To succeed in today's competitive market, it's crucial to understand how well your website and web pages are performing. While looking at big data can give you some insights, it doesn't reveal everything you need to know. You're missing important details like where customers spend their time, the most clicked areas on your site, and which parts of your website need improvement.
That's where heatmaps come in. When used correctly, heatmaps offer valuable insights into your site visitors' behaviors and preferences. They give you a visual representation that can help you make informed decisions.
So, let's check out the top 10 fastest and easiest-to-use website heatmap tools available today. With these tools, you can uncover hidden secrets about user behavior and take your website optimization to the next level.
What are heatmaps?
Put simply, heatmaps are colorful and visual representations of where your site visitors spend the most time on your website. More specifically, heatmaps demonstrate where customers click or scroll to before leaving the page.
Heatmaps show analysts which elements of a given website or web page are interacted with the most and least. Generally, areas of the heatmap that are “hot” or interacted with more are displayed in warm colors like red, yellow, and orange. Areas of a site heatmap that aren’t interacted with often are “cold,” so they’re shown in cooler colors like blue, violet, and green.
When paired with other quantitative and qualitative data, heatmaps are an extremely effective tool.
What are heatmap tools?
Heatmap tools are dedicated software solutions that enable you to track site visitor behavior, then display that collected data as heatmaps. In many cases, heatmap tools integrate with other data analytics software platforms, but others may offer their own specific analysis tools.
Regardless, heatmap tools enable business owners, data analysts, and web developers to improve, and optimize brand websites and pages. For custom software development companies, these tools are especially useful for tailoring software solutions to client needs. They’re excellent tools to leverage if you want to bolster your site’s appeal to its target audience or maximize engagement and conversion rates.
Selecting heatmap software
It’s important to choose the ideal heatmapping software for your specific needs and wants.
To choose the best heatmap software:
Choose software that fits your budget. If a software tool doesn't have pricing listed, reach out to their team for an estimate.
Consider the features you'll get for your money. Sometimes it's worth paying more for a robust platform with versatile features.
Opt for heatmapping software that doesn't slow down your website. Slow page load speed can decrease visitors and affect data collection.
Make sure the heatmapping tool records behavior at the element level, not just the page level. This way, you can get more specific insights into user actions and different visitor groups.
Ensure your heatmapping software allows you to target and segment visitors before and after campaigns. This helps compare the behavior of different user groups at various stages of their customer journey.
Above all else, make sure your chosen heatmap software has the tools and features you need to succeed. Ask yourself what you would benefit from the most with this software type, then pick a tool that includes those functionalities.
The best heatmap tools to consider today
Now you know what heatmap tools are, let’s break down some of the best heatmap tools you should consider using for your brand ASAP.
Fullstory
What is it?
Fullstory's behavioral data platform offers much more than just heatmap insights. With Fullstory’s heatmap interface, you’ll be able to check how any page on your site performs, examine how users navigate through your content, and validate website design principles or decisions. If you need to dig deep into the “why” of visitor behavior, Fullstory is the answer.
Pros
Offers more than just heatmap analysis
Easy to integrate with other tools and tech stacks
Excellent user reviews so far
Other features
Fullstory’s main features include session replay, journey mapping, and funnel and conversion analytics. Combined with the rest of the platform’s tools, it’s ideal for digging into the details of visitor behavior and needs.
Pricing
Fullstory’s pricing isn’t listed, as business and enterprise plans have custom pricing offers.
Lucky Orange
Lucky Orange is a user analytics platform. It enables heatmap tracking as well as visitor session recordings and automated replies to live chat messages. It’s useful to enhance searchers’ digital experiences with your website.
Pros
Has a free plan for smaller websites
Great for brands that have automated chat widgets or chatbots
Free seven-day trial
Cons
Free trial could be a little longer
Most of the platform is focused on the chat tracking and reply feature
Screen recording can jeopardize user privacy or slow down site speeds
Other features
Allows session recordings, survey analysis, heatmaps, and conversion funnel analysis.
Pricing
Lucky Orange’s smallest scale plan is free for websites that have fewer than 100 sessions/month. After that, it costs $39/month for 5,000 sessions/month, $79/month for up to 15,000 sessions/month, $179/month for up to 45,000 sessions/month, $749/month for up to 300,000 sessions/month, or enterprise-level pricing for more than that.
Mouseflow
Mouseflow is a session replay-focused platform, though it also offers heatmap tracking and conversion funnel optimization. It’s primarily useful to identify red flag metrics or web development elements that can help business owners optimize their sites over time.
Pros
Allows web page developers to create custom surveys
Feedback is simple to use and implement
Free plan available
Cons
Can only pay for plans in 12-month chunks
Other features
Mouseflow enables heatmap tracking, as well as funnel analysis, session replay, and user feedback analysis.
Pricing
Mouseflow comes with a free plan that supports websites with up to 500 user recordings per month. After that, plans go up to $399 per month, which are paid annually.
Inspectlet
Inspectlet is a popular customer journey mapping tool that primarily tracks mouse movements and scroll behavior. It also provides good additional tools like mapping filters, A/B testing, and so on. Form analytics make this ideal for sites that use a lot of surveys.
Pros
Available for website and mobile app heatmaps
Free plan is very generous
Ideal for tracking user behavior and enjoyment of forms
Cons
Tool can be a bit tricky to use
Other features
Inspectlet offers heatmap tracking, as well as A/B testing, feedback survey analysis, and session recordings.
Pricing
Inspectlet’s free plan can record up to 2500 sessions per month. After that, paid plans begin at $39 per month.
VWO
What is it?
VWO is a heatmapping, experience optimization, and form analytics software in a single package. It allows developers to implement many tests without having to contract web designers or do any programming.
Pros
Available with a 30-day free trial
Good for scaling marketing and product focus tests as your brand gets more users
Cons
Not primarily a heatmapping tool
Other features
As a CRO platform, VWO is primarily used to boost conversions using split URL, A/B, and multivariate testing. These features are available alongside web page heatmap analysis.
Pricing
There are three pricing tiers available: Growth, Pro, and Enterprise, which are $357, $822, and $1438 per month, billed annually. There's also a free plan that offers most of the core features of the platform.
Clarity
What is it?
Clarity is one of the best free behavior analytics tools available today. It’s made by Microsoft, and it offers a selection of useful features and services ranging from heatmaps to Google Analytics integration and more.
Pros
Doesn’t cost you a penny
Great for use with Google Analytics and marketing
Cons
Not the most robust or comprehensive insight/analytics tool, likely because it is free
Heatmaps themselves are limited compared to other tools
Microsoft gains rights to the data it collects
Other features
Heatmap analysis, automated insights, session recordings, and Google Analytics integration are the staple features of Clarity.
Pricing
Clarity is totally free.
Smartlook
What is it?
Smartlook is a popular combined visual user insights and product analytics platform. It emphasizes funnel analysis to help you identify major snags in the user experience and discover what stops people from converting into customers.
Pros
Offers heatmaps for web and mobile apps or pages
Easy to use on all manner of mobile apps across any operating system
Has a very generous free plan
Quick to set up
Cons
Heatmapping is not the main focus of the platform
Other features
This platform is free for up to 1500 sessions per month and three heatmaps. It’s $35 per month for 5000 sessions per month and up to 10 heatmaps afterward.
Pricing
Smartlock's free plan can record up to 3000 user sessions per month, and paid plans start at just $55 per month. There's also a 30-day free trial to consider.
Crazy Egg
What is it?
Crazy Egg is a user behavior analysis tool, featuring a unique confetti-styled heatmap. Through its granular analysis tools, web page developers can see exactly where people spend their time and what buttons they are most likely to click.
Pros
Good for optimizing your conversion rates
Can cancel the free trial at any time
Has a lot of tools and knobs to tweak for detailed insights
Cons
No free plans available
A little more technical and hard to use than other tools
Other features
Crazy Egg’s primary features include heatmap tracking, session recordings, and surveys for free users. It also offers CRO (conversion rate optimization) and web analytics tools.
Pricing
Crazy Egg does offer a 30-day free trial. After that, it costs $29 per month for the Basic plan, $49 per month for the Standard plan, and $99 per month for the Plus plan. These offer 30,000, 75,000, and 150,000 page views per month, respectively.
Hotjar
What is it?
Hotjar is an analytics software platform that enables teams to prioritize what they should work on for individual web pages. Its heatmap tracking allows you to track both user behavior and bugs that are encountered by your users by showing what elements are broken on web pages.
Pros
Comes with a decent free plan
Detailed breakdowns of how users manipulate web pages
Cons
Can get expensive very quickly
Doesn’t provide some of the most useful alternative analytics tools, such as conversion optimization
Screen recording can jeopardize user privacy or slow down site speeds
Other features
Hotjar’s main features include heatmap tracking, session recordings, user surveys, and real-time feedback analysis tools. Visitor recordings show how customers interact with your site on a case-by-case basis.
Pricing
Hotjar’s free plan can record up to 35 user sessions per day. After that, it costs $31 per month for 100 daily sessions or $79 per month for 500 daily sessions. Alternatively, you can pay a custom fee for the “Scale” plan, which offers unlimited daily session tracking.
FigPii
What is it?
Figpii's heatmap tool has the essential features you may need. It's also GDPR and CCPA-ready from the get-go, and it's very customizable compared to other heatmap platforms. It's known for its simplistic UX and 30-day free trial.
Pros
Has a high level of customer satisfaction in its reviews
Unlimited session tracking for each plan tier
Can customize most of the tools and analytics settings to enable greater focus on individual audience aspects/needs
Cons
Pretty expensive compared to other heatmap tools and products
Businesses have to buy separate plans for each individual website
Screen recording can jeopardize user privacy or slow down site speeds
Other features
FigPii’s main features include A/B web page testing, heatmap analysis, video recording, and user polls.
Pricing
FigPii offers four pricing tiers. These are:
Starter, $50 per month
Small, $100 per month
Medium, $200 per month
Large, $300 per month
Users can choose their pricing scheme based on how many website visitors they receive each month.
Benefits of using heatmapping software
There are plenty of big benefits to using heat mapping software. For example:
Heatmap software allows you to see where people click and scroll on web pages quickly and visually. Even for the most experienced data analysts, it can be tough to discern user behavior patterns from numbers and columns alone
The right website heatmap tool gives you comprehensive insights into a key aspect of visitors' behavior. When you see where people click or scroll to, you can put yourself in the eyes of those potential consumers and understand their wants and needs like never before
Heatmap tools enable you to improve user interactions, practice conversion optimization, and better organize major buttons (such as CTA buttons) for maximum effect
The best heatmap software tools also work well with other software platforms, such as those you use to improve conversion funnels or for conversion rate optimization. In this way, they can become cornerstone parts of your overall business tech stack
