# Hotjar: how AI models rank it, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 140 judge labels across 9 categories by 14 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hotjar

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Session replay and heatmaps](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/gtm-data/session-replay-and-heatmaps/index.md) | 16% | 2 | 25% | 68 |
| [Web analytics](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/gtm-data/web-analytics/index.md) | 0% | 19 | 18% | 22 |
| [Customer feedback and surveys](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/customer/customer-feedback-and-surveys/index.md) | 0% | 11 | 12% | 17 |
| [Customer intelligence and data science](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/gtm-data/customer-intelligence-and-data-science/index.md) | 0% | 24 | 7% | 15 |
| [Audience and consumer insights platforms](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/audience-and-consumer-insights/index.md) | 0% | 44 | 14% | 7 |
| [Product analytics](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/gtm-data/product-analytics/index.md) | 0% | 12 | 14% | 7 |
| [Ecommerce marketing](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/ecommerce-marketing/index.md) | 0% | 31 | 0% | 2 |
| [Digital adoption and onboarding](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/customer/digital-adoption-and-onboarding/index.md) | 0% | 52 | 0% | 1 |
| [Experimentation and personalization](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/experimentation-and-personalization/index.md) | 0% | 66 | 0% | 1 |

## What the models said for it

- "Hotjar and Crazy Egg are the category leaders, with Hotjar suited for teams needing comprehensive user behavior analytics with strong heatmaps and session playback" (Claude Haiku 4.5, Session replay)
- "Hotjar: Strong all-in-one for product/UX teams. Excellent heatmaps, surveys, and easy replays. Great for non-technical users; affordable entry point." (Grok 4.20, Session replay)
- "For most mid-market B2B companies, Hotjar is the best balance of features, ease of use, and value." (Mistral Small, Session replay)
- "All-in-one solution with strong session replay and heatmap features, ideal for marketing and UX teams." (Mistral Small, Session replay)

## And against it

- "Very common but often criticized for broad data capture... Many privacy-focused users block it outright." (Grok 4.20, Session replay)
- "Named in active CIPA lawsuits; $5,000 statutory damages per violation possible under California law" (Kimi K2, Session replay)
- "Documented data exfiltration issues; research found it recorded content beyond input fields" (MiniMax M2.5, Session replay)
- "considered high-risk for unintended data collection and storage on third-party servers" (Mistral Small, Session replay)

## By model

| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 13 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| Grok 4.20 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
| Mistral Small | 2 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 12 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 8 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Kimi K2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 11 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 14 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 |

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Hotjar, from 287 of the 337 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- amplitude.com: 80
- zapier.com: 78
- g2.com: 72
- userpilot.com: 69
- uxcam.com: 61
- quantummetric.com: 59
- contentsquare.com: 58 (its own site)
- logrocket.com: 53
- posthog.com: 51
- capterra.com: 47

### Pages cited

- https://zapier.com/blog/best-session-replay-tools: 76
- https://logrocket.com/comparisons/best-session-replay-tools: 51
- https://userpilot.com/blog/session-replay-tools: 50
- https://varify.io/en/best-heatmap-session-recording-tools: 29
- https://amplitude.com/compare/best-session-replay-tools-for-startups: 26
- https://contentsquare.com/guides/session-replay/tools: 24
- https://quantummetric.com/blog/best-session-replay-tools-in-2026: 23
- https://uxcam.com/blog/customer-analytics-tools-software: 23

## The company

Contentsquare; https://contentsquare.com; Paris, France; founded 2008. From Wikidata, fetched 2026-09-14.

## In its own words

What Hotjar's own pages state, read 2026-09-28. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: recently been incorporated (https://trust.contentsquare.com)
- Customers named: NerdCow, Hussle, UX studio, CadoMaestro, TomTom, eShopWorld, TechSmith, Matalan

## What it publishes

Every page contentsquare.com exposes, read 2026-09-29: 2114 addresses. By kind, pages and the last 90 days:

- blog: 298 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2025-01-20
- case study: 159 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- report or ebook: 710 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- comparison: 61 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- template or tool: 3 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- glossary or explainer: 9 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- podcast or video: 5 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- news or press: 87 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- Recent: 2025-01-20 blog: Feedback actionable https://contentsquare.com/blog/feedback-actionable/

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.