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Rating
4.5/5
5/5
4/5
5/5
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.
Lightweight and open source web analytics. No cookies and fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR. Made and hosted in the EU, on European cloud infrastructure.
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.
Enterprise-level web analytics. Adobe Analytics lets you mix, match, and analyze data from any digital point in the customer journey.
Pros
  • GA4 is free to use
  • Many functionalities
  • The reports are customisable
  • Large community
  • Extensive documentation
  • GA4 is easily scalable
  • Lightweight
  • Open-source
  • Cookieless
  • EU cloud infrastructure
  • Comes with great heatmaps
  • Includes session recordings
  • Good polling function
  • Hotjar features exit surveys
  • Great segmentation
  • Good video tracking
  • Customizable
  • Easy report creation
Cons
  • Steep learning curve
  • Implementation can be hard
  • Inaccurate data sampling
  • UI is not easy to use
  • Limited features
  • No audience reporting features
  • Hotjar is not available for mobile
  • Steep pricing for large organisations
  • Hard to exclude URLs from reports
  • Pricing can be quite steep
  • Tech support can be improved
  • Can be difficult to implement
  • Can be challenging to get educated

Pricing information

Starting Price
StandardFree
GA4 360$50k+ per year
10k page views$9 p/m
EnterpriseOn req.
200k page views$29 p/m
100k page views$19 p/m
500k page views$49 p/m
1M page views$69 p/m
2M page views$89 p/m
5M page views$129 p/m
10M page views$169 p/m
BasicFree
Plus$49+ p/m
BusinessOn req.
ScaleOn req.
SelectOn req.
PrimeOn req.
UltimateOn req.
Free trial period
Free plan
30 days
Free plan
Free plan

Account Management

Trackable Items
100
1-10+ depending on plan
Unlimited
Unlimited
User Seats
Unlimited
1-10+ depending on plan
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)
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • United States
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • United States
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
You
Hotjar
Adobe Analytics
Data Freshness
4-8 hours (most reports), up to 24-48 hours
Realtime
30 minutes
2 hours
Data Retention
Customizable up to 14 months
3-5+ years depending on plan
12 months
25 months by default
Data Sampling
Explorations might use sampled data
Limited data sampling in reports with over 20M pageviews
Some Audience Manager reports display results sampled data
Data Import
Import cost, offline or user/client ID data
e.g. import GA data
Send user data to Hotjar to enhance analysis
Though data sources, API or data connectors
Data Export
With sheets, BigQuery or API
Export your data to CSV
Export recording meta data
Through data feeds, a data warehouse or FTP and SFTP
Compliance
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • PECR
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • HIPAA
  • PECR
Cookieless
Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.
Plausible is cookieless by default.
Hotjar relies on first-party cookies.
Adobe uses tracking cookies

Alerts & Automation

Custom Alerts
Custom insights, in interface or via email
Traffic spike notifications through Slack or email
in the interface, via e-mail or Slack
Via e-mail or SMS
Email Reports
Recurring shared reporting
Weekly or monthly email reporting
e.g. daily survey responses reports
Flexible scheduled reporting

Reporting

Trend Reporting
Device Reporting
Device type, browser, OS and more
Device type, browser & OS
See on which device the user was
Device types, OS, OS versions & mobile carriers
Funnel Reporting
Customisable funnel exploration
Discover why users drop off
Bar chart funnel report
User Flow Reporting
Flexible Sankey chart exploration
Basic reporting by looking at Entry & Exit pages
Fallout & Flow (Sankey chart) reports
Segmentation
Segment creation and overlap exploration
Use filters to segment your audience
Create custom filters for recordings
Advanced segments with Segment builder & Segment manager
Cohort Reports
Cohort exploration
Churn, rolling & latency tables
Retention Reporting
Combined with CLTV metrics
Retention cohort report
Attribution Reporting
Attribution models comparison
Apply to metrics, breakdowns or compare models
Ecommerce Reporting
Extensive e-commerce reports
Ecommerce revenue tracking
Very flexible ecommerce reporting

User Experience Features

Heatmaps
GA4 does not offer heatmaps
Unlimited
Called activity map
Session Recordings
GA4 does not offer recordings
Record all interaction with your site
A/B Testing
No A/B testing tool only integrations
User Feedback
Place NPS ratings or a survey pop-up on every page

Customizability

Custom Properties
25 user-scoped & 50 event-scoped dimensions
Custom Properties (Business plan and above)
Custom Metrics
50 event-scoped metrics
Unlimited calculated metrics
Custom Reports
All reports are customisable
Reports in Analysis workspace are customisable
Custom Events
25 parameters per event
By means of adding CSS classes
Track and filter sessions & heatmaps
Up to 1.000 success events
Annotations
Notes feature added in 2024
Hotjar does not have annotations
Available in Workspace

Support

Support description
Support is available via chat and the support center.
Plausible offers extensive documentation which is the first place to find answers. Still haven't found what you're looking for? Contact their email support for knowledgable support.
Hotjar offers extensive documentation and a ticketing support system. Most requests are answered within 1-2 business days, but often faster.
The support of Adobe Analytics consists of an expansive knowledge base and an online community. Phone and chat options exist for certain user types. Besides that, they offer many training options and tutorials.
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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