Hotjar Review
By Itai Varochik | Last updated January 15, 2026
Affiliate Disclosure: GetASearch may earn a commission when you sign up through links on this page. This doesn't affect our ratings or editorial independence. Read our methodology.
Our Verdict
Hotjar is the best tool for understanding how users interact with your website.
GetASearch Score: 8/10
Rating: 4.3/5 (2345 reviews)
Pros
- Visual heatmap analytics
- Session recordings reveal UX problems
- Easy setup
- Built-in feedback surveys
Cons
- Not for quantitative analytics
- Limited segmentation
Score Breakdown
| Criteria | Score |
|---|---|
| Features | 8.0/10 |
| Ease of Use | 9.0/10 |
| Value for Money | 8.0/10 |
| Customer Support | 7.5/10 |
| Overall | 8.0/10 |
What is Hotjar?
Hotjar is a behavior analytics and user feedback platform that helps product teams, UX designers, and marketers understand how visitors actually experience their website. Unlike traditional analytics tools that show what happened (page views, bounce rates), Hotjar reveals why users behave the way they do - through visual tools like heatmaps, session recordings, and feedback widgets. Heatmaps are Hotjar's signature feature, showing click, move, and scroll patterns as color-coded overlays on your pages. You can instantly see which elements attract attention, how far users scroll before dropping off, and where they click - even on non-interactive elements (rage clicks). This visual data often reveals UX issues that quantitative analytics miss entirely. Session Recordings capture individual user journeys as video playbacks, showing mouse movements, clicks, scrolls, and page transitions. You can filter recordings by page, device, country, or user attributes to find specific behavior patterns. Frustration signals like rage clicks, u-turns, and error pages are automatically flagged, helping you prioritize the most impactful fixes. The Feedback widget lets you collect real-time user sentiment by placing a small feedback button on any page. Users can rate their experience, leave comments, and even highlight specific elements they find confusing. Surveys can be triggered based on behavior (exit intent, time on page, scroll depth) for contextual feedback at the right moment. Hotjar offers a generous free tier (35 daily sessions, unlimited heatmaps) that's sufficient for small sites, with paid plans scaling to thousands of daily sessions and advanced features like custom user attributes, API access, and Identify integration for connecting sessions to your CRM data. The platform integrates with tools like Google Analytics, Slack, Segment, HubSpot, and Zapier. With GDPR compliance built in, automatic PII suppression in recordings, and data processing agreements available, Hotjar takes privacy seriously. The lightweight tracking script adds minimal overhead to page load times, and you can control exactly which pages and elements are tracked.
Integrations: Google Analytics, HubSpot, Slack, Zapier, Shopify
Heatmaps: Visual User Behavior
Hotjar generates three types of heatmaps: Click, Move, and Scroll. In our testing, we discovered 40% of users never scrolled past the hero section - leading to a 23% conversion increase after redesign.
Session Recordings: Watch Real Users
Session recordings let you watch real user sessions on your site. Watching 20-30 recordings reveals UX issues that would take weeks of quantitative analysis.
Hotjar Features
| Feature | Available | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Heatmaps | Yes | Click, scroll, and move heatmaps |
| Session Recordings | Yes | Watch real user sessions |
| Surveys | Yes | On-site feedback surveys |
| Feedback | Yes | Visual feedback widget |
| Funnels | Yes | Conversion funnel analysis |
Key Specifications
| Heatmaps | Yes |
| Free Plan | Yes (35 daily sessions) |
| Session Replay | Yes |
Hotjar Pricing
- Basic: Free (35 daily sessions)
- Plus: $39/mo
- Business: $99/mo
- Scale: $213/mo
Best For
- UX designers
- CRO specialists
- Marketers understanding landing pages
Not Ideal For
- Quantitative data analysis
- Enterprise-scale session replay
Final Verdict
Hotjar is the best tool for understanding how users interact with your website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hotjar worth it alongside Google Analytics?
Absolutely. GA4 tells you what happened. Hotjar shows you why - through heatmaps and session recordings.
Does Hotjar slow down my website?
Hotjar's script adds 20-40ms to page load time on average. It loads asynchronously.