Maze vs. Smartlook

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Maze
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Maze is a rapid user testing platform from Maze.design in Paris, designed to give users actionable user insights, in a matter of hours. The vendor states that with it, users can test remotely, autonomously, and collaboratively.
$75
per month 3+ seats
Smartlook
Score 8.2 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Smartlook is an analytics solution tool for websites, iOS/Android apps, and various app frameworks, that answers the "whys" behind users' actions. It helps users understand precisely how customers interact with website and app — watch recordings, create heatmaps, use automatic tracked events, and build conversion funnels. Data is seen on one central dashboard, which enables sharing and collaborating with colleagues. This is to support clear, data-driven decision-making for product managers,…
$55
per month 5000 sessions
Pricing
MazeSmartlook
Editions & Modules
Professional
$75
per month 3+ seats
Organization
custom pricing
Pro
$55
per month 5000 sessions
Free
Free forever
per month 3000 sessions
Enterprise
Custom pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MazeSmartlook
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsAll Smartlook packages support both web and mobile app platforms.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MazeSmartlook
Considered Both Products
Maze
Chose Maze
We left sprig to use maze because sprig had unreliable Figma questions and integrations. We chose maze as it was partnered with Dovetail and Askable, that's how we heard about them. We're not particularly loyal or wedded to maze.
Chose Maze
We ran a proof of concept exercise between Maze User Testing and Optimal Workshop. We found both products to be as good as each other in the elements of the products that both offered. Optimal Workshop did offer a lot more than what was required for the specific project for …
Chose Maze
A lookback is an alternative option if you think Maze User Testing is quite expensive for you, but look back has a different approach to Maze User Testing. Lookback focuses on qualitative usability testing instead of quantitative UserTesting. And also, Maze User Testing has a …
Chose Maze
Maze User Testing is brilliant to test with a large volume of people and if you’re not after particular qualitative insights, like UserTesting would offer. The card sorting feature is basic and not as mature as Optimal Workshop would offer but it does the job and can be used in …
Chose Maze
When looking for tools that could help us understand our customers better, we needed something that would be easy to use, had the functionality and flexibility of running multiple types of tests and exercises, and allowed our team to be able to do these tests quickly. Only Maze …
Chose Maze
Figma helps to design and prototype out the concept but it does not allow to facilitate feedback gathering on a specific UI or even UX decision. That's where Maze comes into the picture with it's vaious features that helps to get the right insight to build a better product in a …
Chose Maze
UserTesting
  • Expensive
  • Not as modern a UX as Maze for contributors, stakeholders, and testers
Smartlook
Chose Smartlook
I like it more in different aspects such as pricing, capabilities, UI, etc. When it comes to the pricing, I have been using it for many years, and always was easy to use and to see what was happening with conversions. It's the most undervaluable tool these days. When I was …
Chose Smartlook
FullStory is more complex, detailed, better-looking and way more expensive. Therefore I think it makes sense to start with Smartlook at least. FullStory also has yearly plans which is really annoying. Hotjar doesn't have browser error logging which is a huge disadvantage for …
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook is the better overall value of all the solutions we've tried. Hotjar was overpriced, Lucky Orange seems more like an experimental project than a full-fledged product and Mouselflow seems to have some problems dealing with some types of browsers that we did not …
Chose Smartlook
For me personally, I use Smartlook more for the debugging side of things, so I wish it had more debugging/error reporting features.
Chose Smartlook
Like I mentioned, Smartlook is younger than FullStory and it seems like they're trying to improve. The dashboards are lacking. I wish I had more control over what I see there instead of the standard. We use the API to determine customer name and company and I'd like to see some …
Chose Smartlook
We use both intensively in our agency. Google Analytics is our first go-to analytics suite, but we often combine it with Smartlook to prove or disprove our hypotheses. Both our web design and marketing projects benefit greatly from this synergy. Google Analytics offers better …
Chose Smartlook
For me, Smartlook gathers everything a product designer or even a product manager needs. We have everything gathered in a single platform, and it's very powerful we can analyze everything we need. It's the only product where recordings are as well done. The UX/UI of the …
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook has all the features of the other products I have tried but was both simpler to use and cheaper.
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook seems smoother than Hotjar and it also offers more customizable options such as events and funnels.
Chose Smartlook
Compared to Hotjar, the first, and most important criteria for us is the performance impact on our customers. We've always had problems with Hotjar's rather resource-intensive script, which causes a noticeable degradation even on medium to high-performance client devices. In …
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook is better in tracking events, building advanced funnels, and filtering out the sessions than Hotjar. It's definitely cheaper and more user-friendly than Fullstory.
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook is far more cost-effective and simple to use for agencies with multiple clients than Hotjar, which targets the user companies more directly.
Chose Smartlook
So much simpler to the user and way more effective. The pricing for our requirement was also much better.
Chose Smartlook
The thing about Hotjar is they became too big too fast. They forgot what their product was all about and then started to charge an exorbitant amount for what is a glorified heat map. Smartlook has taken into account new features but always kept the essence of what they're …
Chose Smartlook
At my old company, we debated using FullStory, but I believe Smartlook was the better option financially.
Chose Smartlook
100% better. Microsoft had no support at all. They directed you to a forum where other users "could" assist, but there was no assistance.
Chose Smartlook
In terms of analytics, we are still using other products, which are more suited to our needs and more complex. In terms of user behavior and session recording, this is by far the best tool there is!
Best Alternatives
MazeSmartlook
Small Businesses
Smartlook
Smartlook
Score 8.2 out of 10
Lucky Orange
Lucky Orange
Score 3.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Optimal
Optimal
Score 9.0 out of 10
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Optimal
Optimal
Score 9.0 out of 10
Contentsquare
Contentsquare
Score 7.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
MazeSmartlook
Likelihood to Recommend
6.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
MazeSmartlook
Likelihood to Recommend
Suited for: - I think that this software is a must-have for any experience or product designer that needs validation from any audience - Designers that rapidly prototype with Figma - Designers looking to establish an inexpensive way to deliver on user testing Less appropriate for: - If you are looking for a survey replacement this is probably not for you even though it does that quite well, simply due to the cost. Google Forms would be a more fiscal choice. - Marketing visual designers who are adept at visual builder tools (WebFlow, Divi, Elementor, etc) with A/B testing ability would probably find other products more valuable.
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Smartlook is best for screen recordings. Especially when you are running MVPs. However, its pricing is very high. If your daily visitors are too much then either you will have to lose many of your recordings or you will have to pay too much money.
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Pros
  • It helps to gather quick and helpful insight
  • It helps greatly to validate design and prototypes
  • Intuitive tool and easy to work with
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  • Funnels are both easy to configure yet comprehensive enough to detect complicated customer journeys.
  • Real-time recording provides exceptional insights to our design & engineering teams.
  • Session recording is surprisingly lightweight and seems to cause no substantial performance degradation for our customers.
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Cons
  • Too easy to delete a draft Maze User Testing - I lost all my progress yesterday and had to redo it
  • Some testers have mentioned the Maze User Testing interface was hard to use - didn't get specifics on that
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  • Events -- but I think this is something that we could improve ourselves in our system.
  • Create some suggestions for funnels and heatmaps.
  • Give general insights for a certain period of time, e.g. from Oct. 7th to 12th, 75 users left the checkout step and 60% of them left due to a payment issue. IDK just bringing some ideas!
  • Send an e-mail with main insights.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
As my ratings show, I have been absolutely delighted with Smartlook in terms of usability, cost, support, and its benefit to our organization. I have given it such high ratings because I think it has really benefitted our organization and I think it could do the same for other companies too.
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Usability
No answers on this topic
Smartlook is very intuitive and simple for an average programmer (I don't know if it will be as simple for a normal user). We have never had to resort to looking for information on the web or ask for help for something we didn't understand or didn't work as expected.
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Support Rating
Any issues that presented themselves were dealt with in a quick and efficient manner and fully rectified by the knowledgeable team over at Maze.
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I am always very happy when a company offers the option to use online chat, as I do not like to call customer support and writing an email is just too slow and cumbersome. I did not even expect a reply right away, yet it took the customer support team less than a minute to respond to my problem.
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Alternatives Considered
When looking for tools that could help us understand our customers better, we needed something that would be easy to use, had the functionality and flexibility of running multiple types of tests and exercises, and allowed our team to be able to do these tests quickly. Only Maze could really tick all the above boxes.
Read full review
Like I mentioned, Smartlook is younger than FullStory and it seems like they're trying to improve. The dashboards are lacking. I wish I had more control over what I see there instead of the standard. We use the API to determine customer name and company and I'd like to see some custom dashboards.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • You are able to validate your project or design with a maze User Testing. Maze User Testing is an all-in-one usability tool platform.
  • You are able to create a multi-scenario for a free option with limited features.
  • Pricing is quite expensive. if they have an option for less than $99/month. A freelancer or small company can consider using it.
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  • We have increased the conversion rate from the beginning till now with 120%.
  • We redesigned our landing pages and decreased the bounce rate by 41%.
  • We rethinked and redesigned our menu structure and internal site linking to increase the time users spent on our site based on the data we got from Smartlook analysis.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Maze Screenshots

Screenshot of Maze

Smartlook Screenshots

Screenshot of HeatmapsScreenshot of RecordingsScreenshot of DashboardsScreenshot of EventsScreenshot of FunnelsScreenshot of Analytics for websites & mobile apps