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VWO vs Hotjar

Which is the best platform for website visitor behavior analytics?

Hotjar is a popular behavioral insights tool that offers useful features like heatmaps & session recordings. While VWO Insights has similar capabilities, it goes a step further to give you deeper insights through key features like form analytics and AI-powered surveys.

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Behavior analytics
Behavior analytics

Thousands of businesses use VWO to gather key behavioral insights.

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Arvato Logo
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Blueair Logo
British Red Cross Logo
Browserstack Logo
Carrier Logo
Charles and Keith Logo
Cigna Logo
Clayton homes Logo
Decathalon Logo
Disney holidays Logo
Eastpak Logo
Egnyte Logo
Emerson Logo
Equinox plus Logo
Five-9 Logo
Fivetran Logo
Flex Logo
Flying tiger Logo
Flynas Logo
Appareal group Logo
Happy Fresh Logo
Homserve Logo
Housing Logo
Hub Logo
ICICI Bank Logo
Inacap Logo
Innova sport Logo
Iprospect Logo
Ispot TV Logo
Kaspersky Logo
Konfio Logo
Leonisa Logo
Lever Logo
Liberty University Logo
Glidan Logo
Micro Focus Logo
Millipore Logo
Mindvalley Logo
Nvidia Logo
O2 Logo
Omnisend Logo
OMV petrom Logo
Open table Logo
OSN COM Logo
Payscale Logo
Paytm Logo
Pennfoster Logo
Poweschool Logo
Rapha Logo
Rectruitee Logo
Rhenus Logo
Rmit online primary Logo
Robert Half Logo
Sanoma Media Logo
Sas Logo
Scandic Logo
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Must-have features in your behavioral analytics platform

By analyzing how visitors engage with your website and navigate important pages, you can improve their overall experience more effectively. Here’s a look at essential features your behavioral analytics tool should include.

Data capture method

VWO’s Flexible Sampling method enables you to track 100% of your website traffic and also allows you to configure it the way you want. By giving you the flexibility to track visitor sessions as you see fit, VWO ensures that you get the most out of your quota without being overwhelmed by data.

Hotjar, on the other hand, uses dynamic sampling which limits the number of sessions that can be tracked daily. This can impact your analysis as it only tracks a certain section of your total website traffic, giving you a limited representation of visitor behavior.

Insights Settings

All-in-one insights dashboard

The VWO Insights Dashboard displays friction trends, page-level issues with associated heatmaps, and dissatisfied user segments - all in one place. This saves you time and eliminates the need to tediously sift through each page report, analyze them individually, and draw insights.

This targeted approach allows you to prioritize optimization efforts, streamlining your workflow and maximizing efficiency.

Hotjar provides separate dashboards for key features like heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys which can quickly get tiresome, especially for those who like to have all the data in one place. Although you can create customized dashboards, you would still have to analyze each of them separately to get valuable insights.

Insights Dashboard

Form analytics

With VWO, you can closely analyze each form field to understand how visitors interact with different form elements. Moreover, the advanced filtering options help you analyze form interactions across different visitor segments and identify potential roadblocks that impact their experience.

Form analytics is completely missing in Hotjar.

Form Analytics

Filters and event tracking

VWO’s extensive filtering capabilities enable you to analyze even the most granular visitor behavior. Apart from filtering reports based on traffic source, user agent, etc., you can also filter reports based on multiple conditions to gain deeper insights about your visitors, which is not possible with Hotjar.

You can also create custom events to track specific events like video played, session time of more than 30 seconds, and so on.

While Hotjar does offer some advanced filtering options, it does not let you track standard events like page visits and clicks.

Insights Desktop Filters
Insights Settings
Insights Dashboard
Form Analytics
Insights Desktop Filters

A detailed comparison between the key capabilities of VWO Insights - Web and Hotjar

Both platforms have similar features for behavioral analysis but differ in the kind of value they provide for your business.

Heatmaps VWO offers key features like browsable heatmap and Click Area, which are not available in Hotjar
Heatmaps Hotjar
Schedule heatmap views
Browsable heatmap
Click Area
Element list
A/B test variation heatmap
No. of heatmaps Unlimited Unlimited
Session Recordings VWO offers unlimited recordings based on unique visitors, however, Hotjar charges based on total session recordings, which can quickly exhaust your quota.
Session recordings Hotjar
Page / Session / User Recordings
Observations with recording moment link
Recording views
Schedule recording views
Funnel drop-off filters
A/B test variation filters
Saved recordings Yes. The number of recordings you can save varies according to your plan
No. of recordings Unlimited Limited by sessions in plans
Surveys With VWO, you can prompt a survey at the right time by choosing advanced trigger options like goal completion, or page engagement, which is not possible with Hotjar.
Surveys Hotjar
Survey views per user
Schedule surveys
Saved triggers
Click element trigger
Advanced trigger logic
Conditional triggers
No. of questions per survey Unlimited Unlimited
Form Analytics VWO enables you to conduct a detailed analysis of each form field, and identify areas where visitors encounter challenges or confusion. Form analytics is missing in Hotjar.
Form Analytics Hotjar
Conversion report
Dropped field report
Hesitation time report
Ignored field report
Share report
Schedule form tracking
Number of active forms 50* for enterprises

* This can be enhanced via add ons

What makes VWO different from Hotjar?

Explore this in-depth feature comparison to understand which platform is better suited for behavioral analysis and optimization goals. 

Platform & Account Management VWO Logo Hotjar
Account Members

Add multiple people to the same account but with varying levels of access.

Pages

Classify your web pages into different categories to quickly create, manage and scale experiments specific to them.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
API Access (rate limit of 60K/month)

Start and pause campaigns programmatically or pull test metrics into other dashboards.

Internal IP Exclusion

Users who access your website from these IP addresses will not be tracked in VWO.

Sub Accounts

Create sub-accounts for different teams or digital assets. Very handy for large enterprises, and especially agencies!

Unlimited
Integrations

Seamlessly integrate with third-party tools.

Security & Compliance VWO Logo Hotjar
Account Alerts

Set email alerts for account administrators to receive notifications for your VWO account related activities.

Information NA
Login Restriction

Restrict login into your VWO app to specific city/ region/ country/ IP address.

Information NA
Activity Monitoring

Review the usage history, including all activities performed by different account members within the account.

2-Factor Authentication (2FA)

2FA provides an extra layer that protects your data from cybercrime & fraud. VWO offers both account and individual level 2FA.

GDPR HIPAA, CCPA, ISO 27001:2013, ISO 27701:2019, PCI DSS Compliant

VWO regularly undergoes independent verification of its security, privacy, and compliance controls to meet the customers' needs.

Single Sign On

Enable single sign-on using any SAML 2.0 identity provider to authenticate members from your organization.

Data Storage

All VWO data is stored in one of the two data centers, as configured for the accounts

USA, EU, India Information NA
Customer Success VWO Logo Hotjar
Self Paced Training Videos

Watch our recorded training videos for every feature as per your schedule.

1-on-1 Onboarding & Training

Avail our end-to-end training programs to leverage your website for better conversions using industry best practices.

Dedicated Account Manager

A dedicated manager assigned to your account helps you every step of the way toward success.

Support VWO Logo Hotjar
Chat Support

Reach out to support via in-app chat to give feedback or raise an issue.

Phone Support

Get on a call with a VWO support member to resolve your queries.

Knowledge Base

Search and browse our online knowledge base for answers and documentation.

Email Support

Reach out to support via registered email to give feedback or raise an issue.

Support Availability

The availability of our support team to respond and resolve your queries irrespective of the timezone.

24 X 7 - Enterprise Plan Information NA
First Response Time (working days only)

The time it takes for our support team members to become available in your timezone for query resolution.

4 hrs 2 working days
Campaign Editor VWO Logo Hotjar
AI-Based Text Recommendations

Generate alternate text recommendations for the existing copy on your website.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Personalized Text

Personalize the text on your webpage with customer-specific behavioral or demographic data.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Visual Editor

Utilize the powerful WYSIWYG point-and-click visual editor to create and edit variations with ease, eliminating the dependency on IT.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Code Editor

Make advanced modifications to any aspect of your website using HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and jQuery.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Add/ Edit Elements

Add new or edit UI elements to your webpage.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Preview Variation(s)

Conduct a quality review of the variations by previewing them to verify that all modifications have been applied to the website before going live.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Multi-Page Campaigns

Easily apply the same experience to multiple pages with a single click, eliminating the need for manual duplication of changes across pages.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Multi-Device Campaigns

Tailor modifications to specific devices or apply them consistently across all devices.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Add Campaign JS

Run a custom code for the entire campaign regardless of which variation the users sees.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
No. of Variations

Total number of variations you can create for a test.

Unlimited Doesn't offer AB Testing
Selective-Page Campaigns

Apply changes only on the page you edited, even if the campaign includes multiple pages.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
No. of Concurrent Campaigns

Total number of tests you can run on your account concurrently.

Unlimited Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Editor Library VWO Logo Hotjar
Elements Library

Library of customizable pre-designed UI elements like list item, content block, buttons, etc.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Save Modifications to Library

Save and reuse modifications made to web elements to easily apply the same changes to similar elements without having to recreate them.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Save Elements to Library

Use the click-and-save feature to store UI elements, such as text blocks, buttons, banners, and pop-ups, in the library for future reuse.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Widget Triggers

Control when a widget appears, how often it appears, or does not appear when dismissed.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Widgets Library

Create customizable banners, pop-ups, and other web page elements with images and forms, directly within the VWO Visual Editor, without coding.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Targeting VWO Logo Hotjar
Advanced Targeting Logic

Use brackets to create logic of targeting with multiple conditions. For example - [Users in USA OR Users in India] AND [New Users OR iOS Device]

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Screen Resolution Targeting

Target users based on their screen resolution.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
User Agent Values Targeting

Target users based on user-agent values.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
IP Based Targeting

Target users based on IP address.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Attribute List Targeting

Precisely target audience by matching a list of values with cookies, JavaScript variables, or any other identifier.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
URL Targeting

Target users based on the URLs they arrive from/land on

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Basic Device Targeting

Target users based on the device they use. Basic options like mobile, desktop, tablet available.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Traffic Source Targeting

Target users based on the traffic source (e.g., direct, non-paid, email) that directed them to the test page.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Basic Operating System Targeting

Target users based on their desktop OS. Basic options like macOS, Windows and Linux available.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Advanced Device Targeting

Target users based on the device they use. Advanced options like mobile, desktop, tablet, ipad, ipod, iphone, android, google tv etc. available.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Advanced Operating System Targeting

Target users based on their desktop OS. Advanced options like macOS, Windows, Linux, Unix, Windows 8 etc. available.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Browser Targeting

Target users based on their browser.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Geo Targeting

Target users from specific geographies or personalize website content for users from specific locations.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Cookie Based Targeting

Target users based on cookie values. It can be customized based on varying business needs.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Javascript Variable Targeting

Target user groups based on custom events that occur on your website using Javascript variables.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
User Intent Targeting

Target users based on their intent of visiting your website using referral URLs.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Query Parameter Targeting

Target users based on their query parameters.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
UTM Parameter Targeting

Target users based on UTM parameters such as UTM source, medium, campaign etc.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Conditional Targeting

Create advanced user segments by combining multiple targeting conditions using AND and OR.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Behavioral Targeting

Target based on events, user behavior, and actions taken by the user on your website.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Custom Event Targeting

Target user groups based on custom events that occur on the website.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
User Type Targeting

Target returning users, accessing your website from the same browser subsequently, and new users, accessing your website for the first time.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Time Based Targeting

Target users on your test page based on their arrival time and day of the week.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Saved User Segments

Access previously created user segments for efficient reuse in tests without the need for repeated creation.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Triggers VWO Logo Hotjar
Basic Page Scroll Trigger

Trigger a campaign after a visitor has scrolled more than 50% of the page.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Basic Exit Intent Trigger

Trigger a campaign when a visitor is trying to close the page.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Advance Page Scroll Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after a visitor has scrolled a certain percentage of the page.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Advance Exit Intent Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after a visitor is trying to close the page.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Form Submission Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after a visitor has submitted a form.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Engagement Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after there is engagement on the page.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Goal Based Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after a particular goal you have configured in VWO is completed.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Advanced Trigger Logic

Use brackets to create logic of triggers with multiple conditions. For example - [Users in USA OR Users in India] AND [New Users OR iOS Device]

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Basic Page Viewed Trigger

Trigger a campaign when a visitor has viewed at least 1 page in a session.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Basic Time Spent Trigger

Trigger a campaign after a visitor has spent more than10 seconds on the page or 60 seconds in a session.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Advance Page Viewed Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after a visitor has viewed a certain number of pages.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Advance Time Spent Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after a visitor has spent a certain amount of time on a page.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Conditional Triggers

Create advanced triggers by combining multiple trigger conditions using AND and OR.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Saved Triggers

Access previously created triggers for efficient reuse in campaigns without the need for repeated creation.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Click Element Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after a visitor has clicked on an element.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Javascript Trigger

Write custom triggers using JavaScript to fire a campaign based on an event or a specific user action.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Event-Based Triggers

Trigger a campaign based on Data360 Events.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
New Session Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after a new session is created.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
A/B Test Variation Trigger

Trigger a campaign immediately or after a visitor sees a specific A/B test variation.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Activation Trigger

Control activation of campaigns using manual triggers by custom conditions in your website code.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Reports VWO Logo Hotjar
Advanced Reporting Logic

Use brackets to create logic of filtering reports with multiple conditions. For example - [Users in USA OR Users in India] AND [New users OR iOS Device]

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Saved Report Filters

Save your report filter as a segment and you can reuse this to slice reports faster in future .

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Compare User Segments

Simultaneously visualize and compare two or more user segments in reports for far more comprehensive insights and decision-making.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Conditional Filters

Filter reports deeply by combining multiple segmentation conditions using AND and OR.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Custom Dimension

Make use of visitors' unique attributes to analyze test performance

50 Doesn't offer AB Testing
Download Detailed CSV

Download detailed user reports in .csv format with complete segment data, goal completion and custom dimensions.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Share Report

Share report with other VWO account users or even with people without VWO access.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Reporting Dashboard

See the results of your experiments on our Bayesian-powered reporting dashboard.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Download Summary CSV

Download the summary report to see the high level information about your test data.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Time Based Filters

Filter reports based on user arrival time or day of the week.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Goal Comparison

Compare multiple goals within the same report.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Traffic Source Filters

Filter reports based on where your users came from (e.g. direct, paid, non-paid, email).

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Device Filters

Filter reports based on the device your users use.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Operating System Filters

Filter reports based on the operating system your users use.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
User Type Filters

Filter reports based on new or returning users differently to study their behavior separately and personalize their experiences.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
UTM Parameter Filters

Filter reports based on UTM parameters such as UTM source, medium, campaign etc.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Query Parameter Filter

Filter reports based on query parameters

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Geo Filters

Filter reports for specific geographies.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Types VWO Logo Hotjar
Split URL Testing

Compare various versions of your website hosted on multiple URLs by distributing website traffic among them to determine the highest-performing variation.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
AB Testing

Build and compare variations of your website to analytically determine the better performing version.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Multivariate (MVT) Testing

Simultaneously modify multiple variables to test a hypothesis and determine the best-performing combination of variations.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Settings VWO Logo Hotjar
Multi Arm Bandit

Expose the better performing variation to more users long before the test reaches statistical significance thus reducing the opportunity cost.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Self Hosting

Host VWO library and campaign setting files on your servers, easing your dependency on VWO servers.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Alerts

Set email alerts for account administrators to receive notifications for your VWO campaign related activities.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Multi-Browser QA

Preview your tests across multiple browsers and validate them before launching the test.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Mutually Exclusive Groups

Ensure that a user doesn't participate in two or more running tests to eliminate result noise, bias, and test inter-play.

Upto 10 user groups* Doesn't offer AB Testing
Traffic Allocation

Allocate the traffic on which you want to run the campaign and distribute the allocated traffic among the various variations created for the test.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Cross Domain Testing

Run tests on multiple domains within user journey, where user tracking and goals can be on one or more domains.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Scheduling

Schedule tests at specific time/date or create recurring schedule to run tests.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Campaign Version History

View the changes that you’ve made to your campaign over its lifetime.

Doesn't offer AB Testing
Goals/ Metrics

Configure and track goals in your VWO account.

Y - Unlimited Doesn't offer AB Testing
Goals VWO Logo Hotjar
No. of Active Goals

The number of goals that you can configure and track in your VWO account.

75 Upto 1000
Track Standard Events

Track page visits, clicks, form submits & purchases on your website.

Information NA
Goal Reporting

Check goal performance over a period of time with goal metrics like total conversions, conversion rate, etc.

Share Report

Share the goal conversion report with other VWO account users or even with people without VWO access.

Track Custom Events

Set up custom triggers on your website to track your events in VWO. For ex - video played, session time > 30 secs, etc.

Funnel Drop-off Filters

Filter reports based on users who dropped off from a funnel.

A/B Test Variation Filters

Filter reports based on users who were part of a test campaign or saw a particular test variation.

Goal Reporting Filters

Filter your reports based on a weekday, time of day, goal URL, goal revenue, etc.

Conversion Heatmaps & Recordings

Check heatmaps and recordings of users who converted or didn't convert for the goal.

Funnels VWO Logo Hotjar
No. of Active Funnels

The number of funnels that are active and tracking data within your account.

20 Depends on Quota
Funnel Reporting

Check funnel performance over a period of time to see how users move through the stages of funnels and when they drop-off.

Share Report

Share the funnel conversion report with other VWO account users or even with people without VWO access.

Funnel Drop-off Filters

Filter reports based on users who dropped off from a funnel.

A/B Test Variation Filters

Filter reports based on users who were part of a test campaign or saw a particular test variation.

Funnel Reporting Filters

Filter funnel reports to view data for specific days of the week, hours of the day, funnel revenue value etc.

Drop Off Heatmaps & Recordings

Check heatmaps and recordings of users who drop off from the funnel at any stage.

Heatmaps VWO Logo Hotjar
No. of Heatmaps

Visualize users clicks with a colored overlay on top of your website page to identify hotspots of engagement.

Unlimited Unlimited
Clickmap

Track clicks on specific elements and compare them to total clicks on a page or area.

Observations with Heatmap Screenshot

Note observations with automaticaly attached heatmap screenshots to enable easy collaboration.

Multi-Device Heatmaps

View heatmaps for desktop, tablet, or mobile websites.

A/B Test Variation Heatmap

View heatmap of a particular A/B test variation.

Share

Share heatmaps with observations to collaborate with other VWO account users or even with people without VWO access.

Download

Download heatmaps for offline sharing and viewing.

Heatmap Views

Create a heatmap view and quickly access heatmap data for specific pages and user segments without repeating the heatmap configuration.

Schedule Heatmap Views

Schedule data collection for heatmap views.

Information NA
Scrollmap

Visualize how deep a user scrolls through your page to understand scroll depths.

Tracking dynamic elements in live heatmaps

View heatmaps of different pages, interactive elements(such as popups, modals, and menus), and pages behind logins as you navigate your website.

Funnel Drop-off Filters

Filter heatmaps based on users who dropped off from a funnel.

Information NA
Click Area

Just click, drag and select multiple areas on the page to directly compare their engagement.

Information NA
Element List

Displays a list of both visible and hidden elements with their types and show clicks on each from highest to lowest.

Session recordings VWO Logo Hotjar
No. of Recordings

Number of recordings you can have for your monthly tracked users (MTU).

Unlimited above 10k MTU Depends on Quota Purchased
Page / Session / User Recordings

Watch recordings of a page, a session or all sessions of a user consisting of multiple pages.

Multi-Device Recordings

View recordings of all user sessions on desktop, tablet, or mobile.

Observations with Recording Moment Link

Note observations with automatically tagged moment in recordings to enable easy collaboration.

Anonymize or Whitelist Elements

Customize what is shown or hidden in recordings, and anonymize key presses by default.

Y - with addons
Saved Recordings

The number of recordings you can store in VWO for later viewing.

1000 Information NA
Asset Snapshoting

Save snapshot of externally loaded style files to prevent breaking of session recordings due to changes in the external files.

Share

Share recordings with observations to collaborate with other VWO account users or even with people without VWO access.

Download

Download recordings for offline sharing and viewing.

Recording Views

Create a recording view and quickly access recordings for specific pages and user segments without repeating the recording configuration.

Schedule Recording Views

Schedule data collection for recording views.

Funnel Drop-off Filters

Filter recordings based on users who dropped off from a funnel.

Session Filters

Filter recordings based on parameters like session duration, # of pages visited, etc.

Page Filters

Filter recordings based on parameters like entry page, exit page, visited page, etc.

Struggle Filters

Filter your recordings based on rage clicks, dead clicks, goal conversions, funnel drop-offs, or other events tracked by VWO.

Form analysis VWO Logo Hotjar
No. of Active Forms

No. of active forms you can simultaneously track at a given time.

50*
Conversion Report

Track user drop-offs at different stages of form submission, from landing to interaction to submission.

Dropped Field Report

Percentage of users who dropped off on a field without submitting the form.

Share Report

Share form analysis report with other VWO account users or even with people without VWO access.

Total Time Report

Understand how long users stay on each field of a form.

Interaction Time Report

Understand how long users spend on a specific field while actively interacting with it.

Hesitation Time Report

Understand how long users spend on a specific field without actively interacting with it.

Refilled Field Report

Percentage of users who refilled a field on the form.

Ignored Field Report

Percentage of users who did not interact with a form field and submitted the form.

Schedule Form Tracking

Track form during a specific period.

Surveys VWO Logo Hotjar
No. of Active Surveys

No. of active surveys within your account.

15 Unlimited
No. of Survey Responses

No. of survey responses that you can collect for your survey campaigns. With paid plans, No. of Survey Responses = (No. of Contract Months * MTU).

As per MTU Unlimited
No. of Questions per Survey

The number of questions you can ask per survey.

Unlimited Unlimited
Response Types

Design survey with various response types including text, radio, checkboxes, etc.

Survey Report

Check how many users saw, attempted and completed the survey. Get a list of responses by questions and most frequently used words by users.

Question Bank

Choose from a repository of frequently asked questions to select an appropriate question.

Feature does not exist
Support for Multiple Languages

Ask questions to your users in their native language.

Survey Positioning

Trigger your survey either to the left bottom or right bottom of your page.

Survey Themes

Save time by styling your survey using any of the pre-built themes.

Share Report

Share survey report with other VWO account users or even with people without VWO access.

**NPS®

Run an NPS survey to gauge the likelihood of users recommending the website to others.

Customize Welcome/ Thank you

Add custom messages for users taking the survey before and after completing it.

Custom Survey Themes

Add custom CSS to restyle and resize the surveys per your branding guidelines.

Download CSV

Download and share detailed reports with your stakeholders in .csv format.

Survey Views Per User

Adjust the number of times a user should see the survey before it stops showing.

Schedule Surveys

Schedule surveys to show up during a period.

Remove branding

Replace the VWO logo with your own logo.

Survey Analysis with Recordings

Watch recordings of user sessions in which they responded to a survey to understand why they gave specific responses.

Survey Logic

Make your surveys smarter by asking subsequent questions based on the responses given.

Survey triggers VWO Logo Hotjar
Basic Page Viewed Trigger

Trigger a survey when a visitor has viewed at least 1 page in a session.

Basic Time spent Trigger

Trigger a survey after a visitor has spent more than 10 seconds on the page or 60 seconds in a session.

Basic Page Scroll Trigger

Trigger a survey after a visitor has scrolled more than 50% of the page.

Basic Exit Intent Trigger

Trigger a survey when a visitor is trying to close the page.

Advance Page Viewed Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after a visitor has viewed a certain number of pages.

Advance Time spent Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after a visitor has spent a certain amount of time on a page.

Click Element Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after a visitor has clicked on an element.

Information NA
Advanced Trigger Logic

Use brackets to create logic of triggers with multiple conditions. For example - [Users in USA OR Users in India] AND [New Users OR iOS Device]

Information NA
Conditional Triggers

Create advanced triggers by combining multiple trigger conditions using AND and OR.

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Saved Triggers

Access previously created triggers for efficient reuse in campaigns without the need for repeated creation.

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Advance Page Scroll Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after a visitor has scrolled a certain percentage of the page.

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Advance Exit Intent Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after a visitor is trying to close the page.

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A/B Test Variation Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after a visitor sees a specific A/B test variation.

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Goal Based Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after a particular goal you have configured in VWO is completed.

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Form Submission Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after a visitor has submitted a form.

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Engagement Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after there is engagement on the page.

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New Session Trigger

Trigger a survey immediately or after a new session is created.

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Javascript Trigger

Write custom triggers using JavaScript to fire a survey based on an event or a specific user action.

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Event-Based Triggers

Trigger a survey based on Data360 Events.

Behaviour Analytics Segmentation VWO Logo Hotjar
Segment by URL

Segment users based on the URLs they arrive from/land on.

Segment by Device

Segment users based on devices they use such as mobile, desktops or tablets.

Segment by Traffic Source

Segment users based on the traffic source (e.g. direct, paid, non-paid, email) .

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Segment by User Type

Segment new or returning users differently to study their behavior and personalize their experiences.

Segment by Operating System

Segment users who are using a particular operating system such as Windows, Linux, etc.

Segment by Browser

Segment users based on their browser.

Segment by Screen Resolution

Segment users based on their screen resolution.

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Segment by User Agent Values

Segment users based on user-agent values.

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Segment by Geography

Segment users from specific geographies.

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Cookie Based Segmentation

Segment users based on cookie values. It can be customized based on varying business needs.

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Javascript Variable Segmentation

Segment user groups based on custom events that occur on your website using Javascript variables.

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Query Parameter Segmentation

Segment users based on using query parameters.

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UTM Parameter Segmentation

Segment users based on using UTM parameters such as UTM source, medium, campaign etc.

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Time Based Segmentation

Segment users based on their arrival time and day of the week.

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Saved User Segments

Access previously created user segments for efficient reuse in tests without the need for repeated creation.

Conditional Targeting

Create advanced user segments by combining multiple targeting conditions using AND and OR.

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Advanced Targeting Logic

Use brackets to create logic of targeting with multiple conditions. For example - [Users in USA OR Users in India] AND [New Users OR iOS Device]

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Behavioral Segmentation

Segment based on events, user behavior, and actions taken by the user on your website.

IP Based Segmentation

Segment users based on IP address(s).

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Custom Event Segmentation

Segment user groups based on custom events that occur on the website.

Attribute List Segmentation

Precisely segment audience by matching a list of values with cookies, JavaScript variables, or any other identifier.

Behaviour Analytics Reporting VWO Logo Hotjar
Device Filters

Filter reports based on what device your users use.

Traffic Source Filters

Filter reports based on where your users came from (e.g. direct, paid, non-paid, email).

Operating System Filters

Filter reports based on what operating system your users use.

User Type Filters

Filter reports based on new or returning users differently to study their behavior separately and personalize their experiences.

UTM Parameter Filters

Filter reports based on using UTM parameters such as UTM source, medium, campaign, etc.

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Query Parameter Filter

Filter reports based on using query parameters.

Geo Filters

Filter reports for specific geographies or personalize website content for users from specific locations.

Time-based Filters

Filter reports based on user arrival time or day of the week.

Saved Report Filters

Save your report filter as a segment and you can reuse this to slice reports faster in future .

Conditional Filters

Filter reports deeply by combining multiple segmentation conditions using AND and OR.

Advanced Reporting Logic

Use brackets to create logic of filtering reports with multiple conditions. For example - [Users in USA OR Users in India] AND [New users OR iOS Device]

Custom Dimension

Make use of visitors' unique attributes to analyze test performance.

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Observations VWO Logo Hotjar
Plugin

Make quick observations and audit webpages while on them, all with a handy browser plug-in.

Observations with Automatic Snapshot

Automatically capture snapshots of the reports as you log observations.

Hypothesis VWO Logo Hotjar
Hypotheses Prioritization + Custom Workflows

Prioritize ideas based on importance, complexity and ease of implementation and customize your workflow to visualize progress.

Idea factory VWO Logo Hotjar
Idea Gallery

Take inspiration from hundreds of ideas, case studies, and other resources to develop your own strategy.

This page was last updated on February 2023

Why is VWO the right choice for you?

Both platforms offer similar features for behavioral research, but subtle differences allow them to cater to a range of research requirements, from basic insights to more advanced analysis.

Icon Quote

Heatmaps, clickmaps, user recordings, and surveys paint a full picture of how customers interact with different parts of our website. These insights have been instrumental in helping us understand our customers' needs and eliminate the guesswork in our marketing efforts. VWO Insights has helped us become more data-driven in our approach and we've successfully added features to facilitate customer needs and provide them with a seamless website experience.

Jon Corvin
Jon Corvin

Director of Growth Marketing

One Click logo

Get deeper insights into the needs and challenges of every website visitor.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Both platforms offer similar features and functionalities for website behavioral analysis, however, VWO is a more connected platform that enables you to drive your entire optimization program in one place.

While Hotjar has most of the basic features required for visitor behavior analysis, VWO adds depth to each of these features to give you deeper insights into every action visitors take on your website.

VWO helps you understand how visitors interact with your forms and also provides advanced filtering options so you can slice and dice your reports to analyze visitor behavior closely.

Apart from visitor behavior analysis, VWO also empowers you to conduct tests and personalize visitor experiences based on insights gained from the analytics. This holistic approach streamlines your website optimization process, making it easier to scale and grow.

Deciding whether VWO or Hotjar is more user-friendly depends on individual preferences and specific business needs.

While both platforms provide intuitive interfaces and user-friendly experiences, VWO is preferred by businesses for its comprehensive approach and seamless integration with other optimization functionalities.

Both platforms offer free starter packs for businesses that are just getting started with optimization. Apart from this, the platforms also offer various other pricing plans that cater to diverse business needs.

A key difference between the two is that VWO’s pricing plans are based on Monthly Tracked Users (MTU), meaning you pay only for unique users engaging with your campaigns. This ensures that you can focus on analyzing visitor behavior, without having to worry about exhausting your quota.

Hotjar, on the other hand, follows the session-based model where every session that a unique visitor has on your website is counted toward your quota.

Both VWO and Hotjar excel in providing seamless integrations with various content management systems (CMSs), customer relationship management (CRMs), eCommerce platforms, and analytics solutions.

VWO provides integration capabilities with third-party tools, facilitating the smooth transfer of test data to external platforms and leveraging crucial data from these tools to boost your optimization efforts.

Although Hotjar's customer support is praiseworthy, the platform lacks chat or phone support options for its users. In contrast, VWO offers comprehensive support year-round, with access to technical experts and a dedicated success manager for smooth onboarding and ongoing optimization assistance. VWO’s support team also boasts the highest CSAT score and ensures the quickest turnaround time so your queries are resolved at the earliest.

Hotjar lacks the depth of crucial optimization features such as A/B testing and advanced personalization. To use these features, you would have to integrate with third-party testing platforms, potentially adding complexity to the optimization process and requiring extra setup and management resources.

In contrast, VWO offers a comprehensive optimization platform that enables you to drive your entire optimization program in one place. While VWO may come with a challenging learning curve compared to Hotjar, it offers a broader range of features for all your optimization needs.