# Hotjar vs Pendo

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Pendo

| Attribute | Hotjar | Pendo |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 59.7 (73% (medium)) | 76.7 (72% (medium)) |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Product Analytics Software.","source":"https://www.hotjar.com","question":"What is Hotjar?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Hotjar offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.hotjar.com/pricing-csq/","question":"Is Hotjar free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Hotjar. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.hotjar.com/pricing-csq/","question":"What platforms does Hotjar support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Hotjar, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://www.hotjar.com/pricing-csq/","question":"Can Hotjar be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 14 integrations for Hotjar, including Slack, Jira, Unbounce, Shopify, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Snowflake and Asana, plus 6 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.hotjar.com/pricing-csq/","question":"What does Hotjar integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR for Hotjar. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Hotjar not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.hotjar.com/legal/compliance/pci/","question":"What security certifications does Hotjar have?","confidence":0.7}]` | `[{"answer":"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 It is indexed under Product Analytics Software.","source":"https://www.pendo.io/pricing/","question":"What is Pendo?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pendo does not publish its prices. Pricing is quoted on request, across 5 plans (Novus, Pendo Free, Product Analytics and Session Replay), so the figure depends on your seat count and requirements. We record this as a pricing-transparency signal rather than guessing a number. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.pendo.io/pricing/","question":"How much does Pendo cost?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Pendo. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.pendo.io/pricing/","question":"What platforms does Pendo support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Pendo, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://www.pendo.io/pricing/","question":"Can Pendo be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 50 integrations for Pendo, including Algolia, Amazon S3, BigQuery, Breadcrumbs, Calendly, Candu, Catalyst and ChurnZero, plus 42 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.pendo.io/pricing/","question":"What does Pendo integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for Pendo. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Pendo not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.pendo.io/pricing/","question":"What security certifications does Pendo have?","confidence":0.6}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | Combines heatmaps, session replay, surveys, and error monitoring to help teams understand user journeys and resolve conversion issues. | 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. |
| features.capabilities | `{"funnels":true,"hosting":"cloud","free_tier":true,"ab_testing":true,"api_access":true,"autocapture":true,"sdk_coverage":true,"self_hostable":false,"paths_journeys":true,"session_replay":true,"visualizations":true,"analytics_scope":"product_analytics","retention_cohort":true,"warehouse_native":true,"self_serve_dashboards":true}` | `{"hosting":"cloud","free_tier":true,"api_access":true,"sql_editor":true,"autocapture":true,"sdk_coverage":true,"self_hostable":false,"paths_journeys":true,"session_replay":true,"visualizations":true,"analytics_scope":"product_analytics","self_serve_dashboards":true}` |
| integrations.count | 100 | 85 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Jira"},{"name":"Unbounce"},{"name":"Shopify"},{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"Microsoft Azure"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Asana"},{"name":"Linear"},{"name":"Trello"},{"name":"ChatGPT"},{"name":"Claude"},{"name":"Microsoft Copilot"},{"name":"Dust","native":true,"category":"ai"}]` | `[{"name":"Algolia"},{"name":"Amazon S3"},{"name":"BigQuery"},{"name":"Breadcrumbs"},{"name":"Calendly"},{"name":"Candu"},{"name":"Catalyst"},{"name":"ChurnZero"},{"name":"Confluence"},{"name":"Crowdin"},{"name":"DataGrail"},{"name":"Dataworkz"},{"name":"Domo"},{"name":"Drift"},{"name":"Figma"},{"name":"Fivetran"},{"name":"Fulcrum"},{"name":"G2"},{"name":"Gainsight"},{"name":"Google Cloud Storage"},{"name":"Help Scout"},{"name":"HelpDocs"},{"name":"HubSpot"},{"name":"Integrately"},{"name":"Intercom"},{"name":"Jira"},{"name":"Looker"},{"name":"Marketo"},{"name":"Microsoft Azure"},{"name":"Okta"},{"name":"Optimizely"},{"name":"Pano"},{"name":"Planhat"},{"name":"Qualtrics"},{"name":"Redshift"},{"name":"Salesforce"},{"name":"Segment"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Swiftype"},{"name":"Tableau"},{"name":"Totango"},{"name":"Tray.io"},{"name":"TrustRadius"},{"name":"UserTesting"},{"name":"Voxpopme"},{"name":"Webhooks"},{"name":"WordPress"},{"name":"Workato"},{"name":"Zapier"},{"name":"Zendesk","category":"support"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","description":"Includes heatmaps, session replay, surveys, error monitoring, funnels, and 10+ integrations","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"sessions_per_month":"200k"}}],"summary":"Free plan with 200k sessions/month. Growth plan available with 15-day trial.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.hotjar.com/pricing-csq/","retrievedAt":"2026-09-04T13:33:09.449Z","freeTrialDays":15}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Pendo Free","summary":"Free forever, up to 500 MAUs","features":["Product analytics","In-app guides","Pendo-branded roadmaps","Pendo-branded NPS surveys"],"description":"Free tier for up to 500 monthly active users with core analytics and guidance features","includedLimits":{"mau":"500"}},{"free":false,"name":"Product Analytics Core","description":"For teams who want full user journey visibility and quick action capability","contactSales":true},{"free":false,"name":"Session Replay","description":"For enterprises and product leaders coordinating adoption across systems","contactSales":true},{"free":true,"name":"Novus","summary":"Free during open beta, no credit card required","features":["Continuous product monitoring","Proactive recommendations in Slack","Auto-instrumentation via GitHub"],"description":"AI-native free product for teams shipping with AI agents"}],"addOns":[{"name":"Pendo AI"},{"name":"Agent Analytics"}],"summary":"Free tier (up to 500 MAUs). Usage-based pricing per monthly active user with volume discounts built in. Custom pricing for enterprise.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.pendo.io/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-09-23T13:24:44.398Z","freeTrialDays":30}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.transparent | no | yes |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","level":"Type II","status":"active"},{"name":"GDPR","status":"active"},{"name":"HIPAA","status":"active"},{"name":"PCI DSS","status":"active"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | yes | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | - | https://www.pendo.io/digital-adoption/governance-compliance/ |

## Capabilities (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 | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-15T23:12:04.125Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*