5 Hotjar Alternatives For Collecting Real-Time Feedback

TL;DR

Here comes the best Hotjar alternatives that you should check out before it's too late 🚩

1. UserGuiding - more channel options for you to benefit from surveys to the maximum extent

As a product adoption tool, UserGuiding doesn't only excel at guiding users, trust me with that.

UserGuiding can replace Hotjar if you're looking for a way to create various types of surveys in minutes and go live with a click—no coding needed.

Just like Hotjar, this tool also allows you to form several different types of surveys, including:

• emoji surveys,
• multilingual surveys,
• NPS surveys,
• open-ended surveys,
• and multiple-choice surveys.

‎Here, you can see how we made use of a multiple-choice survey on Slack to understand more about the user's needs.

Moreover, by using surveys, you'll be capable of obtaining in-app feedback regarding:

• product - when you need to measure satisfaction,
• (a certain) feature - right after you launch a new feature,
• factors - with which you can segment your users.

Now, moving on to the part that matters: What does UserGuiding have that Hotjar doesn't?

Well, onboarding is an important element of using this Hotjar alternative because it enables you to optimize users' first interaction with your application.

‎For example, this is how we added a survey sequence that pops right after the onboarding checklist is done on Udemy.

You can see how easy it is to gather feedback regarding the onboarding process in the form of ratings and open-ended questions back-to-back.

So, if you think these features are great channels for collecting feedback, then UserGuiding is the tool you should opt for.

Pros 👍

• Seamless integration with onboarding
• Customizable survey and feedback modules
• Real-time analytics for survey answers
• Targeted survey deployment

Cons 👎

• Limited native integrations

Top Use Cases ⚙️

• User onboarding feedback
• Feature adoption surveys
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys

Pricing 💵

UserGuiding offers a 14-day free trial on all plans; here is how the pricing plans look when billed annually:

• Basic Plan: Starting from $69/month.
• Professional Plan: Starting from $199/month.
• Corporate Plan: Custom quote.
   
  

2. Crazy Egg - simpler feedback collection process during A/B testing

Just like Hotjar, Crazy Egg is an alternative that has the same features that work like a charm: heatmaps, scrollmaps, and click reports.

This website optimization tool also serves as a user feedback tool, gathering valuable insights from website visitors through multiple survey types, including NPS (Net Promoter Score), open-ended surveys, and multiple-choice surveys.

As surveys like the one above provide a direct line of communication between website owners and their audiences, you'll be able to analyze these survey responses and quickly identify issues or areas for improvement.

Keep in mind that these surveys can be customized to ask specific questions about the user experience, design, content, or any other aspect of the website that the owner wants feedback on.

Compared to Hotjar, this popular alternative wins over with a built-in A/B testing tool since you can easily target a selected group of users to collect feedback about your A/B experiment through a survey.

While using Hotjar, you need to integrate a third-party tool to trigger a survey based on user segments.

So, if you see yourself making use of a survey tool that can display survey responses regarding why certain elements work better on your UX than the others during an A/B test regularly, you'll need to skip Hotjar and move on with Crazy Egg.

Pros 👍

• Survey integration with heatmaps and recordings
• Easy to use
• Survey triggers
• A/B testing friendly

Cons 👎

• Low number of recordings in each plan
• Basic analytics
• Limited integration capabilities

Top Use Cases ⚙️

• Website usability feedback
• Page-specific feedback
• A/B testing surveys

Pricing 💵

Crazy Egg offers a 30-day free trial on all plans; here is how the pricing plans look when billed annually:

• Standard Plan: $49/month for up to 500 recordings per month with unlimited surveys, responses, and websites.
• Plus Plan: $99/month for up to 1,000 recordings per month with unlimited surveys, responses, and websites.
• Enterprise Plan: $249/month for up to 5,000 recordings per month with unlimited surveys, responses, and websites.

3. Mouseflow - smoother session replay process to capture feedback

You know what Mouseflow excels at is collecting feedback from visitors who interact with the site.p

Thanks to these feedback surveys, website owners gain a deeper understanding of how users are experiencing their site and make data-driven decisions to enhance the user experience.

Now, let me draw your attention to what differentiates Hotjar and Mouseflow from any other ordinary survey tool: heatmaps and session recordings.

The session recording feature allows you to see the visitor's journey through your website, while the heatmaps feature shows how your users move from one place to another.

‎For example, by mixing the heatmap feature with the feedback feature, you'll get to see the survey experience from your users' point of view - just like the example above!

After comparing this key feature, I can proudly share that Mouseflow gets the crown as it has a more segmented approach with smoother sailing.

So, if creating in-app surveys that show the whole process users go through to give that specific feedback via session replays is what you're after, Mouseflow is the one for you 👑

Pros 👍

• Survey integration with session replays
• Customization options
• Easy to implement
• Targeted survey deployment

Cons 👎

• Limited question types
• Basic analytics for surveys
• Data overload when using surveys with other features

Top Use Cases ⚙️

• Visitor intent and satisfaction surveys
• Feature evaluation surveys
• Surveys with session recordings

Pricing 💵

Mouseflow offers a 14-day free trial on all plans; here is how the pricing plans look when billed annually:

• Free Plan: Free for up to 500 recordings per month (only 1 website allowed).
• Starter Plan: $31/month for up to 5,000 recordings per month (only 1 website allowed).
• Growth Plan: $109/month for up to 15,000 recordings per month (3 websites).
• Business Plan: $219/month for up to 50,000 recordings per month (5 websites).
• Pro Plan: $399/month for up to 150,000 recordings per month (10 websites).

4. VWO - better use of generative artificial intelligence for survey creation

A good Hotjar alternative, VWO (Visual Website Optimizer), is known for collecting customer feedback via feedback forms, including form analytics, user session recordings, in-app surveys, and heatmap features.

Moving on with the key feature of this article, VWO supports businesses with multiple survey formats, including:

• checkboxes,
• ratings,
• drop-down,
• multi-select list,
• and radio button.

With the types that this alternative provides, you'll be able to create customer satisfaction surveys and see how you can improve your web page to enhance user journey... to eventually get better conversion rates.

Before you get there, let me tell you what feature of this tool shines when compared to Hotjar's: AI.

Both Hotjar and VWO allow users to implement artificial intelligence to create or customize survey templates.

Just like Hotjar's AI feature, VWO accelerates the process that gets you to distribute surveys by implementing AI for generating survey questions based on your goals.

But that's not all. You can also rely on AI to generate a report on the survey responses. This way, you'll obtain insights regarding the feedback in the form of summaries, key takeaways, and actionable items.

‎For example, the survey above shows what you can create with VWO if your goal is to learn more about what your audience thinks about your summer collection, gathering in detail insight and information regarding customer satisfaction at the same time.

Compared to Hotjar, VWO's AI assistant prepares more suitable questions and summaries in terms of quality—you can check its knowledge base for more information!

So, if you believe that you'll benefit from artificial intelligence as a customization option before gathering user feedback, then, it might be better for you to give VWO a try.

Pros 👍

• Reporting and analytics
• Visual editor
• AI assistant
• Multiple survey types

Cons 👎

• Complex for beginners
• Limited mobile optimization
• Survey customization restrictions

Top Use Cases ⚙️

• On-site visitor feedback
• Product development feedback
• Digital experience optimization

Pricing 💵

VWO offers a 30-day free trial on all plans; here is how the pricing plans look when billed annually:

• Starter Plan: Free for unlimited team members.
• Growth Plan: $392/month with features like unlimited variations, user type targeting, and chat customer support.
• Pro Plan: $903/month with features like cross-domain campaigns, attributes list targeting, and phone customer support.
• Enterprise Plan: $1,581/month with features like behavioral targeting, onboarding and training, and widget triggers.

5. Survicate - enablement for a mobile survey experience to collect feedback

Here comes a Hotjar survey alternative that's... actually a survey platform, Survicate.

As a survey software, Survicate enables you to form surveys of many kinds, including:

• email surveys,
• link surveys,
• website feedback surveys,
• in-product surveys,
• and mobile in-app surveys.

Thanks to these survey types, you can hear your users' voices clearer, whether it's for your brand-new app design or specific data to create customer segments.

For this comparison, what I'm specifically interested in isn't just the types of surveys you could create through your website... but the ones that you could create for your mobile app.

Now... let me present you with mobile app surveys.

‎While Survicate works on mobile apps (both iOS and Android) to help you collect feedback not only in website feedback forms but also in mobile feedback forms, Hotjar isn't compatible with mobile apps.

Survicate 1 - Hotjar 0; that's what it seems like to me for this case.

With a good Hotjar alternative like this one, you'll be able to create surveys that won't disrupt the customer experience; they will help you make more data-driven decisions about improving mobile user experience.

See the example just above? That's how you can set up a survey for customer journey analysis, analyze customer behavior, and enhance your application based on valuable customer insight.

So, if you see yourself working on a mobile app and actively using that platform for user feedback surveys, you should prefer Survicate as your go-to survey software.

Pros 👍

• Several native integrations
• Intuitive user interface
• Multiple survey templates and types
• Advanced targeting feature
• Real-time analytic feature
• Mobile app friendly

Cons 👎

• High cost for advanced features
• Limited survey types on the free plan
• Complex advanced features

Top Use Cases ⚙️

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys
• Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSAT)
• Mobile surveys

Pricing 💵

While Survicate offers a 10-day free Business Plan trial, here is how the rest of the pricing tiers unfold:

• Free Plan: Free for up to 25 responses per month (3 team members only).
• Business Plan: starting from $99/month, starting at 250 responses per month (maximum 10 team members).
• Scale Plan: starting from $299/month for a custom pool of responses (custom number of team members).

In Conclusion...

Maybe you haven't been the biggest fan of Hotjar... and that's totally okay.

Hotjar might be a powerful tool, but surely it has its downsides, one being too pricey for a good amount of daily sessions.

No worries, though.

This article covers each Hotjar alternative with a standout feature that wins over Hotjar—all there is left for you is to try.

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