So this is the start of something new!
As a product manager, we are knee-deep in thinking about features, addressing product issues, and providing a delightful customer experience. While doing so, we are dealing with issues concerning processes, data, collaboration, testing and the like.
Consequently, any tool/platform that help us is this regard is deemed extremely important.
And let’s be clear, there’s no shortage of appropriate services!
Given the glut of tools in the market, how does a product manager choose the most appropriate ones for his/her use? To help answer this question, we at the The Low Down are starting a series of featured posts called ‘TLD Product Fight Night’ – where we compare some of the most awesome productivity, process, data management, and testing-related tools in the market, and help you decide what’s best for your requirements.
For our first feature, we’re going to look at two Business Intelligence/Analytics services – CrazyEgg and Mouseflow. Before diving into the details, here’s a little background on each product.
CrazyEgg – A visual analytics platform created by Neil Patel that provides a better understanding of user behaviour through heatmaps, scrollmaps and A/B testing.
Mouseflow – Copenhagen-based Mouseflow is a platform allowing one to see visitors’ behavior and fix pain points with session replay, heatmaps, funnels, form analytics, and feedback campaigns.
I have considered five broad aspects while comparing these two services.
Features
CrazyEgg and Mouseflow provide a largely similar set of features, with some interesting exceptions. While both services cater to heatmaps, scrollmaps and visitor screen recordings, CrazyEgg also provides information concerning referral sources as well as an additional toolkit for A/B testing. Mouseflow, on the other hand, differentiates itself by providing deeper information concerning user behaviour through tools focusing on funnel conversion and form performance. Moreover, Mouseflow has recently added a feedback feature where one can tailor surveys to be shown to users who match certain parameters. This is an excellent avenue to understand your users by ‘speaking’ to them directly.
In my opinion, Mouseflow certainly holds a slight edge when it comes to the range and utility of the features it provides though the final call certainly depends on the specific challenges that you may be looking to address.
Ease of Use
CrazyEgg wins hands down! That’s not to say that Mouseflow has a bad UX! In fact, I have seen consistent updates to the Mouseflow interface and the product is definitely moving in the right direction from that standpoint. However, CrazyEgg is simply a lot more intuitive and user-friendly. I dare say it’s probably a result of Neil Patel’s influence, given that he’s known for building products with a near-zero learning curve.
If you’re likely going to have a reasonably large team using a visual analytics platform, I’d suggest CrazyEgg might need to be at the top of your list given that it would save considerable effort in terms of onboarding your team members. The bottom line, however, always rests with your company’s specific use case.
Integrations card.
Both CrazyEgg and Mouseflow can be integrated with a large number of other services. Prominent ones include WordPress, Shopify, Optimizely, and Google Analytics. There isn’t really much to differentiate between the two services here, and I’d say that they’re clearly on par with each other.
Pricing
Both services provide a free trial option, and though Mouseflow has a 14 day trial period (compared to CrazyEgg’s 30), it allows one to get started without registering a credit card.
Mouseflow, notably, also has a ‘free forever’ plan, which is great for any team with a small online operation, or anyone who just wants to get started with the service. The plan does have obvious restrictions though in terms of data points recorded.
Also take note of…
While there isn’t much to differentiate between the two services in terms of the support made available to users, it is interesting to look at the number of companies using each product.
CrazyEgg is significantly more popular, and is being used by some of the largest software companies in the world, including Uber, Hootsuite, and UserVoice. Mouseflow, however, has been steadily gaining users and is more popular in several European countries, perhaps owing to the fact that it is a European company.
The Verdict
If there has to be a winner, it’s CrazyEgg!
However, I also believe that if you are a young startup with limited resources or a company that just wants to experiment with a visual analytics product to see how it may help, Mouseflow is an excellent option to get started too.
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Thanks for reading The Low Down, insight and inside knowledge from the team at Momentum Works. If you’d like to get in touch with us about any issues discussed in our blog, please drop us an email at [email protected] and let us know how we can help.
