Comparison

Hotjar vs Pendo

On the evidence we track, Pendo leads this comparison with a composite score of 77/100. 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 formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.

Hotjar60

★Pendo77

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	Hotjar	PendoLeader
vioscaleAI score	60 / 100medium · 73%	77 / 100medium · 72%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	freemium	freemium
Price levelpricing.price_level	low	low
Transparentpricing.transparent	✗	✓
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	100	85
Security
Certificationssecurity.certifications	-	SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS
Disclosure policysecurity.disclosure_policy	✓	✓
Gdprsecurity.gdpr	✓	✓
Hipaasecurity.hipaa	-	✓
Iso27001security.iso27001	✓	✓
Pcisecurity.pci	-	✓
Soc2security.soc2	✓	✓
Trust centersecurity.trust_center	-	https://www.pendo.io/digital-adoption/governance-compliance/
Reliability
Status pagereliability.status_page	✓	✓
Market
Availabilitymarket.availability	Available worldwide	Available worldwide · HQ US
Content
Faqcontent.faq	6 items	6 items

Score

vioscaleAI score

Hotjar60 / 100medium · 73%

Pendo77 / 100medium · 72%

Pricing

Free tier

Hotjar✓

Pendo✓

Model

Hotjarfreemium

Pendofreemium

Price level

Hotjarlow

Pendolow

Transparent

Hotjar✗

Pendo✓

Integrations

Count

Hotjar100

Pendo85

Security

Certifications

Hotjar–

PendoSOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS

Disclosure policy

Hotjar✓

Pendo✓

Gdpr

Hotjar✓

Pendo✓

Hipaa

Hotjar–

Pendo✓

Iso27001

Hotjar✓

Pendo✓

Pci

Hotjar–

Pendo✓

Soc2

Hotjar✓

Pendo✓

Trust center

Hotjar–

Pendohttps://www.pendo.io/digital-adoption/governance-compliance/

Reliability

Status page

Hotjar✓

Pendo✓

Market

Availability

HotjarAvailable worldwide

PendoAvailable worldwide · HQ US

Content

Faq

Hotjar6 items

Pendo6 items

Capabilities

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

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

Core

Analytics scope

HotjarProduct analytics

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

Combines heatmaps, session replay, surveys, and error monitoring to help teams understand user journeys and resolve conversion issues.

Independently observed

Pendo

Leader

A platform that tracks user behavior across web, mobile, and AI applications, providing analytics, guided in-app experiences, and user journey analysis to improve feature adoption and reduce time-to-value.

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

HybridFree tier15-day trial

Free plan with 200k sessions/month. Growth plan available with 15-day trial.

FreeFree

as of 2026-09-04verify ↗

Pendo

Leader

Usage-basedFree tier30-day trial

Free tier (up to 500 MAUs). Usage-based pricing per monthly active user with volume discounts built in. Custom pricing for enterprise.

Pendo FreeFree
- Product analytics
- In-app guides
- Pendo-branded roadmaps
- Pendo-branded NPS surveys
Product Analytics CoreContact sales
Session ReplayContact sales
NovusFree
- Continuous product monitoring
- Proactive recommendations in Slack
- Auto-instrumentation via GitHub

as of 2026-09-23verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	Hotjar	Pendo
WebPlatforms	✓	✓
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✓

Platforms

Web

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

14 total - 10 not shared

Unbounce
Shopify
AWS
Asana
Linear
Trello
ChatGPT
Claude
Microsoft Copilot
Dust

Independently observed

Pendo

Leader

51 total - 47 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
+23 more

Independently observed

Still deciding?

Hotjar or Pendo: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

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