Best Hotjar alternative after the Contentsquare migration
Hotjar is now a Contentsquare product. Pricing is shifting and existing customers are being moved onto new plans. If you are weighing whether to renew or switch, here is an honest look at the five strongest alternatives for a Shopify store in 2026 — and how to actually migrate without losing your funnels.
If you only want a free replacement: Microsoft Clarity. Free, no quotas, owned by Microsoft.
If you need surveys plus heatmaps: Lucky Orange is the closest like-for-like swap.
If you are running a Shopify store and want AI-ready data: Click Context. Free during early access, plus a native MCP server for Claude or ChatGPT.
What actually changed with Hotjar in 2026
Contentsquare announced its acquisition of Hotjar on September 1, 2021. For roughly four years the products operated mostly independently. Through 2024 into 2026, the integration has been accelerating, with the legal merger of Hotjar Ltd. into Contentsquare Group completing on July 1, 2025:
- Shared sign-on and account management with Contentsquare.
- Plan repackaging — Hotjar's older standalone tiers are being collapsed into a Contentsquare-aligned structure.
- Renewal quotes that, in many cases, look noticeably different from what merchants signed up for in 2022 or 2023.
- A push toward Contentsquare's enterprise positioning — useful for big brands, less obviously a fit for a $50k/mo Shopify store.
None of this is bad. Contentsquare is a good company, and Hotjar inside Contentsquare is a more capable product than Hotjar alone. But the commercial fit for small and mid-sized Shopify stores has shifted, which is why the alternative-evaluation question is suddenly back on the table for thousands of merchants.
The five strongest Hotjar alternatives in 2026
These are the tools we actually see Shopify merchants moving to. Pricing is approximate — check the vendor's site for current numbers — and we have been deliberate about who each tool is for.
1. Microsoft Clarity
The default free option. Heatmaps, session replay, rage-click and dead-click detection, and no traffic ceiling. Easy to install on Shopify by pasting a script into your theme.
- Best for
- Solo founders and small stores who want zero cost
- Pricing
- Free, no quotas
- Trade-off
- Microsoft processes the data; no Shopify-aware events; no AI access
2. Lucky Orange
The most direct Hotjar replacement: heatmaps, session replay, surveys, live chat, and conversion funnels in one product. Has been on Shopify a long time and the app store reviews reflect that.
- Best for
- Stores that used Hotjar's surveys and feedback widgets
- Pricing
- Paid plans starting in the $30+/mo range, scaling with traffic
- Trade-off
- Pricing scales with sessions; no MCP/AI integration
3. Plerdy
Heatmaps, session replay, SEO checks, and conversion funnels on a lower price point than Hotjar. Less polished than Lucky Orange but covers a lot of ground for the cost.
- Best for
- Budget-conscious stores that want one tool for analytics + SEO
- Pricing
- Free plan; Startup from $21/mo (annual) or $32/mo monthly
- Trade-off
- UX is less refined; SEO module is fine but not best-in-class
4. Heatmap.com
Positions itself as an ecommerce-first heatmap tool with revenue overlays and pricing aimed at DTC brands. Smaller than the others but the ecommerce framing actually shows up in the product.
- Best for
- Mid-sized DTC brands that want revenue context on heatmaps
- Pricing
- Paid plans, ecom-tier pricing
- Trade-off
- Smaller team; no AI/MCP access; integrations narrower
5. Click Context
A behavioral analytics tool built specifically for Shopify, with a native MCP server so Claude or ChatGPT can query your store data directly. Heatmaps and clicks plus full Shopify event context — products, variants, funnels, orders — and EU-hosted, merchant-owned data.
- Best for
- Shopify merchants who want AI to actually answer questions about their store
- Pricing
- Free during early access
- Trade-off
- Shopify-only; session replay is event-level, not video
Side-by-side comparison
| Tool | Starting price | Heatmaps | Session replay | Surveys | AI / MCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | Free | ● | ● | — | — |
| Lucky Orange | ~$32/mo | ● | ● | ● | — |
| Plerdy | From $21/mo (annual) | ● | ● | limited | — |
| Heatmap.com | Custom (revenue-based) | ● | — | — | — |
| Hotjar (Contentsquare) | Free → $49/mo Growth | ● | ● | ● | — |
| Click Context | Free (early access) | ● | events | — | ● |
Pricing is approximate and changes regularly. Always verify on the vendor's current pricing page before committing.
How to actually migrate off Hotjar
The mechanics on Shopify are easier than people expect. The judgement calls — what to keep, what to abandon — are the harder part.
Step 1. Inventory what you actually use
Open your Hotjar account and write down the dashboards you have looked at in the past 90 days. Most teams have three or four. Survey results, a checkout funnel, one or two heatmaps. The rest is noise. Migrate the three or four; abandon the rest.
Step 2. Export survey and feedback data
Hotjar lets you export survey responses as CSV. Do this before you cancel. Recordings are not portable, but the qualitative data — which is what actually feeds product decisions — is.
Step 3. Install your replacement and run both for a week
On Shopify, you can run two analytics scripts at once without conflict. Add your new tool, leave Hotjar in place, and let the new tool capture a week of data. This gives you a baseline to verify that your funnels and key metrics line up before you cancel Hotjar.
Step 4. Rebuild your three or four dashboards
Recreate your checkout funnel, your top-product heatmap, and any segments you actually use. Do not try to recreate everything. The goal is operational parity on the views you check weekly, not feature parity with Hotjar.
Step 5. Cancel
Once parity is verified, cancel Hotjar. Save your CSV exports somewhere durable. If you need historical recordings later, you cannot get them back, but in our experience nobody actually goes looking for a six-month-old session replay.
The case for layering, not replacing
One pattern we see working well: don't replace Hotjar with a single tool. Layer.
- Microsoft Clarity for free heatmaps and session replay.
- A standalone survey tool (Sprig, Refiner, or even Google Forms) for the qualitative side.
- Click Context for Shopify-aware behavioral data and AI access.
Total cost for a small store: $0 plus whatever the survey tool charges. That is structurally cheaper than a Contentsquare-tier Hotjar plan, and you get something Hotjar does not give you — your behavioral data available to Claude or ChatGPT through MCP.
Frequently asked
Is Hotjar shutting down?
No. Hotjar continues to operate as a product line within Contentsquare following the September 2021 acquisition. The legal merger of Hotjar Ltd. into Contentsquare Group completed on July 1, 2025. What is changing is pricing, plan structure, and account migration — many existing Hotjar customers are being moved to Contentsquare-aligned tiers through 2026.
Will my existing Hotjar data move with me to a new tool?
It depends on the tool. None of the alternatives import Hotjar session recordings directly — those tend to stay locked to Hotjar's storage. However, you can export funnel and survey data as CSV from Hotjar and your new tool will start collecting fresh behavioral data from day one.
What's the cheapest replacement for a small Shopify store?
Microsoft Clarity is the lowest-cost option because it is free with no usage caps. Click Context is also free during early access and adds Shopify-specific event structure plus AI assistant access. For paid alternatives, Plerdy and Lucky Orange both have entry-level plans below Hotjar's current paid tiers.
I use Hotjar surveys. Which alternatives match that?
Hotjar's qualitative tooling — surveys, polls, feedback widgets — is its strongest feature and the hardest to replace cleanly. Lucky Orange has built-in surveys, and standalone tools like Sprig or Refiner pair well with a free heatmap tool like Clarity if you want to split the workload.
How long does it take to switch off Hotjar?
On Shopify, swapping one analytics script for another takes minutes. The longer task is rebuilding any custom funnels, events, and saved segments in the new tool. Plan a one-week shadow period where both tools record, then cut over once you have parity on the dashboards you actually use.
Should I just use my Shopify analytics instead?
Shopify's built-in analytics are good for orders, GMV, and traffic sources, but they don't show you how visitors interact with pages — clicks, scroll depth, where they get stuck. That's the gap a heatmap or behavioral tool fills. Most stores end up running Shopify analytics plus one behavioral tool.
Don't pay Contentsquare for last year's product.
Click Context is free during early access, installs in one click on Shopify, and gives Claude and ChatGPT direct access to your behavioral data through MCP.