Hotjar vs Competitors Britain: UK Behaviour Analytics Compared 2024

Hotjar has become the go-to behaviour analytics platform for many UK e-commerce businesses, but it's not the only option. Whether you need deeper session replay capabilities, a free heatmap solution, or more advanced conversion funnel analysis, several strong competitors exist. We've compared the leading platforms with pricing in GBP, GDPR compliance details, and feature breakdowns tailored to UK online retailers.

Feature Comparison: Hotjar vs Top Competitors

We've evaluated each behaviour analytics platform based on its suitability for UK e-commerce businesses, including heatmap quality, session recording capabilities, GDPR compliance, and user feedback features.

PlatformHeatmapsSession RecordingsSurveys & FeedbackFunnel AnalysisGDPR CompliantFree Tier
HotjarClick, move, scrollYes (limited on free)Surveys, polls, feedbackBasic funnelsYes (EU data hosting)Yes (35 sessions/day)
Crazy EggClick, scroll, confettiYesSurveys onlyNoYes (configurable)No (30-day trial)
FullStoryClick, scrollAdvanced (full replay)No built-in surveysAdvanced funnelsYes (EU region)Yes (1,000 sessions/mo)
Microsoft ClarityClick, scrollUnlimitedNoBasic (via GA integration)Yes (with caveats)Yes (completely free)
Lucky OrangeClick, move, scrollYes (real-time)Surveys, live chatConversion funnelsYesYes (limited)
MouseflowClick, move, scroll, attentionYesFeedback campaignsAdvanced funnelsYes (EU hosting)Yes (500 sessions/mo)

Pricing Breakdown in GBP

All prices shown are in British Pounds Sterling (£). Prices exclude VAT at 20% unless otherwise stated. Annual billing discounts are available from most providers.

PlatformFree TierStarter/BasicBusiness/ProEnterprise/Scale
Hotjar£0 (35 sessions/day)£32/month or £256/year (£21.33/month)£80/month or £640/year (£53.33/month)£171/month or £1,368/year (£114.00/month)
Crazy EggNo free tier£24/month (Basic)£49/month (Standard)£199/month (Enterprise)
FullStory£0 (1,000 sessions/mo)Custom pricingFrom £280/monthCustom pricing
Microsoft Clarity£0 (unlimited)N/A — completely freeN/A — completely freeN/A — completely free
Lucky Orange£0 (limited)£14/month (Build)£28/month (Grow)£58/month (Expand)
Mouseflow£0 (500 sessions/mo)£24/month (Starter)£79/month (Growth)£199/month (Business)

Pricing last verified: January 2025

VAT Notice: All prices are exclusive of 20% UK VAT. UK VAT-registered businesses can reclaim VAT on these subscriptions via their VAT return. Hotjar is based in Malta — under HMRC digital services VAT rules, the reverse charge mechanism applies, meaning UK businesses must self-account for 20% VAT as no VAT is charged on Hotjar's invoice. Non-UK SaaS providers selling to UK businesses must either register for UK VAT or rely on the reverse charge mechanism per HMRC guidance. Microsoft Clarity is entirely free with no VAT implications.

Hotjar: Pros and Cons for UK E-commerce

Before switching to a competitor, it's worth understanding what Hotjar does well and where it falls short for UK e-commerce businesses.

Pros
  • ✓ All-in-one platform: heatmaps, recordings, surveys
  • ✓ Generous free tier for small e-commerce sites
  • ✓ EU data hosting (GDPR-friendly)
  • ✓ Automatic PII suppression in recordings
  • ✓ Easy integration with Shopify, WooCommerce
  • ✓ Intuitive interface with minimal learning curve
  • ✓ Built-in user feedback and survey tools
Cons
  • ✗ Limited sessions on free and lower tiers
  • ✗ No real-time visitor monitoring
  • ✗ Funnel analysis less advanced than competitors
  • ✗ Can slow page load if not configured properly
  • ✗ Pricing scales quickly with traffic growth
  • ✗ Requires cookie consent under ICO guidance
  • ✗ Session recordings lack advanced search/filtering

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Video: Hotjar vs Competitors Compared

Video thumbnail: Comparing Hotjar with behaviour analytics competitors for UK e-commerce businesses

Watch our expert breakdown of Hotjar and its top competitors for UK online retailers.

UK E-commerce Brands Using Behaviour Analytics

Best Hotjar Alternatives Britain: How Leading Retailers Use Heatmaps and Session Recording

How leading British e-commerce businesses leverage behaviour analytics tools like Hotjar and its competitors to optimise conversion rates and improve user experience. These UK ecommerce analytics tools help retailers understand customer journeys at scale.

Currys

London · Consumer Electronics Retail

Currys, the UK's largest specialist electrical retailer operating from their London headquarters, uses behaviour analytics extensively to optimise their product detail pages and checkout funnel. Their team analyses heatmaps to identify where customers hesitate between product specifications and delivery options, leading to a streamlined comparison feature that reduced page abandonment. Session recordings revealed that mobile users struggled with their filter navigation, prompting a responsive redesign of category pages across their electronics range.

Selfridges

London · Luxury Department Store

Selfridges, the iconic London luxury department store on Oxford Street, deploys behaviour analytics to understand how high-value customers interact with their premium product pages and editorial content. Their digital team uses scroll heatmaps to determine optimal placement of brand storytelling elements alongside product imagery, ensuring that luxury messaging reaches engaged shoppers. Session replay analysis of their gift finder tool revealed navigation patterns that informed a complete UX overhaul, increasing average order values for seasonal campaigns.

Argos

Birmingham · Multi-Channel Retail

Argos, headquartered in Birmingham and one of the UK's leading multi-channel retailers, employs behaviour analytics to bridge the gap between their online catalogue and in-store collection experience. Their analytics team uses click heatmaps to optimise the 'check stock' and 'reserve and collect' buttons that drive footfall to physical stores. Conversion funnel analysis identified that customers frequently abandoned baskets when delivery timeslots were unclear, leading to improved slot visibility that boosted click-and-collect conversion rates significantly.

UK GDPR Compliance: Hotjar

Hotjar is widely considered a GDPR compliant analytics platform for UK e-commerce businesses. Under the Data Protection Act 2018, which brought the EU's GDPR into UK law, businesses using behaviour analytics tools must ensure lawful data processing. Hotjar processes data within the European Union via its Ireland data centre, with its headquarters in Iceland, and offers a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) to all customers to formalise data handling responsibilities.

ICO Enforcement & Guidance

The ICO published guidance on session recording and heatmap tools in 2023, stating that tools which capture user interactions require explicit consent before activation. This guidance clarifies that session replay and heatmap analytics fall under PECR Regulation 6 requirements for consent to store or access information on a user's device.

The French CNIL issued a decision on session replay tools in 2021, mandating consent for behaviour recording. This ruling has been adopted as best practice by the ICO when assessing compliance of UK organisations using similar analytics technologies.

PECR & Cookie Requirements

Hotjar uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to deliver heatmaps and session recordings. Under PECR Regulation 6, consent must be obtained before Hotjar's tracking scripts are activated on a UK website. The ICO requires that this consent is freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous — meaning pre-ticked boxes or implied consent from continued browsing are insufficient.

Data Processing & Lawful Basis

Hotjar processes data in the European Union (Ireland data centre) and Iceland (HQ). The platform offers a comprehensive DPA covering all data processing activities. UK businesses have two primary lawful basis options under UK GDPR Article 6:

  • Consent (via CMP integration): Hotjar integrates with major Consent Management Platforms including OneTrust and Cookiebot to suppress recording until explicit consent is granted. This is the recommended approach under ICO guidance.
  • Legitimate interest (via PII suppression): Hotjar's automatic PII suppression and anonymised heatmap aggregation may support a legitimate interest basis for aggregated, non-identifiable analytics data, though a Legitimate Interest Assessment (LIA) must be documented.

UK Regulatory Considerations

  • Companies House: Enterprise analytics vendors operating in the UK should be registered with Companies House. Hotjar Ltd (Malta) operates via EU establishment — UK businesses should verify vendor legitimacy before entering contracts.
  • HMRC digital services VAT: Non-UK SaaS providers selling to UK businesses must either register for UK VAT or rely on the reverse charge mechanism. Hotjar (Malta) applies the reverse charge, meaning UK businesses self-account for VAT.
  • ICO registration: UK businesses processing personal data via analytics platforms like Hotjar must register with the ICO and pay the data protection fee (£40–£2,900 depending on turnover and staff numbers).
  • Consumer Rights Act 2015: UK businesses purchasing Hotjar subscriptions have rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 regarding digital content quality, fitness for purpose, and remedies for faulty digital services.

For related UK compliance considerations with other behaviour analytics platforms, see our Google Analytics Alternatives and Mixpanel E-commerce Review comparisons.

Post-Brexit Data Transfers: Hotjar

UK Adequacy Decision

The European Commission granted the UK an adequacy decision on 28/06/2021, allowing personal data to flow freely from the EU/EEA to the UK. This decision is subject to review and has a sunset clause, with its first review due by June 2025. For UK businesses using Hotjar, this means data can move between the UK and Hotjar's EU/EEA processing locations (Ireland and Iceland) without additional safeguards, provided the adequacy decision remains in force.

Transfer Mechanisms for Hotjar

Hotjar processes personal data in Ireland (EU data centre) and Iceland (company headquarters). Personal data does leave the UK jurisdiction when collected from UK website visitors.

Hotjar relies on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for UK-EU data flows. The platform does not currently use the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) as its transfer mechanism, relying instead on SCCs which remain valid under the UK's transitional provisions.

Hotjar does not process data in the United States, so the UK-US Data Bridge is not applicable. All data processing occurs within EU/EEA jurisdictions (Ireland and Iceland), which benefit from the existing adequacy framework.

Note: Because Hotjar processes data exclusively within EU/EEA countries covered by the UK adequacy decision, the practical risk of data transfer issues is low. However, businesses should monitor the adequacy decision review process and ensure their DPA with Hotjar includes fallback transfer mechanisms. For platforms that process data in the US, see our Triple Whale Comparison and Segment Alternatives UK pages.

Frequently Asked Questions

The top Hotjar alternatives for UK e-commerce include Crazy Egg for straightforward heatmaps, FullStory for enterprise-grade session replay, Microsoft Clarity as a free alternative, Lucky Orange for real-time visitor insights, and Mouseflow for conversion funnel analysis. Each platform offers different strengths depending on your store size and analytics requirements.

Hotjar is GDPR compliant and processes data within the EU. It offers consent management tools, automatic PII suppression in session recordings, and data retention controls. UK businesses must still implement proper cookie consent under PECR and ICO guidance, as Hotjar uses tracking scripts that require user consent before activation.

Hotjar offers a free Basic plan with limited sessions. The Plus plan costs approximately £26/month, the Business plan from £64/month, and the Scale plan from £213/month. All prices are exclusive of VAT at 20%. Annual billing provides a discount of up to 20% on all paid plans.

Microsoft Clarity is an excellent free alternative offering unlimited heatmaps and session recordings with no traffic caps. It integrates well with Google Analytics and provides AI-powered insights. However, it lacks Hotjar's survey and feedback features, and some UK businesses have concerns about Microsoft's data processing practices under GDPR.

Yes, behaviour analytics tools like Hotjar are designed to complement quantitative platforms such as Google Analytics. GA4 shows you what is happening on your site (pageviews, conversion rates), whilst Hotjar and its competitors show you why by visualising user behaviour through heatmaps, recordings, and feedback tools.

For UK Shopify stores, Hotjar and Lucky Orange both offer native Shopify integrations with easy one-click installation. Lucky Orange provides real-time visitor monitoring, whilst Hotjar excels at survey and feedback collection. Microsoft Clarity is the best free option with a simple Shopify app, though it lacks feedback features.

Yes, Hotjar is compliant with UK GDPR as implemented by the Data Protection Act 2018. Hotjar processes data within the EU (Ireland data centre) and offers a Data Processing Agreement to UK customers. However, the ICO's 2023 guidance on session recording tools requires that consent is obtained before Hotjar's tracking scripts activate. Businesses must implement a Consent Management Platform to meet PECR Regulation 6 requirements and document their lawful basis under Article 6 of UK GDPR.

The ICO published specific guidance on session recording and heatmap tools in 2023, clarifying that these technologies require prior consent under PECR because they access information stored on users' devices. Additionally, the French CNIL's 2021 decision mandating consent for session replay tools has been adopted as best practice by the ICO. UK businesses must ensure their cookie consent banners explicitly mention behaviour analytics tools and provide genuine opt-in choices before any tracking begins.

Hotjar's prices are exclusive of 20% UK VAT. The Plus plan is £32/month (£38.40 including VAT), Business is £80/month (£96 including VAT), and Scale is £171/month (£205.20 including VAT). Annual billing reduces costs: £256/year for Plus (£21.33/month), £640/year for Business (£53.33/month), and £1,368/year for Scale (£114.00/month). Since Hotjar is based in Malta, the reverse charge mechanism applies under HMRC rules — UK VAT-registered businesses self-account for VAT and can reclaim it on their VAT return.

Brexit has minimal practical impact on Hotjar data transfers for UK businesses. The EU granted the UK an adequacy decision on 28/06/2021, enabling free data flows between the UK and EU/EEA countries where Hotjar processes data (Ireland and Iceland). Hotjar uses Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) as a transfer mechanism. Since Hotjar does not process data in the United States, the UK-US Data Bridge is not relevant. UK businesses should monitor the adequacy decision's review (due by June 2025) and ensure their Hotjar DPA includes fallback provisions.