That’s why we have prepared a list of the top 16 Hotjar alternatives, and now you can choose the best suitable software for your requirements without wasting any time!
Top 16 Hotjar alternatives:
- UXtweak
- Survicate
- Mouseflow
- Crazy Egg
- Smartlook
- WatchThemLive
- Userfeel
- FullStory
- UXCam
- Contentsquare
- LogRocket
- VWO Insights
- Microsoft Clarity
- Glassbox
- Plerdy
- Lucky Orange
Tip: Refresh your knowledge of the basic functions of Hotjar, or or keep reading to discover new alternatives 🐝 Here’s a quick comparison table based on the tool’s reviews from Capterra:
Rating | Ease of Use | Quality of Support | Pricing | |
UXtweak | 4.8/5 | 4.7/5 | 5.0/5 | ✓ Free plan Plus plan - $708/year |
Survicate | 4.5/5 | 4.3/5 | 4.5/5 | ✓ Free plan Business plan - $1,404/year |
Mouseflow | 4.7/5 | 4.6/5 | 4.6/5 | ✓ Free plan Growth plan - €1,308/year |
Crazy Egg | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.1/5 | ✗ No free plan Plus plan - $1,188/year |
Smartlook | 4.7/5 | 4.8/5 | 4.5/5 | ✓ Free plan Paid plan starts at $720/year |
WatchThemLive | 4.5/5 | 5.0/5 | 4.5/5 | ✓ Free plan Paid plan starts at $348/year |
Userfeel | 4.6/5 | 4.6/5 | 4.2/5 | ✗ No free plan From $30 to $180 per respondent |
Fullstory | 4.6/5 | 4.3/5 | 4.3/5 | ✗ No free plan Upon request |
UXcam | 4.7/5 | 4.8/5 | 5.0/5 | ✓ Free plan Upon request |
Contentsquare | 4.8/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.8/5 | ✗ No free plan Upon request |
LogRocket | 4.9/5 | 4.7/5 | 4.8/5 | ✓ Free plan Paid plan starts at $828/year |
VWO Insights | 5.0/5 | 5.0/5 | 0.0/5 | ✓ Free plan Information is available on demand. |
Microsoft Clarity | 4.8/5 | 4.7/5 | 4.7/5 | The platform is free |
Plerdy | 4.8/5 | 4.7/5 | 4.7/5 | ✓ Free plan Scale plan - $612/year |
Lucky Orange | 4.7/5 | 4.7/5 | 4.7/5 | ✓ Free plan Grow plan - $768/year |
1. UXtweak
UXtweak is the first Hotjar alternative on the list and it is a powerful tool that provides comprehensive insights into users’ behavior. This UX research software provides similar features to Hotjar for heatmap analysis and session recordings that allow you to observe web visitors, 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
- Survey tool
- Tree Testing tool
- Preference Tests
- Card Sorting
- Moderated Testing
- Five Second Test
- Website & Mobile Testing
- Prototype Testing (with Invision,Figma & Axure integrations)
- First Click Test
- User Panel
- Own Database
- Onsiet Recruiting Widget
Try UXtweak’s features as a respondent in these demos 👇
Pros:
- Advanced analytics features
- A 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:
- Complex Feature Additions: The platform’s frequent addition of complex features may pose a challenge for some users.
- UXtweak note: To address this, new tutorial videos are being produced.
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
- Overall Score – 4.8/5
- Ease of Use – 4.7/5
- Customer Service – 5/5
- Value for money – 4.8/5
Pricing:
- Plans
- Starter plan – FREE,
- Plus plan starts at 49€/month (annual billing),
- Business plan – 153€/month (annual billing),
- Enterprise solution is also available
- Free trial / Freemium – Yes, the starter plan is free.
2. Survicate
Survicate stands out as an intuitive yet powerful survey software, great for collecting continuous customer insights at scale and across multiple channels. It supports various use cases, from measuring customer satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) to collecting website, product, and mobile app feedback. With an AI-assisted survey creator, advanced targeting, and a wide range of customization options, Survicate makes creating and running on-brand surveys quick and effortless.
Features:
- Advanced survey targeting
- AI-powered survey creator
- Many third-party integrations (including Hubspot, Salesforce and FullStory)
Pros:
- An intuitive and simple-to-use tool – makes collecting and analyzing customer feedback quick and easy
- Advanced logic and targeting – ensure you get the most relevant feedback
- Easy customization
Cons:
- Primarily focused on customer insights – not ideal for other survey types
Reviews:
Based on the information by Capterra:
- Overall Score – 4.5/5
- Ease of Use – 4.3/5
- Customer Service – 4.5/5
- Value for money – 3.6/5
Pricing:
- Plans – Plans start at €53/month (annual billing) and are limited to 250 responses/month.
- Discounts – 10% per annual billing
- Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, Survicate offers a 10-day free trial of its Business plan. Post-trial, users can opt for the free account, which allows up to 25 survey responses per month
3. Mouseflow
Mouseflow is another great customer feedback 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 that 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 – 4.5/5
Pricing:
- Plans – Plans start at €31/month (annual billing) and are calculated according to the number of recordings/month.
- Discounts – 20% per annual billing
- Free trial/ Freemium – Yes
4. Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is another one of the more well-known alternatives to Hotjar to help you observe user interaction and gauge customer engagement. 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 – 4.5 /5
- Customer Service – 4.1/5
- Value for money – 4.1/5
Pricing:
- Plans – Pricing starts at $49/month with annual billing.
- Discounts – No.
- Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a free 60 day trial (because of their very low learning curve) is available for this tool.
5. Smartlook
Smartlook is an analytics platform best suitable for qualitative research, especially for actionable insights into customer behavior and user trends related to your product. With this platform, you will get a chance not only to record user sessions and create heatmaps but also to track mobile and cross-platform analytics, which will 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 – 4.7/5
- Ease of Use – 4.8/5
- Customer Service – 4.5/5
- Value for Money – 4.5/5
Pricing:
- Plans – Pricing is starting at €55/month.
- Discounts – No.
- Free trial / Freemium – Yes, they have free plan and a 30-day free trial period for other plans.
6. WatchThemLive
WatchThemLive is another Hotjar substitution that is worth a mention and it can greatly help in bettering your customer experience. 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
- Detailed 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:
- Overall – 4.5/5
- Ease of Use – 5.0/5
- Customer Service – 4.5/5
- Value for money 5.0/5
Pricing:
- Plans – The annual pricing starts at $29/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.
7. Userfeel
Userfeel is a company that provides advanced features for both unmoderated and moderated testing, which will greatly help you extend the scope of your research beyond session recordings and heatmaps. Product teams will benefit from detailed insights gained from observing real users in session recording as well as 1:1 researcher-user interaction. 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 – 4.2/5
- Value for money – 4.5/5
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 – No information available, most likely there is not.
8. FullStory
FullStory is a powerful software that will help you improve the digital experience of your virtual products by collecting usage data and visitor behavior patterns related to your website/app and transforming them into comprehensive insights using data analytics and marketing dashboards functionality. 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
- Heatmap Feature
- Session Replays
- Click Testing
- User Segments
Pros:
- Effortless implementation
- Robust feature for user journey mapping
- 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 – 4.6/5
- Ease of Use – 4.3/5
- Customer Service – 4.3/5
- Value for money – 4.1/5
Pricing:
- Plans – Information on demand.
- Discounts – No.
- Free plan – No, but a 14-day free trial for Business Plan is avaliable
9. UXcam
UXCam is yet another platform that can be employed to substitute Hotjar and observe every user’s digital interaction. 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. However, for complex user research, it is best used in combination with a detailed analytics platform and other tools. 
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 – 4.7/5
- Ease of Use – 4.8/5
- Customer Service – 5/5
- Value for money – 4.7/5
Pricing:
- Plans – on demand.
- Discounts – up to 50% discount on an annual premium contract over 50K.
- Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a free plan is avaliable
10. Contentsquare
Contentsquare is another powerful Hotjar competitor in our list to provide insights into user interactions. 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 – 4.5/5
- Customer Service – 4.8/5
- Value for money – 4.4/5
Pricing:
- Plans – on demand.
- Discounts – no information is available.
- Free trial/ Freemium – no information is available.
11. 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 – 4.9/5
- Ease of Use – 4.7/5
- Quality of Support – 4.8/5
- 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 – Yes, a 14-day trial is avaliable
12. 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-labeled 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 – 4/5
Pricing:
- Plans – on demand
- Discounts – no information available
- Free trial/ Freemium – no information available
13. Microsoft Clarity
Clarity is a great free tool developed by Microsoft that can substitute Hotjar and allow you to observe the basic behavioral patterns of your users. 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 – 4.8/5
- Ease of Use – 4.7/5
- Customer Service – 4.7/5
- Value for money – 4.9/5
Pricing:
- Plans – the platform is absolutely free.
- Discounts – No.
- Free trial/ Freemium – No.
14. Glassbox
Glassbox is our next alternative to Hotjar and it is a great substitute for the software indeed providing actionable insights into user interactions. 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 & Detailed Heatmaps
- Funnel Analysis
- Struggle and Error Analysis
Pros:
- Intuitive User interface
- Fantastic customer support
Cons:
- Bugs and inconsistencies in the journey maps
- No possibility to segment session recordings by IP address
Reviews:
- Overall – 5.0/5
- Ease of Use – 4.9/5
- Customer Service – 5.0/5
- Value for money – 4.9/5
Pricing:
- Plans – information is available on demand.
- Discounts – No information.
- Free trial/ Freemium – No information.
15. 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 customization and personalization 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 – 4.8/5
- Ease of Use – 4.7/5
- Customer Service – 4.7/5
- Value for money – 5.0/5
Pricing:
- Plans – a Free plan is available, and pricing starts at $32 per month
- Discounts – Yes – 35% off when billed anually
- Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a 14-day trial is available.
16. Lucky Orange
Lucky Orange is our last (but not least!) alternative to Hotjar that can help you observe user behavioral patterns. 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 detailed 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 $39 per month
- Discounts – a 20% discount for an annual subscription
- Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, a 7-day trial is available
What is Hotjar?
Based on the island of Malta, Hotjar is one of the most well-known user experience research tools on the market and it provides excellent features for dynamic heatmaps and user session analysis. However, Hotjar fails to facilitate users for more complex user research, which is why their clients have to invest in additional software with a more robust feature set to truly create the best possible user experience. Its pricing and plans are based on the number of recordings per month you need.
Hotjar features:
- Heatmaps
- Screen Recordings
- Feedback Widgets
- Surveys
- Live interviews
Why do people like Hotjar?
- Key features: Outstanding quality of the heatmap feature, funnel analysis, click event tracking, real-time user session replay, and user segments.
- Powerful integrations with platforms such as Hubspot, Google Analytics, WordPress, Shopify, and others and easy installation via a tracking code (possibility of installation through Google Tag Manager).
- Seamless dashboards and great categorization based on events and tags.
Why do people look for an Hotjar alternative?
- Very limited toolkit
Even though Hotjar is very advanced in heatmaps and screen recordings, it allows little flexibility for full-scale UX research, lacking more advanced capabilities such as prototype, usability and user acceptance testing features. In addition to this heatmaps tool, a well-rounded product team and UX research team will have to implement additional user testing tools with other advanced features.
- Poor usability of the free plan (not enough monthly sessions)
- With a larger amount of recordings per month, it gets quite expensive fast
Hotjar reviews
Based on the information provided by Capterra:
- Overall Score – 4.7/5
- Ease of Use – 4.5/5
- Customer Service – 4.5/5
- Value for money – 4.5/5
List of Free Hotjar Alternatives
Here’s a list of our free forever Hotjar alternatives that you can make use of in your next UX research project. Some have been mentioned in this article, others are worth exploring:
- UXtweak
- Google Analytics 360
- Mouseflow
- Full Story
- Smartlook
- Inspectlet
- LogRocket
- Microsoft Clarity
- WatchThemLive
- UXsniff
- UXCam
Are you ready to make the decision?
We hope this list of heatmap tools 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 with our actionable insights!
