Google Analytics vs. Hotjar

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Analytics
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Google Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition seems likely to close the gap.
$0
per month
Hotjar
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Hotjar is a conversion rate optimization tool for digital marketers. Features include heatmapping, visual session recording, conversion funnel analytics, form analytics, feedback polls and surveys, and usability testing. The tool is used by digital analysts, UX designers, web developers and product marketers. Hotjar was acquired by Contentsquare September 2021, and is now a Contentsquare brand.
$39
per month 100 daily sessions
Pricing
Google AnalyticsHotjar
Editions & Modules
Google Analytics 360
150,000
per year
Google Analytics
Free
Hotjar Observe - Plus
$39
per month 100 daily sessions
Hotjar Ask - Plus
$59
per month 250 monthly responses
Hotjar Ask - Business
$79
per month Starting from 500 monthly responses
Hotjar Observe - Business
$99
per month Starting from 500 daily sessions
Hotjar Scale - Business
$213
per month Starting from 500 daily sessions
Hotjar Ask - Scale
Contact Sales
per month unlimited volume
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google AnalyticsHotjar
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscount available for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google AnalyticsHotjar
Considered Both Products
Google Analytics
Chose Google Analytics
Microsoft Clarity is speedy, extremely tidy, and straight to the point, and it contains everything a SME would need to maintain a healthy SEO without the need for technical understanding; its UI is far superior to GA, and it also provides additional capabilities like as …
Chose Google Analytics
Handles the basics better with minimal training and investment, but falls short at optimization work. Google Analytics has remained the backbone of our web analytics work for a very long time, so it is a nice "default" option to always have present in our programs even if we …
Chose Google Analytics
Google Analytics stacks up as some of the best among the competition, assuming you're using it for its intended purpose. It's been the easiest to integrate into our applications, as well as the easiest UI to use. We selected Google Analytics for security and budget reasons, but …
Chose Google Analytics
We have been using Google Analytics for over 10 years. Over that time we have periodically reviewed our analytics platforms a number of times. For us, it made more sense to stay with google analytics primarily because if we migrated to another platform we would lose the …
Hotjar
Chose Hotjar
I haven't seen a solution that visualizes the user experience and interactions in the way that Hotjar does, creating a video of how each user progressed through our app. Mixpanel and Google Analytics are leaders in the space but we've found the visual elements of Hotjar to be …
Chose Hotjar
HotJar works better than Google Analytics when it comes to heatmap tracking. HotJar records all clicks, not just the clicks to other pages on the website.
Chose Hotjar
Hotjar has the ability to give you a heatmap that shows you what section of our page has been clicked on the most by visitors. It also records what a user is doing on your website, which gives you great insight. Google Analytics doesn't have that feature but combined they help …
Chose Hotjar
Ok Hotjar is more comparable with CrazyEgg, we haven't really [used] CrazyEgg since we get everything we need with Hotjar and the tools work just perfect, let's say HotJar is a very polished product and that's why we haven't changed it.Normal analytics like Google Analytics
Chose Hotjar
Google Analytics is for big numbers and traffic analyzation and not about more personalized approach.

Mouseflow is good but has serious gaps if compared with Hotjar:
Chose Hotjar
Google Analytics is a much more robust platform than Hotjar, but works great as a complement to Google Analytics - in other words, it was a matter of choosing both, not either/or. While there are workarounds for them on Google Analytics, heatmaps and screen recordings are much …
Chose Hotjar
I have moved jobs, so that is why I am now using Hotjar. I think that Decibel Insight has more functionality than what Hotjar does, as it allows you to be able to automatically view pages and heatmaps, rather than needing to wait for the data to gather.
Chose Hotjar
The fact that it has a trial period in which you can fully try each feature of the platform. The fact that is very intuitive for us to understand each feedback given by the users and to interpret how they move and what they observe on the pages we need to test.
Chose Hotjar
There was not something specific negative that we noticed in the other products, hotjar came in the discussion through a referral from one of our colleagues, was covering all the tickboxes that we had set and decided to move forwards with it
Chose Hotjar
Whatever software does, Hotjar does better. Integration and setup are really fast and you can have data to analyze in a few minutes. Also, the support team is very dedicated and there's a lot of documentation and examples you can follow.
Chose Hotjar
Hotjar was significantly cheaper for us, and they’ve been brilliant at honouring their legacy pricing model which is much cheaper up until recently. We find that Hotjar also offers a wider range of tools that we would otherwise need to pay more for elsewhere like surveys. The …
Chose Hotjar
Cmparing with other products in the same vertical, we found the UX UI for Hotjar the best. It is easier to integrate with and has lot many more features as compared to its nearest competitors. We fount the product to be robust and accurate with lot of customizable options to …
Chose Hotjar
I liked the Hotjar User interface a little more and it seemed a little bit easier to set up. For some users with just the basic needs smart look was overly complicated. whereas in Hotjar everything you need is in one simple easy-to-view dashboard. Also, it offered more free …
Chose Hotjar
Hotjar was relatively more known to the team and they had past experience as well with the tool which made the adoption relatively easier. As such we didn’t find a lot of difference between the two tools when it comes fulfilling our use cases so for us specifically both were …
Chose Hotjar
Mouseflow matches nearly every feature that Hotjar offers – although, they may work a little differently.
The most relevant difference is in data capture. Hotjar offers unlimited options for heat maps, recordings, forms and comments as long as you are a paying customer. In …
Chose Hotjar
Hotjar gives a more controlled and easy to manage view on user tracking.
Chose Hotjar
I've also used Sessioncam which is great but it's more of an enterprise tool (and pricing) and it's a bit more difficult to use
Chose Hotjar
In the past, we had to choose different software but now with HotJar, you can get the data of all three for the price of one (great ROI).
Chose Hotjar
Hotjar had a better interface and a more intuitive setup. Lucky Orange wasn't bad, it just came in second. Hotjar also delivered more results for the price.
Chose Hotjar
Hotjar has much better heatmaps than offered via VWO. Its polls functionality is also better than VWO.

VWO offers heatmaps linked to AB test variations, but these are not very in-depth, and you cannot get scroll maps like you can with Hotjar.
Chose Hotjar
Hotjar is robust and incredibly affordable. It's insane how cheap it is for what it provides. Recordings and heatmaps alone are worth the price tag. Add on the other feedback gathering functionality and it's a really good bargain. It comes at a slight cost at the manual …
Chose Hotjar
HotJar was selected for a few reasons:
  • Video Capture - HotJars video capture of user sessions is nothing short of amazing. It is so useful (not to mention cool) to see, in real time, how users interact with our software. It makes our jobs so much easier and more enjoyable to get …
Chose Hotjar
I didn't evaluate anyone else. I found Hotjar and it was exactly what I needed, and I've never looked back. From what I've heard from peers, Hotjar is one of the best.
Chose Hotjar
The free version of hotjar is still incredibly useful, not severely limited as some other products are. They are also willing to work with you if it is necessary to bill annually, and the full version opens up a lot more specific kinds of targeting for more in depth research …
Chose Hotjar
Hotjar is more visual and provides insights on real visitors using our website. It's more than just numbers or general stats. That's why Hotjar is very helpful.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Google AnalyticsHotjar
Small Businesses
StatCounter
StatCounter
Score 9.0 out of 10
Smartlook
Smartlook
Score 8.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 8.7 out of 10
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Contentsquare
Contentsquare
Score 8.6 out of 10
Contentsquare
Contentsquare
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google AnalyticsHotjar
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(183 ratings)
8.7
(101 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(51 ratings)
5.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
9.9
(8 ratings)
9.7
(6 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(42 ratings)
9.6
(4 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google AnalyticsHotjar
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
Google Analytics is particularly well suited for tracking and analyzing customer behavior on a grocery e-commerce platform. It provides a wealth of information about customer behavior, including what products are most popular, what pages are visited the most, and where customers are coming from. This information can help the platform optimize its website for better customer engagement and conversion rates. However, Google Analytics may not be the best tool for more advanced, granular analysis of customer behavior, such as tracking individual customer journeys or understanding customer motivations. In these cases, it may be more appropriate to use additional tools or solutions that provide deeper insights into customer behavior.
Read full review
Contentsquare
Hotjar is good for a first pass at understanding user sentiment or locating potential usability issues. There are features such as "rage clicked" which shows recordings or instances when a user rage clicked or had an issue with your site. Hotjar has also been helpful to launch intercept surveys on mobile, desktop, and app, which not all competitor software allow. Hotjar recordings are fun to watch. "Watching Hotjar like Netflix" is a favorite pastime at work.
Read full review
Pros
Google
  • Multiple reports to see website use and behavior
  • Allows you to customize reports with days, weeks, months, and years
  • You can build out a dashboard to easily view stats from multiple websites in one place
  • You can share analytics reports via the dashboard, automatically emailed PDFs or in other formats
Read full review
Contentsquare
  • Heat mapping is great on Hotjar. It is a good place to start when you are looking at the UX & CRO on your website. You can see the % of people clicking on elements on a page, how far they scroll, and mouse movements.
  • Hotjar is great for session recordings. These record the mouse movements, clicks, pages and scrolls of a user in video format. You can watch these to investigate what works well on a site and identify potential roadblocks and bugs.
  • Hotjar is great as it ensures that users details are anonymous; for instance, if you are watching a session recording, you cannot see what a user types in a form field, as Hotjar blanks this out.
  • Hotjar has a poll function, so you can have polls on your website.
Read full review
Cons
Google
  • Data sampling is somewhat inaccurate on the free tier - this is addressed in premium but is expensive.
  • Some of the UI is very similar in naming when presenting different data, some in-situ information might be useful.
  • Gotchas around filtering and data validation.
  • Implementation can be tricky, it can take a lot of time and expertise to get a full, accurate picture of your metrics.
Read full review
Contentsquare
  • Hotjar is primarily used for web-based experiences. Not that easy to use on mobile apps.
  • I'd love to see Hotjar integrated with Google Analytics for an even deeper view.
  • Hotjar is primarily used by smaller organizations...pricing can get steep quickly for larger organizations.
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Likelihood to Renew
Google
We will continue to use Google Analytics for several reasons. It is free, which is a huge selling point. It houses all of our ecommerce stores' data, and though it can't account for refunds or fraud orders, gives us and our clients directional, real time information on individual and group store performance.
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Contentsquare
Even though the heat maps and user recordings were useful, our website was significantly slowed down after we installed Hotjar, so much so, that it took over a minute for our blog to load. The data that we gathered was not worth the length that it took our website to load.
Read full review
Usability
Google
Google Analytics provides a wealth of data, down to minute levels. That is it's greatest detriment: find the right information when you need it can be a cumbersome task. You are able to create shortcuts, however, so it can mitigate some of this problem. Google is continually refining Analytics, so I do not doubt there will be improvements
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Contentsquare
So easy and simple to use! Straightforward anyone in the team is able to easily go in and set up anything in Hotjar. The UI is really simple. Whenever you give feedback to Hotjar they continously take on board the feedback and improve the tool.
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Reliability and Availability
Google
We all know Google is at top when it comes to availability. We have never faced any such instances where I can suggest otherwise. All you need is a Google account, a device and internet connection to use this super powerful tool for reporting and visualising your site data, traffic, events, etc. that too in real time.
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Contentsquare
No answers on this topic
Performance
Google
This has been a catalyst for improving our site's traffic handling capabilities. We were able to identify exit% from our sites through it and we used recommendations to handle and implement the same in our sites. We have been increasing the usage of Google Analytics in our sites and never had any performance related issues if we used Analytics
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Contentsquare
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Google
The Google reps respond very quickly. However, sometimes they can overly call you to set up an apportionment. I'm very proficient and sometimes when I talk to reps, they give beginner tutorials and insights that are a waste of time. I wish Google would understand my level of expertise and assign me to a rep (long-term) that doesn't have to walk me through the basics.
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Contentsquare
Hotjar is a SaaS-based company, and as such has a good support service. Users can quickly submit support tickets through Hotjar's online portal. Enterprise customers get access to additional support members and have SLAs to support their larger, more complex needs. Overall, Hotjar is extremely reliable and I've never had to reach out to customer support.
Read full review
Online Training
Google
love the product and training they provide for businesses of all sizes. The following list of links will help you get started with Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented by Google Analytics.
  1. How to Use Google Analytics for Beginners – Mahalo’s how-to guide for beginners.
  2. A beginner’s guide to Google Analytics – A free eBook walking you through Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented.
  3. Getting to Know Your Google Analytics Dashboard – The title says it all! This is a brief post with one goal: to introduce you to the Google Analytics dashboard.
  4. Google Analytics for Beginners: How to Make the Most of Your Traffic Reports– This guide doesn’t cover setup, but it does a great job of helping you to better understand the data being presented.
  5. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 1: Setup – A video presentation that walks you through Google Analytics setup.
  6. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 2: Essential Stats – A video presentation that introduces you to some of the most important data being presented in Google Analytics.
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Contentsquare
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Google
I think my biggest take away from the Google Analytics implementation was that there needs to be a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it before you start. Originally the analytics were added to track visitors, but as we became more savvy with the product, we began adding more and more functionality, and defining guidelines as we went along. While not detrimental to our success, this lack of an overarching goal resulted in some minor setbacks in implementation and the collection of some messy data that is unusable.
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Contentsquare
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Google
I have not used Adobe Analytics as much, but I know they offer something called customer journey analytics, which we are evaluating now. I have used Semrush, and I find them much better than Google Analytics. I feel a fairly nontechnical person could learn Semrush in about a month. They also offer features like competitive analysis (on content, keywords, traffic, etc.), which is very useful. If you have to choose one among Semrush and Google Analytics, I would say go for Semrush.
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Contentsquare
HotJar was selected for a few reasons:
  • Video Capture - HotJars video capture of user sessions is nothing short of amazing. It is so useful (not to mention cool) to see, in real time, how users interact with our software. It makes our jobs so much easier and more enjoyable to get this type of d
  • User Surveys - The ease and flexibility of surveys we can make available on our website are an awesome tool to get additional data.
  • Simple implementation - Adding a very small amount of code to our website gives us the ability to use all of HotJars features without having to touch our code again.
Read full review
Scalability
Google
Google Analytics is currently handling the reporting and tracking of near about 80 sites in our project. And I am not talking about the sites from different projects. They may have way more accounts than that. Never ever felt a performance issue from Google's end while generating or customising reports or tracking custom events or creating custom dimensions
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Contentsquare
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Google
  • It has helped us gain understanding of what is going on on our website.
  • It has helped us determine areas that need fixing (i.e. pages with extremely high bounce rates may need to be redone).
  • It has helped us understand our biggest avenues for bringing traffic to the website and business in general.
  • It has helped guide our website redesign.
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Contentsquare
  • We have fixed many issues, for example, checkout usability problems with the video recording feature. You can catch bugs and get an overall idea of how a particular page is working.
  • Polls have helped us pair intent with the video sessions, so we can understand better why certain users answered different things. You get greedy and try to ask everything but that won't work. Keep it simple and it will give you small but important insights.
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ScreenShots