Hotjar is hired to show where visitors click and scroll, replay what they did, and ask them short questions. Many teams use it for a project and keep paying afterward. Below: what the vendor's own page publishes, the realistic replacements, and how to end the plan while keeping what you learned.
It is installed for a redesign or a conversion project, and the snippet stays on the site long after the project ends. Nobody owns turning it off.
The job itself is narrow, so the cheapest check is also the best one: open the account and see when a person last looked.
Only alternatives we have checked. An open-source project is listed with the license its repository reports, on the date shown; one whose license could not be read as a single standard id is not offered as open source. Read the license guide before running any of them.
| Alternative | Kind | License | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | Commercial | — | Microsoft ClarityChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Matomo | Open source | GPL-3.0 | Matomo repositoryChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
Each feature below is what the product's own page or README says, linked to where we read it on the date shown. Pros and cons are limited to what those pages state and to what the path itself changes. We do not rank products on quality.
| Plan | Price as published | Includes | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotjar Free | Free | 35 sessions a day, 20 survey responses a month, 2 integrations; the page says new Hotjar accounts can no longer be created | Hotjar at ContentsquareChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Contentsquare Free | Free | 200k sessions a month, 100 survey responses a month, 10+ integrations, with a 15-day Growth plan trial | Hotjar at ContentsquareChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Microsoft Clarity | “Free forever”, as the page prints it | Session recordings and heatmaps; the page says “No limits on traffic” | Microsoft ClarityChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
As printed on the vendors' pages on the checked date. The Hotjar page prints free-plan limits only; no paid Hotjar price was published there, so none is shown. Free plans and limits can change.
Behavior tools are usually bought for a project and left running. The honest first step is to check whether anyone has opened a recording or heatmap in the last quarter.
Hotjar now sits under Contentsquare, whose page says new Hotjar accounts can no longer be created. If you hold an existing plan, ask your account contact what the renewal terms are before assuming anything about price.
Samples are made up and are not Hotjar's prices. Type in the figures from your own invoice or order form.
Paid seats against seats in use: what the idle ones cost a year, and what you save by right-sizing at renewal.
What paying a year up front really costs: the premium for monthly, the break-even month and the interest rate the discount works out to.
Arithmetic only, not tax, accounting or legal advice. Check the figures against your own order form.
In outline:
List the heatmaps, recordings and surveys that exist, which pages they cover and who last opened them. Retire what nobody uses.
Decide the one or two pages to study. Install the new tool's snippet there first, with masking and consent set up before data is collected.
Run both snippets for a short period, confirm the new tool shows what the team needs, then remove the old snippet from the site.
Save the findings you still need, then end the plan inside the contract's notice window.
Run the vendor report for QuickBooks Online or Xero, then open the free audit.
General information, not legal advice. See cancelling without penalties. Last reviewed Oct 25, 2026. Product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify them.
Send us the export and see which lines are worth a second look. A connected version is planned. Hotjar is one of the lines worth a look.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
“In use” is your call: last sign-in in the past 30 or 90 days from the vendor's admin report. A seat for someone on leave is not idle.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
Paying 905.00 more on day one saves the other eleven monthly bills. The discount is worth that much a year on the cash you hand over early. If your cash earns or costs you less than this, annual wins, as long as you will use the tool all year.
| Months used | Monthly plan | Annual plan | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 95.00 | 1,000.00 | Monthly |
| 3 | 285.00 | 1,000.00 | Monthly |
| 6 | 570.00 | 1,000.00 | Monthly |
| 9 | 855.00 | 1,000.00 | Monthly |
| 12 | 1,140.00 | 1,000.00 | Annual |
Assumes the monthly plan bills at the start of each month and the annual plan does not refund. Check your order form for both.