Free A/B Testing Tools for Online Shops in 2026: 12 Options and What They Cannot Do

01Which Free A/B Testing Tool Should an Online Shop Start With?

One line per situation:

1. Shopify store on Grow or above: Shopify Rollouts, already in the admin.
2. Developers and a data warehouse: GrowthBook, self-hosted or Cloud Starter.
3. Tests keep coming back flat: Apex by DRIP, card-free free tier for one store.
4. Developer team that wants German hosting: ABlyft’s free plan, limits not published.
5. Try a full commercial suite first: VWO’s 30-day trial, no card.
6. Try a flat-priced or EU-certified tool first: the 15-day trials of Varify.io and Convert, no card.
7. Dedicated Shopify app on a small budget: Visually.io from $19, Elevate from $49, Intelligems from $69, Shoplift and ABConvert from $99 a month.

For the full picture, including paid enterprise tools, read our 15-tool comparison of A/B testing tools for online shops.

02What Counts as a Free A/B Testing Tool in 2026?

When a vendor writes “free”, it means one of four things, each with its own catch.

• Free plan, no time limit: GrowthBook’s self-hosted open source edition and Cloud Starter, ABlyft’s free plan, and Apex by DRIP’s free tier for one store. The catch is a cap: on users, projects, features or stores.
• Included in a plan you already pay for: Shopify Rollouts, with no listed fee, but experiments need the Grow plan or higher.
• Free trial: VWO (30 days), Varify.io and Convert (15 days), the Shopify apps (14 days). The catch is the clock: one test often needs about as long as the trial.
• Low entry tier: Visually.io, Elevate, Intelligems, Shoplift and ABConvert start at $19 to $99 a month. The catch: price tests sit one plan higher.

Older advice, including the earlier version of this page, recommended VWO’s free plan. That Starter plan is gone; VWO now offers a 30-day trial without a card (checked October 2026).

03Which Free Option Fits Which Use Case?

04What Are the 12 Options at a Glance?

Shopify prices are from Shopify’s European pricing page. The Shopify apps bill through Shopify, and their pages do not say whether a card is needed for the trial. Visually.io’s App Store listing shows different entry figures ($15 up to 100 orders, $25 up to 200) from its website ($19 up to 200 orders); we quote the website.

05Is a Free A/B Testing Tool Really Cheaper?

A free tool saves the license fee. It does not save the traffic a test uses or the weeks it runs. Per Ronny Kohavi, 10 to 20 percent of experiments win. At that rate, a shop that runs twelve tests a year finds about one or two winners, whatever the tool costs.

The vendors’ own minimums show how long a single test takes. Shoplift’s guideline is “at least 10,000 visitors per variant and 14 days”. Intelligems asks for “300+ orders per test group” and “7+ days”. Elevate needs at least 500 visitors, 20 conversions and 3 days. A 14-day or 15-day trial therefore covers about one test cycle for a mid-sized shop, not a testing program.

Costs that do not show on the pricing page:

• Shopify Rollouts runs experiments from the Grow plan. A store on Basic (€36 a month, billed monthly) moves to Grow (€105 a month) first.
• GrowthBook analyses results on your own data warehouse, and OMR reviewers say complex ABlyft tests need programming skills.
• The Shopify apps bill by usage: Shoplift by site-wide visitors, ABConvert by test orders, Visually.io and Elevate by monthly orders.

If most tests do not win, the cheaper lever can be choosing better tests rather than a cheaper license. 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 our comparison of A/B testing tools 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).

To size a test before you start a trial, read our guide to A/B testing sample size.

06How Do the Free Options Compare, Fact by Fact?

Two notes. GrowthBook Cloud’s EU region (since September 11, 2026) covers event ingestion and storage; the application and computed results stay in the US. Convert’s pages differ on checkout testing (May 2026 and July 2025), so ask Convert which applies to your store.

07Which Options Are Free With No Time Limit?

Apex by DRIP: best for shops whose tests keep coming back flat

• Best for: shops whose tests keep coming back flat: the constraint is choosing which tests to run, not building them.
• 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.
• Shop systems: installs as a Shopify app (two-click install via link, server-side tracking, first-party data).
• Data location: hosting in the EU plus UK; GDPR in place; ISO 27001 and SOC 2 in progress.
• Entry price: pricing is not published; a card-free free tier for one store exists; book a call.
• Main strength: the memory of millions of observed tests behind every idea, so selection improves before anything is built.
• Main limitation: the price is not published.

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. It has three layers: a test memory of 4.3 million A/B tests from 151,000 shops, collected since 2011; a testing tool that builds, launches and evaluates tests directly in the shop; and managed execution, where tests are built, checked, launched and read together with the DRIP team. Every test idea gets a Likelihood to Win before launch: one percent figure per test idea, shown with how many tests back it. Within a shop, the top third of ideas won 1.4 to 1.6 times as often (press release, September 29, 2026).

Documented capabilities: experiment config as code, a code editor, a visual builder (Operator), CLI preview links and QA via preview, plus an MCP connection so a shop owner builds and reads tests from ChatGPT or Claude without a terminal. Results use fixed-horizon statistics with confidence and profit per test on Shopify; Guardian auto-stops at a revenue loss threshold. Apex has no public review profile yet. Limitation: the price is not published. The free tier is for one store and needs no card; book a call to see what it covers for your shop.

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.

More detail: What is Apex by DRIP?

Shopify Rollouts: best for Shopify stores already on Grow or above

• Best for: Shopify stores on Grow or above that want theme or checkout experiments without an app.
• Can test: theme edits or a full replacement theme, checkout and customer accounts (since June 5, 2026), discount activation, catalog status.
• Shop systems: Shopify only, native in the admin; experiments from the Grow plan.
• Data location: region not published; Shopify states SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS Level 1.
• Entry price: no separate fee listed; Grow costs €105 a month billed monthly or €79 billed yearly (European page, checked October 2026).
• Main strength: testing is built into the admin at no listed extra fee from Grow, and covers theme, checkout and customer accounts.
• Main limitation: experiments report conversion-type metrics only, with no published statistical method and no revenue or AOV metrics.

In Shopify’s words: “Schedule theme changes and A/B test with Rollouts, built directly into the admin.” An Experiment splits traffic 50/50 by default and gets its own mutually exclusive segment of traffic; market-specific targeting needs Advanced or Plus.

What it cannot do: theme experiments report conversion, bounce, reached checkout and add to cart rates; checkout experiments report checkout conversion only, and “You can’t customize the available metrics.” Liquid template changes, vintage themes, headless storefronts and price tests are not supported. Shopify publishes no method for calling a winner, and WeltPixel (July 2026) found no documented way to see variant assignment in GA4.

Where Rollouts is not the right choice:

• Stores on Basic, which gets scheduling but no experiments.
• Headless or custom storefronts.
• Teams that judge tests on revenue, AOV or profit per visitor, or want price or Liquid template tests.

Compare: Apex vs Shopify Rollouts

GrowthBook: best for developer teams with a data warehouse

• Best for: teams with engineers and a data warehouse that want experiments and feature flags without a license fee.
• Can test: any code path through feature flags, full pages through URL redirects, page content through the visual editor on paid plans.
• Shop systems: Shopify through a snippet in theme.liquid, no App Store app; 24+ SDKs for other stacks.
• Data location: self-hosted on your own infrastructure, or Cloud on AWS with an EU region for event data.
• Entry price: free (self-hosted open source, or Cloud Starter); Cloud Pro “$40 / seat / month” (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: the full experimentation platform is open source and free to self-host with unlimited traffic.
• Main limitation: Shopify support is a theme snippet plus a Chrome extension, with no documented checkout or price testing.

GrowthBook has two free editions. Self-hosted Open Source has no seat limits, one project and community support. Cloud Starter allows up to 3 users and one project, with unlimited flags, experiments and traffic, and no credit card. An MCP server connects Cursor, Claude and VS Code.

What the free editions cannot do: the AI Visual Editor is on Pro and Enterprise only, so free-plan tests run through code and flags. Sequential testing, CUPED and bandits start on Pro; holdouts are Enterprise. Analysis runs on your warehouse, and a reviewer describes an “engineer-first UI that PMs and marketers need a guided tour for”. Heat maps and recordings: none found.

Where GrowthBook is not the right choice:

• Shops without a data warehouse or analytics engineering.
• Teams that want to test Shopify prices, discounts or checkout without code.
• Teams that need heat maps or session recordings inside the testing tool.

Compare: Apex vs GrowthBook

ABlyft: best for developer teams that want German hosting

• Best for: developer-led teams that need strict data handling and want to start on a free plan.
• Can test: page content through visual or code variations, redirect tests, Shopify themes and page templates.
• Shop systems: any site through a JavaScript snippet; on Shopify a snippet in theme.liquid, no App Store app found.
• Data location: “Hosting and Storage in Germany”; no personal data or IP addresses stored.
• Entry price: free plan, €0, “No Credit Card needed”; paid plans are quote only (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: data handling, with German hosting and localStorage instead of cookies by default.
• Main limitation: the Shopify integration is a theme snippet, and native price, discount or checkout tests are not documented.

The free plan promises to “Run your first Experiments”; the paid plan advertises “No Limits as in the Free Plan”, but the free plan’s limits are not published. The AI assistant Lumen and an MCP server exist; whether the free plan includes them is not published. OMR Reviews shows 4.9 from 129 reviews.

What it cannot do: no server-side testing, feature flags or native price, shipping or checkout tests were found. OMR reviewers say complex tests need programming skills, the visual editor is limited, and contracts are annual only.

Where ABlyft is not the right choice:

• Teams that want public prices for the step after the free plan.
• Teams without developer capacity.
• Buyers who need public ISO 27001 or SOC 2 evidence.

Compare: Apex vs ABlyft

08Which Tools Offer a Free Trial Without a Card?

VWO (Wingify): best for trying a full suite with AI agents

• Best for: trying a full suite, from research to rollout, before talking to sales.
• Can test: web experiments built visually or with AI; Shopify themes via split URL.
• Shop systems: any website; Shopify app needs a paid subscription.
• Data location: not covered in our sources.
• Entry price: 30-day trial, no card; no public prices (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: agents for the whole lifecycle, from ideas to rollout, behind an approval gate.
• Main limitation: the free plan is gone and paid prices are not public.

VWO and AB Tasty merged in January 2026 and relaunched in September as Wingify. Its agents turn research into “ranked, testable ideas”, build variations and stage rollouts, and “Nothing goes live without approval”. G2: 4.4 from 929 reviews; Trustpilot: 2.2 from 93, with complaints about renewal pricing.

What the trial cannot show you: price, offer and checkout tests are not live, and the Shopify script does not run on checkout pages. A third party (mida.so, May 2026) reported Growth at $665 a month for 100,000 tracked users, billed annually. Not the right choice for shops that want a lasting free plan, public prices, or price and checkout tests today.

Compare: Apex vs VWO

Varify.io: best for one flat price per domain

• Best for: shops on any system that want one flat price per domain.
• Can test: shop pages, split URL, multi-page and personalisation; Shopify Plus checkout via a separate app.
• Shop systems: any shop that loads JavaScript, through one snippet.
• Data location: AWS in Frankfurt, plus Cloudflare.
• Entry price: 15-day trial, no card; Growth €199 a month billed annually (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: flat price per domain with unlimited traffic.
• Main limitation: default statistics are one-sided frequentist tests; two-sided and Bayesian need Pro.

There is no free tier, and the trial went from 30 days (August 29, 2026) to 15. By default results come from your own analytics, such as GA4; an optional Varify Tracking exists since September 2026. OMR Reviews: 4.8 from 113.

What Growth cannot do: it covers 1 domain and 5 active experiments; AI, MCP and the API start on Pro; server-side testing and auto-stop are Enterprise; sequential testing is marked “SOON”. Not the right choice for multi-domain setups, teams that need sequential testing, or buyers who need SOC 2 or ISO 27001 today.

Compare: Apex vs Varify

Convert Experiences: best for EU hosting with ISO 27001 and SOC 2

• Best for: teams that need EU hosting, published certifications and published prices.
• Can test: A/B and split URL on Growth; multivariate and feature flags on Pro; Shopify themes and prices.
• Shop systems: Shopify app plus integrations for WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento and others.
• Data location: “EU-based servers in Frankfurt by default”; ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 stated.
• Entry price: 15-day trial, no card; Growth $299 a month billed annually (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: published prices with EU hosting, ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2 and three statistics engines.
• Main limitation: on Shopify it is a connector with no App Store reviews, and checkout-level price tests need Shopify Plus.

Growth already includes heatmaps, session recordings, a sample ratio check and an MCP server. Price tests are “Included on every paid plan via Cart Transform Functions (Shopify Plus required for checkout-level pricing)”. Annual plans “don’t auto-renew”. G2: 4.6 from 98.

What Growth cannot do: multivariate tests, feature flags and sequential testing start on Pro at $420 a month billed annually, and Growth charges $399 per extra 100K tested users. There is no free tier. Not the right choice for checkout-level price tests without Shopify Plus, merchants who pick apps by App Store reviews, or teams that need a published subprocessor list.

Compare: Apex vs Convert

09What Do the Low-Cost Shopify App Tiers Include?

Intelligems Smart Content: best for stores heading towards price and offer tests

• Best for: Shopify stores heading towards price, shipping and offer tests with profit reporting.
• Can test: across plans: prices, offers, shipping, themes, templates, content, checkout blocks (Plus).
• Shop systems: Shopify only; headless through a package.
• Data location: region not published; transfers to Canada and the US stated.
• Entry price: Smart Content $69 a month (0 to 1,000 orders); 14-day trial (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: prices, shipping, offers, checkout and content in one app, with profit and COGS reporting.
• Main limitation: Shopify only, and price testing needs a team-built integration with a 3-month minimum.

Intelligems says: “Most tools optimize for clicks. We optimize for profit.” It prices per store by monthly orders, with “no per-visitor charges and no overages”, and asks for “300+ orders per test group”. MCP and the Atlas agents come with every paid plan. App Store: 4.8 from 198.

What Smart Content cannot do: price tests need Smart Pricing (no trial, 3-month minimum), and shipping tests need Smart Shipping ($112.10 a month). Not the right choice for stores outside Shopify, teams that want to trial price testing, or buyers who need SOC 2, a DPA or EU hosting documented.

Compare: Apex vs Intelligems

Shoplift Core: best for theme and template tests in the Theme Editor

• Best for: Shopify stores that want to test themes and templates where they already edit them.
• Can test: templates, header, footer, navigation and URL redirects; prices on Advanced and Pro.
• Shop systems: Shopify and Shopify Plus only; headless “not currently supported”.
• Data location: data “is transferred to and processed in the United States”.
• Entry price: Core $99 a month, $74 annually, to 50,000 visitors; 14-day trial (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: tests run on Shopify’s own themes and templates, edited in the Theme Editor.
• Main limitation: no headless, checkout or A/B/n testing.

Shoplift bills on site-wide visitors, “not tested visitors”, and pauses tests above the limit; Core is not offered above 100,000 visitors. The guideline is “at least 10,000 visitors per variant and 14 days”. App Store: 4.9 from 133.

What Core cannot do: price tests, personalisation and the GA4 integration are on Advanced and Pro. On every plan, Shoplift “does not currently support testing Shopify’s checkout pages directly” or A/B/n tests. Not the right choice for headless or non-Shopify shops, tests with three or more variants, or price tests in multi-currency stores.

Compare: Apex vs Shoplift and Apex vs Shoplift vs Intelligems

ABConvert Starter: best for many test types on profit per visitor

• Best for: Shopify stores that want many test types read on profit per visitor.
• Can test: nine types across plans, including price, shipping, offer, theme and checkout.
• Shop systems: Shopify only, all Shopify plans; no headless support.
• Data location: “MongoDB Atlas, Linode and Google Cloud”; region not published.
• Entry price: Starter $99 a month, $74 yearly, 1,000 test orders; 14-day trial (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: nine Shopify-native test types, read on profit per visitor.
• Main limitation: it runs only on Shopify and does not support headless stores.

ABConvert bills on test orders, “not your whole store”, computes profit per visitor from your COGS settings and checks for sample ratio mismatch. The listing carries the Built for Shopify badge; App Store: 4.7 from 83.

What Starter cannot do: price tests start at Growth ($199 a month), and the MCP server is “available on the Growth plan and above”. The statistical method is not published on any plan; guardrails and holdouts: none found. Not the right choice for non-Shopify or headless stores, price tests on the entry plan, or buyers who need ISO 27001 or SOC 2.

Compare: Apex vs ABConvert

Visually.io: best for small stores that want tests, personalisation and upsells

• Best for: small Shopify stores that want testing, personalisation and upsells in one app.
• Can test: themes, templates, discounts, carts, checkouts, upsells; prices above an order minimum.
• Shop systems: Shopify and Shopify Plus; headless via Hydrogen.
• Data location: region not published; transfers to Canada and the US stated.
• Entry price: $19 a month up to 200 monthly orders; 14-day trial, “CC not needed” (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: testing, personalisation, recommendations and upsells in one app, from $19 a month.
• Main limitation: changes are applied client-side only, and SOC 2 and GDPR programs are still “in the process”.

The $19 tier includes the visual editor, personalisation, unlimited tests, recommendations and upsells; the next steps are $79 (to 600 orders) and $199 (to 1,500). A free plan exists for development stores only. App Store: 4.8 from 147.

What the $19 tier cannot do: price tests need the Scale plan with at least 600 monthly orders, or Shopify Plus with 7,500+ orders a month. Auto-stop and sample ratio checks: none found. Not the right choice for shops outside Shopify, smaller shops that want price tests, or buyers who need a completed SOC 2 report today.

Compare: Apex vs Visually

Elevate: best for trying price, shipping and checkout tests in a trial

• Best for: Shopify stores that want to try price, shipping and checkout tests before paying.
• Can test: pages, themes and content on Basic; prices, shipping, offers and checkout (Plus) from Standard.
• Shop systems: Shopify only; headless through an SDK.
• Data location: hosting region not published.
• Entry price: Basic $49 a month to 1,000 orders; 14-day trial “including price testing” (checked October 2026).
• Main strength: price, shipping and checkout tests start at $99 a month for stores up to 1,000 orders.
• Main limitation: no published hosting region, DPA, subprocessors or security certification.

A winner needs the 90% default threshold plus visitor, conversion and runtime minimums. Profit per visitor needs your COGS. A read-only MCP server is on every plan. The listing showed the Built for Shopify badge on October 10, 2026; App Store: 4.9 from 143.

What Basic cannot do: price, shipping, offer and checkout tests, the code editor and AI test suggestions start on Standard. Support runs in business hours. Not the right choice for non-Shopify shops, buyers who need a DPA or certification before purchase, or non-Plus stores that want checkout tests.

Elevate has no Apex vs page yet; it is covered in our 15-tool comparison.

10How Should a Shop Choose a Free A/B Testing Tool?

1. Start from your shop system. Rollouts and the five Shopify apps run on Shopify only; GrowthBook, ABlyft, Varify.io, Convert and VWO also run elsewhere through a script or SDK.
2. Name the kind of free. A free plan lasts; a trial ends after 14 to 30 days; an entry tier is a paid plan.
3. Read what the free part leaves out. Price tests are the common gap: Rollouts does not offer them, and the five Shopify apps put them above the entry tier.
4. Check where the data goes. Documented EU hosting on this page: ABlyft (Germany), Varify.io and Convert (Frankfurt), Apex by DRIP (EU plus UK), and GrowthBook if you self-host. Shoplift processes data in the US.
5. Price the first paid step before you start. A next step without a published price (ABlyft, VWO, Apex by DRIP) is a different decision from a published one (Varify.io, Convert, the Shopify apps).
6. Fit one test into the free period: with a 14-day trial and Shoplift’s 14-day guideline, you get one test cycle.

If your first test is a price test: Elevate’s 14-day trial includes price testing; Convert includes price tests on every paid plan, but does not say whether the trial does; Intelligems’ Smart Pricing has no trial.

If the hard part is not the tool but deciding which test to run, read how predictive A/B testing works, and where it stops.

11What Is the Verdict on Free A/B Testing Tools in 2026?

A free tool removes the license fee, not the cost of tests that do not win. Pick the free option that fits your shop system and data needs, and know the first paid step before you start.

If your tests keep coming back flat, look at Apex by DRIP: every test idea gets a Likelihood to Win before launch, from 4.3 million A/B tests from 151,000 shops. The price is not published, a card-free free tier for one store exists, and the next step is to book a call.