PMFtracker vs Maze

First, credit where it's due

Maze is a genuinely strong usability testing platform. It runs unmoderated tests on prototypes and live products, tells you whether users can actually complete a task, tests navigation with tree testing and card sorting, and rolls it all into automated reports. If you want to know whether people can use what you built, it's a serious option.

But "can people use this" and "do people want this enough to keep it" are different questions. Maze answers the first, including a PMF survey template among its many test types. PMFtracker answers only the second, and that difference is the whole point of this page.

The real difference: usability testing vs a PMF system

Maze tells you whether someone can find the checkout button or complete a signup flow. That's valuable, and it's a genuinely hard problem to get right. But a prototype that tests perfectly can still ship into a market that doesn't want it. Usability and demand are not the same question, and Maze's PMF template still leaves the actual measuring to you: the tally, the ICP, the trend, all manual.

PMFtracker takes the Sean Ellis question and does the measuring for you: the score on the 40% rule, the engaged-user filter that keeps it honest, the ICP pulled straight from your most disappointed users, AI sentiment on the open-ends, and a trend line that becomes fundraising evidence. It's narrower than Maze on purpose, because PMF deserves a dedicated instrument, not one test type among many.

When Maze is the better choice

Maze is a serious platform, and for some teams it's the right call. Choose it when:

• You need to know whether users can complete a specific task or flow before you ship it.
• You're deciding between navigation structures and want tree testing or card sorting data.
• Usability research on prototypes is a recurring, broad program for your team.
• You have budget for an ongoing testing-platform subscription and a team to run it.

PMFtracker isn't trying to replace any of that. It does one job, measure and track the Sean Ellis PMF score, and does it without a subscription. Plenty of teams run both.

Switching from Maze to PMFtracker

If PMF is the specific metric you want to actively manage, moving it over is quick:

1. Export your Maze PMF survey responses to CSV.
2. Import them into PMFtracker, it reads the Sean Ellis answers and scores them automatically.
3. Run the survey in-product going forward, so your score and ICP stay current without managing another campaign.

Keep Maze for usability and prototype testing if you like it; let PMFtracker own the PMF number. See the exact survey questions it scores.