Hotjar and Crazy Egg are two of the most popular tools in the website optimization tool space.
But if you’ve tried both, you’ll know they serve slightly different needs.
So, which one should you use?
This blog dives deep into Hotjar vs Crazy Egg, based on real-world use.
We’ll examine the user base, pricing, features, customer support, ease of use, and more.
We’ll also show how you can further boost your results using WiserNotify alongside these tools.
You’ll walk away knowing which tool fits your goals and how to build a smart CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) stack around it.
TL;DR Breakdown
1. How Many Use Them
Hotjar: Over 1.3 million websites use it
Crazy Egg: Used on around 130,000 sites
2. Pricing
Hotjar: Has a free forever plan, paid plans start around $39/month
Crazy Egg: No free version, starts at $29/month billed annually
3. Ratings & Popularity
Hotjar: 4.3+ on G2; known for strong UX features and user feedback tools. It consistently rates higher than Crazy Egg on independent review sites like G2 and Capterra.
Crazy Egg: 4.2+ on G2; known for simplicity and snapshot heatmap tool.
4. Case Study Snapshot
A SaaS brand found drop-off points on their landing page using Hotjar’s rage click data.
After applying WiserNotify’s real-time notifications to those zones, they saw a 14% increase in demo signups.
5. User Experience
Hotjar offers in-depth analytics, funnels, feedback widgets, and user interviews.
Crazy Egg is all about speed: form analytics, scroll maps, and A/B testing built in.
6. Key Limitations
Hotjar: Lacks native A/B testing
Crazy Egg: No funnel tracking or deep behavior filters
7. Security, Updates, Support
Both support GDPR, use encrypted data channels, and offer integrations like Google Tag Manager, but Hotjar updates features more often and has better learning resources.
Additionally, both tools suppress keystroke data on input fields in session recordings to protect user privacy.
The Missing Conversion Layer
Hotjar and Crazy Egg help you understand user behavior. But neither tells you what to do next.
They record. They analyze. But they don’t nudge your users.
That’s where WiserNotify comes in.
What WiserNotify Does
WiserNotify shows real-time social proof notifications like:
“Jake from Denver just signed up.”
“23 visitors are browsing this page now.”
“Recent sale: SEO Audit Template”
These simple cues build trust and urgency, two things that analytics tools don’t directly offer.
WiserNotify isn’t trying to replace Crazy Egg or Hotjar; it’s designed to work with them.
Think of it as the conversion-boosting layer after you’ve analyzed your user sessions.
Using WiserNotify with Hotjar
Let’s say Hotjar shows users repeatedly click but don’t convert (aka rage clicks) on your pricing page. Drop a social proof notification nearby:
“5 new customers signed up today.”
Now that the hesitation zone becomes a conversion trigger.
Using WiserNotify with Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg users often rely on confetti maps and A/B tests to test changes. Try showing real-time reviews or sales only on the winning variant.
Now your A/B test isn’t just data, it’s persuasion.
CRO Stack Synergy
Imagine your conversion stack like this:
- Hotjar/Crazy Egg = record how users behave
- WiserNotify = respond to that behavior in real-time
They’re not competitors. They’re complementary.
That’s how modern conversion rate optimization works:
- Spot drop-offs →
- Diagnose the issue →
- Drop the proper social proof notification or trust cue →
- Test →
- Repeat
Real-Life Use Examples
- Exit-intent popups with live user counts
- Product pages with real-time reviews
- Check out pages with “someone just purchased” nudges
- Lead forms showing recent signups
Market Snapshot & Pricing Overview
User Base & Popularity
- Hotjar dominates usage, with over 1.3 million websites
- Crazy Egg still has a strong base with around 130,000 installs
Both tools attract different audiences:
- Hotjar = product teams, UX researchers, SaaS
- Crazy Egg = marketers, designers, A/B testers
Pricing Models
Hotjar
- Free forever plan
- Starter: $39/mo (monthly billing)
- Business and Scale plans offer higher limits and advanced features
Crazy Egg
- No free plan
- Basic plan starts at $29/mo (billed annually at $348)
- Higher tiers increase pageview and snapshot limits
This is where your choice starts to depend on usage volume. If you’re exploring user behavior on a few key pages, Crazy Egg pricing might make sense.
But for complete journeys and more session recordings, Hotjar’s free plan and better scaling work in your favor.
Heatmaps: Types & Insights
1. Common Visualizations
Both tools give you solid basics:
Click maps: where users click most often
Scroll maps: how far visitors scroll on a page
Move maps (Hotjar only): where mouse movements cluster
These maps help you understand user behavior and decide where your call to action or key elements should go.
2. Advanced Heatmaps
Hotjar: Offers rage click maps, engagement zones, and continuous scroll tracking
Crazy Egg: Gives you confetti maps, overlay maps, list views, and dead click data
Want to see if visitors scroll to your pricing section or bounce? Use scroll maps.
Want to know if people are aimlessly clicking your carousel? That’s rage click detection.
3. Setup & Data Capture
Hotjar: Heatmaps are automatic. No setup per URL. You can view unlimited pages in real-time.
Crazy Egg: It requires manual setup per page and device, needing users to configure each map individually. The data is snapshot-based and has limits depending on your plan.
Hotjar is hands-off if you want heatmaps running passively across your whole site. If you prefer manual targeting and static analysis, Crazy Egg works just fine.
Session Recordings & Filtering
Volume & Sampling
- Hotjar: Even the free plan gives you up to 1,050 monthly user recordings.
- Crazy Egg: Caps vary between 50 and 500 recordings depending on your tier, with the cheapest plan allowing only 100 sessions per month. It also relies on sampling rather than full traffic capture.
So if you want a broader sample or have a high-traffic site, Hotjar handles more volume without bumping you into the next pricing bracket.
Filtering & Analysis
- Hotjar is strong on filtering. You can sort by device, source, UTM tags, range clicks, exit page, etc. This makes it easier to drill into specific user journeys and actionable insights.
- Crazy Egg: Simpler filters. You get the basics but not much depth.
Want to see how mobile app users vs desktop users interact with your funnel?
Hotjar makes that simple. Want to know which user actions trigger frustration? Use Hotjar’s rage click filters.
The bottom line is that Hotjar goes deeper into traffic analysis and pattern spotting. Crazy Egg wins on speed.
Surveys & Direct User Feedback
Survey Tools
Hotjar offers a variety of options to collect feedback directly from users:
- On-page surveys
- NPS (Net Promoter Score) collection
- Feedback polls
- Email-based surveys (limited to 20 responses per month unless upgraded)
You can trigger these surveys based on user behavior, page visited, or time spent, giving you targeted feedback when it matters most.
- Lightweight on-site surveys
- Unlimited response capture, enabling direct feedback collection from users on their website
- Lightweight on-site surveys
- Unlimited response capture
It’s functional but limited. If you want advanced question logic or deeper targeting, you must use third-party survey tools.
Engagement Features
Hotjar goes beyond surveys:
Offers feedback widgets that users can click on and highlight elements they love or hate.
Includes a UX interview scheduling tool to recruit test users directly from your site.
Crazy Egg doesn’t offer any of that. No feedback widgets. No user interview capabilities.
So if you want to combine behavior data with direct insights, Hotjar gives you the tools to listen and act.
Funnel & Conversion Tracking
Funnel Visualization
This is where things start to split.
Hotjar offers full funnel tracking, so you can see where users drop off at each step in a process.
Whether it’s from product view → add to cart → checkout, or homepage → signup form → thank you page, Hotjar tracks it.
You get clear visualizations and drop-off percentages, instantly helping you see the weak spots.
Crazy Egg, however, doesn’t offer full funnel tracking.
It tracks clicks and offers goal completion metrics, but you won’t see multi-step funnel breakdowns.
You’d need to pair it with other tools like Google Analytics or manually use event-based setups.
A/B Testing
This is where Crazy Egg takes the lead.
It has built-in A/B testing. You can test different page variations, headlines, buttons, and layouts, and Crazy Egg will split traffic and show which version gets better results.
It’s native, simple, and doesn’t need third-party tools.
Hotjar doesn’t offer A/B testing by default. You’ll need to connect it with platforms like Optimizely or AB testing.
If you want to do form testing or layout experiments without technical hassle, Crazy Egg’s A/B tool is a solid win.
Error Tracking & Integrations
Error & Rage Click Detection
Both tools do a decent job of spotting areas of friction.
- Hotjar gives detailed page click signals, JavaScript error tagging, and UX issue detection across pages. It even lets you filter sessions by these triggers.
- Crazy Egg has more limited error detection. You can spot user confusion through heatmaps and overlays, but no dedicated rage click metric exists.
If you need to know where users click repeatedly in frustration or where scripts break, Hotjar’s built-in alerts and filters are stronger.
Platform Integrations
Both tools integrate with your existing stack, but flexibility is different.
Hotjar integrates with:
Google Analytics
Segment
HubSpot
Trello
Asana
Zapier
Jira
Crazy Egg integrates with:
CMS platforms like WordPress, Wix, and Shopify
GTM (Google Tag Manager)
Optimizely
Zapier
If you’re using a collaboration-based team workflow, Hotjar’s project management integrations give you more tools to turn insights into action.
But if you want to install heatmaps and tests on your WordPress site, Crazy Egg’s plugins keep it fast and easy.
Usability & Learning Curve
- Crazy Egg is clean, easy to install, and simple to use. It’s ideal for quick wins: drop a script, pick a page, run a test.
- Hotjar is slightly deeper. It has more tools and features, which means a steeper learning curve if you’re using it for the first time.
But that depth also means more power. If you’re doing comprehensive UX research, Hotjar gives you a more flexible toolbox.
Support, Training & Community
Hotjar delivers more here:
Free live training sessions
Certifications and webinars
Detailed documentation
Chat support—even for free users
A vibrant user community
Crazy Egg offers:
Email-based support
Priority support on higher plans
A smaller but helpful doc library
If you want to learn how to get the most from a tool, Hotjar is there from day one.
If you need help setting up a heatmap, Crazy Egg does the job.
Pros & Cons Summary
1. Hotjar
Pros
- Free plan
- Mouse movement maps
- rage click data and rich filtering
- Funnels and visual drop-off tracking
- Feedback widgets and user interviews
- Strong support and educational content
Cons
- No built-in A/B testing
- Slightly more setup time for full workflows
2. Crazy Egg
Pros
- Quick setup and visual insights
- Confetti and overlay heatmaps
- Built-in A/B testing tool
- Simple UI, great for solo users or small teams
Cons
- No free tier
- Limited session recordings and funnel tools
- Fewer advanced UX research options
- Both tools are solid, just made for slightly different goals.
If you need to do some deep research, go with Hotjar. If you want fast decisions, Crazy Egg will get you there quicker.
Ideal Use Cases
Hotjar is a better fit if:
- You run a SaaS product or service and want to track the whole user journey from homepage to conversion.
- You rely on qualitative insights, need user surveys, or want to conduct user interviews.
- You work with a larger team and want to collaborate using tools like Trello, Jira, or HubSpot.
- You need a free version to test things at scale without immediate costs.
- You want to understand visitor behavior and deeply fix UX issues across funnels.
Crazy Egg is a better fit if:
- You run a small eCommerce site or marketing landing pages and want quick A/B tests.
- You prefer a simple interface and fast setup, especially if using WordPress or Shopify.
- You mostly want heat maps, click tracking, and layout decisions to be made fast.
- You don’t need direct user feedback, surveys, or session recordings at scale.
- You already use other analytics tools (like Google Analytics) and need a visual layer.
In short, Hotjar helps you research, and Crazy Egg helps you act. One is a lab, and the other is a launchpad.
Final Recommendation
Here’s the bottom line:
- If you want to delve deep into user behavior, feedback collection, UX testing, and team collaboration, Hotjar gives you more to work with. It is highly recommended for organizations that want to combine qualitative and quantitative data to understand user behavior.
- If you want a quick, visual, action-first platform that’s great for fast tests and design decisions, Crazy Egg is your go-to.
And don’t forget, tools like these don’t have to compete. You can use both.
- Diagnose issues with Hotjar or Crazy Egg
- Deploy trust-building popups using WiserNotify
- Test, tweak, and grow
That’s your winning stack for real conversion results.
So, pick the tool that matches your day-to-day needs, whether optimizing a funnel, improving user flows, or increasing conversion rates. And if you can pair them? Even better.
