Optimal Workshop, which now calls itself Optimal, runs card sorting, tree testing, first click tests, prototype and live site tests, surveys and interview analysis. It has two plans. Starter is $199 a month, billed yearly, for five studies launched a year, with more sold in bundles. Enterprise is priced by sales. Seats and participant responses are unlimited on both, and every tool is on both.
Every current figure here was read on optimalworkshop.com/pricing on 4 October 2026, and every older one on the Internet Archive's copies of the same page.
What does Optimal Workshop cost?
| Starter | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $199 a month, billed yearly | Custom |
| Studies launched | 5 a year, more in bundles | Custom bundles |
| Seats | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Responses per study | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Tools and study types | All | All |
Starter's card lists AI analysis and SOC 2 and GDPR compliance. Enterprise adds what the page calls enterprise grade security, several workspaces and private projects, administrator controls, usage reports, dedicated onboarding and a customer success manager. The page shows no monthly billing option, and its Starter button signs up for the yearly period. It prints no price for a bundle of extra studies.
Participants from Optimal's own panel cost extra, paid as you go or in credits: "Participants through our Standard Recruitment cost 1 credit", and managed recruitment is quoted. The pricing page prints no price for a credit.
What does each study cost?
| Studies launched in a year | Starter for the year | Each study |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,388 | $2,388 |
| 3 | $2,388 | $796 |
| 5 | $2,388 | $477.60 |
Starter is $2,388 a year whatever is run, so a team that launches its five studies pays under $480 for each. A sixth needs a bundle at a price the page does not print. Until the summer of 2025 the same $199 bought unlimited studies.
Is there a free plan or a trial?
There is no free plan now, though every copy from 2012 to January 2024 describes one with no time limit. A separate page offers "Try Optimal free for 7 days", with "No credit card", unlimited studies and results visible from "your first 2 participants".
The terms of service rule out refunds: "No refund will be provided, including refunds for failure to terminate Your subscription prior to renewal, for selection of an incorrect product or for early termination by Optimal or You." The pricing page lists no discount for education or charities, though every copy from 2012 to March 2023 offered half off yearly plans to both.
How has Optimal Workshop's price changed?
| Archive copy | Plans and prices a month |
|---|---|
| July 2012 to January 2013 | Priced per tool: OptimalSort, Treejack and Chalkmark at $109 a month or $990 a year each; Enterprise from $20,000 a year |
| March 2014 to March 2016 | The same $109 or $990 a tool, or $149 for one survey; all three as The Suite at $1,990 a year, shown against $3,924 |
| May 2018 to January 2021 | The Suite, later the Individual plan, at $199 a user billed monthly or $166 billed yearly; Team at $153 a user for three seats or more; one study for $99; a free plan with 10 responses a study |
| January 2022 | Starter added at $99 for two live studies and 40 responses a study; Pro at $199 monthly or $166 yearly; Team at $153 a user; the free plan at one live study and 10 responses a study |
| March 2023 and January 2024 | Prices drawn by script and missing from the archived copies; the free plan still described in the answers |
| August 2024 | Individual, one user, at $107 billed yearly, with $129 the other figure on its toggle, for two live studies of tree testing and card sorting; surveys, first click and prototype tests $70 a month more |
| January 2025 | Individual's other figure raised to $199; the $70 add on now also unlocking session replay and unlimited studies |
| July 2025 | One plan, Starter, at $199 billed yearly, with unlimited studies and every tool |
| October 2025 to October 2026 | Starter still $199 billed yearly, now for 5 studies launched a year |
$199 a month has been the headline since 2018, but what it means has moved twice. It was the monthly price of one user's plan, with $166 the yearly rate; it is now the yearly rate itself, for any number of seats. Then, between the copies of July and October 2025, the unlimited studies became five a year.
Does Optimal Workshop run a feature voting board?
Its pricing page and home page link no board where customers post requests and vote on each other's, and no public roadmap. Its surveys and interviews ask research questions of participants rather than collecting requests from customers.
What this costs
Lite
$9 /mo
Pro
$39 /mo
Lifetime
$999 once
Fourteen day trial of Pro, card asked for at signup. Nothing here counts the people who vote, so the bill does not move when the board starts working. The long version, with what happens if you stop paying.
VoteFirst is a feature request board: customers post requests, vote on each other's and follow a public roadmap, at $9 a month for one project or $39 for unlimited projects and colleagues, with no count of studies. It runs no card sorts or tree tests, which are where Optimal Workshop began. Lyssna prices usability studies on its own page, Dovetail prices research analysis, the user research shortlist compares research tools by the seat and the study, and the pricing hub groups every vendor by what it meters.
How were these prices read?
The current plans come from optimalworkshop.com/pricing, read on 4 October 2026 as served, with the answers under its questions, the trial from optimalworkshop.com/try-free and the refund rule from its terms of service, both read the same day. The history comes from the Internet Archive's copies of the pricing page taken on 7 July 2012, 19 January 2013, 31 March 2014, 4 April 2015, 8 March 2016, 5 May 2018, 16 May 2019, 10 June 2020, 27 January 2021, 19 January 2022, 7 March 2023, 16 January and 15 August 2024, 21 January, 10 July and 11 October 2025, and 18 January, 20 April and 11 July 2026. Prices are in US dollars.
14 days, a card at signup, then $9 or $39 a month.