Hotjar is no longer the same standalone baseline that older comparison pages were built around. Hotjar is now part of Contentsquare, and Hotjar accounts are being moved to the Contentsquare platform in phases. For users evaluating alternatives, the comparison has therefore changed: replacing Hotjar now means comparing against Contentsquare’s mix of Session Replay, Heatmaps, Funnels, journey analysis, error and performance monitoring, surveys, and AI-assisted investigation rather than matching only recordings and heatmaps. Hotjar Ltd. in Malta merged into the Contentsquare Group on July 1, 2025. [Product transition]
For existing Hotjar customers, the migration itself is also part of the buying decision. Historical Hotjar analytics data does not simply become historical Contentsquare data, and some configuration choices need attention during the move. That makes data continuity, replay coverage, retention, feedback workflows, error investigation, and pricing units more useful comparison points than an older feature checklist built around Heatmaps and Recordings alone.
Verification: product, migration, availability, and pricing details below were checked in August 2026. Pricing and plan allowances can change by billing cycle, traffic level, region, or negotiated contract.
What the Hotjar-to-Contentsquare Migration Changes
The move does not mean every Hotjar customer loses access immediately. Contentsquare is moving eligible accounts through a transition period. For accounts included in that process, Contentsquare says a new account can be created automatically and run alongside Hotjar for 30 days. Unless the Account Owner opts out before the stated deadline, the account then switches to Contentsquare Growth.
After that switch, Hotjar stops collecting new data and the Hotjar account becomes read-only for 90 days. Historical Observe data used for Recordings, Heatmaps, Funnels, Dashboards, and saved analyses remains in Hotjar rather than transferring into Contentsquare; after the read-only period, the Hotjar account and associated historical data are deleted. Surveys and feedback data follow a different path and are transferred as part of the account move. [Migration instructions]
For teams leaving Hotjar: export historical information you need to preserve before the read-only window closes. A replacement tool can begin collecting new sessions, but it cannot reconstruct old Hotjar recordings, historical funnels, or saved analyses that were never exported.
Contentsquare Is Now the Baseline
The current Contentsquare platform reaches beyond the older Hotjar Observe workflow. Its current Free plan includes 200,000 monthly sessions, one project, Session Replay, Heatmaps, Funnels, error and performance monitoring, basic surveys, and an option to connect supported AI tools through MCP. The Free plan is listed at $0. [Official pricing]
Contentsquare also describes the newer collection model as 100% analytics capture up to the applicable plan limits. That point needs a qualification when comparing replay products: Session Replay has its own allowance, so 100% analytics collection does not necessarily mean that a replay is available for every analytics session.
Hotjar Replacement Options Compared Against the New Baseline
The most useful comparison now asks what happens after a funnel or journey exposes a problem. Some products remain centered on heatmaps and recordings. Others add product analytics, frontend diagnostics, self-hosting, testing, or feedback tools that change how a team investigates the same problem.
| Platform | Closest Workflow | Replay / Heatmaps | Funnels or Journey Analysis | Diagnostics / Feedback | Pricing or Usage Signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contentsquare | Current Hotjar successor | Both | Funnels and broader journey analysis | Errors, performance, surveys, AI tools | Free plan: 200k monthly analytics sessions; paid tiers scale beyond Free |
| Microsoft Clarity | Low-cost behavior visibility | Both | Behavior and conversion analysis rather than the same Contentsquare journey model | AI summaries, smart events, GA integration | Free with no traffic limit |
| Mouseflow | Hotjar-like CRO and behavior analysis | Both | Funnels and journey analytics | Form analytics, surveys, friction and error detection, Mina AI | Session-based; Free plan includes 500 sessions/month |
| Crazy Egg | Website optimization and experimentation | Both | Conversion funnels | Surveys, web analytics, A/B testing, error tracking, AI analysis | Pageview and recording limits; paid annual plans |
| Lucky Orange | Website behavior plus visitor communication | Both | Conversion funnels | Surveys, live chat, form analytics, Discovery AI | Monthly sessions; paid plans and 7-day trial |
| Fullstory | Behavioral analytics for product and UX teams | Replay with behavioral analysis | Behavioral analytics across digital experiences | Debugging and deeper paid-plan analysis | Free plan includes 30k sessions/month |
| LogRocket | Product and engineering investigation | Replay, clickmaps and heatmaps | Path analysis and conversion funnels | Errors, logs, performance monitoring, Galileo AI | Session-based pricing; 14-day trial |
| PostHog | Product analytics linked to replay | Replay and heatmaps | Event and product-analysis workflows | Feature flags, experiments, privacy masking, replay exports | Usage-based; first 5,000 replay recordings/month free |
| Matomo | Analytics with hosting and data-control choices | Both with the applicable Cloud feature set or On-Premise add-on | Funnels available in the wider Matomo product | Analytics, privacy controls, optional self-hosting | Cloud subscription or self-hosted core plus paid replay/heatmap capability |
Which Hotjar Replacement Fits Which Workflow
If Heatmaps and Replay Were Most of Your Hotjar Usage
Start with Microsoft Clarity, Mouseflow, Crazy Egg, or Lucky Orange. These retain the visual investigation pattern that makes Hotjar familiar: find an unusual behavior pattern, open individual sessions, and inspect what visitors did.
If Funnels and Journeys Now Matter More
Contentsquare itself becomes harder to compare only on replay because the migration adds more journey-oriented analysis. Mouseflow offers a closer behavior-analytics route, while PostHog and LogRocket make more sense when events, product flows, or application diagnostics are already central to the team’s work.
If Bugs and Performance Are Part of the Investigation
LogRocket moves furthest toward the product-and-engineering side by connecting replay with errors, logs, network context, performance monitoring, funnels, and AI analysis. Contentsquare now overlaps more with this area than old Hotjar comparisons suggested because error and performance monitoring are part of its newer product structure.
If Hosting Control Is the Deciding Requirement
Matomo is structurally different from most hosted Hotjar replacements because it retains an On-Premise route. That can matter more than small UI differences when analytics infrastructure, server location, or direct control of stored data drives the decision.
Alternatives After the Contentsquare Move
Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity remains one of the clearest alternatives when the requirement is heatmaps and session recordings without a traffic-based subscription. Microsoft currently describes Clarity as free forever with no traffic limits and includes always-on recordings, click and scroll heatmaps, more than 40 filters, smart events, Copilot features, and Google Analytics integration. [Official pricing]
The trade-off is not price but scope and retention. Clarity playback data is generally retained for 30 days, while labeled or favorited sessions and heatmap data can remain available for nine months. [Data retention] It fits teams that mainly want behavior visibility and do not need Contentsquare’s full journey, Voice of Customer, or enterprise experience-analysis model.
Mouseflow
Mouseflow stays close to the traditional Hotjar workflow while covering more of the newer baseline. It combines session replay, click and scroll heatmaps, conversion funnels, journey analytics, form analytics, feedback surveys, friction detection, JavaScript error detection, and AI-assisted analysis.
Its Free plan currently includes 500 monthly sessions, one website project, one funnel, and one month of retention. Paid plans increase session allowances and retention, with higher tiers adding capabilities such as data export, REST API access, journey analytics, SSO, and more advanced privacy settings. Mouseflow also states that tracking stops when the monthly session allowance is exhausted unless the account is upgraded or refilled. [Plan comparison]
Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg makes more sense when a Hotjar replacement also needs experimentation and website optimization. Its current product set includes Heatmaps, Session Recordings, Surveys, Web Analytics, Conversion Funnels, error tracking, and AI analysis, while higher plan levels add A/B testing and CTAs.
The Starter plan is currently listed at $29 per month when billed annually, with 5,000 tracked pageviews per month, five Heatmap Reports, 50 recordings per month, six months of recording storage, unlimited domains, and unlimited team members. Crazy Egg says it does not charge overages; data collection pauses when the applicable monthly tracking limit is reached and resumes in the following month unless the plan or allowance is changed. A 30-day trial is available. [Official pricing]
Lucky Orange
Lucky Orange combines the familiar behavior layer with visitor communication. Dynamic Heatmaps, Session Recordings, Conversion Funnels, Page and Form Analytics, Surveys, Announcements, Live Chat, and Live Visitor View are available within the product, while Discovery AI adds an analysis layer across behavioral signals.
The annual-billing view currently lists the Build plan at $32 per month paid annually for up to 3,500 monthly sessions. Grow is listed at $72 per month paid annually for up to 10,000 monthly sessions, with higher plans scaling to larger session volumes. Lucky Orange offers a seven-day trial with full feature access. [Official pricing]
This is a stronger match when surveys or live conversation are part of the same conversion workflow. A team that only needs passive replay may not benefit from paying for the broader visitor-communication layer.
Fullstory
Fullstory is aimed more toward behavioral analytics across product, UX, support, and digital-experience work than a narrow heatmap replacement. Session Replay remains central, but the value rises when multiple teams need to analyze the same behavioral data rather than simply watch recordings.
FullstoryFree currently includes 30,000 sessions per month, 12 months of session replay retention, 12 months of analytics retention, and up to 10 users. It includes Session Replay, basic analytics and insights, basic integrations, and core debugging tools. Features such as Dashboards, configurable form privacy, Webhooks, and StoryAI are listed outside the Free feature set. [Free plan details]
LogRocket
LogRocket is a better fit when replay needs to explain technical failure as well as user behavior. Its current Core package combines Session Replay with product analytics, errors, logs, heatmaps, rage-click maps, frontend performance monitoring, path analysis, conversion funnels, alerts, surveys, integrations, and API access.
Pricing scales with captured sessions. The current calculator displays a starting figure of $176 per month at the shown 25,000-session configuration, while the vendor notes that final pricing also depends on seats, retention, and add-ons. A 14-day trial is available. Galileo AI adds session summaries, issue detection, funnel insights, heatmap analysis, and related AI functions on the applicable tier. [Official pricing]
For SaaS and web applications, that combination can remove the need to pair a basic replay tool with a separate frontend error-monitoring product. For content-heavy sites where engineering diagnostics are rarely used, the extra depth may be unnecessary.
PostHog
PostHog is useful when the replacement decision starts with product analytics rather than traditional CRO. Session Replay sits beside events, funnels, feature flags, experiments, and other product-development functions, so teams can move from a behavioral metric into the sessions behind it without maintaining two unrelated analysis systems.
Session Replay currently includes the first 5,000 recordings each month at no charge, after which published usage pricing starts at $0.005 per recording and falls with volume. PostHog also documents privacy masking, recording controls, web and mobile support, replay sharing, JSON export, heatmaps, and event timelines. [Session Replay details]
Matomo
Matomo is the outlier in this list because the decision can include where the analytics system is hosted. Matomo Cloud includes Heatmaps and Session Recordings in the hosted feature set, while Matomo On-Premise uses a paid Heatmap & Session Recording add-on on top of the free self-hosted core platform.
Matomo states that its Cloud service includes Heatmaps across its plans, while the self-hosted version keeps the analytics data on infrastructure controlled by the customer. The On-Premise replay and heatmap component is licensed separately rather than being part of the free core. [Hosting and feature details]
If the real requirement is broader traffic analytics rather than session replay itself, the distinction overlaps with the site’s comparison of Google Analytics alternatives. Matomo becomes more attractive here when traffic analytics and behavior analysis are meant to share the same data-control model.
Why Smartlook Is No Longer a Normal New-Buyer Recommendation
Older Hotjar comparison lists often included Smartlook as a web-and-mobile replay alternative. That recommendation now needs a lifecycle warning. Cisco announced the end of sale and end of life for standalone Smartlook.com in March 2026. The last sale date was May 31, 2026, the last date to renew or add to an existing subscription is August 31, 2026, and subscription support is scheduled to end on August 31, 2027. Cisco points customers toward Splunk Observability Cloud RUM + DXA as the migration product. [Product lifecycle notice]
Existing Smartlook customers still inside their supported subscription window have a different decision from new buyers. For a new Hotjar replacement search in August 2026, however, treating Smartlook as a normal long-term SaaS option would ignore its published end-of-life schedule.
What Hotjar Data and Settings Need Attention Before You Move
The account transition changes more than the product name. Teams evaluating whether to accept the Contentsquare move or adopt another platform should separate historical data preservation from future collection.
| Migration Item | What Happens | Practical Action |
|---|---|---|
| Historical Observe data | Does not transfer into Contentsquare as historical analytics data | Export material that must be retained before Hotjar access ends |
| Hotjar account after switch | Becomes read-only for 90 days, then associated data is deleted | Set an internal export deadline before the deletion date |
| Surveys and feedback | Transferred as part of the Contentsquare move | Verify transferred Voice of Customer content after migration |
| Existing sites | Become Contentsquare projects and receive transitional treatment described for migrated accounts | Confirm project structure before creating duplicate projects manually |
| Data suppression | Existing Hotjar suppression settings are carried over | Review the resulting masking configuration after migration |
| IP blocking | Does not carry over automatically | Reconfigure blocked IP addresses in Contentsquare |
| Integrations | Some integrations need to be reconnected and some Hotjar use cases are not supported in the same form | Audit Slack, Jira, Teams, HubSpot, analytics, and automation connections separately |
| Consent configuration | The Contentsquare tag does not automatically inherit an existing cookie banner or CMP configuration | Add the applicable Contentsquare cookies and consent behavior to the site’s consent setup |
This is also why running a short parallel pilot can be useful. During the Hotjar transition period, eligible migrated accounts can have Hotjar and Contentsquare collecting simultaneously. A team considering an outside alternative can use a similarly controlled overlap to compare session discovery, funnel diagnosis, masking behavior, retention, and stakeholder workflows before removing the existing tracker.
Capture Rate and Retention Can Change the Result More Than the Feature List
Two products can both advertise Session Replay and Heatmaps while producing very different working datasets. The first difference is what gets collected. The second is how long the useful replay remains available. The third is whether analytics events and replay share the same allowance.
- Contentsquare: its migrated-account documentation describes 100% analytics session collection up to plan limits, while Session Replay has a separate allowance.
- Clarity: does not impose a traffic limit on the product, but normal replay playback retention is 30 days.
- Mouseflow: uses monthly session allowances and stops tracking when the allowance is exhausted unless more capacity is obtained.
- Crazy Egg: meters tracked pageviews and recordings; recording collection can use an adjustable sampling rate, and collection pauses at plan limits rather than creating overage charges.
- PostHog: separates Session Replay usage from other product units, which can make costs easier to attribute when only part of the product suite is heavily used.
A site with 500,000 visits does not automatically need 500,000 replay videos. For some teams, broad analytics capture plus targeted replay is enough. Support, QA, regulated workflows, or detailed conversion analysis may justify a different collection pattern. Compare the number of sessions you need to analyze with the number you need to replay.
Replay Privacy Needs a Fresh Check During Migration
Session replay can capture a detailed reconstruction of what happened inside a page or app. Changing vendors therefore means checking masking, consent behavior, access permissions, retention, deletion, URL handling, and any controls used to prevent sensitive content from entering recordings.
Do not assume that a setting with the same name behaves identically across two products. The Hotjar-to-Contentsquare transition illustrates this directly: existing Hotjar data-suppression settings can carry over, while IP blocking does not. Contentsquare also states that its tag does not automatically inherit a site’s current CMP configuration. A replacement project should therefore include a real test of the pages most likely to contain account details, forms, checkout fields, search input, support content, or user-generated text.
- Test masking on the rendered page: do not rely only on an account setting being enabled.
- Check URLs and query parameters: replay tools may process navigation data even when form fields are masked.
- Review who can open shared recordings: collaboration convenience should not create uncontrolled replay access.
- Match retention to the job: a 30-day investigation window and a 12-month research archive serve different workflows.
- Recheck consent behavior after changing tags: a working consent configuration for Hotjar does not prove that a new vendor is governed by the same rules.
A Practical Decision Path After Hotjar
- Stay with the Contentsquare migration
- Choose this path when Hotjar’s familiar Heatmaps, Session Replay, and feedback workflow still fits, and the added Funnels, journey analysis, error monitoring, performance monitoring, and AI features reduce the need for separate tools.
- Choose Microsoft Clarity
- Use Clarity when the priority is ongoing heatmaps and recordings with no traffic-based subscription, and a 30-day normal replay window is acceptable.
- Choose Mouseflow
- Use Mouseflow when you want a close behavioral-analytics replacement with replay, heatmaps, funnels, form analysis, surveys, journey analysis, and explicit session tiers.
- Choose Crazy Egg
- Use Crazy Egg when website experimentation, conversion funnels, surveys, and A/B testing should sit beside heatmaps and recordings.
- Choose Lucky Orange
- Use Lucky Orange when replay and heatmaps need to connect directly with surveys, announcements, form analysis, or live visitor chat.
- Choose Fullstory
- Use Fullstory when behavioral analysis is shared across product, UX, support, and analytics teams and longer replay retention on the Free plan is useful.
- Choose LogRocket
- Use LogRocket when replay is expected to explain frontend errors, failed requests, performance problems, and product-flow issues as well as user behavior.
- Choose PostHog
- Use PostHog when replay belongs inside a broader product-development stack built around events, funnels, feature flags, experiments, and usage-based billing.
- Choose Matomo
- Use Matomo when deployment model and data control matter enough to consider self-hosting, or when traditional web analytics and replay should live under the same analytics product.
There is no need to replace Hotjar simply because its corporate and product structure changed. Contentsquare may now cover more of the work that originally caused a team to look beyond Hotjar. The reason to choose another product should therefore be concrete: a different pricing unit, free traffic coverage, longer retention, self-hosting, deeper engineering diagnostics, experimentation, stronger product analytics, or a lighter workflow.
Hotjar Migration Questions
Does historical Hotjar analytics data move into Contentsquare?
No. Contentsquare states that historical Hotjar Observe data used for Heatmaps, Recordings, Funnels, Dashboards, and saved analyses remains in Hotjar rather than becoming historical Contentsquare analytics data. After a migrated Hotjar account switches to read-only mode, that historical access lasts for 90 days before the Hotjar account and associated data are deleted. Export anything that must be preserved.
Does 100% Contentsquare capture mean every session has a replay?
No. Contentsquare distinguishes analytics session collection from the Session Replay allowance. Its migration documentation describes 100% analytics collection up to the applicable plan limits, while replay has a separate allowance. Evaluate analytics coverage and replay availability separately.
Can Microsoft Clarity replace Hotjar without a paid traffic tier?
Clarity currently describes its service as free forever with no traffic limit and includes recordings and heatmaps. The trade-off is different product scope and retention: standard playback data is retained for 30 days, so teams that depend on long replay archives should compare retention before switching.
Should a new buyer still consider Smartlook?
Smartlook remains relevant to existing customers during its remaining support period, but Cisco has already announced end of sale and end of life for the standalone product. New buyers looking for a long-term Hotjar replacement should account for that published lifecycle rather than treating Smartlook as an ordinary new subscription choice.