9 Best Hotjar Alternatives in 2026 (Tested & Compared)

Hotjar is now a Contentsquare company. The product you knew still works, but the brand, the pricing, and the roadmap moved. If you are re-evaluating, this guide ranks nine alternatives by what they actually do in 2026 and what each one charges.

The short answer: The best Hotjar alternative depends on what you need. Humblytics is the best pick if you want to act on behavior data, not just watch it — cookie-free heatmaps plus no-code A/B testing and Stripe-verified revenue attribution in one script. Microsoft Clarity is the best free alternative — unlimited recordings and heatmaps at $0. Mouseflow is the strongest like-for-like swap for teams that live in session replay and friction scoring.

At a glance: Hotjar alternatives compared

Tool	Best for	Session replay	Heatmaps	Free tier	Starting price
Humblytics	Acting on behavior (A/B + revenue), cookie-free	No	Yes (click + scroll)	Free trial	$19/mo
Microsoft Clarity	Free replay + heatmaps	Yes	Yes	Unlimited, free	$0
Mouseflow	Friction scoring + 7 heatmap types	Yes	Yes	500 sessions/mo	$39/mo
PostHog	Product teams (replay + analytics + flags)	Yes	Limited	1M events, 5K replays/mo	Usage-based
FullStory	Enterprise digital experience analytics	Yes	Yes	30k sessions/mo	Custom (~$199/mo)
Smartlook	Web + mobile app replay (winding down)	Yes	Yes	3,000 sessions/mo	$55/mo
Lucky Orange	Ecommerce, all features on every plan	Yes	Yes	100 sessions/mo	$39/mo
Crazy Egg	Heatmaps + built-in A/B testing	Yes	Yes	Limited free plan	$29/mo
Plerdy	CRO + SEO + heatmaps bundled	Yes	Yes	Free forever	$21/mo

Prices reflect entry paid tiers on annual billing, verified June 2026. Read each section below for the full picture.

What is the best Hotjar alternative in 2026?

The best overall Hotjar alternative is Humblytics, because it closes the loop Hotjar leaves open. Hotjar shows you where users click and where they drop. It does not let you test a fix, and it does not tie the result to revenue. Humblytics gives you cookie-free heatmaps, a no-code A/B testing engine, funnels, and Stripe-verified revenue attribution in one ~36 KB script — so you go from "users abandon here" to "this change earned $1,200" without leaving the tool or stitching three products together.

There is one honest caveat up front. Humblytics does not do session replay — Hotjar's signature feature. If watching individual recordings is your number-one job, pick Clarity, FullStory, Smartlook, or Mouseflow instead. The rest of this guide is built so you can match the tool to the job, not just chase the cheapest sticker price.

The shortlist by need:

• Best free alternative: Microsoft Clarity (unlimited, $0).
• Best for taking action on what you find: Humblytics ($19/mo).
• Closest like-for-like replacement: Mouseflow ($39/mo).
• Best for product teams: PostHog (usage-based, generous free tier).
• Best enterprise replay: FullStory (custom).
• Best for ecommerce: Lucky Orange ($39/mo).
• Best heatmaps + A/B in one classic tool: Crazy Egg ($29/mo).

Why look for a Hotjar alternative?

Hotjar still works. But four changes pushed teams to shop around in 2026.

The Contentsquare acquisition. Hotjar is now folded into Contentsquare. You can still use the classic heatmaps, recordings, and surveys, but the product, the pricing pages, and the upgrade paths now route through a larger enterprise platform. Some teams want a smaller, more focused tool.

Pricing moved. Hotjar's paid Growth tier starts around $39 to $49 per month (billed annually), and Contentsquare introduced its own Growth tier near $40/month in December 2025. The free tier is generous — up to ~200,000 monthly sessions — but the moment you need funnels, AI features, or more capacity, you are on a paid annual commitment.

Session-based pricing punishes traffic. Like most replay tools, Hotjar meters sessions. A traffic spike, a viral post, or a paid campaign can blow through your cap, at which point recording pauses or sampling kicks in. Your costs scale with success, not with value.

Cookies and consent. Hotjar sets cookies and processes behavioral data that triggers consent requirements under GDPR and similar laws. That means a cookie banner, lost data from visitors who decline, and a compliance review. Cookie-free tools like Humblytics sidestep the banner entirely.

No A/B testing, no revenue attribution. This is the big one. Hotjar tells you what happened. It does not let you test a change or prove that a change made money. You end up buying a separate testing tool and a separate attribution setup. One tool that does both is cheaper and faster.

What is the best free Hotjar alternative?

Microsoft Clarity is the best free Hotjar alternative, full stop. It is genuinely free forever — no paid tiers, no traffic limits, no feature gates. You get unlimited session recordings, unlimited click, scroll, and area heatmaps, frustration signals (rage clicks, dead clicks, quick backs), an AI Copilot for natural-language queries, and a GA4 integration, all at $0. Microsoft funds it through aggregate data, not a paywall.

If your only need is to watch sessions and read heatmaps, there is no reason not to install Clarity. It is the baseline every paid tool gets measured against. Its limits are 30-day dashboard retention on recordings (90 days for heatmap data), a restrictive export API, and no A/B testing or revenue attribution — it observes, it does not act.

Many teams run Clarity for free replay alongside Humblytics for testing and revenue, which covers the full loop without paying for replay at all. We wrote about that pairing in Microsoft Clarity vs Humblytics.

The 9 best Hotjar alternatives in 2026

1. Humblytics

Humblytics is a cookie-free analytics and conversion platform that combines heatmaps, no-code A/B testing, funnels, and Stripe-verified revenue attribution in a single ~36 KB script. It is the alternative for teams that are tired of tools that only observe.

The difference is the verb. Hotjar, Clarity, and most tools on this list show you behavior. Humblytics lets you change it and prove the result. You see a leak in a heatmap or funnel, ship an A/B test from the same dashboard with no code, and Humblytics ties the winning variant back to actual Stripe revenue — not a click, not a soft goal, the dollar. Because it is cookie-free, there is no consent banner and no data lost to declined cookies.

It also ships a 42-endpoint REST API and agent skills (MCP) so Claude or Codex can read your funnel, propose a test, and ship it. That is something no other tool here offers.

• Best for: Marketers, agencies, and founders who want to act on behavior data — test fixes and attribute revenue — without a cookie banner or a three-tool stack.
• Pricing (2026): Plus $19/mo, Business $79/mo, Scale $279/mo, Enterprise custom. Free trial available.
• Pros: Cookie-free (no consent banner); heatmaps, A/B testing, funnels, and revenue attribution in one script; Stripe-verified revenue, not just clicks; agent/MCP access for Claude or Codex; lightweight script; transparent flat pricing.
• Cons / limits: No session replay — if watching individual recordings is critical, pair it with Clarity or pick a replay-first tool below. Heatmaps cover click and scroll, not movement or attention maps.
• Who should use it: Conversion-focused teams that want to fix and prove, not just look. If your workflow ends at "interesting, now what?" with Hotjar, this is the upgrade. See Humblytics vs Hotjar for the full comparison, or the A/B testing engine on its own.

2. Microsoft Clarity

Microsoft Clarity is a completely free behavior analytics tool offering unlimited session recordings, heatmaps, and AI-powered insights. It is the strongest free option on this list and used on more than 2 million sites.

• Best for: Anyone who wants free replay and heatmaps with no traffic ceiling.
• Pricing (2026): Free forever. No paid tier exists.
• Pros: Unlimited recordings and heatmaps; no traffic limits; no sampling; AI Copilot; frustration signals; GDPR and CCPA ready; native GA4 integration; mobile app analytics.
• Cons / limits: No A/B testing; no revenue attribution; 30-day recording retention; export API is heavily limited; observes only, never acts. It also sets cookies and shares aggregate data with Microsoft.
• Who should use it: Every site should run Clarity for free replay. Teams that need to test changes or prove revenue add a tool like Humblytics on top.

3. Mouseflow

Mouseflow is an all-in-one behavior analytics platform built around session replay and a proprietary Friction Score. It is the closest like-for-like Hotjar replacement for teams that live in recordings.

• Best for: Teams that want deep replay, friction scoring, and the widest range of heatmap types.
• Pricing (2026): Free plan (500 sessions/mo). Paid from $39/mo billed annually; all features on all plans; Enterprise custom.
• Pros: Seven automatic heatmap types (click, scroll, movement, attention, geo, interactive, friction); 100% session recording with no sampling; Friction Score on every session; form analytics, funnels, journeys, and surveys; unlimited users on every plan; privacy controls standard.
• Cons / limits: Session-based caps mean costs climb with traffic; no built-in revenue attribution to Stripe; A/B testing is not a core feature.
• Who should use it: Teams replacing Hotjar feature-for-feature who want richer heatmaps and friction detection, and don't need an A/B engine.

4. PostHog

PostHog is an open-source product analytics platform that bundles session replay, funnels, feature flags, and experiments. It targets product engineers more than marketers.

• Best for: Product and engineering teams that want analytics, replay, and A/B testing (via feature flags) in one developer-first tool.
• Pricing (2026): Usage-based with a generous free tier — 1M events and 5,000 session recordings per month free. Beyond that, session replay runs about $0.005 per recording (stepping down with volume).
• Pros: Replay, product analytics, feature flags, and experiments in one platform; very generous free tier (90%+ of companies stay free); transparent usage-based pricing; open source and self-hostable; A/B testing via feature flags.
• Cons / limits: Steeper learning curve; heatmaps are limited compared to dedicated tools; usage-based billing can be hard to forecast; built for engineers, not marketers; no Stripe-verified revenue attribution out of the box.
• Who should use it: SaaS product teams that want one developer-grade tool for analytics, replay, and experimentation.

5. FullStory

FullStory is an enterprise digital experience analytics platform known for high-fidelity session replay and deep product analytics. It is the premium replay option.

• Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams that need rich replay plus product analytics at scale.
• Pricing (2026): Free plan (30,000 sessions/mo, 12-month retention, up to 10 users). Paid plans are quote-based — Business reportedly starts around $199/mo on annual billing, with most enterprise contracts ranging from roughly $20,000 to $150,000+ per year.
• Pros: Best-in-class session replay with full interaction capture; the most generous free tier among replay tools (30k sessions); product analytics, funnels, journeys, and StoryAI summaries; heatmaps on paid tiers.
• Cons / limits: Paid pricing is opaque and expensive; session-based and negotiated; mobile, AI opportunities, and other features are paid add-ons; overkill for small teams; no native Stripe revenue attribution.
• Who should use it: Larger product and UX teams with budget that need enterprise-grade replay and analytics.

6. Smartlook

Smartlook is a session replay and heatmap tool that covers both web and mobile apps. Important caveat: it is being wound down.

• Best for: Cross-platform replay across web and native mobile apps — but check the timeline first.
• Pricing (2026): Free plan (3,000 sessions/mo). Pro from $55/mo (some listings show $79/mo). End of Sale is 31 May 2026 — no new subscriptions after that date, with support ending in 2027 as it folds into Splunk's Digital Experience Analytics.
• Pros: Strong web and mobile app replay; heatmaps, funnels, events, and crash reports; usable free tier; quantitative event tracking alongside qualitative replay.
• Cons / limits: Being discontinued — new sign-ups closing in 2026, so it is not a safe long-term bet; pricing higher than several rivals; no built-in A/B testing or revenue attribution.
• Who should use it: Existing Smartlook customers planning a migration, or Splunk-ecosystem teams. New buyers should look elsewhere.

7. Lucky Orange

Lucky Orange is a behavior analytics tool popular with ecommerce stores that bundles heatmaps, recordings, live chat, surveys, and funnels — with every feature on every plan.

• Best for: Ecommerce and small business sites that want everything included without feature gates.
• Pricing (2026): Free plan (100 sessions/mo). Build $39/mo (3,500 sessions), Grow $89/mo, Expand $249/mo, Scale $1,049/mo; Discovery AI is an add-on.
• Pros: Dynamic heatmaps, recordings, surveys, funnels, and live chat all included; unlimited team members; live visitor view; strong Shopify integration; affordable entry tier.
• Cons / limits: Session-based caps; A/B testing is not a core strength; no Stripe-verified revenue attribution; Discovery AI costs extra; data retention starts at 60 days.
• Who should use it: Shopify and small ecommerce stores that want behavior insight plus live chat in one affordable tool.

8. Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is one of the original heatmap tools and one of the few classic options with built-in A/B testing. It is built around Snapshots (heatmap reports), recordings, and experiments.

• Best for: Marketers who want heatmaps and no-code A/B testing in one established tool.
• Pricing (2026): Limited free plan available. Starter $29/mo (5,000 tracked pageviews), Plus $99/mo (adds A/B testing), Pro $249/mo, Enterprise $599/mo — all billed annually, no overages.
• Pros: Click, scroll, Confetti, and overlay heatmaps; built-in no-code A/B testing (from the Plus tier); session recordings; AI heatmap analysis; unlimited sites and team seats on every plan; no surprise overages.
• Cons / limits: Annual billing only; A/B testing requires the $99/mo Plus tier; pageview-based limits; no Stripe revenue attribution; sets cookies and needs consent.
• Who should use it: Marketers who want heatmaps plus a built-in visual A/B editor and prefer an established brand. Note that Crazy Egg's testing tracks conversions, not verified Stripe revenue.

9. Plerdy

Plerdy is a CRO and SEO platform that bundles heatmaps, session replay, popups, event tracking, and SEO auditing into one account. Its angle is consolidation.

• Best for: Small teams that want CRO and SEO tooling together at a low price.
• Pricing (2026): Free forever (limited daily caps). Startup $21/mo, Scale $42/mo, Thrive $70/mo and up — billed annually; monthly billing is higher.
• Pros: Heatmaps, session replay, popups, funnels, and an SEO checker in one tool; unlimited A/B testing on every plan including free; AI UX assistant; low entry price.
• Cons / limits: Daily pageview limits rather than monthly sessions; smaller vendor; the SEO and CRO breadth can feel thin per feature; no Stripe-verified revenue attribution.
• Who should use it: Budget-conscious small teams that want behavior analytics and basic SEO auditing under one subscription.

How to choose a Hotjar alternative

Pick based on the job you actually need done, not the longest feature list.

If you need free session replay: Microsoft Clarity. Unlimited, $0, no catch.

If you need to act on what you find — test changes and prove revenue: Humblytics. It is the one tool here that turns a heatmap finding into a shipped A/B test and a verified dollar.

If you need rich replay and friction analysis: Mouseflow for value, FullStory for enterprise scale.

If you are a product/engineering team: PostHog, for analytics, replay, and flags in one developer tool.

If you run an ecommerce store: Lucky Orange, for everything-included behavior insight plus live chat.

If you want classic heatmaps with built-in A/B testing: Crazy Egg.

If budget is tight and you want CRO plus SEO: Plerdy.

Two practical filters. First, watch the pricing model. Session-based tools (Hotjar, Mouseflow, FullStory, Lucky Orange, Smartlook) get more expensive as you grow; flat plans (Humblytics) and usage-based (PostHog) behave differently under traffic spikes. Second, decide whether you need to observe or to act. Replay tools end at insight. If your real goal is more conversions and more revenue, the tool that lets you test and attribute will pay for itself faster than another recording library.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free Hotjar alternative?

Microsoft Clarity is the best free Hotjar alternative. It is free forever with unlimited session recordings, unlimited heatmaps, frustration signals, and an AI Copilot — with no traffic limits and no paid tier. PostHog and FullStory also offer strong free tiers (1M events / 5K replays, and 30,000 sessions respectively), but Clarity is the only fully unlimited free option.

Is there a cookie-free Hotjar alternative?

Yes. Humblytics is a cookie-free Hotjar alternative. It captures heatmaps, funnels, A/B tests, and revenue attribution without setting cookies, so you don't need a consent banner and you don't lose data from visitors who decline cookies. Hotjar, Crazy Egg, Lucky Orange, and most replay tools set cookies and trigger GDPR consent requirements.

Which Hotjar alternative has A/B testing?

Humblytics and Crazy Egg both include A/B testing, which Hotjar does not. Humblytics offers no-code A/B testing tied to Stripe-verified revenue, so you can prove a variant made money. Crazy Egg includes a visual A/B editor on its $99/mo Plus tier and above. PostHog also supports experiments through feature flags, aimed at product teams.

Hotjar vs Microsoft Clarity — which is better?

Microsoft Clarity is better for most teams that just need replay and heatmaps, because it is free forever with no traffic limits, while Hotjar's free tier caps sessions and gates funnels and AI features behind paid annual plans. Hotjar (now part of Contentsquare) adds surveys, user interviews, and a deeper enterprise platform. If you only need recordings and heatmaps, Clarity wins on price and capacity.

Is Hotjar still free in 2026?

Yes, Hotjar still has a free tier in 2026, and it is generous — up to roughly 200,000 monthly sessions with session replay and unlimited heatmaps. Paid Growth plans start around $39 to $49 per month billed annually, which add funnels, AI features, and higher limits. Hotjar is now a Contentsquare company, and Contentsquare offers a comparable free forever plan.

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Hotjar is a solid observation tool, and Clarity makes observation free. But if your goal is more revenue — not just more recordings to watch — the tool that lets you test a fix and prove the dollar is the one worth paying for. See how Humblytics compares to Hotjar or explore the no-code A/B testing engine.