Compare pricing, deployment, product fit, integrations, and capabilities side by side.
Marketers, product teams, and UX researchers who need qualitative behavior data and feedback workflows
Important considerations: Hotjar is now sold through Contentsquare packaging; session allowances, retention, and feature access vary by product and tier.
Developers, SaaS teams, and privacy-conscious businesses that want one open-source system for website and product analytics
Important considerations: Cloud has no permanent general free plan after its 30-day trial. Self-hosting requires a VPS, Docker-based services, database operations, upgrades, email configuration, security, and backups.
| Attribute | Hotjar | OpenPanel |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | A behavior analytics and user feedback product, now positioned within Contentsquare, focused on session replay, heatmaps, surveys, interviews, and journey optimization for UX and growth teams. | An open-source web and product analytics platform combining cookieless traffic reporting, event analytics, custom dashboards, funnels, retention, revenue tracking, user profiles, session replay, A/B testing, and an optional AI assistant. |
| Pricing | Contentsquare Free is available; Digital Experience Analytics Growth starts at $49/month, with 20% off annual billing; higher tiers are custom | 30-day cloud trial; cloud starts at $2.50/month for 5,000 events, $20/month for 100,000 events, and scales by event volume; AGPL self-hosting is free |
| Deployment | Vendor-hosted cloud | Self-hosted and hosted options |
| Best for | Marketers, product teams, and UX researchers who need qualitative behavior data and feedback workflows | Developers, SaaS teams, and privacy-conscious businesses that want one open-source system for website and product analytics |
| Operator | Hotjar Limited Subsidiary of Content Square SAS | OpenPanel AB Independent private company |
| Company base | St Julian's, Malta · European Union | Stockholm, Sweden · European Union |
| Organization scale | at least 190 team members · operator, as of 1 Sep 2021 | No comparable official organization-size figure was publicly disclosed. |
| Recent direction | suite consolidation Recent official evidence shows a focus on suite consolidation. | product analytics Recent official evidence shows a focus on product analytics. |
| Key features |
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| Important considerations | Hotjar is now sold through Contentsquare packaging; session allowances, retention, and feature access vary by product and tier. | Cloud has no permanent general free plan after its 30-day trial. Self-hosting requires a VPS, Docker-based services, database operations, upgrades, email configuration, security, and backups. |
| Integrations | Shopify, WordPress | JavaScript, React, Next.js, Vue, Swift, Kotlin, REST API |
| Fact check | We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-08. | We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-09. |
This matrix shows capabilities recorded in our catalog. Not listed means we have not confirmed the capability here. Check the linked vendor sources for plan, deployment, and usage limits.
| Attribute | Hotjar | OpenPanel |
|---|---|---|
| A/B testing | Not listed | Listed |
| AI insights | Listed | Listed |
| App analytics | Not listed | Listed |
| Audience insights | Listed | Listed |
| Behavior analytics | Listed | Listed |
| CCPA compliant | Listed | Listed |
| Cohort analysis | Not listed | Listed |
| Cookieless | Not listed | Listed |
| Custom reports | Listed | Listed |
| Data export | Listed | Listed |
| Data ownership | Not listed | Listed |
| E-commerce tracking | Listed | Listed |
| Event tracking | Listed | Listed |
| Free plan | Listed | Not listed |
| Funnels | Listed | Listed |
| GDPR compliant | Listed | Listed |
| Goals | Listed | Listed |
| Heatmaps | Listed | Not listed |
| Integrations | Listed | Listed |
| Open source | Not listed | Listed |
| Polls | Listed | Not listed |
| Privacy-first | Not listed | Listed |
| Real-time data | Listed | Listed |
| Retention analytics | Not listed | Listed |
| Revenue tracking | Listed | Listed |
| Self-hosted | Not listed | Listed |
| Session recordings | Listed | Listed |
| Surveys | Listed | Not listed |
| User feedback | Listed | Not listed |
| User segments | Listed | Listed |
| Web analytics | Not listed | Listed |