Best Hotjar alternatives after the Contentsquare merger

Teams look for Hotjar alternatives when some or all of what they used Hotjar for (usually session replay and heatmaps, sometimes surveys or funnels) no longer fits the price or the packaging. Hotjar is part of Contentsquare, and it is still a reasonable product for a lot of teams. This guide stays on session replay and heatmaps. It does not pretend every alternative is a full UX-suite replacement.

What changed after the Contentsquare merger?

Ownership changed, and over time the packaging and branding have moved too. That is not, by itself, a reason to switch. Contentsquare announced the acquisition on 1 September 2021. The companies said they would work closely together but continue to operate independently for the foreseeable future. That phrase is now several years old, and the public pricing experience has shifted.

On 13 November 2026, hotjar.com/pricing presented Contentsquare-branded plans. The page states that all plans include session replays, heatmaps, funnels, surveys, integrations, and more. There is a Free plan at $0, and a paid Growth plan whose list prices started at $49 per month, or $39 per month when billed yearly, with higher volumes priced higher. Experience Platform Pro and Enterprise packages are listed as well. Confirm the live page before you budget a migration. Those figures will change.

One number is easy to miss if you hoped to replace Clarity-style unlimited recordings with Hotjar's Free plan. On that pricing page, Free includes up to 200,000 monthly sessions for analytics, but session replay capture is 5% of sessions, with a maximum of 10,000, and one month of replay access. In the table we copied from that page, Growth captures 15% of sessions (minimum 20,000). If full-fidelity replay is the job, read the sampling line carefully.

The merger also does not tell you whether your data policy got better or worse. Re-check Hotjar's current data-processing terms, region options, and privacy documentation. Then decide whether you still need surveys, or mainly need replay.

How should you compare Hotjar alternatives?

Split the product into jobs: replay, heatmaps, surveys, funnels, form analytics, and price. Replayly, Clarity, and several others can cover replay and heatmaps. Very few of the tools below are a complete survey-and-feedback replacement, and we are not going to pretend they are.

Replayly prices are from our fact sheet. Competitor prices are cited only where we opened an official page on 13 November 2026. The Replayly vs Hotjar page is the product-level companion.

Is Replayly a good Hotjar alternative?

It is, if you mainly need session replay and heatmaps, and you want privacy defaults on from the first snippet. It is a poor fit if surveys, feedback widgets, funnels, or form analytics are part of your weekly workflow. Those features are not in Replayly today.

We mask input values and respect Do Not Track before you change a project setting. Consent mode, mask-all-text, and CSS block selectors start on Starter. Heatmaps and AI session summaries start on Pro ($79 per month, 50,000 sessions, 90-day retention). The Free plan is 1,000 sessions, 7-day retention, and one project, and it samples after the limit. Paid plans block when the quota is reached. You install a script tag or use Google Tag Manager.

Compared with Hotjar's Free sampling rule, our Free cap is lower in raw session count. Every session inside that quota is a recording, though, not a 5% sample, until you hit 1,000 in a month. Compared with Hotjar Growth list prices, our Starter and Pro list prices are public and flat. That is not a claim we are always cheaper. It depends on the session volume and the Contentsquare package you were quoted. Do the arithmetic on the current official pages.

If you are an agency showing a client what happened on a site, with form fields already masked, that job matches. If you are running an always-on survey program, keep Hotjar or replace that piece separately. The agencies and product teams pages describe those uses without inflating scope.

Is Microsoft Clarity a free Hotjar alternative?

For recordings and heatmaps, yes. For surveys, no. Microsoft's pricing page and FAQ, which we checked on 13 November 2026, still describe Clarity as free forever, with no traffic limits and no paid upgrade. Heatmaps are included. Data is stored in Microsoft US data centers, according to Clarity's privacy page.

That makes Clarity the first place to look if you used Hotjar only for recordings and heatmaps and you do not want to pay. It is a weaker substitute if you needed surveys, if you cannot use a Microsoft-hosted US product, or if you want Do Not Track on as a documented default. For a direct Replayly comparison, see Replayly vs Microsoft Clarity and the wider Clarity alternatives guide.

When is Mouseflow a closer Hotjar alternative than Replayly?

When funnels and form analytics are part of the job, not only recordings and heatmaps. Mouseflow's help center documents session replay, heatmaps, funnels, and form analytics. We do not ship funnels or form analytics today, and the Replayly vs Mouseflow page says so plainly.

We also do not invent Mouseflow prices. Open their current pricing page before you budget. Pick Mouseflow (or stay on Hotjar) if those extra views are still in the weekly workflow. Pick Replayly if recordings, privacy defaults, and optional heatmaps are what you still need.

How do PostHog, Lucky Orange, and Crazy Egg compare?

These three get grouped as "Hotjar alternatives" in search results, but they are not the same kind of product. Only PostHog is a platform play.

PostHog is a product-analytics platform that includes session replay. You can run it yourself or use PostHog Cloud. Official replay pricing, checked on 13 November 2026, starts with 5,000 web and 2,500 mobile recordings free each month, then usage-based prices from $0.005 per web recording. Choose PostHog if you want flags, insights, and replay together. Do not choose it only to replace a feedback widget. See Replayly vs PostHog.

Lucky Orange offers visitor recordings and dynamic heatmaps. Its public marketing has also described funnels, form analytics, polls, and live chat. Confirm what the current product still includes, and confirm prices, on the vendor's site. It may fit teams that want a conversion-optimization suite rather than a replay-only tool.

Crazy Egg is known for heatmap reports and also offers recordings, according to its support overview. It is a reasonable heatmap-first alternative. Confirm current recording limits and prices on Crazy Egg's site. We will not invent them here.

Should Smartlook be on a Hotjar alternatives list in 2026?

Not as a new paid option, not in late 2026. Cisco's end-of-sale bulletin and Smartlook's FAQ say new paid subscriptions ended on 31 May 2026, renewals and expansions ended on 31 August 2026, remaining paid subscriptions end by 31 August 2027, and the platform is decommissioned on 30 September 2027, with remaining customer data deleted. Smartlook's FAQ also says Splunk will not migrate historical data, and that after a paid term ends you may use the Free plan until the shutdown date.

If you already pay for Smartlook, follow their export guidance. If you are leaving Hotjar, do not treat Smartlook as the destination.

How should you choose, and when should you stay on Hotjar?

Stay when surveys, feedback widgets, funnels, and the Contentsquare ecosystem are still doing work for you, and the current price is acceptable. Leave only if the remaining job is narrower (usually replay and heatmaps), or if sampling, data terms, or packaging no longer fit.

A straightforward path:

1. Write down which Hotjar features you used in the last 30 days. If surveys appear on that list, keep them or replace them separately.
2. Re-read Hotjar's current pricing and the sampling rules for your plan.
3. If you only need recordings and heatmaps, try Microsoft Clarity (free) or Replayly (free tier, heatmaps on Pro).
4. If you need funnels and form analytics, look at Mouseflow or stay on Hotjar.
5. If you need a product-analytics platform, look at PostHog.
6. Install one candidate on staging, confirm input masking, and watch a real session before you remove Hotjar's snippet.

To try Replayly, start a free workspace and follow the install guide. Keep the fact sheet as the source of truth for our prices, and treat every competitor figure in this post as dated 13 November 2026.

Sources

• Contentsquare acquires Hotjar and Hotjar pricing, checked 13 November 2026.
• Clarity pricing and Clarity privacy, checked 13 November 2026.
• Replayly facts, pricing, and Replayly vs Hotjar, checked 13 November 2026.
• PostHog session replay pricing, Mouseflow help center, Lucky Orange, and Crazy Egg overview, checked 13 November 2026.
• Cisco Smartlook end-of-sale bulletin and Smartlook FAQ, checked 13 November 2026.