Compare
Compare Analytics Tools
Rating
4.5/5
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.
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.
Snowplow is an enterprise-strength event analytics platform. It Identifies its users and tracks the way they engage with the website or application.
Pendo is a product-analytics app that helps software companies develop products that resonate with customers.
Pros
- GA4 is free to use
- Many functionalities
- The reports are customisable
- Large community
- Extensive documentation
- GA4 is easily scalable
- Comes with great heatmaps
- Includes session recordings
- Good polling function
- Hotjar features exit surveys
- Elaborate data import options
- Simple Client-side & server-side tracking
- Great support
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Implementation can be hard
- Inaccurate data sampling
- UI is not easy to use
- Hotjar is not available for mobile
- Steep pricing for large organisations
- Hard to exclude URLs from reports
- Steep learning curve
- Technical knowledge needed for implementation
- Only a collection tool
Pricing information
Starting Price
| Standard | Free |
| GA4 360 | $50k+ per year |
| Basic | Free |
| Plus | $49+ p/m |
| Business | On req. |
| Scale | On req. |
| Test & Experiment Tracking | Free |
| Self-Hosted Pipeline | On req. |
| Snowplow Platform | On req. |
Free trial period
Free plan
Free plan
14 days
Free plan
Account Management
Trackable Items
100
Unlimited
Unlimited in Portfolio plan
User Seats
Unlimited
1
Unlimited
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
- United Kingdom
- 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
Hotjar
You
Pendo
Data Freshness
4-8 hours (most reports), up to 24-48 hours
30 minutes
Realtime
Hourly updates
Data Retention
Customizable up to 14 months
12 months
Unlimited
84 months
Data Sampling
Explorations might use sampled data
Data Import
Import cost, offline or user/client ID data
Send user data to Hotjar to enhance analysis
Import historical data by CSV
Data Export
With sheets, BigQuery or API
Export recording meta data
Export feedback & reports by CSV or pull data to BI tool
Compliance
- GDPR
- CCPA
- GDPR
- CCPA
- GDPR
- CCPA
- HIPAA
- CCPA
- ePrivacy
Cookieless
Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.
Hotjar relies on first-party cookies.
Pendo uses first-party cookies
Alerts & Automation
Custom Alerts
Custom insights, in interface or via email
in the interface, via e-mail or Slack
Guide, Page & Feature alerts
Email Reports
Recurring shared reporting
e.g. daily survey responses reports
Recieve reports in weekly emails
Reporting
Trend Reporting
Device Reporting
Device type, browser, OS and more
See on which device the user was
Funnel Reporting
Customisable funnel exploration
Discover why users drop off
User Flow Reporting
Flexible Sankey chart exploration
Segmentation
Segment creation and overlap exploration
Create custom filters for recordings
Cohort Reports
Cohort exploration
Based on first visit, first action, channel or custom events
Retention Reporting
Combined with CLTV metrics
CLTV Analysis
See Cohort analysis
Attribution Reporting
Attribution models comparison
Ecommerce Reporting
Extensive e-commerce reports
User Experience Features
Heatmaps
GA4 does not offer heatmaps
Unlimited
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 Metrics
50 event-scoped metrics
Custom Reports
All reports are customisable
Change the widgets of a report
Custom Events
25 parameters per event
Track and filter sessions & heatmaps
Annotations
Notes feature added in 2024
Hotjar does not have annotations
Support
Support description
Support is available via chat and the support center.
Hotjar offers extensive documentation and a ticketing support system. Most requests are answered within 1-2 business days, but often faster.
The Pendo support consists of a phone helpdesk, a live chat function, an extensive knowledge base and a community.
Support Options
- Phone
- Live Chat
- Ticketing system
- Knowledge base
- Community
- Phone
- Live Chat
- Ticketing system
- Knowledge base
- Community
- Phone
- Live Chat
- Ticketing system
- Knowledge base
- Community
- Phone
- Live Chat
- Ticketing system
- Knowledge base
- Community