I think the only viable alternative to VWO is Optimizely [http://www.optimizely.com/], which is a YC company. Most of the other options I've researched look like they are too much work, which defeats the point of buying a product instead of doing it in-house. Note: I haven't used either product, only viewed their marketing materials.
VWO is awesome, really quick and easy to set up tests. And the support is incredible. The few times I've emailed the support address I've had a reply from Paras in less than an hour, I'm beginning to wonder if he ever sleeps :)
The only complaint I did have about VWO is that there was no way to make a variation that touched multiple parts of a page. But apparently you now can! (last item on the list in the article)
I find support work very satisfying. Even though we are a small team now, I find it tempting to beat my other colleagues at answering a support question :)
I really like how easy and effective the A/B test creation looks from the demo video. I would definitely sign up if they had a permanent cheap 1000 visitor per month plan. I don't need a ten thousand visitor a month plan, and my startup can't afford a $49/month recurring fee. (Yet.)
Then again, if I really want A/B testing I should just code it myself. The advantage to using this system would be its ease of use.
Thanks for appreciating the video. I made it :) -- well, it is difficult for us to provide a cheap plan as economics of infrastructure and support doesn't justify it. If you are looking for some free A/B testing solutions/options, we have a great list here: http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/15-free-ab-split-test...
Ya I feel like this is catered more to the bizdev startups. Isn't it not that hard to code A/B tests? Also, don't these kind of programs break HTML/CSS validation and cause cross-browser issues?