Are you confident that your website, app, or digital product is ready to share with the world? The best way to find out is to put it in front of real people, observe their interactions, ask usability testing questions, and gather insights on how to improve their user experience.

Usability testing can help you identify pain points and generate data that will inform your decisions about what to fix before launch, or after making changes or adding new features.

In this article, we've compiled 15 of the best usability testing tools to help you enhance your digital products and ensure their success.

TL;DR: A quick glance at the 15 best usability testing tools

1. Lyssna

One of the toughest parts of running usability tests is finding reliable participants. Lyssna shines with a research panel of 690,000+ research participants, letting you target the exact demographics that match your target users. 

From testing the effectiveness of UI elements like buttons and navigation menus to more UX-focused facets like messaging and tone, Lyssna offers a powerful suite of remote usability testing tools that give you the data and information you need to refine your designs.

Features

Lyssna offers several usability testing tools to help you improve the UI and UX of your projects, including:

• Card sorting: Card sorting shows you how people organize content and information, giving you insights into how to structure your information architecture.

• Prototype testing: Whether you’d like to get some early-stage feedback or have test participants take specific actions, Lyssna offers integration with Figma so you can evaluate your prototypes at any stage of development. 

• Design surveys: Find out opinions and feedback via surveys – use conditional and test logic to display follow-up questions based on participants’ answers.

• Five second testing: These quick and easy tests make it possible to gather information about people’s initial reactions and what stands out in a design.

• Preference testing: Test out different designs or concept variations to see which is the most effective.

• First click testing: See where visitors first move to and click on a page, showing if links and content are in the right places. 

• Easy participant recruitment:  With Lyssna, you can easily recruit from an integrated research panel and choose from a range of demographics like geography, job role, industry, and other demographic characteristics. You can input your study size, type, and audience on the research panel calculator to get an estimate of the cost and turnaround time. If you already have a dependable group of test participants, then you can also choose the self-recruitment option. 

• Screeners: Need to target a specific group for your usability test? Ask screener questions to get the right people for your research.

• Recordings: Record audio, screen, webcam, or a combo of all three to capture users’ think-aloud moments during unmoderated usability tests.

Plans and pricing

• Free: Includes up to three collaborators and unlimited self-recruited responses for tests and surveys up to 2 minutes long.

• Basic: Get up to 10 collaborators, unlimited viewers, unlimited responses, unlimited active tests, and CSV exports. Pricing starts at $75/month.

• Pro: Get everything in the Basic plan, plus up to 15 collaborators, custom branding, test logic, and team permissions. Pricing starts at $175/month.

• Enterprise: Get everything in the Pro plan, along with unlimited collaborators, security audits, single sign-on (SSO), and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML). Contact for custom pricing.

• Panel responses are priced separately for all plans. You can pay to recruit from the panel as you go or purchase bulk panel credits at a discount to use as you need. 

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2. UserZoom

If you’re looking to perform quantitative tests, collect qualitative data, or run hybrid usability studies, UserZoom offers plenty of options. UserZoom centers its platform on user experience, providing remote usability testing tools for live video testing, surveys, and user metrics that you can draw from to improve your digital products. 

Features

UserZoom offers tools for user research and usability testing, including:

• Live interviews: Use live remote interviews to reach people across the globe and find out how they interact with your product and what they think of it.

• Analytical tools: Evaluate, interpret, and manage the data and information you gather through UserZoom’s EnjoyHQ tool. 

• Live intercept surveys: Tap into active users who have organically landed on an app or website and present them with questions related to how well they could accomplish their goals, their motivations for visiting, and their thoughts on how it could be better. 

Plans and pricing

UserZoom doesn’t list pricing for their platform.

3. Hotjar

Hotjar offers a straightforward platform that companies of any size (including those working on a small scale) can use. 

As its name implies, Hotjar focuses its product on heatmaps. Screen recordings show you how users move and interact with your website. From here, you can see if elements like call-to-action buttons are getting attention, checkout carts are easy to use, or if users are paying attention to the most important pieces of content you want them to see.

Features

Hotjar’s usability testing tools include:

• Heatmaps: Hotjar offers click maps, scroll maps, and move maps.

• Session recordings: Observe how people move through a design and see what hang-ups they may have had.

• Advanced filtering: Evaluate session recordings with advanced filtering based on factors like devices used, behaviors, and geographic location.

• Console tracking: When errors connected to JavaScript happen, you can open up the console and identify what code is leading to these problems.

Plans and pricing

• Basic: Hotjar’s entry-level plan is free, giving you up to 35 daily sessions and automated data captures.

• Plus: $32 per month gets you up to 100 daily sessions, an API for tracking user events, and functionality to filter and segment data.

• Business: $80 per month gets you all the features of the lower-level plans, plus custom-built integrations and an API for documenting user attributes. 

• Scale: Hotjar offers custom pricing for enterprise-scale organizations, which includes 1500+ daily sessions, funnels, and console tracking. 

4. UserTesting

UserTesting gets you up and running quickly with ready-made templates and a pool of qualified testers from across the globe to try out your products and get feedback. 

One of UserTesting's most helpful tools is video insights, which gives you first-person accounts and offers a personal experience when gathering feedback. Along with real-time or pre-recorded participant videos, UserTesting also autogenerates data visualizations and deploys AI-powered sentiment analysis to pinpoint insights and significant moments. 

Features

UserTesting includes the following features:

• Test plan builder: Whether you want to construct your own through their drag-and-drop UI, or choose one that’s pre-made, UserTesting makes it possible to put together tests for a variety of use cases.

• Customer experience-focused testing: Perform usability testing, live interviews, brand and messaging testing, and more.

• Machine learning generated insights: Get important information like transcriptions, analytics, and highlight reels through the power of machine learning. 

Plans and pricing

UserTesting doesn’t list pricing for their platform.

5. Conversion Crimes

Conversion Crimes captures screen casts of participants as they navigate through your product. In real time, you get to observe their reactions and hear how they feel.

Features

Conversion Crimes offers a fast and simple way to get mobile usability testing tools up and running, offering:

• Vetted testers: An audience of vetted testers representing both consumer and B2B demographics.

• Templates: Use pre-made templates like first impressions, software evaluation, and value proposition to gather feedback.

• Custom testing: Anything with a URL can be used for usability testing, including websites, ads, and onboarding processes. 

Plans and pricing

• Free: Get one piece of feedback per month and access to nine templates.

• Pay-as-you-go: For $40–150 per reviewer, this plan is aimed at those who only need to run testing intermittently.

• Feedback Subscription: $649 per month gets you regular buyer feedback, analyses, and quarterly planning calls. 

• Managed Services: $1,999 per month gets you a dedicated expert who takes care of CRO/UX and provides your team with customized training and personal deliverables.

6. Useberry

Integrating with popular design tools, a large pool of test participants you can narrow down by different attributes, and a simple setup, Useberry offers a smooth and quick way to perform prototype testing.

Features

Some of Useberry's key features includes:

• Remote usability testing tools: Run five second tests, first click tests, and single task tests, and access analytics to understand how users navigate through a prototype.

• Test results: Get results as heatmaps, session recordings, time bars, user flows, and survey responses.

• Integrations: Useberry lets you test prototypes directly, integrating with platforms like AdobeXD, Figma, Sketch, and others. 

Plans and pricing

• Free: With a limit to one project, get ten responses per month and unlimited collaborators.

• Basic: $33 per month gets you three projects to test, with 100 responses per month, along with CSV exports.

• Pro: $67 per month gets you unlimited projects/versions and responses.

• Team: $84 per month gets you three team seats, a workspace, and a shared library. 

7. Sprig

Sprig lets you run unmoderated testing straight from a participant’s browser for quick and easy insights. As participants make their way through a test, Sprig lets you launch survey questions at specific points, making it possible to gather in-the-moment feedback on what they’re experiencing and how they feel.

Features

Sprig provides a centralized platform for running usability tests and collecting information from your testing participants, featuring:

• In-product surveys: Collect information about pathways, interactions, and other features that help you identify where people are bouncing and to find out why they took particular actions.

• Concept and usability testing: Sprig lets you share several concepts in one individual test, so you can see which versions users prefer.

• Integrations: If you’re using design tools like Webflow, Figma, and Adobe XD, all you need to do is paste the URL into Sprig to set up a project for testing. 

Plans and pricing

Sprig offers custom pricing on its paid tiers with the following levels:

• Free: This is a good option if you’re just getting started – you can run one link study and one concept test with 5,000 tracked users.

• Starter: This plan has custom pricing. It offers two concept tests per month, one in-product survey per month, and access to 25,000 tracked users. 

• Enterprise: This plan has custom pricing. It offers access to Sprig’s AI-powered open-text analysis, custom data exports, and personalized visual branding. 

8. Optimal Workshop

Optimal Workshop offers an easy entry point to usability testing and is ideal for those working at smaller scales or who may be new to UX research. Creating studies and viewing results can all be achieved relatively quickly through Optimal Workshop’s suite of remote usability testing tools. 

Features

Optimal Workshop offers five testing tools, including:

• Card sorting: Run card sorting tests to optimize your product’s flow of information.

• Tree testing: Evaluate the findability and hierarchy of content on your website or app.

• First click testing: Reveal what elements or interactions stand out when users first land on your site.

• Ask questions: Get feedback and answers to the most important questions you have about your app or website.

• Tagging and categorization: Reframer is the centerpiece of Optimal Workshop’s toolbox, making it possible to tag and categorize qualitative information gathered through tests and analyze the results.

Plans and pricing

• Free: Optimal Workshop’s free tier gives you two tree testing tasks, three qualitative research sessions, and ten participant responses for each individual study.

• Pro: $208 per month gets you unlimited studies, unlimited user responses, and unlimited card sorting.

• Team: From $191 per month per user (for three users), you can collaborate on studies and get access to team usage reporting. 

• Enterprise: Optimal Workshop provides enterprise-level companies with tailored pricing that includes SSO, multi-member team accounts, and admin panels.

9. Mouseflow

Mouseflow differentiates itself from other usability testing tools by focusing on behavior analytics. It shows you the directions visitors moved in and how they engaged, where they encountered problems, and the reasons. At the core of Mouseflow is its friction scores and friction events, which tag problems like difficulties in filling out sign-up forms, click errors, and places where people bounce and give up. 

Features

Mouseflow’s suite of usability testing tools includes:

• Session replay: Mouseflow’s screen recordings track users’ paths and mouse-triggered actions, analyzing problem spots and designating them as friction events with associated scores.

• Conversion funnels: Set up a path of URLs leading to specific conversions and Mouseflow shows how they’re succeeding or where people are dropping off.

• Heatmaps: Mouseflow offers automated setup as well as six different options in configuring heatmaps, including click, scroll, and movement.

Plans and pricing

• Free: Test one website and capture 500 recordings per month, with one month of storage.

• Starter: $31 per month gets you 5,000 recordings for one website, with three months of storage.

• Growth: $109 per month gets you 15,000 recordings on up to three websites, with six months of storage.

• Business: $219 per month gets you 50,000 recordings for five websites, with one year of storage.

• Pro: $399 per month gets you 150,000 recordings on 12 websites, with one year of storage.

• Enterprise: Run 200,000 recordings a month on ten or more websites and get one year of storage, with Mouselflow determining custom pricing. 

10. Helio

With a speedy set-up, targeted user testing, surveys, and efficient ways of gathering data and feedback, Helio is a fast and cost-effective option for usability testing. Helio makes it possible to test concepts, conversions, and surveys to gather insights. 

Features

Helio includes the following features:

• Test surveys: Select questions depending on type, e.g. preference, free response, numerical, card sort, click test.

• Custom audiences: Draw from a pool participants based on profession or industry.

• Realtime reporting and advanced filtering: Take the information you’ve received from testing and categorize it based on different features.

Plans and pricing

• Free: The free plan gets you one ten-question test, with ten participants.

• Business: Helio’s Business plan has three different subcategories that include Starter, Standard, and Plus, beginning at $539/month, which gives you a granular level of control on target demographics, unlimited tests, and unlimited projects.

• Enterprise: Starting at $1,999 per month, your organization gets custom control over visual branding, specialized customer lists, and further control in targeting audiences.

11. Typeform

Typeform offers several practical templates you can use for conducting user surveys. With smooth animations and clean layouts, Typeform’s templates look good and are simple to use. You can also customize the look of a template to fit your branding, with options to edit the fonts and color schemes.

Features

In Typeform’s library, you’ll find a variety of surveys you can use in the usability testing process, such as:

• System usability surveys

• Customer feedback

• User personas

• Branding questionnaires

• Product feedback

Plans and pricing

• Basic: $25 per month per user gets you unlimited typeforms, unlimited questions, and 100 responses.

• Plus: $50 per month gets you three users, 1,000 responses, and the ability to replace Typeform’s branding.

• Business: $83 per month gets you 10,000 responses, with conversion tracking and drop-off rates.

12. Userbrain

Userbrain is a cloud-based option for those who want to get video footage of people testing out their products. With simple onboarding, quality templates, and the capability to test any prototype or digital product that has a link, Userbrain lets you identify usability problems based on the responses and behavior of real users. 

Features 

• Rapid testing: Run tests and get same-day results.

• Prototype compatibility: Easy integration to test prototypes built with Adobe XD, Sketch, Framer, Figma, and Axure.

• User testing panel: Tap into a pool of testers that match your criteria.

Plans and pricing

Along with a $39/month pay-as-you-go option, Userbrain’s pricing plans include:

• Starter: $99 per month gets you five collaborators, access to three testers, and ten sessions you can run with your own testers.

• Pro: $299 per month gets you 20 collaborators, ten testers, and 30 sessions you can run with your own testers.

• Agency: $799 per month gets you 50 collaborators, 30 testers, and 90 sessions you can run with your own testers.

13. Maze

With an intuitive interface, Maze makes it easy to set tasks, run unmoderated tests, and gather feedback. Maze gives you qualitative and quantitative data that you can use to evaluate prototypes and validate concepts. 

One of Maze’s key features is its collaborative functionality. It’s simple to share results, with reports accessible to teammates through a single link you can post on Slack, via email, or other messaging platforms.

Features

Maze gives you several remote usability testing tools, including:

• Remote usability testing: Run prototype tests, five second tests, surveys, and card sorts to gather metrics to identify problem areas.

• Video recordings: Run remote tests and get videos that visualize participants’ movements and behaviors. 

• Participant management: Send targeted product research campaigns to your own tailored participant database.

Plans and pricing

• Free: Get 300 viewable responses per year on a single project.

• Professional: $75 per month gets you ten active projects, 1,800 responses a year, and professional quality templates.

• Organization: With unlimited responses and unlimited projects, this option is for large companies, with Maze offering tailored pricing.

14. Great Question

Great Question offers a self-contained system for usability testing, keeping things down to a few select mobile usability testing tools. From putting together a panel to running unmoderated testing, Good Question makes it possible to gather qualitative insights quickly.

Features

With a centralized space for running usability testing, Great Question includes:

• Personalized branding: Set up landing pages and emails with your organization’s branding to better connect with users and boost response rates.

• Panel management: Filter and categorize groups of testing participants to identify appropriate usability test participants. 

• Keep track of testing results: With all the information collected from testing kept in one place, it’s easy to analyze and share results with teammates.

Plans and pricing

• Starter: $10 per month gets you 20 panelists, one active study, and transcriptions for up to five hours of Zoom recordings.

• Professional: $129 per month gets you an audience of 1,000 panelists and the option to run five studies.

• Business: $599 per month gets you access to 5,000 panelists, 10 active studies, and Google Hangouts integration.

• Enterprise: With 10,000 panelists, the potential to run 100 studies, and API access, Great Question offers customized pricing at the Enterprise level. 

15. Ballpark

Whether you want to get feedback through surveys, test users on specific tasks, find out if your copy and messaging are getting across, or gather other insights from test participants, Ballpark gives you all the essentials you require from a usability testing platform. 

Features

• Surveys: With ready-made templates and specialized lines of questions, Ballpark offers a speedy way to put together surveys.

• Figma integration: Ballpark offers direct integration with Figma, making it possible to generate heatmaps and track user actions like clicks directly from Figma prototypes.

• Video guides: Give testing participants instructions or additional information as they move through a test with pre-recorded videos. 

Plans and pricing

• Free: Get access to one project.

• Starter: $100 per month gets you five projects, the ability to archive, and password protection.

• Business: $184 per month gets you 10 active tests, the ability to export CSV files, and set user roles and permissions.

• Enterprise: Ballpark’s Enterprise level doesn’t limit active projects, lets you make as many recruitments as you’d like, as well as assigns you an account manager. Pricing is determined by Ballpark. 

Use Lyssna for a better understanding of your users

Usability testing illuminates what's happening as a user moves through a design, showing you what’s working, as well as revealing any flaws that can tarnish the user experience. In Lyssna, you can conduct both qualitative and quantitative research to help you make better decisions on what needs to be changed based on facts rather than guesswork. 

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Need reliable feedback fast? Recruit participants who match your exact demographics with Lyssna. Start improving your product with data-driven usability tests in just a few clicks!

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Jeff Cardello is a freelance writer who loves all things tech and design. Outside of being a word nerd, he enjoys playing bass guitar, riding his bike long distances, and recently started learning about data science and how to code with Python.