The best Hotjar alternatives in 2026

Why Finding the Right Hotjar Alternative Matters in 2026

Hotjar made heatmaps and session recordings easy for marketers, designers and small product teams. You pasted one script, waited a day, and could watch real visitors scroll past your pricing table or rage-click a broken button. That simple setup is why "Hotjar" became shorthand for the whole category.

In 2026 the situation is different, and anyone searching for Hotjar today needs to know one fact first: Hotjar is now Contentsquare. Contentsquare owns Hotjar, and the two products have merged. Today hotjar.com redirects to a Contentsquare page that says "Hotjar is now Contentsquare," and hotjar.com/pricing redirects to the Contentsquare pricing page. Contentsquare's own page states that it is no longer possible to create a new Hotjar account. Existing Hotjar users can still log in with their old credentials, but new customers sign up for Contentsquare.

That change matters for three reasons:

• The pricing model changed. Instead of one Hotjar bill, heatmaps and replays (Experience Analytics) and surveys and feedback (Voice of Customer) are separate products with separate plans.
• The limits changed. Contentsquare's free plan counts up to 200,000 monthly sessions for analytics, but it captures replays for only 5% of sessions (up to 10,000). Growth captures 15% of sessions for replay. Full replay capture is a Pro and Enterprise feature.
• The product got bigger. Contentsquare adds journey analysis, error and performance monitoring, AI summaries and more. That is good if you want more, and a reason to look elsewhere if you just want simple heatmaps.

So people searching for Hotjar alternatives are usually in one of four camps: they want something free, something simpler, something that records every session, or something built for product and engineering teams. This guide compares seven options against those needs: Hotjar (now Contentsquare), Microsoft Clarity, Fullstory, Mouseflow, Crazy Egg, Lucky Orange and PostHog.

A note on Smartlook, which often appears on lists like this: Smartlook's own pricing page says it has joined Cisco, with end of sale on May 31, 2026, last day of support on August 31, 2027, and decommissioning on September 30, 2027. You can no longer buy it, so we left it out.

All prices below come from each vendor's pricing page in October 2026 and are in US dollars unless noted.

Hotjar (now Contentsquare) review

What it is today

If you search for Hotjar, you land on Contentsquare. The Hotjar tools you know (heatmaps, session recordings, surveys and feedback widgets) live inside Contentsquare, which sells them as part of a broader "experience intelligence" platform. Contentsquare also owns Heap, the product analytics tool.

Key features

• Heatmaps: click, move and scroll heatmaps, plus zone-based heatmaps and heatmap summaries on Growth.
• Session replay: watch individual visitor sessions, with AI replay summaries on paid plans.
• Funnels, error and performance monitoring: included even on the Free plan.
• Journey analysis and impact quantification: on Growth and above.
• Voice of Customer: surveys and feedback widgets, sold as a separate product.
• Integrations: 7 pre-built integrations on Free, 9 on Growth and 115+ on Pro and Enterprise, including Google Analytics, Jira, HubSpot, Slack and Teams.

Pricing (October 2026)

Experience Analytics (heatmaps, replays, funnels):

• Free: $0, up to 200,000 monthly sessions, 1 month of data access, 1 project. Replay capture is 5% of sessions, up to 10,000.
• Growth: from $49/month paid monthly or $39/month paid yearly, for 7,000 monthly sessions. The tiers rise with traffic: for example $69 for 10,000 sessions, $119 for 20,000, $409 for 100,000 and $739 for 200,000 (monthly prices). Above 240,000 sessions you talk to sales. Growth includes 13 months of data access, 3 projects, 2 months of replay access and replay capture of 15% of sessions.
• Pro and Enterprise: custom pricing via demo. Up to 100% replay capture, APIs, alerts and 115+ integrations.

Voice of Customer (surveys, feedback):

• Free: 100 responses/month, 3 widgets or surveys, 1 month of response access.
• Growth: listed from $79/month for 500 responses, scaling to 100,000.
• Pro: custom.

Paying yearly by card or PayPal takes 20% off, and buying both Growth plans adds another 10% off. New accounts get a 15-day free trial of Growth with no card required, and new Growth accounts have a 30-day money-back guarantee. Growth plans are billed in euros for European customers (including the UK) and US dollars elsewhere.

When you hit your session limit on Free or Growth, new heatmap and funnel data stops until the monthly reset. On Voice of Customer, surveys stop showing when you hit your response limit.

Pros

• Existing Hotjar users keep their logins and familiar tools.
• The Free plan counts far more sessions than old Hotjar Free (Contentsquare's own comparison: 200k per month vs 35 per day).
• Funnels and error monitoring are included on Free.
• A clear upgrade path to enterprise analytics if you grow.

Cons

• Heatmaps and surveys are separate products with separate bills.
• Replay capture is a percentage of sessions on Free and Growth, so you will not see every visit.
• Pro and Enterprise pricing is not published.
• The product is larger and busier than classic Hotjar, which may be more than a small team needs.

Who should use it

Teams already on Hotjar who are happy with it, and growing companies that expect to need journey analysis, error monitoring and AI summaries later.

Who should avoid it

Teams that want to record every session on a small budget, and anyone who wants one simple bill for heatmaps and surveys.

Microsoft Clarity review

What it is

Clarity is Microsoft's free behavior analytics tool. Microsoft's FAQ says plainly: "Clarity is a free service forever. You never encounter traffic limits or are compelled to upgrade to a paid version."

Key features

• Session recordings with highlights of key moments.
• Heatmaps for desktop, tablet and mobile, generated by default.
• AI summaries and AI chat that answer questions about your data.
• Mobile SDKs for Android, iOS, Flutter and React Native.
• Integrations: Google Analytics, Shopify, WordPress and others, plus an MCP server. Shopify sites get purchase data, and Shopify Plus sites get checkout abandonment.

Pricing (October 2026)

• Free: $0. No traffic limits, unlimited projects and team members, no sampling.

Limits that matter

• Clarity records up to 100,000 sessions per project per day.
• Recordings are kept for 30 days. Favorited recordings and a random sample are kept for up to 9 months.
• For visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland, you must pass a consent signal to Clarity (through its Consent API or a supported consent platform). Without consent, sessions are fragmented and full replays are not available for those visitors.
• To delete one user's data, Microsoft's FAQ says you need to delete the whole project.

Pros

• Free at any traffic level.
• Easy setup with a single script or platform plugin.
• AI summaries help you skip watching hours of video.
• Unlimited projects and team members.

Cons

• 30-day retention for most recordings.
• No built-in surveys, A/B testing or funnel depth to match paid tools.
• Consent setup is required for European traffic.
• Microsoft has access to the data, per its own FAQ, which some legal teams will not accept.

Who should use it

Small businesses, content sites, agencies and anyone who wants heatmaps and replays without a bill. It is also a sensible second tool next to a paid product.

Who should avoid it

Regulated businesses with strict data rules, and teams that need long retention, surveys or deep funnel analysis in one place.

Fullstory review

What it is

Fullstory is a digital experience analytics platform aimed at mid-market and enterprise product, engineering and customer experience teams. It captures interactions automatically, so you can analyze behavior you did not plan to track.

Key features

• Session replay with developer tools, live session viewing and session summaries.
• Heatmaps, click maps and scroll maps.
• Product analytics: funnels, journeys, retention analysis, user segmentation, dashboards.
• StoryAI: AI agents and an AI assistant, sold as an add-on.
• Add-ons: Mobile, Guides and Surveys, Multi-Org Management and an Advantage support subscription.

Pricing (October 2026)

• FullstoryFree: $0, no card required. 30,000 sessions per month, 12 months of data retention, up to 10 users. Includes session replay, basic analytics and debugging tools. Dashboards and StoryAI need a paid plan.
• Business, Advanced, Enterprise: prices not published. You request pricing and a demo.

Pros

• The free plan's 30,000 monthly sessions and 12-month retention are generous.
• Strong autocapture means less tagging work.
• Combines replay with real product analytics.
• Built for larger organizations, with multi-org management and enterprise options.

Cons

• No public paid pricing, so budgeting needs a sales call.
• Mobile, surveys and AI features are add-ons.
• More platform than a marketer needs for simple heatmaps.

Who should use it

Product and CX teams at mid-sized and large companies that want replay and analytics in one place and can handle a sales process.

Who should avoid it

Small marketing teams that want public prices and a quick self-serve upgrade.

Mouseflow review

What it is

Mouseflow is a behavior analytics tool that looks and works most like classic Hotjar: replays, heatmaps, funnels, form analytics and feedback surveys in one product, with unlimited users on every plan.

Key features

• Session replay with tagging, comments and sharing.
• Heatmaps: click, scroll and geo on all plans; attention, movement, interactive and friction heatmaps on paid plans.
• Friction detection that flags rage clicks and errors.
• Conversion funnels, form analytics and journey analytics.
• Feedback surveys and Mina AI, which answers questions about your data in plain language. An MCP connection is available on higher plans.

Pricing (October 2026)

Mouseflow's pricing page shows amounts without a currency symbol, and its terms say fees are quoted in euros or US dollars, so confirm the currency at checkout.

• Free: 0, 500 sessions/month, 1 website project, 1 funnel, 1 month retention.
• Essential: 25/month billed annually or 39 billed monthly. 5,000 sessions, 1 project, 1 funnel, 3 months retention.
• Advanced: 109/month billed annually or 149 billed monthly. 25,000 sessions, 2 projects, 5 funnels, 6 months retention.
• Premium: 319/month billed annually or 399 billed monthly. 100,000 sessions, 5 projects, 10 funnels, 12 months retention. Sold through sales.
• Enterprise: custom.

The 14-day free trial needs no card and includes 2,000 sessions, 5 projects, 10 funnels and 1 month of retention. When you run out of sessions, tracking stops until the next monthly refill unless you buy more or upgrade. First-time annual subscribers (except Enterprise) get a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Pros

• Close match to the classic Hotjar feature set in one plan.
• Unlimited users on every plan.
• Friction detection and form analytics are useful for checkout work.
• Clear, published session tiers.

Cons

• The free plan is small (500 sessions).
• Funnel counts and retention are tight on lower tiers.
• Tracking stops when you hit the session cap.

Who should use it

SMB marketing, UX and e-commerce teams who want a direct Hotjar replacement with predictable pricing.

Who should avoid it

High-traffic sites on a tight budget (Clarity is free) and product teams that need event analytics and feature flags.

Crazy Egg review

What it is

Crazy Egg bundles heatmaps, recordings, web analytics, surveys and, from the Plus plan, unlimited A/B testing.

Key features

• Heatmap reports (snapshots) and session recordings.
• A/B testing, CTAs and error tracking on Plus and above.
• Web analytics, conversion tracking and funnel reports on all plans.
• Surveys with unlimited responses.
• AI analysis of heatmaps and recordings on all plans.

Pricing (October 2026)

All plans are billed annually, with a 30-day free trial.

• Starter: $29/month. 5,000 tracked pageviews, 5 heatmap reports, 50 recordings/month, 6 months recording storage.
• Plus: $99/month. 150,000 pageviews, 75 heatmap reports, 1,000 recordings, 2 years storage. Adds A/B testing, CTAs and error tracking.
• Pro: $249/month. 500,000 pageviews, 100 heatmap reports, 5,000 recordings. Adds more A/B test targeting and export of heatmaps and recordings to AI.
• Enterprise: $599/month. 1,000,000 pageviews, 200 heatmap reports, 10,000 recordings, SAML SSO.

All plans include unlimited websites and team members. Crazy Egg says it never charges overages: data collection pauses at your limit and resumes on the 1st of the next month.

Pros

• A/B testing included from Plus, which most heatmap tools do not offer.
• Unlimited websites and users.
• No overage charges.
• Two years of recording storage from Plus.

Cons

• Annual billing only.
• Recording counts are low compared with pageview limits (50 on Starter).
• Heatmap reports are capped per plan.

Who should use it

Marketers and CRO teams who want heatmaps and simple A/B tests in one tool, across several sites.

Who should avoid it

Teams that want to watch lots of recordings, or that need monthly billing.

Lucky Orange review

What it is

Lucky Orange is a conversion optimization suite popular with small online stores. Every feature is on every plan, and it adds tools Hotjar never had, like live chat and a live view of who is on your site.

Key features

• Dynamic heatmaps and session recordings.
• Surveys and announcements, unlimited.
• Live chat and live visitor view.
• Conversion funnels and page and form analytics.
• Discovery AI, included in the trial and listed as an add-on in the plan table.

Pricing (October 2026)

• Build: $32/month paid annually ($39 paid monthly). Up to 3,500 sessions/month.
• Grow: $72/month paid annually. Up to 10,000 sessions/month.
• Expand: $199/month paid annually ($249 paid monthly). Starts at 50,000 sessions.
• Scale: $839/month paid annually ($1,049 paid monthly). Starts at 300,000 sessions.
• Enterprise: custom, from 700,000+ sessions.

Data storage starts at 60 days, with upgrades to 90, 180 or 365 days. Extra websites cost $5 each. Team members are unlimited. The pricing page lists a 7-day free trial with all features and no free plan.

Pros

• All features on all plans, so no feature gating.
• Live chat and live visitor view in the same tool.
• Simple setup for Shopify and WordPress stores.

Cons

• 60-day base storage is short unless you pay for more.
• Big jump in price between Grow (10,000 sessions) and Expand (50,000).
• No free plan listed on the pricing page.

Who should use it

Small and mid-sized online stores that want heatmaps, recordings and live chat in one place.

Who should avoid it

Product teams and sites with traffic between 10,000 and 50,000 sessions, which fall into a pricing gap.

PostHog review

What it is

PostHog is a product platform for engineering and product teams. Session replay is one of many products, alongside product analytics, feature flags, experiments, surveys, error tracking and more, all in one account.

Key features

• Session replay for web and mobile (iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter), with console logs and network calls.
• Product analytics: funnels, paths, retention, SQL access.
• Heatmaps: click maps and scroll maps. Heatmap data is free to ingest.
• Feature flags and experiments.
• Surveys and error tracking.

Pricing (October 2026)

PostHog is usage-based, with a free allowance that resets every month.

• Free: no card needed. 5,000 web recordings, 2,500 mobile recordings, 1M analytics events, 1,500 survey responses and 100K exceptions per month. 1 project, 1 year of data retention, 1 month of recording retention. Heatmaps are limited to 3 pages you choose.
• Pay as you go: same free allowance, then web recordings cost $0.0050 each from 5k to 15k, $0.0035 from 15k to 50k, $0.0020 from 50k to 150k, $0.0017 from 150k to 500k and $0.0015 above 500k. Mobile recordings start at $0.0100 each after 2,500 free. Analytics events start at $0.00005 each after 1M free. You get 6 projects, 7 years of event retention and 90 days of recording retention.

You can set a billing limit per product, so a traffic spike does not create a surprise bill. Platform packages add SSO, audit logs and custom roles.

Pros

• Very generous free tier for small products.
• Replay is linked to events, flags and experiments.
• Billing limits per product.
• Pay per use, not per seat.

Cons

• More developer-oriented than Hotjar; setup and analysis take more skill.
• Heatmaps are limited to 3 pages on the free plan.
• Usage pricing takes some estimating up front.

Who should use it

SaaS product and engineering teams that want replay next to analytics, flags and experiments.

Who should avoid it

Marketing teams who just want quick heatmaps on landing pages.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Free plans

• Clarity is the clear winner: free with no traffic limits, though recordings expire after 30 days.
• Fullstory gives 30,000 sessions and 12 months of retention for up to 10 users.
• Contentsquare counts up to 200,000 sessions on Free but replays only 5% of them (max 10,000), with 1 month of data.
• PostHog gives 5,000 web recordings and 1M events, with 1 month of recording retention.
• Mouseflow gives 500 sessions.
• Crazy Egg and Lucky Orange have trials, not free plans.

Estimated cost at about 20,000 sessions a month

Each tool counts usage differently, so treat these as rough guides from list prices:

The PostHog figure is 5,000 free recordings, then 10,000 at $0.0050 and 5,000 at $0.0035. Crazy Egg depends on pageviews per session, and its recording cap is 1,000 on Plus.

Ease of use

Clarity, Crazy Egg and Lucky Orange are the easiest to start with. Mouseflow and Contentsquare's Growth plan are close behind. Fullstory and PostHog have more depth and a steeper learning curve.

Analysis depth

Fullstory, PostHog and Contentsquare Pro and Enterprise go furthest, with product analytics, journeys and AI analysis. Mouseflow sits in the middle with friction detection, form analytics and journey analytics. Clarity and Crazy Egg focus on heatmaps and replays.

Surveys and feedback

Lucky Orange, Crazy Egg and Mouseflow include surveys in their plans. Contentsquare sells them as Voice of Customer. PostHog includes 1,500 free survey responses a month. Fullstory sells Guides and Surveys as an add-on. Clarity has no surveys.

Experimentation

Crazy Egg includes A/B testing from Plus. PostHog has experiments built on feature flags. Contentsquare offers A/B testing as a Pro add-on. The others integrate with testing tools rather than running tests themselves.

Privacy and data control

Every tool here needs careful masking and consent setup. Clarity requires an explicit consent signal for EEA, UK and Swiss visitors. Fullstory lists "Private by Default" among its features. Mouseflow lists IP exclusion, default exclusion of sensitive form data and restricting recording by location among its privacy features.

How to Choose the Right Hotjar Alternative

Questions to ask before you pick

1. How many sessions do you get each month? Check your analytics, then compare against each plan's limit. Remember that Crazy Egg counts pageviews and recordings, not sessions.
2. Do you need every session recorded? If yes, look at PostHog, Mouseflow, Lucky Orange, or Contentsquare Pro. Contentsquare Free and Growth replay only a share of sessions.
3. Who will use it? Marketers usually prefer Clarity, Crazy Egg, Lucky Orange or Mouseflow. Product and engineering teams usually prefer PostHog or Fullstory.
4. Do you need surveys in the same bill? Mouseflow, Crazy Egg and Lucky Orange include them. Contentsquare charges separately.
5. How long must you keep recordings? Retention ranges from 30 days (Clarity) to 2 years (Crazy Egg Plus and above).
6. Do you have EU visitors? Plan your consent setup before you install anything.

Red flags

• Session caps that stop tracking mid-month without warning. Mouseflow, Crazy Egg and Contentsquare all pause data when you hit the limit, so set alerts.
• Prices you cannot see. Fullstory paid plans and Contentsquare Pro need a sales call, so get a written quote with session limits and renewal terms.
• Add-ons that you will need from day one, such as Fullstory Mobile or Lucky Orange storage upgrades.
• Annual-only billing (Crazy Egg) when you are not sure the tool fits yet.

What to test during a trial

• Install the script on your checkout or signup flow and confirm sensitive fields are masked.
• Filter recordings by rage clicks or errors and see how quickly you find a real problem.
• Build one funnel and check its numbers against your main analytics tool.
• Check how heatmaps handle dynamic content such as dropdown menus and pop-ups.
• Confirm what happens to data when you hit a limit or cancel.

The Verdict

There is no single "new Hotjar." The right choice depends on what you liked about Hotjar and what bothered you.

• If cost is the problem, start with Microsoft Clarity. It covers heatmaps and replays at any traffic level for free.
• If you liked Hotjar and want to stay close to it, Hotjar (now Contentsquare) keeps your account and adds more, but compare its percentage-based replay capture with your needs.
• If you want a simple, like-for-like swap with clear prices, pick Mouseflow.
• If you want A/B tests too, pick Crazy Egg.
• If you run a small store and want live chat as well, pick Lucky Orange.
• If you build software, pick PostHog for its free tier and all-in-one product tools.
• If you are a larger company with complex journeys, talk to Fullstory.

A common, low-cost setup is Clarity for broad free coverage plus one paid tool for the features Clarity lacks, such as surveys, longer retention or experiments.

Conclusion

Hotjar as a standalone product is gone for new customers, and its tools now sit inside Contentsquare with new plans and limits. That is a good moment to check whether the new setup still fits.

Start by counting your monthly sessions and listing the features you actually use. Then run two trials side by side for a week: one free option such as Clarity or PostHog, and one paid tool that matches your workflow. Prices and limits in this market change often, so confirm the current plan details on each vendor's site before you sign.