Question 1

What are the limits on Hotjar's free Basic plan?

Accepted Answer

Hotjar's free Basic plan captures up to 35 daily sessions for heatmaps and recordings. As of December 2024, this translates to approximately 1,050 sessions per month. If you exceed the daily limit, Hotjar stops recording new sessions for that day and resumes the next day. The free plan includes unlimited heatmaps, automatic data capture, and 365-day data retention. For growing startups needing more data, the Plus plan at $32/month (annual) increases capacity to 100 daily sessions, while Business at $80/month supports 500+ daily sessions.

Question 2

What are Hotjar's pricing plans and costs?

Accepted Answer

Hotjar Observe (heatmaps and recordings) offers four tiers as of December 2024: Basic is free forever with 35 daily sessions, Plus costs $32/month annually ($39 monthly) with 100 daily sessions, Business costs $80/month annually ($99 monthly) with 500+ daily sessions, and Scale costs $171/month annually ($213 monthly) with advanced features. Annual billing saves 20%. Hotjar was acquired by Contentsquare in 2021, and nonprofit organizations can receive free Ask and Observe Business plans with 50% off higher tiers. Bundle discounts of 10% apply when subscribing to multiple paid products.

Question 3

How does Hotjar compare to FullStory and Microsoft Clarity?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Clarity is completely free with unlimited sessions but lacks surveys and feedback tools. As of December 2024, Hotjar balances analytics with qualitative feedback features at $32-$171/month, while FullStory targets enterprises at approximately $800/month with advanced debugging and console log tracking. Clarity suits budget-conscious teams needing basic heatmaps; Hotjar excels for product teams wanting integrated surveys, feedback widgets, and user interviews. FullStory offers the deepest technical insights with error tracking and user segmentation but requires enterprise budgets. According to BuiltWith, Hotjar leads with 72,048 installations among top 1 million websites versus Clarity's 45,820.

Question 4

What types of heatmaps does Hotjar offer?

Accepted Answer

Hotjar automatically generates five heatmap types when you create a new heatmap. As of December 2024, these include: Click and Tap maps showing where users click on desktop and tap on mobile; Move maps tracking mouse movement patterns that correlate with eye tracking; Scroll maps displaying what percentage of visitors reach each page section; Rage Click maps identifying frustrated users who click the same element five or more times within 500 milliseconds; and Engagement Zones combining click, scroll, and move data into a color-coded grid showing overall interaction levels. Each heatmap type helps identify different usability issues.

Question 5

How long does Hotjar keep session recordings?

Accepted Answer

Hotjar retains session recordings and continuous heatmap data for 365 days from the date of capture on all paid plans. As of December 2024, this 12-month retention applies to both recordings and associated heatmap data. Individual sessions can last up to four hours, with a new session starting after 30 minutes of user inactivity. If you delete a recording, any associated heatmap data is also deleted since heatmaps are generated from session data. The free Basic plan also includes 365-day retention, making Hotjar competitive with other analytics tools for historical analysis.

Question 6

Is Hotjar GDPR compliant and privacy-focused?

Accepted Answer

Hotjar is fully GDPR compliant with privacy built into its core design. As of December 2024, Hotjar provides a Data Processing Agreement with EU and UK Standard Contractual Clauses, stores all data within the EEA, and employs a dedicated Data Protection Officer (dpo@hotjar.com). Key privacy features include keystroke suppression by default, personal data masking in recordings, visitor lookup tools for data deletion requests, and explicit consent controls. However, GDPR compliance is shared: website owners must implement cookie consent banners and update privacy policies. Hotjar was acquired by Contentsquare in 2021, which also maintains strong privacy commitments including cookieless tracking options.

Question 7

What analytics and business tools does Hotjar integrate with?

Accepted Answer

Hotjar integrates with major analytics and productivity platforms as of December 2024. Native integrations include Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Slack, HubSpot, Mixpanel, Optimizely, and project management tools like Jira, Asana, Trello, and Linear. Partner integrations via Segment, RudderStack, and Tealium enable advanced data routing. The Slack integration (Business and Scale plans) forwards recordings with rage clicks and survey responses to channels. The HubSpot integration adds session recordings and survey responses to contact timelines for sales and support context. As part of Contentsquare, Hotjar also integrates with Heap for combined product and experience analytics.

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