Hotjar vs FullStory (Tried, Compared) - Here's the Winner
Hotjar and FullStory are both popular user experience (UX) analytics platforms. But are they really the best options out there?
In this guide, we'll break down the key differences between Hotjar vs. FullStory... and introduce you to a powerful alternative: heatmap. We'll compare features, pricing, and highlight what each tool excels at.
By the end, you'll be able to confidently choose the perfect platform to understand your website visitors and boost conversions.
TL;DR - Hotjar or FullStory? (Maybe Neither)
Go with Hotjar if:
- You need a user-friendly platform with a variety of features.
- You're primarily focused on understanding user behavior and gathering feedback.
- You want a free plan to get started.
Go with FullStory if:
- You need advanced session replay and debugging capabilities.
- You have a larger website with a high traffic volume.
- You have dedicated development resources.
Go with heatmap if:
- You're serious about optimizing your website for revenue.
- You want AI-powered insights and actionable recommendations.
- You need a platform that's easy to set up and integrates with everything.
Here's a quick comparison:
Still not sure? Keep reading to dive deeper into the features, pricing, and user reviews of each platform. But we think you'll find that heatmap offers the most powerful and comprehensive solution for eCommerce businesses.
What is Hotjar?
G2 Rating: 4.⅗
Best for: Teams focused on understanding user behavior and improving user experience, especially those looking for a user-friendly tool with a wide range of features.
Hotjar excels in user behavior analytics for both mobile apps and websites. They offer a suite of tools to visualize exact user interaction with your website. This helps you understand what's working, what's not, and ultimately, how to improve the user experience.
Hotjar's Key Features
- Heatmaps: See where users click, move their mouse, and scroll on your pages. This helps you identify popular elements and potential usability issues.
- Session Recordings: Watch recordings of real user sessions to see exactly how visitors navigate your site. It's like looking over their shoulder!
- Surveys & Feedback Widgets: Gather direct feedback from your users with customizable surveys and feedback forms.
- User Segmentation: Analyze specific user groups (like new visitors, returning customers, etc.) to understand how different user segments interact with your site.
- Easy Integrations: Hotjar integrates seamlessly with popular website platforms and tools, making it easy to get started.
Now, let's take a look at what FullStory has to offer.
What is FullStory?
G2 Rating: 4.6/5
Best for: Teams who need advanced session replay capabilities and detailed debugging tools. Think larger businesses with dedicated development resources.
FullStory is a powerful analytics platform that captures everything users do on your website. This allows you to identify and resolve UX issues and technical errors quickly.
FullStory's Key Features
- Advanced Session Replay Functionality: Watch recordings of user sessions with detailed filters. This lets you pinpoint specific actions, like "users who added an item to their cart but didn't check out."
- Error Tracking: FullStory automatically tracks errors and console logs, making it easier for developers to identify and fix bugs.
- Heatmaps: Visualize user behavior with heatmaps to see where they click, scroll, and move their mouse.
- Customizable Funnels: Track user progress through conversion funnels to identify bottlenecks and optimize key steps.
- Performance Monitoring: Monitor website performance metrics like page load speed to ensure a smooth user experience.
What Users Like About Hotjar
- Intuitive Interface: Hotjar is designed with ease of use in mind. Its interface is user-friendly, even for those without technical backgrounds.
- Robust Visualization Tools: Hotjar offers a range of visualizations, including heatmaps, session recordings, and funnels, making it easy to understand user behavior.
- Feedback Widgets & Surveys: Gathering qualitative feedback is simple with Hotjar's built-in feedback widgets and surveys.
- User-Friendly Heatmaps: Hotjar's heatmaps are visually appealing and easy to interpret, even for non-designers.
- Session Recordings: Watching user sessions can provide valuable user insights into specific behaviors and pain points.
Considerations Before Using Hotjar
While Hotjar offers many benefits, it's important to consider these potential drawbacks:
- Higher Costs as Traffic Scales: Hotjar's pricing plans to scale with your website's traffic, making it more expensive for larger sites.
- Limited Data Retention on Free Plans: The free plan has limited data retention, which might be insufficient for in-depth analysis.
- Can Slow Down Website Performance: Hotjar's JavaScript code can slightly slow down your website's loading time.
What Users Like About FullStory
- Advanced Session Replays: Users rave about FullStory's powerful session replay capabilities, including detailed filtering and segmentation options. This allows for granular analysis of user behavior.
- Comprehensive User Behavioral Data Capture: FullStory captures everything – clicks, scrolls, page views, and even console logs. This provides a complete user journey of how users interact and helps identify technical issues.
- Excellent Customer Support: Reviewers consistently praise FullStory's responsive and helpful customer support team.
- Fast and Powerful: Despite its robust features, FullStory is known for its speed and performance. Queries and reports load quickly, even with large datasets.
- Integrations: FullStory integrates with a wide range of other tools, making it a versatile addition to your analytics stack.
Considerations Before Using FullStory
While FullStory is a powerful tool, it's important to be aware of these potential drawbacks:
- High Pricing: FullStory's pricing plans can be expensive, making it less accessible for small businesses or those with limited budgets.
- Steeper Learning Curve: FullStory's advanced features come with a learning curve. It takes time to master the platform and unlock its full potential.
- Limited Qualitative Feedback Tools: FullStory primarily focuses on quantitative data and session replays. It lacks the robust qualitative user feedback tools (like surveys) found in Hotjar.
What actual Hotjar users have to say
- Positive review: "We used Hotjar to track the number of users logging into our platform and how they used it. It was beneficial to see how they were using the platform so that we could make changes to it, clarify things where needed, and improve the user experience." - Maria M., Administrator in Software Company.
- Critical review: "While I initially liked Hotjar's heatmaps and session recordings for understanding user behavior on our website... the biggest drawback was its impact on our website's loading speed – it slowed things down significantly. Plus, it wasn't compatible with our HubSpot forms, which limited its usefulness for us... performance issues and lack of integration were deal-breakers." - Patrick Eng, Marketing Technologist.
What actual FullStory users have to say
- Positive review: "Not only do you get full video playback of what users do with all the searching and filtering tools you would want, but you also get a full suite of query tools to roll up that quality user behavior data into quantitative dashboards to see system health at a glance. What's most impressive though is how fast it is while being so powerful. Editing queries is easy because you can see results update in real-time as you zero in on what you're looking for." - Zenon C., Design Manager
- Critical review: "Fullstory has a lot of features, which can be a bit overwhelming for new users and might take some time to learn. There’s definitely a learning curve, and it can be a bit daunting to figure out all the functionalities at first. It would be helpful if there were more beginner-friendly tutorials or resources to help new users get up to speed quicker." - Camila R., Conversion Rate Optimisation Specialist
What people are saying about heatmap
- "$71,286 per month in revenue with 97% significance." - Spencer Pawliw after he downloaded heatmap, waited for 5k sessions, and reorganized products based on the highest revenue per session from top left to bottom right.
- "We're up 23% YoY" - Ashvin Melwani. "With heatmap, I've been able to figure out what elements actually increase AOV and optimize our landing pages to drive more first purchase profitability..."
- "Heatmap is a non-negotiable for all Ecom stores!" - Oliver Kenyon.
Comparing Hotjar and FullStory's Pricing
Pricing plays a crucial role in selecting a web analytics tool, and Hotjar and FullStory cater to different needs.
Hotjar offers a transparent, tiered pricing structure starting with a free Basic plan that includes unlimited heatmaps and limited session recordings. Paid plans range from $39/month for 100 daily sessions to $213/month, with advanced features like funnels and APIs.
FullStory, on the other hand, provides custom pricing based on session volume, with estimates starting at $299/month for 25,000 sessions. To get exact pricing, you'll need to contact FullStory directly.
Bottom Line?
- Hotjar: Transparent pricing based on daily sessions. Offers a free plan and a 15-day free trial for paid plans.
- FullStory: Custom pricing based on your needs. Requires contacting sales for a quote. Generally more expensive than Hotjar.
Try the Best Hotjar/FullStory Alternative: heatmap.com
Hotjar and FullStory are great tools, but they both fall a bit short on a crucial piece of the puzzle: Revenue insights.
heatmap changes the game by tying user interactions to actual sales data. This shows you exactly which website elements are driving the most value. Looking for more than just basic heatmaps and session recordings? heatmap takes analytics to the next level with:
Why teams choose heatmap.com over other analytics tools
Most-loved features of heatmap
- Revenue-Based Insights: See how much revenue each click, scroll, and page element generates. This helps you prioritize optimization efforts for maximum impact.
- AI-Generated Recommendations: Get over 500 actionable insights to improve your website's performance, from copy tweaks to layout changes.
- Effortless Setup: Installing heatmap is as simple as adding a script to your website. No complex integrations or coding required.
- Seamless Integrations: heatmap works with all major eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce.
- World-Class Support: Our dedicated customer support teams are always available to help you get the most out of heatmap.
heatmap is the BEST Hotjar and Fullstory alternative out there - try it free for 14 days
heatmap.com is the only on-site analytics platform that ties revenue to every pixel on every page of your website. Finally, you can optimize for buyer behavior instead of site traffic.
Spencer Pawliw
@spencepawliw+ $71,286 per month in revenue with 97% significance.
How You Can Do It:
1: Download heatmap.com
2: Wait for 5k sessions
3: Reorganize products based on the highest revenue per session from top left to bottom right.
How You Can Do It:
1: Download heatmap
2: Wait for 5k sessions
3: Reorganize products based on the highest revenue per session from top left to bottom right.
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You made it all the way down here?
Might as well give us a shot, right? It'll change the way you approach CRO. We promise. In fact, our friend Nate over at Original Grain used element-level revenue data from heatmap to identify high-impact areas of his website to test, resulting in a 17% lift in Revenue per Session while scaling site traffic by 43%. Be like Nate. Try heatmap today.
