Chapter 15
18 Best usability testing tools for 2025: Features and pricing compared
Finding the right tool to help evaluate usability is just as important as assessing usability in the first place.
TL;DR
Usability testing tools help you run remote studies on prototypes, live sites, and mobile experiences so you can validate designs before and after launch. These tools help ensure you’re providing a top-notch user experience within your product.
If you want an AI-first, end-to-end UX research platform that combines moderated and unmoderated studies, mobile testing via an app, in-product prompts, participant recruitment, and AI-powered analysis and reporting, Maze is what you’re looking for.
If your primary need is navigation and information architecture, Optimal Workshop is a good option, while Lookback is better suited when live, observation-heavy interviews and diary-style qual are the core of your research.
While many usability testing platforms offer similar functionality, not all research tools are created equal. Usability testing tools vary in price, features, research methods, and ease of use.
Usability tools simplify how you recruit users, streamline the usability testing process, and provide a window into how people experience your product. So, before you dive into testing, check out the top 15 usability testing tools to consider.
18 Best usability testing tools: Comparison table
Before we get into the details of the options out there, here’s a quickfire comparison.
Tool | Best for | Pricing | G2 rating |
|---|---|---|---|
Maze | AI-first, end-to-end UX research across moderated, unmoderated, mobile, and in-product studies | Free trial plan available. Custom plans for larger enterprises available. | 4.5/5 |
Lookback | Screen recording and collaborative insights | Starts at $299/year | 4.3/5 |
UserTesting | Big-budget research studies | Around $40,000/year (not publicly disclosed) | 4.4/5 |
Optimal Workshop | Information architecture with card sorting, tree testing, and first-click studies | Starts at $199/month billed annually | 4.3/5 |
Lyssna | Unmoderated tests to validate concepts, layouts, and copy | Free for 3 seats; Paid plans start at $83/month | 4.5/5 |
Loop11 | Structured, task-based UX benchmarking with detailed success metrics and journey analytics | Starts at $179/month billed annually for 5 seats | 3.7/5 |
Userfeel | Occasional, pay-as-you-go usability tests using a large multilingual panel | Pay-as-you-go model, each credit costs $60 | 4.5/5 |
Trymata | Combining usability studies with product analytics like session replays, funnels, and UX scores | Free; Paid plans start at $399/month | 4.3/5 |
Hotjar | Visual behavior insights on live sites using heatmaps, recordings, and on-page feedback | Free; Paid plans start at $49/month | 4.3/5 |
Sprig | Targeted in-product microsurveys that capture feedback during real user journeys | Prices reportedly start at $175/month (not publicly disclosed) | 4.4/5 |
Quaraloo | In-app feedback collection | Free plan; paid plans start at $79.99/month | 4.3/5 |
PlaybookUX | Moderated and unmoderated testing, and IA studies | Prices start at $5,400/year | 4.6/5 |
Crazy Egg | Heatmaps on a budget | From $29/month onwards | 4.2/5 |
Userlytics | User research from a large panel | $34 per session; paid plans start at $699/month | 4.4/5 |
Userbrain | Recurring unmoderated tests | Free; Paid plans start from $125/month | 4.8/5 |
UXtweak | User empathy tests | Free plan; paid plans start from €129/month | 4.7/5 |
UX Metrics | Information architecture validation | Free plan; with Pro plan at $49/month | 4/5 |
Useberry | Unmoderated testing | Free plan; with Growth plan at $79/month | 4.3/5 |
1. Maze
Maze is an AI-first user research platform that helps product teams uncover user insights at the speed of product development. With both moderated and unmoderated research methods, teams can put users at the center of every product decision.
You can conduct concept validation, usability testing, content testing, and feedback studies across every stage of design and development. With Maze’s AI moderator for interviews and fast, task-based studies. You can also test and validate AI prototypes from tools like Figma, Make, Bolt, and Lovable.
After your usability test, instantly generate a stakeholder-ready UX research report or customize your own to share key findings with usability metrics like completion rates, misclick rates, or time spent.
Key features
- Prototype and live website testing: Run usability tests on everything from early prototypes (including AI-generated prototypes from tools like Figma Make, Bolt, and Loveable) to fully live websites, so you can validate flows before and after launch
- Interaction insights (first-click testing and heatmaps): Use first-click tests, path flows, and heatmaps to see where people click, how they move through a page, and which parts of your UI attract attention
- Task and UX metrics: Track task success, drop-off, time on task, and other key usability metrics so you can benchmark experiences and show clear improvements over time
- Live mobile testing: Run fully native usability tests on iOS and Android with the Maze Participate app, capturing screen, audio, and task metrics to quickly spot friction in mobile journeys
- Research templates: Start faster with ready-made templates for usability tests, concept validation, copy testing, and more, then adapt them to your specific product questions
- Participant recruitment and management: Use Maze Panel to reach a global pool of pre-screened participants and Maze Reach as a CRM-style database to organize, re-contact, and manage your own user base
- Maze AI: Let AI support your workflow with an AI moderator for interviews, bias-aware question suggestions, automated themes, and AI summaries that highlight critical learnings
- Additional research methods: Go beyond usability testing with surveys, card sorting, tree testing, in-product prompts, interview studies, and Clips that capture screen, audio, and video for richer qualitative insight
- Integrations: Connect Maze with tools like Figma, Amplitude, Slack, and more, so insights slot directly into your existing design, analytics, and collaboration workflows
Pricing
Maze offers pricing options for organizations and Product teams of all sizes:
Free | Enterprise |
|---|---|
$0/month | Custom pricing |
- 1 study per month - 5 seats - Essential prototype testing - Surveys - Pay-per-use panel credits | - Custom study quantities - Unlimited seats - Access to 3M+ global panel (or bring your own for free) - Moderated interviews - AI-moderated interviews - Prototype testing - Surveys - Card sorting & tree testing - Mobile experience testing - Audio, video & screen recording - All Maze AI features - Automated analysis & presentation-ready reports - Enterprise security & controls - Priority support, dedicated CSM & research partner access |
2. Lookback
Lookback is a qualitative user experience (UX) screen recording tool for designers and product managers. It specializes in moderated and unmoderated usability tests, in-depth interviews, and diary-style studies, with rich screen, video, and audio capture across desktop and mobile. The platform is designed for live collaboration, letting stakeholders observe sessions in real time, tag moments, and align on insights as they happen.
With its AI assistant, Eureka, teams can speed up analysis through transcripts, summaries, and highlights. It is not a full-stack quantitative platform and is typically paired with analytics or experimentation tools when large-scale metrics or benchmarking are required.
Key features
- Screen recording: Put yourself in the users’ shoes and see how they completed your tasks
- Live sharing: Collaborate and comment on live interviews without interrupting the session
- Analytics: Review the most relevant qualitative customer insights on a centralized dashboard
- Save all recordings in the player: Ask your team to tag each interview so anyone can log in and rewatch any relevant session
Pricing
Lookback offers annual pricing only.
Freelance | Team | Insights Hub | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
$299/year | $1,782/year | $4,122/year | Custom pricing |
- 10 sessions (moderated or unmoderated) - Add 10-session packages for $299 ($29.90/session) - 1 panel participant included - Bring your own participants for free - Additional participants: $49 each - Pay-per-use panel credits | - 100 moderated sessions - Add 10-session packages for $178 ($17.80/session) - Unlimited unmoderated sessions - 10 panel participants included - Bring your own participants for free - Additional participants: $38 each - All core features - 10 collaborators - Unlimited guests - Security Self-Assess - Chat support | - 300 moderated sessions - Add 10-session packages for $137 ($13.70/session) - Unlimited unmoderated sessions - 30 panel participants included - Bring your own participants for free - Additional participants: $31 each - All core features- 30 collaborators - Unlimited guests - Security Assessment Assist - Priority chat support | - Unlimited moderated + unmoderated sessions - 200 panel participants included - Bring your own participants for free - Additional participants: $25 each - All core features - Custom seat configuration - Security Review - Custom Legal - SSO - Invoicing/PO - Team Training - Audits |
3. UserTesting
UserTesting offers customer experience (CX) solutions for designers, product managers, marketers, and executives. It lets your team see, hear, and talk to customers as they interact with websites, applications, or prototypes in moderated testing sessions.
While the platform offers a mix of moderated and unmoderated testing solutions, its main focus is user interviews. UserTesting has one of the largest participant pools on the market—but you do pay extra to test your tool on pre-screened and qualified users.
Key features
- Card sorting, tree testing, usability testing, and prototype testing: So your team can run a variety of tests using the same platform
- Template library: To shorten the time your team spends creating each test
- Quick Answers: Recruit from the UserTesting panel and get answers to your tests in hours
- Sentiment analysis: This automated testing tool uses AI to simplify the reporting process and identify repeated pain points
- Human Insights platform: Allows your team to visualize data, read and highlight video transcripts, and get an automated summary of insights
Pricing
UserTesting doesn’t publicly share costs, but according to third-party reports, most contracts sit in the five-figure range, with a common median around $40,000 per year. On public forums, teams report quotes from ~$10,000 up to ~$42,000+, with older “unlimited” deals near $15,000 and per-seat pricing in the low thousands.
4. Optimal Workshop
Optimal Workshop is best known for information architecture testing. It’s built to help teams structure and label content in a way that matches how users think, using core methods like card sorting, tree testing, and first-click testing.
Alongside these flagship tools, Optimal also includes a survey tool for follow-up questions and a dedicated research notes workspace (Reframer) where teams can tag observations, group them into themes, and turn session evidence into clear findings for stakeholders.
Key features
- Card sorting, tree testing, online surveys, and first-click testing: To test your platform in multiple ways and spot usability or UX issues
- Qualitative research: Paint a full picture of how your users feel about your product and gather both qualitative and quantitative data
- Automated analysis: Improve your team’s productivity by giving them access to a tool that automates data analysis
Pricing
Starter | Enterprise |
|---|---|
$199/month billed annually | Custom pricing |
- 5 studies launched per year - Unlimited seats - Unlimited participant responses per study - All tools and study types - AI-powered analytics and insights - SOC II / GDPR compliance | - Custom study bundles - Unlimited seats - Unlimited participant responses per study - All tools and study types - Enterprise-grade security - Multiple workspaces and private projects - Administrator controls - Usage reports - Dedicated onboarding and setup - Dedicated Customer Success Manager |
5. Lyssna (formerly UsabilityHub)
Lyssna is a remote UX and market research platform built for fast, unmoderated feedback and lightweight validation. It’s commonly used to run surveys, five-second tests, preference tests, card sorting, tree testing, and prototype tests to evaluate concepts, layouts, navigation, and messaging.
While Lyssna includes light AI features such as text summaries and follow-up suggestions, it does not support AI-moderated interviews, native mobile app testing, in-product prompts, or advanced automated reporting. It’s best suited for quick, directional feedback and early validation rather than deep qualitative analysis or continuous discovery at scale.
Key features
- Surveys, five-second, first-clicks, prototype, or preference tests: Run multiple unmoderated and moderated tests
- Design surveys: Ask questions regarding your design to identify specific issues with your visuals
- Unlimited participants: You can recruit as many participants as you like from your own audience—or pay extra to get access to the UsabilityHub participant panel.
- Reporting: Includes click visualizations, open text analysis, and task duration metrics
Pricing
Free | Starter | Growth | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
$0/month | $83/month | $166/month | Custom pricing |
Plan limits: - 1 study per month - 3 seats - 15 self-recruited responses | Plan limits: - 1 study per month - 5 seats - Unlimited self-recruited responses | Plan limits: - 3 studies per month - 15 seats - Unlimited self-recruited responses | Plan limits: - Custom - Unlimited seats - Unlimited self-recruited responses |
- Core methodologies - Interviews - Live chat support - GDPR compliant - Section groups & randomization - Spaces | Everything in Free, plus: - AI follow-up questions - CSV exports - Custom welcome & thank-you messages - Interview co-hosts - Live website testing - Recordings - Variation sets - Conditional logic | Everything in Starter, plus: - AI-generated summaries - Custom variables - Recruitment limits - Role-based permissions - Test redirects | Everything in Growth, plus: - Agreements - Closed Spaces - Custom branding - Custom contract terms - Password rules - Priority support - Security audit assistance - SOC 2 report - Single Sign-On (SSO) - Wallets |
6. Loop11
Loop11 is another prominent online usability tool built around task-based research and AI-assisted analysis. It supports both moderated and unmoderated studies on live websites, prototypes, and mobile experiences. It measures task success, time on task, errors, and drop-offs, and captures heatmaps, click paths, and session recordings for context. Loop11 layers AI across the workflow, from auto-generated test set-ups and AI summaries to AI Browser Agents that simulate usability tests without human participants.
Key features
- Task-based usability testing: Define realistic tasks and track success rates, completion time, errors, and abandonment across studies
- Heatmaps and clickstream analysis: Visualize where users click, how they move through flows, and where they drop off
- AI Test Creator: Create tasks and question flows from a URL or short brief to speed up study setup
- AI Browser Agents: Run automated usability tests using AI agents to identify friction without recruiting human participants
- Survey and screener questions: Add quantitative and qualitative questions to segment results and filter participants
Pricing
Rapid Insights | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
$179/month billed annually (5 seats included) Or $199/month billed monthly | $358/month billed annually (5 seats included) Or $399/month billed monthly | Custom pricing |
- Moderated and unmoderated testing - Unlimited tasks and questions - 3 projects per month | - Heatmaps, clickstreams, and path analysis - Data export - 10 projects per month | - Single Sign-On (SSO) - Report segmentation - Unlimited projects per month |
7. Userfeel
Userfeel is built around a pay-as-you-go model, making it a flexible option for teams that don’t want a subscription commitment. It supports both moderated and unmoderated tests on live websites, prototypes, and mobile apps, capturing full-screen video, audio think-aloud feedback, and structured survey responses.
Of course, this does mean it can add up without you noticing. Userfeel allows your team to set up a list of tasks for users to complete on your website, define the target audience, and then collect recorded videos of users.
Key features
- Transcriptions: Shorten the time your team spends rewatching live interviews
- Unlimited screening questions: Encourage your team to ask as many screeners as needed so you get users that truly fit your customer’s persona
- Highlight reels: Your team will be able to create a short video using the most relevant clips so you can rewatch it and catch the user’s sentiment
- User test guarantee: Get a free replacement if you consider a user was unfit for your tests
Pricing
Userfeel offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model with no monthly subscription fees. You can purchase credits, with each credit costing $60, and use them based on the type and duration of your usability tests.
Category | Item/credits |
|---|---|
Sessions (credits per session) |
|
8. Trymata
Trymata (formerly TryMyUI) allows you to run remote usability tests and gain user insights to inform your product, marketing, e-commerce, startup, or agency strategy—and build products your users will enjoy. It supports moderated and unmoderated tests on websites, mobile apps, and prototypes, capturing user-narrated videos, task performance, and standardized UX metrics like SUS, NPS, task success, and time on task.
Key features
- Test prototypes, live websites, or mobile apps: Conduct usability testing at any stage or device and improve your SUS
- Recruit from its panel: Access Trymata’s pre-screened participant's panel
- Create and upload custom NDAs to protect your brand: Avoid information leaks, by writing personalized NDAs for participants to sign before testing
- Collaboration tools: Use highlight reels, invite multiple researchers to work on projects, and leave video annotations to simplify remote team collaboration
Pricing
PayGO | Team | Enterprise | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|
$0/month | $399/month | $2,000/month | Custom (billed annually) |
- PayGO-level usability testing license - Create & run unlimited studies anytime - Buy test credits as needed (no limit) - Video/audio recordings + post-test surveys - Store results for up to 6 months | - Team-level usability testing license - 10 Trymata panel testers/month - 10 invites/month (test with your own users) - Task metrics + quantitative UX scores - 3 highlight reels/month - 2 seats | - Enterprise-level usability testing license - 30 Trymata panel testers/month - Unlimited testing with your own users - Up to 16 multi-choice screeners - Video transcripts - Unlimited highlight reels - 5 seats | - Separate testing licenses per client - Separate client data + billing - Switch between client dashboards - Gate access by user/client - Unlimited seats |
9. Hotjar
Hotjar helps measure the usability of a website by recording real user behavior through clicks and mouse tracking—and is well known for its live heatmap recording functionality. Additional features include session recordings, conversion funnel analysis, as well as the collection of user feedback via forms and surveys. It’s most commonly used alongside traditional analytics tools to diagnose friction, understand drop-offs, and prioritize UX and conversion improvements based on real user behavior and sentiment.
Key features
- Heatmaps: See the hot spots where users are spending the most time on your site and the colder areas that aren't getting much love
- Screen and clicks recording: Spot where your visitors click and what catches their eye
- Capture feedback from real users: Use Hotjar’s in-app pop-ups to ask real visitors for feedback and update your design and UX
- Host moderated user testing interviews: Pay for Hotjar engage to connect with users face-to-face and humanize your quantitative data
Pricing
Free | Growth | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
$0/month | $49/month | Custom pricing | Custom pricing |
- Up to 200k monthly sessions - Session replay & unlimited heatmaps - Funnels - Standard filters - 7 integrations - Dashboards | Everything in Free, plus: - Starting at 7k monthly sessions - Sense (AI insights) - 13 months data access - Zone-based heatmaps - Journey analysis - Impact quantification - 9 integrations | Everything in Growth, plus: - Starting at 1M monthly sessions - Multi-session replay summaries - Zone-based heatmaps with revenue metrics - Revenue goals & tracking - Precision & retroactive filtering - 115+ integrations | Everything in Pro, plus: - Digital experience monitoring - User lifecycle extension - Error summaries - Data feeds - Unlimited projects |
10. Sprig
Sprig is best known for targeted in-app surveys and always-on feedback, but it also offers session replays and heatmaps to diagnose friction in key flows and validate changes over time. AI is baked into the workflow, helping teams draft surveys faster and automatically summarize open-text responses into themes and insights, which makes Sprig a solid fit for continuous, in-the-moment research inside web and mobile products rather than one-off usability studies.
Key features
- In-product surveys: Trigger targeted surveys inside web and mobile apps based on user actions, pages, or lifecycle moments
- Always-on feedback widgets: Collect continuous qualitative feedback with lightweight, embedded prompts users can respond to anytime
- Session replays: Watch real user sessions to see where people hesitate, struggle, or drop off in critical flows
- AI survey generation: Generate survey questions automatically based on your research goal or product context
- AI summaries and themes: Automatically cluster open-text responses and surface key themes, sentiment, and trends
Pricing
Sprig no longer lists pricing publicly on its website. However, historical data from 2024 indicates that pricing follows a tiered approach:
- Free plan
- Starter plan: $175/month includes 2 in-product studies, 25,000 MTUs, mobile delivery (available for an additional $200/month), unlimited link surveys, and unlimited seats.
- Enterprise plan: Custom pricing
11. Quaraloo
This isn’t a dedicated usability testing tool, but Qualaroo allows you to add feedback surveys as website prompts to test your UX, gain product information, and improve your conversion rate. With Qualaroo you can use AI sentiment analysis (Powered by IBM Watson) and access a survey template bank.
Key features
- Nudges (intercept surveys): Customizable non-intrusive pop-up surveys for websites or mobile apps
- Advanced targeting options: Target surveys based on user behavior, demographics, location, and referral source
- Custom coding and design: Create surveys that match your brand's look with custom CSS and Design API
- Multi-lingual support: Get feedback from a global audience with support in over 50 languages
Pricing
Free | Essentials | Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
$0/month | $79.99/month | $139.99/month | Starts at $149.99/month |
- Up to 50 responses - Unlimited Nudges™ & surveys - Unlimited domains - Unlimited admins/creators - NPS, CSAT, CES - Advanced targeting - Mobile Nudges™ - Nudge™ for prototypes - Sentiment analysis (IBM Watson) - Exit surveys - Branching & skip logic - In-app (iOS & Android) | - 1,000 email sends/month - Unlimited responses - Unlimited forms & surveys - Ready-to-use questions & templates - AI helps to create surveys - High-delivery emails - 20+ question types - Reports & analytics - Branding | - 5,000 email sends + 100k pageviews/month Everything in Essentials, plus: - Unlimited Nudges & Link Nudges - NPS surveys - Feedback button & sidebar form - CSAT, CES & more - Mobile Nudges™ & placement control - Exit-intent surveys - Targeting & basic integrations - Data export & file uploads - Multi-lingual surveys | - Custom email sends & pageviews Everything in Business, plus: - Unlimited responses, users & domains - Advanced targeting & custom variables - Advanced integrations - In-app SDK (iOS & Android) - NPS Nudges - Report & design APIs - Roles & permissions - SAML / SSO - Webhooks & callbacks - Enterprise security & custom license |
12. PlaybookUX
PlaybookUX supports moderated and unmoderated usability tests, surveys, card sorting, and tree testing, enabling teams to run both qualitative and quantitative studies in one place. It also supports Figma-based prototype testing, session recordings, and AI-assisted transcription and highlights. Unlimited seats on standard plans allow product, design, and research teams to collaborate on studies and insights without seat-based restrictions.
Key features
- Heatmaps on prototypes: Visual click overlays to spot attention hotspots and dead zones
- Highlight reels: Compile multiple clips into a shareable reel for stakeholders
- Timestamped notes, tags, and commenting: Tag moments (issue, quote, bug) and collaborate directly on the recording timeline
- Study templates and saved tasks: Reuse consistent test structures across teams and projects
- Data exports: Export results for reporting or deeper analysis outside the platform
Pricing
Pay as you go | Scale | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
No subscription | $5,400/year | $8,800/year | Custom pricing |
- Unmoderated testing - Moderated interviews - Recruit consumers & professionals - Curated question templates | Everything in Pay as you go, plus: - Card sorting - Tree testing - Surveys - Preference, first-click & five-second testing - Tagging & universal search - Test with your own customers - Segmentation - Live note-taking | Everything in Scale, plus: - Custom consent forms - Approval flows - Figma integration & click testing - Invisible observers - Upload external research - SSO & SAML - AI features (add-on) - Panel management (add-on) - Session replays (add-on) - Intercepts (add-on) | Everything in Pro, plus: - Bulk pricing & custom session limits - Dedicated customer success manager - Custom onboarding - Custom contracts & terms - 99.99% uptime SLA - Invoice payments - Unlimited seats |
13. Crazy Egg
Similar to Hotjar, Crazy Egg allows you to see how your users navigate your website. Access heatmaps, conduct A/B tests, review their session recordings, and launch surveys. Crazy Egg gives you quantitative insights in the form of scrollmaps, confetti, and heatmap reports. It also lets you conduct A/B tests.
Key features
- Scrollmaps: Show how far down a page users scroll, indicating which parts of your content are most engaging and where users lose interest
- Session recordings: Record and replay individual user sessions to see exactly how visitors interact with your site
- A/B testing: Test different versions of your web pages to determine which one performs better
- Confetti reports: Break down clicks by referral sources, search terms, and other criteria to understand the context behind user interactions and tailor your marketing strategies
Pricing
Crazy Egg offers a 30-day free trial for all its paid plans.
Starter | Plus | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
$29/month | $99/month | $249/month | $599/month |
- 5,000 tracked pageviews/month - 5 heatmap reports - 50 recordings/month - 6 months recordings storage - Unlimited website domains - Unlimited team members - Unlimited web analytics - Unlimited surveys & responses - Unlimited heatmap data filters - AI analysis for heatmaps & recordings | - 150,000 tracked pageviews/month - 75 heatmap reports - 1,000 recordings/month - 2 years recordings storage - Unlimited A/B testing & CTAs - Unlimited error tracking - Unlimited website domains - Unlimited team members - Unlimited web analytics - Unlimited surveys & responses - Unlimited heatmap data filters - AI analysis for heatmaps & recordings - Priority support | - 500,000 tracked pageviews/month - 100 heatmap reports - 5,000 recordings/month - 2 years recordings storage - Unlimited A/B testing & CTAs - Unlimited error tracking - Unlimited website domains - Unlimited team members - Unlimited web analytics - Unlimited surveys & responses - Unlimited heatmap data filters - AI analysis for heatmaps & recordings - Priority support - Export heatmaps & recordings to AI | - 1,000,000 tracked pageviews/month - 200 heatmap reports - 10,000 recordings/month - 2 years recordings storage - Unlimited A/B testing & CTAs - Unlimited error tracking |
14. Userlytics
Get qualitative and quantitative insights from a panel of 2M users. Test your website for usability, conduct prototype testing, and evaluate your IA with Userlytics. Userlytics lets you run moderated sessions and comes with a think aloud feature so you can catch users’ thoughts as they perform your unmoderated tests.
Key features
- Global participant panel: Access a vast panel of over 2 million participants from more than 150 countries
- AI-based analysis: Use artificial intelligence for analysis of qualitative sessions, including sentiment analysis that categorizes emotional tones expressed by participants
- First-click testing and heatmaps: Analyze initial user interactions and visual engagement with first-click testing and heatmaps
- Customizable Study Builder: Create tailored UX tasks like time on task and net promoter score with a study builder
Pricing
Project-based | Enterprise | Premium | Limitless |
|---|---|---|---|
Custom pricing | From $34/session | $699/month | Custom quote |
- No subscription required - Custom test setup - One-off projects | - Pay per session - Unlimited tests - Buy 1, Get 1 Free (promo) - Self-recruitment supported - Unlimited BYOU testing (on plans over $7,500) | - 5 or 10 seats - 20 sessions/month - Unlimited tests - BYOU testing - Custom options available | - Unlimited accounts - Unlimited tests - Unlimited sessions - Self-recruitment - BYOU testing |
15. Userbrain
Userbrain enables teams to test websites, mobile apps, and prototypes by assigning task-based scenarios and capturing both screen and voice recordings as participants think aloud. Userbrain is designed for lightweight, continuous testing, with quick setup, a built-in tester panel, and the option to invite your own users. AI-assisted summaries, automated reports, clips, and transcripts help teams review results quickly, making Userbrain best suited for frequent usability checks and early validation.
Key features
- Recurring tests: Schedule tests to run automatically (for example, after each release) to support continuous usability checks
- Auto Create: Generate tasks and questions automatically from a URL or short brief to speed up test setup
- Highlight clips and reels: Create short video clips to share specific moments or patterns with stakeholders
- Chrome recorder extension: Lightweight browser extension for easy test participation and reliable recording
Pricing
Free | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
$0/month | $125/month | Custom pricing |
- Test with your own users - 5 collaborator seats - AI notes & clips - Automated test reports - AI insights - Custom contracts & billing options | - 3 Userbrain testers included per month - Test with your own users - 15 collaborator seats - AI notes & clips - Automated test reports - AI insights - Custom contracts & billing options | - Custom tester packages - Test with your own users - Unlimited collaborator seats - AI notes & clips - Automated test reports - AI insights - Custom contracts & billing options |
16. UXtweak
UXtweak lets you run unmoderated usability tests on live websites, prototypes, and mobile apps with screen and audio recording, then review results through session replays and heatmaps. It also supports five-second, first-click, and preference tests, plus information architecture studies such as card sorting and tree testing.
For research ops, UXtweak includes participant recruitment through a panel, bring-your-own participants, and a participant database so teams can manage and reuse testers across studies.
Key features
- Participant recruitment: Access over 155 million participants to recruit for your studies
- Card sorting and tree testing: Evaluates the effectiveness of your website's navigation structure
- Heatmaps: See where users click, scroll, and move their mouse on your website
- Website testing: Run remote usability tests on live websites, prototypes, or mockups
Pricing
Free | Business | Custom |
|---|---|---|
€0/month | €125/month | Custom pricing |
- 1 user license - All tools available to try - 15 responses/month - 1 concurrent active study - 14 days access to results | - 1 user license (adjustable) - 50 responses/license/month (upgradable) - 1 concurrent active study (upgradable) - Unlimited tasks per study - 12 months data retention - Reports and video exports | - Unlimited user licenses - Unlimited concurrent active studies and tasks - Customizable number of responses - Live Interviews tailored to your needs - User Panel with advanced global targeting - Custom data retention - Custom assessments (legal, security) - Single sign-on (SSO) - Reports and video exports - UX expert and technical support- Hands-on training and dedicated onboarding |
17. UX Metrics
UX Metrics is designed for validating information architecture, particularly useful in the early stages of website design. Unlike some other tools on this list, UX Metrics focuses exclusively on just two UX research methods: card sorting and tree testing.
Key features
- Reporting: Centralized dashboard for comprehensive analytics, including agreement scores and popularity metrics
- Automated analysis: Simplified interpretation of results with automatic calculations of key metrics
- Collaboration tools: Share results and insights with team members and stakeholders, facilitating discussions around findings
Pricing
Free | Pro |
|---|---|
$0/month | $49/month |
All Pro features with no restrictions - 3 free participant results - Upgrade anytime for more participant results | - Unlimited published studies per month - Unlimited participant results per month - Unlimited team collaborators - Duplicate studies with one click - Your branding on participant views and reports - Remove the UX Metrics link on participant thank you pages - Card and task order randomization - Merge similar card sort groups (conceptual/semantic) - Allow task skipping on tree tests - Participant completion codes for unmoderated sessions - Private, password-protected report sharing - Collect open-ended participant feedback - Export report data to XLS |
18. Useberry
Useberry helps you build better products by seeing how real users interact with your prototypes or live websites. You can use task-based usability testing to see if people can complete a goal and card sorting or tree testing to make sure your menus and navigation make sense. It’s easy to sync your designs directly from Figma, Sketch, or ProtoPie.
Key features
- Task-based usability methods: Combine first-click tests, five-second tests, preference tests, single-task studies, questions, open analytics, and randomization to evaluate specific flows and reduce bias
- Participant recruitment options: Recruit from Useberry’s global Participant Pool or use shareable links to self-recruit your own
- Behavior analytics and session review: Capture face, voice, and screen recordings, then use highlights, tags, highlight reels, click tracking, and user flow visualizations
- Usability metrics and trends: Track success rates, task time, total clicks, and engagement patterns so you can compare variants and monitor performance across iterations
Pricing
Free | Growth | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
$0/month | $79/month | Custom (billed annually) |
- 10 responses/month - 1 seat (add up to 20) - 1 project - 3 versions per project | - 300 responses/month (buy up to 2,000) - 1 seat (buy up to 20) - Unlimited projects & versions - 10 transcription hours/month - 2 GB of uploaded recordings storage - Tags & Highlight Reels - Randomization - Logic Jumps - Custom templates - Comments - Screening Questions - Legal Screen - SAML-based SSO | All Growth features, plus: - From 48,000 responses/year - From 10 seats - From 100 transcription hours/month - From 200 GB uploaded recordings storage - AI features add-on - Custom branding - Enhanced support - Custom legal terms - Enterprise security |
Key criteria when choosing a usability testing tool
The right usability testing tool depends on what you need to test, how often you run research, who you’re testing with, and how your team turns findings into decisions. Here’s a quick look at the key criteria to keep in mind when you’re evaluating options.
- Supported methods: Confirm it supports the study types you’ll run most (prototype testing, live website testing, interviews, surveys, IA testing).
- Mobile testing quality: Check whether mobile testing is truly on-device with full recordings or limited to mobile browser experiences.
- Participant recruitment and targeting: Look for screening capabilities, reliable targeting, and quality controls. Also, confirm you can bring your own participants without extra friction.
- Analysis workflow and reporting: Prioritize tools that reduce review time with transcripts, highlights, clips, and reporting that stakeholders can understand without a live walkthrough.
- AI support and transparency: AI should speed up analysis and reporting, but you should be able to see what it’s doing and validate outputs against raw data.
- Collaboration and sharing: Make sure teams can comment, tag, create clips, and share results with clear permission controls.
- Integrations with your stack: Check integrations with your design and delivery tools (Figma, Jira, Slack, Notion, Teams, analytics) so research can move into decisions quickly.
- Pricing model vs. research cadence: Subscriptions are good for continuous research, while pay-as-you-go suits occasional studies but can get expensive if usage grows.
Usability testing tools: Which one is the best for you?
Skipping usability testing is a fast way to misunderstand what your users really want. To really simplify your testing process and make your product user-centric, you need a reliable, flexible usability testing tool.
There are many usability testing tools on the market that meet different use cases and offer specific methods, functionalities, and price points. For example, if you only need to run card sorting and tree testing, a dedicated IA tool is usually enough. If your priority is rich video from in-depth interviews and diary-style sessions, an interview-focused platform will be a better fit. And if your focus is behavioral analytics on live sites, a product analytics tool with heatmaps, funnels, and session replays will get you further than a classic UX research suite.
And if you want an AI-first UX research tool for both moderated and unmoderated research, try Maze.
Maze combines moderated and unmoderated studies, including interview studies with an AI moderator, prototype testing, live website testing, card sorting, tree testing, surveys, and in-product prompts with mobile app research powered by the Maze Participate app. With Maze Panel and Maze Reach, you can recruit from millions of participants or manage your own audience in a single workflow.
Frequently asked questions about usability testing tools
What is a usability testing tool?
What is a usability testing tool?
A usability testing tool is software that helps you run and manage usability studies by recruiting participants, setting up tasks, recording behavior, and turning results into metrics and insights so you can see how real users experience your product.
What should I look for when choosing a usability testing tool?
What should I look for when choosing a usability testing tool?
You should look for a usability testing tool that fits your research methods and your team’s workflow:
- Supports the research formats you use most (quantitative/qualitative, moderated/unmoderated, remote/in-person)
- Offers the right methods (e.g. prototype testing, live website testing, A/B testing, tree testing)
- Has clear reporting and analytics so insights are easy to share
- Scales with your team and budget (plans, seats, response limits)
- Integrates with your existing design, analytics, and collaboration stack
Which are the best usability testing tools that can be used to test prototypes?
Which are the best usability testing tools that can be used to test prototypes?
Yes! Many usability testing tools support both prototypes and mobile apps. Maze enables prototype testing with native integrations with Figma and Axure, as well as mobile app testing via Maze Participate.
What integrations are important for a usability testing tool to have?
What integrations are important for a usability testing tool to have?
Look for integrations that keep research plugged into your existing workflows, such as:
- Design tools like Figma for prototype testing
- Collaboration and documentation tools ike Miro, Confluence, FigJam, Jira, and Airtable for sharing insights
- Feedback, survey, or CRM tools to connect user data and recruit the right participants
How does Maze compare to other usability testing tools?
How does Maze compare to other usability testing tools?
Maze combines multiple research capabilities in one platform: prototype testing, website testing, card sorting, tree testing, surveys, Clips, and participant recruitment (Panel + Reach). Maze AI adds AI-moderated interviews, automated summaries, theme detection, and bias-free question suggestions, while automated reports and templates make it faster to go from test setup to stakeholder-ready insights.