Open source alternatives to Hotjar

What Hotjar does

Hotjar is a behavior analytics and feedback tool. Heatmaps show clicks, scroll depth and ignored content; session recordings show how visitors move through pages and where they struggle; surveys and interview tools collect visitors’ opinions. Hotjar describes itself as a complement to analytics tools such as Google Analytics or Mixpanel rather than a replacement, and it has been owned by Contentsquare since 2021.

Why people look for an alternative

• The move to Contentsquare. Hotjar Ltd. merged into the Contentsquare Group on 1 July 2025, and Contentsquare says new Hotjar accounts can no longer be created. Existing customers are being moved in phases to Contentsquare accounts; after the switch, Hotjar stops collecting data, stays read-only for 12 months and then deletes the account and its data. Prices may change with the move.
• Recordings stored by a third party. Visitor sessions are captured and stored by the vendor. Suppression settings are applied before data is sent and cannot be applied to recordings already made.
• Cookies and consent. The tracking code sets first-party cookies and uses browser storage, and Hotjar leaves the consent question to each site’s own legal advice, so most EU sites load it only after consent.
• Retention. Recordings and heatmap data are deleted automatically after the retention period of your plan and cannot be recovered.
• One more script. Because Hotjar sits alongside the main analytics tool, many teams would rather have recordings and heatmaps in the analytics tool they already run.

What to compare in an alternative

1. Heatmaps and replay together. Whether click, scroll and movement heatmaps and session replay come in the same tool as your traffic or product analytics.
2. Privacy controls. Default masking of inputs and text, excluding specific elements, and whether masking happens in the browser before upload.
3. Retention and storage. How long recordings are kept, what share of sessions is captured, and whether you can store them on your own server.
4. Surveys and funnels. If you use Hotjar’s surveys or funnels, check that the alternative covers them.
5. Exporting your Hotjar data. Plan the export of recordings and survey responses before your Hotjar account is closed.

Which one to choose

PostHog is the closest replacement, with session replay, heatmaps, clickmaps, scrollmaps, surveys and funnels in one product, plus product analytics. Its self-hosted version is intended for small volumes, so most teams use the hosted service.

If you mainly need recordings and heatmaps on your own server, two tools cover part of Hotjar’s job: Open Web Analytics includes click heatmaps and session recordings in its open source code, and Umami has added session replays and heatmaps. Neither has surveys, so we do not list them as full Hotjar alternatives.