Hotjar helps you perceive how guests behave and work together along with your web site. The knowledge you collect with Hotjar helps you make smart adjustments to enhance the consumer expertise.
With Hotjar you should use heatmaps, consumer recordings, and surveys to pinpoint issues along with your website and take a look at adjustments to seek out one of the best options.
It’s an excellent device, nevertheless it isn’t good for everybody. Right here’s our tackle Hotjar.
How Does Hotjar Evaluate to its Closest Rivals
Anybody critical about web site optimization depends on a variety of tools to make that occur. In terms of delivering a seamless consumer expertise, Hotjar is simply one of many choices. Different instruments like Loopy Egg, Glassbox, and Fullstory are often within the consideration combine, too.
All these instruments present invaluable and actionable insights. Not all three do it in the identical method. Right here’s how they stack up in opposition to one another.
Loopy Egg vs. Hotjar
Each Crazy Egg and Hotjar concentrate on consumer expertise analytics. You’ll discover a number of the similar performance, like heatmaps and scroll maps, on each platforms. However there are key variations.
Loopy Egg comes out forward on the subject of A/B testing, constructing that performance proper into the product. You’ll want a third-party integration to A/B take a look at with Hotjar. Loopy Egg additionally has a well-liked confetti report device that allows you to categorize website exercise by numerous metrics. Hotjar doesn’t provide something comparable.
Hotjar gives a free perpetually plan, nevertheless it offers you restricted entry to Hotjar’s full performance. That you must improve to Hotjar’s Development Plan beginning at $95.20 per thirty days to get extra options. Loopy Egg gives a free 30-day trial, however after that it’ll value you a minimal of $99 every month.
Glassbox vs. Hotjar
Glassbox and Hotjar are comparable instruments, however concentrate on barely totally different audiences. Hotjar is a good all-around consumer analytics platform, geared toward serving to everybody in any respect expertise ranges, from freelancers and start-ups to small to medium sized companies. Glassbox takes purpose at mature and enterprise degree companies or any group that wants or desires superior information evaluation energy.
Each platforms provide you with heatmaps and session replays. Nevertheless, Glassbox dives deep into information analytics with each real-time and predictive performance. Hotjar gives solely real-time analytics, and at the next degree.
Glassbox additionally delivers superior buyer mapping instruments, so you possibly can actually dial in to consumer habits on a granular degree. Hotjar gives primary buyer journey analytics, however not practically on the depth Glassbox does.
Every platform’s strategy to pricing reinforces the concentrate on totally different audiences. Glassbox doesn’t provide a free trial immediately on its web site, you’ll must contact them to arrange a demo. Identical with pricing. You’ll want to speak to gross sales to get a personalized quote.
Hotjar gives a free perpetually plan after which a wide range of paid plan choices, relying on which providers you want. All of it’s spelled out on the Hotjar web site, and you’ll join with out speaking to a single gross sales agent.
Fullstory vs. Hotjar
Fullstory is one other analytics device aimed on the extra strong wants of enterprise-level organizations or anybody with the necessity for in-depth analytics throughout internet and cellular functions.
For those who’re eager to grasp your cellular customers journey, Fullstory does a a lot cleaner job of natively monitoring and delivering that information. You’ll be able to seize a few of that information with Hotjar, however it’s going to require heavy lifting out of your software program improvement staff.
Each Fullstory and Hotjar have included AI into their platforms, however apply it in several methods. Hotjar focuses on serving to researchers velocity up the method with AI-generated survey questions and synthesizing qualitative responses. Fullstory makes use of generative AI to focus on key ideas, robotically categorize all consumer interactions, and ship automated insights.
Fullstory additionally has much more integrations than Hotjar. Fullstory has lots of of direct integrations that cowl every thing from safety and privateness to staff collaboration and buyer success. It additionally companions with Zapier, supplying you with entry to 1000’s extra enterprise instruments.
Hotjar isn’t any slouch on the subject of integrations, pairing with instruments like Slack, Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, Trello, Asana, and extra. It additionally integrates with Zapier, supplying you with entry to 1000’s of different apps. However on the finish of the day, Fullstory gives extra integrations.
Like Glassbox, Fullstory doesn’t put pricing on its web site. You’ll have to speak to somebody in gross sales for a personalized quote. There’s no free trial, both.
Hotjar: The Good and The Dangerous
Hotjar makes it straightforward to assemble and perceive consumer expertise information, and doesn’t break the financial institution. For anybody new to consumer analytics or smaller organizations with modest budgets, Hotjar is a wonderful choice.
But it surely does lack top-notch buyer help, doesn’t go as deep into analytics as a few of its rivals, and tends to decelerate site performance. Relying in your wants, there could also be higher choices.
What Hotjar Is Good At
Straightforward to make use of
Hotjar’s consumer interface is self-explanatory and intuitive. Even a newbie can get began shortly and dig into analytics with ease. Straightforward to make use of is a chorus learn typically in consumer evaluations on websites like G2.
Navigation is easy, utilizing an icon scheme on the left aspect of the display. It’s uncluttered and every characteristic is accessible with a single click on. There’s additionally a “Get Began” choice on the prime of the web page that walks a brand new consumer by way of key options and arrange duties.
In-depth session recording filters
Hotjar gives a wide range of filters you possibly can apply to session recordings. With them, you possibly can evaluate every thing from the paths a consumer took to the session info, habits, and even units.
Such a filtering helps you shortly choose and select crucial attributes that will help you make sound enterprise choices.
Informative funnels
Hotjar’s funnels are a fast and straightforward method to see the place customers are having problem along with your web site. With a funnel, you possibly can monitor consumer interactions from begin to end and see the place guests hit roadblocks. Making a funnel just isn’t sophisticated, because of Hotjar’s intuitive consumer interface.
Even should you’re like me and by no means constructed a funnel earlier than, you possibly can have one up and operating in minutes.
You begin by selecting what you wish to measure (all periods, new customers, rage clicked, returning customers), then construct and apply every step with a sequence of prompts. After getting every thing the best way you need it, click on “Apply” one final time and your funnel is able to go.
Funnel efficiency outcomes are displayed on the backside of the web page in real-time.
Customizable dashboard
As soon as you put in Hotjar, there’s a default dashboard obtainable that covers the fundamentals. It’s nicely designed, straightforward to observe, and supplies a stable overview from every thing from session data to rage click on information and prime site visitors channels.
You is perhaps comfortable utilizing the default dashboard “as is.” However if you would like extra, Hotjar permits you to simply create a brand new dashboard with just some clicks. There are templates you should use to keep away from reinventing the wheel for widespread metrics, together with web page points, efficiency monitoring, and advertising and marketing outcomes. Or, you possibly can create a dashboard from scratch.
Complete heatmaps
Hotjar customers actually love the platform’s heatmaps. It’s a characteristic constantly commented on in G2 evaluations. Establishing a heatmaps is a breeze utilizing the step-by-step information supplied. Simply select the URL you wish to monitor and information is delivered in seconds.
You’ll be able to shortly change the information you see by selecting the map sort you wish to view. Additional down the web page you get much more related stats, like whole web page clicks, rage clicks, common time on web page, and drop-off price.
Accessible analytics
Hotjar’s Impression characteristic places key metrics in a single place, accessible by a single click on. Impression helps you perceive how consumer habits is affecting conversions by way of a sequence of colourful graphs and charts.
You’ll be able to monitor periods or site visitors distribution and break issues down much more by new customers, returning customers, and even rage-clicked parts in your website. Even should you’re model new to heatmaps, Hotjar makes it straightforward to get began and perceive the information.
Straightforward to implement consumer surveys
Gathering consumer suggestions in realtime is easy with Hotjar. Along with a suggestions button you possibly can incorporate onto any web site web page, it’s also possible to use Hotjar’s 42 survey templates to get actual time suggestions on every thing from Web Promoter Rating (NPS) and exit intent to usability and product suggestions.
The templates stroll you thru all the course of. You can even lean into Hotjar’s generative AI characteristic to have survey questions written for you.
Potential Hotjar Drawbacks
Hotjar has its professionals, however it’s removed from good. A few of these cons could also be a deal-breaker for you.
Difficult set up course of: There are 3 ways to put in Hotjar in your web site. So as of seemingly best to most complicated, they’re:
- Obtain the positioning building-specific plugin from Hotjar’s web site
- Discover the Hotjar plugin in your website builder’s plugin add device
- Manually add Hotjar code into your website’s present header code
I exploit self-hosted WordPress as my web site builder, however I don’t prefer to code. So I opted to obtain Hotjar’s plugin to make issues simpler. Sadly, the ZIP file for WordPress installations didn’t work. Once I tried to add it to WordPress, I received an error message of “Incompatible archive.”
I then tried the second route of looking out within the WordPress plugin library. I did discover the Hotjar plugin, however received scared off by a number of issues. One was the variety of one-star evaluations and evaluate feedback. One other was the message that the plugin had not been examined with my model of WordPress (6.6.2). The nail within the coffin was seeing that the plugin had not been up to date in over one yr. All added as much as a giant no.
So my solely choice to get Hotjar up and operating on my website was to go the coding route.
Until you’re comfy including code manually to your website–or have a developer obtainable to help–Hotjar makes issues difficult to get began.
Poor customer support: Hotjar has a meager 2.5 ranking on TrustPilot. Actually, Hotjar has extra one-star scores than five-star scores on the positioning. That’s fairly abysmal. Lots of the complaints cite poor customer support. This consists of the dearth of dwell help choices and chatbots that don’t present useful info.
Hotjar does have a big useful resource library, so yow will discover some good info that method. However should you want assist in real-time, you’re out of luck. The one choice you’ve gotten is to submit a help ticket through the web chat operate, then wait for somebody to get again to you. In accordance with some reviewers, that response by no means comes.
Given my expertise attempting to make use of Hotjar’s set up obtain, I received to check out Hotjar help first-hand.
I went the help ticket submission route. It was a surprisingly painful course of to slog by way of. In what I can solely describe as some critical gatekeeping, Hotjar requires you to fill out a number of fields within the on-line chat window, which in itself is annoying. Then, the AI chatbot required me to re-enter my URL thrice earlier than it acknowledged it as legitimate. The identical URL, typed in thrice, precisely the identical.
I persevered and ultimately submitted my request. However general, it was a really irritating expertise attempting to get assist with Hotjar. Irritating sufficient to get me to mud off my coding expertise and set up Hotjar myself with no plugin help.
I did ultimately obtain an e-mail from help the day after I submitted my ticket. By then, although, I had resolved my unique downside. Hotjar help additionally despatched a follow-up e-mail two days later once I didn’t reply to the primary message.
Useful resource Hog: Issues look a bit brighter for Hotjar over on G2 and Capterra, the place the model has scores of 4.3 and 4.7 stars, respectively. However one recurring remark reveals up all through the largely optimistic scores–as soon as you put in the monitoring code, Hotjar slows down your website.
Sluggish load instances are a problem for any website. It negatively impacts Google’s rating and annoys website guests. The instruments you employ to optimize your website mustn’t even be creating new issues to repair.
Hotjar Pricing, Plans, and Add-Ons
Hotjar was acquired by Contentsquare in 2021. Since then, Hotjar’s pricing has gone by way of vital transformation. Not in a great way, in keeping with quite a few buyer evaluations on TrustPilot, G2, and Capterra. Escalating prices and complicated plan choices are sometimes famous. The latter is justified.
Hotjar breaks down its providers into three buckets. Inside every bucket, you possibly can select from totally different plan ranges and pay by the month or yearly. Whenever you select to pay yearly, there’s a 20 p.c financial savings.
When you select a paid plan, then it’s essential select what number of each day periods you need. Plan pricing will increase as session quantity will increase. The costs beneath are primarily based on 500 each day periods.
Observe: heatmaps and consumer recordings
- Fundamental plan – free perpetually – consists of computerized information seize, limitless heatmaps, potential to filter and phase information
- Marketing strategy – $99 per thirty days or $960 yearly – provides {custom} integrations, occasions API, establish API, plus frustration and confusion indicators
- Scale plan – $213 per thirty days or $2,052 yearly – provides funnels, developments, console monitoring (errors), SAML SSO, Hotjar API, devoted buyer success supervisor and precedence help (just for plans with 4,000 each day periods or extra)
Ask – surveys and suggestions
- Fundamental plan – free perpetually – consists of three surveys and three suggestions widgets, Hotjar AI for surveys, 40+ predefined languages, limitless questions for surveys, 40+ survey templates, filter responses
- Plus plan – $59 per thirty days or $576 yearly – provides limitless surveys and suggestions widgets, occasions API
- Marketing strategy – $79 per thirty days or $768 yearly – provides AI-powered sentiment evaluation, establish API, personalized branding (no Hotjar emblem), survey efficiency evaluation, custom-built integrations
- Scale plan – $159 per thirty days or $1,536 yearly – provides Hotjar API, webhooks, SAML SSO, devoted buyer success supervisor and precedence help (just for plans with 4,000 each day periods or extra)
Interact – consumer interviews
- Fundamental plan – free perpetually – three interviews per thirty days (your individual community), one spectator, 30 minute most length for every interview, two week recording retention
- Plus plan – $50 month-to-month or $492 yearly – provides 36 interview per yr from the Hotjar participant pool, limitless interviews from your individual community, 30 minute most length for every interview, participant rewards of as much as $52, one co-moderator per interview, two spectators per interview, two yr recording retention
- Marketing strategy – $572 month-to-month or $5,496 yearly – provides as much as 144 interviews per yr from the Hotjar pool, limitless interviews from your individual community, 90 minute most length for every interview, participant rewards of as much as $156, two co-moderators per interview, 4 spectators per interview, automated transcriptions, clip and obtain recording
- Scale plan – priced on request – provides as much as 240 interviews per yr from the Hotjar pool, limitless interviews from your individual community, 120 minute most interview length, 4 co-moderators per interview, 10 spectators per interview, SAML SSO, devoted buyer success supervisor
For those who go for an Interact plan, you robotically get entry to each the Observe and Ask plan performance at that very same degree.
However wait, there’s extra.
Hotjar additionally permits you to customise your plan by selecting from the totally different choices within the Observe and Ask buckets. You can even pay both month-to-month or yearly, with the identical 20 p.c low cost while you pay yearly.
Is Hotjar Proper for You?
When you get previous the difficult set up course of, Hotjar is a stable device–particularly for anybody new to heatmaps, consumer surveys, or web site customer analytics basically. Hotjar may be very intuitive to make use of as soon as it’s up and operating, and the best way it lays out information is crystal clear. Whereas it might sluggish your website down, should you’re operating a low-volume website and have sufficient sources behind the scenes, the velocity ding is probably going negligible.
Nevertheless, should you’re a big or enterprise-level group, chances are you’ll discover Hotjar’s lack of in-depth analytics a difficulty. There are higher instruments available on the market, like Glassbox and Fullstory, that offers you the deep-dive analytics energy wanted.
