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Is Optimizely Free?

22 November 2023

By: Remarkable

Categories: Content & Experience, Optimizely, Strategy & Consulting

Is Optimizely Free?

Optimizely is a leading digital experience and experimentation platform, and a popular choice for organisations seeking to enhance their online presence and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Optimizely does not offer a free version of its full product suite — plans are individually packaged and priced to each organisation’s needs. However, a limited free feature-flagging plan is still available within Optimizely Feature Experimentation, offering unlimited feature flags, controlled rollouts, and the ability to run one experiment at a time.

The Free Plan

Contrary to popular belief, there is still a way to use Optimizely for free — though it covers a small corner of what the platform now does. Optimizely’s free feature-flagging plan, part of Optimizely Feature Experimentation, gives development teams a no-cost way to release features safely and measure their impact. It includes:

Feature flags: Turn features on or off for specific user segments, enabling controlled rollouts and risk-free releases — with unlimited flags included.

Controlled rollouts: Release features gradually to a percentage of your audience and roll back instantly if something isn’t working.

Targeting: Deliver feature flags to specific user groups based on their attributes and behaviours.

Experimentation: Run one experiment at a time to gather data for decision-making — paid plans remove this limit.

The free plan is a sensible starting point for teams that are new to feature flagging or experimenting on a smaller budget. It’s worth being clear, though, about what it isn’t: it doesn’t include Optimizely’s CMS, content marketing, personalisation, commerce, or AI capabilities, and Optimizely no longer promotes it heavily. To understand whether the free tier — or a paid configuration — is the right fit, it’s best to speak to an accredited Optimizely partner about your organisation’s needs.

Upgrading Beyond The Optimizely Free Plan

Although the Optimizely free plan is a useful taster of the technology, the platform does far more than feature flagging. Optimizely — now positioned as an AI platform for creating and optimising digital experiences — is trusted by more than 10,000 brands, including Nike, Visa, Zoom, and Santander, and continues to earn analyst recognition: it was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Personalization Engines, and a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Content Marketing Platforms for the ninth consecutive year.

When implemented properly, Optimizely helps organisations craft personalised interactions that drive measurably better conversions and outcomes — and its experimentation heritage means those improvements are proven with data, not assumed.

Unlike many software solutions that employ fixed-cost models, Optimizely takes a customised approach: every plan is individually packaged around the products and capabilities each organisation actually needs. This flexibility in Optimizely’s pricing means companies pay only for what they require, eliminating unnecessary expense.

There are a few aspects that will impact an Optimizely quote:

  • Which products you licence (CMS, experimentation, personalisation, commerce, data)
  • User and traffic volumes (experimentation is typically priced on monthly active users)
  • Feature and governance requirements
  • Deployment options (SaaS or PaaS)

The Optimizely Product Suite

Optimizely offers a suite of advanced products that the Optimizely free plan cannot compete with — and the suite has evolved significantly, with AI now embedded throughout via Opal, Optimizely’s agentic AI. Whether your organisation is looking for marketing-focused solutions or something more developer-oriented, Optimizely has it covered:

  • Optimizely One: The complete marketing operating system — content, experimentation, personalisation, commerce, and data unified in one integrated suite, with Opal AI woven through every workflow.
  • Optimizely CMS: Now an “agentic CMS”, available as SaaS or PaaS, combining structured content management and visual page building with AI agents that help create, optimise, and maintain site performance. Read more in our guide to Optimizely CMS.
  • Content Marketing Platform (CMP): Campaign planning, content collaboration, workflows, and digital asset management for marketing teams — a nine-time Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader.
  • Web Experimentation: Designed for marketing teams to run A/B and multivariate tests, personalise website content, and optimise user journeys to enhance conversions.
  • Feature Experimentation: Experimentation and feature management across websites, mobile apps, and other digital touchpoints — home of the free feature-flagging tier.
  • Opal and the Agent Platform: Optimizely’s AI layer — specialised agents that plan campaigns, generate and optimise content, analyse experiment results, and automate marketing workflows. We covered the latest Opal announcements from Opticon 2025.
  • Personalization: Hyper-targeted experiences driven by behavioural and real-time data — recognised as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines.
  • Optimizely Data Platform (ODP): A customer data platform that collects, organises, and analyses customer data into unified profiles for deeper insight and better decisions. Read more in our guide to ODP.
  • Optimizely Commerce: Including Configured Commerce, which gives B2B organisations a pre-built commerce stack with personalisation and experimentation built in.

The Optimizely free plan can be a good place to start, but investing in the Optimizely solution that’s tailored to your business needs is worth serious consideration if you’re seeking to enhance digital experiences, personalise customer interactions, and drive real business outcomes. The customised pricing ensures companies pay only for the features they need, while the breadth of the suite caters to a wide range of requirements.

9 reasons why over 10,000 brands have chosen Optimizely

While the Optimizely free plan offers a taste of Optimizely’s capabilities, the paid plans unlock advanced features that empower organisations to optimise their digital experiences across every touchpoint. The benefits of investing in Optimizely include:

  1. Tailored, cost-effective pricing: Every plan is individually packaged, so organisations avoid overpaying for features they don’t need while still accessing the tools they require.
  2. AI throughout the platform: Opal, Optimizely’s agentic AI, is embedded across the suite — generating content, suggesting experiments, analysing results, and automating workflows within your brand and governance rules.
  3. Comprehensive experimentation: Beyond feature flagging, Optimizely provides A/B testing, multivariate testing, and advanced statistical methods, enabling organisations to test websites, apps, and campaigns and uncover what actually drives conversions and revenue.
  4. Personalised experiences: Optimizely’s personalisation capabilities tailor digital experiences to individual users based on preferences, behaviour, and real-time data — recognised by Gartner as a Leader in Personalization Engines in 2026.
  5. Seamless content management: Optimizely’s CMS enables organisations to create, manage, and deliver engaging content across multiple channels, with a modern SaaS option and visual building for marketers.
  6. Analyst-recognised leadership: A Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for Content Marketing Platforms nine years running, and a Leader for Personalization Engines — independent validation of the platform’s strength.
  7. Scalability and reliability: Optimizely’s cloud infrastructure is designed to handle high traffic volumes and deliver reliable performance for the world’s biggest brands.
  8. Endless integrations: Optimizely is built API-first, so organisations can integrate with a wide range of third-party tools and platforms, leveraging their existing tech stack and extending the platform’s capabilities.
  9. A proven ecosystem: With 10,000+ brands, a global partner network, and a mature product roadmap, Optimizely is a safe long-term bet for organisations of all sizes.

Optimizely’s commitment to innovation, along with its user-centric design and powerful feature set, makes it a leading choice for organisations seeking to deliver exceptional digital experiences.

Start your Optimizely Journey Today

Optimizely is not just a tool; it’s an investment in the future of your organisation’s digital evolution. Although you can get a taste of the benefits with the Optimizely free plan, it doesn’t compare to a properly scoped Optimizely implementation. The platform’s ability to combine experimentation, personalisation, content management, and AI makes it a powerful ally for any organisation seeking to optimise its digital presence and achieve its goals — whether you’re a scaling business or a global enterprise. If you’re starting from the beginning, our guide to what Optimizely is is a good place to begin.

The best way to get the most out of Optimizely is by working with an accredited Optimizely partner. At Remarkable, we’ve been working with the platform since 1995 — making us the UK’s original Optimizely partner — and today we hold Platinum Partner status, with more than 100 implementations delivered across 32 territories and four Optimizely Most Valuable Professionals (OMVPs) on the team. Contact us today to speak to one of our experts about the right Optimizely solution for your organisation.

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