hotjar
Hotjar is a behavior analytics and user feedback platform that helps website and app owners understand how visitors interact with their digital properties.
Publisher review
Hotjar is a behavior analytics and user feedback platform that helps website and app owners understand how visitors interact with their digital properties. Founded in 2014 and now part of Contentsquare, it is used by over 1.3 million websites and apps, including HubSpot and HelloFresh. Hotjar is designed for marketers, product managers, and UX researchers who need qualitative insights—such as why users drop off or what frustrates them—that traditional analytics tools like Google Analytics cannot provide. The platform is especially suited for teams that want to combine session recordings, heatmaps, and direct user feedback in a single tool without heavy developer involvement after the initial JavaScript snippet is installed.
Hotjar’s core capabilities include heatmaps that show clicks, scrolls, and mouse movements on a page, providing more detail than Crazy Egg’s click-only views. Visitor recordings capture full user sessions, allowing you to watch exactly how a user navigates, hesitates, or abandons a page. Conversion funnels visualize drop-off points in a flow, while form analysis highlights fields where users struggle. Feedback polls, surveys, and an incoming feedback widget let you ask users why they acted a certain way. The Engage feature enables direct 1:1 user interviews, and user tests let you collect behavioral data across segments. All features are accessible after a one-time JavaScript install, with no ongoing developer dependency.
Hotjar competes directly with tools like Mouseflow, Fullstory, Lucky Orange, Crazy Egg, Smartlook, LogRocket, and Microsoft Clarity. Its key differentiator is the breadth of features—combining recordings, heatmaps, surveys, and interviews—in one platform, whereas many rivals specialize in only one or two areas. However, Hotjar’s advanced analytics are less detailed than those in Fullstory or LogRocket, and its event and goal analysis is not as extensive as Google Analytics. Since joining Contentsquare, Hotjar has gained access to a more powerful unified platform, but the base Hotjar product remains distinct and separately priced.
The honest trade-offs: Hotjar’s pricing is not ideal for small teams at higher usage levels, as costs can escalate quickly. Real-time data processing can be slower than expected, which may frustrate users needing instant insights. The data reporting tools are less detailed than those of some competitors, limiting deep quantitative analysis. Additionally, JavaScript-heavy pages can obscure user interactions within dynamic content, making it hard to see exactly what a user is doing inside a single-page app or interactive widget.
How it works
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Heatmaps
Visual maps showing where users click, scroll, or hover on a page, including mouse movement data and click counts per element.
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Visitor recordings
Video playback of individual user sessions, capturing every scroll, click, hesitation, and tap to reveal usability issues.
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Conversion funnels
Visualize where users drop off along a defined conversion path, and combine with recordings to understand why.
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Form analysis
Shows how users interact with forms, highlighting fields that cause confusion or abandonment to reduce failed completions.
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Feedback polls
On-page polls that ask users why they did or did not take a specific action, capturing qualitative reasons for behavior.
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Surveys
Customizable surveys (e.g., NPS, open-ended) triggered by exit intent or page visit to capture user sentiment directly.
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User interviews (Engage)
Recruit and conduct 1:1 video interviews with users inside the platform to validate ideas or identify friction in real time.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- Combines heatmaps, recordings, surveys, and interviews into a single platform, eliminating the need for multiple tools.
- Heatmaps show mouse movements and click counts on hover, offering more detail than Crazy Egg’s click-only views.
- Visitor recordings were one of the first such features in the market and remain easy to set up with no developer dependency after initial install.
- Surveys and feedback polls can be triggered by exit intent, letting you ask users why they didn’t convert directly on the page.
Trade-offs
- Pricing is not ideal for small teams at higher usage levels, affecting value for money as traffic grows.
- Real-time data processing can be slower than expected, delaying access to recent session recordings.
- Data reporting tools are less detailed than those in competitors like Fullstory or LogRocket, limiting deep quantitative analysis.
- JavaScript-heavy pages can obscure user interactions within dynamic content, making it hard to see what a user does inside a single-page app.
Pricing context
From $39/month billed annually for the Plus plan; a free Basic plan is available with limited daily recordings and heatmaps. Higher tiers (Business, Scale) add more daily recordings, users, and advanced features.
Getting started with hotjar
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Sign up for Hotjar
Go to hotjar.com and click the Sign Up button. Choose a plan: the free Basic plan is a good starting point. Enter your email, set a password, and confirm your account via the verification email.
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Install the tracking snippet
After logging in, copy the JavaScript snippet from the installation guide. Paste it into the <head> section of every page on your website, just before the closing </head> tag. Verify the snippet is active by checking the Site Status page.
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Configure a heatmap
In the Heatmaps section, click Create Heatmap. Enter the URL of the page you want to analyze. Set the device type (desktop, tablet, or mobile) and click Create. Wait for enough visitor data to accumulate before reviewing.
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Watch a visitor recording
Go to Recordings and browse the list of captured sessions. Use filters like page URL or duration to find relevant recordings. Click on a session to play it back, observing mouse movements, clicks, and scrolling behavior.
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Set up a feedback poll
Navigate to Feedback and click Create Poll. Choose a trigger, such as exit intent or after a specific time on page. Write a question like 'Why didn't you complete your purchase?' and publish the poll to start collecting responses.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Hotjar and what does it do?
Hotjar is a behavior analytics and user feedback platform that helps website and app owners understand how visitors interact with their digital properties. It combines heatmaps, visitor recordings, surveys, and feedback polls into one tool for qualitative insights.
How do Hotjar heatmaps work?
Hotjar heatmaps show where users click, scroll, or hover on a page, including mouse movement data and click counts per element. This provides more detail than Crazy Egg’s click-only views, helping you identify which areas attract or lose attention.
What is included in Hotjar's pricing plans?
Hotjar offers a free Basic plan with limited daily recordings and heatmaps. Paid plans start at $39 per month billed annually for Plus, with higher tiers like Business and Scale adding more daily recordings, users, and advanced features.
How does Hotjar compare to Fullstory?
Hotjar combines heatmaps, recordings, surveys, and interviews in one platform, while Fullstory focuses more on advanced analytics and event tracking. Hotjar’s data reporting is less detailed than Fullstory’s, making it better for qualitative insights than deep quantitative analysis.
Can Hotjar be used for user interviews?
Yes, Hotjar’s Engage feature lets you recruit and conduct 1:1 video interviews with users inside the platform. This helps validate ideas or identify friction in real time, adding direct qualitative feedback to your behavior analytics.
What are the main weaknesses of Hotjar?
Hotjar’s pricing can escalate quickly for small teams at higher usage levels. Real-time data processing may be slower than expected, and data reporting tools are less detailed than competitors like Fullstory. JavaScript-heavy pages can also obscure interactions within dynamic content.
Alternatives
How hotjar compares
Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
hotjar
- Pricing
- From $39/month billed annually for the Plus plan; a free Basic plan is available with limited daily recordings and heatmaps. Higher tiers (Business, Scale) add more daily recordings, users, and advanced features.
- Target
- Hotjar is a behavior analytics and user feedback platform that helps website and app owners understand how visitors interact with their digital properties.
- Strength
- Combines heatmaps, recordings, surveys, and interviews into a single platform, eliminating the need for multiple tools.
- Watch for
- Pricing is not ideal for small teams at higher usage levels, affecting value for money as traffic grows.
Microsoft Clarity
- Pricing
- Free (unlimited sessions and recordings)
- Target
- Teams wanting free heatmaps and session recordings with no traffic caps
- Deployment
- JavaScript snippet
- Strength
- Rage click and dead click detection to flag UX issues
- Watch for
- No surveys, feedback widgets, or funnel analysis features
FullStory
- Pricing
- Free tier; paid plans from $199/month (usage-based)
- Target
- Product and UX teams needing session replay tied to product analytics
- Deployment
- JavaScript snippet
- Strength
- Searchable session replay with structured event query language
- Watch for
- Cost escalates quickly with high session volumes
Crazy Egg
- Pricing
- Paid plans from $99/month (billed annually)
- Target
- Users wanting varied heatmap views and A/B testing
- Deployment
- JavaScript snippet
- Strength
- Multiple heatmap types (click, scroll, confetti) plus A/B testing
- Watch for
- Limited session recording depth and no mobile app analytics
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Sources
Reporting on this tool draws on these publicly available sources.