Hotjar Alternatives 2026: 6 Free Options
Hotjar alternatives: Microsoft Clarity, PostHog, Umami, Matomo and 2 more. Prices and licenses checked October 25, 2026.
•4 min read•Analytics & BI
Verdict:Hotjar is a heatmap and recording tool with surveys and feedback widgets, so leaving it means choosing which of those you use. Microsoft Clarity is free with no traffic limits and includes heatmaps and recordings, but no surveys. PostHog is MIT-licensed with a cloud free tier of 5,000 recordings and 1 million events a month, combining session replay with product analytics and feature flags, which means more setup than a heatmap script. Umami is MIT-licensed, privacy-focused web analytics with a Hobby tier of up to 100K events a month, a good fit when traffic numbers are enough and you do not need visual replays. Matomo's Community edition is free to host yourself, for teams that must keep analytics data on their own servers. OpenReplay is an open-source session replay tool you can self-host, while its managed instance costs $199 a month. Mixpanel is event analytics with a free plan of 1 million events and unlimited seats, for product questions rather than page-level behaviour. The trade-off is the visual layer. Heatmaps show where people click, and an event tool does not replace that, so keep one visual tool even if the rest of your stack moves.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | Free (Free with no traffic limits, unlimited heatmaps, sites and team members; records up to 100,000 sessions per project per day) | Web browser | Sites that need heatmaps and recordings at no cost | Docs only |
| PostHog | Free (Cloud free tier includes 5k recordings and 1M events a month; self-hosted hobby deploy suits about 100k events a month) | Web browser, Linux (self-hosted, Docker) | Product teams that want analytics and replays together | Docs only |
| Umami | Free (Hobby: up to 100K events per month, 1 website, 6 months data retention; self-hosting is free); paid from $20 per month, billed monthly (Pro, 1M events per month) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Privacy-minded sites that want simple analytics | Docs only |
| Matomo | Free (On-premise Community edition is free with unlimited users and hits; heatmaps and session recording need a paid on-premise bundle) | Web browser, Self-hosted (PHP) | Sites that must keep analytics data on their own servers | Docs only |
| OpenReplay | Free (Open-source self-hosted edition is free; you run it yourself); paid from $199 per month (Dedicated managed instance) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Teams that need session replay on their own infrastructure | Docs only |
| Mixpanel | Free (Up to 1M events per month, unlimited seats); paid from $100 per month, billed yearly (Growth first paid tier, 1.5M events/month; $140 billed monthly) | Web browser | Product teams asking event-level questions | Docs only |
| Mouseflow | Free (Free Forever plan: 500 sessions per month, 1 website, 1 funnel, 1 month of data retention; the pricing page lists click, scroll and geo heatmaps but does not clearly tie them to the free column); paid from $25 per month (Essential) | Web browser | Heatmaps and session replay | Docs only |
| Crazy Egg | Paid from $29 per month, billed annually (Starter, 5,000 tracked pageviews) | Web browser | Website Analytics | Docs only |
| FullStory | Free (FullStory Free: 30,000 sessions per month, 12 months of data retention, up to 10 users) | Web browser | Session replay and analytics | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- A small site that wants free heatmaps and recordings (Microsoft Clarity is the pick)
- A product team that wants replays plus funnels (PostHog is the pick)
- A site that must keep analytics data on its own servers (Matomo is the pick)
- A privacy-first site that needs basic traffic stats (Umami is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Hotjar features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Hotjar today: Free (Free plan with up to 200k sessions a month (shown on Contentsquare's pricing page, where hotjar.com/pricing now redirects)); paid from $39 per month, billed yearly (Growth; $49 billed monthly) (Hotjar pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Hotjar alternatives
hotjar.com/pricing now redirects to Contentsquare's pricing page, where the Free plan covers 200k sessions a month with 1 month of data access and 1 project. Growth shows $39 per month on annual billing ($49 monthly), with 13 months of data and 3 projects. On Free and Growth, once you reach the monthly session limit you get no new heatmap or funnel data until the next reset. The old Basic, Plus and Business plan names no longer appear.
Microsoft Clarity
Compared with Hotjar: Microsoft Clarity is free with no traffic limits and includes heatmaps and session recordings. Hotjar's paid tiers gate recordings and surveys, so Clarity saves money, but it has no survey or feedback widgets.
Price: Free (Free with no traffic limits, unlimited heatmaps, sites and team members; records up to 100,000 sessions per project per day) (Microsoft Clarity pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Sites that need heatmaps and recordings at no cost.
PostHog
Compared with Hotjar: PostHog is MIT-licensed, with a cloud free tier of 5k recordings and 1M events a month, and you can self-host it. Against Hotjar it is a product analytics suite with session replay, so you get funnels and feature flags but more setup than a heatmap script.
Price: Free (Cloud free tier includes 5k recordings and 1M events a month; self-hosted hobby deploy suits about 100k events a month) (PostHog pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Linux (self-hosted, Docker). MIT (ee/ directory under a separate licence) (open source).
Project activity: 40.5k GitHub stars · latest release desktop-v0.61.851 (Oct 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Best for: Product teams that want analytics and replays together.
Umami
Compared with Hotjar: Umami is MIT-licensed privacy-focused web analytics with a Hobby tier of up to 100K events a month for one website. Hotjar shows visual behaviour; Umami gives traffic numbers and no heatmaps or session recordings.
Price: Free (Hobby: up to 100K events per month, 1 website, 6 months data retention; self-hosting is free); paid from $20 per month, billed monthly (Pro, 1M events per month) (Umami pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. MIT (open source).
Project activity: 39.7k GitHub stars · latest release v3.4.1 (Oct 23, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Privacy-minded sites that want simple analytics.
Matomo
Compared with Hotjar: Matomo's on-premise Community edition is free with unlimited users and hits, under GPL-3.0-or-later. Against Hotjar it is full web analytics you host yourself, trading visual heatmaps for self-hosted reports and the server work that comes with them.
Price: Free (On-premise Community edition is free with unlimited users and hits; heatmaps and session recording need a paid on-premise bundle) (Matomo pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted (PHP). GPL-3.0-or-later (open source).
Project activity: 22k GitHub stars · latest release 5.14.2 (Oct 22, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Sites that must keep analytics data on their own servers.
OpenReplay
Compared with Hotjar: OpenReplay's self-hosted edition is free and open source, with AGPL-3.0 for most code, and it records session replays. Keeping recordings on your own servers is the point against Hotjar; its managed instance costs $199 a month, so self-hosting is the cheap route.
Price: Free (Open-source self-hosted edition is free; you run it yourself); paid from $199 per month (Dedicated managed instance) (OpenReplay pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 for most code; ee/ directory under a commercial licence (open source).
Project activity: 13.1k GitHub stars · latest release v1.28.0 (Sep 25, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Teams that need session replay on their own infrastructure.
Worth knowing: Serverless usage-based plan has no listed rates.
Mixpanel
Compared with Hotjar: Mixpanel's free plan covers up to 1M events a month with unlimited seats. Against Hotjar it is event-based product analytics with no visual heatmaps, so it shows what users do in numbers rather than on the page.
Price: Free (Up to 1M events per month, unlimited seats); paid from $100 per month, billed yearly (Growth first paid tier, 1.5M events/month; $140 billed monthly) (Mixpanel pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Product teams asking event-level questions.
Worth knowing: Growth is listed as starting at $0 for the first 1M events; the first paid tier shown is 1.5M events a month.
Other popular options (paid)
Mouseflow
Compared with Hotjar: Free Forever plan covers 500 sessions a month, 1 website and 1 month of data retention; Essential starts at $25 per month. Far fewer free sessions than Hotjar's 200k, but a lower paid entry price.
Price: Free (Free Forever plan: 500 sessions per month, 1 website, 1 funnel, 1 month of data retention; the pricing page lists click, scroll and geo heatmaps but does not clearly tie them to the free column); paid from $25 per month (Essential) (Mouseflow pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Crazy Egg
Compared with Hotjar: Starter is $29 per month on annual billing for 5,000 tracked pageviews, counted in pageviews rather than sessions. No free plan is listed, and each plan begins with a trial of unstated length.
Price: Paid from $29 per month, billed annually (Starter, 5,000 tracked pageviews) (Crazy Egg pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
FullStory
Compared with Hotjar: Free plan: 30,000 sessions a month, 12 months of retention and up to 10 users. Paid plans are quoted on request, so there is no published price to compare with Hotjar Growth's $39.
Price: Free (FullStory Free: 30,000 sessions per month, 12 months of data retention, up to 10 users) (FullStory pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Which one to pick
- A small site that wants free heatmaps and recordings: Microsoft Clarity
- A product team that wants replays plus funnels: PostHog
- A site that must keep analytics data on its own servers: Matomo
- A privacy-first site that needs basic traffic stats: Umami
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Microsoft Clarity, PostHog, Umami, Matomo, OpenReplay, Mixpanel: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Hotjar. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-25: Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, PostHog, Umami, Matomo, OpenReplay, Mixpanel, Mouseflow, Crazy Egg, FullStory. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.