna or Maze will serve you better.

Userlytics is a UX research platform that offers moderated and unmoderated methods for both qualitative and quantitative insights. From device-specific testing to a panel base of over two million participants, it’s a well-rounded platform if you’ve got the budget.

Userlytics pricing can be confusing—it broadly depends on whether you’re using the tool regularly, and if you’ll be providing your own research participants.

Userlytics offers multiple research methods that Lookback doesn’t, with tools for testing information architecture, like card sorting and tree testing tools.

One Userlytics user notes: “The platform offers a full range of tools for conducting remote usability tests. I used it multiple times in my studies,”. Meanwhile others aren’t as pleased, with some reviews commenting on the steep learning curve and stating that “it’s not an intuitive platform to learn quickly.”

Compared with other tools on this list, it’s also very costly, with Userlytics’ cheapest subscription still coming in at a full $400/month more than Maze’s Starter Plan.

The verdict: Userlytics is a decent UX research tool with a range of methods, but the price point makes it hard to compare with other options on the market. Unless money is no object, consider looking at other comprehensive solutions like Maze, UserTesting, or Lyssna.

dscout is a user research platform that focuses on giving teams qualitative insights into their websites and digital products. It offers a range of valuable methods, including diary studies. dscout also provides a moderately large panel of vetted testers.

dscout offers three pricing plans: Researcher, Team, and Enterprise. They don’t share their pricing publicly, but a Reddit user has reported the Enterprise plan starts at $75K/year.

dscout specializes in providing users with descriptive insights through qualitative research methods. While it lacks many of the usability features Lookback has, users can capture in-the-moment behaviors through diaries, interviews, and surveys.

A dscout user states: “This is not just a tool for diary studies anymore, it truly is a one-stop shop for qualitative research.” Despite this claim, other users list its missing quantitative features and participant recruitment and management limitations as major drawbacks to consider.

The verdict: Go for dscout if you want to conduct qualitative research and have no need for quantitative research capabilities.

Known for its heatmaps, session recordings, feedback widgets, and surveys, Hotjar is a platform for uncovering product and user behavior insights. Its many product analytics features are especially helpful for understanding how a digital experience can be optimized to improve conversion rates, user engagement, and user satisfaction.

Hotjar and Lookback serve two distinct purposes in user research. Hotjar focuses on user behavior and product analytics, making it ideal for data-backed decisions and design improvements. Lookback, on the other hand, focuses on real-time, moderated usability testing.

One Hotjar user says: “The insights we gain from Hotjar’s heatmaps, session recordings, and feedback polls are invaluable.” It is worth noting, however, that other users argue that Hotjar slows down their site performance, which hinders the user experience they’re setting out to optimize in the first place.

The verdict: Go for Hotjar If you want to understand user behavior and make data-backed product design decisions. If you’re looking for more of an all-rounder, consider another option.

While Lookback gives you some tools to get started with UX research, there are a lot of missing features—making it a lackluster platform for scaling your user research operations.

The Lookback suite centers on usability testing and user interviews. While these UX methods are crucial, there’s a plethora of other ways to get user feedback and glean insights. Lookback doesn’t offer card sorting, tree testing, surveys, or heatmaps, significantly limiting the breadth and depth of your research.

For example, card sorting and tree testing can help you study your website’s information architecture, while surveys help you reach a wider range of participants at once. Analytics like heatmaps give you insight into where users click. With a stronger suite of features, you can conduct more research.

Lookback can be effective for studying users—provided you can recruit your own. It doesn’t come with a panel or recruitment tool to search for vetted users, so UX teams have to do that themselves or pair Lookback with a recruitment tool.

If you’re out to streamline your workflow and your tech stack, this shortcoming is a major inconvenience. Tools on our list like Maze and dscout offer their own recruitment panels.

Effective UX research doesn’t stop at getting feedback. You still need to analyze user data for insights. However, Lookback doesn’t have many features that support analysis, meaning you’ll need to analyze manually.

Besides costing you valuable time and effort, it’s easy to make mistakes, which can lead to skewed insights and, ultimately, making the wrong design decisions. Plus, who wants to mess around with plugging data into an Excel sheet?

With so many platforms to choose from, selecting the ideal Lookback alternative can seem overwhelming. To narrow down your search and find the best options, break it down to:

While Lookback can certainly get the job done, it might not be your best UX research option going forward. Plenty of other platforms offer both moderated and unmoderated user research methods with a more comprehensive suite of tools. Plus, Lookback’s lackluster analytics and lack of a participant panel make it one step short of a complete research tech stack.

Here’s where Maze can help.

Maze is a comprehensive leading user research platform that empowers your team to uncover game-changing insights. With a powerful suite of both moderated and unmoderated methods, vetted recruitment panel, and robust analytics, Maze makes UX research easy.

Whichever tool you opt for, make sure to focus on one key aspect: improving the user experience for your customers. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the ideal user experience won’t be, either. Be patient, remain focused on your goal, and start taking small steps to optimize your UX.