--- title: "Hotjar Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra" description: "Is Hotjar the right Heatmap solution for you? Explore 545 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/163516/Hotjar/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" publication_date: "2026-10-21" --- Hotjar 4.6 (545) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/163516/Hotjar/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated October 21st, 2026 # Reviews of Hotjar Ease of use 4.6 Customer Service 4.5 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews Peter C Regional Director of Business DevelopmentInformation Technology and Services, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Hotjar has provided us with such incredible insights about how prospects and customers actually interact with our website, which enable us to tailor our approach to them.“ June 26, 2026 Peter C Regional Director of Business DevelopmentInformation Technology and Services, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “It does not operate as well when managing multiple websites as it does with a small number.“ June 26, 2026 Sarah F Marketing TechnologistEducation Management, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The feedback tab function was handy and helpful for users to provide immediate feedback and actually helped us discover bugs and issues in our ecommerce site.“ May 15, 2026 SC Sean C MarketerMarketing and Advertising, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “The freemium runs out pretty quickly, and I don't know how accurate the data is (it's hard to verify qualitative data)“ November 22, 2025 Samuel P PPC AnalystMarketing and Advertising, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Hotjar takes heatmapping and tacks a ton of helpul insights through data measurement which can help design processes move much faster.“ August 11, 2026 Theresa F CRO Program ManagerMarketing and Advertising, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “I sometimes question the accuracy of the reports. And if the page has a popup, modal, overlay, etc, that can be problematic.“ February 28, 2025 RC Radek C board memberEntertainment, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Hotjar offers strong Data Analysis and Monitoring tools like heatmaps and recordings.“ May 20, 2026 DJ Derek J OwnerRecreational Facilities and Services, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “Users of our website didn't really know what the feedback button was for and started using it as a review of our services, not the site itself.“ November 19, 2024 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 545 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Sarah F. Marketing Technologist Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Hotjar worked great for us until the pricing model changed" May 15, 2026 4.0 Hotjar was easy to set up on our domains and to get running right away. Key features were heatmaps and clickmaps. We also utilized the recording feature which helped us uncover at least one bug in the checkout process. They assign a user frustration score to the recordings, allowing you to sort the most negative experience first and see the user's recording to investigate issues. We were disappointed when their pricing model changed to require more investment to cover the same number of domains. Pros We used hotjar for several years for our web performance tracking, on-page quick NPS surveys, and to measure user engagement on pages. It's a lighweight web experience tools that complies easy to understand scroll maps and click maps. The feedback tab function was handy and helpful for users to provide immediate feedback and actually helped us discover bugs and issues in our ecommerce site. Cons The cost is way too high to scale up for an enterprise company. We were grandfathered in to a lower price point that eventually expired, so we moved away to a more scalable solution (VWO insights). Otherwise we probably would have stuck with Hotjar as it fulfilled all of our needs. Alternatives considered [Contentsquare](https://www.capterra.com/p/161591/ContentSquare/)[Crazy Egg](https://www.capterra.com/p/163520/Crazy-Egg/)[Fullstory](https://www.capterra.com/p/153721/FullStory/)[Mouseflow](https://www.capterra.com/p/163517/Mouseflow/)[VWO Insights](https://www.capterra.com/p/181518/VWO/) Reason for choosing Hotjar Hotjar had the best features for cost, but when their pricing model changed, it was too much of an investment so we switched to VWO which scaled better for our enterprise company. Review Source RC Radek C. board member Entertainment Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Powerful Behavior Analytics Tool for Websites" May 20, 2026 4.0 Overall, Hotjar provides excellent Security and powerful Monitoring features. It is great for Data Analysis and understanding Conversion Funnels, despite some initial Learning Curve. Pros Hotjar offers strong Data Analysis and Monitoring tools like heatmaps and recordings. Survey Creation is easy, and it gives great insight into Conversion Funnels and user behavior. Cons Hotjar has a Learning Curve for beginners and can feel complex at first. Pricing is not ideal for small teams, affecting Value for Money at higher usage levels. Switched from [Google Optimize](https://www.capterra.com/p/246659/Google-Optimize/) Its no longer supported, it was best app for such things but it was disabled. Review Source AG Annie G. Marketing Manager Alternative Medicine Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Useful Heatmapping Tool" June 4, 2025 3.0 Overall, hotjar was a useful tool in gathering information and analysis of website performance, and perhaps there are more features I don't know about. Pros It gave fairly accurate heat mapping and information regarding user behavior on our website. It was also easy to use. Cons Limits on how many pages it would scan, would love more comprehensive data and analytics, as well as reporting. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer PPC Analyst Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Best of it's kind. " August 11, 2026 5.0 a must-have tool for any CRO pros out there. Hotjar takes heatmapping and tacks a ton of helpul insights through data measurement which can help design processes move much faster. Pros Clean and simple tool to see activity on your site. Great for getting a pulse on the busy parts (and the dead parts) of your pages. (and browsing paths of your vistiors). Cons Not a ton to critique at the moment. We've used crazy egg before and it's fine, but nothing compares to the simplicity of hot jar at the end of the day. Review Source NF Niccolo F. Cofounder, CTO Automotive Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Our go-to tool for heatmaps, and User behaviour recording, but it is very expensive to get all the features" May 2, 2025 4.0 We use Hotjar mainly for user experience analysis. Heatmaps and user recordings is our go to tool. We've used it on all projects, different websites etc. recordings are good, but we sometimes get overwhelmend by "useless" recordings, where users just idle on a page. Always sort by relevance. Also, free version is very limited, and first paid tier is already very expensive. Pros Hotjar is a great tool for insights on user behaviour. It makes you understand where's the biggest blockers in your UX, where the customers are going, what they're reading, where they're clicking etc. You can easily understand if some parts of your website are useless, or if they're good and grab attention. It also gives you insights on how much time users stay on each page, so that you know what's driving them around and for how long. Cons There's no real big cons in the product itself. However, we use the free version and it does the job in a fantastic way, but it's very limited: -The basic price above free is quite expensive. -You cannot see trends and data for free. just heatmaps and recordings -You're very limited to 35 recording/day on free plan Also, in the recording sections, you can easily get overwhelmed by not-relevant recordings, where users just idle. Alternatives considered [Mixpanel](https://www.capterra.com/p/158740/Mixpanel/) Reason for choosing Hotjar We use mixpanel for our apps, but hotjar is much easier and quicker to implement on normal websites Review Source Theresa F. CRO Program Manager Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good tool to include in your CRO toolbox" February 28, 2025 4.0 I've used hotjar for many years, along with a few of their competitors. I like that this is one more data point for creating hypotheses for A/B tests. However, I don't make changes to the website based on the Hotjar findings alone since I don't totally trust the maps. I use judgment and combine these findings with data from other other tools as well as best practices and theory. Pros Hotjar helps to identify patterns in user behavior to uncover problems with UX and conversions. I use scrollmaps and heatmaps the most, and compare them by device since Hotjar will show the different maps on desktop, tablet, and mobile. Other features that I don't use as much but my clients and colleagues do are session recordings and polls. I rarely use session recordings as I find them time consuming, even after narrowing my choices with filters. And I use the polls sparingly when I have a specific question I need to dig into. A lot of clients don't want the intrusion to distract their site's users on a regular basis though. Cons I sometimes question the accuracy of the reports. And if the page has a popup, modal, overlay, etc, that can be problematic. Mega menus also appear to be a blindspot. Switched from [Crazy Egg](https://www.capterra.com/p/163520/Crazy-Egg/)[Microsoft Clarity](https://www.capterra.com/p/236349/Microsoft-Clarity/)[Lucky Orange](https://www.capterra.com/p/150695/Lucky-Orange/) My employer has an agency account. But I sometimes have clients who have Microsoft Clarity, so I still use that too. Review Source Peter C. Regional Director of Business Development Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A user friendly analytics platform" June 26, 2026 4.0 My overall experience has been interestingly good. We have gained much better insights about customer behaviour, identifying web friction points, and enhancing lead generation and retention strategies. Pros Hotjar has provided us with such incredible insights about how prospects and customers actually interact with our website, which enable us to tailor our approach to them. I like the Funnels feature more as it helps me to understand where potential clients step back during the conversion process. Cons It does not operate as well when managing multiple websites as it does with a small number. Moreover, it is working perfectly. Review Source Dandu M. Analyst Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Hotjar is very helpful and easy to use tool." February 15, 2026 4.0 I am a CRO analyst and I liked this tool very much since it allows us to analyze user behavior with each and filter any specific category of users with each and accuracy. Pros User behaviour analysis and security while showing PII, And also I like the features to filter based on any event and skip inactivity , speed, etc., feature, and save to a collection any specific scenario . Cons I would like to have an automated data analysis bot which if we teach something to look it will look that behaviour and give us a report. Review Source Response from ContentSquare March 3, 2026 Hey Dandu! Thank you so much for your thoughtful review. We’re so glad to hear that Hotjar is helping you analyse user behaviour effectively and that you find it easy to use and secure. We also really appreciate your suggestion about an automated data analysis bot. Feedback like this is incredibly valuable and helps inform how we continue to improve the product. Thanks again for taking the time to share your experience! OQ Orion Q. Head of Marketing Telecommunications Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good first step to website insight" June 3, 2026 4.0 I have used this for years and always found it to be a useful and insightful tool but is not as smooth as others. Pros Easy to access information. Heat maps and session videos are very insightful. This gives even a beginner a quick idea as to what is and isn’t working on their sight and possible ‘sticking points’. But there is the ability to drill down further. Cons Although easy to use it is a bit ‘clunky’ and feels not up to date with other packages. I have used many iterations of hot jar over the years and I like to use it (my initial go to for website behaviour review) but it still feels less smooth to use than one would expect. Review Source David V. Lead Developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A Solid CRO tool" August 18, 2026 4.0 Overall, Hotjar provided us with great data and started us on the journey of more advanced conversion rate optimization techniques. Pros Hotjar provides solid insights into user interactions on your website and converts that into data you can use to increase conversion rate optimization. Cons We did notice a significant site speed issue when using Hotjar on several of our websites and that ultimately led us to use a different product. Review Source AD Alberto D. Head of Marketing Information Technology and Services Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Good option for in-app surveys" March 7, 2025 5.0 I've used HotJar for a long time for heatmaps and user recordings, but only more recently for surveys. The experience is good, although just like other platforms there are some limits to what you can customize. Pros Lots of features, feels like a modern platform, and pricing is very reasonable. Cons There are some limits to customization in survey creation, for example when it comes to having two separate thank you pages based on user's answers or different formats for the steps of the survey. Review Source QV Quynh V. Senior Marketing Specialist E-Learning Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A heatmapping software that does the job" July 27, 2022 4.0 It was overall good, but unfortunately not the best. Which is why we have made the switch. Pros That it was priced quite cheaply to others. I think we received a discount too so I felt the relationship there was amazing. Cons The heatmapping wasn't entirely accurate. It couldn't go beyond certain limits. Our website uses advanced code to be created but the heatmapping couldn't pick it up and forced us to do it manually. Alternatives considered [Crazy Egg](https://www.capterra.com/p/163520/Crazy-Egg/)[Lucky Orange](https://www.capterra.com/p/150695/Lucky-Orange/) Reason for choosing Hotjar At the time, it was due to price. Review Source AM Atul M. Author Arts and Crafts Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Most Recommended Product" January 1, 2023 5.0 Pros User experience insights: Hotjar provides a range of tools for understanding user behavior and experience on your website, including heatmaps, session recordings, and polls.Easy to use: Hotjar has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to set up and use, even for users who are new to web analytics.Customization: Hotjar allows you to customize your tracking and feedback tools to suit your specific needs and goals.Integration: Hotjar can be easily integrated with a range of other tools and platforms, including Google Analytics.Affordability: Hotjar offers a range of pricing plans to suit different budgets and needs, including a free plan for small websites. Cons Data privacy: Some users may be concerned about the data that Hotjar collects and how it is used.Limited functionality: Hotjar has a range of features, but it may not have all the advanced functionality that some users require.Limited support: While Hotjar offers online resources and a knowledge base for users, it may not provide as much personal support as some users would like.Dependence on cookies: Hotjar relies on cookies to track website visitors, which means it may not accurately track users who have disabled cookies in their web browsers.Resource-intensive: Hotjar's tracking and feedback tools can be resource-intensive, which may impact the performance of your website. Review Source AT Atour T. Analyst Research Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Best for website visitor behavior analysis" November 2, 2022 5.0 It is outstanding for survey and forms purposes. Screen recording can be done easily using it. Pros Customer behavior analysis is very crucial for any website. As a analyst, I need to analysis data and I found this software is very useful in this regard. Heatmapping is an excellent element of this software. It is very easy to set up . Efficient customer support available. Cons A/B testing feature may be added.Event tracking record may be introduced.Price Little bit seems higher than others platform. Alternatives considered [FigPii](https://www.capterra.com/p/199975/FigPii/) Switched from [Crazy Egg](https://www.capterra.com/p/163520/Crazy-Egg/) Hotjar Heatmap and recording seems excellent Review Source SA Soham A. Marketing And Operations Head Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "I wish I knew about this earlier!" March 11, 2022 5.0 Hotjar has been critical to our micro analytics. We have been able to go through customer journeys at the most specific way possible. By being able to view the screen recordings (and its plethora of features within that!) along with heatmaps, we were able to test our website rapidly. Pros Hotjar provides you with the analytics that google analytics or backend website analytics will never be able to provide you with. I loved how intuitive and simple the platform was, and how we were able to get the plan up and running, and analyzing in real time! Another key feature is integration. We were skeptical at first as we thought it might slow down the website with extra code, but by integrating it with google tag manager we were able to get it up and running fast. The pricing is very reasonable and we mainly benefited from the advanced features in the screen recording session! Cons Sometimes the recordings failed to capture the specific nuances of the website. Essentially the website showed up differently on the recording page section. Reason for choosing Hotjar The integration option and the way the front page branding made everything easy to understand and follow! Review Source Rodrigo T. Director of Cyber Security Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Power Tool for User Experience Optimization" October 22, 2024 5.0 Using Hotjar with my team and across the company has enabled us to make data-driven decisions, leading to optimized resource allocation and increased profitability. Pros Hotjar can handle massive datasets and traffic, enabling granular user segmentation. Its seamless integration with other marketing tools provides deep insights into user behavior, allowing you to identify large-scale patterns and continually improve user experience. Cons I've been very satisfied with this tool and haven't experienced any negative aspects. Review Source Brent J. Head Of Product Management Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Awesome for user recordings and heat-maps " February 18, 2020 5.0 The tool is really helpful to better understand your user's experience. Pros The insights we got from Hotjar were instantly used by our team. We understood our user's journey and pain points better after reviewing the heatmaps and screen recordings. Cons It's fairly expensive. We operate 16 different websites and we only have Hotjar setup on one of the brands because of the cost. Switched from [Inspectlet](https://www.capterra.com/p/163689/Inspectlet/) Features and page speed. Review Source Response from ContentSquare February 19, 2020 Hey Brent So happy to hear that you found instant value with Hotjar and that it helped you to understand the user's journey better. You are right - once you know the pain points, you can address them a lot easier! With regards to pricing, perhaps it might be better for you to be on a plan that caters for more than 1 site? Do you want to email support@hotjar.com or submit your query here> https://help.hotjar.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket\_form\_id=360000665794&pricingagencies and we can see if we can help suggest a better option for you? Hope this helps! Thanks so much again for your kind review. Bee @ Hotjar Rafal M. Owner Management Consulting Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "pricey, but worth it" May 5, 2022 5.0 Great tool. Ive used it to do surveys (NLP), heatmaps and AB testing when running product pages or landingpages for newsletter subscriptions. Helped me to eliminate some issues on mobiles. Currently I use different tool but Hotjar is still a tool that you need to try (even in free tier) to see how things should be done in other apps. Pros \+ extremely supportive and informative help/blog section with many types of how-to articles and guides + quick support that is helpful and points solutions very quickly + a lot of different tools packed in one app (it can be overwhelming!) + whole report section is great (especially heatmaps and surveys) + allows to collect feedback (helpful if you are migrating form one website layout to another) + helpful if you want to run AB test (ie. landingpage, product page etc) + free tier (not so informative but helpful) Cons \- too expensive comparing to competition (plans are also limited to number of sessions) - integrations are enabled from higher plans Review Source Sebastián P. Marketing Consultant Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best tool for user tracking and heatmaps!" July 25, 2022 5.0 I love using Hotjar! It helps me understand how users behave on my site, what they need, and how they feel. I can quickly see what pages they're visiting, how much time they're spending on each page, and where they're clicking. This information is really helpful in optimizing my client's sites. Pros Hotjar is a great tool for understanding how users behave on your site: video tracking is the best part. By reviewing the videos I can see why customers abandon the shopping cart or why they don't scroll further down the blog. Cons I would like to be able to isolate elements on the web page for individual analysis. Review Source IB Ian B. Director of Marketing Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "There's really now substitute for sticky UX problems." December 11, 2019 5.0 When you absolutely, positively need to know exactly what your users are doing, there really is no substitute for Hotjar. Is it a bit invasive? Sure! But literally watching users' every move has been where the market was headed for a long time. We have saved easily tens of thousands of dollars in developer/PM/design time by watching our users, and we've rolled those savings back into product improvements directly driven by data from Hotjar. Does that cross an ethical line? Maybe... but if you gotta have it, then you gotta have it \*shrug emoji\*. Pros Clearly the best software for watching your every user's every move. They could probably have stopped there. However, the tagging, filtering and playback functionality is an incredible upgrade to the tool. User journey videos are raw unstructured data, incredibly valuable but somewhat hard to leverage at scale within an institutional decision-making paradigm. The simple tools to add context and structured data by tagging and annotating recordings makes the core functionality much more valuable. Cons Everything about Hotjar is exactly how you would hope it would be. If you are considering it now, you should probably have already gotten out your wallet and bought it. You know what it does. It does it extremely well. The only thing I don't love about it is it feels kind of unethical. But hey, I get paid to do my job... and what is money if not a tool to get people to take actions they might not otherwise have taken (for example, recording the every move of every visitor to a website). Review Source Response from ContentSquare December 17, 2019 Hi Ian, Thanks for your review! We're pleased to hear that you are finding great value in Hotjar. From its very first day, Hotjar was designed with privacy of the end user in mind. If you want to find out more on Hotjar's approach to privacy please read this blogpost. https://www.hotjar.com/blog/our-approach-to-privacy-2019-and-beyond/ b/r Denis VR Verified Reviewer Online Performance Manager Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Started from the bottom, now we here" October 10, 2018 4.0 I've been a beta user and I've now been using Hotjar for over 2 years (even have the tshirt to prove it). While other tools such as Zoho PageSense, MouseFlow and Inspectlet do a similar job, Hotjar makes it dead-simple. Heatmaps and visitor recordings are a godsend, next to regular anayltics. And every single feature is free? That's beyond crazy! Pros \- Heatmaps and visitors recordings work like a charm and provide a great deal of information. - If Google Analytics tells you what and how many, Hotjar tells you why: polls make it easy to gather user feedback. - Using all of its features, you can get a better grasp into why people don't fill in a certain form or don't buy a product. Cons \- Some features are blocked behind a paywall. - Organization of sites and companies can get confusing at times. - Not all descriptions make it clear what a specific feature does. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Web Content Manager Furniture Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Hotjar is an easy and affordable user feedback tool that helps us tailor user experience." January 19, 2018 5.0 We've used hotjar to identify navigational, organizational, and functional issues on our website that crop up in actual use, issues that may not appear in our daily use or testing. It allows us to see how users are interacting with our site and collect user feedback, and that lets us find ways to improve the experience Pros Using hotjar is like being able to stand next to your users and watch them use your site. This gives you actionable insight that many times numbers alone may not be able to tell you. And if you are someone who isn't comfortable sifting through analytics, it makes it extremely simple to identify potential problem areas in the user experience that you, being familiar with the site, might miss. The features are all sufficiently developed to be able to handle most straightforward tasks. Also, Hotjar is (at the time of this writing) very affordable for what you get out of it. My primary site is a local home goods retailer. We mostly use the session recording and heatmapping features, in addition to the poll feature. There are other features, such as the conversion funnel tracking, survey feature, and others. Although we don't use those much, the solution more than worth it for the recording and heatmapping. Their support is also fast and helpful. Cons There aren't many things to not like about Hotjar. I suppose one of the issues I have run into is that the conversion funnel tracking tool doesn't seem to accurately report metrics for us. I've never bothered to try and get this fixed since we use other methods to evaluate conversion funnels anyway. Otherwise, I haven't encountered any notable issues. Review Source Shaun F. Director of Online Advertising Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Screen recording & heat maps made easy" December 31, 2019 5.0 My overall experience has been fantastic. The recordings are top quality and there are plenty of additional features and functions for those who want more. As someone that works in a marketing agency I also appreciate the fact I can house a number of clients underneath one login. I would, and do, recommend Hotjar to anyone who needs screen recording software. Pros This software is SO easy to use. All you need to do is add their javascript code to your site and hit go. I love seeing the recordings of my users and I appreciate that Hotjar has an option where you can speed up the recordings so I can see more and they indicate every time there is a scroll or click. Cons There isn't really anything that I don't like about. I do with that it would integrate with Google Analytics so I can view only recordings that completed a conversion objective. At the moment it's hard to see which recordings are more valuable. Review Source Response from ContentSquare January 2, 2020 Hey Shaun! Thanks so much! We're doing everything we can to make Hotjar as easy as possible. If you reach out to me \[louis@hotjar.com\], I'll send you a little something as a token of our appreciation. Louis Allen E. President Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Essential for website optimization " July 21, 2022 5.0 Pros This is a good heatmap app and tracking app that allows you to see the behaviors of anyone on your website so you can see what took a look at how far they scrolled and what they did before perhaps opting into a lead magnet. Cons There's so much that I didn't like it's an easy setup to get the coded embedded in your website and I like the fact that I can 4x the speed of the video user and the other end and Skip periods of inactivity. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Customer Experience Manager Medical Devices Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great Way to Track Website Activity!" June 28, 2019 5.0 Overall great experience! Really helps us see the functionality of our website through the eyes of the user. Pros Kind of crazy there's a service that exists that literally captures video of the user's time on your website! It's like a video recording of each session. We can see exactly where the mouse goes, and which landing pages they're going to, and where they last are before leaving our site Cons Wish the recording gave us more info on the user. I know that's probably a violation of privacy, but it would be cool! That way we could reach out to them directly to see if they had any questions or needed help finding the right product Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.