Pretty much every website administrator and marketing guru uses quantitative analytic tools to optimize their website. Apps like Clicky, Mint, and Google Analytics provide great reports on user navigation trends, popular links, visitor demographics and more.

But that’s only half the story.

It’s vital to remember that a user’s experience on your site is more than the sum of their clicks. Ideally, we’d all have the chance to sit in the same room as our users, watching their every move then interviewing them about their experience. But besides being somewhat creepy, such one-on-one assessment is rarely practical.

Fortunately, there are a host of web-based tools available designed to collect qualitative data from your users quickly at a reasonable price.

Here are some of my favorites:

Userfly

Price: $0/mo – $200/mo

After getting an account and adding one line of code to your site, Userfly records videos of user visits, letting you see mouse movements, click and form interaction. It’s a straight-forward way to see actual users interacting with your site.

There’s a great demo available to test it out, and the free account gives you 10 captures each month.

ClickTale

Price: $0/mo – $790/mo

ClickTale also records user visits and provides some great aggregate reports to help further understand user behavior. For instance, their form analytics report details where visitors might be giving up on your form. And the heatmaps metric shows which content visitors are actually viewing. What parts of the page do visitors skip? How far down do they scroll?

You also get enhanced information about link clicking behavior. Besides collecting click rates, ClickTale tells you how long users hovered over links and hover-to-click ratios.

FiveSecondTest

Price: Free

FiveSecondTest allows you you to submit your designs for testing. Other users view your design for five seconds, then jot down five things they remember.

While it’s not as comprehensive as some other services, FiveSecondTest provides a really quick overview of how others react to your web page. If you’re designing a landing page, it’s a great way to ensure users are seeing what you want them to see. The basic functionality is free, so it’s worth throwing your design up there and seeing what people think.

It’s just as easy to do a test yourself, so don’t forget to help another designer out and comment on their page.

Loop11

Price: $350 flat fee for each project (up to 1000 participants)

Loop11 combines user video recording with customized usability surveys. Users interact with your site, completing a series of predefined tasks while answering questions about their experience as they go. All interactions are captured, processed and made available in real-time reports.

The process is simple: create user tests for your website (tasks and questions), invite participants (through an invite link), and analyze your results. Loop11 is a good option for a fairly well-developed project, when you have some specific questions in mind.

UserTesting.com

Price: $29 flat fee for each video

UserTesting.com allows you to watch real people using your website, while they narrate their experience. After creating a user test, UserTesting.com finds testers that meet your criteria. Testers then use your website, recording their screen and speaking their thoughts as they browse. Then you get the video, along with a written summary.

Unlike Loop11, you don’t have to find your own testers, but you pay for each user video ($29 flat fee). If you think you’ll have trouble finding testers, or only need a handful of users (under 10), then UserTesting.com might be a good choice for you.