Optimizely Tops the Forrester Wave: Strengthening Its Position as a Leader in Digital Experience Platforms 2025

The digital experience landscape is experiencing its most significant transformation in over a decade. As nearly all vendors now offer similar baseline capabilities in content, data, and automation, the question is no longer what a DXP can do, but how effectively its capabilities can be orchestrated through AI-driven agents. 

The 2025 Forrester Wave makes this clear: today’s winners are those who can weave their capabilities into self-optimizing digital experiences. And at the top of that list is Optimizely—one of the report’s most prominent Leaders. 

Why Optimizely Is a Leader in the Forrester Wave 2025 

Forrester highlights Optimizely’s unique ability to combine a robust product platform with an even stronger AI-driven strategy. Three areas in particular set Optimizely apart from its competitors: 

1. Opal – An Agent Orchestration Engine Redefining How a DXP Works 

Optimizely differentiates itself as the first vendor to introduce a standalone agent-orchestration layer—Opal—which acts as the “brain” of the platform. 

Opal enables organizations to: 

• Automate end-to-end marketing processes 
• Run asynchronous, autonomous workflows 
• Connect content, data, campaigns, and personalization in real time through AI 

This means Optimizely doesn’t just provide tools—it provides a system that understands how to use those tools to drive measurable outcomes. 

This agentic capability is exactly what Forrester identifies as the next major market differentiator. 

2. An AI-Native, Fast-Moving, and Bold Strategy 

Optimizely receives strong strategy scores and outpaces many competitors in both vision and innovation velocity. Forrester highlights: 

• A clear AI-first direction 
• Remarkable product development speed 
• A strong roadmap with frequent updates 
• A lean organization that fully uses its own platform 

The report cites a concrete example: Optimizely launched an entire Statsig take-out campaign within hours of OpenAI’s acquisition announcement—evidence of a culture built on agility and rapid execution, something few established platforms can match. 

3. Strong Capabilities Across Content, Experimentation, Analytics, and Personalization 

Optimizely earns high marks across its core capabilities, including: 

• Content management 
• Experimentation and A/B testing 
• Personalization 
• Analytics 
• Brand-aligned content generation 
• Search and agent studio (rapidly expanding) 

Here, Optimizely plays to its long-held strengths: empowering marketing and product teams with practical, intuitive tools that balance creative freedom with data-driven precision. 

4. Customer Feedback Reinforces the Strengths 

Customers consistently praise: 

• A broad and cohesive platform 
• Fast innovation cadence 
• Strong support for experimentation and personalization 
• Productivity gains driven by AI 

Common improvement areas include: 

• More proactive technical support 
• Clearer guidance on integrations 
• Better onboarding for new AI features 

But overall, customer sentiment is strongly positive—Optimizely delivers value and evolves quickly. 

Forrester’s Take: Who Is Optimizely the Best Fit For? 

Forrester summarizes it clearly: 

Optimizely is an ideal fit for companies with complex customer journeys and high-consideration products that require strong personalization. 

This includes organizations where: 

• Marketing sophistication is high 
• Customer segments are diverse 
• Decision cycles are long or critical 

In these environments, Optimizely delivers maximum value thanks to its combination of powerful tools, strong AI capabilities, and rapid innovation. 

Optimizely Leads the Agentic DXP Era 

The 2025 Wave report signals a clear shift: the winners of the future aren’t building more features—they’re building intelligent platforms that use those features on your behalf. 

Optimizely is at the forefront of that shift. 

With Opal as its orchestration engine, an AI-native strategic direction, and a consistently strong set of capabilities, Optimizely solidifies its position as one of the most modern and future-ready DXPs on the market. 

For organizations looking to future-proof their digital experiences, Optimizely is more than a platform—it’s a system that helps teams work faster, smarter, and more creatively.