Hotjar vs Skald comparison

Compare pricing, deployment, product fit, integrations, and capabilities side by side.

Catalog capabilities may require a paid plan, add-on or hosted edition. “Not listed” means unverified here, not unavailable. Confirm the exact edition, usage limits and privacy settings.

Starting prices use different billing periods and usage units. Compare the same traffic, events, retention and seats.

Which platform fits your needs?

Choose Hotjar if

Marketers, product teams, and UX researchers who need qualitative behavior data and feedback workflows

Capabilities listed only for Hotjar in this selection

GDPR compliant CCPA compliant Real-time data E-commerce tracking Event tracking Behavior analytics Funnels Revenue tracking Audience insights User segments Session recordings Heatmaps User feedback Surveys Polls Goals Integrations Custom reports AI insights

Important considerations: Hotjar is now sold through Contentsquare packaging; session allowances, retention, and feature access vary by product and tier.

Choose Skald if

Site owners and agencies with access to suitable server or CDN logs who want visibility into people and automated traffic.

Capabilities listed only for Skald in this selection

Self-hosted Web analytics

Important considerations: Source-available, not OSI open source. Optional browser tracking adds in-page signals. AI-answer monitoring uses your provider keys and paid API samples; it does not reproduce what every app user sees. No verified hosted data-region claim.

Shared capabilities

Free plan Data export

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Attribute	Hotjar	Skald
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.	Skald analyses web-server logs to distinguish visitors, AI assistants and crawlers. It is free to self-host under Elastic License 2.0, with paid hosted plans and a 30-day trial.
Pricing	Contentsquare Free is available; Digital Experience Analytics Growth starts at $49/month, with 20% off annual billing; higher tiers are custom	Free self-hosting. Hosted Starter: $9/month or $86/year for 1 site, 1 million requests/month and 3 team members; 30-day free trial. Requests include assets and bots, not just page views. Server costs and optional AI-provider API charges are separate.
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	Site owners and agencies with access to suitable server or CDN logs who want visibility into people and automated traffic.
Operator	Hotjar Limited Subsidiary of Content Square SAS	Space-O Technologies Independent private company
Company base	St Julian's, Malta · European Union	Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India · Other region
Organization scale	at least 190 team members · operator, as of 1 Sep 2021	at least 140 team members · operator, as of 26 Oct 2026
Recent direction	suite consolidation Recent official evidence shows a focus on suite consolidation.	platform integration Recent official evidence shows a focus on platform integration.
Key features	Session replay Zone-based heatmaps Journey analysis Funnels Surveys and feedback Interviews AI-assisted insights Integrations and exports	Server-log traffic classification Optional in-page tracking Search Console and Bing reports Optional AI-answer monitoring with a daily cost cap
Important considerations	Hotjar is now sold through Contentsquare packaging; session allowances, retention, and feature access vary by product and tier.	Source-available, not OSI open source. Optional browser tracking adds in-page signals. AI-answer monitoring uses your provider keys and paid API samples; it does not reproduce what every app user sees. No verified hosted data-region claim.
Integrations	Shopify, WordPress	Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools
Fact check	We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-08.	We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-10-26.

Capability matrix

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.

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Attribute	Hotjar	Skald
AI insights	Listed	Not listed
Audience insights	Listed	Not listed
Behavior analytics	Listed	Not listed
CCPA compliant	Listed	Not listed
Custom reports	Listed	Not listed
Data export	Listed	Listed
E-commerce tracking	Listed	Not listed
Event tracking	Listed	Not listed
Free plan	Listed	Listed
Funnels	Listed	Not listed
GDPR compliant	Listed	Not listed
Goals	Listed	Not listed
Heatmaps	Listed	Not listed
Integrations	Listed	Not listed
Polls	Listed	Not listed
Real-time data	Listed	Not listed
Revenue tracking	Listed	Not listed
Self-hosted	Not listed	Listed
Session recordings	Listed	Not listed
Surveys	Listed	Not listed
User feedback	Listed	Not listed
User segments	Listed	Not listed
Web analytics	Not listed	Listed

Full details: Hotjar Full details: Skald