10 best Hotjar alternatives and competitors in 2025

How do users interact with your website? Understanding this behavior is crucial for optimizing your website and enhancing their experience.

While Hotjar is a popular tool for gathering insights through heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys, you may want to seek alternative solutions that better fit your needs or budget.

Fortunately, there are several robust Hotjar alternatives that offer functionalities similar to Hotjar and unique features. In this guide, you’ll explore various options available, allowing you to choose the best tool for your digital strategy.

Why consider Hotjar alternatives?

Hotjar has become a go-to tool with over 1.2 million websites using it for tracking user behavior through heatmaps, session recordings, and feedback surveys.

However, it’s not always the perfect fit, and you might benefit from exploring alternatives to Hotjar that offer more advanced or flexible options.

One key limitation of Hotjar is the lack of comprehensive research methods. While it covers visual behavior tracking well, it doesn’t offer deeper tools like advanced user journey analysis or A/B testing, which could leave gaps in your data insights.

Plus, Hotjar’s reports can feel limited. You have minimal control over customizing the reports, and the data presentation may not provide the level of granularity needed to make well-informed decisions.

This lack of flexibility could slow down your ability to address specific business goals.

Cost is another reason to consider other tools. Hotjar’s pricing model becomes increasingly complex as your website traffic grows, with costs scaling quickly and potentially exceeding your budget.

The features available at each tier might not align with your needs, forcing you to upgrade for essential tools.

Top Hotjar alternatives

By considering options like Hotjar, you can find platforms that offer more robust analytics, flexible reporting, and straightforward pricing—ensuring you’re equipped with the insights and tools needed to grow efficiently.

UserTesting

If you’re looking for a more research-oriented tool, UserTesting is one of the strong alternatives to Hotjar.

While Hotjar focuses on heatmaps and session recordings, UserTesting offers in-depth qualitative insights through features like live video interviews and targeted user panels.

This makes it ideal if you need to dive deeper into the “why” behind user behavior, not just the “what.”

With UserTesting, you can recruit participants that match your audience and gather direct feedback through video responses or in-app surveys.

The platform’s machine-assisted insights also help highlight key moments in user interactions, saving you time when analyzing feedback.

However, UserTesting comes with a few downsides. It’s more expensive than Hotjar, making it less suitable for smaller businesses with tight budgets.

Besides that, the platform focuses more on qualitative research. So it may not replace Hotjar’s visual tracking features like heatmaps or behavior funnels.

Lyssna

Lyssna is a noteworthy option among Hotjar alternatives, especially if you’re focused on understanding customer sentiment and feedback in real-time.

While Hotjar emphasizes visual behavior tracking with heatmaps and session recordings, Lyssna excels at collecting and analyzing qualitative feedback through features like voice-of-customer (VoC) programs and real-time feedback widgets.

This makes it ideal if your priority is gathering actionable customer opinions.

One of Lyssna’s strengths is its text and sentiment analysis tool, which automatically categorizes feedback by emotion and topic.

You can also use customizable dashboards to view insights tailored to your business needs. Unlike Hotjar, Lyssna places more emphasis on feedback loops, helping you close the gap between collecting feedback and taking action.

However, Lyssna may not fully replace Hotjar if you rely heavily on heatmaps or session recordings.

Moreover, it may take some time to set up advanced VoC initiatives. But if customer sentiment is central to your strategy, Lyssna can be a game-changing competitor to Hotjar.

FullStory

FullStory is a powerful alternative to Hotjar, offering more advanced behavior analytics and session replays.

While Hotjar provides basic tracking with heatmaps and recordings, FullStory goes further with frustration signals like Rage Clicks and Dead Clicks, helping you quickly identify where users struggle.

This makes it a great choice if you want deeper insights into user behavior.

FullStory also offers event funnels and retention tracking, allowing you to map the entire user journey and pinpoint where drop-offs occur.

The Search and Session Replay feature lets you search for specific user events, making it easy to analyze behavior in real-time. Its API integrations connect with tools like Slack and Google Analytics, enhancing your workflow.

However, FullStory can be costly, especially for high-traffic sites, and its learning curve may be steeper than Hotjar’s.

But if you need rich behavioral insights and advanced analytics, FullStory provides the depth to optimize your digital experience effectively.

Smartlook

Smartlook is a compelling alternative to Hotjar, offering both behavior analytics and user tracking with advanced features.

Like Hotjar, Smartlook provides session recordings and heatmaps, but it also adds depth with event tracking that automatically logs clicks, form submissions, and custom actions without coding. This makes it ideal if you need detailed insights into specific user interactions.

One of Smartlook’s standout features is retrospective funnel creation, allowing you to build funnels from past data without needing pre-set parameters.

You also get access to always-on recordings, ensuring that no interaction slips through the cracks. Smartlook integrates with tools like Intercom and Google Analytics, making it easier to align data across platforms.

While this Hotjar alternative offers a free plan, its advanced features are locked behind premium tiers, which may not suit businesses on a tight budget.

Additionally, its mobile app analytics may require extra setup. If flexibility and in-depth tracking are priorities, Smartlook is worth considering.

Lucky Orange

Lucky Orange is one of the versatile alternatives to Hotjar, offering behavior-tracking tools with a focus on real-time insights.

Like Hotjar, it provides heatmaps and session recordings, but it stands out with live chat and real-time visitor tracking. This makes it a solid option if you want to engage with users directly while monitoring their behavior.

One of Lucky Orange’s unique features is the dynamic heatmap, which tracks clicks and scrolls across different page states, such as pop-ups or drop-downs.

It also offers conversion funnels and form analytics. This can help you identify where users drop off in the funnel or abandon forms. Lucky Orange integrates with platforms like Shopify and HubSpot, streamlining your workflow.

However, its interface can feel overwhelming for new users, and session recording storage is limited on lower-tier plans.

But if you value real-time interaction and detailed form analytics alongside behavior tracking, Lucky Orange is one of the robust Hotjar competitors.

Optimal Workshop

Optimal Workshop is a great alternative to Hotjar if your focus is on UX research and usability testing.

While Hotjar provides behavior tracking through heatmaps and recordings, this Hotjar alternative specializes in research methods like card sorting and tree testing.

This makes it a better fit if you need to evaluate site structure or optimize navigation.

With card sorting, you can understand how users categorize information, helping you design more intuitive menus.

Tree testing lets you validate your site’s hierarchy by tracking how easily users find specific information. Additionally, first-click testing shows where users click first, giving insights into the clarity of your design elements.

However, Optimal Workshop lacks Hotjar’s session recording and heatmap tools, so it might not cover all your behavior analytics needs.

Its pricing can also add up if you need access to multiple research tools. If usability testing is your priority, Optimal Workshop offers specialized features to enhance your UX strategy.

Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is a solid tool among alternatives to Hotjar, especially if you need detailed visual insights into user behavior.

It offers heatmaps and session recordings, but it also provides confetti reports that break down clicks by referral sources, helping you understand where your traffic comes from.

This feature gives you a more granular view of user interactions than Hotjar’s standard heat maps.

You’ll also benefit from A/B testing tools. These tools let you experiment with different page elements and track which versions perform better.

Crazy Egg’s Scrollmaps reveal how far users scroll down your pages, helping you identify whether key content is being seen. Integrations with Shopify and WordPress make it easy to incorporate into your existing workflow.

On the downside, Crazy Egg’s session recordings are less robust than Hotjar’s, and its pricing can become steep as your data needs grow. If visual analytics and A/B testing are key, Crazy Egg is worth a look.

Mouseflow

Mouseflow is a powerful system similar to Hotjar, especially if you need detailed behavior tracking and user journey insights.

Like Hotjar, it offers heatmaps and session recordings. But this Hotjar alternative takes it further with friction scores that identify problematic areas where users struggle, such as abandoned clicks or erratic mouse movements. This makes it easier to pinpoint usability issues.

One standout feature is form analytics, which tracks where users drop off during form submissions, helping you optimize conversions.

Mouseflow also offers funnels to visualize the user journey and uncover drop-off points. Unlike Hotjar, it includes automatic tracking of dynamic elements like pop-ups, making it ideal for sites with interactive components.

However, Mouseflow’s learning curve can be a bit steep, and session recording limits on lower-tier plans may restrict extensive analysis.

If you’re looking for deeper behavior analytics and friction detection, Mouseflow offers a robust solution that complements traditional heatmaps and recordings.

ContentSquare

ContentSquare is a robust system in the list of alternatives to Hotjar, focusing on advanced digital experience analytics.

While Hotjar provides basic heatmaps and session recordings, ContentSquare offers comprehensive insights through features like Zone-Based Heatmaps, which detail user engagement at a granular level, highlighting which elements attract the most attention.

One of its standout features is Journey Analytics, allowing you to visualize the entire customer journey across multiple touchpoints.

You can track users’ paths, identifying where they drop off and what leads to conversions. Additionally, ContentSquare’s AI-powered insights analyze user behavior trends, helping you make data-driven decisions.

However, ContentSquare can be complex to set up, and its pricing is typically higher than Hotjar’s, making it less accessible for smaller businesses.

If you need a detailed understanding of user interactions and advanced analytics capabilities, ContentSquare provides the depth and insights that can elevate your digital strategy.

VWO

VWO (Visual Website Optimizer) is a compelling competitor to Hotjar, especially if you prioritize conversion rate optimization (CRO).

While Hotjar focuses on user behavior through heatmaps and session recordings, VWO offers a comprehensive suite of testing and optimization tools.

One of VWO’s standout features is its A/B testing capabilities. So you can compare different versions of your web pages to see which performs better.

The split URL testing feature lets you test entirely different URLs, giving you flexibility in your experiments. Additionally, VWO provides on-page surveys that collect user feedback directly, helping you understand visitor intent.

However, VWO’s interface can be complex for new users, and its pricing can be on the higher side, particularly for smaller businesses.

If your focus is on enhancing conversions through extensive testing and user feedback, VWO offers robust features that can drive significant improvements in your digital strategy.

Wrapping up: Hotjar alternatives

Ultimately, selecting the right tool similar to Hotjar is essential for making informed decisions that lead to increased user engagement and improved conversion rates.

By considering the alternatives to Hotjar, you empower yourself to gain deeper insights into your audience and refine their online experience.

Take the time to evaluate your options, and you will find the perfect analytics solution tailored to your specific requirements.

Did I miss anything? Did you try these Hotjar competitors? Do you have any questions or comments? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.