Crazy Egg vs Hotjar
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Crazy Egg is pricing not verified, Hotjar is from $39/user/mo.
- How to start: Crazy Egg is pricing not verified, Hotjar is from $39/user/mo.
- Where they differ: only Hotjar has sso (saml); both offer public api.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Crazy Egg is
Crazy Egg records how visitors scroll and click, producing heatmaps and session recordings. Heatmaps answer a specific question — where attention actually goes on a page — that a numbers dashboard cannot. It is a diagnostic tool rather than an analytics system, so it complements rather than replaces traffic reporting.
What Hotjar is
Hotjar is an analytics tool that visualizes user behavior, showing you how people truly experience your site. While Google Analytics tells you 'what' happened (number of visits), Hotjar explains 'why' (why they didn't click the button). Through heatmaps, you can see where users click most, and session recordings allow you to watch their journey like a video. It provides invaluable insights for product managers and UX designers aiming to increase conversion rates and improve user experience.
Side by side
| Crazy Egg | Hotjar | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Marketing | Marketing |
| How to start | Not verifiednot a monthly price | $39/user/moverified |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | No |
| Open source / self-hostable | No | No |
| SSO (SAML) | No | Yes |
| Visit | Crazy Egg ↗ | Hotjar ↗ |
What Crazy Egg is built to do
- Click and scroll heatmaps
- Visualises where visitors click and how far they scroll.
- Session recordings
- Replays individual visits to see where people struggle.
- A/B testing
- Runs simple page tests without developer involvement.
What Hotjar is built to do
- Heatmaps
- Visual maps showing exactly where users click, move, and scroll on any page.
- Session Recordings
- Watch real videos of how visitors navigate your site from start to finish.
- Feedback Widget
- Allow users to rate their satisfaction with your site in real-time.
- Conversion Funnels
- Visualize exactly where visitors are dropping off in your checkout or sign-up path.
Choose Crazy Egg if
- Teams that want to see how a page is used, not just how many visited.
Choose Hotjar if
- UX Designers, E-commerce Owners, and Product Managers.
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Crazy Egg: pros & cons
- Heatmaps are easy to read and share
- Session recordings show real behaviour
- Simple A/B testing included
- Sampling limits on lower plans
- Recordings raise privacy questions
- Less depth than full analytics
Hotjar: pros & cons
- Visual Analysis: Interpret data through visual videos and maps rather than complex tables.
- Rapid Setup: Start collecting data in minutes with a single code snippet.
- Customer Feedback: Get instant responses from users via embedded on-site surveys.
- Bug Detection: Instantly see where users are getting stuck or 'rage clicking' on your UI.
- Site Slowdown: Can slightly impact page load speed if not configured correctly.
- Privacy Compliance: Requires careful masking settings to comply with GDPR and local laws.
- Free Tier Limits: The number of sessions recorded per day is quite low on the free plan.
Our verdict on Crazy Egg
Good for finding the obvious problem on a page. Make sure your privacy policy covers recordings.
Our verdict on Hotjar
The best 'magnifying glass' you can attach to your site to understand human behavior.