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Rating
4.5/5
4/5
4/5
Summary
A customisable and free web analytics tool. Get insights into user behavior with an event-based tracking model, and know what drives sales and traffic with extensive attribution methods.
Powerful, self-serve product analytics to help you convert, engage, and retain more users. Build funnels, see top user flows, create cohorts, and more with just a few clicks.
Hotjar provides Product Experience Insights about your website that show how users behave and what they feel strongly about, so product teams can deliver real value to them.
Optimize your website with certainty, not assumption. Watch real user journeys, with automatic Friction Scores that detects where to focus first.
Pros
  • GA4 is free to use
  • Many functionalities
  • The reports are customisable
  • Large community
  • Extensive documentation
  • GA4 is easily scalable
  • Interface is easy to understand
  • Great support options
  • Reporting is in realtime
  • Good community
  • Comes with great heatmaps
  • Includes session recordings
  • Good polling function
  • Hotjar features exit surveys
  • Intuitive dashboards
  • Great filtering
  • Possibility to tag elements
  • Helpfull support
  • Automatic form tracking
  • User feedback surveys
Cons
  • Steep learning curve
  • Implementation can be hard
  • Inaccurate data sampling
  • UI is not easy to use
  • Event setup requires tech skills
  • Contains hard to discover features
  • Has a steep learning curve
  • Hotjar is not available for mobile
  • Steep pricing for large organisations
  • Hard to exclude URLs from reports
  • Lack of insight for Iframe recordings
  • Funnels could be improved
  • You run into credit limit quite fast

Pricing information

Starting Price
StandardFree
GA4 360$50k+ per year
FreeFree
EnterpriseOn req.
BasicFree
Plus$49+ p/m
BusinessOn req.
ScaleOn req.
FreeFree
Starter€39 p/m
Growth€129 p/m
Business€259 p/m
Pro€499 p/m
EnterpriseOn req.
Free trial period
Free plan
Free plan
Free plan
14 days

Account Management

Trackable Items
100
1
Unlimited
10
User Seats
Unlimited
Unlimited
1
Unlimited
Account Security
  • Single Sign-on
  • Two-factor Authentication
  • Single Sign-on
  • Two-factor Authentication
  • Single Sign-on
  • Two-factor Authentication
  • Single Sign-on
  • Two-factor Authentication

Data Processing

Data Center Locations
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • United States
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • United States
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
Software Hosting
  • Public Cloud
  • Private Cloud
  • On-Premise
  • Public Cloud
  • Private Cloud
  • On-Premise
  • Public Cloud
  • Private Cloud
  • On-Premise
  • Public Cloud
  • Private Cloud
  • On-Premise
Data Ownership
Google Analytics 4
Mixpanel
Hotjar
Mouseflow
Data Freshness
4-8 hours (most reports), up to 24-48 hours
Realtime
30 minutes
Realtime
Data Retention
Customizable up to 14 months
Unlimited
12 months
12 months
Data Sampling
Explorations might use sampled data
Data Import
Import cost, offline or user/client ID data
Via one-off script or Ingestion API
Send user data to Hotjar to enhance analysis
through integrations
Data Export
With sheets, BigQuery or API
Via raw data export API
Export recording meta data
via CSV or to third-party tools by ID push
Compliance
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • HIPAA
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
Cookieless
Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.
Mixpanel relies on first-party cookies
Hotjar relies on first-party cookies.
Mouseflow uses first-party cookies

Alerts & Automation

Custom Alerts
Custom insights, in interface or via email
Hourly, daily, or weekly base on event threshold
in the interface, via e-mail or Slack
Via web hook
Email Reports
Recurring shared reporting
Same as custom alerts
e.g. daily survey responses reports
Hourly, daily, or weekly emails

Reporting

Trend Reporting
Simple visitor trend graphs
Device Reporting
Device type, browser, OS and more
See on which device the user was
Filter by device type, OS, browser & screen resolution
Funnel Reporting
Customisable funnel exploration
Funnel trend, time to convert & frequency visualisations
Discover why users drop off
Simple funnel report, watch recordings from converters
User Flow Reporting
Flexible Sankey chart exploration
Sankey chart with selected, immediate & drop off events
Segmentation
Segment creation and overlap exploration
Automatically find interesting segments & receive per email
Create custom filters for recordings
Segment users to filter heatmaps & recordings
Cohort Reports
Cohort exploration
User cohorts of users to filter reports
Retention Reporting
Combined with CLTV metrics
Retention curves, trends & user cohort buckets
Attribution Reporting
Attribution models comparison
Simple UTM tracking with "first touch" attribution
Ecommerce Reporting
Extensive e-commerce reports
Option to track purchases but no special reporting

User Experience Features

Heatmaps
GA4 does not offer heatmaps
Unlimited
Click, movement, scroll, attention, live & geo heatmaps
Session Recordings
GA4 does not offer recordings
Record all interaction with your site
Elaborate filtering & livestream options
A/B Testing
Experiments
No A/B testing tool only integrations
User Feedback
Place NPS ratings or a survey pop-up on every page
Custom triggered text, multiple choice & NPS ratings

Customizability

Custom Properties
25 user-scoped & 50 event-scoped dimensions
Custom Metrics
50 event-scoped metrics
Max 255 properties per event
Custom Reports
All reports are customisable
Unlimited custom dahboards & reports
Automatic form tracking
Custom Events
25 parameters per event
Combine events into a custom event
Track and filter sessions & heatmaps
Custom tagging of recordings
Annotations
Notes feature added in 2024
Directly on the linechart in Insights
Hotjar does not have annotations

Support

Support description
Support is available via chat and the support center.
Mixpanel offer extensive documentation and knowledgable support through a ticketing system. They have a support email address but regular support requests are directed to the ticketing system. Join their Slack group for community access.
Hotjar offers extensive documentation and a ticketing support system. Most requests are answered within 1-2 business days, but often faster.
Mouseflow provides support in four languages and through phone, email, and an extensive knowledge base
Support Options
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Live Chat
  • Ticketing system
  • Knowledge base
  • Community
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Live Chat
  • Ticketing system
  • Knowledge base
  • Community
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Live Chat
  • Ticketing system
  • Knowledge base
  • Community
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Live Chat
  • Ticketing system
  • Knowledge base
  • Community
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