SmartLook vs Hotjar: Features Overview And Alternatives

When it comes to finding the right tool to help track user behavior on your website or app, there are tons of options to choose from on the market. Two of the most popular tools include Hotjar and SmartLook.

But what's the difference between these two tools? What are the key features that set them apart? And, most importantly, which one is right for your needs? In this article, we'll take a close look at Hotjar and SmartLook to help you decide which tool is best for you as well as provide some alternatives to both of these platforms.

What is Smartlook?

Smartlook is a powerful and user-friendly product analytics tool that lets you track user behavior on your website or app in real-time. With Smartlook, you can see exactly what your users are doing and where they're getting stuck, so you can offer them the help they need exactly when they need it. Smartlook is especially popular with smaller businesses and startups who are looking for a simple but effective way to track user behavior and improve their product.

Pros of Smartlook

• Provides real-time session recordings and heat mapping to identify user behavior
• It has a user-friendly interface and easy integrations with various websites and platforms
• Offers detailed analytics and reports to track user interactions and engagement
• Allows for live chat and communication with website visitors in real-time
• Offers a free plan with basic features for small businesses and startups

Cons of Smartlook

• The paid plans can be quite expensive for large companies and enterprise-level businesses
• Some users may find the user interface to be overwhelming or cluttered
• The platform may not be suitable for certain industries or niche markets
• There is no native mobile app available for Smartlook

Smartlook pricing

Smartlook offers a forever free plan which includes up to 3,000 monthly recordings, basic analytics, and historical data in heatmaps. Paid plans start at $55 per month.

Smartlook reviews

SmartLook has a 4.6-star rating on G2 with ‎864 reviews.

What is Hotjar?

Hotjar is a company that provides user experience and web optimization tools to help businesses improve their online presence. Hotjar's flagship product is a heatmap tool that lets you see how users are interacting with your website or app. In addition to heatmaps, Hotjar also offers tools for conversion funnels, form analytics, feedback polls, and more.

Pros of Hotjar

• Hotjar has an intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to get up and running quickly
• It provides comprehensive data on user behavior, including heatmaps, recordings, surveys, polls, funnels, and more
• Hotjar offers plans that are affordable for most businesses
• Hotjar has excellent customer support with knowledgeable staff who are available to help with any questions or issues

Cons of Hotjar

• While Hotjar has many features, it does not offer as much customization as some other tools
• While Hotjar does offer some integrations with other tools, it is not as comprehensive as some other solutions
• Unlimited recordings and heatmaps can create a considerable amount of data, which may be difficult to manage

Hotjar pricing

HotJar offers a free plan that includes up to 35 daily sessions, which can be used for heatmaps, recordings, surveys, and polls. The paid plans start at $32 per month.

Hotjar reviews

HotJar has a 4.3-star rating with 292 reviews on G2.

Feature comparison

When it comes to features, Hotjar and SmartLook offer a lot of overlap. However, there are some critical differences between the two platforms that are worth noting. Let's jump in and take a closer look.

SmartLook features

• Session recording: With session recording, you can see exactly what your users are doing on your website or app. By watching playback recordings of past user sessions, you can see where they got stuck and how they were able to solve any problems they encountered.
• Funnels: Funnels allow you to track how users move through your website or app. With SmartLook, you can see where and when users exit the site.
• Insights: Lastly, with SmartLook, you can find insights into how customers behave on your site. This data can be used to improve the user experience as well as support team performance.

Hotjar features

• Heatmaps: Hotjar's heatmaps let you see how users are interacting with your website or app. With this data, you can see what's working well and what needs to be improved.
• Recordings: With Hotjar recordings, you can watch the playback of user sessions to see how they interact with your site. This is a great way to find out where users are getting stuck and what needs to be improved.
• Surveys: Hotjar's survey tool lets you collect feedback from your users. This is a great way to get insights into what's working well and what needs to be improved.

Use case comparison

When it comes to tracking user behavior and improving customer support, SmartLook is a great option for small businesses and startups looking for a simple yet effective solution. With its intuitive interface and insightful analytics, SmartLook provides valuable data that can help you improve the user experience on your website or app.

If you're looking for a more comprehensive solution that caters to a wider range of business needs, Hotjar might be the better choice. Its heatmaps and user session recordings are especially useful for understanding user behavior on a deeper level, making it an ideal tool for businesses of all sizes looking to improve their online presence.

When it comes to UI and UX, SmartLook's easy-to-use interface and real-time analytics make it a top choice for businesses that prioritize these aspects. On the other hand, Hotjar's range of features, including feedback polls and surveys, make it a great tool for marketing research and creating a better experience for users.

For product analytics, Hotjar's extensive range of features, including conversion funnel analysis, make it a must-have for businesses looking to optimize their sales process. However, when it comes to troubleshooting, SmartLook's user error tracking feature makes it a better option for identifying and fixing technical issues.

Overall, both SmartLook and Hotjar offer valuable insights into user behavior, but choosing the right one depends on your specific business needs.

User satisfaction comparison

SmartLook users love that it is "Useful for analyzing user behavior for Apps" and "it provides useful statistics and analytical reports for our marketing team to study our website traffic and the origin of the audience and devise strategies to ensure a better web experience for visitors." However, some customers have noted that “Sometimes there were performance issues and small bugs that got in my way” and that “Android resolution was bad compared to iOS.”

Hotjar Users love "having the ability to see where our website users go through both screen recordings as well as button/link clicks" and that it's a "versatile suite of tools included. Between heat mapping, session replay, feedback surveys, and general surveys, HotJar can fill multiple gaps in your website's ongoing optimization strategy." However, some customers have noted that "Hotjar's integration options with other marketing and analytics tools are limited, which sometimes makes it difficult to use in conjunction with other platforms."

Pricing comparison

SmartLook offers a variety of plans to choose from, with paid plans starting at $39 per month and up depending on the number of users and the features needed. With its 10-day trial, you can test out all of SmartLook's features to see if it's the right fit for you.

Hotjar, on the other hand, offers a forever-free plan that includes all of its basic features. However, if you have a larger team or need more advanced features, paid plans start at $80 per month.

For those in need of an inexpensive or even free solution, Hotjar's forever-free plan makes it the better option. However, Hotjar's paid plans offer a lot of value for those needing more advanced features.

Alternative to SmartLook vs. Hotjar: Fullview

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If neither Smartlook nor Hotjar are a great fit for your business, there's another option: Fullview. Fullview is a CX and technical customer support platform that helps teams level up their end-to-end support with features such as console logs, session replays, and cobrowsing.

With Fullview Replays, you can easily find and diagnose product and customer issues by watching recorded sessions of users interacting with your product and provide proactive support. And with the ability to cobrowse with your customers in real-time, businesses using Fullview are able to provide best-in-class support, ensuring that no issue goes unresolved.

You'll never have to ask a user for screenshots or have frustrating back-and-forth conversations with them ever again.

Fullview also makes troubleshooting easier with relevant, real-time console information like user steps, errors and warnings so you never have to ask a user to describe a bug or inspect an element — you can diagnose it immediately by locating the relevant console entry or jumping straight to that event on the user session recording video progress bar.

Overall, Fullview offers a more comprehensive solution for tracking user behavior and providing customer support than either Smartlook or Hotjar. With features like session replays, console logs, and cobrowsing, Fullview delivers the data and insights businesses need to offer the best customer experience.

Features of Fullview

Instant context with session replays

Fullview's session replay feature allows you to watch video-like recordings of previous user sessions, providing you with context to understand and resolve customer service concerns and product issues. With Fullview, you can easily gain instant context, avoid tedious work and proactively reach out to users.

All your customer data lives in one place

Unlike other platforms that aggregate or anonymize customer data, Fullview allows you to pull all your customer data into one place. This means you can watch the user sessions of individual users straight from your Fullview dashboard and reach out to users you can see are experiencing issues.

Collaborative problem solving with cobrowsing

Fullview cobrowsing allows you to start calls with your app's users directly within your app and take control of their screen to solve problems. Fullview's cobrowsing calls have annotation tools and an in-call chat in case you need to send links or messages to your users.

100% GDPR compliant

Fullview is fully compliant with GDPR regulations. It automatically blurs out GDPR-sensitive information during session replays and cobrowsing calls. In addition to that, it also gives you customizable data blurring options. All user data is stored on servers located in Germany, making Fullview a great option for European companies or companies that have users located in Europe.

Contextual console data

Fullview Console collects and displays console data from the end user's side, including errors, warnings, and user steps. By providing support agents and developers with immediate context, Fullview Console simplifies issue resolution during calls or while watching user session replays.

Pros of Fullview

• Improves support workflows: With Fullview, teams can identify, track and solve customer issues without having to wait for the customer to contact them first.
• Decreases information siloes: Instead of support agents having to create manual bug reports or explain issues to developers, they can simply share the relevant replay.
• 100% GDPR compliant: Fullview is fully compliant with GDPR regulations, ensuring that customer data is protected and secure. All information is stored on E.U. servers.
• Easy to implement: Fullview is easy to set up and typically takes no more than 15 minutes to install.
• Affordable pricing with a forever free plan: Fullview offers affordable pricing plans, including a forever free plan for small teams, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes.

Cons of Fullview

• Not suitable for marketing: Fullview may not be ideal for marketing teams because it doesn’t have survey tools, heatmaps or funnel analysis, unlike Smartlook and Hotjar.
• Cannot be used on websites: Fullview cannot be used on websites. It is only compatible with web apps. 

Fullview pricing

Fullview offers a free sessions replay package which includes 1,000 recorded sessions/per month. The pro plan, which starts at 10,000 replays per month, starts at $71. Fullview also offers a free fullview Cobrowsing package which includes four calls per support agent per month. Paid plans start at $39 per seat per month. If you sign up for a paid session replays plan, you also get access to the free cobrowsing plan and vice versa.

Fullview reviews

Fullview has a 4.6-star rating on G2. Customers love that Fullview "helps [them] navigate through replays of the customers using our product' and 'helps [them] discover and rectify hundreds of bugs and glitches in the product." Additionally, customers mention that it is a "great tool for support, reproducing bugs, and improving customer experience."

Conclusion

When choosing the right tool to track user behavior on your website or app, there's a lot to consider. But with this overview of SmartLook vs. Hotjar, you should have all the information you need to make the best decision for your business.

Overall, Fullview offers a more comprehensive solution for tracking user behavior and providing customer support than either Smartlook or Hotjar. With features like session replays, console logs, and cobrowsing, Fullview delivers the data and insights businesses need to offer the best customer experience.