What’s the most important element in successful conversion optimization?

Research.

Yes, it’s not sexy. It’s not apparent, not even visible in the end product.

But without it the end product is just a result of a guessing game. If you guess right, good for you. In all other cases, you’re either leaving money on the table… or you’re broke.

To make the research process faster and more effective, here’s the list of 54 research tools.

These will help you uncover user insights and will make your life easier because you will no longer need this Russian roulette guessing game.

What you see below is just the list of tools. In the full article (link at the bottom) you’ll find the pros and cons for each. So if you’re interested in some of the tools, head over to the article and read more about them.

  1. Unbounce – landing page builder
  2. Google Analytics – step 0 of doing anything, really
  3. Woopra – another analytics suite, geared more towards individual customers, rather than just overall numbers, like Google Analytics
  4. Adobe Analytics – another analytics suite with multiple tools. I’ve only seen this when working with enterprise companies though, never small or mid-size companies.
  5. Kissmetrics – analytics tool great for visualizing funnels
  6. Mixpanel – similar to Kissmetrics but with more features. Retroactive funnel feature is particularly helpful. User retention funnels are great too.
  7. Clicky – simpler analytics tool, but free
  8. VWO – A/B testing tool. One of the two A/B testing tools that I use.
  9. Optimizely – here’s that second one.
  10. Formisimo – form analytics
  11. ClickTale – shows how users interact with your site
  12. HubSpot Website Grader – a quick and easy way to get a snapshot of a website’s overall performance
  13. Heap Analytics – for capturing and measuring user actions in web and iOS apps
  14. Piwik – open source analytics tool
  15. Inspectlet – tool for user behavior analysis. Good but quite expensive.
  16. Omniconvert – multi-purpose optimization tool
  17. Testlodge – test management tool
  18. AB Tasty – multi-purpose optimization tool
  19. Qualaroo – on-site survey tool. I’ve used to use it extensively, until I switched to HotJar (at #24 below)
  20. Survey.io – survey software
  21. SurveyMonkey – survey software
  22. Olark – live chat tool
  23. Crazyegg – heat maps, click maps, scroll maps. Same as for Qualaroo, I’ve used to use it a lot before switching to HotJar
  24. HotJar – multi-purpose optimization tool. Heat maps, click maps, scroll maps, funnels, surveys, session recordings. It replaced a lot of tools for me and I don’t remember when was the last time when I didn’t use it when working with a client.
  25. SessionCam – session recording and playback
  26. CallRail – tracking lead sources
  27. UsabilityHub’s Tools – multi-purpose optimization tool
  28. Silverback 3 – usability testing
  29. Browserling – web based browser testing
  30. Qualtrics – survey tool, popular with enterprises
  31. ScreenFly – view your website on a variety of device screens and resolutions
  32. Typeform – survey tool. For a couple years now I’ve switched 100% to Typeform. It’s the most user-friendly platform and it looks and works great on mobile too. When sending out a survey by email, users usually open the email on their mobile so it’s essential for a survey to work great on your phone.
  33. BrowserStack – web-based browser testing tool
  34. Ethnio – tool for recruiting people for user testing.
  35. Helio – collecting feedback on mockups
  36. Kampyle – on-page polling tools
  37. Intercom – messaging platform with multiple tools. Good, rather expensive though.
  38. Lucky Orange – multi-purpose conversion optimization platform
  39. Instapage – page editor, similar to Unbounce.
  40. Chatlio – talk to your customers using your existing Slack service
  41. UserTesting – usability testing platform. I used to use it a lot but recently they are moving more towards enterprise clients
  42. TryMyUI – usability testing tool
  43. Zendesk Chat – customer service platform
  44. 15Five – staff report tool
  45. WebEngage – a tool with a focus on user retention
  46. UserZoom – UX testing platform
  47. Loop11 – usability testing software
  48. Validately – user research solution
  49. Effective Experiments – project management and workflow platform, built specifically for conversion optimizers
  50. MaxyMizely – A/B testing solution
  51. Iridion – conversion optimization worfklow tool
  52. Sumo – (formerly SumoMe). Tools for capturing more email subscribers. Used to be a good entry-level solution but they got pricey recently
  53. Heatmap.me – heatmap tool
  54. Excel (or Google Sheets) – versatile tool, good at calculating stuff, limited only by your imagination and programming ability. Not great at storing graphics though. Needs more work to be a one-stop-shop conversion optimization tool 🙂

Now you have more tools than you could possibly wish for, or have time to test them all. Pick and choose what you like, try out a few and go from there.

It’s more important to use them, and to do research, than which ones you use in particular.

54 CRO Research Tools With Insight To Win More Conversions

PS. Google Analytics, HotJar, Optimizely – if I had to choose only three tools from the list above, this would be my choice.