01How Do Apex and Varify Compare at a Glance?
| Apex by DRIP | Varify.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Shops whose tests keep coming back flat: the constraint is choosing which tests to run, not building them | “Companies and agencies of all sizes”, with the mission to “make A/B testing accessible and affordable for everyone” |
| Shop systems | Installs as a Shopify app: two-click install via link, server-side tracking, first-party data | Any site that loads its JavaScript snippet; the vendor names Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Shopware and custom builds. Shopify checkout tests need Shopify Plus and a separate app |
| Can test | Pages and page elements, parallel tests on the same traffic with optional exclusion groups, A/A tests, redirect tests, global holdout, feature flags and staged rollouts | Product, collection, cart, home and landing pages; split URL, multi-page and personalisation on all plans; exclusion groups on Enterprise; feature flags: none found |
| Prediction before launch | A Likelihood to Win per test idea, shown with how many tests back it, from 4.3 million A/B tests from 151,000 shops | CRO AI Audit with test ideas; “Recommendations are based on CRO patterns from real experiments”; a per-idea win prediction: none found |
| Building tests | Experiment config as code, code editor, visual builder (Operator), CLI preview links, QA via preview, MCP connection | Visual and code editor on all plans; prompt-based variants on Pro with AI credits; preview link, QA mode and Chrome extension; MCP since July 2026 |
| Statistics and metrics | Fixed-horizon with confidence; main metric, lift, runtime revenue per test; profit per test on Shopify; Guardian auto-stop at a revenue loss threshold | One-sided frequentist tests by default, significant above 95 percent; two-sided and Bayesian on Pro; revenue significance and ARPU; auto-stop on Enterprise; profit metrics: none found |
| Heat maps | Heat maps and behaviour per variant: clicks, scroll depth, average fold, funnel steps | No own heat maps; Clarity, Hotjar and Mouseflow integrations on all plans |
| AI and agents | The Apex chat in the app, a backlog with auto-classification and score, MCP and CLI | CRO AI Audit, prompt-based variants, bring your own AI key, Varify MCP, GA4 MCP, AI experiment analysis |
| Data location | Hosting in the EU plus UK; GDPR in place; ISO 27001 and SOC 2 in progress | AWS in Frankfurt plus Cloudflare; claims “GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA and revDSG”; SOC 2 “SOON”; ISO 27001: none found |
| Entry price | Not published; a card-free free tier for one store; book a call | Growth: €199 a month billed annually, €249 billed monthly; 15-day trial without card details (checked October 2026) |
| Reviews | No public review profile yet | OMR Reviews 4.8 from 113 reviews; G2 4.9 from 57 (checked October 2026) |
02What Is Each Tool Built For?
Varify.io calls itself “The A/B testing platform that scales with you” and promises “Transparent pricing. Unlimited Traffic. Powerful testing.” The company, Varify Software GmbH, is based near Munich and reports “2,704 teams worldwide”. It positioned itself as a Google Optimize alternative in 2023.
Varify reads results from the analytics you already run: “We do not have our own tracking.” An optional cookieless Varify Tracking exists since September 18 2026.
Apex by DRIP is an A/B testing platform for companies selling online that predicts which tests will win before they go live, built on one of the largest A/B test databases in e-commerce. We call the method Prediction-Based Experimentation. In plain words: we know what shops like yours tested and which tests won.
- Test memory: 4.3 million A/B tests from 151,000 shops, collected since 2011. Every test idea gets a Likelihood to Win before launch.
- Testing tool: build, launch and evaluate tests directly in the shop, with heat maps per variant, profit per test and the chat.
- Managed execution: tests built, checked, launched and read together with the DRIP team.
03What Can You Test With Each Tool?
Varify tests product page templates, collection pages, the cart, the homepage and landing pages through its snippet. Split URL tests, multi-page tests and personalisation are on all plans. Server-side delivery sits in Enterprise. Price, shipping threshold and recommendation tests are not published as features.
For the Shopify checkout, Varify sells a separate app, “Varify: Checkout A/B Testing”, launched May 6 2026. It needs Shopify Plus.
Apex tests pages and page elements. It runs parallel tests on the same traffic with optional exclusion groups, and supports A/A tests, redirect tests, a global holdout, feature flags and staged rollouts.
Where they differ: Varify documents checkout tests on Shopify Plus and personalisation; neither is on the list of what Apex can test above. Apex documents A/A tests, a global holdout and feature flags; for Varify we found no feature flags and no holdouts.
04How Do Tests Get Built and Launched?
Varify
Varify installs with one snippet, “Via GTM or directly”. The visual and code editor is on all plans. Prompt Based Experimentation, where AI builds a variant from your description, needs Pro and uses AI credits. Preview and QA run through a preview link, a QA mode and a Chrome extension.
Since July 7 2026 the Varify MCP lets you “create, start, pause experiments” from an LLM such as Claude. OMR reviewers praise the ease of use; the OMR summary also notes targeting that “requires technical know-how”.
Apex
In Apex, experiment config is code. You build with a code editor or the visual builder, Operator, and check variants through CLI preview links and QA via preview. The MCP connection lets a shop owner build and read tests from ChatGPT or Claude without a terminal; the CLI is the developer path.
Clients see four QA checks: all devices, tracking and targeting, responsive, and matches design. Guardian stops a running test at a revenue loss threshold. Varify’s auto-stop, added July 3 2026, sits in Enterprise.
05How Are Winners Chosen Before Launch?
Apex shows a Likelihood to Win for each test idea: a single percent figure, shown with how many tests back it. The figure comes from the test memory of 4.3 million A/B tests from 151,000 shops. Your backlog gets auto-classified and scored before anything is built.
In a holdout check within a shop, the top third of ideas won 1.4 to 1.6 times as often (press release, September 29 2026). We also scored and froze predictions for 33 brands in early September 2026; results are published from the launch on.
Varify’s answer is AI. Its CRO AI Audit, launched February 14 2026, produces test ideas and a site assessment. Varify says “Recommendations are based on CRO patterns from real experiments” and cites “10,000+ test patterns”.
Apex scores each idea against 4.3 million observed A/B tests from 151,000 shops and shows how many tests back each score. The nearest published figure in this comparison is Kameleoon’s Ideate, trained on more than 20,000 experiments; Varify cites 10,000 or more test patterns; no other vendor in this comparison publishes a count of tests behind its recommendations (vendor pages checked October 2026).
06Which Statistics Do They Use, and What Gets Measured?
Varify documents “a frequentist method with one-sided tests”: a chi-square test for rates and a t-test for revenue. A result counts as significant when it is “greater than 95 %”. Two-sided and Bayesian evaluation need the Pro plan and are set per account. “Revenue significance & ARPU” is on all plans; outlier smoothing needs Pro.
Sequential testing and bandits are marked “SOON”. Profit metrics, guardrail metrics, sample ratio mismatch checks and holdouts: none found.
Apex uses fixed-horizon statistics with confidence. Each test reports its main metric, lift and runtime revenue. On Shopify, Apex reports profit per test, so you can optimise for profit: discount share, refund share and profit per sale. Guardian stops a test automatically at a revenue loss threshold.
Apex also shows heat maps and behaviour per variant. Varify has no own heat maps; it connects Clarity, Hotjar and Mouseflow.
07What Do Apex and Varify Cost?
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | €199 a month (€2,388 a year) | €249 a month | 1 domain, 5 active experiments |
| Pro | €249 a month (€2,988 a year) | €349 a month | Unlimited experiments, AI, MCP, API |
| Enterprise | From €799 a month (from €9,588 a year) | On request | Server-side, exclusion groups, own DPA and SLA |
Varify charges a flat price per domain: “Same price, unlimited traffic”. There is no free tier. The trial runs 15 days, with “No credit card details, no active cancellation”. AI credits cost extra; setup fees are not published. The Shopify Plus checkout app costs a separate $119 a month or $1,190 a year.
Apex pricing is not published. A card-free free tier for one store exists. To see whether Apex fits your shop, book a call. This is the main limitation of Apex in this comparison.
08How Do They Handle Data, Hosting and Compliance?
Varify hosts on AWS in Frankfurt plus Cloudflare and claims “GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA and revDSG”. It states that “In principle, no cookies are set” and uses local or session storage. A Varify Consent Mode exists; the consent decision stays with your own legal review. A DPA is downloadable; we found no subprocessors page. SOC 2 is marked “SOON”; ISO 27001: none found.
Apex has GDPR in place and hosts in the EU plus UK, with DPAs for US tools. ISO 27001 and SOC 2 are in progress; there is no certification yet. Consent apps for most Shopify GDPR apps are supported, and tracking runs server-side with first-party data.
09Where Is Varify the Better Choice?
- You need a published price before any conversation. Varify lists its plans openly: Growth at €199 a month billed annually for one domain with unlimited traffic, and a 15-day trial without card details (checked October 2026).
- You want to test the Shopify checkout on Shopify Plus. Varify sells a separate checkout app for it, launched May 6 2026, at $119 a month.
- You read results in your own analytics stack. Varify connects GA4, Shopify, GTM, Clarity, Hotjar and Mouseflow on all plans, and BigQuery, Matomo, Adobe Analytics, Mixpanel, PostHog and others on Pro.
Varify also has public reviews (4.8 on OMR from 113, checked October 2026). Apex has no public review profile yet.
10Where Is Apex the Better Choice?
- Your tests keep coming back flat and the constraint is choosing which tests to run, not building them. Apex gives every idea a Likelihood to Win from 4.3 million A/B tests from 151,000 shops before anything is built.
- You want to optimise for profit. Apex reports profit per test on Shopify (discount share, refund share, profit per sale), and Guardian stops a test at a revenue loss threshold. For Varify we found no profit metrics, and its auto-stop sits in Enterprise.
- You want heat maps and behaviour per variant in the same tool: clicks, scroll depth, average fold and funnel steps. Varify has no own heat maps and relies on integrations.
Where Apex is not the right choice
- A team that already picks winning tests well gets less from the prediction layer.
- A shop that cannot ship a test a week yet should build that habit on a lighter tool first; buying prediction before you can execute is the wrong order.
- Anyone who needs a published price list before a conversation.
11Apex or Varify: Which Should You Choose?
If your constraint is budget certainty, Varify gives you a published flat price per domain with unlimited traffic and a visual editor on every plan. If your constraint is choosing which tests to run, Apex gives every idea a Likelihood to Win backed by observed tests before you build it. Varify is the clearer fit when you need checkout tests on Shopify Plus or want results in an analytics stack you already run; Apex is the clearer fit when you want profit per test, a revenue guardrail and heat maps per variant in one place. Neither choice is wrong in general: the right one depends on which constraint costs you more today.
