Research platform comparison
Maze vs. Optimal Workshop: Which is right for research with your users?
Maze is a Optimal Workshop alternative that helps companies build the right products faster by making user insights available at the speed of product development.
Maze vs. Optimal Workshop: Introduction
When it comes to research with your users, choosing the right platform can make all the difference to your team. Optimal Workshop and Maze are two popular research platforms in the market, but which is the better choice for your organization?
Optimal Workshop helps organizations build more intuitive and successful digital experiences through a UX research suite of tools focused heavily on information architecture tasks like card sorting and tree testing.
Maze is an AI-first end-to-end platform enabling collection of both qualitative and quantitative insights at an expert-level allowing you to make more confident decisions at the pace of product development. It auto generates reports, analysis and themes allowing you to collect and share insights faster.
In this detailed comparison, we’re covering how both these platforms compare to each other in key points such as:
- User-friendliness - How easy will this platform be to onboard with my team or organization? Will this help democratize our user research?
- Versatility - Is this a true end-to-end platform? Does it facilitate both quantitative and qualitative research methods? How well does this platform integrate with the design tools we use?
- Product decision making - How easily and quickly can we analyze results and customize insight reports to make important decisions?
Platform comparison (from G2 user reviews)
Maze | Optimal Workshop | |
|---|---|---|
Overall rating (G2) | 4.5/5 out of 90+ reviews | 4.5/5 out of 10+ reviews |
Ease of setup | 9.6 / 10 | n/a |
Product direction | 8.4 / 10 | 7.7 / 10 |
Pricing |
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Maze vs. Optimal Workshop: Main differences
What really sets Maze and Optimal Workshop apart for teams doing research?
One tool vs many
Unlike Optimal Workshop, which requires using different tools for each task, Maze offers a comprehensive user testing in a single platform, which makes it easier to manage and share insights.
Breadth of research methods
Maze offers a wider range of research tasks than Optimal Workshop, including prototype testing and moderated interviews, providing real user experience insights crucial to refine your design or product.
Research democratization
Maze is an enterprise-ready, user-friendly platform, enabling every designer, product team, and researcher company-wide to make product decisions based on user insights.
Maze vs. Optimal Workshop: Feature comparison
Features
Optimal Workshop
Maze
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Maze vs. Optimal Workshop: Takeaways
At the end of the day, it comes down to which platform aligns better not only with your budget, but also with your workflow and vision as a team.
Optimal Workshop focuses on extracting detailed insights from information architecture research like advanced card sorts.
On the other hand, Maze is an intuitive, cost-effective choice for teams who need a blend of qualitative and quantitative research to inform everyday product decisions. With AI-powered tools for both moderated and unmoderated studies integrated within the same platform, Maze is a more affordable option if you're hiring from a panel, has superior prototype features and integrations and overall gives product teams a scalable way to uncover user insights at speed.
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Using Maze has supercharged our product design process and made it possible to drive faster turnaround times, speeding up product iteration and making for a better, faster user experience.
Yuna Akazawa
Product Designer at Braze
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By switching to Maze, we've consolidated four tools, including UserTesting, into one. Our workflow has been simplified, and we're saving on budget. We've even been able to extend more licenses across the team at the same cost.
Heidi Brown
Director of Product Design and User Research at Classy
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Using Maze has supercharged our product design process and made it possible to drive faster turnaround times, speeding up product iteration and making for a better, faster user experience.
Yuna Akazawa
Product Designer at Braze
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By switching to Maze, we've consolidated four tools, including UserTesting, into one. Our workflow has been simplified, and we're saving on budget. We've even been able to extend more licenses across the team at the same cost.
Heidi Brown
Director of Product Design and User Research at Classy
Why product and design teams are making the switch to Maze
Live website testing
Run research on live flows and experiences
Maze offers a wider range of research tasks for everyday use, including Website Testing, providing real user experience insights which are crucial for refining your design or product.
Robust, customizable reporting
Maze's reports are automated, visually-rich, and fully customizable. Filter and categorize information in detail to uncover patterns and share valuable insights with stakeholders.
Prototype testing, done right
Integrate with leading design tools and validate usability across your prototypes with real users, from click tracking to multiple user path goals. All before investing valuable resources.
Works with:
Maze AI
Embrace the future of user research
Elevate your company's product research with innovative, AI-powered capabilities that enable you to collect more insights, faster, and with more precision than ever before.
Frequently asked questions
Why choose Maze over Optimal Workshop for user research?
Why choose Maze over Optimal Workshop for user research?
Product managers, designers, and researchers pick Maze over Optimal Workshop for several reasons:
- Maze is more intuitive & user-friendly. It allows for easy rollout and adoption at all levels - even some more complex functionalities like testing design prototypes is more straightforward.
- Maze is a truly all-in-one research platform. It balanced quantitative and qualitative insights better by incorporating quantitative (time on task, completion/abandonment/error/etc rates) and behavioral usability data (clickstreams and heatmaps).
- Maze has a more robust reporting. Maze's reports are automated, visually-rich, and fully customizable. One can filter and categorize information in detail to uncover patterns and share valuable insights with stakeholders.
Does Maze have advanced AI functionalities?
Does Maze have advanced AI functionalities?
Maze AI enhances the entire research workflow from planning studies to running them and interpreting results. Maze includes features like AI Moderator for automated interviews, Perfect Questions for bias-free question design, dynamic follow-ups for contextual probing, and automated themes for instant summaries. It also supports AI prototype testing through integrations with Figma Make, Bolt, and Loveable.
What kind of teams use Maze?
What kind of teams use Maze?
Maze is used by product, design, research, and marketing teams at companies of all sizes—from early-stage startups to global enterprises. It’s especially valuable for teams practicing continuous discovery, looking to scale research, or aiming to democratize insights across functions. Whether you're validating prototypes, testing live flows, or running interviews, Maze supports cross-functional teams working to build better products.
Does Maze use AI?
Does Maze use AI?
Maze has a breadth of AI-powered functionalities designed to elevate your product research and enabling you to collect more insights, faster, and with more precision than ever before.
Can I request a demo?
Can I request a demo?
Absolutely! Tell us a little about your company here and we’ll connect you with someone in our team.
Which platform is better for remote user research: Maze or Optimal Workshop?
Which platform is better for remote user research: Maze or Optimal Workshop?
Maze is better than Optimal Workshop for conducting remote user research. Maze is designed for remote, end-to-end user research. Teams can run moderated, unmoderated, and AI-moderated studies, including Prototype Testing, Live Website Testing, and Mobile Testing. With Maze Panel, researchers can recruit participants from over 150 countries, and Maze Reach enables recontacting or segmenting your own user base for follow-up studies. Combined with integrations for Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet, Maze makes running and analyzing global remote research seamless, fast, and scalable.
Bring a customer-focused mindset to your organization
Maze gives product teams a scalable way to uncover user insights at speed and feed them across the entire product development cycle.