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Hotjar alternatives

Last reviewed . Reviewed every quarter.

What this Hotjar list covers

  • This page covers Hotjar's research side, its surveys and feedback and the interviews that explain behavior; heatmap and session-replay tools are outside it.
  • Hotjar is part of Contentsquare, which opens no new Hotjar accounts.
  • Maze and Alchemer publish their entry prices and quote larger plans, and Contentsquare publishes Hotjar's Growth prices and quotes Pro and Enterprise; UserTesting and Outset price every plan on request.

Hotjar alternatives side by side

Hotjar alternatives side by side
PulseAlchemerMazeUserTestingOutset
AI-moderated interviewsYesNot checkedYesPartlyYes
Dynamic follow-up / probingYesYesYesNot checkedYes
Languages (count/list)240+ languages, enabled on requestNot checkedYesLanguage filter: tests in English, Spanish, French or German40+ languages
Own panel (size)YesNot checkedPartlyYesPartly
Theme / insight synthesisYesYesYesYesYes
Free trial / free tierYesYesYesNot checkedNot checked

The alternatives, one by one

Pulse

Best for Product and UX teams running AI-moderated voice interviews

Users of a site or product can be interviewed over text chat, video or voice by Pulse, the AI-moderated research platform. During the interview they can be shown a design or a concept and give their reaction while it is in front of them.

Strengths

  • Exports to PowerPoint, Word, CSV or Excel
  • A transcript beside every recording

Verdict In a Pulse focus group, several users can discuss the step where a Hotjar funnel shows them dropping off, as UserTesting's online focus groups also allow.

Where another tool fits Pulse's fit is the large organization whose product, CX and insights teams run customer studies as a program. A Hotjar team whose survey respondents must come from Lucid or Cint will find Alchemer, which names both as panel partners, the better pick.

Alchemer

Best for Survey teams that want the statistical tools of a Full Access plan

Alchemer runs surveys that can be white-labeled on private domains. Its data cleaning quarantines speeders and flags straightlining before the results are read, and Iris takes instructions in natural language.

Strengths

  • REST API v5
  • Customer-managed retention and deletion

Verdict Alchemer adds social listening to the surveys and in-app and web feedback that take over from a Hotjar feedback button, so what people post in public is read beside what they say on the site.

Maze

Best for Design teams prototyping in Axure, Lovable or Bolt

Maze runs prototype tests on Figma designs, beside surveys and card sorts. Its AI-moderated studies are audio conversations, with an image or link to respond to and real-time follow-ups, and AI drafts the discussion guide from your goals.

Strengths

  • Enterprise Collaborators who use no seat
  • Participant incentives included in credit prices
  • Maze Panel partners Prolific, Respondent, Bilendi and Terac

Verdict Maze's tree tests show a Hotjar team how users find their way through a site's structure before the pages are built; UserTesting offers tree tests as well.

Pulse vs Maze

UserTesting

Best for Teams that ask testers to think aloud

UserTesting's recording software captures each participant's voice and screen as they work through interaction tests. Participants come from its Contributor Network of users around the world or, for B2B and professional audiences, through its access to User Interviews.

Strengths

  • AI fraud detection, with flags reviewed by people
  • Highlight reels and video clips
  • Card sorts among its study types

Verdict A Hotjar team that reaches its own users through Link Surveys can bring them, with its partners and employees, into tests through UserTesting's Custom Network.

Pulse vs UserTesting

Outset

Best for Studies recruited across 85+ countries

Outset runs AI-moderated interviews by voice-to-voice, voice, video or text, in 40+ languages, and its AI also sees facial reactions. Participants come from 25+ panel integrations, among them Prolific, User Interviews and Respondent, or from a team's own users.

Strengths

  • AI summaries within minutes of an interview
  • A SOC 2 Type II certificate
  • Concepts, interfaces and creative assets as stimuli

Verdict Outset's AI moderator can put as many as 10 follow-ups to each question, room for a Hotjar team to probe the hesitation its session replays show.

How we evaluated

We compared what each tool's own product, pricing and security pages state against the criteria below. Every fact in the table above links to the page it came from, with the date it was read.

  • Hotjar's research side. How well the tool replaces Hotjar's surveys and feedback, as distinct from its heatmaps and replays.
  • Behavior in context. Whether the tool records what people do on screen during a test or interview, as clicks, paths, gaze or emotion.
  • The why behind a session. Whether participants explain their behavior, and whether a moderator can follow up on it.
  • Recruiting users. Whether the tool can bring in participants beyond a site's own visitors, and how they are screened.

Which one to choose

  • If a quick test needs its first answers in as little as an hour, choose UserTesting, whose simple tests begin to return findings from as little as 1 hour.
  • If a prototype test should count misclicks, choose Maze, whose usability metrics report misclicks beside heatmaps and paths; Hotjar's unmoderated user tests, which are not sold to new customers, also run on Figma, Adobe XD or Sketch prototypes.
  • If you need participants for a study you run in another tool, choose Pulse, which sells sample with no study required.

Where Pulse sits beside Hotjar

Languages on request

Each Hotjar survey displays in one language at a time. A Pulse study can hold its interviews in several languages at once, from 240+ languages, enabled on request.

No call to book

Contentsquare does not offer Hotjar's moderated interviews to new customers. On Pulse, an AI-moderated interview needs no call on the calendar; each participant takes it at a time that suits them. Maze and Outset run AI-moderated interviews too, and UserTesting has AI Moderation in limited early access.

Phone calls and WhatsApp

Hotjar's moderated interviews are video calls that record cameras, shared screens and audio. Pulse also interviews users by phone call or on WhatsApp, for studies whose users a team reaches more easily by phone than on a video call.

Pulse and Hotjar

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