34+ Hotjar Alternatives – Unleash the Power of AI

It has been some time I was in search of an analytics tool that could help me dig into ‘who’ visits my website and ‘what’ exactly they do. If you are a business owner or a blogger, I’m sure you have the same thoughts too. The very first tool I used for this purpose was Hotjar, and followed by this tool used some of the Hotjar alternatives.

Hotjar is not a replacement for Google Analytics. Rather, I would say Hotjar will supplement you with all those website analytics metrics that you cannot get in the free Google Analytics account.

You can hear David Darmanin, founder of Hotjar, speak on how Hotjar can fuel conversion.

Source

Google Analytics has been of great help, but it is always better to have more insights into data. In this article, I will walk you through the features and other details of Hotjar.

Also, I will tell you about some of the Hotjar alternatives that I have found. So, let’s start with Hotjar.

What is Hotjar?

Hotjar is an all-in-one Analysis and customer Feedback tool. It provides you with a bigger picture on how to improve your website’s performance and user experience (conversion rates). 

Hotjar lets you see how your users are using your site. 

One thing that I loved about Hotjar is the page for their Founding Members.

It lists down all the beta testers who used Hotjar first, gave feedback and has helped in making Hotjar what it is today.

The important aspect is, the company took the effort to mention all of them. This is like a brownie point! 🙂

Hotjar combines:

• Analytics tools: Allows you to observe and measure the visitor behaviour while they visit your site.
• Feedback tools: Allows you to hear your users opinion about your product (voice of customer/ users).

All the impressive features of Hotjar gets a lot more elevated when you see the pricing of this tool Undoubtedly, this tool beats all others in the market with its affordability.

Let’s be honest here.

However, good a product is, if it’s too pricey we kind of cringe away! So, here’s a win-win situation for Hotjar- excellent features+pocket-friendly price.

I saw it on Product Hunt. I was using Crazy Egg and Optimizely, but when I started using Hotjar as a BETA tester, I was blown away. The price point was and still is unbeatable, and it’s just straight up a better product all the way around. It was a no-brainer. I was hooked immediately. ~ Garrett Mehrguth, CEO of Directive Consulting on How Hotjar helped him.

Let’s move on with how Hotjar can help you have more engagements and conversions, before we discuss the pricing plans.

Analyzing the Website with Hotjar

Hotjar Heatmaps is the most sought after tool. The heatmaps are fabulous and easy to use.

They will give you a detailed insight into the areas where your website visitors are spending the maximum time.

If this wasn’t cool enough, Hotjar heatmaps will also show you heatmaps by device: Desktops, Mobiles, and tablets.

Heatmaps from Hotjar covers all the requisite functionalities- from Clicks, taps to Scrolling.

You can easily create a heatmap for any given page.

While using Hotjar, more than the heatmaps, the Session Recordings became my favourite part which is also know as Session Replay. You can get real time insight as you see how your visitors are moving and navigating around your website. It is simply a delight.

With the session Recording feature, you can capture every visitor’s sessions the moment they hit the website. While you find it creepy that someone can watch you over as you navigate through their site, you can do the same!

Starting with the clicks to scrolls and movement of each visitor – you can track it all in real time. And not just track, Hotjar also allows you to record and tag it. The tagging feature is new on Hotjar and is amazing.

This is how tagging works: For instance, you have an eCommerce website. You see a large chunk of the audience making mobile accessories’ purchase.

You can tag them as “Electronic accessories”.

Many visitors come via your blog, whom you can tag as “Blogs”, and so on. I think this is a great feature. It gives me details that matter the most. 

Here’s what exactly you can do:

• Replay the sessions of real website visitors
• Tag Recordings
• View the actions of your users and take note for reference
• Share recordings with anyone
• Filter recordings according to your needs.

Hotjar Funnels feature did attract me. Although I’d still turn to ClickFunnels, I went ahead and tried Hotjar funnel feature too.

You can easily create a simple funnel for your website with unlimited steps. It is a powerful feature. You can improve your website on specific spots, especially where you find your users leaving your website.

Next feature in the queue is the Forms Feature. Without any second thoughts, Forms feature is the best from Hotjar.

Suppose you need a contact form or a membership signup form, the Hotjar Forms will come in handy. However, this isn’t the best part.

Every other form builder does that!

Forms on Hotjar show you how far your visitors have filled in and exactly where or when are they dropping off.

This means you have the option to test different forms and decide on the one that your visitors will not ditch half-way.

Let me give you an example.

Suppose you have a question like “Where did you find ABC (your website name)?”, And you see a continuous drop-off to this question.

Thus, the next move will be to remove this question.

You can either test your form without this question or replace it with another question.

The Forms also gives your detailed reports on:

• Time your visitors require to fill out each field
• Conversion rate of the form
• Total number of form sessions
• Graphic representation of the drop-offs
• Total number of failed and successful submissions of the form

Without user feedback, it is nearly impossible to improve your website.

Hotjar Poll feature is downright simple and easy to use. The interface is smooth, and all it takes is just 30 seconds to create a poll. Although I was never keen on running polls on my website, Hotjar’s Polling feature is a convincing one. You can garner some really helpful data and feedback through the Hotjar Polls.

The results are easily understandable. You can choose to get the result in replies or result format. Along with the data and feedback, you also get details like screen size (device from which the poll was taken by the user), country, date, page, etc.

The most striking part of the result is the desktop vs. mobile part! You can easily customise your Poll to get the desired results. Another feature that I wasn’t aware of is Hotjar Word Cloud. Hotjar basically takes into account all the frequently used words in polls from your users and creates a word cloud out of them.

Similar to Polls feature, Hotjar provides yet another feature to know your users better.

The Survey feature allows you to get constructive feedback from your users. You can select the kind of questions that you need to be answered.

Hotjar lets build a survey for various kinds of answers, like:

• Short and/or long answers
• Radio buttons
• Checkboxes
• Net promoter score

The interface is immaculate that is sure to click with your users. The Survey forms from Hotjar picks up the look and feel of your site, blending it nicely with the user experience you want your visitors to get on your website.

Lastly, we have the Recruiter feature. Now this is not about recruiting talents for your company!

Jokes apart, the Recruiter feature lets you connect with the best testers for user research and testing right from your site.

I’d like to call it an advanced version of Polls. If you are a software company or engaged in making a web plugin, this feature will come handy. The widget is customizable to suit your needs.

Hotjar Pricing Plans

The two things that caught my eyes are:

1. 15-Day Free Trial on all the plans
2. 30-Day Money Back Guarantee

Yep! That’s right. The free trial and the money back guarantee options lured me to a great extent.

Hotjar has three categories for pricing plans- Plus, Business, and Scale. All plans include unlimited team members, data storage for 365 days, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• The basic Plan is free forever. It includes up to 35 daily sessions and up to 1050 recordings per month.
• PLUS comes at just $39 per month when paid monthly and $31 per month when paid annually. You get up to 3000 recordings, and 100 daily sessions.
• BUSINESS is for enterprises and SMBs and starts from $99 per month when you pay monthly and $32 per month when paid annually. You get 500- 2500 daily sessions.
• The SCALE plan is priced at $213/mo and you get 4000+ daily sessions.

This brings us to the conclusion of the Hotjar Review. Hotjar is constantly updating the tool to make it better.

Some time back Hotjar touched a milestone of 60,000+ users, including clients like Hubspot, Booking.com, Pingdom, and many more.

Hotjar Integration

Hotjar integrates with these tools mainly:

1. Hubspot
2. Optimizely
3. Omniconvert
4. Slack
5. Google optimize

However, Hotjar integration with Hubspot is possible and is pretty easy too. To get things rolling, two major requirements are:

• Active HubSpot and Hotjar accounts.
• The HubSpot tracking code and the Hotjar tracking code need to be installed on the site.

For further steps and details, check the guide here.

Hotjar integration with Omniconvert is also an easy process. It supports Hotjar Recordings and Heatmaps. Requirements for this integration would be:

• Active Omniconvert and Hotjar accounts (paid plan of Hotjar)

Hotjar Support

Hotjar does a lot to provide support to all its users. Here’s what you get:

Documentation

Hotjar has laid down step by step guide on all the features – how to use and what to do. Whether you are stuck with the installation or wondering how to use one of the features – Hotjar has it all covered.

Along with that, there are links to FAQs that you can refer.

The most important document is on “How Hotjar is different from Google Analytics“.

Data Security

Hotjar knows how sensitive data can be, and does everything to keep your website’s data safe and secured. Even the visitor’s privacy is kept in mind.

To know more details on how data is stored and secured, check out the Data Security Page.

Site Performance

Often it happens that a new tool brings down your website’s performance. This is a persistent question, and Hotjar has it answered. It goes on to explain the impact Hotjar will have on your site performace.

So, before you start using, you can very well be aware of what you are geting into. I’d say, you MUST read the information given on Site Performance before proceeding.

Action-Plan

Optimize your website the ‘Hotjar Way’ to tap on the hottest opportunities for growth. You will get a full-on detail on how to use Hotjar and get the best out of this tool.

The 9-step guide is comprehensive and crucial as well:

I conducted a thorough analysis of various Hotjar alternative tools, uncovering some impressive built-in features and cost-effective pricing models. These tools appeared to be exactly what a marketing team needed, so we decided to test several of them. However, the journey was more complex than anticipated. Based on my overall experience with these alternatives, I’ve rated each one on a scale from 1 to 5 stars below:

Here’s the table rating the Hotjar alternatives based on important features:

It is foolish to draw conclusions without comparison. Even Hotjar urges its users to make a price comparison before buying.

It makes sense – only when you compare two things, you get a better understanding of which one you need.

So, in this guide now I will compare Hotjar alternatives with more other tools: Mouseflow, Freshmarketer, Luckyorange, Crazy Egg.

1. Mouseflow – Powerful Hotjar alternative

Mouseflow opens with the main objective of using the tool-

Stop guessing why your visitors leave your site

The features of Hotjar and Mouseflow are very similar: Heatmaps, forms, conversion funnels and session replay. You can integrate Mouseflow with platforms like Joomla, Shopify, WordPress, Google Analytics, Hubspot, and many more. The powerful RESTful API gives you full control over your data. Let’s quickly go over the feature of Mouseflow-

Session Replay

Mouseflow tracking system will remind you of a CCTV footage! Starting with clicks, mouse movements, scrolls, to filling out forms – Mouseflow tracks every single move of your visitor.

It is all possible with this session replay feature.

Filters and Segments

Pinpoint a session easily within seconds. Sorting and filtering get a tad more seamless- segment your audience by location, OS, platform, traffic source, etc.

The best part: You can save each filter to use later or quick analysis.

Compatibility

Mouseflow works efficiently on all the devices with a modern browser- desktops, tablets, and phones. You get complete support for checkout, dynamic content, or member-only pages. Also, all these doesn’t slow down your site.

Heatmaps

Ah! The reason we are here! Mouseflow has click/touch and movement heatmaps. It grabs your attention to the elements that attract your visitors most. You can track their navigation and keep working on improving your site tractions. The other feature inclusive is the scroll and attention heatmap. This lets you know which part of your site exactly manages to retain, attract, and engage your visitors most.

If you are looking for information like which part of the world is viewing your site more, the Geo Heatmaps from Mouseflow can come handy. You can discover the geological patterns and target visitors based on such real-time data.

Funnels

You can get an overview of your visitor’s journey- from start to end. Mouseflow gives you a page-to-page overview through which you can analyze your visitor’s journey. You can know where your visitors are dropping off, and fix that. The entire navigation process is right in front of you!

Form Analytics

The way every visitor interacts or engages in your forms is an important metric. And Mouseflow gives you that. You can measure where they dropped off, which question triggered a negative response, errors, blank submissions, and much more. With details like these, you can work to increase conversions.

Affiliates

Mouseflow claims to rely on word-of-mouth for their growth. Thus, they provide a recurring commission to all those who contribute to their growth!

The benefits are somewhat like this:

• 10% on All Referral Plans {The payment happens on a monthly basis till the time you have a paid account and is an active user}
• 60-Day Tracking Cookie.

The Branding Guide is available for further reference.

Mouseflow offers multiple ways to contact the company such as via email, phone, or through the support center, which is very helpful because it means you don’t have to contact them via a form. Mouseflow has offices in the United States, Canada, and the UK, but also is reachable by phone in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and by email in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Hotjar vs. Mouseflow

If it’s about users’ trust and confidentiality, then Hotjar takes the winner’s cup! Hotjar offers an open standard for users to develop confidence with them with their transparency. The likelihood of users’ recommendation to Hotjar over mouse flow is a lot higher. Points of differences: 

• No polling or survey feature in Mouseflow
• No free plan like Hotjar

As per customer review, Hotjar is a better option in terms of:

• Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Customer support
• Affiliate Program in Hotjar is absent

Comparison Table: Mouseflow vs. Hotjar

2. Hockeystack – Reliable Hotjar alternative

Hockeystack is a tool that promises to increase your landing page conversions and is the fastest way to track your website visitors.

You might be wondering what’s with its name and how it makes sense.

I visited their website and found the answer, and it impressed me.

As per the website: 

“HockeyStack is the easiest way for your website to reach hockey-stick growth. Hockey-stick growth refers to a sharp increase in your metrics that HockeyStack provides as you track your visitors and understand their needs.” 

Now let us see how this tool can help you get the hockey-stick growth through its features: 

Automated insights

Hockeystack emphasizes the power of automation and no code. It helps you understand and find who will convert better with simple clicks.

This feature allows you to find out which visitor is more likely to complete your goal, filter visitors based on your goals, and help identify customer pain points and optimize it accordingly. 

Track user journey

Hockeystack makes tracking user journey very easy where you do not have to create any tags for events. Each scroll, click is automatically collected to create a user journey. You can also filter your visitors by session properties, user properties, pageviews, and goal completions. With Hockeystack, you also get page based analytics quickly with minimum efforts.

Create conversion goals

It is another handy feature to create goals with pageviews and clicks. You can also analyze your goal performance over time. Filters on the dashboard help you identify which pages converting visitors viewed, which devices they use and their session details.

Visual funnels

You can create funnels in about just less than 30 secs. It will help you find out the points where your uses drop-off usually and use it to optimize accordingly. You can also duplicate funnels and change the steps, add UTM tags, or create multiple funnels with the same start steps & different end goals.

Multiple domains

You do not have to go back and forth to manage your numerous business domains. With Hockeystack, you can add all your domains to one place and track them from the same dashboard. It offers popular integrations with tools like Wix, Shopify, WordPress, Squarespace and many more. 

Hockeystack Pricing plans:

Hockeystack offers a 14-days free trial with no credit card details and also 30 days money-back guarantee.

 It comes in 4 plans: 

• Forever free – 5k pageviews/domain/mo
• Accelerate @ $99/domain/mo – 10 domains and 100k pageviews
• Boost @ $249/domain/mo  – unlimited domains and 350k pageviews every month
• Dominate that comes with custom pricing. where you get unlimited domains and custom pageviews.

All the plans offer the same set of features; just the number of pageviews, team members and data history varies.

The most popular plan is the accelerate plan that allows 100k pageviews per domain per month.

Comparison Table: Hockeystack vs. Hotjar

3. Freshmarketer – Most popular Alternative to Hotjar

The next Hotjar alternative we have is Freshmarketer. Freshmarketer is more of a conversion rate optimization tool. Features like A/B testing, Heatmaps, and Funnel Analysis modules take the limelight.

With a 30-Day free trial for 5000 unique visitors, Freshmarketer provides a smooth website experience. Recently, Freshmarketer also announced the Polls and Feedback feature.

Features of Freshmarketer include:

• Live heatmaps for interactive elements
• A/B testing via Chrome plugin
• Split URL testing
• Funnel analysis
• Form analytics
• Polls and Feedback

Before you sign up for the trial version, you can even request a demo. Freshmarketer offers a very detailed documentation.

The integration with Google analytics, and with some third party integrations like Google Tag Manager, Unbounce, WordPress, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Magento, Joomla, Wix, and Weebly makes Freshmarketer a great Hotjar alternative.

Freshmarketer launched its next version Freshmarketer 2.0 with more enhanced features.

The existing features got a make-over and some new features got released. Here’s what Freshmarketer 2.0 version is all about:

Increased Web Form Conversions

You can now drill down the specific visitor behaviour on the web forms.

Things like how much average time they spent on the form, how many unique views and responses you got, what are the drop-off numbers, rate of form abandonment, blank rates of fields, etc can be known real-time.

Read your Visitors’ Mind

Polls and Feedback feature lets you ask your visitors timely questions.

After all, the right timing is very important in business and helps a lot with improving the conversion rates. Questions like these help in understanding what the visitors are looking for and how satisfied they are.

If you can set up a good set of questions, then kudos! You just made it as an omnipresent listener.

Multiple Users on Freshmarketer

You can have multiple accounts to increase efficiency and easy task delegation. Features like this are very helpful for marketing agencies!

Funnel Analysis

In the new Freshmarketer version, you can track visitor interactions on ‘virtual pages’. These pages do not have a unique URL but are a part of the funnel.

Heatmap

The updated version of Freshmarketer lets you restrict the tracking of visitor counts or percentage of traffic to be used in an experiment.

This measure helps in avoiding spamming errors. This increases the heatmap accuracy.

Last is the revenue tracking. You can now track the monetary value of every action or event for each variety in the experiments.

Hotjar vs. Freshmarketer

Interestingly, Freshmarketer itself provides a detailed comparison with all the popular tools in the market.

There is a separate document for this!

Things that are common to both Hotjar and Freshmarketer are:

• Heatmaps
• Scrollmaps
• Funnel analysis
• Form analytics
• Polls and Feedback
• Support

Hotjar and Freshmarketer are almost similar. However, there are some major points where they are strikingly different. The first point of difference is the pricing plan. Apart from the difference in the amount of each plan, the way calculations are done is different for both. Incase of Hotjar, the pricing plans are based on the total pageviews per month.

On the contrary, the pricing plans of Freshmarketer are based on the total number of contacts you have. I find it slightly weird how they charge you! But given the difference in the feature set that Freshmarketer offers, I think it validates their pricing.

Freshmarketer is a full-fledged marketing automation tool where you get email marketing, journey building, in-depth reporting and attribution, and a lot more.

You can also read a detailed Freshmarketer – Website conversion optimization app review.

Pricing Plans of Freshmarketer (billed annually):

• Free is a free plan and allows 500 contacts.
• Growth at $19/mo for 2000 contacts.
• Pro at $152/mo for 5000 contacts.
• Enterprise $304/mo for 10,000 contacts.

Freshmarketer – only Features:

Coming to the features that are unique to Freshmarketer, are:

• Split URL Testing
• Security is much advanced-
• Data backup in multiple locations/GEO regions
• Integration with Google Universal Analytics

Comparison Table: Freshmarketer vs. Hotjar

4. SquidVision – Best Hotjar Alternative For SaaS Companies

SquidVision is a new entry into the heatmap space. What makes SquidVision different from the other heatmap software tools is they don’t use traditional click or scroll heatmaps.

Instead they use what they term “revenue heatmaps”. 

Revenue heatmaps attribute revenue to all of the clicks a user makes which allows you to see exactly how much revenue each button and link has generated on any of your landing pages or blog posts.

SquidVision caters to SaaS companies that use Stripe as a payment processor but they also have a Shopify app for any Shopify store owners.

One feature that stood out to me is their revenue bubbles. If you hover over the little green revenue bubbles on the heatmap the bubble expands and shows you in depth data about the performance of that button or link.

Features of SquidVision

1. Revenue Attribution
2. Revenue Tracking by Page
3. Dashboard
4. Conversion Metrics
5. Interactive Heatmaps

Pricing of SquidVision

SquidVision pricing is based on your current revenue that they will be tracking.

• Porthole: $49/mo
• Clear Waters: $99/mo
• Visionary: $199/mo

Comparison Table: SquidVision vs. Hotjar

5. Luckyorange – Hotjar Alternative with hidden treasures

The bright orange color on the homepage is attractive enough to keep you scrolling for few seconds.

Luckyorange introduces the platform as “The Original All-in-One Optimization Suite” and starts at just $10 per month. Now that is cheaper than Hotjar. Let’s find out if it surpasses Hotjar with its features as well.

A quick look at the features:

Dashboard

The tagline that Luckyorange uses is cheesy! You cannot help but keep repeating it. The Dashboard is the one-stop for all the details you need- at a glance.

You can see how many people are there on your site, and also how they found you. You get to compare all these information with historical statistics and analyze what is driving traffic to your site.

Recording

We have gone over the details of this feature in all the above-mentioned tool. In session replay if there is anything new to add to this functionality, it is this:

This is new!

Heatmaps

Luckyorange pretty much does all that Hotjar, and Mouseflow does. Starting with the segmenting map by location, browser dates, devices, etc to understand what people are doing and how!

Chat

This is one feature I like about Luckyorange. It integrates with your existing website and is compatible with all devices. With a host of powerful features like multiple operations, canned responses, and auto invites- The Chat feature is like the icing on the cake!

Conversion Funnels

Again the functionality remains the same. You get to create funnels based on your users’ activities- where they dropped off, who created an account, etc.

The point of difference is, clicking on a funnel step immediately filters the recordings to those visitors who have dropped off at any of the particular steps.

Form Analytics

Luckyorange gives you five distinct and highly valuable reports. You get detailed insights on the problem areas on your website’s forms.

Polls

Instant customer feedback is the way to go! And what better option than polls? Polls on Luckyorange are fully customized, can have multiple questions, can be redirected to URLs, and is also triggered at the right moment.

GDPR and CCPA update: LuckyOrange is compliant with GDPR and CCPA and has ensured all the necessary steps to take care of the privacy rights of the EU customers. Their major steps include:

1. Updated terms of services and privacy agreement.
2. Privacy shield certification
3. Improved visitor anonymity and de-identification.

Lucky Orange Support

If you have questions, contact Lucky Orange via telephone, live chat, or email. You should also go through their FAQs, Guides, installation resources. Lucky Orange does not provide an online contact form or e-mail contact. Lucky Orange provides many tools to get the most from your Lucky Orange membership.

Hotjar vs. Luckyorange

The first highlight is, Luckyorange lets you compare historical statistics and takes into consideration keywords, locations, referrers, tweets, languages, etc that are driving traffic to your site.

And all of these are just on your Dashboard.

Features include:

• Recordings
• Heatmaps
• Conversion funnels
• Form Analytics
• Chat
• Polls

Out of all the features, the Chat feature of Luckyorange is highly distinguishable and I literally loved using it.

The ability to predict what your users need and answer them with tailored replies is a great feature. After all, it’s always great to have the ability to give personalized attention to your users. Honestly, I think Hotjar proactive chat is not yet upto this level. However, I’d still say, Hotjar Survey feature alone makes this tool a winner.

The option to get feedback and work upon them is crucial for any business or blogger or website owner.

Comparison Table: Luckyorange vs. Hotjar

Hotjar is the undisputed one tool in website analytics, having the largest market share in comparison to the tools we discussed above.

Apart from these three, there are some other alternatives that you can try, like Crazy Egg, and Clicktale.

6. Plerdy – Valuable Hotjar Alternative

Plerdy is another Hotjar alternative that is a multifunctional SaaS solution. It helps to enhance the website performance and improve the overall conversion rate.

This tool caters to the needs of professional online marketers and agencies to help them detect roadblocks to the website’s performance.

With Plerdy you have a robust approach on how to improve the conversion rates of websites and e-commerce stores along with pop-up software. With Plerdy running in the background website owners can have accurate information related to what a website user is doing on their website.

One feature that really stood out to me with Plerdy was their Net promoter score (NPS). Plerdy places a survey form on your website that pops up at set times. After you get some responses it calculates an NPS score that help you improve various website aspects.

Features of Plerdy

SEO Features:

1. Competitor analysis
2. Dashboard
3. Content management
4. Google analytics integration

Heatmaps:

1. Behavioral mapping
2. Dynamic maps
3. Element analytics
4. Website analytics

Pricing of Plerdy

Plerdy is available in five plans:

• Free: Forever free
• Start : $32/mo billed annually
• Business: $64/mo billed annually
• Premium: $108/mo billed annually
• Enterprise: Unlimited

Comparison Table: Plerdy vs. Hotjar

7. Crazy Egg – Professional Hotjar Alternative

The Crazy Egg has incredible heatmap tool. It’s pretty amazing.

It provides a bit more customization. Comparatively Crazy Egg has more organized session recordings.

Comparison Table: Crazy Egg vs. Hotjar

8. Smartlook – Advanced Behavior Analytics for Deeper Insights

Smartlook is a robust alternative to Hotjar, offering comprehensive behavior analytics that cater to both web and mobile platforms. While Hotjar is strong in user feedback and session recordings, Smartlook excels in providing more granular insights into user interactions, especially for mobile applications.

Unique Features of Smartlook Compared to Hotjar:

• Mobile App Analytics: Smartlook provides detailed analytics for mobile applications, making it an excellent choice for businesses that need to monitor user behavior on both web and mobile platforms. Hotjar capabilities are primarily web-focused.
• Automatic Event Tracking: Smartlook automatically tracks user interactions like clicks, form submissions, and page views without requiring manual setup. This contrasts with Hotjar, where setting up tracking for specific events often requires manual configuration.
• Funnel Analysis: Smartlook includes advanced funnel analysis tools that help identify where users drop off during key processes, such as sign-ups or purchases. This feature is more detailed compared to Hotjar funnel analysis, offering deeper insights into user behavior.
• Retention Analysis: Smartlook offers retention analysis, allowing businesses to track user engagement over time and understand how often users return to their site or app. Hotjar does not provide this specific feature, making Smartlook a more suitable option for businesses focused on long-term user engagement.
• API and Custom Integration: Smartlook provides a powerful API and supports custom integrations, allowing businesses to tailor the tool to their specific needs. While Hotjar also offers integrations, Smartlook API capabilities are more flexible for advanced users.

Comparison Table: Smartlook vs. Hotjar

Smartlook is ideal for businesses that need a comprehensive analytics solution covering both web and mobile platforms, offering deeper insights and more automated tracking features compared to Hotjar.

9. WatchThemLive – Comprehensive User Behavior and Conversion Optimization

WatchThemLive is an intuitive alternative to Hotjar, offering a combination of user behavior analytics and conversion optimization tools. While Hotjar excels in heatmaps and feedback collection, WatchThemLive provides a more integrated approach to understanding user behavior and enhancing conversion rates.

Unique Features of WatchThemLive Compared to Hotjar:

• Session Replay with Annotations: WatchThemLive allows you to replay user sessions with the added ability to annotate specific moments, making it easier to highlight and share key insights with your team. Hotjar also offers session replays but without the annotation feature.
• Conversion Tracking: WatchThemLive integrates conversion tracking into its analytics suite, enabling businesses to link user behavior directly to conversion events, such as form submissions or purchases. This feature offers a more direct analysis of how user interactions translate into conversions, something Hotjar does not emphasize as strongly.
• Visual Analytics Dashboard: The platform provides a visually engaging dashboard that displays all key metrics at a glance, including heatmaps, session replays, and conversion rates. While Hotjar offers comprehensive analytics, WatchThemLive dashboard is designed to be more user-friendly and visually appealing, making it easier to digest complex data.
• Custom Event Tracking: WatchThemLive allows for the customization of event tracking without requiring any coding skills, making it accessible for users with limited technical knowledge. In contrast, setting up custom event tracking in Hotjar often requires more technical expertise.
• Visitor Journey Mapping: WatchThemLive offers a feature that maps out the entire visitor journey, from the first interaction to the final conversion, providing deeper insights into how users navigate your site. Hotjar capabilities in this area are more limited.

Comparison Table: WatchThemLive vs. Hotjar

WatchThemLive is ideal for businesses looking to connect user behavior directly to conversion outcomes, providing an accessible and visually appealing analytics solution.

10. Userfeel – Multilingual Usability Testing for Global Insights

Userfeel is a powerful alternative to Hotjar, designed specifically for usability testing with a focus on multilingual and diverse user bases. While Hotjar is strong in user behavior analytics, Userfeel excels in providing detailed insights into the usability of digital products through user testing.

Unique Features of Userfeel Compared to Hotjar:

• Multilingual Usability Testing: Userfeel supports usability testing in over 40 languages, making it ideal for businesses targeting global audiences. This feature enables you to gather feedback from users in their native language, something Hotjar does not specifically offer.
• Remote User Testing: Userfeel provides remote, moderated, or unmoderated user testing sessions where real users complete tasks on your website or app. These sessions are recorded and analyzed to provide actionable insights. Hotjar focuses more on behavior analytics through tools like heatmaps and recordings rather than live testing.
• Custom Screener Questions: Userfeel allows businesses to create custom screener questions to recruit the exact user demographic needed for testing. This feature helps in ensuring that the test participants match the target audience precisely. Hotjar does not offer participant recruitment features for usability testing.
• Tester Panel: Userfeel has a global panel of testers that businesses can tap into, making it easier to find participants that match specific criteria. Hotjar lacks a built-in panel of testers, requiring businesses to source participants externally.
• Qualitative Feedback: In addition to task completion rates and success metrics, Userfeel focuses on qualitative feedback, allowing testers to provide verbal commentary on their experience. This provides deeper insights into user frustrations and delights. Hotjar feedback tools are more focused on quantitative data and user-generated surveys.

Comparison Table: Userfeel vs. Hotjar

Userfeel is an excellent choice for businesses that require detailed usability testing with a focus on global user bases, providing rich qualitative insights that go beyond what typical analytics tools offer.

11. Inspectlet – Deep Session Recording and Heatmap Analytics

Inspectlet is a powerful alternative to Hotjar, with a focus on deep session recording and heatmap analytics. While Hotjar offers a broad range of user behavior analytics, Inspectlet provides more granular control and insights, particularly suited for detailed analysis of individual user sessions.

Unique Features of Inspectlet Compared to Hotjar:

• Advanced Session Recording: Inspectlet records every mouse movement, click, scroll, and keypress of your users, allowing for a detailed playback of their entire session. Hotjar also offers session recording, but Inspectlet level of detail is superior, capturing even the smallest user interactions.
• Dynamic Heatmaps: Inspectlet heatmaps are dynamic, meaning they can show clicks, scrolls, and mouse movements over time, giving a more comprehensive view of how users interact with each element on the page. Hotjar heatmaps are static in comparison.
• Form Analytics: Inspectlet provides in-depth form analytics, showing where users hesitate, make errors, or abandon forms altogether. This is a more detailed analysis than what Hotjar offers, making it ideal for optimizing form completion rates.
• Custom Tagging: Inspectlet allows for custom tagging of sessions based on user behavior or demographics, which helps in categorizing and analyzing specific user segments more effectively. Hotjar tagging capabilities are more limited.
• Error Logging and JavaScript Console Recording: Inspectlet can log JavaScript errors and record console messages, helping developers troubleshoot issues by seeing exactly what errors occurred during a user’s session. Hotjar does not offer this level of developer-focused analytics.

Comparison Table: Inspectlet vs. Hotjar

Inspectlet is ideal for businesses that require a deep dive into user behavior, offering advanced session recording and developer-focused tools that go beyond what Hotjar provides.

12. FullStory

FullStory stands out with its powerful search capabilities and detailed session replay. It offers comprehensive insights into user interactions, enabling businesses to optimize their websites effectively.

Although it offers a higher price point compared to Hotjar, its robust feature set and deep analytics make it worth the investment for businesses looking for advanced analytics capabilities.

13. Contentsquare

Contentsquare provides an all-in-one platform for customer behavior analysis. Its unique strength lies in its AI-powered insights and predictive analytics. With its detailed heatmaps and funnel analysis, Contentsquare offers a holistic understanding of user journeys.

However, the higher pricing and steeper learning curve may be a drawback for smaller businesses.

14. Zonka Feedback

Zonka Feedback is a powerful Hotjar alternative for those looking to build surveys and collect feedback from their targeted audience. It offers a comprehensive customer feedback and experience management platform to create surveys in minutes. Like Hotjar, Zonka Feedback also offers multiple feedback widgets, including feedback buttons, slide-up surveys, pop-up surveys, pop-over surveys, and more. In addition to that, businesses can also collect offline surveys, SMS surveys, and email surveys.

While Hotjar basically focuses on website and user analytics, Zonka Feedback helps capture a holistic view of the customer journey. It helps capture feedback regarding website or product usability, design, user experience, and more.

15. VWO

VWO combines A/B testing, heatmaps, and session recordings to help businesses optimize their websites. It offers a user-friendly interface and an extensive range of targeting options.

The downside is that its pricing can be quite high, especially for businesses with limited budgets. Additionally, some users may find the interface less intuitive compared to Hotjar.

16. Microsoft Clarity

Microsoft Clarity provides deep insights into user behavior through session recordings and heatmaps. Its seamless integration with other Microsoft products is a definite advantage for businesses already using Microsoft’s ecosystem.

However, it lacks some of the advanced features and integrations offered by Hotjar, making it less suitable for businesses requiring more comprehensive analytics.

17. Survicate

Survicate offers advanced survey and feedback collection tools to understand user preferences and improve user experience. Its customizable surveys and targeted feedback options allow businesses to gather valuable insights.

However, it lacks some of the broader analytics features provided by Hotjar, limiting its suitability for businesses that require a more comprehensive analytics solution.

18. RightMessage

RightMessage provides personalized website messaging and segmentation, allowing businesses to create tailored experiences for their visitors. Its flexible pricing plans make it accessible to businesses of all sizes.

However, it primarily focuses on personalization rather than comprehensive analytics, so businesses requiring advanced analytics capabilities may need to supplement it with other tools.

19. Glassbox

Glassbox offers comprehensive session replay and advanced analytics to optimize user experience. Its AI-driven insights and anomaly detection features provide valuable data for businesses.

However, the higher pricing and more complex setup process may be barriers for smaller businesses or those with limited technical expertise.

20. Lockback – Advanced User Authentication and Security Analytics

Lockback is a specialized alternative to Hotjar, focusing on user authentication analytics and security. While Hotjar is strong in user behavior analytics and feedback collection, Lockback is designed to help businesses understand and optimize their user authentication processes with a focus on security.

Unique Features of Lockback Compared to Hotjar:

• User Authentication Analytics: Lockback provides detailed analytics on user login behaviors, such as login success rates, password reset patterns, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) adoption. Hotjar does not offer tools focused on user authentication.
• Security Alerts and Monitoring: Lockback monitors user authentication events in real-time and sends alerts on suspicious activities like multiple failed login attempts, providing a layer of security that Hotjar lacks.
• Adaptive Authentication: Lockback includes adaptive authentication features that adjust security measures based on user behavior, such as requiring additional verification for unusual login locations. Hotjar focuses on user experience rather than security.
• Integration with Security Tools: Lockback integrates with popular security tools and platforms, allowing businesses to enhance their overall security posture. Hotjar’s integrations are more geared toward analytics and marketing tools.
• User Experience (UX) Optimization: While primarily a security tool, Lockback also provides insights on how to optimize the user experience during the authentication process, balancing security with user convenience. Hotjar provides broader UX insights but not specific to authentication.

Comparison Table: Lockback vs. Hotjar

Lockback is ideal for businesses looking to strengthen their user authentication processes while maintaining a user-friendly experience, offering advanced security features that go beyond traditional analytics tools like Hotjar.

21. Heap

Heap offers automated event tracking and analytics, making it easy for businesses to gather data without manual tagging. Its intuitive interface and powerful segmentation capabilities streamline data analysis.

However, it lacks some of the advanced features and integrations provided by Hotjar, limiting its suitability for businesses with more extensive analytics requirements.

22. LogRocket

LogRocket combines session replay and error tracking to help businesses identify and fix website issues efficiently. Its affordable pricing plans make it a cost-effective choice for businesses of all sizes.

However, it focuses primarily on debugging and error tracking, and its analytics capabilities are less comprehensive compared to Hotjar.

23. UXcam

UXcam offers a user-centric approach to website analytics. With its advanced session replay and heatmap features, it allows you to see exactly how users interact with your website. The pricing plans are flexible, with options for startups and enterprises.

Unlike Hotjar, UXcam also offers comprehensive user journey analysis and form analytics, giving you valuable insights into user behavior and conversion optimization.

24. UserTesting

UserTesting takes user research to the next level. Its platform enables you to conduct remote user testing and gather feedback from real users. With its diverse pool of testers and comprehensive video recordings, you gain in-depth insights into user experiences.

While Hotjar focuses on website analytics, UserTesting offers usability testing and feedback. Pricing plans are available for individual projects as well as ongoing user testing needs.

25. Zoho Pagesense

Zoho Pagesense is a conversion rate optimization tool that focuses on understanding user behavior and improving website performance. It offers features like heatmaps, A/B testing, and funnel analysis. Zoho Pagesense integrates seamlessly with other Zoho products, providing a holistic marketing solution.

Compared to Hotjar, Zoho Pagesense may have a slightly steeper learning curve and fewer qualitative feedback features. However, it compensates with its extensive integration options and pricing flexibility.

26. Optimizely

Optimizely is a powerful experimentation platform designed to enhance your website’s conversion rates. Its feature-rich A/B testing and personalization capabilities give you the ability to optimize every aspect of your site.

With its visual editor and code-level access, customization is a breeze.

However, compared to Hotjar, Optimizely may have a steeper learning curve and higher price points, making it more suitable for larger organizations with dedicated optimization teams.

27. Ptengine

Ptengine is a comprehensive website analytics tool that helps you understand user behavior and boost conversions. It offers advanced features like heatmaps, session replays, and conversion funnels. Ptengine provides real-time data, allowing you to make informed decisions quickly.

Compared to Hotjar, Ptengine offers more detailed analytics and customization options. However, it may lack some of the qualitative feedback features that Hotjar excels in.

28. UXLens – In-Depth UX Analytics with Predictive Insights

UXLens is an innovative alternative to Hotjar, focusing on user experience (UX) analytics with a layer of predictive insights. While Hotjar provides robust behavior analytics, UXLens goes a step further by offering tools that not only analyze but also predict user behavior to optimize UX.

Unique Features of UXLens Compared to Hotjar:

• Predictive Analytics: UXLens uses machine learning to predict user behavior based on past interactions, helping businesses proactively optimize user experiences. Hotjar lacks predictive capabilities, focusing on current and past data.
• User Journey Analysis: UXLens provides detailed maps of user journeys, highlighting potential friction points and offering suggestions for improvement. While Hotjar offers funnel analysis, UXLens dives deeper into each step of the user journey.
• Behavioral Segmentation: UXLens allows businesses to segment users based on behavioral patterns, enabling more personalized UX optimizations. Hotjar offers segmentation but is less focused on predictive behavior.
• Customization and Flexibility: UXLens offers highly customizable dashboards and reporting, allowing users to tailor analytics to their specific needs. Hotjar’s interface is user-friendly but less customizable in comparison.
• Integrated Testing: UXLens includes A/B testing and multivariate testing tools within its platform, making it easier to test changes directly from the analytics dashboard. Hotjar requires third-party tools for A/B testing.

Comparison Table: UXLens vs. Hotjar

UXLens is ideal for businesses that want to not only analyze but also predict user behavior, offering tools that enable proactive UX improvements directly informed by data-driven insights.

29. Lyssna – Advanced Voice of the Customer (VoC) Insights

Lyssna is a sophisticated alternative to Hotjar, specializing in Voice of the Customer (VoC) analytics. While Hotjar excels in user behavior analytics through visual tools like heatmaps, Lyssna focuses on capturing and analyzing customer sentiment and feedback across various channels.

Unique Features of Lyssna Compared to Hotjar:

• Voice of the Customer Analytics: Lyssna is designed to capture and analyze VoC data from multiple sources, including surveys, social media, and direct customer interactions. Hotjar, while offering feedback tools, does not provide the same level of VoC analysis.
• Sentiment Analysis: Lyssna offers advanced sentiment analysis, automatically categorizing feedback into positive, negative, or neutral sentiments. This helps businesses understand the emotional tone of customer feedback, a feature not available in Hotjar.
• Omnichannel Feedback Collection: Lyssna supports the collection of feedback from various channels, including web, mobile, email, and social media, providing a more comprehensive view of customer sentiment. Hotjar primarily focuses on web-based feedback.
• Text Analytics: Lyssna includes powerful text analytics tools that allow for deep analysis of open-ended customer responses, identifying common themes and trends. Hotjar feedback analysis is more basic, focusing on visual data rather than textual insights.
• Customer Experience (CX) Dashboard: Lyssna offers a centralized CX dashboard that brings together VoC data, sentiment analysis, and text analytics in one place, providing a holistic view of customer experiences. Hotjar dashboard is more oriented towards user behavior on websites.

Comparison Table: Lyssna vs. Hotjar

Lyssna is ideal for businesses that want to dive deep into the voice of their customers, providing advanced tools for sentiment analysis and feedback collection across multiple channels.

30. Optimal Workshop – Comprehensive UX Research Tools

Optimal Workshop is a robust alternative to Hotjar, focusing on user experience (UX) research with a suite of specialized tools. While Hotjar excels in behavior analytics, Optimal Workshop provides deep insights into user preferences and navigation patterns through various research methods.

Unique Features of Optimal Workshop Compared to Hotjar:

• Card Sorting: Optimal Workshop offers advanced card sorting tools that help businesses understand how users categorize and label information. This is particularly useful for designing intuitive information architectures, a feature Hotjar lacks.
• Tree Testing: Optimal Workshop includes tree testing, which allows businesses to evaluate the effectiveness of their site’s structure by testing how easily users can find information. This feature is not available in Hotjar.
• First-Click Testing: The platform offers first-click testing, which measures where users click first on a page, providing insights into the clarity of design and navigation. Hotjar’s focus is more on overall user behavior rather than specific click analysis.
• Surveys and User Testing: Optimal Workshop provides customizable surveys and user testing tools, allowing for in-depth feedback on design elements and user experience. While Hotjar also offers surveys, Optimal Workshop’s tools are more tailored for UX research.
• Comprehensive UX Dashboard: Optimal Workshop’s dashboard consolidates insights from various tests, providing a holistic view of the user experience. Hotjar’s dashboard is more focused on behavior analytics and feedback.

Comparison Table: Optimal Workshop vs. Hotjar

Optimal Workshop is ideal for businesses that prioritize user experience research, offering a suite of tools that provide deep insights into how users interact with and perceive site design and navigation.

31. UsabilityHub (is now Lyssna)

UsabilityHub (is now Lyssna) is a versatile alternative to Hotjar, specializing in remote user testing to validate design decisions. While Hotjar excels in behavior analytics, UsabilityHub offers a suite of tools tailored for gathering user feedback on specific design elements and overall user experience.

UsabilityHub (is now Lyssna) is ideal for businesses and designers seeking to validate design choices quickly and efficiently, offering targeted testing tools that complement broader analytics platforms like Hotjar.

32. Amplitude Analytics – Advanced Product Intelligence for Data-Driven Decisions

Amplitude Analytics is a sophisticated alternative to Hotjar, designed specifically for product intelligence and deep behavioral analysis. While Hotjar focuses on user experience and feedback collection, Amplitude offers robust tools for tracking, analyzing, and predicting user behavior across digital products.

Unique Features of Amplitude Analytics Compared to Hotjar:

• Advanced Behavioral Analytics: Amplitude provides detailed insights into user behavior, allowing businesses to understand how users interact with digital products at a granular level. Hotjar offers broader behavior analytics but does not dive as deep into specific user actions and product usage.
• Cohort Analysis: Amplitude allows for advanced cohort analysis, enabling businesses to segment users based on behavior, demographics, or lifecycle stages, and track their actions over time. Hotjar provides segmentation but lacks the depth and flexibility of Amplitude cohort analysis.
• Predictive Analytics: Amplitude includes machine learning-powered predictive analytics that help forecast user behavior and outcomes, guiding product decisions with data-backed predictions. Hotjar lacks predictive analytics, focusing more on current and past data.
• Product Experimentation: Amplitude offers integrated A/B testing and experimentation tools, allowing businesses to test different product features and understand their impact on user behavior. Hotjar requires external tools for A/B testing.
• Cross-Platform Tracking: Amplitude tracks user behavior across multiple platforms (web, mobile, etc.), providing a unified view of user interactions. Hotjar is primarily focused on web analytics.

Comparison Table: Amplitude Analytics vs. Hotjar

Amplitude Analytics is ideal for businesses that require in-depth, data-driven insights into user behavior and product performance, offering advanced tools for product intelligence and experimentation.

33. Oracle Marketing – Comprehensive Suite for Enterprise Marketing Automation

Oracle Marketing is a robust alternative to Hotjar, offering an extensive suite of tools for enterprise-level marketing automation and customer experience management. While Hotjar focuses on user behavior analytics and feedback collection, Oracle Marketing provides end-to-end solutions for managing marketing campaigns, customer data, and personalized experiences at scale.

Unique Features of Oracle Marketing Compared to Hotjar:

• Marketing Automation: Oracle Marketing automates complex marketing workflows, including email campaigns, social media, and lead nurturing. Hotjar does not offer marketing automation features.
• Customer Data Platform (CDP): Oracle Marketing includes a powerful CDP that unifies customer data from various sources, enabling highly personalized marketing strategies. Hotjar focus is more on user behavior and feedback rather than customer data management.
• Cross-Channel Orchestration: Oracle Marketing allows businesses to coordinate marketing efforts across multiple channels, ensuring consistent and personalized messaging. Hotjar is more focused on web analytics and does not provide cross-channel capabilities.
• Advanced Segmentation and Targeting: Oracle Marketing offers sophisticated segmentation tools that help marketers target specific audiences with precision. While Hotjar offers some segmentation for user feedback, it’s not as advanced as Oracle’s targeting capabilities.
• AI-Driven Insights: Oracle Marketing uses AI to deliver predictive analytics and personalized recommendations, enhancing marketing effectiveness. Hotjar lacks these AI-driven features, focusing more on historical and current behavior analytics.

Comparison Table: Oracle Marketing vs. Hotjar

Oracle Marketing is ideal for large enterprises seeking a comprehensive marketing automation solution that integrates customer data management with advanced segmentation and AI-driven insights.

34. Clicktale (now part of ContentSquare)

Clicktale, now part of ContentSquare, is an enterprise-grade alternative to Hotjar, offering advanced behavioral analytics that provide deep insights into user interactions across digital platforms. While Hotjar is strong in heatmaps and session recordings, Clicktale excels in providing more detailed analysis, especially for large-scale enterprises.

Unique Features of Clicktale Compared to Hotjar:

• Behavioral Heatmaps and Journey Mapping: Clicktale offers detailed heatmaps and journey mapping that visualize user interactions across different sessions and platforms. Hotjar offers heatmaps, but Clicktale tools are more comprehensive and tailored for enterprise use.
• Session Replays with High Granularity: Clicktale provides session replays with high granularity, capturing every nuance of user interactions, making it easier to identify issues and optimize user experiences at scale. Hotjar session replays are strong but less detailed.
• Advanced AI-Powered Analytics: Clicktale integrates AI-powered insights, helping enterprises predict user behavior and optimize the customer journey proactively. Hotjar lacks these AI-driven capabilities, focusing more on real-time behavior tracking.
• Integration with Enterprise Tools: Clicktale seamlessly integrates with various enterprise-level tools and platforms, making it easier to incorporate behavioral analytics into broader business strategies. Hotjar integrates with common tools but is more suited for small to medium-sized businesses.
• In-Depth Form Analytics: Clicktale provides detailed form analytics, allowing businesses to optimize form completion rates by identifying where users drop off or struggle. Hotjar offers form analytics, but Clicktale capabilities are more advanced and tailored for complex forms.

Comparison Table: Clicktale vs. Hotjar

Clicktale is ideal for large enterprises that require detailed, scalable behavioral analytics to optimize user journeys and enhance digital experiences at a large scale.

When choosing an alternative to Hotjar for mobile app analytics, it’s crucial to focus on tools that provide robust heatmaps, session recordings, user behavior analysis, and seamless integration. Here’s a guide to help you select the best tool, along with a comparison table of top alternatives.

Key Considerations for Tool Selection:

• Comprehensive Heatmaps: Look for tools that offer touch, click, and scroll heatmaps, which are essential for understanding how users interact with your app.
• Session Recordings: Ensure the tool provides detailed session recordings to observe real user interactions and identify potential issues or areas for improvement.
• User Behavior Analysis: Advanced behavior analytics, including funnel analysis and cohort analysis, are important for tracking user journeys and identifying trends.
• Integration and Compatibility: Choose tools that easily integrate with your existing tech stack and support all relevant mobile platforms (iOS, Android).
• Privacy Compliance: Make sure the tool adheres to data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA, especially for handling user data in session recordings and heatmaps.
• Pricing: Assess whether the tool offers a pricing model that suits your business scale, with features like free trials or flexible tiers.
• Support and Documentation: Reliable customer support and comprehensive documentation are vital for a smooth onboarding and troubleshooting experience.

Comparison Table of Hotjar Alternatives for Mobile:

1. PostHog

PostHog is an open-source alternative to Hotjar that offers full product analytics with the added benefit of self-hosting, giving businesses complete control over their data. While Hotjar is strong in user experience feedback, PostHog excels in providing detailed product analytics and feature experimentation within a self-managed environment.

Unique Features of PostHog Compared to Hotjar:

• Self-Hosting: PostHog can be self-hosted, offering full control over data and privacy, which is ideal for businesses with strict compliance requirements. Hotjar, on the other hand, is a cloud-based solution with limited self-hosting options.
• Feature Flags and A/B Testing: PostHog includes built-in tools for feature flags and A/B testing, enabling teams to experiment with product features and optimize user experiences directly within the platform. Hotjar lacks integrated experimentation tools.
• Real-Time Event Tracking: PostHog provides real-time event tracking with detailed insights into user interactions, allowing for immediate analysis and response. Hotjar offers behavior analytics but without the real-time depth of PostHog.
• Plugin Ecosystem: PostHog supports a robust plugin system, enabling users to extend its functionality with custom plugins. Hotjar’s integrations are more focused on connecting with external tools rather than internal customization.

2. OpenReplay

OpenReplay is an open-source alternative to Hotjar, focusing on providing full-session replays with enhanced privacy controls. It gives teams the ability to self-host and maintain control over session recordings, which is particularly beneficial for industries with strict data privacy requirements.

Unique Features of OpenReplay Compared to Hotjar:

• Self-Hosting: Like PostHog, OpenReplay can be self-hosted, providing full control over user session data. Hotjar is cloud-based, with limited control over where and how data is stored.
• Full-Session Replay: OpenReplay offers detailed session replays, allowing teams to watch exactly how users interact with their websites or applications. While Hotjar also offers session replays, OpenReplay’s focus on privacy makes it more suitable for sensitive applications.
• Privacy Features: OpenReplay includes advanced privacy features like masking sensitive information during session recordings, ensuring that personal data is protected. Hotjar offers basic masking but does not provide the same level of control.
• Integration with Development Tools: OpenReplay integrates well with development tools like Sentry and LogRocket, allowing teams to link session replays with logs and error tracking, making it easier to diagnose issues. Hotjar’s integrations are more focused on marketing and UX tools.

3. Highlight.io

Highlight.io is an open-source platform that combines monitoring, analytics, and session replays, providing a comprehensive tool for understanding user behavior and application performance. Compared to Hotjar, Highlight.io offers more technical insights, making it a better fit for development teams.

Unique Features of Highlight.io Compared to Hotjar:

• Application Monitoring: Highlight.io provides monitoring features that track application performance and detect anomalies, offering more technical insights than Hotjar’s UX-focused tools.
• Session Replays with DevOps Integration: Highlight.io’s session replays are integrated with monitoring and error tracking tools, allowing developers to see how user interactions correlate with performance issues. Hotjar session replays are focused more on UX without the deep integration into DevOps workflows.
• Self-Hosting and Privacy: Highlight.io can be self-hosted, giving businesses control over their data, much like OpenReplay and PostHog. Hotjar does not offer self-hosting options.
• Developer-Friendly: Highlight.io is built with developers in mind, offering APIs and integration points that make it easier to connect with other tools in the development stack. Hotjar is more geared toward marketers and UX professionals.

Comparison Table: Open Source Products

4. UXWizz

UXWizz is an open-source, lightweight alternative to Hotjar, designed for web analytics and user behavior tracking with minimal server load. It offers a balance between deep insights and performance, making it a good choice for websites that need analytics without heavy overhead.

Unique Features of UXWizz Compared to Hotjar:

• Lightweight and Fast: UXWizz is designed to be lightweight, providing essential analytics without slowing down your website. Hotjar, while powerful, can add more load due to its broader set of features.
• Self-Hosting: Like other open-source tools, UXWizz can be self-hosted, giving full control over data privacy. Hotjar is a cloud-based solution.
• Comprehensive Analytics: UXWizz offers a wide range of analytics features, including heatmaps, session recordings, and conversion tracking, but in a more performance-optimized package. Hotjar offers similar features but is more resource-intensive.
• User Privacy: UXWizz includes features to ensure user privacy, such as data anonymization and IP blocking. Hotjar also offers privacy features, but UXWizz lightweight design emphasizes minimal data collection.

5. UXlens

UXlens is an open-source alternative to Hotjar, focusing on predictive user experience analytics. It combines traditional UX analytics with machine learning to predict user behavior and optimize experiences proactively.

Unique Features of UXlens Compared to Hotjar:

• Predictive Analytics: UXlens uses machine learning to predict user behavior, helping businesses make proactive UX improvements. Hotjar focuses on real-time and historical data analysis without predictive capabilities.
• Customizable Dashboards: UXlens offers highly customizable dashboards that allow teams to focus on the most relevant metrics for their needs. Hotjar dashboards are user-friendly but less customizable.
• Self-Hosting: UXlens can be self-hosted, providing control over data and compliance with privacy regulations. Hotjar is a cloud-based service.
• Behavioral Segmentation: UXlens allows for detailed behavioral segmentation, enabling businesses to tailor user experiences more effectively. Hotjar offers segmentation but lacks the predictive element that UXlens provides.

6. Matomo

Matomo is one of the most popular open-source alternatives to Hotjar, providing comprehensive web analytics with a strong focus on privacy. Unlike Hotjar, Matomo offers a full suite of analytics tools that can be self-hosted, making it ideal for businesses that need powerful analytics without compromising on data control.

Unique Features of Matomo Compared to Hotjar:

• Complete Analytics Suite: Matomo offers a full range of analytics tools, including heatmaps, session recordings, A/B testing, and e-commerce tracking. Hotjar is more focused on UX analytics but does not cover as broad a spectrum as Matomo.
• Strong Privacy Features: Matomo is built with privacy in mind, offering data ownership, GDPR compliance, and options for anonymizing data. Hotjar also emphasizes privacy but is limited by its cloud-based nature.
• Self-Hosting Capabilities: Matomo can be self-hosted, giving businesses full control over their data, a significant advantage over Hotjar cloud-based offering.
• Customizable and Extendable: Matomo offers extensive customization options, allowing businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs. Hotjar is more standardized, with fewer customization options.

Comparison Table: Open Source Products

These open-source alternatives provide a range of options for businesses that prioritize data control, privacy, and customization while still seeking comprehensive analytics and user experience insights.

If you have found a better Hotjar alternatives tool, then tell me in comments exactly why you think so.

Else, if you also agree that Hotjar is by-far the best tool in website analytics, give me a buzz.

34+ Hotjar Alternatives – Unleash the Power of AI

• 1Understanding Hotjar
• 2Comparison of Tools in a Chart
• 311 Top Hotjar Alternatives
• 414 More Hotjar Alternatives
• 59 Enterprise Alternatives
• 69 Alternatives For Mobile Heatmaps
• 76 Open Source Alternatives
• 8Overview of all Alternatives
• 9FAQs