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Business Intelligence · head to head

Amazon QuickSight vs Hotjar

Amazon QuickSight logo

Amazon QuickSight

Business Intelligence

Scalable, serverless BI by AWS

From
$3/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Hotjar logo

Hotjar

E-Commerce

Understand how users behave on your site

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Hotjar has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Amazon QuickSight reader and Reader Pro roles charged separately at $3 and $20/month; Hotjar website performance impact - Hotjar tracking code can cause noticeable slowdowns affecting site speed and Google rankings
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon QuickSight covers SPICE In-memory Engine, Hotjar covers Heatmaps.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Amazon QuickSight and Hotjar actually diverge.

Attributes where Amazon QuickSight and Hotjar differ
AttributeAmazon QuickSightHotjar
Starting price$3/monthFree
Pricing modelper-userUnknown
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsAWSWeb
CategoryBusiness IntelligenceE-Commerce
Founded20062014

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Amazon QuickSight

  • SPICE In-memory Engine
  • ML Insights
  • Natural Language Queries
  • Embedded Analytics
  • Pay-per-session
  • Redshift
  • S3
  • Athena

Only in Hotjar

  • Heatmaps
  • Session recordings
  • Feedback widgets
  • Surveys
  • User interviews
  • Conversion funnels
  • Form analytics
  • Rage click detection

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Amazon QuickSight

  • Business intelligencenot Hotjar
  • Dashboard creationnot Hotjar
  • Data visualizationnot Hotjar

Hotjar

  • User behavior analysisnot Amazon QuickSight
  • Conversion optimizationnot Amazon QuickSight
  • UX researchnot Amazon QuickSight
  • Customer feedbacknot Amazon QuickSight
  • Usability testingnot Amazon QuickSight

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Amazon QuickSight

  • Reader and Reader Pro roles charged separately at $3 and $20/month
  • Author and Author Pro roles charged at $24 and $40/month
  • $250/month infrastructure fee required if Pro users or Q&A enabled
  • SPICE storage charged at $0.38/GB monthly (10 GB included)
  • Pixel-perfect reports start at $500/month for 500 monthly units
  • Alerts charged at $0.05-$0.50 per 1,000 metrics evaluated

Hotjar

  • Website performance impact - Hotjar tracking code can cause noticeable slowdowns affecting site speed and Google rankings
  • Session recording limits - free and lower-tier plans have monthly session recording caps that must be sampled above the limit
  • Inaccurate heatmaps on dynamic pages - heatmaps fail to display correctly on pages with modals, sticky navigation bars, and pop-up overlays
  • No mobile app - only web-based access available
  • Not real-time analytics - includes slight data processing delay

Pricing, plan by plan

Amazon QuickSight

$3/month
  • Reader$3/month
    • Dashboard viewing only
  • Reader Pro$20/month
    • Enhanced reader capabilities
  • Author$24/month
    • Dashboard creation and editing
  • Author Pro$40/month
    • Advanced authoring features

Hotjar

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Hotjar review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon QuickSight if

  • You need spice in-memory engine.
  • You work on AWS.
  • You also want ml insights.
Amazon QuickSight review

Choose Hotjar if

  • You need heatmaps.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want session recordings.
Hotjar review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon QuickSight or Hotjar better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon QuickSight starts at $3/month and Hotjar at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon QuickSight or Hotjar?
Hotjar has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $3/month for Amazon QuickSight and Free for Hotjar.
Does Amazon QuickSight or Hotjar run on more platforms?
Amazon QuickSight runs on AWS. Hotjar runs on Web.
Can I use Hotjar for free?
Yes. Hotjar has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Amazon QuickSight starts at $3/month.
What is Amazon QuickSight best used for?
Amazon QuickSight is most often used for business intelligence, dashboard creation, data visualization. Of those, business intelligence and dashboard creation are not what Hotjar is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon QuickSight do that Hotjar cannot?
Amazon QuickSight covers SPICE In-memory Engine, ML Insights, Natural Language Queries, Embedded Analytics. Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Session recordings, Feedback widgets, Surveys.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Amazon QuickSight: What does Amazon QuickSight cost per user?

QuickSight pricing varies by user role. Readers start at $3/month, Reader Pro at $20/month, Authors at $24/month, and Author Pro at $40/month. All prices are per user per month.

Source
Hotjar: Does Hotjar have a free tier?

Yes. Hotjar's free plan (now under Contentsquare) includes 200,000 monthly sessions, 10,000 session replays, and unlimited heatmaps, with no time limit on the free tier.

Source
Amazon QuickSight: Does QuickSight charge an infrastructure fee?

Yes, QuickSight charges an infrastructure fee of $250/month per account if the account has at least one Pro user, has Q&A enabled via topics, or has dashboard Q&A enabled.

Source
Hotjar: Can I export my data from Hotjar?

Yes. Hotjar allows exporting heatmaps as JPG images, survey responses as CSV files, and session recording metadata. Advanced export options are available through the Hotjar API.

Source
Amazon QuickSight: What are QuickSight's session capacity pricing options?

Session capacity pricing starts at $250/month for 500 sessions. Annual plans range from $20,000/year for 50,000 sessions to $258,000/year for 1,600,000 sessions, with volume discounts reducing unit costs from $0.50 to $0.16 per additional session.

Source
Hotjar: Does Hotjar provide real-time analytics?

No. Hotjar has a slight delay in data processing and does not offer true real-time analytics compared to some competitors.

Source
Amazon QuickSight: How much does additional SPICE storage cost?

Additional SPICE storage beyond the included 10 GB costs $0.38 per GB per month. Authors receive 10 GB included, but Readers do not.

Source
Hotjar: What integrations does Hotjar support?

Hotjar integrates with Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Slack, HubSpot, Jira, Linear, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, and hundreds of other tools through its API and partner integrations.

Source
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