Amplitude vs Optimizely (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Amplitude grades higher than Optimizely: 3.0 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Amplitude grades higher on value for money, the free plan and platforms. They get the same grade on features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Amplitude
Product analytics with session replay, experiments and in-app guides
Which one is for you
Pick Amplitude if
- Fits if you're a startup that stays under 2M events a month and pays nothing
- Works for teams of any size, since every plan has unlimited seats
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you just want visitor counts for a blog, which a simple page counter does with less setup
- Not for you if you want a published price for experiment results and SSO, which start on Growth
- Tight if you stay free and build lots of reports, with only 10 saved charts, 1 live experiment and 1 year of data
- Watch out: Plus has no price list in text, only a chart; it's $6,912 a year at 10M events
- Watch out: session replays are kept for 1 month on every plan, and longer is a Growth or Enterprise add-on
Pick Optimizely if
- Fits if you run many tests a month and have a team to run them
- Works for a large company that wants experiments, flags and content in one vendor
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a price to look at, as nothing is published
- Not for you if you need a free plan or trial, because neither is listed
- Skip it if you are a small site that just wants simple page tests, as this is a platform
- Watch out: it's several products, so what a quote includes varies by which you choose
How we grade them
| 3.0GPAAmplitudeVery good | 1.8GPAOptimizelyWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AA site with 10,000 visitors a month fits in the free plan's 2M events, so the figure here is $0, with unlimited seats and 10,000 replays included. Past 2M you move to Plus, $900 a year for up to 3M events. | CNo prices are published; every plan is quoted after you describe your needs, so there's nothing to compare. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree with no time limit and no card: 2M events, unlimited seats and 10,000 replays a month. The caps: only 10 saved charts, 1 experiment and 1 guide or survey live at once, and 1 year of data. | FNo free plan and no free trial on the plans page. |
| Features | BFunnels, retention, cohorts, replays, feature flags, web A/B tests, in-app guides and surveys, all from one vendor. That covers the whole product analytics job. Experiment results and SSO need Growth, which is sold through sales. | BWeb experimentation, feature experimentation, bandits and AI help, plus a CMS and an agent platform. What's in your quote depends on which products you pick. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. Autocapture gets data flowing, but useful funnels and cohorts mean planning your events and learning how the charts work. AI agents on every plan take questions in plain words. | CNo store rating on record. A platform this broad comes with setup and a learning curve. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app, which keeps it off an A. It connects to Segment, Braze, HubSpot, Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Google Ads and Slack, and an MCP server lets Claude and Cursor query your data. | CWeb only, with no integrations listed in the listing. |
| Best for | product analytics free up to 2M events a month | enterprise A/B testing and experiments |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Amplitude and Optimizely. How we grade
Where they differ
- Amplitude also covers surveys, web analytics and session replay.
- Optimizely also covers AI agents and reports.
At a glance
| Amplitude | Optimizely | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $900 per year for up to 3M events a month (Plus; the first 2M are free) | Not published |
| Free plan | Free plan with no time limit: 2M events a month, unlimited seats, 10,000 session replays a month, 1 live experiment, 1 guide or survey, 10 saved charts and 1 year of data. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Amplitude, Inc. | Optimizely |
| Price read from | amplitude.com | Not confirmed |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Amplitude
- Plus has no price list in text: it is free to 2M events a month, then billed by volume, and the pricing page's chart is the only published figure.
- Experiment results, A/B/n testing for feature flags and SSO start on Growth, which is priced through sales.
- Session replays are kept for 1 month on every plan; longer retention is an add-on for Growth and Enterprise.
- Free keeps 1 year of data and 10 saved charts; Plus keeps 2 years.
Optimizely
- No prices are published: every plan is individually packaged and quoted after the buyer describes their needs.
- Optimizely is a multi-product platform, so what a quote includes depends on which products are chosen.
- No free plan or free trial is listed on the plans page.
Key features
Amplitude
- Event-based product analytics
- Funnels, retention, user paths and cohorts built from tracked events, with autocapture and a data assistant to tidy the event list.
- Session replay and heatmaps
- Replays of web and mobile sessions with data masking on every plan (10,000 a month on Free and Plus). Heatmaps start on Plus.
- Feature flags and experiments
- Unlimited feature flags on all plans and a visual editor for web A/B tests. Free and Plus run one experiment at a time without results views.
- In-app guides and surveys
- Tours, prompts and surveys shown inside your product and targeted by cohort. Free and Plus allow one live at a time.
- AI agents and MCP
- AI agents analyze the data on every plan, and an MCP server lets Claude, Cursor and similar tools query your Amplitude data.
- Audience syncs
- Sends cohorts to ad, email and messaging tools. One-time syncs are on every plan; scheduled syncs start on Growth.
Optimizely
- Web experimentation
- A/B and multivariate tests on the front end of a site, which the vendor says run flicker-free.
- Feature experimentation and management
- Experiments and feature releases controlled from code, aimed at engineering teams.
- Bandits and AI assistance
- Multi-armed bandits and AI help with test ideas, test plans and reading results.
- Agentic CMS
- A content management system sold alongside the experimentation tools.
- Agent platform
- AI agents that automate marketing tasks and workflows.
Plans
Amplitude
Free$0
2M events a month, unlimited seats, 10,000 session replays, product analytics, AI agents and MCP. No credit card needed.
Plus$900
per year for up to 3M events a month
First 2M events free, then billed by volume up to 70M. Adds heatmaps, custom events, 20 cohorts, 2-year data. $6,912 a year at 10M events.
GrowthCustom
Sold through sales, priced by events: 20,000 replays a month, A/B test results, SSO and project permissions, 2-day support SLA.
EnterpriseCustom
Sold through sales: 50,000 replays a month, data access controls, role-based access, SCIM, account manager and 1-day SLA.
Optimizely
Pricing could not be confirmed. See optimizely.com.
Ways to pay less
Amplitude
- Startups
One free year of Growth for startups
Startups with under $10M in funding and fewer than 20 employees can apply for a free year of the Growth plan. A separate scholarship gives qualifying Black founders free Growth access.
Optimizely
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Amplitude or Optimizely?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Amplitude starts at $900 per year for up to 3M events a month (Plus; the first 2M are free), and Optimizely has no price we could confirm.
Which has a free plan, Amplitude or Optimizely?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Amplitude has a free plan. Optimizely does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.