Is Hotjar or Lago better?

Neither clearly leads. Hotjar starts at Free and Lago at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Hotjar or Lago?

Hotjar starts at Free and Lago at Free.

Does Hotjar or Lago run on more platforms?

Hotjar runs on Web. Lago runs on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC.

Can I use Hotjar for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Hotjar best used for?

Hotjar is most often used for user behavior analysis, conversion optimization, ux research, customer feedback. Of those, user behavior analysis and conversion optimization are not what Lago is typically brought in for.

What can Hotjar do that Lago cannot?

Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Session recordings, Feedback widgets, Surveys. Lago covers Real-time usage metering, Multiple pricing models, Automated invoicing, Prepaid credits.

E-Commerce · head to head

Hotjar vs Lago

Hotjar

E-Commerce

Understand how users behave on your site

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Lago

Accounting

Open-source billing infrastructure for usage-based models

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Hotjar website performance impact - Hotjar tracking code can cause noticeable slowdowns affecting site speed and Google rankings; Lago free tier limited to 10,000 entities per month with 5M event cap
They diverge on capability: Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Lago covers Real-time usage metering.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hotjar and Lago actually diverge.

Attributes where Hotjar and Lago differ
Attribute	Hotjar	Lago
Pricing model	Unknown	Freemium with optional paid tiers
Platforms	Web	Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC
Category	E-Commerce	Accounting
Founded	2014	Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Hotjar

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

Only in Lago

Real-time usage metering
Multiple pricing models
Automated invoicing
Prepaid credits
Entitlements
Multi-currency support
Payment orchestration
Revenue analytics

What people use each for

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

Hotjar

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

Lago

Building usage-based billing for high-volume APIs and infrastructurenot Hotjar
Implementing metered billing for AI and tokenized servicesnot Hotjar
Creating subscription and hybrid pricing modelsnot Hotjar
Managing multi-currency billing for global companiesnot Hotjar
Maintaining billing infrastructure without vendor lock-innot Hotjar

Where each one falls short

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

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

Lago

Free tier limited to 10,000 entities per month with 5M event cap
No specific pricing published for Pro annual plan or Scale plan
Self-hosted and on-premise deployments require engineering resources
Community support only on free tier
Scale plan requires annual contracts and sales engagement

Pricing, plan by plan

Hotjar

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Hotjar review.

Lago

Free

Build (Free)Free
- 10,000 managed entities per month
- 5M usage events per month
- 1K events per second rate limit
Pro$399/month
- 10,000 entities included (graduated pricing to 100K)
- 25M usage events included (to 500M with graduated rates)
- 10K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
Scale$null/custom
- Custom entity and event volumes
- 50K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
- RBAC and SSO (SAML)

Which should you pick?

Choose Hotjar if

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

Hotjar review

Choose Lago if

You need real-time usage metering.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC.
You also want multiple pricing models.

Lago review

Questions people ask

Is Hotjar or Lago better?: Neither clearly leads. Hotjar starts at Free and Lago at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hotjar or Lago?: Hotjar starts at Free and Lago at Free.
Does Hotjar or Lago run on more platforms?: Hotjar runs on Web. Lago runs on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC.
Can I use Hotjar for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Hotjar best used for?: Hotjar is most often used for user behavior analysis, conversion optimization, ux research, customer feedback. Of those, user behavior analysis and conversion optimization are not what Lago is typically brought in for.
What can Hotjar do that Lago cannot?: Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Session recordings, Feedback widgets, Surveys. Lago covers Real-time usage metering, Multiple pricing models, Automated invoicing, Prepaid credits.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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

Lago: Can I use Lago open-source for free?

Yes, Lago is open-source under the AGPLv3 license and can be self-hosted. The cloud-based Build plan is also free with limits of 10,000 entities and 5M events per month.

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

Lago: What payment providers does Lago integrate with?

Lago integrates with Stripe and Adyen for payment processing. It is not a payment processor itself but orchestrates payments through these providers.

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

Lago: Does Lago support multiple currencies?

Yes, Lago supports multi-currency billing with automatic currency conversion for global businesses.

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

Hotjar vs Lago

Hotjar

Lago

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Hotjar

Only in Lago

What people use each for

Hotjar

Lago

Where each one falls short

Hotjar

Lago

Pricing, plan by plan

Hotjar

Lago

Which should you pick?

Choose Hotjar if

Choose Lago if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Hotjar

More on Lago

Keep looking

Other head to heads