For Shopify brands, the best A/B testing setup is usually two tools: Shoplift for theme and template tests, and Intelligems for price, shipping and offer tests. Brands on other platforms, or with several sites, are better served by cross-platform tools such as Convert or VWO. Optimizely suits enterprise programs, and Nelio covers WordPress.
The A/B testing tools compared
We run testing programs on several of these tools every week, so this comparison draws on what each does in practice as well as what its pricing page says. Prices below are the published figures at the time of writing; check the vendor before you buy.
| Tool | Best for | Platforms | Published pricing | Main limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shoplift | Theme, template and URL tests | Shopify | $74 to $699 a month by store visitors | No checkout or post-purchase tests |
| Intelligems | Price, shipping, offer, checkout tests | Shopify | From $69 a month by order volume; unlimited plan $1,279 a month | Shipping tests need Advanced or Plus; checkout needs Plus |
| Convert | Cross-platform testing with developer control | Any website | $299 to $420 a month on annual billing | Needs more setup than Shopify apps |
| VWO | Testing plus behavior analytics | Any website | Plans listed without prices; demo on request | Pricing not published |
| Optimizely | Enterprise experimentation programs | Any website and apps | Quoted through sales | Cost and complexity for smaller brands |
| Nelio A/B Testing | Testing inside WordPress | WordPress | Plans by monthly views (5,000 to 200,000) | WordPress only |
| AB Tasty | Testing and personalization for larger teams | Any website | Sold with VWO under Wingify; no published prices | Pricing not published |
| Kameleoon | Web and feature experimentation | Any website and apps | Starter from $495 a month (50,000 visitors); Enterprise custom | Server-side testing listed on Enterprise |
| Unbounce | Testing pages built in Unbounce | Unbounce pages | A/B testing from the Experiment plan, 149amonth(112 billed annually) | Only tests pages hosted on Unbounce |
Shopify-native testing tools
On Shopify, two tools cover most of a testing roadmap between them. They split the work by test type rather than by quality.
Shoplift: the fastest way to test a Shopify theme
Shoplift tests Shopify themes, templates, URLs and navigation without code, which makes it the quickest way to get a product page or collection test live. Its pricing runs from $99 a month on monthly billing, or $74 a month billed annually, for the Core plan, to $299 a month for Advanced and $699 a month for the managed Pro plan, based on total monthly store visitors. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial.
Advanced adds audience segmentation, GA4 integration and access to price testing. Shoplift says its variants render as the page loads, so shoppers do not see the original flash first, and winning variants go straight into your theme. What Shoplift does not do is test shipping thresholds, checkout or post-purchase offers, so it rarely covers a full Shopify roadmap on its own. Our Shoplift review goes deeper into where it stops.
Intelligems: price, shipping and offer tests on Shopify
Intelligems is built for the tests that move profit on Shopify: prices, shipping rates, offers, content, checkout and post-purchase. Its pricing is per store by monthly order volume, with no per-visitor charges. Build-your-own plans start at $69 a month at the lowest order tier, and the unlimited plan with every module is $1,279 a month with a three-month minimum. New stores get a 14-day trial covering every module except price testing.
Two plan limits shape the roadmap: shipping rate tests need Shopify Advanced or Plus, and checkout tests need Shopify Plus. For Willie’s Remedy Seed Co., checkout tests run in Intelligems helped lift conversion rate 20% in three months.
Cross-platform and enterprise testing tools
If you run a headless store, several storefronts or a site outside Shopify, you need a tool that works on any website. These are the main options.
Convert: cross-platform testing with developer control
Convert runs on any website, which suits brands with a headless store, a WordPress content site, or several storefronts. Its Growth plan is $399 a month on monthly billing or $299 a month billed annually, for 100,000 tested users a month; Pro is $599 a month monthly or $420 a month annually. Enterprise pricing is on request.
Convert gives developers more control than Shopify-native apps, at the cost of more setup. It is a strong choice when your team can write test code and wants one tool across every site.
VWO and Optimizely: when you need a platform
VWO combines testing with behavior analytics such as heatmaps and session recordings, which helps teams that want research and testing in one place. VWO and AB Tasty have since merged, and the combined Wingify pricing page lists plans without prices, each with a demo request, so budget for a sales conversation.
Optimizely is built for enterprise experimentation across websites and apps, with pricing handled through sales and no self-serve signup. It is powerful and rarely the right first tool for a growing DTC brand. Our VWO vs Optimizely comparison covers the trade-offs in detail.
AB Tasty and Kameleoon: enterprise alternatives
AB Tasty offers testing and personalization for larger teams and is now sold alongside VWO under Wingify, again without published prices. Kameleoon is one of the few enterprise tools that publishes a starting price: its Starter plan starts from $495 a month for up to 10 experiments and 50,000 visitors a month, with a 30-day free trial, while Enterprise is priced on request and is where server-side testing sits. Both suit brands with a dedicated experimentation team more than a growing DTC store.
Testing inside WordPress or a landing page builder
Some teams do not need a separate testing platform at all, because the tool they already use to build pages can run the test. Two cases come up often, and both save the cost and setup time of a separate platform.
Nelio A/B Testing for WordPress
For brands whose site or content hub runs on WordPress, Nelio tests pages, posts, headlines, themes and menus from inside the WordPress admin. Its plans are set by monthly tested views: Basic for one site and 5,000 views, Professional for five sites and 50,000 views, and Enterprise for 200,000 views and up. It is the simplest route for WordPress lead-generation sites, where the goal is a form fill or a click rather than a store order.
Unbounce for landing pages
If your paid traffic lands on pages built in Unbounce, its own testing is the simplest option. Unlimited A/B testing starts on the Experiment plan at $149 a month, or $112 billed annually, and the $249 Optimize plan adds AI traffic routing. It only tests pages hosted on Unbounce, so it cannot test your store’s product pages or checkout.
Client-side, server-side and theme-native testing
How a tool changes the page matters as much as its feature list. Client-side tools load the original page and then change it in the browser with JavaScript. They are quick to set up and work on almost any site, but a heavy or badly installed script slows every page and can cause flicker, where the visitor briefly sees the original before the variant appears.
Server-side testing decides which version to show before the page is sent, so there is nothing to flicker, but it needs developers and access to your code. It is how product teams test pricing logic, search and new features. Enterprise platforms such as Optimizely and Kameleoon offer it; most DTC marketing teams never need it.
On Shopify, theme-native tools sit between the two. They build variants from Shopify’s own themes and templates, so a winning test becomes a theme change rather than a script that has to stay installed. Whichever approach you choose, measure mobile page speed before and after installing a testing tool, and remove the scripts of tools you no longer use, since old testing scripts often keep loading long after the last test ends.
How to choose the right tool
Four questions settle most decisions:
- Which platform are you on? Shopify brands get more from Shoplift and Intelligems than from general tools. WordPress sites suit Nelio. Mixed or headless stacks suit Convert or VWO.
- What do you want to test? Layout tests and price or shipping tests need different tools on Shopify.
- Who builds the tests? No-code tools suit marketing teams; Convert and Optimizely reward developers.
- How much traffic do you have? Visitor-priced tools get expensive at scale; order-priced tools do not.
Size your tests before you buy anything. At a 2% conversion rate, detecting a 20% lift at 95% confidence takes about 21,100 visitors per version. Check your own numbers in our free A/B test calculator.
Then trial before you commit. Use the free trial or demo period to run an A/A test, where both versions are identical, for a week. If the tool reports a winner between two identical pages, or the traffic split drifts far from 50/50, fix the setup before running a real test. The calculator checks that split for you.
Not sure which tool fits your stack? Our A/B testing team sets up and runs programs on Shoplift, Intelligems, VWO, Convert and Nelio.
A tool does not fix a weak testing process
Every tool on this list can produce a false winner. Most ideas do not work: Kohavi and Thomke reported that only about a third of ideas tested at Microsoft improved the metric they were designed to improve. Stopping a test the first time it looks significant makes it worse, a problem Evan Miller explains in How Not To Run an A/B Test.
What separates programs that win is the process around the tool: research-led ideas, prioritization with a method such as PIE scoring, a sample size set before launch, QA on real devices, and losing tests reported as carefully as winners. That is how our A/B testing services run, on whichever of these tools fits your stack.
Two habits catch most errors. Write the hypothesis, primary metric and stopping rule before launch, and do not change them mid-test. And reconcile the tool’s order count with your platform’s orders every week, because a tool that misses express checkout or subscription orders will mislead you however good its statistics are.
What we run, and what it produced
We choose the tool last. The roadmap comes first: what research says is costing the most revenue, and which of those problems your traffic can test. Only then do we pick the tool that can run those specific tests, which is why most Shopify stores we work with end up on two specialist tools rather than one platform.
On Shopify we run Intelligems and Shoplift, and elsewhere VWO, Convert or Nelio, chosen by stack rather than preference. For Westlake Serial Company, testing lifted conversion 21% and average order value 25%, and Combat Iron Apparel saw conversion rise 35% in six months. See which tests to run first in our post on Shopify conversion rate optimization, and what a testing program should cost in our guide to CRO pricing. For Shopify-specific programs, see our Shopify CRO services.
FAQs
1. What is the best A/B testing tool for Shopify?
Most Shopify brands are best served by Shoplift for theme and template tests plus Intelligems for price, shipping and offer tests. Checkout tests in Intelligems need Shopify Plus.
2. Is there a free A/B testing tool?
Several tools offer free trials, including Shoplift at 14 days and Kameleoon at 30 days. Google Optimize, once the common free option, was discontinued in September 2023. Check each vendor for current free tiers.
3. How much do A/B testing tools cost?
Published plans range from about $69 to $74 a month for entry Shopify tools to several hundred dollars a month for cross-platform tools, with enterprise platforms quoted on request.
4. Do I need an A/B testing tool or an agency?
A tool runs tests; an agency or in-house team decides what to test, builds it and reads it honestly. With enough traffic, you need both.
5. What is the difference between A/B testing and multivariate testing?
An A/B test compares two or more complete versions of a page. A multivariate test changes several elements at once and measures every combination, which needs far more traffic. Most DTC brands get more from well-planned A/B tests.
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