vioscale
Comparison

Hotjar vs Pendo

On the evidence we track, Hotjar leads this comparison with a composite score of 73/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Hotjar full profile →Pendo full profile →
Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
★Hotjar73
Pendo53
Score
Vioscale score
Hotjar73 / 100medium · 73%
Pendo53 / 100medium · 73%
Pricing
Free tier
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Model
Hotjarfreemium
Pendofreemium
Price level
Hotjarmid
Pendolow
Transparent
Hotjar✓
Pendo✗
Integrations
Count
Hotjar100
Pendo51
Security
Disclosure policy
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Gdpr
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Hipaa
Hotjar–
Pendo✓
Iso27001
Hotjar✓
Pendo–
Soc2
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Reliability
Status page
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Market
Availability

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for product analytics software. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Analytics scope
Hotjar-
PendoProduct analytics
Capture
Autocapture (no-code event capture)
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Analyses
Funnels
Hotjar✓
Pendo-
Retention / cohort analysis
Hotjar✓
Pendo-
Paths / user journeys
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Session replay
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Experimentation
A/B testing & experimentation
Hotjar✓
Pendo-
Feature flags built-in
Hotjar-
Pendo-
Data
Warehouse-native / BYODB
Hotjar✓
Pendo-
Deployment
Self-hostable / OSS core
Hotjar✗
Pendo✗
Pricing
Free tier
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Compliance
EU data residency option
Hotjar-
Pendo-
SDKs
Server-side + mobile SDK coverage
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Hotjar

Leader

Hotjar is a web analytics platform offering session replay, heatmaps, funnels, surveys, and user testing tools to help understand and optimize website and app user behavior.

Independently observed

Pendo

A cloud-based product experience platform combining behavioral analytics, in-app guidance, session replay, and user feedback capabilities to help teams understand how users interact with their software and drive feature adoption

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Hotjar

Leader
from $39/moSubscriptionFree tier15-day trial

Free tier available. Growth plan from $39/month (annual) or $49/month. Pro requires contact sales.

  • FreeFree
    • Replays, Heatmaps, Funnels
    • Error & performance monitoring
    • Basic surveys (100/mo)
    • LLM connection (300 tool calls/mo)
    • 10+ integrations
  • Growth$39-49/month. 7k+ sessions. 3 projects.
    • Zone-based heatmaps
    • Journey analysis
    • Impact quantification
    • Sense Chat & AI summaries
    • Sense Analyst lite (beta)
    • +1 more
  • ProContact sales
    • Connect behavior to revenue by channel and product
    • Identify patterns that drive repeat purchases and retention
    • Revenue-focused strategic decisions
as of verify ↗

Pendo

SubscriptionFree tier30-day trial

Custom MAU-based pricing. Free tier available. Volume-based discounts built into all plans.

  • BaseContact sales
    • Product Analytics
    • In-app Guides
  • CoreContact sales
    • Product Analytics
    • In-app Guides
    • Session Replay
  • UltimateContact sales
    • Product Analytics
    • In-app Guides
    • Session Replay
    • Sentiment (NPS, PMF, CSAT surveys)
    • Orchestrate
    • +2 more
  • NovusFree
    • Continuous product monitoring
    • Proactive recommendations in Slack
    • AI-generated PRs
    • Auto-instrumentation via GitHub
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
iOS
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Android
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Hotjar✓
Pendo✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (4)
  • Slack
  • Jira
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Snowflake

Hotjar

Leader
13 total - 9 not shared
  • Unbounce
  • Shopify
  • AWS
  • Asana
  • Linear
  • Trello
  • ChatGPT
  • Claude
  • Microsoft Copilot
Independently observed

Pendo

50 total - 46 not shared
  • Algolia
  • Amazon S3
  • BigQuery
  • Breadcrumbs
  • Calendly
  • Candu
  • Catalyst
  • ChurnZero
  • Confluence
  • Crowdin
  • DataGrail
  • Dataworkz
  • Domo
  • Drift
  • Figma
  • Fivetran
  • Fulcrum
  • G2
  • Gainsight
  • Google Cloud Storage
  • Help Scout
  • HelpDocs
  • HubSpot
  • Integrately
  • +22 more
Independently observed

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.