That’s why we have prepared a list of the top 15 Hotjar alternatives, and now you can choose the best suitable software for your requirements without wasting any time! In this article, we will go through the best Hotjar alternatives that offer a more diverse toolkit and assist in more in-depth analysis.
What is Hotjar?
Based on the island of Malta, Hotjar is definitely one of the most well-known user experience research tools on the market and it provides excellent features for heatmap and user session analysis. However, Hotjar often fails to facilitate users for more extensive user research, which is why their clients have to invest in additional software.
Hotjar features:
- Heatmaps
- Screen Recordings
- Feedback Widgets
- Surveys
- Live interviews
Reasons why people like Hotjar:
- Outstanding quality of the heatmap feature.
- Powerful integrations with platforms such as Hubspot, Google Analytics, WordPress, Shopify and others.
- Seamless dashboards and great categorization based on events and tags.
Reasons why people look for Hotjar alternatives:
- Very limited toolkit
Even though Hotjar is very advanced in heatmaps and screen recordings, it allows little flexibility for full-scale UX research.
- Poor usability of the free plan
Hotjar reviews
Based on the information provided by Capterra:
- Overall Score – 4.7/5
- Ease of Use – 4.6/5
- Customer Service – 4.5/5
- Value for money – 4.5/5
Top 15 Hotjar alternatives:
- UXtweak
- Mouseflow
- Crazy Egg
- Smartlook
- WatchThemLive
- Userfeel
- FullStory
- UXCam
- Contentsquare
- LogRocket
- VWO Insights
- Microsoft Clarity
- Glassbox
- Plerdy
- Lucky Orange
Here’s a quick comparison table based on tool’s reviews from Capterra:
Rating | Ease of Use | Quality of Support | Pricing | |
UXtweak | 4.8 | 5.0 | ✓ Free plan Plus plan - $80/month Billed annually | |
Mouseflow | 4.6 | 4.6 | ✗ No free plan Plans start at €31/month | |
Crazy Egg | 4.6 | 4.2 | ✗ No free plan Pro plan - $29/month Billed annually | |
Smartlook | 4.7 | 4.5 | ✓ Free plan Pro plan - €31/month Billed annually | |
WatchThemLive | 5.0 | 4.5 | ✓ Free plan Pro plan - $30/month Billed annually | |
Userfeel | 4.6 | 4.1 | ✗ No free plan Pricing starts at $30/tester. | |
Fullstory | 4.4 | 4.3 | ✗ No free plan Pricing is available on demand. | |
UXcam | 4.8 | 5.0 | ✓ Free plan Pricing is available on demand. | |
Contentsquare | 4.4 | 4.9 | Information is available on demand. | |
LogRocket | 4.6 | 4.9 | ✓ Free plan Pricing starts at $99/month. | |
VWO Insights | 5.0 | 0.0 | Information is available on demand. | |
Microsoft Clarity | 4.6 | 4.7 | The platform is free. | |
Plerdy | 4.8 | 4.7 | ✓ Free plan Pricing starts $98/month. | |
Lucky Orange | 4.7 | 4.7 | ✓ Free plan Pricing starts $14/month. |
UXtweak
UXtweak is the first Hotjar alternative on the list and it is a powerful tool indeed. This UX research software provides similar features for heatmap analysis and session recordings as Hotjar, but at the same time, the scope of your research with this tool is way more extensive.
With UXtweak you can test every step of your product’s life cycle – starting from the creation of the most intuitive information architecture using their card sorting and tree testing tools to prototype testing and conducting comprehensive user research studies.
Features:
- Session Recording
- Heatmaps
- Tree Testing tool
- Preference Tests
- Card Sorting
- Moderated Testing
- Five Second Test
- Website & Mobile Testing
- Prototype Testing (with Invision & Figma integrations)
- Recruiting Widget
- Survey tool
- First Click Test
- User Panel
Pros:
- Advanced analytics features
- Vast variety of features offered – Apart from session recordings and heatmaps, UXtweak also provides great tools for usability testing, IA optimization and user behavior analysis. With UXtweak, you can conduct all your research in one platform, without having to invest in multiple tools.
- A comprehensive free plan – UXtweak allows you to try all features without limitations, so you can make a well-informed decision on whether this software fits your needs
Cons:
- Mobile testing is available only for IOS
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.9/5
Ease of Use – 4.8/5
Customer Service – 5/5
Value for money – 4.8/5
Pricing:
Plans – Starter plan – FREE, Plus plan starts at 80€/month (annual billing), Enterprise solution available.
Discounts – For annual billing, a 20% discount.
Free trial / Freemium – Yes, the starter plan is free.
Mouseflow
Mouseflow is another great tool if you are considering substituting Hotjar. The platform is used by many clients to optimize conversions of digital products and allows users to automatically build different types of heat maps so they can be adjusted to every requirement of the client. Mouseflow also offers a more diverse toolkit which can facilitate the creation of conversion funnels and forms.
Features:
- Session Replay
- Heatmaps
- Conversion Funnels
- User Feedback
- Forms
Pros:
- Iframe functionality – which has been praised by many Mouseflow clients who switched from Hotjar
- Intuitive user interface
- Shallow learning curve
Cons:
- No A/B testing
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.7/5
Ease of Use – 4.6/5
Customer Service – 4.6/5
Value for money – 4.4/5
Pricing:
Plans – Plans start at €31/month and are calculated according to the number of recordings/month.
Discounts – 20% per annual billing
Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a 14-day free trial
Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is another one of the more well-known alternatives to Hotjar. But apart from heatmaps and session recordings, this tool can also be utilized to create scroll maps and A/B tests, which is a great addition to the toolkit and facilitates better, more in-depth product usability research.
Features:
- Snapshot reporting
- Heatmaps and scroll maps
- Session recordings
- A/B testing
- Surveys
- Demo dashboard
Pros:
- Very sophisticated A/B testing feature
- Excellent customer service – Customers have praised this Hotjar alternative for the responsiveness of the support team.
- Shallow learning curve
Cons:
- No possibility of monthly subscription/payments
- Poor UX of the platform – Clients often struggle to navigate through the platform and have complained about Crazy Egg having too complicated a UI.
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.5/5
Ease of Use – 4.6 /5
Customer Service – 4.2/5
Value for money – 4.1/5
Pricing:
Plans – Pricing starts at $29/month with annual billing.
Discounts – No.
Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a free trial is available for this tool.
Smartlook
Smartlook is an analytics platform best suitable for qualitative research, especially for looking into customer behavior and user trends related to your product. With this platform, you will get a chance not only to record sessions and create heat maps but also to conduct mobile and cross-platform analytics, which will definitely give you a deeper understanding of your app’s usability and issues linked to it.
Features:
- Session Recordings
- Heatmaps
- Event Analysis
- Funnels
- Cross-platform Analysis
- Mobile App Analytics
Pros:
- Decent straightforward UI
- Bugs tracker feature – This tool has been particularly useful to many customers when it comes to discovering bugs on the website.
Cons:
- Very limited period of data storage – varies between 1 to 3 months.
- Failed heatmap recordings – especially SPA web pages.
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.7/5
Ease of Use – 4.7/5
Customer Service – 4.5/5
Value for money – 4.4/5
Pricing:
Plans – Pricing is starting at € 31 / month.
Discounts – No.
Free trial / Freemium – Yes, a free plan and a 10-day trial period for other plans.
WatchThemLive
WatchThemLive is another Hotjar substitution that is worth a mention. This platform is a great tool for those who wish to analyze every single detail of current user trends and customer engagement on their digital products. WatchThemLive can also help you note any inconsistencies or bugs that might lead to poorer usability of your website/application.
Features:
- Session Recording
- User Tracking
- Heatmaps
- Analytics
- Conversion & Goal Tracking
- Page Optimization
Pros:
- Competitive pricing
Cons:
- Very limited toolkit – Compared to our other alternatives, this Hotjar substitution offers limited possibilities to conduct tests apart from usability testing
- No unique links for each test – Even though this might seem like a small drawback, unique test links make participant recruitment and results usage easier.
- No A/B testing feature
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.5/5
Ease of Use – 5/5
Customer Service – 4.5/5
Value for money – 5/5
Pricing:
Plans – The annual pricing starts at $30/month. Different pricing plans are available depending on the frequency of payments (annual/monthly).
Discounts – No.
Free trial / Freemium – Yes, a free plan is available.
Userfeel
Userfeel is a company which provides features for both unmoderated and moderated testing (through session recordings and 1:1 live interviews), which will greatly help you extend the scope of your research beyond session recordings and heatmaps.
At the same time, this software does not require specific skills and is quite easy to implement in the working process even for people with no previous experience in the field of UX research.
Features:
- Unmoderated Testing
- Moderated Testing
- System Usability Scale
Pros:
- Voice transcription
- Participants panel with testers from over 40 countries
Cons:
- Poor quality of testers panel – some users have complained about issues with testers not having specific qualities defined before the conduction of the study, which made the research ineffective. Having a proper user panel is definitely vital for the quality of the study.
- High pricing compared to competitors
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.6/5
Ease of Use – 4.6/5
Customer Service – 4.1/5
Value for money – 4.4/5
Pricing:
Plans – Pricing depends on the number of sessions/month and is from $30/tester for unmoderated tests and $60/tester for moderated tests.
Discounts – 25% off for NGOs and educational institutions.
Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a 60-day trial period.
FullStory
FullStory is a powerful software which will help you improve the Digital Experience of your virtual products by collecting usage data and customer behavior patterns related to your website/app and transforming them into insights using data analytics. This platform is a nice alternative to Hotjar if the main goal of your studies is to be focused on usability testing.
Features:
- Journey Mapping
- Heatmaps
- Session Replays
- Click Testing
- User Segments
Pros:
- Effortless implementation
- Possibility for powerful integrations with other tools
Cons:
- Ineffective limited toolkit – FullStory’s users have complained about some features being useless or hard to implement.
- Poor customer service
- Limited timeframe for result evaluation – This Hotjar alternative only stores your data for a limited period. Moreover, the extraction of the data can also be a burden.
Reviews
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.6/5
Ease of Use – 4.4/5
Customer Service – 4.3/5
Value for money – 4.1/5
Pricing:
Plans – Information on demand.
Discounts – No.
Free trial / Freemium – Yes, a 14-day trial for Business Plan.
UXcam
UXCam is yet another platform which can be employed to substitute Hotjar. The focus of this tool is mostly on session recording and heatmap analysis, so it will be a great fit if you want to focus your research on website usability issues.
Features:
- Session replays
- User and heatmap analytics
- Funnel, event and issue analytics
- 3rd-party integrations
Pros:
- Highly detailed session recording – which makes your research more effective
- Responsive customer service – including issue resolutions
Cons:
- Confusing pricing plans
- Limited number of tools provided – UXCam you might fail to cover all your research needs.
- Problems with longer video recordings – longer sessions often don’t get recorded, so you might lose essential data.
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.6/5
Ease of Use – 4.8/5
Customer Service – 5/5
Value for money – 4.6/5
Pricing:
Plans – on demand.
Discounts – up to 50% discount on an annual premium contract over 50K.
Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a free plan and a 14-day trial
Contentsquare
Contentsquare is another powerful Hotjar competitor in our list. This software is used for digital experience analytics and through some very extensive features helps customers reveal any hidden behavioral patterns that might impact users’ interactions with digital products such as apps or websites. Using this platform will aid you in creating better customer experiences, as well as having faster business growth and better product agility.
Features:
- Form Analysis
- Customer Journey Analysis
- Session Replay
- Zone-based Heatmaps
Pros:
- Responsive customer support
- Eye-catching visual design – This will give you an upper hand when it comes to presenting the outcomes to shareholders.
Cons:
- Regular glitches and bugs – However, Contentsquare’s support team has been praised by the clients for its responsiveness.
- Steep learning curve
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.8/5
Ease of Use – 4.4/5
Customer Service – 4.9/5
Value for money – 4.4/5
Pricing:
Plans – on demand.
Discounts – no information is available.
Free trial/ Freemium – no information is available.
LogRocket
Combining session replay, product analytics and error tracking, LogRocket is an efficient platform designed for software and marketing teams to help create better digital experiences for users of their digital products.
Features:
- Session Replay
- Frontend Performance Monitoring
- Product Analytics
- Error Tracking
- UX Analytics
Pros:
- Provides powerful integrations – with tools such as Sentry.
- Customizability
- Effortless set-up and SDK documentation which is easy to follow
Cons:
- Higher pricing compared to other alternatives – Especially if you want to test both an app and a website, as for that you will have to invest in two separate subscriptions
- Steep learning curve
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.9/5
Ease of Use – 4.6/5
Customer Service – 4.9/5
Value for money – 4.3/5
Pricing:
Plans – a Free plan is available, and pricing starts at $199 per month for mobile analytics and $99 per month for website analytics.
Discounts – available for annual billing.
Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a 14-day trial.
VWO Insights
VWO Insights uses a behavior analysis engine to help companies identify obstructions that weaken customers’ user experience and highlight areas that can be used for further development opportunities.
Features:
- Cross-Device Heatmap and Visitor recording
- Clickmap
- Heatmap Comparison
- Funnels
- Page and Session Level Recordings
- Scrollmap
- White-labelled Surveys
Pros:
- Seamless UX
- Helpful supporting materials – clients have often mentioned the good quality of tutorials for separate features and customer support.
Cons:
- Separate plans for Mobile and Website testing
- Limited features range – Although the platform provides many other features, such as A/B testing, split URL testing and report customization, you will have to buy a different subscription for them and overall the platform is quite expensive.
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 5/5
Ease of Use – 5/5
Customer Service – 0/5
Value for money – 4.0/5
Pricing:
Plans – on demand.
Discounts – no information available.
Free trial/ Freemium – no information available.
Microsoft Clarity
Clarity is a great free tool developed by Microsoft that can substitute Hotjar. Even though the usability and features it offers are quite few, this can be a great choice for someone who does not want to invest a lot of resources and does not require extensive user experience research.
Features:
- Heatmaps
- Session Recordings
- Insights
Pros:
- The software is free forever
- Integration with Google Analytics
Cons:
- No advanced features or analytics – compared to other alternatives in our list, Clarity offers the more basic features.
- Confusing User Interface
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.7/5
Ease of Use – 4.6/5
Customer Service – 4.7/5
Value for money – 5/5
Pricing:
Plans – the platform is absolutely free.
Discounts – No.
Free trial/ Freemium – No.
Glassbox
Glassbox is our next alternative to Hotjar and it is a great substitute for the software indeed. The company provides many analytics features such as funnel, mobile app, and performance analysis in addition to offering session replays and heatmapping which is quite helpful for a better understanding of your digital customers.
Features:
- Customer Journey Analytics
- Mobile App Analytics
- Session Replay
- Performance Analytics
- Product Analytics
- Interaction & Heatmaps
- Funnel Analysis
- Struggle and Error Analysis
Pros:
- User-friendly interface
- Fantastic customer support
Cons:
- Bugs and inconsistencies in the journey maps
- No possibility to segment session recordings by IP address
Reviews:
No information is available on Capterra.
Pricing:
Plans – information is available on demand.
Discounts – No information.
Free trial/ Freemium – No information.
Plerdy
Plerdy is a multifunctional SaaS solution that aids in conversion improvement and improving the UX of digital products based on usability research results. As a great bonus, this tool facilitates pop-up forms’ creation and you can effortlessly implement them without having to consult developers and designers.
Features:
- Website Heatmap Tool
- Session Replay
- Pop-up Software
- Net Promoter Score
- Event Tracking Tool
- Funnel Analysis
Pros:
- Extensive toolkit – Plerdy has many great additional features that have been praised by the customers
- Detailed customisation and personalisation of pop-ups
Cons:
- A steeper learning curve due to the UI – some customers have found this platform to be confusing in the beginning due to the quality of the user interface.
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.9/5
Ease of Use – 4.8/5
Customer Service – 4.7/5
Value for money – 4.9/5
Pricing:
Plans – a Free plan is available, and pricing starts at $98 per month
Discounts – No.
Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a 14-day trial is available.
Lucky Orange
Lucky orange is our last (but not least!) alternative to Hotjar. This tool is mostly focused on usability testing of the websites and helps clients analyze potential drawbacks that might lead to worse conversion rates through session recording and heatmaps.
Features:
- Session Recordings
- Surveys
- Heatmaps
- Live Chat
- Conversion Funnels
- Announcements
- Form Analysis
Pros:
- Great and easily understandable UI
- Helpful additional features – such as conversion funnels and announcements
- Ability to track users’ activity in real-time
Cons:
- Very limited data storage
- Lower quality of the dashboards
- Limited integration possibilities with Shopify apps
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.7/5
Ease of Use – 4.7/5
Customer Service – 4.7/5
Value for money – 4.7/5
Pricing:
Plans – a Free plan is available, and pricing starts at $14 per month
Discounts – a 20% discount for an annual subscription
Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a 7-day trial is available
Are you ready to make the decision?
We hope our article helped you gather valuable insights into the possibilities each Hotjar alternative can provide and inspired you to make the right choice.
And if you are still unsure which software to choose, why not try our top alternative – UXtweak? Schedule a demo call with the company or go ahead and create a free account and discover all the incredible ways it can help improve your digital product’s UX!
