— COMPARISON · 02
Maze and Prior.Run both help you check a design before it ships. They answer different questions.
Maze sends your prototype or site to testers and gives you numbers: how many finished the task, where they clicked, how long it took. Prior.Run runs the whole page or flow and hands back a Run Sheet — every problem pinned to the spot, with the change to make.
Side by side
The short version, row by row.
— Side by side
Time to an answer
A Run is back in under an hour. Maze depends on how fast testers finish.
No testers to recruit
Paste a link and go. Maze uses your own users or its tester panel.
Every button and form tried
A Run uses the whole page. Testers follow the mission you wrote.
The fix, not just the problem
Each finding comes with the change to make. Maze gives you the data to work it out.
Prototypes and live pages
Both test Figma prototypes and live sites.
Success rates and heatmaps
If you need numbers from real people, that is Maze's job.
Surveys and card sorts
Maze covers early research methods a Run does not.
— Pick by the question you need answered, not by the tool.
What Maze does well
Numbers from real people. If you need to know how many testers found the Save button, or where they clicked first, Maze is built for it. Heatmaps, success rates and surveys all live in one place.
It is also good for early design questions, like card sorts and first-click tests, where you want many quick answers from many people.
Where a number stops helping
A success rate tells you something went wrong. It doesn't tell you what, or what to change. "Most testers didn't finish checkout" still leaves you digging through clicks to find the reason.
Testers also follow the mission you wrote. The parts of the page outside that path — the promo code box, the size guide, the error on the ZIP code field — often never get touched.
What a Run does
Our panel opens your page on desktop or a phone and uses all of it: every button, every tab, every form, down the main path and then the others. It fills forms with test details and stops before anything that costs money.
In under an hour you get a Run Sheet. Each finding sits on the spot where it happened, sorted from fix first to keep, with why it matters and the change to make. Open the page and check any of it in seconds.
— VERDICT
Use each for its own question
If you need to measure how real people do on a task, use Maze. If you need to know what is broken or confusing on the page and what to change, run it.
Many teams do both: run the page, fix what it finds, then use Maze to measure the fixed version.
— FAQ
Questions people ask
- Is Prior.Run a Maze alternative?
- They do different jobs. Maze measures how real testers do on a task. Prior.Run finds what's broken or confusing on the page and gives you the fix. Many teams use both.
- Does Prior.Run give heatmaps or success rates?
- No. It gives a Run Sheet — your page with each problem pinned to the spot and the change to make. For numbers from real people, use Maze.
- Can Prior.Run test Figma prototypes?
- Yes. Paste the prototype link, pick desktop or mobile, and say what to try.
- How much does Prior.Run cost?
- Your first Run is free, with no card. After that, plans are on the pricing page.