If you’re looking to choose between Google Analytics (also known as GA) and Hotjar, you may find the approach in this article unexpected, as we would recommend using both, each for a different goal.
It’s rather hard to compare Google Analytics and Hotjar, as they offer a completely different set of features and, therefore, in many cases, are used by product managers, marketing specialists, and UX experts as tools that complement one another.
TLDR: The main differences
Google Analytics is great for tracking web traffic, audiences, conversions, bounce rates, and other numeric metrics.
Hotjar is more visual, mainly focusing on heat maps, visitor session recordings, and user surveys.
Use Google Analytics to get the numeric metrics and Hotjar to analyze the visual aspects of your website.
Why you should use Google Analytics
Google Analytics will track practically any numeric metric you’ll need to understand your website and its traffic. Here are a few examples of what you can get with Google Analytics’s features:
Learn how you acquire customers – are they arriving organically from search, or maybe from social posts, or paid ads?
Measure active users, new users, and returning users to understand better who are the visitors to your website.
Learn about the behavior of users, the paths they take on your website, and which content keeps your users engaged.
Analyze the performance and behavior of users who clicked on your ad campaigns and used your website or app.
Track conversions and learn which users/traffic converts best and why.
Ask questions about any metric without asking data analysts to get the data for you.
Why you should use Hotjar?
Hotjar is great at visuals. It can help you better understand how users are really experiencing your site without drowning in numbers. These are the main capabilities Hotjar is offering, which are not provided by tools such as Google Analytics:
Heatmaps – easily understand where most users are clicking, scrolling, or moving their mouse.
Session recordings – view recordings of how users are using your website or app, as if you were behind them, watching their screen while still protecting their privacy.
Surveys – ask your users questions and get instant replies. Help your users help you by telling you what can be improved in your website or app.
Incoming feedback – collect feedback and scores such as NPS to understand better how pleased users are with your product.
What about other tools, such as Mixpanel?
Google Analytics and Hotjar are very useful in tracking the numeric metrics and visual aspects of your website or web application. If you’re looking to track user behavior on a large scale, though, you may need to look elsewhere.
Tools such as Mixpanel and Amplitude are event-based analytics tools. Those tools will allow you to track how users behave on your website, build behavior funnels, and track their retention.
Event-based analytic tools can help you understand user behavior at a larger scale than tools such as Hotjar, as you’ll be able to view digested information rather than having to look at recordings of individual users to figure out how they used your website.
