4 Best Free Alternatives to Hotjar in 2026
By Noahlast updated pricing verified
Compared: free alternatives to Hotjar
| Alternative | Best for | Standout | Biggest weakness | Learning curve | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotjarreference | small teams and site owners who want session recordings and heatmaps without a self-serve paid tier, using the free plan's 200,000-session monthly allowance | The free tier now allows 200,000 sessions per month after the Contentsquare merger, roughly 190 times the legacy standalone Hotjar free plan's 35-sessions-per-day cap. | There is no self-serve paid tier: any plan beyond the free tier requires contacting sales for a custom quote, with no public per-seat or per-session dollar pricing, making budgeting difficult compared to analytics tools with transparent paid tiers. | Low | Free |
| Microsoft Clarity | marketing and product teams who want free, unlimited session recordings and heatmaps to complement traffic analytics they already run in Google Analytics | Every feature, including unlimited session recordings and heatmaps, is free with no traffic cap or paid tier, funded by Microsoft rather than sold as SaaS. | Clarity only records behavior after installation and has no historical backfill, and its funnel/conversion reporting is thinner than dedicated product-analytics tools like Mixpanel, so most teams run it alongside Google Analytics rather than instead of it. | Low | Free |
| FullStory | product and UX teams who need to watch actual user sessions to diagnose friction, not just aggregate funnel metrics | Captures every session by default with no pre-defined event tracking, so teams can retroactively search and replay any past user behavior instead of only what they thought to instrument in advance. | Published pricing stops at the free 30,000-session tier — every paid plan (Business, Advanced, Enterprise) requires a sales quote, and reviewers on G2 and Capterra repeatedly cite cost jumping sharply once a site exceeds the free quota. | Low | Free |
| Crazy Egg | marketers and website owners who want pageview-based (not per-seat) pricing for heatmaps, session recordings, and lightweight A/B testing | Pricing scales by monthly pageviews with unlimited domains and unlimited team members on every plan, and the company states it never charges overages | Lacks advanced conversion-rate-optimization features like funnel analysis and native form tracking that competitors offer, and pricing runs noticeably higher than Hotjar at comparable pageview volumes. | Low | Free tier · paid from $29/mo |
| Mouseflow | digital marketers and CRO specialists who need session replay and heatmaps to diagnose where a specific page or checkout flow loses users, without paying per seat as the team grows | Session-based pricing with unlimited user seats on every tier including Free, so adding team members never triggers a plan upgrade the way per-seat analytics tools do. | Data retention is capped tightly on lower tiers (1 month on Free, 3 months on Essential), so teams that need to compare behavior against a full seasonal cycle are pushed toward Advanced or Premium regardless of their actual session volume. | Low | Free tier · paid from $25/mo |
Hotjar
Microsoft Clarity
FullStory
Crazy Egg
Mouseflow1.Microsoft Clarity — best Hotjar alternative for marketing and product teams who want free, unlimited session recordings and heatmaps to complement traffic analytics they already run in Google Analytics
Microsoft Clarity is the best Hotjar alternative for marketing and product teams who want unlimited session recordings and heatmaps with no traffic cap at any price. Clarity is free forever with no limits on sessions recorded or sites tracked, while Hotjar's current Free plan, even after its merger into Contentsquare, still caps out at 200,000 sessions per month before requiring a sales-quoted Growth or Enterprise plan. Clarity holds a 4.4/5 rating from 10 Product Hunt reviews. Clarity also ships native SDKs for Android, iOS, Flutter, React Native, and Cordova/Ionic, extending session recording to mobile apps, something Hotjar's web-only platform doesn't cover. Both tools layer AI on top of raw session data: Clarity's AI Summaries and AI Chat versus Hotjar's Sense AI insights, but Clarity's version is included at zero cost regardless of volume. Hotjar is still the better choice for teams that specifically want on-site surveys and feedback widgets bundled with recordings and heatmaps in one product, since Clarity has no survey tool at all, and for teams that need Hotjar's built-in error and performance monitoring, which Clarity's thinner conversion-analysis toolset doesn't include.
Compared to Hotjar: unlimited sessions and sites at zero cost versus Hotjar's 200,000-session free cap, native mobile SDKs (Android, iOS, Flutter, React Native) that Hotjar's web-only platform lacks, AI Summaries and AI Chat included free rather than gated behind a sales-quoted tier.
Wins:No session cap at any price; Hotjar's Free plan caps at 200,000 sessions/month and paid tiers require a sales quote · Native SDKs for Android, iOS, Flutter, React Native, and Cordova/Ionic; Hotjar is web-only · AI Summaries and AI Chat included in the always-free product, with no paid upgrade required
Loses:No on-site survey or feedback-widget tool, unlike Hotjar's built-in 100-response/month survey feature · No error or performance monitoring, which Hotjar's Free plan includes · Thinner conversion-funnel and cohort-analysis depth than dedicated product-analytics tools
Pros
- Completely free with no traffic limits, session caps, or paid upgrade tier.
- Session recordings and heatmaps installable via a single JavaScript snippet or native SDKs for Android, iOS, Flutter, and React Native.
- AI Summaries and AI Chat surface behavior trends without manual review of individual recordings.
- Direct integration with Google Analytics to correlate GA segments with Clarity session recordings.
Cons
- No conversion funnel or cohort analysis depth comparable to dedicated product analytics tools like Mixpanel or Amplitude.
- Recording only begins after the tracking code is installed, with no retroactive historical data.
- Data ownership sits with Microsoft's free ecosystem product rather than a paid vendor with contractual SLAs.
- Session sampling and masking require manual configuration to avoid capturing sensitive form data.
Pricing: Free — $0 for both at entry (Clarity unlimited forever vs Hotjar capped at 200,000 sessions/month); Hotjar's paid Growth/Enterprise tiers require a sales quote with no published price (verified undefined NaN, NaN)
2.FullStory — best Hotjar alternative for product and UX teams who need to watch actual user sessions to diagnose friction, not just aggregate funnel metrics
FullStory is the best Hotjar alternative for product and UX teams who want to retroactively search and replay any past user session without deciding in advance which events to track. FullStory's FullstoryFree tier covers up to 30,000 monthly sessions with up to 10 users, smaller than Hotjar's 200,000-session free cap but paired with 12 months of data retention and StoryAI, a natural-language assistant for querying behavioral data, similar in concept to Hotjar's Sense AI. FullStory holds a 4.6/5 rating from 67 Capterra reviews and 4.7/5 from 3 Product Hunt reviews, both independently verified. Because FullStory captures every session by default rather than requiring pre-instrumented events, a product manager can search for any past behavior, like every user who hit a checkout error, and replay it directly. Hotjar is still the better choice for teams that specifically want a larger free session allowance without hitting a 30,000-session ceiling, and for anyone who wants on-site surveys bundled in for free: FullStory's paid Business, Advanced, and Enterprise tiers are all sales-quoted with no published dollar price, and Capterra and G2 reviewers repeatedly report costs jumping sharply once a site outgrows the free tier.
Compared to Hotjar: smaller 30,000-session free cap than Hotjar's 200,000 but with 12 months of retention and StoryAI included, retroactive session search with no pre-defined event tracking required, 4.6/5 rating from 67 Capterra reviews plus 4.7/5 from 3 Product Hunt reviews.
Wins:12 months of data retention and StoryAI natural-language querying included on the free tier · Retroactive session search finds and replays any past behavior without pre-defining tracked events, unlike typical dashboards · 4.6/5 rating from 67 Capterra reviews and 4.7/5 from 3 Product Hunt reviews, both independently verified
Loses:Free tier caps at 30,000 sessions/month, well below Hotjar's 200,000-session free allowance · No on-site survey tool bundled in, unlike Hotjar's built-in 100-response/month surveys · Paid Business, Advanced, and Enterprise tiers are all sales-quoted with no published dollar price, and reviewers report costs escalate sharply past the free tier
Pros
- Retroactive session search finds and replays any past user behavior without pre-defining tracked events.
- StoryAI answers behavioral questions in plain language instead of requiring a custom dashboard build.
- Free tier covers 30,000 sessions/month and 12 months of retention with no credit card required.
- Reviewers consistently rate the interface as intuitive enough for non-technical team members to use directly.
Cons
- No published pricing above the free tier; Business, Advanced, and Enterprise all require a sales quote.
- Reviewers report costs escalate sharply once a site outgrows the 30,000-session free tier.
- High-traffic sites generate enough session volume that finding actionable insights can become overwhelming.
- Mobile analytics is a separate add-on rather than included by default.
Pricing: Free — Both are free at entry ($0); FullStory's paid Business/Advanced/Enterprise tiers and Hotjar's Growth/Enterprise tiers are all sales-quoted with no published dollar figures for either (verified undefined NaN, NaN)
3.Crazy Egg — best Hotjar alternative for marketers and website owners who want pageview-based (not per-seat) pricing for heatmaps, session recordings, and lightweight A/B testing
Crazy Egg is the best Hotjar alternative for teams that want a self-serve paid plan with a published dollar price instead of Hotjar's sales-only Growth and Enterprise tiers. Crazy Egg's Analytics plan starts at $29/month for 5,000 pageviews and 50 recordings, and Growth starts at $99/month for 50,000 pageviews and 500 recordings with A/B testing added, both numbers published directly on Crazy Egg's pricing page, unlike Hotjar's paid tiers, which require contacting sales for a custom quote. Crazy Egg holds a 4.4/5 rating from 87 Capterra reviews and 4.5/5 from 2 Product Hunt reviews. Every Crazy Egg plan, including the free one, supports unlimited domains and unlimited team members, and the company states it never charges pageview overages, collection simply pauses until the next billing cycle. Hotjar is still the better choice for teams whose traffic volume is measured in sessions rather than pageviews and who want a much larger free allowance: Hotjar's Free plan covers 200,000 sessions/month at no cost, while Crazy Egg's paid Analytics tier tops out at just 5,000 pageviews/month before requiring an upgrade to Growth.
Compared to Hotjar: publishes self-serve paid pricing starting at $29/month versus Hotjar's sales-only Growth and Enterprise tiers, unlimited domains and team members on every plan including free, no pageview overage charges (collection just pauses).
Wins:Self-serve $29/month Analytics plan with a published price; Hotjar's paid tiers require a sales conversation · Unlimited domains and team members on every plan, including Free · No overage billing; the company states data collection just pauses instead of charging extra
Loses:Analytics-tier pageview volume (5,000/month) is far below Hotjar's 200,000-session free allowance · Lacks advanced CRO features like funnel analysis and native form tracking · Pricing runs higher than Hotjar at comparable volume, per Crazy Egg's own stated weakness
Pros
- Genuinely free plan requires no credit card and includes heatmaps, analytics, and surveys.
- Unlimited domains and unlimited team members on every paid plan.
- No pageview overage charges; collection just pauses until the next cycle.
- A/B testing and CTA tools built into the Growth plan without a separate product.
Cons
- Lacks advanced CRO features like funnel analysis and native form tracking found in competitors.
- Pricing runs higher than Hotjar at comparable pageview and recording volumes.
- Enterprise features (SSO, audit logs, AI data connectors) are locked behind custom sales pricing.
- Recording and pageview limits reset monthly rather than rolling over, which can strand unused capacity.
Pricing: Free tier · paid from $29/mo — $29/month Crazy Egg Analytics (5,000 pageviews) vs Hotjar's Free tier (200,000 sessions, $0); Hotjar's paid Growth/Enterprise tiers have no published price to compare (verified undefined NaN, NaN)
4.Mouseflow — best Hotjar alternative for digital marketers and CRO specialists who need session replay and heatmaps to diagnose where a specific page or checkout flow loses users, without paying per seat as the team grows
Mouseflow is the best Hotjar alternative for teams that want unlimited user seats on every tier, including the free plan, rather than paying more as headcount grows. Mouseflow prices entirely by monthly recorded sessions, with Free covering 500 sessions/month, Essential at $25/month for 5,000 sessions, and Advanced at $109/month for 25,000 sessions, self-serve published numbers unlike Hotjar's sales-quoted Growth and Enterprise tiers above its 200,000-session Free plan. Mouseflow's own listing cites a 9.0/10 score for both ease of setup and support quality, though no entry appears in its external ratings data. Every Mouseflow tier bundles friction and rage-click detection, form analytics, feedback surveys, and Mina AI, plus a dedicated Mouseflow MCP Server that lets AI coding assistants query session data directly, a capability Hotjar's Sense AI doesn't offer. Hotjar is still the better choice for teams that want a much larger free-session allowance without paying anything: Mouseflow's Free plan tops out at just 500 sessions/month with only 1 month of data retention, far below Hotjar's 200,000-session free cap, and Mouseflow's website projects and conversion funnels are capped at just 1 each on the Free and Essential tiers.
Compared to Hotjar: unlimited team seats on every plan including free, self-serve published pricing from $25/month versus Hotjar's sales-quoted paid tiers, a dedicated MCP Server for AI-assistant access to session data.
Wins:Unlimited team members on every tier, including Free, with no per-seat cost · Self-serve $25/month Essential plan with a published price; Hotjar's paid tiers require a sales quote · Mouseflow MCP Server gives AI coding assistants direct programmatic access to session data
Loses:Free plan covers only 500 sessions/month with 1 month of retention, far below Hotjar's 200,000-session free cap · Website projects and conversion funnels are capped at 1 each on Free and Essential, forcing an upgrade for multi-site tracking · No error or performance monitoring described, unlike Hotjar's Free plan, which bundles both at no cost
Pros
- Unlimited team members on every plan, including Free, avoids per-seat cost creep as teams grow.
- Session-based pricing is transparent and public, with no custom quote required below Enterprise.
- Ease of setup and quality of support both rate 9.0/10 in G2 reviews.
- Mina AI and the Mouseflow MCP Server add natural-language and programmatic access to session data beyond dashboard browsing.
Cons
- Data retention is short on lower tiers (1 month on Free, 3 months on Essential), limiting longer-term trend analysis.
- Website projects and conversion funnels are capped per tier (1 each on Free and Essential), forcing an upgrade for multi-site tracking.
- Enterprise pricing is fully custom, with no published numbers for teams above the Premium tier's 100,000-session limit.
- As with any session-replay tool, capturing full user interaction data raises privacy and compliance considerations that need separate review.
Pricing: Free tier · paid from $25/mo — $25/month Mouseflow Essential (5,000 sessions) vs Hotjar's Free tier (200,000 sessions, $0); Hotjar's paid Growth/Enterprise tiers have no published price to compare (verified undefined NaN, NaN)