Is BigCommerce or Hotjar better?

Neither clearly leads. BigCommerce starts at $29.95/month and Hotjar at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, BigCommerce or Hotjar?

Hotjar has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $29.95/month for BigCommerce and Free for Hotjar.

Does BigCommerce or Hotjar run on more platforms?

Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.

Can I use Hotjar for free?

Yes. Hotjar has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. BigCommerce starts at $29.95/month.

What is BigCommerce best used for?

BigCommerce is most often used for a merchant whose volume makes a percentage transaction fee the largest line in the platform decision, a retailer needing several branded storefronts sharing one catalogue and one back office, a b2b seller who needs company accounts and customer-specific price lists without custom development, a team going headless who wants a managed commerce back end rather than a self-hosted one. Of those, a merchant whose volume makes a percentage transaction fee the largest line in the platform decision and a retailer needing several branded storefronts sharing one catalogue and one back office are not what Hotjar is typically brought in for.

What can BigCommerce do that Hotjar cannot?

BigCommerce covers No platform transaction fee, Stencil theme framework, Multi-storefront, Faceted search. Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Session recordings, Feedback widgets, Surveys.

E-Commerce · head to head

BigCommerce vs Hotjar

BigCommerce

E-Commerce

Hosted e-commerce platform that charges no transaction fee and no surcharge for third party gateways

From: $29.95/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

Hotjar

E-Commerce

Understand how users behave on your site

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Hotjar has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: BigCommerce plans are gated on annual online sales, so a strong year pushes you into a higher tier and a higher subscription even though your traffic, catalogue and resource usage are unchanged.; Hotjar website performance impact - Hotjar tracking code can cause noticeable slowdowns affecting site speed and Google rankings
They diverge on capability: BigCommerce covers No platform transaction fee, Hotjar covers Heatmaps.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which BigCommerce and Hotjar actually diverge.

Attributes where BigCommerce and Hotjar differ
Attribute	BigCommerce	Hotjar
Starting price	$29.95/month	Free
Pricing model	subscription	Unknown
Free tier	No	Yes
Founded	2009	2014

Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (E-Commerce).

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 BigCommerce

No platform transaction fee
Stencil theme framework
Multi-storefront
Faceted search
B2B capabilities
Headless support
Built-in tax integrations
Multi-currency

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.

BigCommerce

A merchant whose volume makes a percentage transaction fee the largest line in the platform decisionnot Hotjar
A retailer needing several branded storefronts sharing one catalogue and one back officenot Hotjar
A B2B seller who needs company accounts and customer-specific price lists without custom developmentnot Hotjar
A team going headless who wants a managed commerce back end rather than a self-hosted onenot Hotjar

Hotjar

User behavior analysisnot BigCommerce
Conversion optimizationnot BigCommerce
UX researchnot BigCommerce
Customer feedbacknot BigCommerce
Usability testingnot BigCommerce

Where each one falls short

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

BigCommerce

Plans are gated on annual online sales, so a strong year pushes you into a higher tier and a higher subscription even though your traffic, catalogue and resource usage are unchanged.
There is a documented ceiling on the number of variants a single product can have, which breaks configurable, made-to-measure and heavily optioned catalogues and forces awkward workarounds such as splitting one product into several listings.
The application marketplace is much smaller than the largest competitor's, so a specific integration or niche feature is more often a custom build, and custom builds are the line item that quietly exceeds the platform cost.
Theme customisation past the visual settings means Stencil, Handlebars templates and a local command line workflow, so changes that look small to a marketing team still require a developer and a deployment.
Migrating out moves products and inventory reasonably well and moves the things that matter badly, since customer passwords cannot be exported in usable form, order history rarely transfers intact, and reviews and URL structure have to be rebuilt with a redirect map you must produce yourself or lose the search traffic.

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

BigCommerce

$29.95/month

Standard$29.95/month
- Unlimited products
- 2 staff accounts
- Basic reports
Plus$79.95/month
- All Standard features
- Up to 5 staff accounts
- Advanced reports

Hotjar

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Hotjar review.

Which should you pick?

Choose BigCommerce if

You need no platform transaction fee.
You also want stencil theme framework.

BigCommerce review

Choose Hotjar if

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

Hotjar review

Questions people ask

Is BigCommerce or Hotjar better?: Neither clearly leads. BigCommerce starts at $29.95/month and Hotjar at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, BigCommerce or Hotjar?: Hotjar has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $29.95/month for BigCommerce and Free for Hotjar.
Does BigCommerce or Hotjar run on more platforms?: Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Hotjar for free?: Yes. Hotjar has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. BigCommerce starts at $29.95/month.
What is BigCommerce best used for?: BigCommerce is most often used for a merchant whose volume makes a percentage transaction fee the largest line in the platform decision, a retailer needing several branded storefronts sharing one catalogue and one back office, a b2b seller who needs company accounts and customer-specific price lists without custom development, a team going headless who wants a managed commerce back end rather than a self-hosted one. Of those, a merchant whose volume makes a percentage transaction fee the largest line in the platform decision and a retailer needing several branded storefronts sharing one catalogue and one back office are not what Hotjar is typically brought in for.
What can BigCommerce do that Hotjar cannot?: BigCommerce covers No platform transaction fee, Stencil theme framework, Multi-storefront, Faceted search. Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Session recordings, Feedback widgets, Surveys.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

BigCommerce: Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees?

No, and it does not surcharge third party payment gateways either. Revenue affects the price through plan sales thresholds instead.

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

BigCommerce: What happens when I exceed my plan's sales threshold?

You move to the next plan tier. Model this at your projected growth rate, because the increase is driven by revenue rather than by usage.

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

BigCommerce: Is the app ecosystem large enough?

It covers the common integrations. For anything niche, assume a development project rather than an install, and price that in before comparing subscriptions.

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

BigCommerce: How hard is it to leave?

Products export cleanly. Customer passwords, order history, reviews and SEO URLs do not. Build the redirect map before you cut over, not after traffic drops.

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

BigCommerce vs Hotjar

BigCommerce

Hotjar

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in BigCommerce

Only in Hotjar

What people use each for

BigCommerce

Hotjar

Where each one falls short

BigCommerce

Hotjar

Pricing, plan by plan

BigCommerce

Hotjar

Which should you pick?

Choose BigCommerce if

Choose Hotjar if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on BigCommerce

More on Hotjar

Keep looking

Other head to heads