Hotjar is a super popular tool among eCommerce companies. It’s fairly priced, has tons of functionality, and is easy to use. It competes with many different tools in each of its service offerings. It’s an analytics tool that offers heatmaps, session recordings, in session surveys of website browsers, post purchase surveys, and user research / interviews. It’s best known for its heatmap product and has expanded from there. We recommend Hotjar for smaller companies that are looking for an inexpensive starting place to start getting feedback from users to improve their website experience. As your company scales you can swap out Hotjar for more expensive point solutions where you’ve determined a more advanced tool makes sense. That doesn’t mean you’ll scale away from Hotjar completely. Many larger DTC companies including FabFitFun, Simple Modern, and Ruggable still use Hotjar.
Best for: Small ($0-10M annual revenue) and medium ($10-50M) size companies.
Hotjar is an analytics tool that offers heatmaps, session recordings, in session surveys of website browsers, post purchase surveys, and user research / interviews.
Hotjar was founded in 2014 on the island of Malta by Dr. David Darmanin, a conversion rate optimization expert. It was bootstrapped from the beginning. After two previous failed startups, David learned to validate product-market fit early. The team set a goal to build an MVP analytics product in 6 months. They generated interest through incentives like t-shirts and lifetime accounts for early signups. After launching a successful free beta, they worked through challenges like scaling up users and transitioning them to paid plans. Within 5 years and without outside funding, Hotjar reached $19 million in recurring revenue. Today they are used by over 1.2M websites in 180+ countries.
Hotjar offers three products: Observe, Ask, and Engage. Observe includes the heatmap and recording products. Ask includes the survey (post purchase and more) and feedback (in session website browsing surveys) products. Engage is the User Interviews product (recruiting, hosting, and moderating user interviews. All of the tools are designed to get feedback from your users in order to improve the experience on your website.
Within each product, Hotjar has four pricing plans: Basic (free forever), Plus (starting at $39/month), Business (starting at $79/month), and Scale (starting at $159/month). The Basic plan is free and offers limited features, while the paid plans offer more features and higher allowances for the number of sessions, responses, or interviews. Hotjar billing is site-specific, and pricing applies on a per-site basis.
Since Hotjar does many different things, we’ve broken down its competitors by service offering.
Heatmaps & Session Recordings
Microsoft Clarity
Lucky Orange
Mouseflow
Smartlook
Crazy Egg
Heatmap.com
FullStory
LogRocket
Matomo
Post purchase surveys
KnoCommerce
Fairing
Loud Hippo
In session feedback
Qualtrics
Qualaroo
SurveyMonkey
Userpilot
User research / interviews
UserTesting
SurveyMonkey
Pollfish
Alchemer
Qualtrics
What does Hotjar do?
Hotjar encompasses several tools. It’s an analytics tool that offers heatmaps, session recordings, in session surveys of website browsers, post purchase surveys, and user research / interviews. It’s best known for its heatmap product
What companies use Hotjar?
Hotjar is used by tech companies like Hubspot, Mixpanel, Adobe, and Unbounce in addition to large DTC companies like FabFitFun, Ruggable, and Simple Modern
Is Hotjar free?
Yes, Hotjar offers free plans. The number of sessions or answers to questions are limited in the free plans and you might not have access to all of the functionality of paid plans but they have a forever free offering for smaller companies.
Does Hotjar work with Shopify?
Yes, Hotjar works with Shopify. In order to install it, you will have to update your store’s theme code, but the process is very straightforward and easily accomplishable by non-technical people.
Does Hotjar work with Wix?
Yes, Hotjar works with Wix. In order to install it, you will have to add custom code in your site’s settings, but the process is very straightforward and easily accomplishable by non-technical people.
Is Hotjar HIPAA compliant?
Hojar is not HIPAA compliant. If you are looking for a HIPAA compliant option you should research alternatives.
Is Hotjar legit?
Yes, Hotjar is very legit. It's used by many of the largest tech and DTC companies including Hubspot, Adobe, FabFitFun, Simple Modern, and Ruggable.
Is Hotjar SaaS?
Yes, Hotjar operates with a SaaS (Software as a Service) model.
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