Best Heatmap Software Shortlist
After assessing dozens of tools, these are the solutions that made it into my top 10 for recording and interpreting user behavior:
Read on to find out more about the best heatmap software available today. My review includes a summary of each tool’s key features, along with an explanation of why it made it into my top 10 list. I’ve also included screenshots of its user interface, pricing information, and a comparison chart so you can determine which tool is the right one for your specific needs.
What is Heatmap Software?
Heatmap software is a type of solution that enables you to break down user behavior and create color-coded visual representations of user’s activity on your website or app. This type of tool helps data analysts, user experience researchers, web designers, and marketing professionals learn more about their target audience, allowing them to identify behavior patterns and improvement opportunities.
Overviews of the 10 Best Heatmap Software Systems
Here’s my evaluation of the best heatmap software you can use today, along with a summary of their key features and a short explanation of why I chose these specific tools over others.
Mouseflow
Best for optimizing PPC campaigns
Mouseflow is a behavior analytics tool that helps you find out what happens when visitors land on your website. The solution enables you to detect the geographical locations of your most active users so you can improve your funnel analysis and optimize your PPC campaigns.
Why I picked Mouseflow: Mouseflow made my list because it shows huge potential for businesses who rely on PPC ads to drive traffic to their website. The software’s geo heatmaps allow you to determine where your most engaged users come from so you can improve your marketing efforts in specific geographical areas.
The software also enables you to assess the effectiveness of your dynamic content, such as menus, sliders, or forms, so you can get more insights into your overlay clickable elements. In addition, I also liked the automated attention stats the software produces. These stats enable you to assess how persuasive your landing pages are, going beyond scroll heatmaps and clicks on CTAs.
Mouseflow Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include click maps, movement heatmaps, and user engagement assessment tools. I particularly liked the automated friction scores and attention stats. The friction scores help you understand whether users are happy with a page or not, and then guide you to the heatmaps it used for the assessment so you can make your own conclusions and optimize the user journey.
Integrations include most CMS, analytics, A/B testing, and web-building platforms out there, including HubSpot, Adobe Analytics, Segment, Google Tag Manager, Google Optimize, Unbounce, WordPress, Shopify, Magento, Wix, and Drupal.
Pros
- Screen recordings automatically highlight important moments
- Good user segmentation capabilities
- Frustration scores help you identify valuable user recordings
Cons
- All your user session replays are saved in the same folder, so they can be difficult to find
- Onboarding could be better
Glassbox
Best for AI-driven recommendations
Glassbox is an analytics and digital experience platform that enables you to understand your audience’s struggles and optimize their customer journey. The software enables you to identify weak spots in your conversion funnels and offers AI-powered recommendations so you can improve them.
Why I picked Glassbox: Glassbox combines qualitative and quantitative data to create detailed customer journeys for your website or app users. The solution enables you to collect details on how visitors engage with different elements, allowing you to compare results between different audience segments or A/B test variants.
With Glassbox, you can assess how many users interact with each element of the page, determine which elements move leads down your funnels, and evaluate the revenue impact of each change you make in your A/B tests. The software’s AI takes all this data into consideration and recommends changes that can improve customer experience and increase your revenue.
Glassbox Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include interaction maps, zone analysis, scroll depth heatmaps, audience segmentation, and A/B testing analysis. I’m a fan of Glassbox’s side-by-side analysis. This feature enables you to compare data on multiple audience segments or test variants side-by-side, making it easy to spot improvement opportunities. Being able to assess the revenue impact your changes have can be eye-opening for UX teams.
Integrations include popular analytics and marketing apps, such as Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Branch, Adobe Audience Manager, Tealium, Adobe Experience Cloud, Google Tag Manager, Medallia, Jira, Slack, and Qualtrics.
Pros
- Great at tracking and interpreting individual user journeys
- Helpful AI-driven recommendations
- UI is clean and easy to use
Cons
- Configuring the tool for A/B tests can be challenging for new users
- Pricing details are not transparent
FullStory
Best for frustration signals tracking
Fullstory is a digital experience and user behavior analysis tool that enables you to determine how well your product is optimized for user interactions. The solution helps you uncover pain points your users may have during their journey so you can solve them for a better user experience.
Why I picked Fullstory: Fullstory made my list because it makes it easy to determine whether users are satisfied with your product’s interface or whether they find it frustrating. During my tests, the product seemed better at tracking clicks than other mapping software in this list, making it my top recommendation for frustration signals tracking.
Fullstory keeps an accurate record of your users’ error clicks, dead clicks, and rage clicks. One of the advantages of tracking these metrics separately is that it enables you to identify javascript errors and faulty designs that may convince your users to click on unclickable elements. This helps you remove the pain points and optimize your web pages for user interactions.
Fullstory Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that make Fullstory great for frustration signals tracking include scroll depth heatmaps, click heatmaps, session recordings, and funnel tracking. I’m a fan of Fullstory’s ability to quantify the revenue you lose to friction – the software is able to aggregate your data and tell you how many prospects fell out of your conversion funnels after they encountered certain faulty elements.
Integrations include popular web analytics tools, communication apps, and A/B testing software, such as Microsoft Teams, Snowflake, Productboard, Jira, Intercom, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Workato, Slack, and Salesforce.
Pros
- Makes it easy to find valuable session recordings
- Helps you identify bugs and design errors
- Great at aggregating data and producing insights
Cons
- Prices are not disclosed on the website
- Steep learning curve
Plerdy
Best for first-click analysis
Plerdy is a CRO and SEO platform that helps you improve your website’s search engine ranking and increase its conversions. The solution enables you to see how users coming from different channels act so you can optimize their browsing experience.
Why I picked Plerdy: Plerdy enables you to analyze your direct and organic channels separately and compare the behavior of different user segments. The platform allows you to track the activity of your user segments throughout their buying journey so you can identify which web elements move the prospects through your funnels and which are not effective.
Plerdy can accurately track your users’ first clicks, making it easy to assess the effectiveness of your banners, CTAs, and button copy. The software’s dynamic heatmaps also lets you evaluate your audience’s interactions with your website’s interactive blocks, such as pop-ups, sliders, or menus.
Plerdy Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that make Plerdy a great choice for ecommerce specialists include first-click analysis, scroll depth, and click sequences. Click sequences allows you to track the activity of individual users on your website, so you can see what elements encourage interaction and which make your users fall out of your funnels.
Integrations include popular CMS, analytics, and email marketing platforms, such as WordPress, Opencart, Shopify, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, MailChimp, SendPulse, Brevo, Semrush, and UniSender.
Pros
- Rich library of training videos
- Can be used for A/B testing
- Platform is constantly being updated and improved
Cons
- Interface can feel clunky to new users
- It can sometimes be difficult to find the feature you want
Hotjar
Best for multi-dimensional behavior insights
Hotjar is a product experience insights platform that enables you to record and interpret your audience’s activity on your website or app. The solution combines multiple features to provide ample data about your users’ behavior.
Why I picked Hotjar: I chose Hotjar because it gives you access to a suite of features that help you understand your customers. Besides heatmaps, the software also allows you to record your visitor’s activity and see how they navigate your product, highlighting moments where your users click on something, become enraged, or leave the page, so you can save time when watching the recordings.
With Hotjar, you can set up heatmaps on multiple pages at once. This helps you take a closer look at your prospect’s entire buying journey, so you can see where your users drop off and take action to improve your funnels. The solution doesn’t only map out where visitors click, it also tracks their mouse movement, so you can see where they stop to read more and where they scroll without reading the copy.
Hotjar Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include heatmaps, visitor recordings, conversion funnels, and feedback collection tools. What makes Hotjar stand out is how easy it is to combine these features in order to gain deep insights into your customer’s likes and dislikes.
Integrations are available with most A/B testing and analytics software, including Google Analytics, Google Optimize, Segment, Optimizely, Unbounce, Omniconvert, or Mixpanel. Hotjar also integrates with CRMs and communication solutions, such as HubSpot, WordPress, WooCommerce Slack, or Microsoft Teams.
Pros
- Combines multiple features to produce insights about your users
- Tracks mouse movement and hovering
- Great customer onboarding experience
Cons
- Can take a toll on your website’s performance
- Pricing plans can be confusing
Lucky Orange
Best for element analytics
Lucky Orange is a conversion optimization platform that produces dynamic heatmaps of your users’ activity. The software offers multiple features that allow you to understand your users and communicate with them in real-time.
Why I picked Lucky Orange: Lucky Orange automatically creates highlights of your users’ activity during the recorded sessions. You can also use filters to find recordings where users perform certain actions, such as rage-clicking or scrolling fast so you can see what initiated their behavior.
Lucky Orange records everything the user does on a web page, including them clicking on dynamic elements, such as pop-ups or menus. This helps you understand whether your marketing or data-collection efforts are working or whether you should optimize them further.
Lucky Orange Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include element analytics and dynamic heatmaps. When you combine these two features, you get an accurate idea of the efficiency of different elements on the page, such as buttons, images or videos, or pop-ups. The software also has a built-in segmentation feature, allowing you to see which type of visitors behave in certain ways.
Integrations include popular analytics and testing solutions, such as Google Analytics or Google Optimize, as well as ecommerce platforms and CRMs, such as BigCommerce, Shopify, WordPress, Square, and HubSpot. You can also connect Lucky Orange to a Zapier account to access additional integrations.
Pros
- Cost-efficient solution
- Good event filters
- Live chat allows you to proactively engage website visitors
Cons
- Analytics could be more detailed
- Interface can feel clunky at times
VWO
Best for user segmentation
VWO is a web testing and conversion rate optimization (CRO) platform that helps you improve the experiences you provide to your customers. The software enables you to create distinct views for user segments based on custom triggers and criteria.
Why I picked VWO: VWO is a versatile mapping software that enables you to capture your visitors’ actions and interpret them using different types of heatmaps – mouse tracking heatmaps, click maps, and scroll depth heatmaps. The solution made it into my top 10 thanks to its ability to segment your visitors based on custom triggers and criteria, allowing you to hone in on your target audience’s behavior.
VWO’s segmentation capabilities make it a great choice for you if you’re building a product for a detailed customer profile. You can use the tool’s segmentation features to see how your ideal users navigate your product, what roadblocks they encounter, and whether they’re frustrated or satisfied so you can optimize their experience further.
VWO Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include shareable user sessions, in-session notes, and real-time tracking – features that enable you to collaborate with team members to better understand your target audience. You can create custom tracking triggers, so you can identify members of your audience that match your ideal customer profiles.
Integrations include analytics, CMS, communication, and ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify, Demandbase, Drupal, WordPress, Contentful, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, 6sense, BigCommerce, Clearbit, and Slack.
Pros
- Detailed reports
- Great user segmentation capabilities
- You can share reports and link them to specific sessions
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- UI sometimes feels clunky
Crazy Egg
Best for novice UX specialists
Crazy Egg is a user experience and analytics platform that combines multiple tools to help you optimize your product for visitor behavior so you can increase your conversion rates.
Why I picked Crazy Egg: Even though Crazy Egg is not as flashy as some of the other heatmapping tools I included on this list, I chose this software because it offers a great user experience thanks to its clean navigation. This makes the solution friendly toward novice UX specialists who are just starting their heatmapping experiments.
Crazy Egg is also versatile, enabling you to understand your customers with multiple types of heatmaps. You can create heatmaps that track clicks, clicks segmented by source or other criteria, scroll depth, and the effectiveness of different page elements. This helps you understand which parts of your page are popular and which could be further improved.
Crazy Egg Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features: Crazy Egg’s Confetti heatmap is a valuable tool for you if you want to optimize your conversion funnels. This feature enables you to see where visitors who clicked on an element came from so you can determine which are your most effective sources without difficulty. The software also enables you to record your users’ activity, so you can see how they use your product and identify patterns.
Integrations include all popular website-building platforms, including WordPress, Squarespace, Joomla, Wix, Shopify, and Drupal. The solution also offers native integrations with Google Tag Manager, Segment, Unbounce, and Adobe Tag Manager. In addition, you can use Zapier to connect Crazy Egg with more apps.
Pros
- Simple install and onboarding processes
- Multiple types of heatmaps are available
- Great customer support
Cons
- Can lag when processing a lot of data
- Could use more filters to segment user recordings
Inspectlet
Best heatmap tool for form analytics
Inspectlet is a web analytics and user experience tool that helps you capture your visitors’ activity. The solution enables you to determine what form elements prevent your visitors from completing and submitting the forms.
Why I picked Inspectlet: Inspectlet does a great job at tracking how much time your visitors take to complete different form fields. This helps you identify improvement opportunities so you can optimize your forms for a superior user experience.
Besides keeping track of your website’s forms, Inspectlet can also help you understand your users better with the help of dynamic heatmaps. Their dynamic heatmaps track mouse movements and clicks, allowing you to see which of your buttons, banners, and links are effective and which aren’t.
Inspectlet Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include click heatmaps, scroll heatmaps, and A/B testing. I like Inspectlet’s eye-tracking heatmaps, which combines your users’ mouse movements with their algorithm to determine what your audience is most likely looking at, allowing you to assess your website’s design and visual elements.
Integrations include a few native connections with popular solutions, such as HubSpot, Shopify, Google Tag Manager, and Squarespace. You can also use Zapier to integrate Inspectlet with other solutions.
Pros
- Friendly toward novice users
- Comprehensive reports
- Filters help you find valuable user sessions
Cons
- Limited customization options
- User sessions are automatically deleted after 60 days
NotifyVisitors
Best for multiple domain usage
NotifyVisitors is an engagement and retention platform that enables you to assess the behavior of your website visitors. The software allows you to install the same code tracking snippet on multiple domains, so you can analyze multiple websites with a single subscription.
Why I picked NotifyVisitors: NotifyVisitors is a good option for marketing or UX agencies or freelancers who manage multiple websites at once. The solution allows you to add the same code to multiple domains and collect data across different websites with a single subscription.
NotifyVisitors allows you to segment your audience using pre-defined segments, so you can see how different user groups interact with your product. This helps you understand how to optimize your landing pages for visitors coming from different channels.
NotifyVisitors Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include click mapping, scroll depth heatmaps, and mouse hover reports – everything you need to understand your users’ behavior. I like the fact that NotifyVisitors updates its reports within a minute because this means you’re working with real-time data at all times.
Integrations include popular social media, communication, and collaboration tools, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Google Suite, Google Ads, WordPress, MailChimp, Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce, and Keap.
Pros
- Simple onboarding
- Knowledgeable support team
- Good form analysis feature
Cons
- Navigation can seem weird to new users
- You can’t create custom filters
The 10 Best Heatmap Software Systems Comparison Chart
This comparison chart summarizes basic details about my selections for the best heatmap software. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best software for your budget and business needs.
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mouseflow Best for optimizing PPC campaigns | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $39/month | Visit Website |
2 | Glassbox Best for AI-driven recommendations | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
3 | FullStory Best for frustration signals tracking | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $199/month | Visit Website |
4 | Plerdy Best for first-click analysis | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $32/month | Visit Website |
5 | Hotjar Best for multi-dimensional behavior insights | 15-day free trial + free plan available | From $59/month | Visit Website |
6 | Lucky Orange Best for element analytics | 7-day free trial + free plan available | From $18/month | Visit Website |
7 | VWO Best for user segmentation | 30-day free trial + free plan available | From $173/month (billed annually) | Visit Website |
8 | Crazy Egg Best for novice UX specialists | 30-day free trial | From $29/user/month | Visit Website |
9 | Inspectlet Best heatmap tool for form analytics | Free plan available | From $39/month | Visit Website |
10 | NotifyVisitors Best for multiple domain usage | 15-day free trial + free plan available | From $60/month | Visit Website |
Other Options
Here are some other solutions I shortlisted during my research – even though they didn’t make it into my top 10, they’re still worth checking out:
- Zoho PageSense
Best for attention tracking
- Smartlook
Best for mobile apps
- LiveSession
Best for advanced filters
- Instapage
Best for A/B testing assessments
- FigPii
Best for simple reporting
- Matomo
Best for small businesses and startups
- Heatmap
Best for detecting conversion blockers
- Contentsquare
Best for design validation
- Attention Insight
Best for concept validation
- Microsoft Clarity
Best for area heatmaps
Selection Criteria for Heatmap Software
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best heatmap software for this article:
Core Functionalities
In order for a tool to land a place in this top 10 list, it needed to include the following basic functionalities:
- Enable you to create multiple types of heatmaps
- Help you gain a better understanding of your visitors by tracking their interactions
Key Features
In addition to the core functionalities above, I also assessed these additional key features when creating this top 10 list:
- Click heatmaps: This type of heatmap allows you to see what your prospects are clicking on.
- Scroll depth heatmaps: This type of heatmap helps you determine how much of your page the audience is actually reading.
- Mouse movement heatmaps: This style of heatmap helps you visualize what sections of the page your audience is focusing on.
- Session recordings: Watching recordings of how your audience uses your product can be eye-opening when you’re launching a new product or feature.
- User segmentation: Being able to segment your audience based on different criteria can help you optimize your product for different customer profiles.
- Detailed insights: Tools that combine qualitative and quantitative data can help you uncover deep insights into your audience’s behavior.
Usability
The heatmapping software I included in this list are generally easy to set up and use. You should be able to generate scroll depth or click heatmaps by copying and pasting a code into your website hosting platform. However, some of the tools’ more advanced functions may have steeper learning curves.
Software Integrations
I selected tools that offer native integrations with other analytics and UX assessment tools so you can consolidate your data and create detailed customer profiles of each user.
Pricing
Heatmapping software comes at different price ranges, but I included only solutions that offer a good value for your investment on this list. Some of the options I included charge around $30 for 100 user sessions and are ideal for small business owners, while others charge over $200 and are suited to heads of CX departments in large enterprises.
People Also Ask
Want to learn more about heatmaps and how to use them? Here are some common questions people ask about this topic:
What type of data is visualized best using a heatmap?
What customer insights can you gain from using heatmap software?
Are there other types of customer analytics that can improve my customer experience?
Other Customer Analytics Software
If you want to accomplish more with the data you gather about your target audience, here are some other reviews from experts at the CX Lead:
- 22 Best Website Analytics Tools for Visitor Stats
- 10 Best A/B Testing Tools for Data-Driven Experiments
- 10 Best Big Data Customer Analytics Software
- 10 Best Customer Segmentation Tools
- 18 Best Sentiment Analysis Tools
- 29 Best Net Promoter Score Software & NPS Survey Tools
- 10 Best Usability Testing Tools for Improving Your UX
- 10 Best Web Design Software
- 10 Best Mockup Tools for Drafting Designs
Final Thoughts
Heatmap software offers insights on how to optimize your product for a superior user experience and increased conversions. Using heatmap software during your A/B tests can significantly increase your chances of beating the control, allowing you to improve your results with each consecutive test.
As John Lincoln, CEO of Ignite Visibility, said: “Understanding how your visitors interact with your site’s content, structure, and on-page elements allows you to build a strategy that gets users to stick around, [...] and ultimately, convert more often.
Heatmaps serve as an ideal starting point, allowing marketers to identify big-picture problems that cause friction and new opportunities to drive traffic and conversions.”
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