Decision comparison
Hotjar vs Amplitude
Hotjar is no longer an option: it was acquired and merged into Contentsquare, and it has not been a standalone product since July 1, 2025. The Hotjar descriptions on this page are historical context, not current features. Of the two tools compared here, only Amplitude can be chosen today. Choose it when a team needs product and web analytics, session replay, in-app guides and surveys, feature and web experimentation, audience activation, data governance and AI-assisted analysis across digital products; its Free plan includes 2M events per month. Hotjar was built around heatmaps, recordings, form analysis, funnels and visitor feedback for conversion-rate and usability work. Amplitude's pricing page lists Heatmaps on its Plus plan and above, not on Free, and its documentation does not describe dedicated form analytics, so a team that relied on Hotjar's form analysis should test that workflow on Amplitude first.
Hotjar is no longer available as an active product
Hotjar is no longer a standalone product record: it was acquired and merged into Contentsquare. Retain this listing as historical; do not attach Contentsquare product releases to it.
Architecture choice. These take different approaches to the same problem. Read the table as a fit question rather than a feature race.
These are different kinds of product — Session Replay and Product Analytics.
Quick Comparison
| Decision factor | Hotjar | Amplitude |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Nothing today: Hotjar was acquired and merged into Contentsquare, and it has not been a standalone product since July 1, 2025. It was built for digital marketers and UX teams who diagnosed website behavior through heatmaps, session recordings, conversion funnels, form analysis and direct visitor feedback. | Product, growth, and data teams needing governed behavioral analytics, experimentation, activation, and AI-assisted analysis across digital products. |
| Architecture | Historically a Contentsquare-branded digital-experience tool that captured page-level user interactions, sessions, feedback and conversion behavior through instrumentation added to a site or app. After the merger into Contentsquare it no longer runs as a product of its own. | Unified AI analytics platform combining behavioral data collection, product and web analytics, replay, experimentation, governance, integrations, and audience activation. |
| Pricing Model | No longer sold as a standalone product. Hotjar was merged into Contentsquare, so there is no Hotjar plan to buy, no free tier to sign up for and no Hotjar price to compare. The terms it was sold under before the merger do not apply today. | Amplitude publishes a Free plan with 2M events per month forever and no credit card, and a Plus plan that "Starts at $0" with the first 2M events free and scales with event volume. Growth and Enterprise are custom-priced. No fixed monthly plan is published for Plus. Verified 2026-09-16 against amplitude.com/pricing. |
| Ease of Use | Historical only: users cited its interface, heatmaps, session recordings and visibility into user interactions as strengths. None of it can be adopted today as a separate Hotjar product. | Natural-language AI analytics and visual exploration accelerate analysis, though the broad product-intelligence suite requires stronger data and product analytics maturity. |
| Scalability | Historical only: it supported behavioral analysis across websites and apps, while reviewers flagged the amount of data and funnel analysis as limits. | Built for cross-platform behavioral data, governed schemas, identity-aware audiences, integrations, and experimentation across large digital-product organizations. |
| Community/Support | Hotjar was used by 1.3+ million websites and apps, and it collected 361 user reviews with a 7.9/10 user rating. These figures describe its past user base, not a product that is sold on its own today. | Official materials cite 2,500+ reviews and 11K digital products served; the Python Analytics SDK has 36 GitHub stars and MIT licensing. |
Hotjar
- Best For:
- Nothing today: Hotjar was acquired and merged into Contentsquare, and it has not been a standalone product since July 1, 2025. It was built for digital marketers and UX teams who diagnosed website behavior through heatmaps, session recordings, conversion funnels, form analysis and direct visitor feedback.
- Architecture:
- Historically a Contentsquare-branded digital-experience tool that captured page-level user interactions, sessions, feedback and conversion behavior through instrumentation added to a site or app. After the merger into Contentsquare it no longer runs as a product of its own.
- Pricing Model:
- No longer sold as a standalone product. Hotjar was merged into Contentsquare, so there is no Hotjar plan to buy, no free tier to sign up for and no Hotjar price to compare. The terms it was sold under before the merger do not apply today.
- Ease of Use:
- Historical only: users cited its interface, heatmaps, session recordings and visibility into user interactions as strengths. None of it can be adopted today as a separate Hotjar product.
- Scalability:
- Historical only: it supported behavioral analysis across websites and apps, while reviewers flagged the amount of data and funnel analysis as limits.
- Community/Support:
- Hotjar was used by 1.3+ million websites and apps, and it collected 361 user reviews with a 7.9/10 user rating. These figures describe its past user base, not a product that is sold on its own today.
Amplitude
- Best For:
- Product, growth, and data teams needing governed behavioral analytics, experimentation, activation, and AI-assisted analysis across digital products.
- Architecture:
- Unified AI analytics platform combining behavioral data collection, product and web analytics, replay, experimentation, governance, integrations, and audience activation.
- Pricing Model:
- Amplitude publishes a Free plan with 2M events per month forever and no credit card, and a Plus plan that "Starts at $0" with the first 2M events free and scales with event volume. Growth and Enterprise are custom-priced. No fixed monthly plan is published for Plus. Verified 2026-09-16 against amplitude.com/pricing.
- Ease of Use:
- Natural-language AI analytics and visual exploration accelerate analysis, though the broad product-intelligence suite requires stronger data and product analytics maturity.
- Scalability:
- Built for cross-platform behavioral data, governed schemas, identity-aware audiences, integrations, and experimentation across large digital-product organizations.
- Community/Support:
- Official materials cite 2,500+ reviews and 11K digital products served; the Python Analytics SDK has 36 GitHub stars and MIT licensing.
Public signals
Verified factual signals only. Bars appear only for like-for-like metrics with five weekly assessments for every tool; missing evidence stays explicit. These signals do not establish enterprise adoption, product quality, or total cost.
| Metric | Hotjar | Amplitude |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub commits, 90d(Developer adoption) | 0 | 5 |
| GitHub stars(Developer adoption) | 52 | 38 |
| Search interest(Market interest) | 2 | 0 |
| Hacker News mentions, 90d(Community interest) | 0 | 0 |
| npm weekly downloads(Developer adoption) | 144.2k | 1.7M |
| Product Hunt comments(Community interest) | 153 | 0 |
| Product Hunt rating(Community interest) | 4.8/5 | 4.8/5 |
| Product Hunt reviews(Community interest) | 21 | 49 |
| Product Hunt votes(Community interest) | 1.3k | 13 |
| Stack Overflow questions(Community interest) | 58 | 56 |
| PyPI weekly downloads(Developer adoption) | Not available | 2.1M |
As of November 9, 2026 — updated weekly.
Health & risk evidence
Observed public-source checks for mapped package versions and repositories.
Hotjar
Package vulnerabilities
npm · @hotjar/browser@1.0.9
0 vulnerabilities
across 1 package
Repository security score
github.com/hotjar/hotjar-js
3.7/10
Amplitude
November 9, 2026Package vulnerabilities
npm · @amplitude/analytics-node@1.5.83 · PyPI · amplitude-analytics@1.3.0
0 vulnerabilities
across 2 packages
Repository security score
Not available
Interface Preview
Hotjar
Amplitude
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Hotjar | Amplitude |
|---|---|---|
| Behavioral Observation | ||
| Session recording | Recorded visitor sessions to inspect page-level interactions and navigation behavior. | Session Replay captures real-time user behavior to interpret product metrics. |
| Interaction visualization | Heatmaps showed how users clicked, moved and scrolled on specific pages. | Product Analytics visualizes user clicks and behavioral metrics across digital journeys. |
| Page-focused analysis | Analyzed user sessions and interactions on selected website pages. | Web Analytics identifies customer-journey drivers and supports dynamic content targeting. |
| Analysis and Measurement | ||
| Conversion analysis | Conversion Funnel Analytics showed drop-off through defined website conversion steps. | Behavioral analytics supports deeper analysis of user clicks, metrics, and journeys. |
| Form analysis | Form Analytics identified behavior and friction within website forms. | No dedicated form-analytics capability is specified in the public documentation. |
| AI-assisted insight generation | Hotjar's documentation did not describe AI analytics or automated insight agents. | AI Agents continuously sense, analyze, and optimize data-driven issues around the clock. |
| Feedback and Research | ||
| Visitor feedback collection | Feedback polls and surveys collected contextual feedback from website visitors. | Guides and Surveys collect rapid in-app customer feedback. |
| Usability research | Usability testing combined observed sessions, interaction evidence and visitor feedback. | Session Replay and behavioral analytics provide evidence for product-experience interpretation. |
| Feedback intelligence | Polls and surveys captured direct qualitative input for experience investigation. | AI Feedback transforms customer feedback into actionable product insights. |
| Optimization and Experimentation | ||
| Feature experimentation | Hotjar's documentation did not describe built-in feature experimentation. | Feature Experimentation targets feature variants and validates outcomes with behavioral data. |
| Web experimentation | Hotjar's documentation did not describe built-in A/B testing, and reviewers listed A/B testing among its weaknesses. | Web Experimentation deploys A/B tests and personalized experiences with targeted variants. |
| Audience activation | Hotjar's documentation did not describe audience activation or downstream engagement. | Audience segmentation supports targeting through activation channels, including CRM and messaging. |
| Data Platform and Governance | ||
| Data governance | Hotjar's documentation did not describe formal schema-governance controls. | Data Governance applies controls for globally accurate and organized behavioral data. |
| Technology integrations | Was embedded in applications through an MIT-licensed TypeScript repository. | Integrations connect technology stacks for behavioral-data collection and utilization. |
| AI search visibility | Hotjar's documentation did not describe LLM brand-visibility analytics. | AI Visibility shows how LLMs discuss a brand for AI-search optimization. |
| Availability | ||
| Can be adopted today | No. Hotjar was acquired and merged into Contentsquare and is no longer a standalone product. | Yes. A Free plan includes 2M events per month with no credit card; Growth and Enterprise are custom-priced. |
Behavioral Observation
Session recording
Interaction visualization
Page-focused analysis
Analysis and Measurement
Conversion analysis
Form analysis
AI-assisted insight generation
Feedback and Research
Visitor feedback collection
Usability research
Feedback intelligence
Optimization and Experimentation
Feature experimentation
Web experimentation
Audience activation
Data Platform and Governance
Data governance
Technology integrations
AI search visibility
Availability
Can be adopted today
Which approach fits
Hotjar is no longer an option: it was acquired and merged into Contentsquare, and it has not been a standalone product since July 1, 2025. The Hotjar descriptions on this page are historical context, not current features. Of the two tools compared here, only Amplitude can be chosen today. Choose it when a team needs product and web analytics, session replay, in-app guides and surveys, feature and web experimentation, audience activation, data governance and AI-assisted analysis across digital products; its Free plan includes 2M events per month. Hotjar was built around heatmaps, recordings, form analysis, funnels and visitor feedback for conversion-rate and usability work. Amplitude's pricing page lists Heatmaps on its Plus plan and above, not on Free, and its documentation does not describe dedicated form analytics, so a team that relied on Hotjar's form analysis should test that workflow on Amplitude first.
When each approach fits
Hotjar (no longer available):
Hotjar cannot be chosen today: it was acquired and merged into Contentsquare and no longer exists as a standalone product, so there is no Hotjar plan to buy. It was built for marketing, UX and web teams who investigated landing-page engagement, form friction, visitor journeys and qualitative feedback through heatmaps, session recordings, conversion funnels, form analytics, polls and surveys, without building a full product analytics program. Of the tools on this page, Amplitude now covers much of that need: Session Replay captures user behavior, its pricing page lists Heatmaps on Plus and higher plans, Product Analytics and Web Analytics analyze clicks and customer journeys, and Guides and Surveys collect in-app feedback. One gap: Amplitude's documentation does not describe dedicated form analytics, which Hotjar offered, so test form workflows on Amplitude before you commit to it.
Choose Amplitude if:
Choose Amplitude for product-led organizations that need cross-platform event analysis, data governance, session replay, controlled experiments, audience targeting, and AI-supported decisions.
These scenarios reflect the available product evidence. Your requirements, existing stack, and team expertise should guide the final decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main difference between Hotjar and Amplitude?
Today the main difference is that only Amplitude can be chosen. Hotjar was acquired and merged into Contentsquare and is no longer a standalone product. Before that, Hotjar was a digital-experience and conversion-rate optimization tool built around qualitative, page-level evidence: heatmaps, session recordings, conversion funnels, form analytics, polls, surveys and usability testing. Amplitude is a wider product intelligence platform that combines behavioral product and web analytics with session replay, experimentation, audience activation, integrations, data governance and AI-assisted analysis.
Which is better for small teams?
Amplitude, because Hotjar is not available to any team as a product of its own after its merger into Contentsquare. Amplitude's Free plan includes 2M events per month with no credit card, and its Plus plan starts at $0, includes the first 2M events free and scales with event volume. A small web marketing or UX team that used Hotjar for landing pages, checkout flows or forms will find Session Replay, Web Analytics and Guides and Surveys in Amplitude, with Heatmaps from the Plus plan up; Amplitude's documentation does not describe dedicated form analytics.
Can I migrate from Hotjar to Amplitude?
Adopting Amplitude after Hotjar is not a one-to-one move between two similar products. Hotjar's data centered on recordings, heatmaps, page interactions, forms, funnels and survey responses, while Amplitude works from behavioral events that you collect and supports product analytics, web analytics, governance, experiments, audiences and session replay. Setting up Amplitude means defining an event taxonomy and instrumenting the web or product actions you want to measure. Amplitude's pricing page lists Heatmaps on Plus and higher plans, so a team that wants heatmaps next to its event data needs at least Plus.
What are the pricing differences?
Hotjar has no price today. It is no longer sold as a standalone product, because it was acquired and merged into Contentsquare, and the terms it was sold under before the merger no longer apply. Amplitude publishes a Free plan with 2M events per month and no credit card, and a Plus plan that starts at $0, includes the first 2M events free and scales with event volume. No fixed monthly price is published for Plus, and Growth and Enterprise are custom-priced.
What happened to Hotjar?
Hotjar was acquired and merged into Contentsquare, and it has not been a standalone product since July 1, 2025. The Hotjar descriptions on this page, such as heatmaps, session recordings, conversion funnels, form analytics, polls, surveys and usability testing, are kept as historical context for readers who used it or who want to compare its former approach with Amplitude. They do not describe Contentsquare's current products.