Optimizely vs commercetools

Last Updated:

Our analysts compared Optimizely vs commercetools based on data from our 400+ point analysis of eCommerce Platforms, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Optimizely is a comprehensive digital experience platform (DXP) that helps create, deliver, optimize and personalize customer journeys and shopping experiences. It offers a robust suite of experimentation tools, including A/B and multivariate testing, enabling you to compare multiple variations of a webpage or feature simultaneously.

This granular experimentation provides deeper insights into customer behavior and preferences. Additionally, the platform’s personalization tools enable you to deliver tailored experiences to individual customers based on their actions, preferences and demographics.

The platform integrates content management, distribution and marketing functionalities, allowing you to manage your brand’s entire digital presence from a single platform. This unified approach streamlines workflows and improves efficiency.

Additionally, analytics and reporting tools provide actionable insights into customer interactions and marketing campaigns. This helps businesses identify opportunities for improvement and measure the impact of their experiments.

read more...
commercetools is an omnichannel commerce platform designed for mid and large-sized businesses to sell products globally and personalize customer experiences (CX). It follows the MACH principle (Microservice-based, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless), allowing businesses to design decoupled frontends connected to the backend via flexible APIs.

Core components include a headless API, multi-branding, catalog management, shopping cart and distributed order management. It supports both B2B and B2C environments and offers machine learning to deliver personalized CX. The vendor also provides developer services to integrate with third-party apps.
read more...
$36,000 Annually
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
$40,000 Annually, Quote-Based
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Most Popular Platform: According to our research, 90% of users recommend this product. Its user sentiment rating is higher than industry leaders like Shopify (88) and BigCommerce (86).
  • Robust Marketing Toolkit: Optimizely received top marks (100) from our analysts for its marketing and SEO optimization features. It supports content generation using generative AI, A/B testing, feature and web experimentation, and product information management. You can centralize content creation, storage, distribution and marketing using its native digital asset management module.
  • Efficient Payment and Checkout: Our analysts gave it a perfect 100 rating for its unique payment and checkout features. It supports partial payments, split tenders (accepting two or more payment types in a single transaction), zero-value orders and guest checkouts.
  • Easy Storefront Management: Another key differentiator is Optimizely’s storefront editing and management toolkit. It got a 100 analyst rating right alongside industry stalwarts like Shopify and BigCommerce. You can manage multiple storefronts, publish blogs, oversee shopping carts and test website features before they go live.
read more...
  • Tailor To Fit Needs: Build a single, robust platform tailored to suit business needs by bringing together loosely coupled, independently deployable microservices and apps. 
  • Lower Costs via Economies of Scale: Distribute platform updates and maintenance costs to every user through the multi-tenant architecture. 
  • Maintain Flexibility: Independently customize and scale specific modules using the microservice-based, modular infrastructure. 
  • Maximize Uptime: Ensure global coverage, minimum latency and optimized performance with a multi-cloud setup that includes GCP, AWS and Microsoft Azure. Offers CDNs and server locations across America, Europe and APAC. 
  • Deliver Branded Experiences: Curate differentiated customer experiences across multiple channels. Supports storefront designing for personal websites, social networks, AR/VR devices, IoT, mobile devices and more. 
  • Enhance Customer Experiences: Offer personalized recommendations, multiple payments and fulfillment options, shipment tracking information, and quick return and refund processes. Integrate with external chatbots and concierge services. 
  • Centralize Management: Unify multiple brands in one flagship online store, integrate sales channels into a single omnichannel strategy and manage every aspect from a centralized dashboard. 
  • Ensure a Secure Environment: Facilitate communications via HTTPS and secure them by TLS 1.2. Encrypt storage layer using WPA2 with AES-256-bit key. 
read more...
  • Content Management: Create a centralized repository of multimedia content, preview every update and change, and schedule publishing. 
  • Editing Tools: Crop, rotate and resize images and videos. 
  • Approval Workflows: 
    •  Give access to team members and editors, manage roles, and control access levels. 
    •  Design default workflows and combine them with bespoke custom sequences. 
    •  Provide approval links and preview portals to stakeholders. 
    •  Create multi-lingual and multi-site content with dependencies for specific channels, content assets and approvals from relevant teams. 
    •  Offers flexible task sequencing like adding viewers, reviewers, regular collaborators and more. 
  • Layout Editing: Design detailed landing and product pages with inline text editing and drag-and-drop text and content blocks. 
  • Search and Navigation: 
    •  Index information from every site, brand and catalog using the built-in crawler technology.  
    •  Streamline customer searches with autocomplete, faceted drill-down, type-ahead suggestions and more. 
    •  Use machine learning to analyze search terms and behaviors and improve results. 
  • Recommendations: Automate product and content tagging, and define rules for automatic suggestions according to metrics like purchase history, behavior, click patterns and more. 
  • Data Core Services: Consolidate datasets from disparate sources, create detailed customer profiles and integrate third-party BI software for in-depth analysis. 
  • Project Management: Track progress, specify deadlines and receive real-time notifications about changes. 
  • Built-In A/B Testing: Test and optimize entire customer journeys, landing pages or specific components like CTAs, payment providers and more. Offers testing features in the editing interface. 
  • Targeting: Use the Visitor Groups feature to personalize content, banners and promotions based on customer profiles or segments. 
read more...
  • Headless Commerce: Use GraphQl and pluggable APIs to connect and personalize sales, marketing and fulfillment experiences across every channel. Customize API behavior according to business needs through API patenting. 
  • Catalog and Product Information Management (PIM): 
    • Product Attributes: Supports flexible data types, multiple attributes and languages, and quick imports through existing configurations. 
    • Cataloging: Add categories and custom fields to design unique catalogs. Create links between catalogs and manage multiple variants. 
    • Targeted Data: Compartmentalize products by country, language, channel and store. 
    • Product Relationship: Define complex relationships and map how different data sets interact with each other. 
    • Multimedia Library: Store, organize and distribute images, audios and videos across channels. Include granular content for specific product types and attributes. 
    • Filtering: Offers a search bar, multiple filters and sorting options for easy navigation. 
    • Pricing: Set up tiered pricing based on currency, country, channels and more. Supports unlimited, custom currencies and high precision pricing. 
  • Shopping Cart: Create a seamless checkout experience and add multiple touchpoints for additional revenue. 
    • Rulesets: Get an overview of incoming orders and define how they interact with backend order management. 
    • Tax Handling: Automate tax calculation based on customers’ location. 
    • Subscriptions: Set up subscription-based purchases. 
    • Discounting: Define conditions and manage complex discount structures based on sales channels, customers, discount codes and more. 
    • Wishlist: Customers can create wishlists, save shopping carts and continue later. 
    • Cart Data: Track abandoned carts and develop marketing campaigns to revive lost sales. 
  • Order Management: 
    • Order Tracking: Get a centralized view of every product, order and fulfillment center. Track and manage business-specific metrics with a few clicks. 
    • Customer Data: Store information like order history, behavior patterns and engagement history and create detailed customer profiles. Provide data visibility to relevant teams. 
    • Channel Management: Aggregate inventory, pricing and product data across every store, POS and online channel. 
    • Shipping: Connect to shipping carriers and offer flexible options like BOPIS, curbside pickups, dropshipping and more. 
    • Order Routing: Design smart workflows for routing orders to convenient fulfillment points. 
  • Machine Learning: Automate daily tasks, enhance data quality and improve customer experience. 
    • Product Categorization: Specify rules to automatically assign products to appropriate categories based on attributes. 
    • Product Suggestions: Offer personalized recommendations according to individual customer profiles. 
    • Smart Search: Customers can use multiple filters, custom fields and image searches. Analyze search patterns and field value distributions to model database indexes. 
    • Data Enrichment: Detect duplicate entries and missing information, and receive smart suggestions for resolving issues. 
    • Add-Ons: Connect with third-party software for cross-selling and up-selling based on customer profiles. 
  • B2B Commerce: Provide a B2C buying experience by combining microservices. Personalize experiences, maintain online and offline brand identity, and automate product data processing. 
  • D2C Commerce: Create a flagship online store and add direct links to the website on multiple social networks. 
  • Developer Tools: Provides SDKs, structured documentation, APIs and other unique tools for in-depth platform customization. 
  • Integrations: Access the marketplace to add features like frontend designs, payment processors, accounting software, CRM and more. 
read more...

Product Ranking

#34

among all
eCommerce Platforms

#80

among all
eCommerce Platforms

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

94
77
99
79
100
97
82
57
Show More Show More
Checkout
Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
Payments
Storefront
Catalog and Product Management
Platform Capability
Checkout
Shipping
Integrations

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Optimizely
commercetools
+ Add Product + Add Product
Catalog And Product Management Checkout Inventory Management Marketing And Search Engine Optimization Order Management Payments Platform Capability Reporting And Analytics Sales Channel Shipping Storefront 99 100 82 100 93 100 90 97 71 94 100 79 97 57 81 84 51 100 40 72 91 70 0 25 50 75 100
100%
0%
0%
70%
0%
30%
100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
80%
0%
20%
60%
0%
40%
100%
0%
0%
86%
0%
14%
91%
0%
9%
82%
0%
18%
100%
0%
0%
36%
0%
64%
88%
0%
12%
100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
40%
0%
60%
71%
0%
29%
71%
0%
29%
100%
0%
0%
83%
0%
17%
100%
0%
0%
60%
0%
40%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

89%
0%
11%
80%
0%
20%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 1102 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 2 reviews
87%
of users recommend this product

Optimizely has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 1102 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

100%
of users recommend this product

commercetools has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 100% when considering 2 user reviews from 1 recognized software review sites.

4.2 (356)
n/a
n/a
5.0 (2)
4.5 (97)
n/a
4.3 (124)
n/a
4.4 (525)
n/a

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Optimizely and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Payments.

Payments Award

commercetools stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

User-Friendly Interface: Many users praise the platform's intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible even for those without extensive technical knowledge.
Efficient Experimentation: Optimizely's seamless integration with various external platforms simplifies tracking and analysis. Users also appreciate the platform’s ability to run multiple tests and experimentations simultaneously.
Smooth Integration Capabilities: The platform provides API access for designing custom integrations. It also offers built-in connections with other Oracle products and partner solutions.
Seamless Performance Tracking: Reviewers appreciate the platform's ability to provide clear metrics and insights, especially for monitoring performance improvement over time.
Show more
Composable Architecture: Users appreciate the flexibility to pick and choose the specific commercetools features they need, without being locked into a rigid, pre-configured suite of tools.
API-First Approach: The robust API allows for seamless integration with existing systems and enables businesses to build custom storefronts and experiences.
Cloud-Native Platform: Users highlight the benefits of scalability and reliability, allowing them to handle traffic spikes and adapt to changing business needs.
Show more
High Cost: The platform has a high entry cost, which can be a drawback for small businesses or solo entrepreneurs.
Customer Support Issues: Some users express dissatisfaction with the quality and responsiveness of customer support, noting that it often falls short of expectations.
Poor Documentation: The platform’s documentation and walkthroughs may not be easy to understand, and some users found the initial integration process lengthy and challenging.
Show more
Complex Setup: Some users have reported that getting started with commercetools can be a bit daunting due to its extensive features and API-first approach. This can lead to a steeper learning curve for those new to headless commerce platforms.
Technical Expertise Required: Commercetools is highly customizable, but this comes at the cost of requiring more technical expertise to implement and manage. Businesses without in-house development resources might find it challenging to leverage the platform's full potential.
Limited Out-of-the-Box Functionality: As a headless solution, commercetools focuses on providing backend infrastructure, leaving frontend development and integrations to the user. This means additional effort is needed to build a complete eCommerce experience, unlike some more traditional platforms that offer pre-built storefronts and features.
Show more

Optimizely is a powerful tool for managing and optimizing digital shopper experiences. Its content management capabilities are particularly impressive. The platform offers a centralized hub for storing, editing and approving multimedia content, making it easy to maintain consistency across channels.Customers can quickly reach their desired location and find products with built-in search and navigation tools combined with AI-powered recommendations. The integrated customer data platform (CDP) is also a valuable addition, helping organize customer data for efficient support services and personalized suggestions.The platform’s real strength lies in its experimentation capabilities. It offers a robust set of tools for A/B testing, multivariate testing and feature flagging. These tools help you fine-tune your online store to better match your audience’s taste and test variations of designs, features or products to see how effectively they boost customer conversions.However, the platform is far from an all-in-one eCommerce solution. It offers basic backend tools to manage inventory, orders and shipping. For example, you can’t manage multiple inventory locations and set up packaging and kitting workflows.Also, it doesn’t support product bundling, contract-based pricing, purchase orders and complex promotional structures. This makes the platform less suitable for B2B businesses with complex needs.Overall, Optimizely is ideal for large enterprises and D2C businesses with an existing backend setup, looking to manage, personalize and deliver branded shopping experiences across multiple sales channels. However, SMEs and growing companies must consider other options in the market, as Optimizely can be a costly investment and may not cover the full spectrum of eCommerce store management needs.

Show more

Recent user reviews suggest that commercetools is a powerful platform for businesses looking for a flexible and scalable solution. Users praise its API-first approach and microservice-based architecture, which allows for easy customization and integration with other systems. This makes it a good choice for businesses with complex needs or those looking to build a truly unique customer experience. For example, a business could use commercetools to create a personalized shopping experience for each customer, or to integrate their online store with their in-store point-of-sale system. However, users also note that commercetools can be complex to set up and manage, requiring significant technical expertise. Its flexibility can be a double-edged sword, as it can lead to a steeper learning curve. Some users also point out that the platform has a limited number of out-of-the-box integrations, meaning businesses may need to develop custom integrations for some of their existing systems. Despite these drawbacks, many users find that the benefits of commercetools outweigh the challenges, particularly for businesses that need a highly customizable and scalable solution. Overall, commercetools is best suited for larger businesses with the technical resources to take advantage of its powerful features. Smaller businesses or those with limited technical expertise may find other platforms easier to use.

Show more

Screenshots

Top Alternatives in eCommerce Platforms


Adobe Commerce

BigCommerce

commercetools

Ecwid

Kibo

Oracle Commerce

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

SAP Commerce Cloud

Shopify

Sitecore

SquareSpace

TrueCommerce

Unilog

Wix

Related Categories

Head-to-Head Comparison

WE DISTILL IT INTO REAL REQUIREMENTS, COMPARISON REPORTS, PRICE GUIDES and more...

Compare products
Comparison Report
Just drag this link to the bookmark bar.
?
Table settings