Top 19 CRO Tools to Boost Conversions for Free in 2022

With the increasing growth of online shopping, more and more marketers are looking for a way to boost their conversion rate. If you are also one of the marketers who is looking for some excellent conversion rate optimization tools to convert prospects into leads successfully, then you have come to the right place! 

Although there are hundreds of CRO tools out there, finding a trusted and effective one can be challenging. In this article, we have created a list of the top 19 best tools with useful features such as website heatmaps that can help you boost your conversions significantly. 

However, if you are short of time to go through the whole article, we will let you know what our number one tool is to help you save time. WatchThemLive is our recommended tool, as it can positively influence your website’s conversion rate with its unique features, including heatmaps, session recordings, and analytics.

What Is Conversion Rate Optimization

Let’s get started with the conversion rate optimization (CRO) definition. It refers to the process of increasing the number of visitors who perform your desired action. The desired action can vary from reacting to a CTA to signing up or a single click.

This process involves different stages, including understanding the path users take on your website, how they behave and interact with your site, and what causes them to drop.

What Are CRO Tools

Well, conversion tools are used to enable you to understand how visitors interact with your website, and as a result, you can increase the number of leads and revenue and decrease acquisition costs. 

How? Through improving your website’s content, heatmaps, analytics, running A/A testing, etc.

The primary usage of conversion rate optimization tools is to collect your website’s data and track your visitors. Conversion optimization tools can help you in various ways. You can use them to: 

1- Understand why leads are not converting to customers,

2- Gather data-driven analytics,

3- Recognize what changes can boost your site’s UX design and conversion rates,

4- Gather customer feedback,

5- Run A/B tests.

What Are the Different Types of Conversion Rate Optimization Tools

Generally speaking, we can categorize CRO tools into four categories. Let’s talk about each category in more detail.

1- Personalization Tools 

Personalization tools enable you to optimize your conversion rate through data analysis and personalized experiences.

2- Behavior Analytic Tools 

If you are using an optimization tool then you are probably seeking the reason your users are behaving in specific ways and that is to understand their needs. Behavior analytics can be divided into two groups.

  • User Behavior Analytics Tools

User behavior analytics tools can assist you by collecting qualitative data about your users’ interactions. For instance, you may notice that your bounce rate is increasing, but you don’t know what the reason is. In that case, you can count on such a CRO tool.

  •  Web Analytics Behavior Tools 

Do you know how website analytics tools benefit your website? They can help you through collecting quantitative data, and they inform you of your website’s sessions, bounce rate, and exit rate. 

3- Testing Tools

A/B testing tools can assess different versions of your website in order to see which page is converting better and which one needs to be changed.

4- Heat Mapping Software

Heatmaps are a visual representation of the most clicked parts of a website and is used to capture the behavior of your website visitors. You can precisely find the most eye-catching and interesting parts.

5- Session Replay Software

Session replays are records of the interactions that people have with your website. Moreover, this feature enables you to check your users’ journey and see where they drop.

Benefits of Conversion Rate Optimisation Tools

Conversion rate optimization software boosts your website visitor engagement and enables you to convert more prospects to leads. We have listed some of the advantages of website conversion tools.

  1. Recognize Customers’ Needs

Conversion rate optimization tools allow you to monitor your visitors’ interactions and evaluate their engagement. It means they can help you recognize your customers’ needs by analyzing segments like your visitors’ age, gender, location, browser, etc. Obviously, if you are aware of your customer’s needs, you can serve them and increase your conversion rates.

  1. Identify New Markets

At first, you need to know your target audience and identify their needs. How can you succeed in this ever-growing online market if you don’t know what to offer? 

A conversion rate optimization software informs merely you of both your audience and their needs. This awareness will then help you look for and identify new markets that are in line with your customers’ needs.

  1. Enhance Customer Experience 

CRO tools unveil each customer’s interest and desire. Knowing that you can address their expectations, they will start to trust you. If you successfully make their user experience nice and unique, they will stay longer, turn to repeat customers, and hopefully, loyal customers.

  1. Boost Your Website Speed

Conversion rate optimization software can be used to track different versions of a page and help you understand what works best. Using CRO tools, you can monitor users’ behavior, run and track A/B testing, various CTAs, and social proof without paying extra money for website traffic. 

Having this information, you will discover what needs to be adjusted, and as a result, your website will experience higher speed.

  1. Improve ROI

Let us start with the definition of ROI. It stands for return on investment and is defined as a performance measure that is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment. It can also be used to compare the efficiency of different investments. 

Having an in-depth understanding of your customers’ needs leads to flawless performance, and eventually, you will be able to increase your conversion rates. So with the help of CRO, you can get a better return on investment without spending more money on advertisements.

Best CRO Tools

Now that you know what CRO tools are, let’s go through a list of the best conversion rate optimization tools! Shall we?

1- WatchThemLive: The Best CRO Tool

Well, our number one free tool is WatchThemLive, which is the most user-friendly and absolutely the best conversion optimization tool. This analytics tool provides its users with a number of amazing features.

These features include:

  • Heatmaps

Using WatchThemLive’s heatmaps; you can see the most attractive spots of your website from the eye of users. Consequently, you will be able to improve your website’s UX, UI, and conversion rates.

  • Session Replays

Nothing can be as good as WatchThemLive session replay feature when it comes to boosting your website’s conversion rate. Session replays can help in user evaluation and provide you with users’ pageviews, locations, devices, referees, and UTMs. 

  • Analytics

Last but not least, WatchThemLive’s analytics; this feature lets you simply understand users’ journey on your website and find any potential problem.

WatchThemLive Pros:

  • This is a very user-friendly tool
  • Free trial is available
  • It provides excellent customer service
  • Contains a variety of valuable features
  • Both quantitative and qualitative data can be collected
  • A range of advanced filters can be used
  • It is easy to understand and simple to use
  • Best alternative for A/B testing
  • Won’t slow your website
  • Its paid plan is extremely reasonable
  • New features such as live chats, video testimonials, and goals and teams are to be released soon

WatchThemLive Cons:

  • It doesn’t provide scroll heatmaps

If you’re curious to know more about this tool, check out our comprehensive WatchThemLive review.

2- Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA) is one of the most well-known web analytics tools, with more than 29 million installments. Using GA, you can track users’ activities on your website, traffic sources, and conversion rate goals in real time. 

Google Analytics
Google Analytics

The metrics that help you on this journey are new users, sessions, session durations, pages per session, and bounce rate. Although Google Analytics is known as a free tool, you still need to pay for the premium version, Google Analytics 360, if your visitors limit is over or if you seek more in-depth insights. 

Another point is, Google Analytics is not very easy to learn and doesn’t provide its users with qualitative data.

3- Google Optimize

Google Optimize is a free conversion rate optimization software that is integrated with Google Analytics and helps conversion growth through A/B tests and multivariate tests for specific groups of users.

Google optimize
Google Optimize

Although this is a completely free tool and can be a great option for smaller businesses, it can be quite limited in comparison to other free CRO tools.

4- Google Search Console

Google Search Console is another free CRO app which is SEO-focused and can track your website’s performance. You can apply this conversion optimization tool in order to ensure everything is functioning properly. In addition, this tool enables you to diagnose errors, perform keyword research, and asses user interaction.

Google Search Console
Google Search Console

5- CRO Checker 

CRO Checker is also a free conversion rate optimisation tool that promises to enable you to gain valuable insights into your website’s performance. They claim that by having this tool, you will be able to detect any potential factors that can be improved, find and fix broken links, and enhance your page speed simply by adding your website URL. 

CRO Checker: Conversion Rate Optimization Checker
CRO Checker: Conversion Rate Optimization Checker

6- Popupsmart

Popupsmart is basically a lead generation and popup builder, which is designed to boost website conversion rates. They claim that this app can help you boost your site traffic and create opt-in forms and newsletter signup forms.

Popupsmart: Popup Builder
Popupsmart: Popup Builder

You can make great popup designs, including feedback popups, gamification popups, video popups, and more. 

7- FreeChat

Seemingly, FreeChat is a thoroughly free tool for live chat messaging and is mainly used for small businesses. Allegedly this tool can work with most well-known social apps, including calls, messaging, WhatsApp, and Instagram. This tool also offers customer support by responding to customers’ questions.

FreeChat
FreeChat

Based on people’s reviews, the AI system is a bit confusing, and the customer support is disappointing.

8- Mixpanel

Mixpanel is a product analytics tool that helps tracking users and visualizing data for free. Mixpanel asserts that it can handle large amounts of data without crashing. 

Mixpanel
Mixpanel

Moreover, its users are typically dissatisfied with the customer service, stating that the support team doesn’t answer their questions. Some also mention that ‘they are not honest in how they set up and handle contracts’.

9- Amplitude 

Here is another CRO tool that is designed for SaaS companies and works as a conversion funnel analyzer. This tool is only free for up to 10 million events but can be helpful in some ways; for instance, you will be able to track your users’ behavior and receive a notification when users perform an action, such as watching a video. You can also find out about the most used features on your website with the help of this conversion optimization tool.

Amplitude: Product Analytics Tool
Amplitude: Product Analytics Tool

All in all, this app could be a good choice only if the features were not this expensive, the overall tool learning curve was not this long, and there were not this many problems in UTM tagging

10- Google Forms

Google Forms is primarily a web-based survey administration software. This free tool lets you generate survey forms in real time and edit them later on. Moreover, you may use this tool for job applications, running opinion polls and quizzes, and also for performing event registration.

Google Forms: Suvey Software
Google Forms: Suvey Software

11- Google Pagespeed Insights

Google Pagespeed Insights is one of the CRO tools that let you analyze and optimize your website and landing pages. They claim that this tool is completely free and a convenient tool for measuring web vital metrics such as LCP, FID, and CLS. These metrics are expressed in detail downward.

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): used to measure the loading performance speed, and this should be no longer than 2.5 seconds.
  • First Input Delay (FID): used to measure the number of interactions your website has. An appropriate number would be 100 milliseconds or even less.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): visual stability of your website is measured by this metric. An ideal page maintains a CLS of 0.1 or less.
Google Pagespeed
Google Pagespeed

Using this tool, you will be able to gather real user experience data, assess the quality of experiences, and diagnose the performance. Still, a good thing about this app is that it can be integrated with all the other Google products.

12. ProProfs Survey Maker

ProProfs Survey Maker is a popular conversion rate optimization software that allows its users to create surveys fast and easily, all for free. This software also has a Question and Answer tool that enables you to use different formats of questions. Allegedly, the tool gives you access to a lot of ready templates and survey questions, that are also editable. However, there are not enough editing options or colors to use.

ProProfs: A Survey Maker Tool
ProProfs: A Survey Maker Tool

13- OptiMonk

Reputedly, Optimonk is a free alternative for conversion rate optimisation tools that can draw users’ attention and lead them to different sites and web pages, and as a result, it will increase revenue. 

OptiMonk: Website Personalization Tool
OptiMonk: Website Personalization Tool

Optimonk is primarily used to create e-mail lists for businesses, but in addition to that, it can advertise your products and services. In spite of that, Optimonk lacks templates or real designs, charges users too much for a cut-rate product, and the customer service is not satisfying.

14-  UsabilityHub

UsabilityHub is a remote user research platform and, ostensibly, a great CRO alternative. This platform uses strategies to analyze user intent, preferences, and behaviors, and as a result, businesses can use actual customer input while deciding on how to design a webpage. 

UsabilityHub: User Research Platform
UsabilityHub: User Research Platform

They claim that they have a considerable amount of test volunteers, and the tests can be done quickly by suitable sample size, having said that, more demographics are needed. In addition, although the app offers a free plan for a large sample size, its cost can be unaffordable for future tests.

15- Crisp

Crisp is actually a chat tool for SMEs that also offers a free plan with unlimited interactions, which can be also used as a conversion rate optimization tool, but only for small businesses’ websites. 

Crisp: Business Meeting Platform
Crisp: Business Meeting Platform

16-  UseProof

UseProof is another social proof tool for conversion rate optimization that has a free trial. The tool also provides features that can show the number of people that have been performing actions on your site, live visitor counts, and use filters based on visitors’ geographic location to receive a notification. 

UseProof
UseProof

17- Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog can be used if you are seeking a straightforward way of conducting your search engine optimization (SEO) on a website. They claim that due to their support team and direct pointing to the found issues, improving a website’s position in search ranking can be more accessible. 

Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog: Website Crawler

This free tool also states that they help you diagnose problems such as broken links, 404 errors, incorrect redirects, and wrong meta tags. 

Screaming Frog can be integrated with Google tools such as Google PageSpeed. However, this tool can be a little challenging to set up and analyze and tends to choke on hugely massive crawls.

18- Heap

Heap is a web analytics tool that collects data in real time. The collected data is mainly about the site interactions like page views, clicks, and forms, and another thing about this conversion tool is that it can automatically capture all the users’ interactions. Just in case, you can use this app for up to 10k sessions for free.

Heap: Web Analytics Tool
Heap: Web Analytics Tool

Some users stated that this app is not an easy-to-use tool, the configuration can be challenging, and the A/B testing setup can take a lot of work.

19- Pingdom 

Pingdom is a free page performance dashboard that is used to show the site’s loading speed in real-time. The displayed data is according to the feedback you receive from real visits. Pingdom promises to help you gain instant insights into your website and, eventually, outwit your rivals.

FAQs on CRO Tools

I believe we have fully explained every aspect of conversion rate optimization and introduced top CRO tools and ways to boost conversions, but here we have listed some of your frequently asked questions.

Q1. What Is a CRO Tool?

CRO is the abbreviation form of “Conversion Rate Optimization”. CRO tools are used to help marketers improve their website’s conversion rates by gathering their audiences’ insights and increasing conversions at every stage of the customer journey.

Q2. Who Needs a CRO Tool?

Anyone who wants to analyze their website in order to increase their conversions can make use of these tools. But commonly, CRO tools are used by marketers, business owners, and content managers.

Q3. What Exactly Do CRO Specialists Do?

A CRO specialist is familiar with different tools and software (including web analytics tools, surveys, and polls) and is able to use them in order to gather insightful data. This data can then be studied and help improve conversion rates and revenue.

Q4. What Are the Most Commonly Used CRO Techniques?

CRO  tools are mostly used by digital marketers and managers.

CRO techniques are used for various reasons, for example, for user behavior analytics, social proof messaging, live chatbots, customer surveys, A/B testing, etc.

Q5. How to Improve a Website CRO?

The best way to improve your website’s conversion rate is by analyzing data and running tests. Still, enforcing a CRO strategy requires a trusted conversion optimization tool that gives you the data you want. The best tool for this purpose is an all-in-one app like WatchThemLive, which is user-friendly, cost-effective, and totally practical. 

Q6. What Is The Impact of CRO on User Experience?

Well, the one and only purpose of CRO is to create an engaging environment for the users so that they are more likely to convert. The better you can make the users’ experience, the more and faster they will convert or become loyal customers.

Q7. What Does CRO Have to Do With A/B Tests?

A/B testing is an excellent way to find out what exactly your customers’ needs and preferences are, which will gradually impact your conversion rate. To learn more about your customers, you can run different tests and deploy various website versions to see what fits your website the best.

On the whole, the mission of CRO is to let marketers know what the most effective ways of boosting conversion rates are. Without a doubt, testing is an important part since it shows what works on your website and what does not.

Conclusion

Picking the right conversion optimization tool is a crucial step in relation to reaching your conversion rate goals. Yet, you need to know that achieving your desired or industry-standard conversion rates might require more effort.

However, it would help if you remembered that knowing how and when to use the tool is a must for a fruitful result.

In this article, we tried our best to list the top 19 conversion rate optimisation tools that can help you stand a step ahead of your competitors. Give WatchThemLive a try now!

Wish you the best of luck! 🙂