Key takeaways
✅ Hotjar offers useful UX research tools, including heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys, but its pricing structure is fragmented and expensive, especially for businesses needing multiple features.
💰 Hotjar pricing can exceed €9,500 per month.
🔄 Pricing complexity is a common complaint, as users must subscribe separately to Observe, Ask, and Engage instead of having a bundled option.
🎯 Hotjar’s free plan is very limited, offering only basic features with restricted data collection, making it less useful for scaling businesses.
🔎 If you’re looking for a more comprehensive, cost-effective UX research tool, UXtweak is the strongest alternative to Hotjar.
Quick answer: how much does Hotjar cost?
Hotjar’s pricing ranges from €0 to €9,500+ per month (€0-114,000+ per year), depending on usage and features.
Hotjar offers three main products: Observe, Ask, and Engage. Each designed for a different purpose: Observe helps you track user behavior with heatmaps and recordings, Ask lets you collect feedback through surveys, and Engage enables user interviews for deeper insights. You can customize these products – for example, by increasing the number of daily sessions.
You can also save 20% on all costs with annual billing.
Overview of Hotjar pricing plans
Pricing structure of Hotjar can be frustrating, especially for agencies or businesses managing multiple websites, as the cost scales up rapidly without offering much flexibility.
Every Site you add to Hotjar gets access to all three products: Observe, Ask, and Engage. Your selected plan determines the features and limits for:
- Sessions (Observe)
- Responses (Ask)
- Interviews (Engage)
Each product offers four plan options:
- Basic (Free)
- Plus
- Business
- Scale
Observe, Ask, and Engage products
- For Observe (Heatmaps & Recordings)
- If you’re just starting out, you can use the Basic plan for free with 35 daily sessions.
- Plus plan costs €32/month and offers 100 daily sessions.
- If you need more, the Business plan starts at €80/month with 500 daily sessions, going up to €9,448/month for 270,000 daily sessions.
- For advanced features, the Scale plan costs €171/month for 500 daily sessions, offering additional features. With a larger number of sessions, the price increases, but it is not public.
- For Ask (Surveys & Feedback)
- The Basic plan is free, letting you collect up to 20 monthly responses.
- If you need more, the Plus plan costs €48/month for 250 responses.
- Business plan is €64/month for 500 responses.
- Scale plan is €128/month for even detailed feedback collection.
- For Engage (User Interviews)
- If you’re running occasional interviews, the Basic plan is free and allows 3 interviews per month.
- Plus plan costs €39.2/month and provides up to 36 interviews per year.
- Business plan costs €440/month for 144 interviews per year.
- If you need even more Scale plan requires a custom quote and supports up to 240 interviews per year.
How to choose the right Hotjar plan
- Define your budget – there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Determine how much you can realistically invest in UX research without overextending your resources.
- Identify key stakeholder priorities – what’s the most critical question your team needs answered? Whether it’s reducing churn, improving conversions, or understanding user frustrations, align your choice with business goals.
- Explore relevant use cases – look at real-world applications of Hotjar’s features to see how others have tackled similar challenges. We have prepared some of them for you below.
1. Observe (Heatmaps & Recordings)
Best for: Tracking user behavior, identifying UX issues, and improving conversions.
Use cases:
✅ E-commerce conversion optimization:
- Identify drop-off points in checkout funnels using session recordings.
- Optimize product page layouts based on heatmap engagement.
✅ SaaS feature adoption:
- Use engagement zones to see which areas get the most attention.
- Track how users interact with new features.
- A/B test different CTA placements using heatmaps.
Did you know that…?
Some UX professionals on Reddit shared frustrations with tools like Hotjar, Crazyegg, Fullstory, and Inspectlet, citing issues like performance slowdowns, JS conflicts, and steep pricing.
If you’re seeking a reliable, fairly priced alternative, UXtweak is a standout choice. It offers features like user recordings, heatmaps, and clickmaps without the headaches. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with Figma, Axure, and InVision, which many of our customers love.
2. Ask (Surveys & Feedback Collection)
Best for: Gathering direct user insights to improve product experience.
Use cases:
✅ Minimizing customer cancellations for subscription-based businesses:
- Use exit surveys to understand why customers leave.
- Test different pricing models and scale reactions.
✅ Customer service improvements:
- Use embedded surveys to collect user frustration points.
- Analyze automated survey reports to improve service response time.
3. Engage (User Interviews & Usability Tests)
Best for: Conducting live interviews and usability testing for in-depth insights.
Use cases:
✅ User Testing for SaaS Platforms:
- Run live video interviews to see how users interact with features.
- Use built-in video calling and transcriptions to streamline research.
✅ E-commerce Customer Experience Analysis:
- Conduct post-purchase interviews to improve the buying journey.
- Use custom screener questions to target the right participants.
What do users say about Hotjar pricing?
💡 What users appreciate:
- Session recordings provide useful insights – many find them helpful for identifying user struggles, rage clicks, and drop-offs.
- Heatmaps are intuitive – the visual interface is clear and easy to understand, making it accessible even for those without deep analytics experience.
- A range of research tools in one platform – with heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys, it covers multiple aspects of UX research.
👌What do you like best about Hotjar | by Contentsquare?
Session recording is awesome and gives great insight into where your customers are struggling with visibility of u turns and rage clicks. It is really easy to implement, set and fine tune. The only other competitor product I have used is lucky orange and that was horrible.
👎What do you dislike about Hotjar | by Contentsquare?
I dislike the new pricing model and the separation of the various analytics across observe, ask etc. They are all important for product analytics. It would have been much better to keep an option for bundled deals. I am currently reviewing options at my new company and considering not implementing hotjar due the change in their pricing model.
😬 What users find frustrating:
- Pricing structure feels fragmented – the split between Observe, Ask, and Engage means users need multiple plans, which some find less convenient and more expensive than a bundled solution.
- Heatmap inconsistencies – some users report issues with visual accuracy, making it harder to rely on them for precise insights.
- Changes in session recording – switch from manual to automatic continuous recording has led to concerns about data sampling and control over what’s captured.
- The free version isn’t as useful as before – with pricing increases and limitations on features, some users feel the free plan no longer meets their needs.
👌What do you like best about Hotjar | by Contentsquare?
The intuitive interface of the heatmaps and recordings feature.
👎What do you dislike about Hotjar | by Contentsquare?
Increased pricing and some issues with the visual appearance of some heatmaps.
👌 There is a versatile suite of tools included. Between heatmapping, session replay, and feedback surveys, and general surveys, HotJar can fill multiple gaps in your website’s ongoing optimization strategy.
👎I preferred when their session capture was manual instead of automatic and continuous, because there was less data sampling. HotJar is following the business and pricing model of other similar tools, which allows better for ongoing optimization, but makes the free version more and more useless by the day.
Overall, users recognize Hotjar’s value for UX research, but pricing and recent product changes have made some reconsider their options.
Discounts at Hotjar
- Annual Billing Discount – paying yearly saves 20% on all plans.
💡 Pro Tip
This discount help reduce costs, but many users still find the pricing structure fragmented and costly, especially for those needing multiple products.
Hotjar pricing: Pros & Cons
✅ Pros:
- Flexible plans – users can choose from multiple tiers (Basic, Plus, Business, Scale) for Observe, Ask, and Engage products.
- Annual discount – paying yearly saves 20% on costs (most tools have a similar yearly discount in 2025)
❌ Cons:
- Fragmented pricing – users need separate subscriptions for Observe, Ask, and Engage, making it more expensive.
- High costs for large-scale use – pricing can exceed €9,500/month, making it costly for high-traffic sites.
- Limited free plan – the Basic plan provides only minimal access, and some users feel it’s almost useless due to its restrictions compared to paid tiers.
Hotjar likely aimed to create a more customizable experience for users, but the result is a pricing structure that feels overly complex and difficult to navigate.
Free tools similar to Hotjar
UXtweak: better Hotjar alternative
UXtweak is a comprehensive user research platform that supports organizations throughout the development process, from early concepts to final product. It offers a wide range of usability testing tools, including prototype testing, five-second testing, screen recordings, live interviews, remote usability studies, and first-click tests. Users appreciate UXtweak’s intuitive survey tool, analysis features, detailed summaries, study audit, and built-in participant pool, making research faster, more efficient, and accessible.
UXtweak pricing
- Free Plan (€0/month) – Ideal for experimenting with UX research tools at no cost. Includes 15 responses/month, 1 active study, and 14-day result access.
- Basic Plan (€113/month, annual billing) – Designed for small teams needing essential UX research features. Offers 50 responses/month (upgradable), 1 active study (upgradable), unlimited tasks per study, and 12-month data retention.
- Custom Plan (Individual pricing) – Tailored for organizations requiring advanced solutions. Provides unlimited active studies and tasks, customizable responses, live interviews, and access to a global user panel.
Discounts
- Exclusive Deals – UXtweak offers special discounts for universities and NGOs to support research and education. Just contact our sales team to learn more!
UXtweak vs Hotjar
Feature | UXtweak | Hotjar |
Heatmaps | ✓ | ✓ |
Session Recordings | ✓ | ✓ |
Tree Testing & Card Sorting | ✓ | ✗ |
User Testing (moderated & unmoderated) | ✓ | ✗ |
Free Trial (Full Access) | ✓ | ✗ |
Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity is a completely free analytics tool designed to help you observe basic user behavior patterns on your website. While it lacks advanced analytics, it’s a solid choice for those who don’t want to invest in a paid UX research platform.
Clarity pricing
- This tool is for free.
Key Features:
- Heatmaps
- Session Recordings
- Automated Insights
- Integration with Google Analytics
mouseflow
Mouseflow is a strong alternative for businesses looking to optimize conversions and gain deeper behavioral insights. It provides a diverse set of tools, allowing users to automatically generate heatmaps, track user interactions, and analyze conversion funnels.
mouseflow pricing
- Essential (free – €0/month) – 500 user recordings/month, 1 website, 1-month data retention.
- Advanced (€219+/month) – up to 50K-150K sessions, 5 websites, 12-month retention.
- Enterprise (Custom Pricing) – unlimited analytics, 200K+ recordings/month, SSO, dedicated support.
Key features:
- Session Replay
- Heatmaps
- Conversion Funnels
- User Feedback Tools
- Form Analytics
Final Decision: Is Hotjar worth it?
Hotjar offers useful research tools like heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys, but its pricing structure is complex and expensive, especially for businesses needing multiple features. With costs reaching €9,500+ per month, many users feel the fragmented pricing model and limited free plan make it less accessible.
Why not choose uxtweak instead?
- All-in-One Research Platform – UXtweak includes moderated & unmoderated testing, tree testing, card sorting, and first-click tests, which Hotjar lacks.
- More Affordable & Transparent Pricing – UXtweak offers a free plan, lower-cost paid plans, and custom pricing without hidden fees.
- Better Participant Recruitment – Built-in participant panel and study audit features help streamline research.
- Free Trial with Full Access – Unlike Hotjar, UXtweak allows users to try all premium features for free before committing.
- If you’re looking for a more comprehensive, cost-effective UX research tool, UXtweak is a strong alternative to Hotjar. 🚀
