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E-Commerce · head to head

Heartland Retail vs Hotjar

Heartland Retail logo

Heartland Retail

E-Commerce

Cloud point of sale and inventory management sold alongside Heartland card processing

From
$150/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: Heartland Retail the software is sold as part of a card processing relationship, so the monthly licence understates the real cost and the processing rate is the number that determines what you pay over a year.; Hotjar website performance impact - Hotjar tracking code can cause noticeable slowdowns affecting site speed and Google rankings
  • They diverge on capability: Heartland Retail covers Multi-store inventory, Hotjar covers Heatmaps.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Heartland Retail and Hotjar actually diverge.

Attributes where Heartland Retail and Hotjar differ
AttributeHeartland RetailHotjar
Starting price$150/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionUnknown
Free tierNoYes
Founded19972014

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 Heartland Retail

  • Multi-store inventory
  • Cloud point of sale
  • Purchasing and receiving
  • Customer records
  • Sales and stock reporting
  • Integrated card processing
  • E-commerce integrations

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.

Heartland Retail

  • A specialty retailer opening a third or fourth site that needs one stock position across all of themnot Hotjar
  • Replacing a legacy on-premise till system that requires a server in the back office of every storenot Hotjar
  • A retailer whose buying team needs purchase orders and receiving rather than just a cash registernot Hotjar
  • An existing Heartland processing customer consolidating software and payments under one suppliernot Hotjar

Hotjar

  • User behavior analysisnot Heartland Retail
  • Conversion optimizationnot Heartland Retail
  • UX researchnot Heartland Retail
  • Customer feedbacknot Heartland Retail
  • Usability testingnot Heartland Retail

Where each one falls short

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

Heartland Retail

  • The software is sold as part of a card processing relationship, so the monthly licence understates the real cost and the processing rate is the number that determines what you pay over a year.
  • Leaving means changing till software and merchant account together, and since the payment terminals, the reporting history and the staff training are all tied to the same supplier, the switching cost is far higher than a software migration alone.
  • It is not an online store platform, so a merchant selling on the web still buys and maintains a separate e-commerce platform, and the stock and order integration between the two is an ongoing operational dependency rather than a one-off setup.
  • Historical sales and customer purchase history rarely migrate cleanly out of a point of sale system, so a retailer who switches typically starts with an empty history and keeps the old system read-only, paying for it, for years.
  • Heartland sits within Global Payments, a group that has repeatedly restructured its portfolio through acquisitions and divestitures, so which entity owns and invests in this specific product is not stable over a long contract term.

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

Heartland Retail

$150/month
  • Core$150/month
    • POS system
    • Inventory management
    • Customer management
  • Professional$350/month
    • All Core features
    • Omnichannel
    • Advanced analytics

Hotjar

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Hotjar review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Heartland Retail if

  • You need multi-store inventory.
  • You also want cloud point of sale.
Heartland Retail review

Choose Hotjar if

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

Questions people ask

Is Heartland Retail or Hotjar better?
Neither clearly leads. Heartland Retail starts at $150/month and Hotjar at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Heartland Retail or Hotjar?
Hotjar has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $150/month for Heartland Retail and Free for Hotjar.
Does Heartland Retail 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. Heartland Retail starts at $150/month.
What is Heartland Retail best used for?
Heartland Retail is most often used for a specialty retailer opening a third or fourth site that needs one stock position across all of them, replacing a legacy on-premise till system that requires a server in the back office of every store, a retailer whose buying team needs purchase orders and receiving rather than just a cash register, an existing heartland processing customer consolidating software and payments under one supplier. Of those, a specialty retailer opening a third or fourth site that needs one stock position across all of them and replacing a legacy on-premise till system that requires a server in the back office of every store are not what Hotjar is typically brought in for.
What can Heartland Retail do that Hotjar cannot?
Heartland Retail covers Multi-store inventory, Cloud point of sale, Purchasing and receiving, Customer records. Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Session recordings, Feedback widgets, Surveys.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Heartland Retail: Can I use it as my online store?

No. It manages the shop floor and stock. Selling online means a separate e-commerce platform and an integration to keep the catalogue and stock aligned.

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
Heartland Retail: Do I have to use Heartland for card processing?

The product is sold as part of a payments relationship, and that is where the supplier's margin sits. Ask explicitly what the software costs standalone before assuming you have a choice.

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
Heartland Retail: What should I negotiate hardest on?

The card processing rate and the contract term, not the software subscription. Ask for interchange-plus pricing in writing rather than a blended rate.

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
Heartland Retail: What happens to my sales history if I leave?

Assume products and current stock export cleanly and that years of transaction history do not. Budget for keeping the old system available read-only during any transition.

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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