As e-commerce continues to grow, marketing teams face constant pressure to improve the digital user experience and maximize checkout conversions. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and experimentation tools have become indispensable in optimizing user journeys, reducing friction at checkout, and driving more revenue. These platforms allow teams to identify bottlenecks, test hypotheses, and implement data-driven changes with confidence.
If you’re looking to increase your checkout conversion rate, CRO and experimentation tools are essential for understanding user behavior and executing informed changes. Among the top tools are Hotjar, Optimizely, and VWO, alongside emerging and alternative platforms. This article explores the top 10 options that marketing teams trust to refine the customer journey and streamline the checkout process. Read on to discover which tool is best suited for your optimization goals.
Optimizely remains a leading platform in the CRO and experimentation space. Known for its robust A/B testing capabilities, Optimizely allows marketers and product teams to test and personalize digital experiences at scale.
Main features:
Optimizely’s enterprise-level features and scalability make it ideal for large organizations with dedicated optimization teams.
VWO is another industry staple trusted by marketing teams worldwide. It’s well known for its user-friendly interface and end-to-end experimentation workflows, from hypothesis creation to reporting.
Main features:
VWO is particularly recommended for mid-sized businesses looking for a comprehensive CRO toolkit that’s straightforward to implement.
Hotjar excels in qualitative analytics, helping teams understand the ‘why’ behind user actions. It’s not strictly an A/B testing platform, but its insights are invaluable for informing tests and making UX improvements.
Main features:
By showing what users do and feel, Hotjar supports more empathetic design decisions that reduce cart abandonment and improve checkout UX.
Convert is an alternative to Optimizely for teams that value privacy compliance and deep experimentation capabilities without the heavy price tag.
Main features:
Convert is a good fit for privacy-first businesses and agencies that test extensively across multiple properties.
Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics and behavior tracking tool gaining popularity among marketers who need heatmaps and session recordings without breaking the budget.
Main features:
Clarity is a great addition to your CRO toolkit if you want to monitor subtle checkout UX issues without heavy initial investment.
With Google Optimize officially discontinued, many teams have transitioned to AB Tasty, an experimentation and personalization platform designed for marketers and developers alike.
Main features:
AB Tasty balances ease-of-use with deep feature sets, especially helpful for marketing teams managing multi-channel campaigns and checkout flows.
FullStory shines in combining digital experience intelligence with powerful session analytics. It enables marketing teams to surface drop-offs and friction points that sabotage conversion funnels.
Main features:
If your checkout page is losing conversions but you’re unsure why, FullStory offers fast clarity with actionable data.
Crazy Egg has long been a favorite among marketers for its intuitive interface and clear visualizations of user interaction.
Main features:
Crazy Egg helps you quickly assess what’s working—or not—on checkout pages, making it a useful tool for marketers without deep technical knowledge.
Zoho PageSense is Zoho’s conversion optimization platform, designed to enhance the digital experience using complete CRO capabilities at a competitive price point.
Main features:
For teams already using the Zoho suite, PageSense is the natural choice to create and manage checkout tests with ease.
Unbounce is best known for landing pages, but its Smart Traffic feature brings automated CRO to those pages—especially important for e-commerce campaigns.
Main features:
If your checkout flow begins at a campaign landing page, Unbounce’s optimization engine can help boost conversions from the moment a user arrives.
There is no one-size-fits-all CRO solution. Your choice depends on several key factors:
Checkout conversion is often a delicate balance of user psychology, interface design, speed, and trust. With the right CRO and experimentation tools, marketing teams can uncover problems, test new ideas, and iterate quickly.
Whether you’re a growth team at a lean startup or a marketing leader at an enterprise company, investing in CRO platforms pays dividends by turning more visitors into customers, consistently and confidently.