Best heatmap alternatives?
If you’re looking for alternatives to Hotjar for heatmaps and other behavior analytics, there are several excellent options available, each with its own unique strengths. Heatmaps provide a visual representation of how users interact with a website, making them crucial for understanding user behavior and optimizing website design and performance. Below is a list of the best heatmap alternatives, along with their main features and advantages:
1. Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is a popular alternative to Hotjar that provides comprehensive heatmap analysis and user behavior tracking. It’s known for its easy-to-use interface and detailed visual insights.
Key Features:
- Heatmaps: Crazy Egg offers click, scroll, and mouse movement heatmaps that give detailed insights into where users interact most on your website.
- Confetti Reports: This feature allows you to see individual clicks segmented by traffic sources, referral paths, search terms, and more.
- A/B Testing: Crazy Egg also offers basic A/B testing to help you optimize your pages based on user behavior data.
- User Recordings: Record user sessions to analyze how visitors navigate through your website.
- Visual Editor: A built-in tool for making quick changes to your website without needing to code.
Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses looking for an affordable heatmap tool with A/B testing features.
Pricing: Starts at $24/month.
2. Mouseflow
Mouseflow is another powerful Hotjar alternative with a strong focus on heatmaps, session recordings, and funnel analysis. It allows businesses to track user behavior in real time.
Key Features:
- Click, Scroll, and Movement Heatmaps: Offers different types of heatmaps to track user engagement.
- Session Recordings: Replay user sessions to see exactly how visitors interact with your website.
- Form Analytics: Analyze how users interact with your forms and identify which fields cause them to abandon forms.
- Funnel Tracking: Helps you identify where users drop off in the conversion process.
- Live Heatmaps: Unlike many other tools, Mouseflow offers live heatmaps, so you can see real-time user interactions.
Best For: E-commerce sites or businesses that need in-depth form analysis and real-time user data.
Pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $24/month.
3. Lucky Orange
Lucky Orange is a versatile heatmap and behavior analytics tool that also offers live chat and polling features. It’s an all-in-one solution for tracking user interactions, improving conversion rates, and understanding visitor behavior.
Key Features:
- Dynamic Heatmaps: Allows you to track clicks, mouse movements, and scroll behavior across different devices and screen sizes.
- Session Recordings: Provides detailed user session recordings to identify pain points in navigation or user flow.
- Live Chat and Polls: Unlike Hotjar, Lucky Orange includes live chat and polling features to engage with users in real time.
- Conversion Funnels: Track user behavior through key steps in your sales funnel and identify drop-off points.
- Form Analytics: Track form abandonment rates and identify problem fields.
Best For: Small businesses or websites that want a combination of heatmap tracking and live chat tools in one platform.
Pricing: Starts at $14/month.
4. Plerdy
Plerdy offers heatmaps as part of its suite of SEO and CRO tools. It provides in-depth behavioral data and can be useful for both small businesses and large enterprises looking to optimize their websites.
Key Features:
- Click and Scroll Heatmaps: Offers accurate tracking of user clicks, hovers, and scroll behavior.
- SEO Alerts: An added feature where you get notifications for issues affecting SEO, such as broken links or missing meta tags.
- Conversion Funnels: Visualize where users drop off in the conversion process.
- Session Recordings: Like Hotjar, Plerdy provides session recordings to help you understand how users interact with your site.
- Pop-ups and Forms: Create and monitor pop-ups and forms to increase user engagement and conversion rates.
Best For: Businesses that want an all-in-one solution that combines heatmaps with SEO tracking and conversion optimization.
Pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $29/month.
5. VWO (Visual Website Optimizer)
VWO is a leading optimization platform that offers a combination of heatmaps, A/B testing, and user feedback tools. It is particularly popular among large enterprises that want a robust set of tools for website optimization.
Key Features:
- Heatmaps: Tracks user interaction with your website, including clicks, scrolls, and form fills.
- A/B Testing and Multivariate Testing: Allows you to test different versions of your website and choose the one that performs best.
- Session Recordings: Watch user sessions in real time or after the fact to see how they navigate your website.
- On-Page Surveys: Collect user feedback directly from the page to understand their concerns or suggestions.
- Funnels: Track and optimize conversion rates through VWO’s funnel analysis tool.
Best For: Enterprises or large businesses that need advanced optimization and A/B testing features in addition to heatmaps.
Pricing: Custom pricing, but typically starts at $199/month.
6. FullStory
FullStory provides powerful heatmap and session recording capabilities with an emphasis on deep data analytics and understanding the entire digital experience.
Key Features:
- Heatmaps: Offers scroll, click, and movement heatmaps for a detailed understanding of user behavior.
- Session Replay: Record and replay user sessions to get a comprehensive view of how visitors are using your site.
- Event Tracking: Automatically captures user events, such as clicks, form submissions, and page transitions.
- Funnel Analysis: Helps you optimize user journeys by analyzing where users drop off.
- Error Detection: Detects site errors that may cause users to abandon their journey or struggle with usability.
Best For: Large-scale websites and enterprises that require comprehensive behavior analysis with deep event tracking capabilities.
Pricing: Free plan available; paid plans require custom pricing.
7. Clarity by Microsoft
Clarity is a free heatmap tool developed by Microsoft, offering basic yet effective features for website user behavior tracking. It’s a good option for businesses on a budget.
Key Features:
- Click, Scroll, and Move Heatmaps: Visualize how users interact with your pages.
- Session Recordings: Record and replay user sessions for better understanding of user flows and behavior.
- Performance Insights: Identify and fix bottlenecks on your website that may slow it down or negatively impact UX.
- No Traffic Limits: Unlike many competitors, Clarity does not restrict the amount of data you can collect.
Best For: Small businesses or anyone looking for a free heatmap tool with essential features.
Pricing: Free.
When choosing a heatmap tool, it’s important to consider your specific needs, budget, and the level of detail you require for user behavior analysis. While Hotjar is a widely used and comprehensive option, tools like Crazy Egg, Mouseflow, and VWO offer unique advantages, such as A/B testing, funnel analysis, and more in-depth user session recording. If you’re on a budget, Clarity by Microsoft offers a powerful free alternative. Each tool brings different strengths, so choose one that aligns with your goals for improving user experience and SEO.