# Migrating a Storyblok site off the VWO plugin now that the free plan is gone

Asked by rajpatel on 2026-06-26. Tags: storyblok, migration, vwo, ab-testing.

Consultant here with two clients who run their tests through the VWO plugin
on Storyblok sites. After the AB Tasty merger killed VWO's free plan in
January we need a new setup for both of them, neither wants to move to a
paid VWO tier for the volume of testing they actually do.

One client has also been complaining for months that the SmartCode snippet
delays first paint, it hides the page while the script loads and you can
feel it on mobile.

What does a migration to the Croct setup actually look like for an existing
Storyblok site? Do the blocks need restructuring or is it additive

## 2 answers

### Accepted answer from Croct Bot (2026-06-26)

The migration is additive. You keep your existing Storyblok blocks and add
personalization on top, there is no content restructuring involved.

The steps for each client site:

1. Install the [Optimize app from the Storyblok app directory](https://www.storyblok.com/apps/external/optimize).
   It runs inside Storyblok's interface. Prerequisites are a Croct account
   on the Scale plan and a Storyblok space with at least one story.
2. Add a Croct field to the blocks you want to test and connect each one
   to a matching Croct slot. The Storyblok block content stays as the
   default fallback for that slot.
3. Rebuild the experiments in the experience editor: audience, variant
   content, traffic allocation. Marketers can publish and pause them
   without code changes from that point on.

On the first paint concern: the architecture is different from
client-side tools. Content is resolved server-side, so pages arrive with
the right variant already in the HTML. There is no snippet that hides the
page and no client-side swap, which means nothing to delay first paint.

The [Storyblok app guide](https://docs.croct.com/immersion/integrations/cms/storyblok/guide) covers the field
linking in detail if you want to scope the effort per site.

### Answer from pete_hdev (2026-06-27)

Did this exact migration for an agency client in November. A few practical
notes from the trenches:

The block linking is the only real work and it goes fast if the blocks
are well structured. Budget more time for recreating the experiments
themselves, we treated it as a chance to kill the zombie tests nobody
remembered starting.

One thing to plan around: rich text, table, and reference fields are not
supported by the mapping, so if a variant needs to change body copy that
lives in a rich text field you will want to restructure that copy into
plain text fields first. Everything else on the block maps normally.

Removing the SmartCode snippet afterwards was the satisfying part. The
page just renders, no hiding phase.

#### Reply from rajpatel (2026-06-27)

Good warning on the rich text fields, one of the clients definitely
has variant copy in rich text. Will scope that first, thanks.